Takeaways: Chen, Honda set themselves apart from skating peers

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Takeaways: Chen, Honda set themselves apart from skating peers

SALT LAKE CITY - Here are six takeaways from the 2017 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, which marked the real start of the Olympic season.

1. Nathan Chen stood out last season, not only for succeeding on history-making quadruple jumps but also for accepting the risk to attempt them.

He stood out in his first competition of this Olympic season, the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, by taking some musical risk while most singles skaters are playing it safe with old warhorses like Turandot, Carmen, Phantom of the Opera, et al., ad nauseam.

Chen let his choreographers -- Shae-Lynn Bourne (who did his short program to the Benjamin Clementine version of "Nemesis") and Lori Nichol (who used the score from the film Mao's Last Dancer, with its powerful passage from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, to craft his free skate) -- pick the music.

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Good vibrations for ice dancers Hubbell-Donahue in season debut

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Good vibrations for ice dancers Hubbell-Donahue in season debut

SALT LAKE CITY -- This is the time of year when figure skaters are just beginning to put the first layer of polish on their programs for the season while seeing what judges think of them.

"Kind of test the waters," U.S. ice dancer Madison Hubbell said. "Let everyone see the material…and build upon that."

Hubbell and her partner, Zachary Donohue, did all that Saturday at the 2017 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic and wound up with a couple bonuses: their fourth-best international score in the free dance, 107.65 points (0.72 from their personal best), and a third straight title in this Challenger Series event.

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Honda, Chen impress with contrasting styles on ice

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Honda, Chen impress with contrasting styles on ice

SALT LAKE CITY - There was Marin Honda, the highly-touted debutante on the senior international circuit, flowing almost languidly across the ice with an incredible lightness of being that matched the mood of her music, the beloved old standard, "Smile."

There was Karen Chen, the reigning U.S. champion, driving across the ice with an intensity that captured the fiery tone of her music, "El Tango de Roxanne."

There were the little things: Honda smiling every time the word came up in the lyrics, Chen brushing a hand over her left cheek when the lyrics called for a caress of the skin.

These were two captivating skaters. The difference between them in Friday's short program at the 2017 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic turned out to be mistakes Chen made on jumping passes -- an under-rotated triple toe loop at the end of her jump combination and a hand down on the landing of a triple loop.

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ISU proposes "radical change" to rebalance figure skating's artistry and athleticism

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ISU proposes "radical change" to rebalance figure skating's artistry and athleticism

A top official at the International Skating Union said the organization is looking at "radical change" in figure skating in order to achieve a better balance between the athletic and artistic sides of the sport.

The change would involve substantially lowering the base values of quadruple jumps and, for pairs, quadruple throws. For three of the five quads being done in men's singles, the reduction would be more than 10 percent, according to proposed numbers obtained by icenetwork.

"This is the direction line I am working on with the intent to make a radical change for the future development of the sport, hoping to bring back the popularity that figure skating used to have in the past," Italy's Fabio Bianchetti, the chair of the ISU Single & Pair Skating Committee, wrote in an email.

Another change may include replacing the current short program and free skate with what would effectively be an athletic program and an artistic program. Each would award full medals in events like the Olympics and the world championships, and there also would be a full medal for the all-around winner.

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