The Rink
I have no referees here so skate at your own risk. ;~) And don't get the wrong idea; I'm not a skater myself, just an avid fan. Though truth to tell some of my fellow skating fans have commented that I speak with such authority on the subject, so that they suspected I might actually be a skater myself. I had to set them straight on that, of course. My love of skating comes from my love of ballet, so my favourite skaters tend to be the dramatic skaters with good presentation and preferably a balletic style. There are lots of places on the web for skating fans to go, more than I would have guessed, certainly. However I have lost track of a lot of them in recent years. This is the only one I can remember that is still up...
And my brother would kill me if I didn't include his page!
If you have a skating page that you think I should link to, please let me know; the page is a bit sparse without links.
My very favourite skater is Todd Eldredge, an example of an underdog who scraped and clawed his way to the top of the heap. I really admire his perseverence and dedication. And his friendly and sweet disposition. I was disappointed to say the least when he didn't even medal at the 98 Olympics, nor in 2002, but I still love him all the same. Possibly he has an Olympics jinx like Kurt Browning, who could win World medals like nothing, but could never make the podium at the Olympics. I will continue to watch Todd with interest, though, if he decides to go professional now.
Just for the record, here are my other favourite skaters:
Men: Vyacheslav Zagorodniuk, Dmitri Dmitrenko, and Alexander Abt of Russia, and Andrejs Vlaschenko of Germany, all underdogs as it happens. And I still remember Evgeni Plushenko fondly, even though he has gotten a bit arrogant in his old age. In the professional ranks I harbour fond feelings for Gary Beacom from the USA (so creative!) and Josef Sabovcek (Czech Republic I think).
Women: The lady skaters just don't excite me as much as the men. (Gee, I wonder why that is, LOL!) But I do like Angela Nikodinov, Sarah Hughes, Sasha Cohen, from the USA, Elena Liashenko from Ukraine(?), Elena Sokolova from Russia, and Denise Beilman (Sweden, or maybe Switzerland?).
Pairs: My absolute favourite pair is Kazakova and Dmitriev of Russia. And I also like their team mates Elena and Anton (or B&S; I'm not even going to try to spell their names ;~)) Sale and Pelletier (sp?) of Canada are also very good. I have always been fond of John Zimmerman and whoever he chose to skate with, but I've lost track of who it is this time. And the Chinese pair, Shen and Zhao (sp?) certainly show great promise. I have kind of lukewarm feelings for most other pairs.
Ice dance: Down with Torville and Dean! Long live the Duschenays! I also like Anassina and Peizzerat of France, Roca and Sur, Belbin and Agosto from the USA, Klimova and Ponomarenko of Russia, and Rahkomo and Koko of Finland.
I finally got my butt in gear and wrote a review for the Champions on Ice 1998 which I saw when it came to DC. Read all about it!
When Champions on Ice 2002 came to Richmond, how could I resist attending, even if I did have to work early the next morning. Here is the report.
I had the extreme privilege of seeing the 2003 World Championships in DC. Report will be coming as soon as I can get my notes together. (Don't hold your breath; I'm very disorganized.)