Grand Prix Series kicks off with Skate America

Skate America returns to the honor of starting off the 2011 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. For the past two seasons, the International Skating Union has adjusted the schedule lineup of the six events with Skate America being the fifth event in 2009 and the fourth event in 2010. The event has a rich tradition of launching the Grand Prix series and now that it’s first again, it just feels right.

The ISU has made several changes to Grand Prix events over the past six months, including the reduction of entries from 10 to eight. The 10 ice dance teams were already a drop from the 12 that had previously been allowed to compete at each event. In addition, the ISU is allowing the top six finishers at the most recent World Championships the option to compete in one additional event that does not count toward the points earned to qualify for the Grand Prix Final. Theoretically, this is to help increase the quality of skating at each event by having the World’s best competing more than twice. Only two teams took advantage of this additional event opportunity, and many teams who would welcome the chance to compete just once on an international stage this season are left at home. In the past when teams were given an option of competing a third event for money and not points, more than just eight teams were on the rosters.

Perhaps because it has been the first Grand Prix (all but those two years) or perhaps because the way the stars align in October, “upsets” in the final results usually happen in at least one discipline each year. The ISU judging system has not hurt that trend. Four years ago at 2007 Skate America in Reading, Penn., Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat won the silver medal, more than 13 points ahead of Meryl Davis & Charlie White, who placed fourth.

But this is 2011. And it’s Skate America. And many changes have taken place since these teams last met.

Meryl Davis & Charlie White were unbeatable last year. The Americans, who earned the silver medal at the Olympic Winter Games and World Figure Skating Championships in 2010, won all six of their competitions in the 2010-2011 season, including the Grand Prix Final, Four Continents Championships, and the U.S. Championships. They went on to win the gold medal at the World Championships, becoming the first U.S. ice dancing team to capture the World title.

The champions have already met a challenge this season—they just changed the free dance last month, from La Strada to Die Fledermaus. The judges were confused by the La Strada program’s story line, so Davis & White decided to change their music instead of risking deductions later in the season. Die Fledermaus was music that coach Marina Zoueva had suggested for them before, and they decided to run with it this year, especially since they were short on time.

“It was a little stressful,” White said. “Any time you have to change your program after having already made one, it’s a little bit of a bummer, but we’re thrilled with the outcome. We’ve exceeded our highest expectations for the choreography.”

Veteran ice dancers Nathalie Péchalat & Fabian Bourzat of France have had a busy off season. After narrowly missing the podium at the 2011 World Championships in May, the team left their training base in Moscow, Russia to move to Michigan where their new coaches, Anjelika Krylova and Pasquale Camerlengo, have built quite the successful training center at the Detroit Skating Club. Despite the major change in training location and adjustment to a new environment, Pechalat & Bourzat are one of the teams who accepted the invitation to skate at three events, and will also take the ice at Skate Canada and Trophee Eric Bompard. The French are no strangers to thinking outside the box and blossomed in their three seasons under former coach Alexander Zhulin, bringing to life programs which also told a definitive story. Fans and judges alike are waiting to see what their time in the Krylova and Camerlengo camp has produced. Competing on the Grand Prix circuit since 2002, Pechalat & Bourzat won their first Grand Prix gold at the 2010 Cup of China and their second medal at the Grand Prix Final – a silver – behind Meryl Davis & Charlie White.

The new American team of Madison Hubbell & Zach Donohue is likely to make a fantastic impression this week. They teamed up in May and are coming off a win at Nebelhorn Trophy last month, where they scored a personal best of 139.01. Hubbell previously skated with her brother, Keiffer, but they amicably ended their on-ice partnership after a fourth-place showing at the U.S. Championships this year. While his partner has skated on the Senior Grand Prix circuit before, this will be Donohue’s first appearance in the series.

Germany’s Nelli Zhiganshina & Alexander Gazsi (pictured) finished a close second to Hubbell & Donohue at Nebelhorn and the rematch will be exciting for both teams. Since then, they competed again at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial in Slovakia, where they set a season’s best score of 142.10. At Nepela, the 2011 German champions received a music deduction for their Romeo & Juliet free dance, so it will be interesting to see how they have chosen to weather that decision.

Hubbell & Donohue and Zhiganshina & Gazsi may want a rematch for a spot on the podium, but Alexandra Paul & Mitchell Islam of Canada could be right on their heels. Last year at Skate Canada, their first senior international competition, they set an ISU personal best score of 138.16. They missed the podium by less than a point, but their grace and elegance charmed the entire audience. This team knows instinctively how to skate together and has drawn comparisons to compatriots Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir, but they have already faced injury this season and only competed their short dance for the first time last weekend. They also came in third at last year’s Canadian Championships, ahead of Kharis Ralph & Asher Hill, who also will compete at Skate America.

Ralph & Hill won the bronze medal at Nebelhorn Trophy, scoring 133.94. Their results last year on their first Senior Grand Prix circuit were respectable—they picked up sixth- and seventh-place finishes—but they would certainly like to continue climbing the rankings this year.

The third U.S. team at Skate America will be Isabella Cannuscio & Ian Lorello. They competed as seniors for the first time in 2011, finishing sixth at the U.S. Championships, seventh at Trophée Eric Bompard, and 10th at Cup of China. Skate America will be their first international event of the season, and they were also recently assigned to Ice Challenge in Graz, Austria, in November. At the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships in August, Cannuscio & Lorello won the free dance by .01 over Hubbell & Donohue.

Rounding out the roster of eight are Isabella Tobias & Deividas Stagniunas of Lithuania. In their second season together, they finished fifth at Nebelhorn with a score of 125.24. Last season, Tobias & Stagniunas finished a solid 14th place at the World Championships. They train in Canton, Mich., with Davis & White.

Official practices begin Thursday, Oct. 20; the short dance will be held Friday, Oct. 21, and skaters will compete in the free dance Saturday, Oct. 22.