Beijing 2022

It's back to Beijing for the Olympics in 8 years, except this time its for the Winter Games, something China has never before hosted.

Given all the bad juju going on around the USOC retracting their Boston 2024 Summer Games bid, Sochi's $50 billion tab for Winter 2012, and the dearth of viable bids for the Olympics in general due to the enormous economic toll it seems to take (where it once brought prosperity), the fanfare over announcement of Beijing is somewhat dampened.

But I'm still excited, because OLYMPICS.

RIP Aja Zanova

The two-time World Champion and pioneer for women's figure skating has died at the age of 84. She had a remarkable skating story, including a daring escape from an oppressive Czechoslovakian government after she won the 1950 World Championships at age 18. She eventually moved to New York, and only returned to her native Prague 40 years later.

She was the first women to do a 2lutz in competition, and she invented the back camel layover position that is a big scorer in today's system. She toured with the Ice Capades, Ice Follies and ran Wollman Rink.

Here's a wonderful tribute video compiled by Ice Theater of New York to honor her in 2005.

Special Olympics World Games Have Started

The Games are on, now through August 2, in Los Angeles. Best of luck to all athletes!

These are the summer games though, so you won't see any figure skating. You'll have to wait until 2017 when the Special Olympics World Winter Games come to Austria.

I never knew much about Special Olympics figure skating programs, as they are unfortunately few and far between. I do know however, that skating can be a marvelous therapeutic experience for anyone, exercising both the body and mind and promoting sensory integration and confidence.

A quick search produced some info on programs supported by USFS, and on the ISI's Special Skater program. Looks like there is a lot of support for it, and by the looks of the photos on the Austria 2017 page, it seems like a fantastic competition.

It's Raining Men!

Pierre-Yves Beaudouin / Wikimedia Commons

Hallelujah! Men are finally allowed to compete at the elite level of synchronized swimming! They are eligible for the first time at the World Aquatics Championships in Russia happening this week.

For once, skating can lead by example here...sort of. Men can be part of synchro teams and compete at the senior level. They don't really very often, but they can.

However I think male synchronized swimmers will get to the Olympics before synchronized skaters of any gender will...

The Glove to End All Gloves

The Skating Glove, by AptaFitted

Gloves are a huge part of skating. HUGE. You don't always see skaters wearing them in televised competitions, or at least you may not be able to tell they're wearing them - with the rise of blade grabbing maneuvers in the last decade, slim, skin-colored gloves have been all the rage to protect precious digits from blade slices. In fact, it can be dangerous not to wear gloves, and most, if not all skaters wear them during practices at all times.

I always felt naked without my gloves on. It's a weird, disconcerting feeling that's irksome enough that it could throw off my concentration during a show or competition, and psyche me out a bit. But when I competed, skaters just didn't wear gloves during performances. It was frowned upon, though I can't recall why. But one of the first things I did when I decided to compete again was purchase a pair of competition gloves, and I've not looked back. At this point in my life, anything that would help to keep me from having an anxiety attack during a competition is worth it, judges be damned.

So when I saw this Kickstarter for the AptaFitted skating glove, I had to look into it. I'm not sure I need as much coverage and structure as it purports to offer, but I think it's a great idea and I'm all for supporting it.

It's World Jump Day!

Well, not really. World Jump Day was an art installation/hoax from 2006, whose campaign fooled people into thinking 600 million people jumping simultaneously across the globe would somehow shift the earth's orbit and eliminate global warming. Interesting concept, if improbable, yet it has become something of a cause day for environmentalists hoping to draw attention to global warming.

I'm not an environmentalist per se, but I do believe in showing our planet some love. So in honor of World Jump Day, here is video of me jumping (and falling on my butt).

A for effort! #wipeout #figureskating #imfinedontworry

A video posted by Jessica Marshall (@jess_on_ice) on Jul 19, 2015 at 3:51pm PDT

Carol Heiss Jenkins Last Female Athlete to Be Honored w/ NYC Ticker Tape Parade

New York World-Telegram

Wait, WHAT?

The World Cup champs are going to be honored with the prestigious parade Friday, and everyone is suddenly realizing that no female athlete/athletic team has been giving a parade in NYC since 1960, when Olympic Champion Carol Heiss Jenkins got one.

The championship game the US women played Sunday night against Japan got the highest ratings of any televised sport since 2010.

I hear people complain that women's sports aren't as exciting to watch as men's sports...and on the whole, professional women's sports doesn't rake in the $$ like professional male sports.

But for pete's sake, did we have to deny female athletes a ticker tape parade for 50 plus years???