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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Japan's Marin Honda, skating star since 11, revels in growing spotlight

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Japan's Marin Honda, skating star since 11, revels in growing spotlight

SALT LAKE CITY -- When she was only 11 years old, Marin Honda was anointed by Japanese media as the worthy successor to Mao Asada, the most decorated figure skater in her country's history.

Since then, the hype around Honda has grown exponentially in her homeland, a country that has developed a boundless passion for figure skating over the past decade.

So, there were six Japanese TV networks and 10 Japanese newspapers in town to cover a second-tier event -- the 2017 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic in Salt Lake City -- because it was Honda's debut on the senior international circuit.

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For U.S. dancers and Canadian pair, comeback season starts well

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For U.S. dancers and Canadian pair, comeback season starts well

SALT LAKE CITY - Kirsten Moore-Towers suffered a severe concussion in Aug. 2016 in a practice collision with her pairs partner, Michael Marinaro.

It would eventually knock the Canadian team out of the previous Grand Prix season.

"It was the day that changed my life, for the better," she said Friday. "I learned a lot about myself and my partnership."

Moore-Towers learned it wasn't a good idea to keep to herself how badly she felt for a month, a month where she vomited every day and often suffered from blurry vision. Or to compete two days after the accident happened.

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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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"Superhuman" Nathan Chen makes more skating history

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"Superhuman" Nathan Chen makes more skating history

It's the same wondrous story, with a new twist.

Nathan Chen made more personal and global skating history Friday night at the 2017 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic by landing a clean quadruple loop on the first attempt at the jump in his competitive career.

And, Chen did it in his first competition of the Olympic season, on the rink where he first took to the ice at age two, a rink built as a practice facility for the 2002 Winter Olympics. He did it in a free skate that made him an easy winner over teammate Max Aaron.

So, he is now the first man to land five different quads -- lutz, flip, salchow, loop and toe loop -- although not all in one program.

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