Extreme Ice Skating

Extreme ice skating is very impressive. It consists of acrobatics, circus and contortion.Raised in a circus family, Violetta Afanasieva now is a Moscow Circus on Ice and Holiday on Ice performer and has performed at Battle of the Blades on CBC last year and this year. At last year’s season, she finished 6th overall and raised $25 000 for Onexone, a non-profit organization with the mission to preserve a basic quality of life for children locally and globally and this year, she was competing for the Canadian Cancer Society.

In 2006, she and her partner who is also her husband won the first “Extreme Ice Skating World Champions” title in St. Petersburg.

Here is a video of their Hula Hoop Act.

First female hockey player becomes battle of the blades’ winner

The decision was made by Canadian viewers based on their last performance of Sunday night. "I had the time of my life, and I would do this 20 times over." Bonhomme said after her victory.

The two Olympic gold medalists won the $100,000 prize, which will be divided between their selected charities, the CIBC Run for the Cure in Sudbury and Ronald McDonald House Southern Alberta. Bonhomme chose this charity since her grandmother is a breast cancer survivor.

The battle of the blades

The battle of the blades is a Canadian Figure Skating reality show where the competitors are judged by a panel of figure skating experts and a rotating guest judge. Elimination occur every week but the judges have a one-time save to use on a couple when they want to. The show airs on CBC Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. The grand finale is approaching with only three couples left. David Pelletier and his partner Tessa Bonhomme, Marie-France Dubreuil and her partner Bryan Berard and Tanith Belbin and her partner Boyd Devereaux. People buy tickets to assist the competition and the professional skaters, which were named first in the upper list of the couples are skating for causes that they believe in while the hockey players do it for the competitive aspect. Best of luck to all couples and hope you guys tune in to CBC!

A Minute With…

Skate buzz is an interesting website containing all the figure skating gossip and news. There is new content every week on this site. A minute with… consists of short interviews with your favorite skaters that will be regularly posted on the website. You will get to know off-ice aspects of their lives as well as habits or superstitions that they have before or after they skate. Fans will get to know theirs idols. 

Below is a link to the website where you can see interviews of Dylan Moscovitch and Kaithlyn Weaver

http://www.skatebuzz.com/default.aspx

Cynthia phaneuf makes the cover of Fitness Quebec magazine

Cynthia talks about her path and the highlights of her career and the interview. She says that her supportive family and friends have helped her get to the point where she is right now. This is, an athlete who participated to the Olympic games of 2010 and the Canadian Figure Skating Champion of 2011. Phaneuf has won her first national title at the age of 15 in 2004!

Her best figure skating moment is her qualification to the Olympic Games not the actual games. She says having worked very hard to accomplish this and admits having lost faith at some point. This is why she is grateful for all the support that her entourage has gave to her.

Sandhu’s Comeback!

The soon to be 31 years old skater who has been retired for four years now will be competing at tomorrow’s British Colombia sectional qualifying event on November 11th.

During his off-ice years Emanuel Sandhu did not rest. He went on the television show So You Think You Can Dance Canada and made the top four and launched a singing career! Emanuel wanted to keep this secret for as long as possible because he says he isn’t doing it for publicity or press to help his singing career…



The competition will be live streamed on www.skatinginbc.com. 
The men’s event is at 2:35 p.m. tomorrow afternoon! 

“T” and Scott Will Make Their Season Debut on Funny Face!

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir who entered London Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 had a photo shoot with TSN last Friday where they Channeled Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. Tessa and Scott will be skating to a song from the movie Funny Face! (1957) in Vantaa, Finland this week. The Olympic and World ice dancing champions will be performing their free program at the Finlandia Trophy. The ice skating pair who won gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and at the Worlds in Torino, Italy will certainly be as charming as Audrey and Fred.

Tessa and Scott were paired as a dance team in October 1997 and have been skating together ever since. I am sure that their chemistry will make their performance real and people will enjoy watching them.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vDLpfGN80g  is a video of them winning gold at the 2010 Olympics.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi359596057/      is a link to the trailer of the movie.

Couple ON And OFF Ice

You can tell in their skating and after every of their performance, that they really love each other. Marie-France and Patrice do everything together. They even got married in august 2008, walking down the aisle side-by-side. The couple teamed up in 1995 and won their very first Canadian Championship. Later, the two won the Canadian national ice dancing title in 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. 

At the 2006 Olympics, a lift went wrong and Patrice dropped Marie-France on the ice. Her hip was hurt and they were unable to finish the competition. They were forced to withdraw. Still, they won the Skate Canada event and the NHK Trophy the following season.

Here is a video of the couple skating to “Do I Move You” at a Canadian Stars on Ice show

Dube to leave Davison after 9 years

The separation at first seemingly temporary due to an injury became permanent.  Just days before Skate Canada International, Bryce Davison injured his knee during a practice. He underwent surgery because of a three-centimeter fragment of bone that had broken off. While her partner was at rest, Jessica Dube skated singles. Five months after the surgery, when Bryce just got the doctors’ approval to get back on the ice but only for short stretches of five to ten minutes, Jessica announced her decision. Jessica said having found some kind of spark again and she did not want to loose that. It came as a surprise to Davidson but he says he respects her decision entirely. He is now looking for another world-class partner, which is hard to find. To not say the least, their career had a roller-coaster pattern. Recall the event at the ISU Four Continents championships in 2007. The two partners were doing a side-by-side camel spins when they got desynchronized and Bryce's blade sliced open Jessica’s face. The gash across Dube’s cheek and nose required more than 80 stitches to close. The two were later treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SleoLeCiejs

Rochette’s Inspiring Story

Joannie’s mother Therese has always supported her in sports. Just days after her sudden death, the 24 year old figure skater showed strength and determination in performing at the 2010 Olympics which she had trained for a long time along the sides of her long time coach Manon Perron. She said having done it because it was what her mother would have wanted.

Joannie didn’t just compete, she delivered. 

Canada’s best hope of being an olympic medalist brought back with her the bronze medal.

I personally had the chance to attend a seminar from Manon Perron which I found very motivating. I believe Joannie was well surrounded to make it true this tough time !

Here is a link to a video of Joannie performing her short program at the Olympics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yRTJyIlmCI

We can hear the crowd really cheating for her

Three World Records for Patrick Chan

The 20 year old figure skater who placed 5th at the 2010 Winter Olympics was officially given three certificates for breaking records in scores of all short program, long program and overall at this year’s ISU World Figure Skating Championships in April in Moscow, Russia where he won the world championships. 

His records: Highest score in figure skating short program (men): 93.02, achieved on April 27th, 2011; Highest score in figure skating long program (men): 187.96, achieved on April 28th, 2011; Highest total score in figure skating competition (men): 280.98, achieved on April 28th, 2011.

“Patrick truly embodies the ultimate in what Guinness World Records stands for, which is that hard work, focus, passion and determination can help you achieve your dreams, no matter what they might be,” said Amanda Mochan, Adjudications Manager, Guinness World Records. 

Chan says to be delighted to be part of the Guinness World Records having followed them since he was a young child. Next skating session starts this fall and Chan already is focusing on breaking his own records by increasing technical difficulty and artistic merit of his programs.

Chan wasn’t sure he’d continue skating after the Olympics having plans for a life off ice. After his performance, he knew he could do better. What a good decision he made in pursuing what he does best!

Here is a link to a video of Patrick performing his short program and breaking his first World Record  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHOMvzABdO8