Fred's, (Used to be Barb's), Board

The final event in this year's ISU Grand Prix will take place in Lake Placid, NY on the US Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 24-26). Skate America is most often the first in the GP series but this year, as the final event, the determinations of competitors at the Grand Prix Final will be completed here.

The entries, by discipline, can be found here: http://www.isuresults.com/events/fsevent03111482.htm

As of today, Roman Sadovsky of Canada has been added to the list of men following the withdrawal of Alexander Petrov.

The time and practice schedule is here: http://www.isuresults.com/schedules/gpu ... hedule.pdf

The CBC Sports live streaming schedule (all EST) from: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winte ... /broadcast

Fri Nov 24

• 6:20 PM Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Pairs Short Program
• 7:55 PM Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Men Short Program

Sat Nov 25

• 2:00 PM Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Pairs Free Program
• 3:55 PM Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Men Free Program
• 4:00 PM Road to the Olympic Games | Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Pairs & Men Free Programs
• 7:30 PM Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Ice Dance Short Dance
• 9:20 PM Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Ladies Short Program

Sun Nov 26

• 1:00 PM Road to the Olympic Games | Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Ice Dance Short Program
• 1:55 PM Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Ice Dance Free Dance
• 3:00 PM Road to the Olympic Games | Championship Figure Skating - Skate America - Ice Dance Free Program
• 4:00 PM Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Ladies Free Program
• 7:30 PM Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Gala

The CBC TV schedule from the same source:
Sat Nov 25

• 4:00 PM EST - Road to the Olympic Games | Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Pairs & Men Free Programs

Sun Nov 26

• 2:00 PM Local Time - Road to the Olympic Games | Championship Figure Skating: Skate America - Ice Dance Short Program
• 4:00 PM Local Time - Road to the Olympic Games | Championship Figure Skating - Skate America - Ice Dance Free Program

From Korean news article:

Jun Hwan Cha is withdrawing from Skate America to focus on recovering from injuries and preparing for the Domestic Korean Ranking Competition which will go towards determining who will go to the Olympics.

He is apparently being replaced by Han Yan who posted on his Weibo (like Twitter) yesterday:

See you Skate America

There are reports on Twitter that Anna Pogorilaya RUS has withdrawn with Bridgestone Skate America 2017 to recover from injury. [She was obviously not well in her last competition.] She is said to have been replaced by Serafima Sakhanovich RUS who just participated in the Warsaw Cup over the past weekend, placing first.

As always, thanks for keeping us updated. I am way behind in watching, but have tried to see at least the Canadians. I have scheduled all Skate America to be taped.

The Skate Canada article on the CDN team heading to Lake Placid: https://skatecanada.ca/2017/11/canadian ... ix-series/

The dance field is down to 9 as of today - apparently Isabel Tobias & Ilia Tkachenko of Israel have withdrawn. http://www.isuresults.com/events/cat03108253.htm

They also withdrew from an earlier GP event and were replaced on very short notice.

They placed 12th at Worlds in Helsinki, earning Israel an Olympic spot. However, according to news reports, Ilia has failed to get Israeli citizenship and they are ineligible to compete at the Olympics.

In the men's event, Jorik Hendrickx BEL has withdrawn for medical reasons and he has been replaced by Liam Firus of Canada who just won a bronze medal last weekend in the Challenger event.

In the ladies event Dabin Choi KOR withdrew last week and there has been no replacement named.

Looking forward to seeing Liam compete!

There is actually no time conversion for those of us in the Eastern time zone this weekend:

Wow, those times are more like it!! It's about time, haha.

Thanks for the information and I look forward to watching the live streaming.

Practices are underway in Lake Placid and the Schedule/Entries/Results page for the competition is here: http://www.isuresults.com/results/season1718/gpusa2017/

And here's the ISU preview article: http://isu.org/inside-single-pair-skati ... teParam=15

From Lynn Rutherford in the Mixed Zone in Lake Placid via Twitter:

Liam_Firus returned from Poland on Tues, went to bed; woke up at 7 am on Weds, to find he had been assigned to Skate America: "So I trained, went home, did laundry & drove down from Montreal. Every drop-out this season I hoped for a call, and I finally got it."

PJ Kwong's preview & predictions for CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winte ... -1.4414656

Interested in planned program content? Wonder what the music is? That information and more can be found on the ISU page for this event under the "For Media" heading: http://isu.org/events/eventdetail/11452 ... te-america

Quads taking their toll? Two reports from Skate America would seem to imply so.

From Lynn Rutherford via Twitter:

An old foot injury is troubling Maxim Kovtun here; he is seeking medical treatment. His coach, Inna Goncharenko, says it is important for him to compete, as he needs an event before Russian nationals next month.

China's Boyang Jin is also having foot pain, and the Chinese delegation says he will likely not try a quad lutz here.

Thanks for the information. At this point it sounds like quads are taking AWAY from the sport.

Here's a link to the ISU summary of Day 1: http://isu.org/press-releases/2017/1549 ... day-1/file

Bev Smith on the men after the short program: https://t.co/e2QU3YHn9a

IceNetwork on the men's short: https://t.co/XtWRd0aHzJ

IceNetwork on the pairs short: https://t.co/1nj3aC7I17

CAUTION - if you click on the links they contain SPOILERS!

From PJ Kwong via Twitter:

Sad to hear that Maxim Kovtun injured his Rt foot enough in Skate America SP fall to cause WD for FP

From ISU via Twitter:

Unfortunately, Maxim Kovtun (RUS) has withdrawn from Skate America 2017 due to injury. He injured his right foot in a fall in the Short Program yesterday. We wish a quick recovery.

My goodness there's a lot of injuries this season. I don't like the sound of that. Not at all.

fred wrote: Sat Nov 25, 2017 5:17 pm My goodness there's a lot of injuries this season. I don't like the sound of that. Not at all.

It's an Olympic season with everyone going "all out". Sadly there was another injury during the men's free this afternoon.

I believe there are several other skaters who are skating "hurt" - for some of them this may be their final season

ISU report on the Pairs free skate: https://t.co/yEs0o0VQVV
IceNetwork on pairs FS: https://t.co/TVoyl2hzlX

ISU recap of the Men's free skate: https://t.co/sCAfDH0MNI
IceNetwork on men's FS: https://t.co/djloCzNfc4

ISU report on the short dance: https://t.co/O4gHHtucWd
ISU report on the ladies short: https://t.co/jg188gx8CS
IceNetwork on short dance & ladies short: https://t.co/Cv6oGNxKnB

ISU report on the free dance: https://t.co/kgBjxNjfSN
ISU report on ladies free skate: https://t.co/Sw5wtaHalC

Bev Smith is in Lake Placid and has been posting lots of stories on her blog: https://bevsmithwrites.wordpress.com/


CAUTION - if you click on the links as they contain SPOILERS!

By the way, for some unknown reason the CBC live stream of the ladies short programs has the commentary from IceNetwork! The same thing happened part way through the ladies free skate.

Elizabeth wrote: Sat Nov 25, 2017 7:10 pm

fred wrote: Sat Nov 25, 2017 5:17 pm My goodness there's a lot of injuries this season. I don't like the sound of that. Not at all.

It's an Olympic season with everyone going "all out". Sadly there was another injury during the men's free this afternoon.

I believe there are several other skaters who are skating "hurt" - for some of them this may be their final season

That's for sure...yikes all might! That was a bit hard to watch. This has opened up the discussion that skaters need to wear helmets...I think I can realistically say that there would be MORE injuries if this were the case with even more weight on the skaters that inertia increasing that amount. Some people can be so... .

Does anyone know where I can watch the Men's FS on NBC...is it up anywhere yet? Thanks.

kittykins said:

This has opened up the discussion that skaters need to wear helmets...I think I can realistically say that there would be MORE injuries if this were the case with even more weight on the skaters that inertia increasing that amount.

Not to mention that helmets would provide no protection to shoulders, ankles, feet, etc.!

Given the injuries, withdrawals, etc. I'm glad I opted not to make the trek to Lake Placid. I've made the trip at this time of year on a number of occasions, to see the premiere of the Stars on Ice season, but given the possibility of bad weather, the challenge of getting accommodations, etc. I decided to give this event a "pass". I watched everything on live stream from the comfort of home, recorded the CBC TV and NBC TV coverage, and have watched some of the former so far. I'm not very fond of the Tara and Johnny show on NBC so may delete most of that without watching, or at least fast forward to the parts I'm interested in.

Yes, and head injuries in skating are extremely rare in my experience of watching skating for close to 50 years. I mean there's only been a handful in that amount of time. There was that Russian pair where he dropped her on her head, that one seems to stand out the most!

Oh I'm not alone in not liking the constant chatter between Tara & Johnny. I'm glad Canadian TV is better that way, but I remember years ago the commentators talking about who the skater's sister was dating instead of what was happening on the ice. I draw the line at THAT. Give me a break, lol.

At first I wondered what Adam was doing. It was almost like he was making fun of Daniel because he was doing the exact same action. I guess it seemed incredible that another skater could have the exact same kind of injury right after another. I mean I've never seen THAT before and it was quite shocking. I read that Adam had his shoulder dislocate and then pop back in. That is beyond creepy.

Oh Goodness, not helmets for figureskaters. This is an art form. Would they use helmets at the ballet performance? No way! Maybe pad them up like "American football" players? No thank-you! We might want to limit jumps if safety is a concern, but we don't want helmets.