Kim Yuna wins Worlds!! - and with new records

Kim Yuna has clinched her first World title, a whopping 16.42 points ahead of the Silver medallist Joannie Rochette. Her total score (Short & Long program combined) set a world record of 207.71 and made her the first woman to break the 200-point barrier.

Watch her program:

Kim breaks her own World Record

Kim Yu Na posted another world record for her ladies'short program at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships. Her score of 76.12 was almost 5 points higher than the previous record she set at the 4 Continents in February.

Watch the video:

Michelle Kwan keeps options open

Since her departure from figure skating three years ago, Michelle Kwan has meticulously laid the foundation for the rest of her life, lunching with heads of state, carrying out formal U.S. diplomatic missions in Ukraine, Russia, China and Argentina, and immersing herself in the study of international relations as a full-time student at the University of Denver.

Yet after finishing her degree last November, Kwan almost immediately resumed the serious on-ice training she had abandoned after withdrawing from the 2006 Winter Games because of an abdominal injury. Facing career questions any recent graduate faces, Kwan added an unusual one to the mix.

Should she try to earn a spot at the Winter Games in Vancouver next year?

~ Quoted from washingtonpost.com

Full story at
Still on the World Stage, Kwan Keeps Options Open

Million Deeds Challenge - Singapore 2010 YOG

The Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games committee has set up a Million Deeds Challenge as a virtual torch-relay.

It is for all who carry out the Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect in their daily lifes. We can share our deeds that reflect one of these values, and each deed shared will advance the virtual Youth Olympic Flame one step in its journey from Greece to Singapore.

So if you have done something to make a difference to someone or to your community, share it on Million Deeds Challenge and bring the flame one step closer to Singapore and the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010!

Returning to coaching

I had stopped coaching after my rink, Fuji Ice Palace, closed in October last year. It probably wouldn't be too far off to say I had stopped skating... but that is not true, so I won't say it.

Anyway, after all these months, I have finally received confirmation from Kallang Ice World that they will accept me as a coach there! Woohoo!

Crossover flywheel

This is hilarious... I just found out about this - the crossover flywheel! It is an invention by a hockey fanatic and engineer who probably never coached for a second in his life!



What does it do? It is supposed to help hockey players develop their crossover skating technique.

My take on it: I cannot see it helping with leaning into the edge on the ice - unless we are able to tilt the ice just like that! It probably will work better as a workout tool than actually teaching crossovers...

My program at Singapore Nationals 2009

I managed to finish my program!!!


This is my first competition after baby, having skated sporadically, and no time to choreograph a program nor find music (finally used music from 3 years ago). The only real preparation I had was two "official ice times" where I could skate my program to music.

My program at the first ice time on Wednesday was a joke. I missed all jumps and all but one spin. I also didn't really know what I was going to do in terms of choreography.

The second ice time was the morning of the competition. This time I had sorted out the choreography, but halfway through the program, my legs felt like jelly, and I got really dizzy after the spin. I literally did none of the second half.

So, the competition was really the third time I skated this program to music. By that measure, it was amazing I even made it through! I really need to polish up the program and get some stamina...

Singapore National Figure Skating Championships 2009

Competition is this weekend!
The schedule is as follows (click on image to view larger version)...


This is the most unprepared I have ever been for any competition. Seriously, even comparing to the pairs program that we made up last-minute, I feel less confident about this... Or maybe I felt better about the pairs because I had a partner!

Flashy page gone wrong!

This is what the SISA website looks like on one of the browsers I use (click to see larger image):

Flash has given designers the ability to include superior animation in a website. It has become such a fad that it seems almost all websites will use flash to some extent - and you won't even notice it until you're hit with blank screens or annoying messages constantly asking you to download the plugin.

Just get that *&%* plugin, you say? Well, I do have the plugin at home, but as Inbaraj Suppiah noted in his blog post "Bad website design - Flash",

most government agencies and large corporations lock their computers and only system administrators are allowed to install/uninstall programs.

While I'm on the topic of broken websites...

I was trying to get information from the Ice House website, but guess what? It doesn't work on browsers other then IE! Unless they have fixed it now, the sub-menus which were supposed to appear when you hover over the left menu don't appear!

There is, of course, my long-standing gripe about how many Singapore government websites tend to be IE-centric. I try to submit a passport application online, and after uploading my photo, nothing happens. Try again, nothing happens. Wait (maybe it takes longer to upload), so wait for another half hour, nothing happens. I finally decide to use IE to do it, hey it works! That was maddening!

And just an afternote... are there really web designers who would put a site live when it still has titles like "Welcome or Title" and content that says "content goes here, and here and here and here!"? (see larger version of image above)

101 Challenges - Blades of Thunder

Two brothers, Lee & Lindsay, decided to take up challenges from the global public for 12 months on their tour of Asia starting Dec 2007. In each country they visited they try to complete the challenges set by the public, complete strangers from foreign lands, and were only limited by the boundaries of the challenger's imagination.

Where they went, what they did and everything else was decided via their website at www.101challenges.com. Blades Of Thunder is #6 listed in their challenges page. The challenge read:

Fuji Ice Palace in Singapore offers ice-skating lessons to Torvill and Dean wannabe's. We will take one day of lessons each and then perform the Bolero in diva style costumes!

Anyway, they ended up doing this at Sunway Pyramid in Kuala Lumpur instead, and here are the videos (in two parts):


It is impressive that they can put this together in 10 days, starting from zilch!