Time to Re-Up that Membership

Every June 30, your year-long membership in US Figure Skating will expire. If you want to stay a member in good standing and compete in qualifying competitions, you must renew your membership, pay your dues and in most cases, declare your skating club (the skating club determines where you compete in qualifying comps). Without a USFS membership, you're like a skate without a blade out there.

Like the flawlessly responsible adult skater that I am not am, I took care of this weeks ago. There was a glitch in the USFS system though that gave me a bit of a heart attack in the process. They sent me (and probably a number of other skaters) erroneous emails that said I still had yet to renew after I renewed. They later sent a very nice email apologizing for the glitch and confirming that indeed, I had renewed and repaid. Phew!

I'm continuing to skate under the banner of the Skating Club of New York, where I found a welcoming home a few years back. It's one of the oldest skating clubs in the country (celebrated 150 years last year), has produced three Olympic champions (Carol Heiss Jenkins, Dorothy Hamill and Sarah Hughes) and continues to produce top talent in the figure skating world (Adam Rippon, Maia Shibutani, Samantha Cesario). I'm proud to be a member and hope I can make 'em look good when I compete this year!

I think it used to matter much more prior to IJS what skating club you belonged to, specifically in terms of how you were judged on the ice. Your skating club was your banner, your flag, your "country" within a country. And the more prestigious the club, the more favors may be directed your way by judges with loyalties. At least, that was the going theory.

Throughout my youth, I always heard whispers from coaches and parents about the need to join a "prestigious" skating club. There's at least one thusly perceived club in every state/region. For those of us growing up and skating in upstate New York, that meant joining SCNY or SC of Rockland. In Massachusetts, you'd join Skating Club of Boston. In California it was All Year FSC in LA. Dupage FSC in the Midwest, Philadelphia SC and Humane Society, Washington FSC. I could go on.

As a young skater, I chose to keep the now-defunct Achilles Figure Skating Club as my home club. It was a skating community I knew and loved, and it always made me feel satisfyingly rebellious in the competitive arena, winning despite bearing the mark of a smaller skating club maybe no one had ever heard of.

As an adult, I moved to New York. I hadn't skated for years, but I met an SCNY officer who went very much out of her way to inspire and help me get back into it. I had to join SCNY to compete with Gotham City Synchro, and while initially felt like I was betraying my upstate origins, I grew to feel confident with the change in club, meeting and making good friends within the SCNY community. And even though I've left the city since, I still feel very connected to the SCNY folks - thus the renewal of my membership.

A remarkable number of young skaters at the rinks I use upstate are members of "prestigious" clubs. But it's pretty clear they do it for the prestige rather than the community. That all makes me a little sad. They're missing out on a really cool and rewarding part of skating.

Tonya & Nancy: The Musical

Andrew Parodi/Wikimedia Commons

Could it be? Is it so?

A NANCY AND TONYA MUSICAL?

Playbill says it's true, and actresses Tracy McDowell and Jenna Leigh Green will hit the stage as the star-crossed figure skaters in Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera at the New York Theater Festival.

Here's the production description: 

"Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera is a dark musical comedy, with heart, about the feud between Olympic figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, with a score in the style of Queen meets the Trans-Siberian Orchestra."

I would indeed pay to see this. Who's with me?

TOI Nationals Are Happening

Hundreds of Theater on Ice skaters are competing on Cape Cod this weekend at TOI Nationals. It's going to be an exciting, dramatic and fun competition!

I often wish I could participate in this growing discipline of the sport, but no one is really doing much of it in my neck of the woods. My coach organizes some stuff for ISI competitions, but there's no dedicated team who would seek to do Nationals.

I suppose I could start something...but who am I kidding?

OITNB's Uzo Aduba May Skate Again

Huntington Theater Company

Actress Uzo Aduba competed in figure skating for ten years during her adolescence. They say the sport never leaves you, so it makes total sense to hear that she told a reporter she'd like to take it up again. Go girl! Hope I see you at a rink sometime!

And hopefully we'll see her flash more of her skating moves on the show...

The 1964 Olympic Pairs Medal Mystery

I just love this story, and love that a reporter's investigation enabled a long-overdue change to IOC records. An excellent job by Amy Rosewater.

I'd never heard of Olympic bronze medalists Ron and Vivian Joseph before now. The only name in pairs skating from their era that seemed to stick through my generation was Protopopov (they're legendary). But now after five decades, the American brother-sister pair team (and World silver medalists) finally got the publicity they deserve.

At the 1964 Olympics, American figure skating was still reeling from the horrific plane crash prior to 1961 Worlds, and there weren't any viable candidates for the Olympic podium. Ron and Vivian actually came in fourth, but afterward were quietly awarded the bronze medal (at a hotel in Chicago) when it was discovered the silver medal West German team had illegally signed a professional contract prior to the Olympics that year. But two decades later, the IOC just as quietly reversed the decision after Germany appealed. So Olympic records showed the Josephs were the fourth place finishers. Even though they had bronze medals that they were never asked to return.

Thanks to Amy Rosewater's digging and writing, the IOC FINALLY changed their records to reflect the Josephs' bronze.

And in fact, the official recognition of that bronze medal makes American figure skating the winningest nationality in Olympic figure skating history - with 48 Olympic medals.

Grand Prix Assignments Announced

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by, in that Grand Prix assignments are already here!

Here are the assignments, from USFSA.org - quite a few TBA's in there, thanks to the retirement of several skaters like Samantha Cesario, Douglas Razzano, etc.

TEAM USA ASSIGNMENTS FOR 2015 ISU GRAND PRIX OF FIGURE SKATING SERIES

2015 Skate America - Milwaukee - Oct. 23-25
Ladies: Mariah Bell*; Gracie Gold; TBA**
Men: Max Aaron; Jason Brown; TBA**
Pairs: Tarah Kayne & Daniel O’Shea*; Alexa Scimeca & Chris Knierim; TBA**
Ice dance: Madison Chock & Evan Bates; Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker; TBA**

Skate Canada International - Lethbridge, Alberta - Oct. 30-Nov. 1
Ladies: Polina Edmunds; Ashley Wagner
Men: Joshua Farris; Adam Rippon
Pairs: Marissa Castelli & Mervin Tran*
Ice dance: Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani

Cup of China - Beijing - Nov. 6-8
Ladies: Karen Chen*; Courtney Hicks; Hannah Miller*
Men: Richard Dornbush; Grant Hochstein
Pairs: Madeline Aaron & Max Settlage
Ice dance: Madison Chock & Evan Bates; Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker

Trophee Bompard - Bordeaux, France - Nov. 13-15
Ladies: Gracie Gold; Angela Wang
Men: Max Aaron
Pairs: Marissa Castelli & Mervin Tran
Ice dance: Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue

Rostelecom Cup - Moscow - Nov. 20-22
Ladies: Polina Edmunds; Hannah Miller
Men: Ross Miner; Adam Rippon
Pairs: Tarah Kayne & Daniel O’Shea

NHK Trophy - Nagano, Japan - Nov. 27-29
Ladies: Courtney Hicks; Mirai Nagasu; Ashley Wagner
Men: Jason Brown; Richard Dornbush; Joshua Farris
Pairs: Jessica Calalang & Zack Sidhu; Alexa Scimeca & Chris Knierim
Ice dance: Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue; Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani

*making Grand Prix Series debut
**to be confirmed by Sept. 15, 2015

Practice Recap

It has been a busy spring. Between work, childcare, home improvement projects, skating and finding time to eat and sleep, there has been precious little time to document my journeys on ice. But I have a few minutes...

I've been skating twice a week and working on upping my IJS point values. I've added combo jumps and spins that were in me to do last year, but weren't quite ready for prime time. I've also been going over the scoring system and memorizing base values, grades of execution and how they are all tallied. I'm still a little confused on how spins are scored, but I got the jump system down. I crunched a few numbers and learned that the score for all the jumps in my program last year (if only base value was earned, not counting any GOE), was ~14 points. This year, if I incorporate all the jumps I'm planning (and complete them to earn base value only), I'll add six more points to the technical score.

This summary of the system has proven to be a major resource, more so than anything on the USFS website in terms of helping me understand the system.

As far as jumps are concerned, I've given myself two major goals - first, to get that darned 2axel back (more on that in a bit) and to get my 2lutz on the correct edge. Regarding the latter, this issue goes way back to when I learned the jump. In those days, the 6.0 system was firmly in place, and it tended to ignore the "flutz." Most elite-level female skaters passed off flutzes as true lutzes in those days - Sarah Hughes, Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski, to name a few. But IJS will nail you with a mandatory negative GOE if you pull that today. It's not a score-killer, but it annoys me enough that I feel the need to get it right. And let me tell you, once you've learned to do a 2lutz off the inside edge, it feels like a completely foreign, new jump to get it on the outside. It's not there yet, but it's getting close.

Regarding the 2axel, a little bit of history. I first landed this jump when I was at the intermediate level, 15 years old. Two years later, I lost the muscle memory. I literally could no longer tell I where I was in the air, and it was kind of terrifying. It was like the Polar Express, once you hit a certain age, you can't hear those bells ringing anymore. When I picked up skating again years later, I still had no sense of timing with the jump. It seemed depressingly out of reach, even though I was in peak physical condition, arguably more so than I was in my late teens. I was a not a little sad about it, to be honest. But this week, a breakthrough! Something started to feel familiar again...I found some snap in the air and came down on one foot! It was cheated severely, but it's eons beyond what I had been able to get out so far. My dream of getting it back is within reach, I think! Here's a video of an attempt from practice this week.

It's ugly and it's cheated but zOMG it's on one foot! HUGE milestone! #figureskating

A video posted by Jessica Marshall (@jess_on_ice) on Jun 9, 2015 at 5:24pm PDT

Cooking with Boitano

Gary Stevens / Wikimedia Commons

What would Brian Boitano...cook?

Apparently, a lot. The 1988 Olympic gold medalist is launching a web series with the USOC that focuses on cooking with elite athletes, called "Cooking with Team USA and Brian Boitano."

I think this is a really cool idea. Cooking for an athlete in training is different than cooking for your average adult, and the lessons in it are valuable to everyone, athlete or no.

One of the healthiest ways to be involves eating a diet of a lot of energy-boosting stuff and to be consistent about it. I tend to have trouble with this, even more so now when I'm obligated to put the dietary needs of a 2-year-old before my own. (Time to sit down and eat? Who has that??) If I haven't been doing a good job keeping myself nourished, I feel it immediately on the ice. My energy plummets and I bend at the waist and feel extra dizzy and light-headed. Not good. I always keep a Clif Bar in my kiss n' cry bag, because sadly this happens more often than it should.

Skating at High Altitudes

The locations for the U.S. Figure Skating adult competitive season were announced yesterday, and the choice of venue for Midwestern Sectionals as Colorado Springs has since become a topic of debate among the adult figure skating community.

I compete at Eastern Sectionals, so I don't really have a stake in the debate (my beef is with the lack of announcement about a location for Easterns...erggg). But if I keep up the competitive skating, it's an issue I may have to face in the future.

Indeed, it all brings up a great point about skating in general - how competitions held at higher altitudes present a challenge for some skaters who are not used to the effects of thinner air. Generally speaking, elite-level figure skaters are well-trained enough endurance-wise that it would only have minor effects. There may be a bit more heavy breathing or gasping for air at the end of a program, muscles may feel a little heavier, etc. The effects are certainly not imagined.

But since we're dealing with older skaters who are not quite elite-level here, the concern is a bit more warranted. Many skaters are actually very worried, and some are angry that it puts them at a disadvantage for the season. On the other hand, many skaters have chimed in saying the altitude difference isn't that hard on your skating, and that the host club in Colorado Springs puts on one heck of a fun event.

The way I see it, the location isn't going to change. So the best thing skaters can do is to educate themselves on the effects of higher altitudes on athletics. One of the skaters posted this helpful primer that really explains a lot - I learned some things I never knew, like the fact that it's not actually about the air, it's about the air pressure. Skaters will need to train harder and get that endurance up. That's not so simple of course, and with adult skaters, injuries may become more likely.

Synchro Gets the Heave-Ho in 2018

Forgive my sad need for a rhyme-y headline, but I'm trying to make light of a crappy situation. The IOC decided against adding synchro at the Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018. This is upsetting to myself and to thousands of synchro fans all over the world.

Why is it so hard to add synchro, in a world where synchronized swimming has been a part of the Olympics for decades? I get that it's an expensive prospect, and I get that it's a relatively unknown branch of the sport (read: no one will sponsor it). But were those really the reasons? I wish there was some clarity for the public on why it was left out this time.

There's nothing for it though, but to start up #SYNCHROIN2022.

I like US Figure Skating's somewhat positive thinky response:

We're disappointed Synchro won't debut at #PyeongChang2018, but optimistic for the future...Here's #WhyWeLoveSynchro!Why do you LOVE synchro?!
Posted by U.S. Figure Skating on Monday, June 8, 2015

2016-2017 Adult Competition Sites Announced

US Figure Skating revealed the locations for Adult qualifying competitions today for this year and next. You can see them here.

Adult Nationals is in Ann Arbor - someplace I've never been, woohoo! (Just gotta make it now) But frustratingly, the location for Adult Easterns is TBD. Sad face.

But in 2017 it will be in New Jersey, and 2017 Nationals are going back to North Carolina.

Did Synchro Get Dumped for 2018?

The IOC reportedly added a bunch of events today to the Pyongchang Games in 2018, but synchro was not included. I'm hearing folks unofficially say it was rejected, but this NBC Olympic Talk article seems to imply that no decision was rendered.

Is it still up for consideration? Is that it for synchro in 2018?

Well this is ugly...

There aren't a lot of sex scandals in figure skating. At least there aren't a lot publicly.

There have been allegations of sexual abuse between coaches and skaters, and between skaters, but nothing in recent memory has even come close to dominating any sort of headlines. When you think of the main scandals in figure skating, Nancy and Tonya, and the 2002 Olympic judging, come to mind first.

But it does happen, and in a very unfortunate way. Coaches can have a lot of power over young students who have Olympic dreams. The right coach = success in many ways. That's true of mentors in any sport. And that kind of power, in the wrong hands, can have devastating consequences.

I bring this up because I read that a figure skating coach in Canada has been sentenced to four years in prison for sexually abusing two of his male students when they were underage in the 1980s.

The vast majority figure skating coaches are not going to abuse their students sexually. Mentally, maybe, but that's another story entirely. Very few skaters have come forward with allegations. But for those that do, they need to be heard.

Balancing Act

I recently came across an array of photos on HuffPo of prima ballerinas in San Francisco, that depict the life of those dancers who are also mothers. They're from a new book by photographer Lucy Gray, who specializes in depicting motherhood on film, called Balancing Acts: Three Prima Ballerinas Becoming Mothers.

It's not skating, but it's a similar idea - it's rare that you see women at the top of their sport (I'm counting ballet as a sport here) who are also mothers. The demands of being at the top of one's game often don't leave time for other aspects of life, namely having a family. It's possible, but it's not the choice many make because of the high degree of difficulty of the so-called "balancing act" it requires.

I can make this sweeping statement because even I react with some degree of incredulity when I hear about Olympians who are also moms, especially in figure skating. And in truth, my mouth fell open when I saw these photos. (I didn't know ballerinas had kids!) It's still a novelty in the public eye, therefore it must not be common and easily achievable.

Not everyone will choose parenthood, and that's 100 percent alright by me. But for those of us who do choose it, and namely those who have not yet taken the plunge, please know that having a baby doesn't have to spell the end of your athletic dreams.

Ice Capades Celebrates 75 Years

Ice Capades 1965, by George Petty/Wikimedia Commons

I saw the Ice Capades once, when I was really young. The only thing I remember was the shtick they always did with a pinwheel, where the last skater always has trouble catching up with the end of the rotating line.

The term Ice Capades is nearly universally known. Like, everyone has heard of it, despite the touring show going defunct in 1995. It just wasn't capturing the interest of families like it did in the 40s when it began, and Vaudeville-type entertainment on ice was all the rage.

The Ice Capades is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and a group of avid IC alums and fans is organizing a gala in Las Vegas that they're dubbing the Ice Capades Reunion. It's June 22-24 at the Flamingo. A flash mob is promised. Looks fun!