Oi Boy

Curran Oi should have a soft spot in his heart for Sofia, Bulgaria. His two biggest international competitions have both been in the Balkan region. In 2006, Oi made his first splash on the international scene by placing fifth at the 2006-07 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final in Sofia. Then he returned in 2009 to finish fifth at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships.

"It was kind of weird skating in the final group," Oi said, "but it was a good learning experience. I prepared well and was in a good place in my head. I'm happy about my short and I landed both of my planned triple Axels, but it was tough being so close to third."

The 18-year-old finished sixth in senior men at U. S. Nationals in 2009 after placing sixth in juniors the previous season. "My goal was to be in the top ten at Nationals and go to Junior Worlds so I was happy with that," Oi stated.

Oi, who first became interested in skating when he watched it on television, has been on the ice since he was six. Within five years, he had a double Axel and was working on triple jumps, all of which he could do by the age of 14, with the exception of the triple Axel. Last year he added the triple Axel to his arsenal.

"My triple Axel has become pretty good now," Oi said. "At the beginning of the year it was like a coin flip whether I would land it or not but now it's fairly consistent. I do a lot of triple Axels in practice."

"I'm working on the quad toe loop now," he said. "I landed some in practice a few weeks before Junior Worlds and plan to work on it more in the summer."

This season, Oi used a triple flip-triple toe loop combination, a triple Lutz and a triple Axel in his junior short program. For his long, he included triple flip-double toe-double toe, triple Lutz-double toe, and triple flip-triple toe combinations, a double and triple Axel, and three solo triples – loop, Lutz and Salchow.

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