Daily Musing: Shout Out to Figure Skaters

The US Figure Skating Championships took place in Greensboro, NC over the weekend and aired (albeit with some lag time) courtesy of Universal Sports. I had previously been an every-four-years type of figure skating fan (i.e. I develop a crazy obsession for the duration of the Olympics and that's about it).  However, in doing my pre-Olympics diligence (I am very serious about the Olys and like to be an informed viewer  ) this time around, which I oddly started about a year earlier than usual, I actually bothered to figure out the intricacies of the regular competitive seasons for the sport and actually kept up with the grand prix competitions leading up to Vancouver.  That had been such a pleasure that I continued to follow along the various competitions this year (Russian nationals included!).  I even went through the trouble of learning the differences between all the jumps and such . Perhaps I can call myself a more legitimate fan now ... ?  [I will admit I tend to pay more attention to pairs, ice dance and ladies more than mens though, maybe b/c I'm annoyed with the lack of quad attempts and don't care much for any of the competitors (totally missing the age of Plushenko vs. Yagudin).]

Anyway, without further ado, congratulations to all the medalists!

Men:  Ryan Bradley (quads attempts! not so clean but at least he tried, and is usually good - thrilled he won), youngsters and surprise medalists Richard Dornbush and Ross Miner (what upsets!?);

Ladies:  Alissa Czisny, Rachael Flatt, and Mirai Nagasu (aww, so much potential - imo great shot at 2014 ... but I'm worried about this Sasha-Cohen-like tendency for bombing LPs);

Pairs:  Yankowskas/Coughlin (gorgeous and really drew me in with their programs - I haven't truly liked an US pairs team since ... ever [if I'm honest]), Evora/Ladwig (these two are fighters I will give them that - props!), and Denney/Barrett (cool lifts); [*side note* I'm pleasantly surprised I enjoyed the pairs competition as much as I did.  It's no Russian nationals, but the top teams for the most part really brought it!]

Ice Dance:  Davis/White (shocker!not flove them! My one wish for the world championships this year would be for them to win it), Shibutanis (bright future for this bro/sis team it looks like), and Chock/Zuerlein.

Excited for Worlds in March!