Chen's jumping display has skating world buzzing

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Chen's jumping display has skating world buzzing

"Remarkable," said Tim Goebel, the first skater to land three quadruple jumps in a program.

"To master so many different takeoffs, that's where the hat comes off," said four-time world champion Kurt Browning, the first to land a quadruple jump in competition.

"Amazing. Amazing," said 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano, the first to land all six types of triple jumps in a competition.

"Welcome to the future," said 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton.

"This is crazy...quite extroaordinary...staggering," British Eurosport's Simon Reed told his TV audience.

Such was the reaction from some of figure skating's most accomplished champions and a veteran commentator to what they had seen Nathan Chen do in the free skate at last week's Grand Prix Final in Marseille, France.

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Still no room at the top for U.S. singles skaters

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Still no room at the top for U.S. singles skaters

I left for a long-planned vacation in New Zealand just as the figure skating Grand Prix was starting.

By the time I returned, two weeks later than planned, the season was mostly over, and I had other immediate priorities than trying to catch up.

Now that I have had the chance to take a closer look in time for this week’s Grand Prix Finals – junior and senior - in Marseille, France, it’s plain that most of what happened was pretty predictable – and that I didn’t miss much.

*Led by Evgenia Medvedeva, the wondrous reigning world champion who just turned 17 but has added an air of maturity to her soulful expressiveness, Russians are dominating women’s skating more than ever, producing four of the six senior GPF qualifiers for the second time in three years and the top three spots in this season’s standings.  More tellingly, there have been six different Russian women in those two sets of four.

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Will only fools - and dictators - rush in to bid for Olympics?

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Will only fools - and dictators - rush in to bid for Olympics?

If the International Olympic Committee thought the bidding process changes in its Agenda 2020 reforms would end the negativity about the prospect of hosting the Summer or Winter Games, it has been sadly mistaken.

The frightening new financial projections about the cost of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games and Rome’s withdrawal from the 2024 Summer Games race on financial grounds make it clear the IOC still has a long way to go in convincing citizens of democracies that taking on the ever-more-bloated Olympic Games is worth the time, money and hassle.

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EXCLUSIVE: Figure skating in morning at 2018 Olympics

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EXCLUSIVE: Figure skating in morning at 2018 Olympics

Figure skaters will be getting early wake-up calls at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta confirmed exclusively to Globetrotting that all competitions will begin at 10 a.m. at the 2018 Pyeongchang, South Korea, Winter Games.  Day-of-competition final practice will be earlier in the morning.

With the 13-hour time difference from New York, that will put the events in prime time in North America.   It will not be as favorable for Japan, where the sport's popularity now is the highest in the world.

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