Ganicheva & Letov are named the SC of Boston's high performance directors for the club's new facility in Norwood, Mass.

[Sylvia]

As announced in the article on pages 8-11 of the club's Summer 2020 newsletter: https://scboston.org/chips/summer2020/?page=10

The 10 skaters pictured in the team photo on page 10, left to right, are: Tamnhi Huynh, Alex Krasnozhon, Ganicheva, Audrey Lu, Letov, Hanna Harrell, Jimmy Ma, Emily Chan, Emilie Mao & Ashley Lin, with Lu’s pairs partner, Misha Mitrofanov, and Chan’s pairs partner, Spencer Howe, in back. (I assume this entire group of skaters will be relocating from Dallas to Boston with their coaches ETA but this has not yet been officially confirmed by them.)

 

[sk9tingfan]

I couldn't help but wonder how the Cains are thinking about the defection of certain skaters. Sylvia, were Ganicheva and Letov at their rink in Texas?

 

[RoseRed]

I couldn't help but wonder how the Cains are thinking about the defection of certain skaters. Sylvia, were Ganicheva and Letov at their rink in Texas?

It wasn't the same rink as far as I know. But both Dallas area. Cain-Gribble/Leduc list their training location as Euless, and Krasnozhon had his as Plano (about 30 minutes apart) on the ISU bios.

 

[sk9tingfan]

It wasn't the same rink as far as I know. But both Dallas area. Cain-Gribble/Leduc list their training location as Euless, and Krasnozhon had his as Plano (about 30 minutes apart) on the ISU bios.

Thanks for the clarification! That new SCOB facility is gorgeous. I remember going to the old facility starting in 1998 and those wooden bleachers were problematic then. I saw Ross Miner when he was about 7 or 8 at the Boston Open and he was an adorable blond tyke. But many of their events were magical

 

[azcalder]

Thanks for the clarification! That new SCOB facility is gorgeous. I remember going to the old facility starting in 1998 and those wooden bleachers were problematic then. I saw Ross Miner when he was about 7 or 8 at the Boston Open and he was an adorable blond tyke. But many of their events were magical

I skated at the old Boston Skating Club every Sunday night all through HS and College. It was our mall in the 1950's. I have fond memories of that old building.

 

[Rukia]

I couldn't help but wonder how the Cains are thinking about the defection of certain skaters. Sylvia, were Ganicheva and Letov at their rink in Texas?

No, it wasn't the same rink, but they were owned by the same overlords if that makes sense. This will definitely do a number to the Plano rink though (and the Dallas FSC) if all those skaters follow them.

 

[Sylvia]

This evening in a private ceremony attended by members of the board, management team, and Norwood town officials; the Club’s President, Joe Blount, Executive Director Doug Zeghibe, and honorary Club member, 1956 Olympic Champion, Dr. Tenley Albright welcomed to the ice Club competitor, 2020 U.S. Junior Champion, Maxim Naumov as the first skater at the Club’s all-new, best-in-class facility in Norwood, MA. (6 photos): https://www.instagram.com/p/CE2xnq6jYQl/

Clips of Naumov skating/club members warching & speaking publicly as well as a photo of him with his parents: https://www.instagram.com/p/CE23GxBjIbb/

 

[viennese]

I will miss the SC of Boston's old rink in Allston, too* When I lived and worked nearby, it had convenient evening hours for adult ice.

The new facility looks amazing. A true training center with lots of space.

*Despite the sometimes insane traffic to get there.

 

[kirkbiggestfan]

It works out great that the Mitchell-Johansson group is in Revere, North of the City, while the SCoB is in Norwood, south of Boston. I will miss the Allston location. Does anyone know if this will remain open or turned into condos like everything else in that neighborhood? The new facility will attract top coaches. I am wondering who's next.

 

[viennese]

A real estate news site posted this back in February. I have not driven past the Allston rink since December 2019. Don't know about the rink

But yeah: it's condos.


https://boston.curbed.com/boston-de...7353/1240-soldiers-field-allston-skating-club

 

[Sylvia]

"Take a look back at last week's private ceremony where 2020 U.S. Junior Champion, Maxim Naumov, took to the ice as the first skater in the Club's best-in-class facility in Norwood, MA." (almost 7-min. video) https://www.instagram.com/tv/CFNJstFjCro/

Related article with photos:

SC of Boston opens new facility | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

ETA that I just posted a new Maxim Naumov article in the U.S. Men's thread: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...eason-news-updates.107352/page-2#post-5861058

 

[SaSherka]

Went to say goodbye to the 1240 Soldiers Field Rd rink yesterday, which is closing for good this Sunday...

 

[Bonita]

Skating Club of Boston was where I learned to figure skate and my home for over 20 years. I loved watching rainstorms and sunsets through the stained glass windows. The last skate I had there was in August and I cried the whole way home.

I never thought my last skate would entail wearing a mask and trying to avoid people. They had a bunch of member and former members smallish ice sessions to say goodbye, but my husband is very high risk and I didn't go.

 

[Sylvia]

Skating Club of Boston's farewell tribute to their rink in 10 photos/clips: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFps-u4j_ry/

And so the final day has come. The day in which the sounds of blades cutting the ice will dwindle, the music will fade, and the lights will dim. Today Sunday, September 27, 2020 marks the day in which figure skaters will grace the ice at the beloved 1240 Soldiers Field Road, for the final time. Since New Years Day 1939, 1240 Soldiers Field Road has been the home away from home for generations of Club members. Today marks the last use of ice at this beloved facility. Tonight the compressors will be turned off, the ice will melt, but the memories will last forever. Thank you 1240 Soldiers Field Road and farewell. It's time now, for #thenext100years. #1240SFR #thankyou #farewell #thenext100dreams #thenext100champions #thenext100legends #thenext100years #begintoday #usfigureskating #skatingclubbos

I'm so glad I got to skate a public session at 1240 Soldiers Field Road many years ago and visit this historic facility a few other times in person before its closure.

 

[Sylvia]

As announced in the article on pages 8-11 of the club's Summer 2020 newsletter: https://scboston.org/chips/summer2020/?page=10

The 10 skaters pictured in the team photo on page 10, left to right, are: Tamnhi Huynh, Alex Krasnozhon, Ganicheva, Audrey Lu, Letov, Hanna Harrell, Jimmy Ma, Emily Chan, Emilie Mao & Ashley Lin, with Lu’s pairs partner, Misha Mitrofanov, and Chan’s pairs partner, Spencer Howe, in back. (I assume this entire group of skaters will be relocating from Dallas to Boston with their coaches ETA but this has not yet been officially confirmed by them.)

The same group photo was posted on Ganicheva/Letov's coaching account 2 days ago (both coaches were with Ashley Lin -- who is assigned to Skate America, her international debut for China -- Chan/Howe & Emilie Mao when they competed at the Boston Open last weekend): https://www.instagram.com/p/CFzknHajKFD/

Start new chapter in our life !
Thank you Dallas we will always Love you ❤
Thank you DFSC club and the wonderful and kind people around us we will be always grateful for the 18 years we have spent together! The Texas memories will be in our hearts no matter how far away we are!!!

Moving to Boston with our Team USA skaters and Team China !
Welcome to the New professional facility as High performance directors! Looking forward to the future !

2 new students featured on their Instagram are Marilena Kitromilis (will represent Cyprus, competed well in Senior at Boston Open) and Laura Jacobson (2019 U.S. Novice Ladies pewter medalist; 3rd in Junior SP at Boston Open).

 

[Aceon6]

Loved the adult non-member sessions as they were slotted for working people and easy to get to. Parking, not so much! Also, I will not miss SCoB’s non-member “locker room/ladies room“ with the child size benches and stalls and the wall hooks exactly at adult eye level. Norwood is a pain to get to in the evening, so I don’t see that commitment to adult learn to skate and test track sessions being as strong going forward.

 

[Sylvia]

Hanna Harrell is in Boston now : https://www.instagram.com/p/CHT1TN8L1by/

Boston Globe article by Kat Cornetta: As Norwood facility remains silent, figure skaters make the jump to taped performances
Excerpts:

The rinks at Norwood’s Skating Club of Boston were scheduled to be chock-full of figure skaters this week vying for spots at January’s US Figure Skating Championships.
Instead, the elite skaters will be reviewing guidance from US Figure Skating about how to submit videotaped performances. The C0VID-19 p*ndemic forced the organization to switch from an in-person competition to one held remotely. ...<snip>...
Earlier in the fall, US Figure Skating gave elite athletes a virtual competition opportunity called the International Selection Pool Points Challenge. That provided a test run for how national qualifying competitions could be moved online.
“We cleared a freestyle session to film those programs,” said Zeghibe. “We are already operating at a reduced capacity, and our elite skaters skate in the middle of the day, when it is not as busy to begin with.”

US Figure Skating’s Monday announcement did leave skaters at the lower competitive levels — juvenile through novice — without a competitive outlet for the time being. The organization said it is still organizing programming for those levels in early 2021.
But some rinks are taking matters into their own hands, creating opportunities for those skaters who were prepared to compete in their largest competition of the season this week. The Skating Club of Boston is holding a performance opportunity, where the club’s approximately 60 athletes on those levels will skate for critiques by judges and officials. No placements will be offered, but it gives the skaters a goal during an odd season.
“There’s no first, second, or third place,” said Zeghibe. “But they can finish out this year’s competitive season.”

 

[Sylvia]

Last night the SC of Boston arranged a "special monitoring session where athletes had a chance to perform their programs and gain valuable feedback from a small panel of judges." https://www.instagram.com/p/CHmI-RurWHT/

Order of the clips: Jimmy Ma, Indi Cha (junior), Max Naumov, Alex Krasnozhon, Lu/Mitrofanov

 

[Sylvia]

SC of Boston skaters are performing now on New Year's Eve: https://www.firstnightboston.org/

Taped performances (exhibition versions of SP music) by:

Brooke Barrett (Junior level last season) - "River"
Emily Chan & Spencer Howe - "The Prayer"
Giselle Graves (Intermediate level this season) - landed a 3T+2T & 3S; music was "Leaving Lemuria" by Jo Blankenburg
Hanna Harrell - "Carmen's Story"/"Tanguera" - landed a 2A
Klara Kowar & TJ Carey - Junior RD
Aleksei Krasnozhon - "Je dors sur les roses" (new program)
Krasnozhon duet with little Eric Lei ("I Just Can't Wait to Be King") then Eric's solo to Mission Impossible theme
Cathryn Limketkai (Junior level this season) - very expressive, musical performance to a female cover of "Golden Slumbers"
Ashley Lin - "On My Own"
Audrey Lu & Misha Mitrofanov - "The Show Must Go On"
Jimmy Ma - "Come Together" with big energy aimed at the camera!
Maxim Naumov - "Run" by Joji
Luke Witkowski (Intermediate level last season) - engaging performance to "Can't take my eyes off of you" (Jersey Boys)
The Haydenettes synchro team (with one male skater)

A very enjoyable show!

 

[Sylvia]

Boston Globe article by John Powers (Jan. 1, 2021): ‘Here, you are the important one.’ How the new Skating Club of Boston has become the place to be for elite figure skaters
Excerpts:

The Skating Club of Boston, which for more than eight decades operated out of a glorified Quonset hut by the Charles River, has become the sport’s 21st-century mecca. Its new $67 million facility on University Avenue, which opened in September, has three ice surfaces plus an extraordinary range of amenities.
The centerpiece is a performance center with an Olympic-size ice sheet, 2,500 upholstered seats, an overhead scoreboard, and a Bose sound system. There’s also a figure skating training rink with 1,500 seats and another for hockey with benches and penalty boxes that will be used by the local high school team.

Thus began a quest for a new venue that consumed more than two decades and involved scouting three dozen sites after a planned land swap with Harvard for a spot on Lincoln Street alongside the Mass. Pike fell through. What was clear, given the soaring price of land in the city, was that the Skating Club of Boston couldn’t create what it needed in Boston.
...
The [Norwood] building is spacious enough that it will likely will host regional and sectional qualifiers for the US championships, possibly Skate America or an ISU Challenger Series event plus Ice Chips, the club's signature century-old show now held at Harvard.
...
What was available was a 34-acre parcel just off I-95 and a town with open arms. The Skating Club bought the land for $7 million and sold its rink and the adjacent hotel for $40 million to the Davis Companies, a local developer planning a 535-unit apartment building on the site and an adjacent 255-room hotel and 120 condominiums.

“You see your competitor do something and you think, I’ve got to do the same thing, I’ve got to do it better,” said [Maxim] Naumov. “Having the ability to do that here every day is a huge advantage. It’s so motivating. They push you to do things you didn’t think you could do.”
...
For a club that began in 1912, one-stop skating represents a revolution. “I told my skaters, if you’re not going to be successful in this building, you’re not going to be successful anywhere,” said [Olga] Ganicheva.

ETA: The performance center seems to be the right size to host the Challenger Series event that used to be held in SLC, but are there enough seats for a Skate America? George Rossano estimated that 2019 Skate America audience attendance in Las Vegas ranged from 2000 to 2800 so ... maybe?

 

[seabm7]

SC of Boston skaters are performing now on New Year's Eve: https://www.firstnightboston.org/

Taped performances (exhibition versions of SP music) by:

Brooke Barrett (Junior level last season) - "River"
Emily Chan & Spencer Howe - "The Prayer"
Giselle Graves (Intermediate level this season) - landed a 3T+2T & 3S; music was "Leaving Lemuria" by Jo Blankenburg
Hanna Harrell - "Carmen's Story"/"Tanguera" - landed a 2A
Klara Kowar & TJ Carey - Junior RD
Aleksei Krasnozhon - "Je dors sur les roses" (new program)
Krasnozhon duet with little Eric Lei ("I Just Can't Wait to Be King") then Eric's solo to Mission Impossible theme
Cathryn Limketkai (Junior level this season) - very expressive, musical performance to a female cover of "Golden Slumbers"
Ashley Lin - "On My Own"
Audrey Lu & Misha Mitrofanov - "The Show Must Go On"
Jimmy Ma - "Come Together" with big energy aimed at the camera!
Maxim Naumov - "Run" by Joji
Luke Witkowski (Intermediate level last season) - engaging performance to "Can't take my eyes off of you" (Jersey Boys)
The Haydenettes synchro team (with one male skater)

A very enjoyable show!

Here is an alternative link:

Happy New Year Boston! | First Night Boston was live. | By First Night Boston | Facebook

First Night Boston was live.

www.facebook.com

 

[clairecloutier]

I'm just resurrecting this thread to post an interview I did with Olga Ganicheva:

Getting to Know Olga Ganicheva - A divine sport

Over the last decade, Olga Ganicheva and Aleksey Letov have quietly moved toward the top rank of American figure skating coaches. The husband-and-wife team, who are originally from Russia, started coaching in the Dallas, Texas, area in 2002. There, they built up a skating school based at one of...

adivinesport.com

It's a relatively short interview, but Ganicheva talks about her background in Russia, how she and her husband Aleksey Letov started their coaching group, their move to Boston, and her reactions to the pairs event at 2021 Worlds.

 

[BittyBug]

I love her attitude - no excuses!

 

[Sylvia]

ETA: The performance center seems to be the right size to host the Challenger Series event that used to be held in SLC

U.S. Classic will be a regular Senior B international to be held at the Skating Club of Boston's new facility in Norwood, Massachusetts this fall:

U.S. Figure Skating Announces International Competitions for 2021-22 Season - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

U.S. Figure Skating announced that it will host the 2021 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic from Sept. 15-19, 2021 and the 2022 U.S. Synchronized Skating

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

The U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, which will include ladies, men's and ice dance events in 2021, was first held in 2012 in Salt Lake City, and has been held each year since, with the exception of 2020. Like in previous years, the U.S. International Classic will be held alongside the U.S. Challenge Skate, which is a developmental competition for domestic novice and junior competitors.

Norwood will also host the "2022 U.S. Synchronized Skating International Classic from Jan. 28-29, 2022... The synchronized skating competition will be one of five international competitions included in the ISU Challenger Series for Synchronized Skating."

 

[sk9tingfan]

U.S. Classic will be a regular Senior B international to be held at the Skating Club of Boston's new facility in Norwood, Massachusetts this fall:

U.S. Figure Skating Announces International Competitions for 2021-22 Season - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

U.S. Figure Skating announced that it will host the 2021 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic from Sept. 15-19, 2021 and the 2022 U.S. Synchronized Skating

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

Norwood will also host the "2022 U.S. Synchronized Skating International Classic from Jan. 28-29, 2022... The synchronized skating competition will be one of five international competitions included in the ISU Challenger Series for Synchronized Skating."

Sylvia, you know that I will be there with bells on! Just two hours by car for me!!!

 

[Sylvia]

^^^ We'll have to wait see if tickets will be sold/an audience will be allowed for the 2021 U.S. Classic/Novice & Junior Challenge Skate (hope so!).

For those who may be interested, the Winter 2021 issue of The Skating Club of Boston's Chips newsletter has articles on Tenley Albright, Dick Button, John Misha Petkevitch, and the 1961 World team, among others.

 

[Sylvia]

I've heard there will be a new Senior B international for singles and pairs called Cranberry Cup, August 10-15, 2021, along with the Lake Placid Ice Dance international, to be held in the SC of Boston's new facility in Norwood, Mass. (don't believe the competition announcements are published online yet - will start a thread in the Kiss & Cry section when more info becomes available): https://scboston.org/event/2021-cra...ke-placid-ice-dance-international-norwood-ma/

The Olga Ganicheva/Aleksey Letov IG account posted a clip today that indicates Gabriella Izzo is a (new) student of theirs: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPDr6bzA4Ym/

 

[Jayar]

@Sylvia Your thread headlines are crazy long. Let us read some of the story inside the thread.

 

[oleada]

Norwood is literally right next door to me. If the US Classic is happening, I want to go!

 

[Debbie S]

I've heard there will be a new Senior B international for singles and pairs called Cranberry Cup, August 10-15, 2021, along with the Lake Placid Ice Dance international, to be held in the SC of Boston's new facility in Norwood, Mass. (don't believe the competition announcements are published online yet - will start a thread in the Kiss & Cry section when more info becomes available): https://scboston.org/event/2021-cra...ke-placid-ice-dance-international-norwood-ma/

So this is in addition to the U.S. Classic? Wish I lived closer to Boston!