Figure Skaters Online wraps-up some of the noteworthy figure skating headlines and stories of the week.
• 100 days or one day, it’s all the same for Evan Lysacek
While Olympic organizers marked the 100-days-out point before the Vancouver Games, world figure skating champion Evan Lysacek on Wednesday did what he’ll do with 99 days left, 98 days, and just about every other day before the Olympics.
“I feel like I’m really in a good place physically and mentally for this season, but at the same time, 100 days is a long time to stay calm,” Lysacek told the Los Angeles Times. “As it gets closer, anxiety will start to kick in a little more than it already has, but I feel like the last several years for me have been so rewarding.
“I’m really satisfied with the way things are going. I don’t feel the constant need to be proving myself, and proving myself and proving myself, and I think with that, I’ve found an inner peace where I truly love skating every single day and being with my friends and traveling.”
• Cohen’s comback guided by familiar face
If 2006 U.S. Champion Sasha Cohen, who is the midst of her comeback, has an Olympic experience in 2010, the same man who guided her to a fourth place finish in 2002 and silver medal in 2006 will be at the boards. The Orange County Register reported Saturday in “Sasha Cohen gears up for another Winter Olympics” that Cohen is now training in Aliso Viejo, Calif., with coach John Nicks, who guided her throughout most of her career. Her comeback attempt was guided by Rafael Arutunian of Lake Arrowhead, Calif. Cohen left Lake Arrowhead to receive better treatment for the tendonitis that forced her to withdraw from the season opening Trophee Eric Bompard.
“I realized that skating is my purpose in life for the moment and I missed it, I missed that drive, that intensity, that meaning to my day,” Cohen said about her reasoning for coming back to competition after a three-season hiatus. “The good times, the bad times. Just the challenge. And I realized I have 50, 60 more years of my life to do other things and I wasn’t ready to start that just yet.”
• Kansas City, clear the way for San Jose
Kansas City, Mo., had an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships for the second time in less than a year. U.S. Figure Skating awarded the 2012 U.S. Championships to San Jose, Calif., the host of the 1996 nationals, on Wednesday. Kansas City also lost the bid for the 2011 event.
“We’re disappointed,” Shani Tate, director of communications and marketing for the Sprint Center, told the Kansas City Star. “We will continue to work very diligently to get those signature sports and entertainment events as well as build the infrastructure and processes that are necessary for those future opportunities.”
• McLaughlin, Brubaker count down to Vancouver
Its Yankees celebration time in New York, but right before the pinstripes rapped up their 27th World Series title in the Bronx Wednesday, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and presenting sponsor Hilton Worldwide kicked off a 100-day countdown to the Vancouver Olympics at Rockefeller Center on Wednesday.
Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker signed autographs and snapped photos with a long line of admirers, then took to the Rockefeller Center Ice to show off a few of their best moves. But their training schedule with coach John Nicks demanded a quick trip back to California.
“I’m a big Derek Jeter fan,” Brubaker told Ice Network. “I got to see him play when the Yankees were in Anaheim. What an athlete; he always plays all out. I would have loved to have stayed for the game, but with Skate America next week we couldn’t be gone too long.”
• Scott Hamilton returns to the ice
Scott Hamilton started training last fall to prepare for a fundraising event in Cleveland on Saturday but he’s been buffeted by trials. In August, he pulled his hamstring; in October, the flu pummeled him for three weeks. Some days, it was all he could do to skate for a minute or two; he had to be content with just breaking in new skates.
“Physically, I’m definitely not the same person I was 25 years ago,” Hamilton told the The Tennessean before the show. “But if you make that a part of the equation, you’re digging a hole for yourself that you can’t even see out of.”
