Evan Lysacek: Change of seasons signals last lap toward Vancouver Olympics

Evan Lysacek, a native of the Chicago area, has called Los Angeles home since he moved here in 2003 to train in El Segundo with renowned coach Frank Carroll. With Carroll standing at the boards to support him, he won the world championship in March at Staples Center. When he's not practicing, competing, skating in shows or getting his costumes designed by Vera Wang, he's an occasional contributor to The Times' Olympics blog.

He took time from preparing for "Improv on Ice," a show in which he'll share the spotlight Tuesday at the Honda Center with Turin Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen and the Goo Goo Dolls, to compose another post.

As I walked out of a Coca-Cola Olympic celebration reception on Friday night at Millennium Park in Chicago, and had trouble distinguishing the precipitation, it was clear that fall has arrived.

With fall comes the start of the figure skating season, but this season will be unlike any other for me.

The first major difference is that each event this year is a step closer to the 2010 Olympic Games in February.

The second difference is that I come in as the reigning world champion, a title that I earned in March at Staples Center in my hometown of Los Angeles.

With that title has come a considerable amount of opportunity. I've spent the "off-season" traveling the world skating in shows and TV specials, shooting commercials and photos for sponsors, working with NBC on its Olympic promotions, making appearances trying to spread Olympic spirit and excitement, working in Toronto and New York on new programs and costumes for the competitive season, and of course I've been training
for the big event.

Now, as I prepare for my last show of the season, "Improv on Ice" at the Honda Center, my focus is changing. I'm trying to limit the amount of time that I spend away from the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo. From now until February, that will be my new home, and I will drill new jump technique, different spin positions,
fresh choreography, and I will run through my new short and free skate routines until I can recite them backward and forward.

It's been the most fun and exciting summer of my life, but now that fall is here, it's time to put my game face on!!!

-- Evan Lysacek

latimesblogs.latimes.com

In-form Lambiel looks ahead to Vancouver

Swiss figure skating champion Stéphane Lambiel tells swissinfo.ch he is pulling out all the stops to try and compete for an Olympic gold medal in Vancouver in 2010.

A year after an injury forced him into early retirement, the two-time world champion kept his Olympic dreams alive by winning the Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf in Germany last weekend.

On September 25 Lambiel won both the short and long programmes at the Nebelhorn championships, finishing more than 25 points ahead of his nearest rival.

He scored 232.36 points and is therefore halfway to meeting Swiss qualifying rules for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games under which skaters must score 195 points or better in two competitions.

He confirmed his return to form on October 3 when he led team Europe to victory at the Japan Open, scoring 150.52 points.

On October 16, 2008 Lambiel announced that he was putting an end to his competitive career because of a lingering thigh muscle injury. But in July 2009 he announced that extensive physiotherapy had since enabled him to control any pain felt as a result of the injury and he said he was preparing for the Olympics with his long-time trainer Peter Grütter.

swissinfo.ch: Are you happy with your Nebelhorn Trophy performance in Oberstdorf?

Stéphane Lambiel: I'm obviously satisfied with the way things went last weekend. I gave two good programmes, from both the technical and artistic point of view.

I felt very calm and serene during the three-week run-up to the competition. I feel in really good shape; the pains have practically disappeared.

Compared with previous years, I feel like I've got a slight head start in my preparations, as I had to prepare intensively for the Oberstdorf competition. This margin will be useful ahead of the Olympics.

swissinfo.ch: What made you want to make a comeback less than a year after your retirement?

S.L.: It was my state of health. I always wanted to fight but I needed the necessary weapons to do so. When I became fit again, I no longer had any doubts in my mind.

swissinfo.ch: Are your physical injuries now a thing of the past?

S.L.: The persistent thigh injury which I suffered from for over a year is under control. Two months' total rest were beneficial. I then started to skate again gently before taking part in a number of gala events.

I was lucky to be able to get to know a Canadian physiotherapist who helped me a lot. Like any elite sportsperson, my body is constantly under stress. But now I've learned to work with the pain.

swissinfo.ch: In the past you said you were making a comeback just for yourself and your own pleasure. Do you not care what the public thinks?

S.L.: I'm living a wonderful adventure. Whether it is gala events or competitions, I always skate for the general public and the judges.

But the main thing is that I've set myself a personal challenge. Afterwards, if people appreciate my work I am obviously delighted.

swissinfo.ch: When you are shaving in the morning do you ever think about winning a gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics?

S.L.: Every day I think about competing, building my life and learning new things. Of course Olympic dreams go through my mind.

I'm doing my utmost, together with my team, to reach that goal. But it's not an obsession.

swissinfo.ch: Lots of people are talking about a future battle with the Russian skater Evgeni Plushenko, who beat you four years ago in Turin and who has also made a comeback. Is there any truth in this?

S.L: Yes, of course. The two best skaters of the two previous Olympcs will meet. But I'm avoiding any comparisons with him and I'm concentrating purely on my work. I'll let the judges decide who is the best.

swissinfo.ch: Like Roger Federer you are a worldwide ambassador for Swiss sport. What image of your country do you like sharing with people abroad?

S.L.: I try to represent Switzerland, and Portugal, my second country, as best I can. But I don't travel to each country with a fondue set and cheese (laughs).

But I am well aware of how lucky I am at my age to have already travelled a great deal and to have discovered other cultures while living my passion.

swissinfo.ch: When you were younger did you ever imagine you would have this kind of career?

S.L.: When I started skating at the age of seven, I wanted to be the best, to become a great champion and to be able to travel. Today I am very close to this ideal. If I had to start over again I would do exactly the same things again. I have no regrets.

I'm lucky to have parents who have always supported me and to have found a team to work with whom I can entirely trust. It's partly down to these people that I've been able to realise my childhood dreams.

www.swissinfo.ch

Delobel gives birth to baby boy, Loïs

Isabelle Delobel, the 2008 ice dance world champion from France, gave birth to a baby boy Thursday night, just over four months before she is to compete in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Delobel and husband Ludovic Roux, a bronze medallist in nordic combined at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, named the baby boy Loïs, and the labour reportedly went very smoothly.

Delobel, who trained on the ice until she was seven months pregnant in August, hopes to be back on the ice training very soon with partner Olivier Schoenfelder.

She had been sidelined since December 2008 because of a right shoulder injury that required an operation, and missed the 2009 World Championships in Los Angeles. Delobel and Schoenfelder had previously won their first three competitions of the season, including the Grand Prix final.

In the spring, Delobel announced the pregnancy and said it was a surprise.

"This pregnancy has given me courage,'' Delobel said in a press conference in France in April. "The only cravings that pregnancy gave me are victory cravings.''


www.ctvolympics.ca

Japan Open 2009 2

Jeremy Abbott


Jeffrey Buttle


Samuel Contesti


Yukari Nakano

Japan Open 2009

Laura Lepistö


Mao Asada


Joannie Rochette


Elena Glebova


Stephane Lambiel

Looking for Mr. Right — Skater Tera Findlay needs a partner

Though her competitive career is on hold, Tera Findlay has no plans to skate into the sunset.

Having lost her ice dance partner, Benoit Richaud of France, the Echo Bay native has returned home, likely until March when she hopes to find a new figure skater to team up with.

By then, the 2010 Olympics will be history.

But for Findlay, now 19, the quest to find a suitable partner carries no guarantees.

And so, for now, for the first time since she began to chase her figure skating dream, Findlay is staring at more questions than answers.

"I can't even explain how hard this is. This is unfamiliar to me," said Findlay, who moved to France in hopes of furthering her career in the fall of 2007. "I really miss skating. I'm very, very, very concerned about my career and it scares me."

Months after teaming up with Richaud, the duo grabbed a second- place finish in ice dance among junior skaters at the 2008 French nationals.

They qualified for junior worlds, but without Findlay's release from Skate Canada, were unable to attend.

The following season, in her first appearance at the sport's highest level, Findlay teamed with Richaud to place third among senior skaters at the 2009 French nationals.

They went on to the European championships and wound up 18th. After that, they placed 10th at the junior worlds and, earlier that season, added third and fourth-place showings at Junior Grand Prix events to their resume.

"It was a great season," Findlay recalled.

But it would be their last together.

Findlay said Richaud "had some trouble" with the duo's coaches in France.

He eventually suggested the pair move to the United States.

Though sad to leave France -- "I loved it there," Findlay said -- she was happy to be moving closer to home.

The two wound up in Detroit, training at the same club that has produced numerous renowned skaters, including the ice dance team of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.

But arriving in mid-July, they were there for barely a month.

Full article.

Langlois and Hay return to top form

It wasn't their first competition since returning to action following injury, but the Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany, was their first big competition. Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay, 2008 Canadian pair champions, have been slowly working their way back into competitive form since Langlois' broken right ankle derailed their 2008-09 season.

They'd done the Thornhill competition this summer and showed their programs at the national team training camp in Vancouver, but this was their first international since the 2008 world championships.

"It was definitely nice to get back out on the ice and get that feeling again," said Hay, 26, after the pair returned home to Canada with bronze medals.

"Stepping onto the ice with the world champions (Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany) and the Ukrainians (Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov), who are both really strong teams that we admire a lot, made it feel real," said Langlois, 28.

"I've been a lot more nervous," she admitted. "This is my new thing I've developed now since being injured. I've been getting a lot more nervous for events. I was pretty nervous for [Nebelhorn], but it felt great to be out there."

Langlois said her ankle has not been a problem. She wears a bit of padding in her boot. At team camp in Vancouver, the team doctor said the injury had healed well.

"I'm still working on building my confidence," Langlois said. "I can do everything and I have no more pain, but I did miss 14 months of being out there. That's the one thing why I think I have a lot more nerves."

Hay said the pair has received all positive feedback on its short program, but the consistent comments on the free skate have been that it needs a more powerful climax at the end. A throw triple Lutz is the third to last element and if Langlois doesn't land it the crescendo falls flat.

Both are pleased with their performances at Nebelhorn, despite the obvious room for improvement. Between now and Skate Canada in November, they'll be working on building consistency. Their coaches and choreographer have been slowly adding elements into the free skate, and now that Nebelhorn is done the next thing to add is the triple twist. They'll be doing an Oktoberfest competition at their home rink, the Mariposa School of Skating in Barrie, Ontario.


Full article.