Recent content by dr.frog

Resurrecting this thread... I heard Erica Archambault got married last week; I'm pretty sure her new husband is the same ice tech guy described as her boyfriend in the Skating article last year. They had a big wedding with lots of former skaters present (Ryan Bradley, Jeremy Abbott, etc) so...

Worlds were held in Colorado Springs in 1957, 1959, 1965, 1969, and 1975. Dick Button didn't compete at any of those competitions, but other guys who did were not only doing triples, but they also had to skate a 5-minute free program! (And at least the old Broadmoor arena was indoors.... when...

Re school and skipping grades. Anybody remember Alice Sue Claeys? When she won the US junior title in 1990, she was 14 years old and a college freshman carrying a full-time class load. The story was that her mom put her in correspondence courses instead of elementary school because she was...

Re Alex and PCS. I've often thought he's undermarked, too; he has exceptional dance ability and always seems super-stylized in his positions and movements. But one thing I particularly noticed in his Nebelhorn FS is that the jumps are not well-integrated with the choreography, and there was a...

Erica is no longer coaching, it appears -- or at least she is not listed as staff at the World Arena any more. Meanwhile, Google turned up this. Apparently she's given up coaching and is now selling real estate. https://www.militaryhomesearch.com/agents/erica-archambault/

It's important to keep in mind that PCS scores are already diluted compared to the old "presentation" mark, because "skating skills" and "transitions" used to be part of the old "technical merit" mark instead. So essentially the former "presentation" aspects have been reduced to 60% of the PCS...

Well, part of the point I was making above is that there really isn't much pro work out there to make a "career" out of. I guess there will probably be a post-Olympic SOI tour in the spring and shows in Japan and Europe, but it's not continuous or full-time work any more, and I don't imagine...

I suppose he must be hoping that something will "click" before the Olympics and he'll be able to land at least one quad in each program, but beyond that, his prospects are not looking good. If this were fall 1983 or even 1993 he could be hoping to get a good pro touring contract even if he...

I'm waiting for some dance team to discover Procol Harum's "Repent Walpurgis": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n7WCXDPwdM

Ryan Jahnke did that one, too. :D 2001-2002 short program.

Ermmm, "20th century classical music" is a really broad brush. Includes everything from late Romantics (Rachmaninoff, Elgar, etc), impressionists like Ravel and Bax, atonalism, weird electronic sounds, jazz-influenced classical, minimalism, etc. There's a lot of good stuff there.... and some...

How about some Michael Torke? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoJsSZRof6k Or some Ralph Vaughan Williams? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqZMd9Wv20s Frank Bridge? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgK8L2QAYuA

Nobody will ever beat the "packaging" review that Alexander Fadeev got for his FS outfit at 1989 Euros. :watch: https://youtu.be/D8ECupWBess?t=3m32s

Geez. I brought up the stuff about Caroline being more of a full-time coach than a full-time athlete nowadays because people were questioning why she hadn't gotten a GP assignment or invitation to Champs Camp, and suggesting that she wuzrobbed by USFS. USFS has a perfect right to pick the...

Well, two things. (1) Of course it's not our business as fans to be critical of what skaters are doing with their time. But it's definitely USFS's business, because it's explicitly their mission to develop and select athletes who can win medals in international competitions, not to send out...