The Russian Figure Skating Federation filed an official bid with the International Skating Union on Tuesday to host the 2011 World Figure Skating Championship, which was canceled following Japan's massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami, Alexander Gorshkov, federation president, told CNN.
"Everybody's healthy and happy," says a friend of the former skating champ
If U.S. cross-country skiers didn't ply their trade in a vacuum, Kikkan Randall would be adorning magazine covers and selling shoes, watches and electronics. The Olympian from Alaska won her second straight sprint World Cup race last weekend, holding off two Norwegians on their home snow in Drammen, Norway. That's like beating the old Celtics on the parquet. One of the skiers Randall outsprinted was Marit Bjoergen, who won five medals, including three golds, at the Vancouver Olympics and now has seven for her career.
Starr Andrews skates to Smith's hit "Whip My Hair"
Here are some of the most outstanding female athletes of the year in Olympic sports, listed in alphabetical order with a nod to the Korean and Chinese whose family names appear first. Next week, we'll look at some of the top males.
In a breakthrough performance that may have resurrected an always-promising international career, Alissa Czisny won the ladies event at the Grand Prix final in Beijing over the weekend. For years, Czisny, a 23-year-old Bowling Green grad, has been considered a brilliant artist with the tightest spins and most elegant turns in the sport. But she's also a capable jumper who would often crumble under the spotlight of competition. This weekend, she put together two strong efforts, taking the lead during the short program and maintaining the margin through the free skate.
Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Nov. 29. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer.
The Olympian says he'll be like a combination of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul
She's one of South Korea's biggest stars -- with sellout shows, legions of devoted fans and a plethora of advertising deals.
It is a fairy tale romance of Olympic-sized proportions: China's 2010 gold medal pair skaters Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue were married Saturday in front of thousands of fans -- on ice.
•Call it an Aggie Dynasty in the works. For the second straight year, both the men's and women's track and field teams from Texas A&M won team titles at the NCAA championships. Last weekend in Eugene, the men amassed 55 points, edging Florida by one, and the women scored 72, easily outdistancing the host Ducks who were second with 57.
With the competitive season over, Charlie White and Tanith Belbin relax into their romance
"I know I'm not a legitimate, real singer, but I can still rock it like Britney," says the figure skater
Make some more room in the Phinney family trophy case. Nineteen-year-old Taylor Phinney took home two medals at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Denmark this weekend. Phinney won the pursuit event and also captured a bronze in the omnium. His teammate Sarah Hammer won the women's pursuit earlier in the week, adding to the golds she won in 2006 and 2007.
HLN's Joy Behar talks with Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir about criticism that he was "too gay" for figure skating.
The View cohost's daughter Grace encourages Mom to practice - on skates
South Korea crowns its new queen after Thursday's competition
An American duo continues to make history, as CNN's Alex Thomas reports from the Winter Olympics.
South Koreans react to Kim Yu-Na's historic gold medal win in women's figure skating at the Olympics in Vancouver.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- After the brilliance of the short program, it was hard to imagine there wouldn't be a letdown. How could South Korea's Kim Yu-Na be perfect a second night in the face of the suffocating pressure of expectations? How could Japan's Mao Asada skate mistake-free again and push Kim with her amazing arsenal of triple axels. And, most poignantly, how could Canada's Joannie Rochette keep herself together in the free skating program just four days after her mother's sudden death after arriving in Vancouver to watch her compete?
Things were good for Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette in the weeks before the Winter Olympics. She had a 2009 world silver medal. Training was going well. And, she told her agent, she had her confidante and source of strength by her side.
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Gold to Kim Yu-na of South Korea, silver to Mao Asada of Japan, and a bronze for the ages to Canada's Joannie Rochette. That is E.M. Swift's prediction for the Ladies' figure skating title, the showcase event on a day which also features medals handed out in men's aerials, women's cross-country, Nordic combined, women's hockey and women's giant slalom.
CNN's Alex Thomas wraps up Tuesday's competition at the Winter Olympics.
The battle belonged to Korea's exquisite Kim Yu-na and Japan's sensational Mao Asada, who are the two best women skaters of their time. But the night belonged to Canada's courageous and heartrending Joannie Rochette, who was competing just two days after her mother, Therese, died of an apparent heart attack early Sunday morning shortly after arriving in Vancouver to watch her daughter skate.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- No man has ever won four Alpine skiing medals at a single Olympics, but Bode Miller is a threat to make history today in the men's giant slalom. Medals will also be handed out in biathlon, Nordic combined, women's ski cross and the men's speedskating.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- They did more than give their all. By twizzling their way to gold in ice dancing on Monday night, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir handed out rally caps to a grateful nation.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Question: Will American audiences tune in to a ladies figure skating competition in which an American is not in the hunt for the gold medal? Maybe not even make an appearance on the podium? It hasn't happened since 1964, but we may find out in the next few days, for this Olympic gold will be decided between a couple of longtime Asian rivals: South Korea and Japan.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Tessa Virtue, 20, and Scott Moir, 22, skating with romance, precision, and creativity, gave the Canadians their first-ever ice dancing gold medal Monday night, easily beating their training partners, American champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who took silver.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- BLACK SUNDAY, ON ICE
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Just when it appeared the fix was in and the ice dance judges were up to their old political tricks, along came the original dance and all assumptions went flying into the profanity-laced, beer-fueled, tear-stained night.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- SI's Michael Farber calls today Hockey Day in Heaven, and with good reason: "The top six teams in the world are meeting in their most natural and appealing configurations, reprising the three Olympic finals that have included NHL players," says Farber. "There will be Canada against the United States and Sweden versus Finland in a pair of borders wars, all preceded by the geopolitical (and hockey) antipathy between Russia and the Czech Republic. Prague Spring, anyone?" Canada's Hockey Place becomes the epicenter of puckhead revelry today with a dream tripleheader on the ice. Of course, there are actual medals to be had in other venues, including the men's super-combined at Whistler Creekside (Bode alert!), women's 1,500-meter speedskating and the conclusion of men's two-man bobsled. It's also the debut of freestyle ski cross, the wild four-at-a-time plunge down the hill at Cypress.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Terrible day for the United States Olympic team yesterday: It won only four medals.
Tonight the 2009 World Champion goes for gold in men's figure skating at the Vancouver Olympics
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- In the end, the artistic skater didn't win because of his artistry. Evan Lysacek, without a quadruple jump, became the first American man to take home Olympic gold in figure skating since Brian Boitano in 1988, laying down a passionate, difficult, nearly perfect program to pass Russia's Evgeni Plushenko, he of the quad-triple jump.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Wasn't it romantic? Long ago, in a world before American Idol, judges with fickle hearts and talents with wow factors gripped and enchanted audiences on ice stages. All it took was that one moment in a skater's program to change everything -- like the money spiral from Michelle Kwan. She would gain speed in a sequined blur, then suddenly throw her arms out wide, burst into a flirty smile and glide elegantly on one skate blade across the rink in a curving line as if she were drawing hearts.
CNN's Jo Ling Kent talks about her experience training with China's gold medalists, Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue.
It was 12 years ago at a U.S. ice rink that I suddenly realized I was watching something special. I was a 13-year-old aspiring to be an Olympic figure skater and practicing my modest double lutzes and double axels when Chinese pair skaters Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue whizzed by me at lightning speed.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- It wasn't perfect. It wasn't the best performance of the night. It wasn't even the best performance by a Chinese team in the free skating portion of the pairs. But it was enough for Shen Xue, 31, and Zhao Hongbo, 36, to win China's first figure skating gold medal on their fourth trip to the Olympics, in the process breaking the record for most points in a pairs competition with a total of 216.57.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- So much for the archetype of the quiet and reserved Canadian. On the eve of the Vancouver Games, which will see 5,500 athletes from 82 countries compete for 258 medals, this city is overflowing with boosterism, positivism and optimism. Its rainy streets are filled with flapping Maple Leafs as well as a flapping Canadian media crowing about Team Canada's chances for medal success.
Plus more from the skater who calls missing out on a second chance at Olympics disappointing and shocking
Remember the town in Vietnam that, they said, had to be destroyed in order to be saved? Something like that applies very well to figure skating, a sport with a judging system was so corrupt that changes had to be made. Unfortunately, instead of trusting that they could change the judges, they changed the whole system, and thereby destroyed the sport's popularity.
Meet the high school senior who, as well as Mirai Nagasu, beat favorite Sasha Cohen
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Changes of the guard happen generationally, not seasonally, in ice dancing. Teams that are on top tend to stay on top, especially in an Olympic year. But yesterday a changing of the guard occurred in Spokane at the U.S. National Championships, as Meryl Davis, 23, and Charlie White, 22, defeated five-time U.S. champions Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto to win their second straight U.S. title.
SPOKANE, Wash. -- John Nicks, Sasha Cohen's 81-years-young coach, summed up the evening best: "It was an extraordinarily good start, but it was only a start."
The U.S. men's figure skating field is set for Vancouver, with Jeremy Abbott, Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir heading to the Games, as expected.
What a difference a week makes for Lindsey Vonn. The U.S. alpine star had been horrible in Aspen, failing to qualify in the giant slalom and skiing off-course in the slalom. This past weekend, though, she nearly won all three races in Lake Louise, Canada. What's more, Vonn performed brilliantly under the same kind of conditions that often plague skiers in Whistler, site of the upcoming Olympics.
Evan Lysacek is right where he wants to be.
These lists are not mere compilations of all-time bests in their respective sports but all-time bests at quickening the pulse and evoking a visceral response from those fortunate enough to have witnessed their artistry.
Former figure skating champion and Olympian Nicole Bobek was free on bond Tuesday after New Jersey police accused her of being part of a drug ring.
"I felt my body having the shakes," Olympian Oksana Grishuk tells PEOPLE
Each week, SI.com's Richard Deitsch will report on newsmakers from the world of TV, radio and the Web.
The world figure skating championships are underway in Sweden, but the top American woman, who is, in fact, not a woman, but a little girl, will not be there.
Cincinnati, which Longfellow described as ''the Queen City of the West,'' was taken by the heartstrings last week. So sweetly was the city conquered by the Queen of the East, Katarina Witt, that even Debi Thomas -- the defending world figure skating champion, whose best performance in more than a year was stuffed gracefully back in her face by the indomitable Witt -- came away an admirer.
John Baldwin didn't win a gold medal at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships this weekend – but he did get the girl.
Despite all the hue and cry surrounding figure skating's new scoring system, the one thing no one seemed to be worried about was whether it would lead to too many ties. After all, each of fourteen elements is marked to the hundredth decimal point. But on Sunday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, the least likely happened. Defending champion Evan Lysacek and former three-time champion Johnny Weir did the near impossible: they finished the competition with exactly 244.77 points each.
ST. PAUL, Minn. --The ladies competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships was billed as a "battle of the ages," but the so-called battle turned into a rout. The kids blew the oldsters away, and the 13,000 fans in St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center couldn't have been happier to witness the evolution.
Christopher Bowman, a two-time U.S. figure skating champion, spent years struggling with drug use. His longtime coach recalls the athlete's talent and his "dark side."
Celebrated men's figure skater Christopher Bowman, widely known as "Bowman the Showman," was found dead on Thursday in a Los Angeles-area budget-motel room, say authorities.
Their story reads like a figure skating fairy tale: Jessica Dube, a 19-year-old, French-speaker, and at 4 feet 11, a pixie princess. The handsome Bryce Davison, 21, was her English-speaking prince. Among Canada's top-ranked pairs skaters, they just clicked.
They say that figure skating requires the elegance of a royal court, the grace of a ballerina, the speed of a sprinter, the balance of a tightrope walker, the endurance of a marathon runner, the coordination of a juggler, the strength of a high jumper and the rhythm of a dancer.
SI.com: Lots of Lutzupdated: Wed Mar 28 2007 10:58:00
Ever since he portrayed a heartbreakingly earnest cheerleader on Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrell has shown that he gets the comic possibilities of modern sports. Stereotypes remained his specialty as he moved on to movies such as Old School, Kicking and Screaming and Talladega Nights and gave us, respectively, the rhythmic gymnast, soccer dad and stock car driver from hell. In his latest film Ferrell is as ungainly and un-self-aware as ever, but as a figure skater in Blades of Glory he turns that sport's biggest stereotype on its head.
SI.com: A leaping legacyupdated: Tue Mar 20 2007 12:34:00
Each week SI.com will select the athlete who displays excellence on and off the field as the Primetime Performer.
SI.com: Something specialupdated: Sun Jan 28 2007 14:40:00
The best performance, by far, by a skater at the U.S. Figure Skating championships this week was put on by the new men's champion, 21-year-old Evan Lysacek.
It may have the strongest female audience for any sporting event, but it's not just women who will be watching women's figure skating at the Olympics this week.
Michelle Kwan is gone. Bode Miller failed to win even a bronze in his first event. What's a U.S. advertiser at the Winter Olympics to do?
In 1984 figure skater Scott Hamilton wowed the world with his intricate footwork and perfect jumps in winning the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. The diminutive athlete dominated the sport in the 1980s, also winning four world figure skating championships.
Fortune: Ice Skatingupdated: Mon Mar 04 2002 00:01:00
Fake numbers, unholy alliances, and whistle blowers. We're talking about Olympic figure skating, of course. This scandal has everything, including an unsavory antagonist in the guise of a Ukrainian...
Money Magazine: Olympic Greenupdated: Fri Feb 01 2002 00:01:00
$90 Average price of a single-event ticket at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics.
IT'S EIGHT O'CLOCK IN THE morning, an hour when most high school kids are just beginning to think about first-period class. Steve Reynolds is already in his first ''class'' of the day: He's skiing ...
ON A RECENT FLIGHT to Denver from Grand Junction, Colorado, a business executive asked Terry Liskevych, coach of the U.S. women's Olympic volleyball team, why the United States doesn't win more med...
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