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Laurie's Log - Official Practices

Results! Laurie's Log Laurie's Impressions Kim's Reports and Photos Brenda's Trip

Carole's Impressions Nicole's Trip Laurie's Report of the Ladies' Free Skate Laurie's Report of the Men's Free Skate The Exhibitions!

Ladies

We got a late start, LOL, but we did catch the second half of the first ladies group. I believe they had already skated their short programs (the groups did their shorts and then their longs, at least this is how the second group of ladies went, so I'm assuming it was this way for the first group).

Michelle Currie was first. I wasn't sure if she was wearing a costume or just a work out outfit. It was olive green. The music was Spanish guitar sounding - had some bongos and flute music, kind of ethnic. Very nice layback and nice spiral. Triple lutz looked good. Ina Bauer looked good. She singled her axel.

Caroline Gulke was next, skating to techno music. She had a nice layback. I saw a Biellmann - don't have any other notes.

Sabina Wojtala was next, wearing a midnight blue bodysuit. The music was somber, classical piano. Triple lutz/double toe looked good. All her triples looked good, actually. She has a nice long line - looks tall on the ice.

Elena Sokolova was next, wearing a bodysuit with a sparkly silver bodice. The music was classical - sounded like a waltz. Fell out of her triple lutz, double axel looked good. Camel spins looked good but not particularly fast. She fell on what looked like a triple toe/triple toe. She finished slightly off her music. She had a Biellmann spin in there, along with a cross foot spin.

Victoria Volchkova was wearing a black bodysuit, skating to classical piano music, switched to humming vocals, and then back to the piano music. Spread eagle, but not held long. I didn't like her Y-spins or her sit spins. She did a lot of jumps in the warm up - don't remember any in the program.

Ladies Group B:

Siyin Sun - wearing emerald green, skating to ethnic flute music with bongo drums, maybe - switched to jazzed up classical. Fell on first jump - don't know what it was. Didn't care for her layback.

Chisato Shiina - wearing periwinkle blue and skated to classical piano. Singled most of her jumps and I think on purpose. Spins were slow but pretty.

Alisa Yamasaki - wearing bright pink with a little purple, skated to jazzy piano Big Band-type music, heavy on bass. She did lots of spirals.

Sarah Hughes - wearing a beautiful plum costume with sheer netting at the top with a sparkly silver spiral design. Skated to classical music. Nice double axel, did her customary triple flutz/double toe. Nice spirals, nice elegant line. Beautiful layback, nice Y-spin.

Michelle Kwan - wearing a black work out outfit with a bare midriff, skated to Eric Clapton blues guitar music. Nice double axel, triple lutz/double toe was good. Fell on what was supposed to be her triple solo jump - flip? She did her Y-spin combo spin, not a lot of speed.

Angela Nikodinov - Changed my mind. Wearing a black bodysuit which emphasized her slimness, I think she has lost more weight than I first thought. Skated to sad, classical piano music. Fell on opening triple lutz - no jumps attempted after that. Had a nice footwork sequence. Nice positions on spiral. Gorgeous layback, as usual. Nice catch foot spin.

Siyin Sun - perky classical music, waltz? Fell on something, trouble with jumps. Not a memorable program.

Chisato Shiina - romantic classical music. Jumps were good, but mostly doubles - meant to be, I think. Layback was nice. Slow spins. Fell on axel.

Alisa Yamasaki - skated to "Devil's Trill" from Vanessa-Mae, along with other somber violin selection. Singled lutz. Singled everything, but on purpose. I didn't care for laybacks. She did a Charlotte but didn't hold it very long.

Sarah Hughes - skated to "Don Quixote." Triple loop, triple flutz, nice spiral positions, beautiful layback, illusion. Nice Y-spin.

Michelle Kwan - skated to music with harp and lots of violin and piano, kind of reminded me a lot of "Red Violin" type music. Had some struggles here. Two footed an opening triple loop, popped her lutz. Double axel was good. Triple flip and sal were good. Charlotte. Y-spin combo with cross foot spin. Finished up with triple lutz she had missed, falling leaf towards the end.

Angela Nikodinov - also skated to music which started as harp and ended up being classical, symphonic, romantic music. No jumps. Nice spin positions - gorgeous layback.

During someone else's program, Sarah did a nice triple loop/triple loop.

And we were offered a ride back to the hotel from the rink by a van containing the ever-handsome Sasha Zhulin and Nikolai Morizov. (sigh) Yep, they are just as good looking up close and personal! Kim got to sit next to the ever-gorgeous Nikolai. (sigh) I made sure she didn't have too much room and was forced to sit very close to him...am I good to Kim, or what?

Well, we've discovered some interesting people are on our floor, LOL. Todd Eldredge just checked in tonight (he wasn't at practice) and he's on our floor. My Maurizio is in the room right across from us, LOL...Tatiana Tarasova is on our floor, and Shae-Lynn is on our floor, too - she was on the elevator with us when we returned from dinner.

By the way, Kim developed her first roll of film, and she's got some *great* photos of Alexei.

Group A:

Bourne & Kraatz skated to their jazzy "Jumpin' Jack/Business of Love" medley. Shae-Lynn was wearing a black dress with black netting above the bodice and tiny white polka dots on the bodice and collar. Victor was wearing a backless tux with a white shirt. They are very fluid, smooth skaters, with deep edges, and I think this is a good program for them.

Delobel & Chapuis skated to a cabaret-type tune, "Ain't It A Shame." Veronique was wearing a turquoise dress with a sparkly bodice and Olivier was wearing a black tux.

Ouabdelsselam & Delmas skated to "Nobody Does it Better" (not by Carly Simon) and switched to jazzy vocals - think the song was "Man Wanted." Alia was wearing a white and gold dress with lots of illusion fabric in the middle. Benjamin was wearing a shiny black shirt and black velvet pants.

Chait & Sakhnovsky (sp?) skated to "Ain't It A Shame," as well. Galit was wearing a black dress with a black netting skirt, a big black bow in the back, white buttons, and a silver, low slung belt. Sergei was wearing black. They skate with a lot of speed and have quick footwork. I liked their program.

Grebeukina & Novikov skated to something with lyrics of "Take Me, Take My Love," LOL... Anastassia was wearing sheer black tights, black netting on top, with a sparkly black velvet skirt.

Ulanova & Pavlov skated to "All or Nothing" - but I don't think it was Sinatra. Nina was wearing a black, asymetrically cut dress, backless; Alexander was wearing black. They switched to female vocals, something with lyrics about "When's That Character Coming Back."

Mr. Morozov walked down our row at this point, wearing his very nice black leather pants, LOL...Sasha Zhulin was sitting in the row behind us. We saw Chris Dean across the way.

Fusar-Poli & Margaglio - Barbara, wearing my absolute favorite dress I've seen her in so far - lush, pink, shimmery with subtle, multi-colored hues, pink armbands with scarves trailing from them, deep pink, little tiny squares design strip on one side of the dress. Mostly backless. I loved this dress! (sigh). Maurizio was wearing a black tux and tails. They skated to "Putting on the Ritz" and "No, They Can't Take That Away from Me." I liked this program - lots of speed from these two.

Tsuzuki & Farkhoutdinov - skated to "Dancin' Fool," a Copacabana song and then switched to "Fever." Nakato was wearing a light blue and white dress with flowery looking trim. Rinat was wearing a sparkly black velvet vest with black pants. They had a collision with Naomi Lang - I didn't see the whole thing, just saw the end result. Nobody seemed hurt.

Drobiazko & Vanagas - Margarita was wearing a costume with an orange bodice and black skirt with an orange and black design on the back. Povilas was wearing a half orange and black striped vest, the other half was black, black pants. They skated to jazzy French music and switched to "Dancin' Fool." Nice program.

Handra & Sinek skated to something we decided was "Happy Feet," LOL....they switched to something like "Bring My Baby Back to Me" and then went back to "Happy Feet." Beata was wearing a periwinkle blue sparkly slit dress. Charles was wearing a periwinkle blue sparkly shirt, black pants.

Lang & Tchernyshev skated to "Fly Me to the Moon" by Sinatra and switched to something jazzy and fast with applause in it. Naomi was wearing an apricot skirt with a burgundy strapless top with silver sparkly spiral trim. Peter was wearing a black suit with a white turtleneck.

If I don't comment on the program, it's because nothing stood out about it, LOL. I liked Fusar-Poli & Margaglio the best, Shae-Lynn and Victor second best, along with Drobiazko & Vanagas. But I also really liked Chait & Sakhnovsky's OD, too. In fact, maybe I liked their OD second best, LOL...sorry - I'm pathetic on dance!

I typed this pretty fast and didn't proofread much - hope I didn't make too many mistakes!

Okay, I got back when pairs practice was almost over and thought maybe I would try and just do a better job at tomorrow's practice. Here is what caught my eye - I figured I was too late to take notes - it's not much, I warn ya!

Ina & Zimmerman wore work out clothes and skated to their "The Truman Show" program from last year. They looked good, and I believe landed everything they tried. They definitely seem more comfortable with each other this year.

Scott & Dulebohn were wearing work out clothes or else their costumes are very simple, LOL. They skated to screeching violin music that got on our nerves. They looked good to start but developed problems later on, as I recall.

Shen & Zhao wore track bodysuits. They skated to sad, classical violin music. Everything they tried looked great. SBS jumps, throw jumps, twists, lifts - all very good.

Miller & Weiss wore black. They also skated to classical violin music. We were getting pretty tired of classical violin music at this point, LOL...They had problems with SBS jumps.

I told you I didn't have much, LOL!

Men next...

Okay, we get to the men at last, LOL...I'll just do the section on Alexei first and then write something on the rest of the guys, but I warn you, we were mostly watching him, so the rest of the guys got very little of our attention. I'll do much better tomorrow when Alexei is off the ice while the other men are skating, LOL...

Alexei arrived looking gorgeous as ever, LOL. He wore what looked like a black, mock turtleneck with a false V-neck (we haven't seen him wear this before) and loose black tights. He later took off the sweater and was wearing a medium-sleeved black T-shirt. He also wore his gold medallion. Wait till you see the pics!

In the first warm up, he did a triple axel/triple toe combo, two triple flips in a row followed by what we thought was a quad flip with a step out. Unfortunately, it was in the far corner (why does he always do this stuff in the far corner from us, LOL?) and someone walked in front of us just as he took off for it. Because he did the two triple flips just before it, and it looked like he was using the exact same set up, that's what we think it was. He also did a quad toe/triple toe combo.

He skated to Chopin for his short. He did a triple axel in the program but walked through a lot of it - no other jumps. He did do the footwork sections - lots of turns, a nice lunge. No deathdrop today. He looked winded after the program was over. I think he needs more time in high altitude training, although he could have just tuckered himself out with all the triples and quads in the warm up.

While the other men were skating their long programs, Alexei did a nice triple flip/triple loop combo and a triple axel/triple toe combo.

For the long program, he walked through most of "Gladiator." No jumps. He has added music to this program. We're not sure what it is from the soundtrack because we don't have it with us, but it has the humming vocals, if that helps.

What we noticed he has added or changed about "Gladiator" from the exhibition program - that we can tell, since he walked through a lot of it, LOL:

Instead of starting off on his knees, he is standing. But he does the same moves with his arms, except not for as long. Then he opens his arms and raises them, then throws them down. Then "The Battle" music starts, and he has brought back the leap we loved so much, LOL. Lots of footwork - that seems the same, lots of turns. He does a butterfly, followed by a spread eagle, he does some more of the footwork and then ends right on the music. Of course, there was no rolling on the ice and no props. He didn't do any spins in the program today.

He has some new moves in the program. One we especially liked is when he brings his arms down, one by one, and then flings them outward, right on the music. We also liked a move where it looks like he stabs someone and then pulls the knife out slowly.

After he finished "Gladiator," he worked on spins a bit. He did a nice, fast combo spin which included a camel spin, sit spin, catch foot spin, Mazurka, back sit, and martini glass spin.

Laurie

Alexei didn't make this practice, but they played his music anyway, so Carole and Kelly got to hear it, LOL...

Mr. Morizov was here, sitting across from us.

Group B:

Warm up notes:

Todd Eldredge - lots of triple axels from Todd and a quad toe. He also did a quad toe/double toe combo in the second warm up, along with triple axel/triple toe.

Tim Goebel - quad toe/triple toe combo, a couple quad toes, went through most of his triples - had trouble with his triple flip and triple axel today.

Trifun Zivanovic - SP - "The Mummy" music, wearing black work out clothes. He has an intensity to his skating I like. I don't show any jump notes for him so he probably didn't do any jumps in his short. Lots of footwork, sit spin/back sit spin/cross foot spin combo.

Andre Kaden - SP - skated to tango music, wearing work out clothes. Mostly walked through his program - some footwork, sit spin/back sit spin combo, camel/sit spin/back sit/catch foot combo.

Silvio Smalun - SP - skated to flutish, pastoral, kodo drum sounding program, wearing work out clothes. Mostly walked through - footwork, did two solo triples - don't remember what they were, but they looked good. Sit/back sit combo.

Yamato Tamura - SP - "Moonlight Sonata" - wearing black work out clothes, skated very well. Hit a 4T/3T, double axel. Walked through most of program - footwork and sit/back sit combo spin.

Todd Eldredge - SP - "Exotica" - wearing work out clothes, fell on quad toe attempt. He landed close to the boards and threw his hands up against the boards in mock despair. Everyone laughed. Mostly walked through, nice triple lutz.

Tim Goebel - SP - "2001: A Space Odyssey" - wearing black work out clothes, popped his axel, walked through most of program, spread eagle, footwork, double axel.

Trifun - "Dracula" music - spread eagle, walked through most but landed several triples, footwork, nice deathdrop.

Andre - skated to jazzy, techno music changed to slow classical and back to jazzy. Nice triple lutz, double axel, walked through most of program.

Silvio - skated to classical piano, did most of his triples, nice triple loop, good double axel, spread eagle.

Yamato - skated to "Phantom Menace," fell out of quad toe, did a double axel I think was meant to be triple, nice deathdrop, triple lutz was good, triple flip was good, popped something, footwork section, butterfly.

Todd - skated to "The 13th Warrior," quad toe (?), triple axel/double toe, very nice triple lutz, nice camel spin/sit spin combo, spiral, footwork, doubled his loop, triple sal, nice deathdrop. Very fluid and smooth skater. Great camel spin/sit/back sit/cannonball/scratch spin combo.

Tim - skated to sad and dramatic soundtrack-type music, started with triple lutz, fell on quad toe attempt, spread eagle, sit spin/cross foot combo, footwork section, barrel rolls, camel spin/sit spin combo, walked through, triple loop, scratch spin.

Mishin was sitting across from us and videotaping Todd and Tim, LOL...

No Alexei, but they played his music.

Emanuel Sandhu - wearing olive and cream costume - skated to jazzy drum music, nice triple axel, walked through most of his program.

Vincent Restencourt - wore work out clothes, skated to "The Matrix." Nice triple axel/triple toe, popped something - lutz? Walked through most of program, footwork section, good deathdrop, more footwork, nice leap. A strong skater, I thought.

Alexander Abt - wearing a black work out costume, music was sad but strong, kind of Eastern quality, strong beat. He fell out of his quad toe attempt, walked through most of program, wonderful footwork, gorgeous camel spins, more footwork with leaps and turns - good!

Roman Serov - skated to dramatic music, triple axel/double toe, middle eastern sounding music - soundtrack? Spread eagle, double axel, nice camel/sit/martini glass/camel/ back sit/catch foot/scratch spin combo.

Emanuel - skated to sad, classical, violin music with a jazzy section. Double axel, popped something, butterfly, popped another jump - don't know what it was - had problems with jumps.

Vincent - skated to "The Mummy" - walked through most of it, two nice triple axels (think one of them was supposed to be in combination), popped his lutz, very nice change foot spin combo.

Sasha - already had left. His music is "Gladiator," which they played. Very similar cut to Alexei's music cuts.

Roman - skated to pastoral classical music - something like Debussy. He walked through almost all of his program.

When Todd was leaving, he went over to Tatiana Tarasova (she was here for dance, which was next) and gave her a hug. Nice guy!

Laurie

Men (Alexei, actually...)

We all trooped down to watch the men this morning. Once again, I'm afraid I can only really comment on Alexei, since I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away to watch anyone else (sorry!). I did manage to catch a nice triple axel/triple toe from Sasha, two nice triple axel/triple toes from Roman, and a quad toe/double toe from Todd.

Alexei was wearing his black mock-type turtleneck sweater with a different black T-shirt from the other day, this one has slightly longer sleeves. He was wearing nice charcoal gray pants. Kim took lots of pics, LOL...

He fell on a deathdrop during his short program run through, decided to just work on jumps after that, and landed two nice triple lutzes, one triple toe, one triple axel/triple toe, three beautiful triple axels, two quad toes, and one quad toe with a hand down. He also worked on his footwork and spins for a bit. He stayed and watched the second group of men and then left.

By the way, Kim has already developed three rolls of film of Alexei just from the practices alone - great pics!!! Can't wait for you to see these! And my roll turned out well, too, although Kim has that zoom lens...

One of the lucky members of our group (we've got five ladies staying in two rooms here) ran into Alexei in the hallway as he was heading back to his room from the pool - dripping wet, wearing nothing but his bathing suit.

I'm afraid that lucky lady did not have a camera with her at the time, although I can't imagine anyone having the nerve to ask him to pose for a pic at that moment, LOL...I think it is an absolute miracle she managed to get out a passing "hello" without immediately fainting dead away...However, I can't say she was very coherent for several hours after the "sighting"....

What was funny is that she was shocked to see him (she was lost and was just trying to find her way back to the room), but managed to squeak out a "hello" *and* a "bye" when he was past her, LOL....and then she collapsed into a blubbering heap when she found the rest of us....She was asked what color the bathing suit was, but she was still a tad flustered at that time....She did manage to get out that he was wearing regular swimming trunks, not Speedos. (LOL, too bad!)

Alexei was awesome! He did the quad toe/triple toe right in our corner - too cool!

And Alexei got his gift from Kim, and he really liked her photos! He and Dmitri and Nikolai were passing them around and looking at them instead of watching the comp, LOL..

Laurie

Men

Okay, I'm telling you right off again that it is impossible for me to watch the other guys when Alexei is on the ice, so don't expect much on the men. I did beg Kim to take pictures of some of the other guys, so you will get to see pics of Sasha and Roman.

When we got there, Todd's group was up first. Todd was doing really well until the collision. He was skating backwards into our corner and Silvio Smalun was skating into the corner from the opposite direction. Silvio fell on a jump and slid right into Todd, who didn't see him at all. Todd fell over him and landed on his back. He looked pretty hurt. He stayed on the ice but was clearly still in pain. He stayed for the end of his group and managed to do some nice jumps before he left. Silvio Smalun didn't seem hurt at all, which is why I only talked about Todd looking like he was hurt. Silvio immediately jumped up after the collision and seemed very concerned about Todd and genuinely distressed. I don't think the accident was anybody's fault - Silvio had no control over the fall and the sliding, and Todd just didn't see him.

Mishin arrived at that point and sat in the stands and started videotaping Tim Goebel, LOL....he looked like he wanted to tape Todd, too, but wasn't sure why Todd wasn't doing much. Then someone went over to sit with him and was pointing to Todd, so obviously someone told him what had happened. Alexei arrived at about that time and walked past Mishin and sat behind him a couple rows up. Mishin then left, LOL... Alexei was deluged with autograph seekers at that point, and patiently signed autographs until it was time for his group to get on the ice.

Alexei was wearing his black mock turtleneck, then shortly took it off and was wearing a black short-sleeved T-shirt with a different pair of black tights from first practice. He looked good! He did two triple axels in the warm up, along with a triple axel/triple toe. He went through his program doing just the footwork and connecting steps, no jumps, although he did do his final spin combo. After that, he did a triple loop, a triple flip/triple loop combo, a quad toe with a hand down, another quad toe and a triple axel. He did keep a wary eye out for Emanuel Sandhu, who had almost collided with him early on. Alexei looked nice and relaxed today. After practice, he signed autographs at the gate and then came up into the stands to watch the dance practices, where he was approached pretty consistently for autographs and picture taking.

Dance practice was interesting! Several near collisions (with an angry exchange between a Russian couple and a French couple due to the near collision), some falls, and some very nice free dances. The French dance team involved in the near collsion was Delobel & Chapuis. They were upset, and didn't seem to want to be placated by the Russian team, who appeared to be trying to apologize.

Barbara has finally worn a costume I disliked - it was described by someone in our party as looking like a bird had collided with a car.

I really liked Lang & Tchernyshev's program and costumes - they looked very good. Bourne & Kraatz performed their new dramatic program. I think it worked well for them. Shae-Lynn, who I normally think of as quite perky - was decidedly less perky than normal. I don't know if she has quite mastered angst yet, but she is working on it. Loved Drobiazko & Vanagas' program! Dance tonight is going to be very interesting! The Israeli couple looked great! I really liked their lifts and dance steps - fast, fast, fast.

Laurie

Last practice before men's final

Alexei wore a short sleeved black T-shirt, loose black tights. He looked mighty fine. He landed several nice triple axels in the beginning, two deathdrops, a triple axel/triple toe, a couple triple toes, two triple loops, another triple toe, and finished up with two good triple lutzes. He just did a run through of his program without the jumps - did some of the footwork and most of the connecting moves. There was one funny moment when he stopped what he was doing and made some kind of shooting gun gesture to his head to Tatiana. Alexei hit a beautiful triple axel before he left.

Roman Serov did a nice triple axel/triple toe, and I saw a good triple axel from Sasha Abt. Restencourt did a nice triple axel/triple toe. There was a cute moment when they had trouble with Roman's music and he was laughing about it. Emanuel fell into the boards at one point, but he seemed fine.

The second group of men arrived and Todd was there, although it looked like he might be wearing something for his back underneath his T-shirt.

Nikolai and Tatiana came in and sat right behind us.

I saw Todd do a nice triple axel, triple axel/triple toe, and he also did a triple toe, triple flip, and another triple axel. Tim looked pretty good - he did some triple/triple combos, triple axels. I don't recall seeing any quads, but I missed a lot because I was talking too much, LOL...

Well, men's finals coming up soon!

After the medal ceremony, Alexei seemed upset, took off his medal just before he left the ice, and was absent for the after-podium photo shots. But he did come out later and skate a great exhibition performance to "Gladiator" - the exhibition version with the props, although this time he had two knives which looked plastic instead of the ones he had been using (he tossed them into the audience when he was finished). It was a wonderful performance, he hit all of his jumps, and he got a standing ovation.

One cute thing is that they had a problem with his music being cued correctly, and he pretended to stab himself and die on the ice because of the music miscue. He was very funny!

Laurie!