Mirai & Ashley: Is This (Finally) the Season?

This week US skaters selected to participate in the upcoming 2011 Grand Prix events attended the annual Champs Camp held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorodo Springs, Colorado.   Universal Sports caught up with Mirai and Ashley to talk about the upcoming season.  New programs, new coaches, new outlooks on their skating...will this be the season Mirai and Ashely step it up?  Man, I hope so.

Ahead of the Curve?

I post at various figure skating forums and, like all figure skating fans at this time of year, I'm itching for the season to begin.  This year brings a few newbies to the senior ranks, most notably the Russian 1-2 punch aka Adelina Sotnikova and Elizaveta Tuktaymsheva.  Both are technically gifted skaters; however, there is something I find lacking in both of them...

Adelina and Elizaveta, the Russian 1-2 punch

Mao Asada: Queen of the Exhibitions

Exhibition programs vary from skater to skater.  For the majority, it's time to throw on some shorts or pants, let their hair down (literally), and shake their money maker to whatever soon-to-be out of date pop song is currently in rotation.  It's rare to find a skater who takes the time and puts real effort and thought into their exhibitions.  For this reason, exhibitions (this includes most ice shows) have greatly lost their appeal in my book.  However, there is an exception to this...

Kurt Browning STILL Rocks My World!

I'm not feeling much like posting a long in-depth review of the All That Skate Summer 2011 show, mainly because that would involve watching all of it and that ain't gonna happen...

US Ladies in a Slump?...Um, Yeah.

What has happened to US ladies?  I mean, once upon a time it was a rarity that an event went by and at least one American lady wasn't standing on the podium holding ugly flowers and waving when all was said and done.  What happen to those days, huh?

She's the only one...I'm not even kidding...

OSR (Oh So Random) Web Stuff

Coolest thing I've found in a long time.  See how long you play with this...

http://www.sembeo.com/media/Matrix.swf

2011 Glacier Falls: Ladies Review, Part 2

The conclusion to my little Glacier Falls Summer Classic Review...

Senior Ladies: Free Skate

2011 Glacier Falls Summer Classic: Senior Ladies Review

This weekend one of the most anticipated summer figure skating competitions took place: Glacier Falls Summer Classic.  This one tends to be a draw for some of the better known senior level figure skaters in the US and this year there were quite a few recognizable names: Mirai Nagasu, Ashley Wagner, Caroline Zhang, Vanessa Lam, Courtney Hicks...

As this is a summer competition and has little to do with what will happen when the season officially kicks off in the next two months, we'll take this as a snapshot of where these skaters are so far.  It also gives me an opportunity to give my bitching, ranting, raving, etc. a good warm-up before the season starts. So here we go...

Senior Ladies SP

Hello, hey and whaddup y'all!  This is my first  entry on my blog, "Naked Ice."  Get your minds out of the gutter--it's not that kind of naked.  This blog will be all about ladies' figure skating: my love and occasional hate for the sport and the skaters who make it great awful.  I spend so much time at various figure skating blogs (FSU, Golden Skate, YNKF, MKF, MAF, etc.) I figured it'd be a good idea to compile all of my thoughts in one place.  Hell, it's free, so why not?  I'll give it a shot for a while and if it doesn't work out, oh well.  Like I said, it was free.

While I do like men's, pairs and ice dance, I don't pay enough attention to those disciplines to rant as competently as I can when it comes to the ladies.  I've been a figure skating fan for all but eight years of my life, so I have knowledgeable (albeit somewhat biased) opinion when it comes to skating.  I'll try to stay as objective as I can and keep the snark to a minimum...FYI, those last two statements were a total lie.

With the season a little more the two months away things will be quiet for a while, but look for it to pick up soon.  I'll cover the senior and junior ladies' events and any gossip/news/crap that comes up in between.  Til later...