When Alissa Czisny walked out of the Spokane Arena in Spokane, Wash., in January, she knew she may have just competed for the last time. Disheartened by a 10th place finish at the 2010 U.S. Championships, only a year after winning her first national championship, and a failed bid for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the then 22-year-old was ready to move on.

Three-time U.S. Champion Johnny Weir recently performed at All That Skate LA at the Staples Center.

The Grand Prix continues in Kingston, Ontario, with four time Grand Prix medalist Alissa Czisny and 2009 Trophee Eric Bompard bronze medalist Adam Rippon headlining Skate Canada, Oct. 29-31, for the United States. Czisny and Rippon will be joined on Team USA by Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir, Madison Chock and Greg Zuerlein, Alexe Gilles, Grant Hochstein, Britney Simpson and Nathan Miller, Rachel Tibbetts and Collin Brubaker and Agnes Zawadzki.

Despite boot problems, Jeremy Abbott made a podium appearance at the NHK Trophy in Nagoya, Japan. He finished second to Japan’s two-time World Champion Daisuke Takahashi (234.79), who relied n a quadruple toe early in his routine to finish comfortably ahead of Abbott (218.19) and France’s Florent Amodio (213.77).

Rachael Flatt is headed home with hardware. On Saturday at the NHK Trophy in Nagoya, Japan, the 2010 U.S. Champion won the free skate to capture the silver medal with 161.04, coming in just behind Italy’s Carolina Kostner (164.61).

Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin finished third in the free skate at the NHK Trophy in Nagoya, Japan, enough to pull them up to fourth in the overall standings with 154.88 points. The Americans were bested by China’s Qing Pang and Jian Tong (189.37), Russia’s Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov (173.83) and Japan’s to Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran (155.66).

Jeremy Abbott is in second place following the NHK Trophy short program in Nagoya, Japan, with 74.62 points. Reigning World Champion Daisuke Takahashi (78.04), the Olympic silver medalist from Japan, took the lead with Canada’s Shawn Sawyer (70.15) finishing third.

Competing on the Grand Prix circuit for the first time as a U.S. Champion, Rachael Flatt finished third in the short program Friday at the NHK Trophy in Nagoya, Japan, with 53.69 points. She trails Italy’s two-time World Championship medalist Carolina Kostner (57.27) and Japan’s Kanako Murakami (56.10). U.S. bronze medalist Ashley Wagner is fourth with 52.93.

Reigning Olympic silver medalists Qing Pan and Jian Tong of China easily won the pairs short program at the NHK Trophy Friday in Nagoya, Japan, with 57.10 points, taking an almost seven point lead over Russia’s Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov, the 2007 Skate America bronze medalists. Japan’s Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran are third. Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett and fourth while Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin are fifth.

The 2010-11 Grand Prix season gets underway this week at the NHK Trophy in Nagoya, Japan, and Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett are ready to hit the ice with a new perspective. When they closed their season with a seventh-place finish at the 2010 World Championships, it seemed like it would be smooth sailing. Then the pair decided to make a change.