to Kanata? Last year, V bought us tickets to see the 2008 Homesense Skate Canada International held October 30 - November 2, 2008 in Ottawa. Under the International Skating Union (ISU), a Grand Prix series is held every Fall. There are six events in different countries, one of them being Canada, and skaters can compete in two of the six events. At the end of the six events, the top skaters go on to skate in the Grand Prixe Finale. The Grand Prix series provides skaters an opportunity to showcase their routines and allows them to work out and tweak their routines throughout the season prior to their nationals, Worlds, and Olympics.
Well it's come and gone and they were four great days of watching athletes practice and compete. It was also fabulous to see former skaters who are now coaches or commentators. I found it fascinating observing how the atheletes interact with with one another during the practice sessions. Some skaters are friendly and joke with one another and other skaters are uptight and indifferent. One of my highlights was seeing Alexei Urmanov in person, the coach of Russia's Sergei Voronov. Alexei Urmanov, Olympic champion in 1994, was one of my favourite skaters back then and he continues to look good and I'm sure he can pass on a wealth of information to his current and future students. Another highlight was seeing Alexander Zhulin, former Dance medallist, who has been linked to Maia Usova, Oksana Grishuk and others. The skating world is another version of the soaps or Hollywood, where everyone is someone linked to someone else and there's always a story about some current or former athlete. Over the course of the we heard some good stories about some of the skaters from other fans.
Canadians did great at this Grand Prix, see the top three results below.
Men:
Patrick Chan - CAN
Ryan Bradley - USA
Evan Lysacek - USA
Ladies:
Joannie Rochette - CAN
Fumie Suguri - JPN
Alissa Czisny = USA
Pairs:
Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Smirnov - RUS
Jessica Dube / Bryce Davison - CAN
Keauna McLaughlin / Rockne Brubaker - USA
Ice Dance:
Meryl Davis / Charlie White - USA
Vanessa Crone / Paul Poirier - CAN
Nathalie Pechalat / Fabian Bourzat - FRA
See you next year in Kitchener.
