Saturday, March 22 - Men Short Program Practice
Mi Amor
Three Russian men talked together and stretched at the side entrance: their names are Evgeny, Ilia and Stanislav. That's Plushenko, Klimkin and Timchenko respectively for clarification. Doesn't seem to be a big rivalry there.
Group 2 took to the ice first. This group included Chengjiang Li and Min Zhang of China, Takeshi Honda of Japan, Manuel Segura of Mexico, Dong-Whun Lee of Korea, and Yon Garcia of Spain. Wow! Everyone in this practice group is in attendance. Mishin, Plushenko's coach, watched this group intently. My guess is he wanted to view the states of Chengjiang Li and Takeshi Honda.
Takeshi looked good in his run-through. He omitted a jump in the far corner because it was going to be too close to the boards, and two other skaters were nearby. All of the skaters are on the ice together during each person's run-through, but protocol gives right-of-way to the skater whose music is being played at that time.
The three Chinese pair teams rolled in to watch their national teammates Chengjiang Li and Min Zhang. They also left after Li and Zhang's practice ended as the pairs practice wasn't scheduled until much later that night. They came for moral support even during the practice groups.
Manuel Segura skated to techno music. He had good positions in the camel spin and a low position in the sit-change foot-sit spin. He has some blond highlights in his hair.
I spotted Ludmila Velikova, Petrova and Tikhonov's coach, coming from backstage to watch for a few minutes toward the end of this group.
I was a bit giddy as the men exited the ice and was calling out their names loudly and waving to get their attention. And, I'm actually usually a shy person, but I thought perhaps about needing to seize the moment.
As Takeshi was leaving the ice, I bellowed his name perhaps a bit too forceful to try to get him to come over. Takeshi gave a way of dismissal like he was walking toward backstage. A few minutes later, the people in the rows behind me did get him to come over and sign some autographs.
As Yon Garcia came off the ice, I called his first name and waved. He looked over, smiled and came up to me. Next thing I know I'm introducing him to my pitiful Spanish although I knew full well he most likely spoke English. I say pitiful because I took it for a total of four years during my schooling and just need to speak it better. 'Mi hermana está en España,' I told him, probably not with the full accent needed. The translation is my sister is in Spain. Although I'm not sure the verb 'estar' should be used for a visit to Spain. (My sister was on vacation in Spain during the time I was at Worlds.) Back to Yon Garcia. '¿Tu hermana?' He asked. I nodded. 'Sí, estudia…,' I began, then I gave up and broke back to English because I think he started speaking to me in English. 'She studied in Spain for one year and went back for a visit,' I finished. 'What's your name?' He asked me. I told him, and he asked me to spell it. He began to help me along and spell it the Spanish way - T-A-N-I-A, and I never really corrected him because I was so caught up in the moment. 
He was so nice and cute. Afterwards, I read his autograph, 'For Tania, With all my love, Yon Garcia.' Darn, why didn't I pack extra film this morning? I thought.
Group 3 consisted of the aforementioned Plushenko, Klimkin and Timchenko of Russia, plus Aidas Rekyls of Lithuania. I don't think the other two members of the group were shows.
Evgeny Plushenko did mostly choreography and arm movements. He also did the straight line step sequence. He tried no jumps during the run-through. Maybe it's his formula method.
Aidas Rekyls did the opening sequence of his program during the run-through. He did jiggling with his arms - part of the choreography. He jumped close to the boards. He did a spin with his foot held in front up by his shoulders.
Stanislav Timchenko skated to violin music. It is a tango piece.
Ilia Klimkin stepped out of the landings of a lot of his jumps during the practice. He did the camel spin.
Brian Joubert and Stanick Jeannette chatted together backstage while watching the end of this practice group. I could tell the fans in the stands really wanted to get to Brian. But, it is mostly understood to ask for autographs after the skaters have finished their practice group.
When Plushenko exited the ice, the AP Photographers swarmed us. About four of them surrounded Evgeny while he was signing autographs. I did get his siggy!
Aidas was very nice and smiled in surprise when we called him over to sign autographs, and I waved. A lot of the skaters, and especially 'lesser known', would put the three-digit abbreviation of the country they represent next to their signature. Aidas put his country digits (LTU) plus he printed his name in CAPS beside the signature just to make sure we would know who he was. It was cute.
Brian Joubert and Stanick Jeannette of France and Sean Carlow and Bradley Santer of Australia comprised Group 4.
Brian hit a great combination jump at the beginning of his run-through.
Sean Carlow doubled his first triple jump in the beginning of his program. He did the camel spin into his final pose. He is skating to haunting music that sounds like it's found in a scary movie soundtrack.
Bradley Santer had a good triple flip. His sit spin position could be lower. He doubled the opening triple of his run-through. This music sounded familiar. I think some sections are the same as those from Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev's Matrix number where Artur is a puppeteer. Back to Bradley, he has a nice soft artistry.
Stanick Jeannette had a lot of playful gyrating at the beginning of his program. He stepped out of the first jump of the run-through and seemed really frustrated about it. He did a good scratch spin later after his music ended.
Joubert, Jeannette and another skater (I can't read my notes) almost collided in the corner when the other skater stepped out of an attempted jump.
Joubert was the first to leave the practice session. Many girls wanted to take a picture with him and get his autograph.
Present for Group 5 were Silvio Smalun and Andrejs Vlascenko of Germany, Sergei Davydov of Belarus, Vakhtang Murvanidze of Georgia, and Sergei Kotov of Israel.
Vlascenko skated to Variations on a Theme by Paganini - Chait and Sakhnovsky's free dance music. I know - I think of everything in ice dance and pair terms. Andrejs did a step sequence and picked up in the run-through one second before the ending pose. He didn't reveal a lot of the program.
Sergei Kotov started with effective arm movements to the music. His music sounds like a marching band. He doubled the triple lutz. He did a camel spin - the positions could be better. He did an ina bauer. An axel jump, and then karate kicks in the choreography. He did a straight line step sequence down the full length of the ice. He has a nice style.
The other Sergei, Davydov, opened with a double axel. He did his step sequence.
Murvanidze skated to some nice familiar classical pieces. While I was having amnesia, a youngster from a local skating club, sitting beside me, reminded me it was Moonlight Sonata and then Fur Elise. He had a good opening jump. He did another triple in the corner. The music turns from Sonata into a rapid and jazzy version of Fur Elise. He did a good combination spin: sit-catch foot in front-catch foot in back-scratch spin.
Smalun had a good low sit spin position. He had bits of dancey choreography. He doubled the triple axel. His music sounds like clown music, and it is actually Charlie Chaplin.
Tracy Wilson came out and stood in the skaters warm up area to watch again during some of the practice groups.
I think I was calling the wrong names for the skaters that come off the ice to sign autographs. They came anyway, I guess because of the motioning and waving. I'm sure I have Sergei Davydov's autograph. There is a mysterious autograph where I have written Vlascenko on the bottom, but the signature appears to start with the letter 'B'. I was writing the names in print under the autographs as I received them.
For Group 6, I only have notes on Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari of Finland, and Ryan Jahnke and Tim Goebel of the United States.
Ryan executed a triple lutz-double combination jump. His sit spin had interesting arm positions. He did another triple. He did a combination spin: flying camel-change foot-flying camel with inside edge. He did a spread eagle, then a lunge. Next, the ending spin combination. A good run-through - I don't think he left any part of the program out.
Ari-Pekka popped a jump in the corner in a sequence of jumps. He did a good spin combination that included his foot held behind him in a position almost like a biellmann.
Tim fell on his first jump. The next triple was clean. He did a sit spin, then another triple. He performed a drop into a sit spin. Then, he did a spin combination: flying camel-sit-backscratch. Still presentation quality needs to go up. His music is Romeo and Juliet, and I think of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat's 1998 free dance when I hear this. There I go again with the dance associations.
Tamara Moskvina arrived in the warm up area and gave Tracy Wilson the two cheek European kiss. They chatted with some unidentified people standing nearby. I'm sure they weren't discussing Salt Lake City pairs.
Later, Tracy chatted with Goebel's coach, Frank Carroll. In Frank's hand, he gripped a copy of Michael Crichton's book, Timeline.
Tim left the practice ice in a full sweat. Cold ice surface or not, the skaters seem to exert plenty of energy. Of course, he had many autograph seekers. He seemed like a nice guy. He took extra time to go around the front row of the railing between the boards and the stands and was working his way along the autograph wall when Carroll called him away. Some fans were calling Tim's name, and he told them regrettably that he had been called away as he had to go to a press conference.
Group 7 attendees included Clemens Jonas of Austria, Gregor Urbas of Slovenia, Juraj Sviatko of the Slovak Republic, Maciej Kus of Poland, and Tomas Verner of Czech Republic.
Sviatko did a triple lutz and also a spin combination: flying camel-sit.
Urbas was skating to Carmina Burana. And, yes, I do recognize this music from its use in an ice dance selection as well. He did a straight line step sequence that included a lunge at the end. He had an awkward fall later in the run-through that was not on a jump.
Jonas skated a circular step sequence that wove from side to side of the width of the ice surface. Then, he did a straight line sequence down the length of the ice. He was holding his knee and thigh area after the run-through. I didn't know if he had been hurt.
Kus piped up my attention by skating to The Four Seasons as I enjoy this CD often. His triple lutz had a two foot landing. His combination spin was from camel to sit to camel to sit again. He executed two more clean triples. He did a flying camel with a little bit of trouble as it grew slow at the end. I don't know if it was intentional. In the sit change sit spin, it would look a little nicer with a bit more extended free leg position.
Elated for Eman
During this practice group, I spotted one of my favorite men single skaters, Emanuel Sandhu. He stood with his coach, Joanne McLeod, with the ever popular for skaters tote bag on wheels by his side in the warm up area. It so happened that I was calm, and two ladies with a large Canadian flag to ripple who had recently sat by me were popping up and out of their chairs with excitement. They were mother and daughter, and the daughter wanted to make sure to get a T-shirt signed for her mother. They had apparently met Emanuel before and were revealing how kind he is. They got Emanuel's attention and called him over. He gave the hot cup he had in this hand to McLeod and came right over. So, Emanuel was standing right next to me, as I was still in the seat closest to the autograph wall, and the daughter seated on the other side of me. 'Can you hold it for me?' He asked the lady. So the lady and I both held the T-shirt up against the rail while Emanuel signed it. He said he would come back later after he got changed; he wasn't wearing his practice outfit yet. I said nothing to him, but mostly because it was before practice. He didn't seem to mind at all and was happy to sign.
After Group 7 ended, we diverted Tomas Verner's attention over to the autograph corner. He came over with a smile and began writing in my autograph notebook. Then, he lowered the pen and just stared at the page for a few seconds. So, the other autograph seekers were looking at him wondering why he had paused. 'I signed it the wrong way!' he exclaimed with a slight grin. 'How could you sign it the wrong way - it's your own autograph?' I asked him. He was still kind of just looking at the page and hesitantly handed me back the notebook as I reached for it. Is he some kind of perfectionist? I thought. 'That's fine. It looks fine,' I voiced to him, trying to reassure him but probably in too excited a voice. He went on to sign autographs for others, and when I looked at the signature it looked little different than what he had written for me. I thought about it later and deduced that he is just a bit of a jokester and character because whenever I saw him he was just a smiling and lively guy.
A curious MCI Center worker standing down in the skater warm up area asked me how long I was going to stay there. She had seen me since morning sitting there without getting up at all, which was about a total of five hours. I told her I would probably leave for a break after the last group of men finished. Another girl sitting behind me and over a few chairs asked me if I worked for the press - I guess because of the note writing I was doing and some of the booklets I had. I told her no and that I was just taking notes for my own memory and learning. I thought I was being too touristy to be press-like - the camera I had and the whole autograph seeking thing.
Group 1 took to the ice in the form of Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland, Kevin Van Der Perren of Belgium, Karel Zelenka of Italy, Jeff Buttle and Emanuel Sandhu of Canada.
Lambiel is another one of my favorite men skaters, so I am thrilled to see him. He took a fall on the opening triple axel. He doubled the next triple jump. He did the triple lutz. He did a spin combination: camel- catch foot sit with interesting positions-scratch. He did another sit spin with interesting positions and his hands together behind his back.
Kevin was dressed in a costume and not training clothes, unlike many of the others. It was almost a velvet like textured black one-piece suit with purple tint on the top. He did a footwork sequence on the width of the rink and straight line footwork down the length of the rink. His steps at the end were a bit reminiscent of Alexei Yagudin footwork. He did a sit spin with his hands together behind his back into a scratch spin.
Buttle started with hands behind his back. He did a double lutz. Then a triple axel. He did a camel spin inside edge and change of foot. Another triple was successful. His sit spin had a low position. Then, he did the straight line footwork. At the end, he did a spin with interesting positions into a pancake spin.
Sandhu was also dressed up in a sleek material jumpsuit instead of training clothes. It was mostly black except gray and black striping on the top of the shirt and arms and a small red maple leaf in the center. He popped the first jump. He stepped out of the triple axel. He did a good sit spin. Then, he did a camel spin-change foot-camel spin. He had great speed and energy in the footwork sequence. His combination spin was good, with interesting positions and ends in a fast backscratch spin.
Zelenka did a flying camel with his hands behind his back. He did a double axel. His combination spin included a camel spin to catch foot in front by shoulder to sit to backscratch. He did the footwork sequence. His sit spin appeared to open out a little early.
Stephane came by to sign after I called to him and waved. He is very sweet. I told him I liked his good and fast spinning, and he looked up at me with a smile and said thank you.
Sandhu came back as promised and signed autographs. That's when I got an autograph from him, but was too shy to say anything to him about how I liked his skating. He took time for everybody and stayed for a long time signing autographs. He is very nice and accommodating with the fans.
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