The Olympic skating season so far: Injuries and Russian women (and more Russian women. And more. . .)

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The Olympic skating season so far: Injuries and Russian women (and more Russian women. And more. . .)

A baker’s dozen of takeaways halfway through the Grand Prix season – and just under three months from the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics:

1. The injury list added two big names in the last week: Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, the two-time reigning OIympic champion, and reigning world bronze medalist Alexandra Trusova of Russia, who won Skate America, both have withdrawn from this week’s NHK Trophy with foot injuries, meaning neither can qualify for the Grand Prix Final Dec. 9-12 in Osaka, Japan.

Others previously on the “disabled list”: Japan’s Rika Kihira, the 2018 Grand Prix Final winner and reigning national champion, withdrew from both her scheduled Grand Prix events, as did reigning U.S. champion Bradie Tennell.

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Nathan Chen’s coach loses Skate Canada accreditation over “inadvertently” violating Covid “bubble” protocols

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Nathan Chen’s coach loses Skate Canada accreditation over “inadvertently” violating Covid “bubble” protocols

Nathan Chen’s coach, Rafael Arutunian, was not able to be at Chen’s side for Saturday’s free skate after Arutunian had his Skate Canada accreditation revoked for his inadvertent Friday violation of Covid-19 protocols at the event.

Reached by phone Saturday as he went for a PCR test so he could leave Canada immediately after the free skate, Arutunian said he would watch Chen from the spectator seats. Chen won Friday’s short program to take a 12-point lead into the free, which he also won easily.

“Nathan told me, ‘If you want to leave right away, it’s OK, I will take care of myself,’” Arutunian said.

Arutunian said he violated the protocol because of a lack of signage at a point where he had to decide which way to turn. He wound up in spectator seats, which are outside the bubble that skaters and coaches are required to stay within.

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For Japanese pair, Skate America silver medal is a joyous (and rare) surprise

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For Japanese pair, Skate America silver medal is a joyous (and rare) surprise

In the 32 years since the redoubtable Midori Ito became Japan’s first world figure skating champion, her country has become one of the most decorated in the sport.

All the greatest success has been in singles, climaxed by Yuzuru Hanyu’s consecutive Olympic gold medals in 2014 and 2018.

That background is why the silver medalists were the story in the Skate America pairs’ event Saturday night in Las Vegas.

With their second personal best score in two days, skating with an exuberance and joy that delighted the crowd, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara became the first Japanese team to win a medal on the Grand Prix circuit in 10 years, equaling the silver won by Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran at the NHK Trophy in 2011.

“We weren’t really hoping or aiming for a medal,” Miura said. “We just wanted to show what we were doing in training. We’re obviously surprised we came in second.”

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ISU investigating "surge of hate" directed at French ice dance team, condemns reported homophobic comments

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ISU investigating "surge of hate" directed at French ice dance team, condemns reported homophobic comments

The president of the French Ice Sports Federation told the International Skating Union that the ISU “can’t remain silent in front of this surge of hate” directed at French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron.

In a letter dated Oct. 12, a copy of which I have obtained, FFSG President Nathalie Péchalat made a forceful appeal for the ISU to take action after several months in which Papadakis and Cizeron “are targeted, not on a sporting level but due to Guillaume(‘s) sexual orientation.”

Cizeron, 2018 Olympic silver medalist and four-time world champion with Papadakis, came out as gay in May 2020.

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In figure skating’s long, strange trip of a season, Nathan Chen showed the way

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In figure skating’s long, strange trip of a season, Nathan Chen showed the way

What a long, strange trip it has been for figure skating over the past 13 months.

From the cancellation of the 2020 World Championships in Montreal when the first wave of the pandemic hit full force last March through dealing with two more COVID waves since then, the International Skating Union had to:

*Cancel six of the 10 events (and indefinitely postpone two more) in the second-tier Challenger Series of international events.

*Remake the top tier, six-event Grand Prix Series as domestic-only, with no Final and both France and Canada cancelling their GP events. (Canada also cancelled its national championships.)

*Cancel its two regional championships, the European Championships and Four Continents Championships.

For all that, the season came to a satisfying end. The ISU pulled off both the 2021 World Championships last month in a Stockholm, Sweden, bubble with no spectators other than skaters and officials and the 2021 World Team Trophy last week in an Osaka, Japan, bubble with limited spectators – while Osaka prefecture was in a state of emergency due to a surge in COVID cases.

Here are some takeaways from the 2020/21 season (such as it was):

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