Michelle Kwan was inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame on 28 Jan 2012, in the very same arena where she won her first US Championship.
The video shown during the induction ceremony captures great moments of her skating career and her impact, not only in figure skating but on the entire world. Watch it while you can (I certainly hope it won't get taken down). Michelle has achieved so much and I hope she will continue to have as much of an impact as she embarks on the non-skating stage of her life.
Skaters in Singapore have just a few more months to wait for the launch of the new Olympic Ice Rink in JCube. The building itself seems pretty near completion ~ here's a picture taken in early January:
* Photo courtesy of Mith252 (poster from skyscrapercity)
Indeed, the Singapore Ice Skating Association has been busy in the last year putting together their SkateStar program, which is a learn-to-skate program aimed for mass participation. This will make the sport more accessible and encourage more people to take it up. There will be programs for children and adults. To register your interest for the program, you can visit SISA's SkateStar site.
Skate manufacturer Klingbeil announced just after Christmas that it is closing its doors. The announcement generated an outpour of emotion from the skating community, most of whom are loyal Klingbeil customers. In a latest announcement, the date for them to stop taking orders has been delayed, and it is possible that Klingbeil might not shut down after all! Below is a news report on this:
Thursday, January 19, 2012
At the inaugural Youth Olympics 2012, Russian and Chinese skaters swept the gold medals.
Vana Tallinn returns in 2012, this time to be held in Tartu from 11 - 13 May 2012.
Vana Tallinn Trophy started in Tallinn as an international adult competition which started in Tallinn, Estonia. This is perfect for the young adult skaters, as there is a "young adult" category for skaters 16-19 years, while the adult Class 1 starts from 20 years. In addition there is also a "pre-young" category in Single Skating for skaters born 1996 - 2000.
Figure skating is all about performance. It is all about looking good. And it is no wonder that when the first ice skating rink opens in a new mall, we got a call asking to perform for the opening party.
It wasn't a typical performance call. It was a call that gave me no more than 12 hours to find a team to fly to Mumbai the very next day, and perform the day after. Looking for skaters to perform was a great challenge, as practically nobody could just "up-and-go" instantly. Eventually, it was only Elaine and I, and we search for music, made programs, booked a flight and were off to Mumbai all within one day.
We were the first to step onto the new ice rink in Neptune Magnet Mall in Mumbai. The rink was quite small, just 10m by 20m, but adequate to do a simple program. The ice was so smooth, and was a dream to spin on. We practised for almost 2 hours in the morning.
Here's a short video of our practise.
The performance was that same evening. Unfortunately, when we came back, the ice felt like it had gravel stuck on it. We found out that their resurface involved just "scraping" the ice so make it smoother. That certainly didn't take out the spray from our morning's skate that had frozen on the surface. They willingly agreed to scrape it again after we warmed up, but spins would catch once in a while, and edges would feel shaky. Rough spin entries made for a slow camel, and made me wonder if I would survive the layback
Still, it all went well, and I hope all the guests enjoyed it as much as we did! Our three days in Mumbai went by all too quickly. We enjoyed the utmost hospitality while we were there and it was an exciting and wonderful experience. I would never have imagined myself doing something like this, but I am very glad I did!
The Russian Winter 2012 figure skating competition will take place in Yekaterinberg, Russia, from 16 to 18 March 2012. This is a competition for Adults and Children.
