Growing up, falling down

Experts point to Kimmie Meissner's recent growth spurt as the catalyst for her losing streak
By Candus Thomson

Sun reporter

February 10, 2008

There are no figures in women's figure skating. Kimmie Meissner is finding that out the hard way.

A growth spurt, or just a couple of pounds on hips and thighs, can upset a world-class skater's finely calibrated internal gyroscope or put stress on a teenager's developing bones. It happened to five-time world champion Michelle Kwan. It happened to former U.S. champion Sasha Cohen. And now, say skating experts who have watched Meissner's recent struggles, it's happening to her.

Just two years ago, Meissner won the world championship and followed it last year with the U.S. Championship. But Meissner, 18, fell three times at the Grand Prix Final in December - finishing last - and fell three more times last month as she tried to defend her national title. Last week, the Bel Air skater moved to Florida and changed coaches, leaving longtime mentor Pam Gregory for "jump doctor" Richard Callaghan.

Triple jumps - once Meissner's bread and butter - have deserted her this season. After her seventh-place finish at nationals, she blamed "mental" rather than physical problems. She has not given extended interviews about her recent performances, saying she wants to focus on practice for the March world championships in Sweden.

Kwan, who lost her national title in 1997 to a 14-year-old skater, has spoken to Meissner, and said she understands what the teenager is going through. "As a skater, you always have to adjust," Kwan said. "It's a balancing act. I told that to Kimmie. She's growing up and becoming a beautiful woman."

Weight is a sensitive topic in some women's sports. Since the mid-1990s, after publication of the book Little Girls in Pretty Boxes about the making and breaking of elite figure skaters and gymnasts, both sports have been reluctant to list athletes' weights. Media guides list only their heights.

Last year at this time, Meissner seemed puzzled when a reporter asked her about her body development. She said that her growing days were over.

But spurt she did. She was 4 feet 11 inches tall at age 14, 5 feet tall the next year and now stands at 5 feet 3 inches.

Skating experts say growth can cause mental and physical problems. "If you learned to spin with your old body, getting symmetrical around the new body takes relearning," said Dr. Harry Shipman, a University of Delaware physicist and amateur figure skater. "It's hard. You have very little control over where your axis is. It's really a subtle thing to get it right."

Skaters spend years working on muscle memory so jumps and spins become second nature. Meissner acknowledged that she "is big on muscle memory."

"If I miss more than two days of practice, I'm really lost," she said.

She and other maturing female skaters are under the influence of what physicists call the "moment of inertia," or how much an object resists spinning. An object - in this case, the human body - turns faster if the mass is packed tightly around its axis. As a girl matures physically, her mass expands from her axis, increasing the moment of inertia and making it harder to rotate quickly.

Skaters try to compensate by creating more power in their launches or by squeezing their arms to their bodies to make their mass more compact.

"You can pull your arms in, but your butt is going to be shaped the way your butt is going to be shaped," Shipman said.

Dr. Caroline Silby, a sports psychologist and member of the 1983-1984 U.S. figure skating team, said physical development can play mental tricks.

"Athletes are so in tune with their bodies that when it changes, it can really spook them," she said. "They end up trying to feel the way they used to feel, and that isn't going to happen."

Kwan also had growth creep up on her a couple of inches at a time. During the 1996-1997 season, she added about 6 inches and 21 pounds to her frame and now stands 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs just over 100 pounds.

At the 1997 nationals, Kwan, 16, fell on two triple jumps and stumbled on a third, allowing 14-year-old Tara Lipinski to take the title from her. Lipinski went on to win the world title.

The next year, Kwan regained her U.S. crown - the first of eight consecutive titles - but finished second to Lipinski at the 1998 Olympics.

Just before the Winter Games, then-coach Frank Carroll said growing pains gave Kwan "a physical feeling of uncertainty."

"I think Michelle's body changed tremendously last year, although she doesn't realize it," he told reporters. "I mean, she has a woman's body, and, you know, a very beautiful body, when before last year, she just had a kid's body."

"Growing up is hard," Kwan said. "You're a little off-balance. Your speed and your timing may be off. When you're at that age, you're not that confident with your body. It's an instrument, and you have to fine-tune it."

For Cohen, growth caused other problems in 2001. The skater, then 16, was forced to withdraw from nationals because of a stress fracture in her lower back that doctors said was probably caused by a 4-inch growth spurt, bringing her height to 5 feet 1 inch tall.

Ron Ludington, director of the University of Delaware Ice Skating Science Development Center, said one of the greatest hurdles for maturing female skaters is maintaining their focus and not getting discouraged because what once was simple now is hard.

"The process is much easier for a growing boy," said Ludington, an Olympian and member of the Figure Skating Hall of Fame. "They gain muscle and mass in places where it is a benefit."

The skaters who glided past Meissner at nationals - champion Mirai Nagasu, 14; runner-up Rachael Flatt, 15; and fourth-place finisher Caroline Zhang, 14 - are all 4 feet 11 inches tall. Their growing years are ahead of them.

Or maybe not.

Kristi Yamaguchi, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist, remains a size 0.

A Bittersweet Symphony

2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships - "Ladies" Events

Figure skating is as unpredictable as the surface upon which it is skated.

In skating, there are 14 year old phenoms and 18-year-old veterans. Four years separate those two titles and the Winter Olympics. Timing and peaking is everything. There have been lots of prepubescent princesses, as Dick Button called them, to pass through the elite ranks of figure skating. Only an excruciating few make it through those four years to become veterans, Olympians and World Champions. An even smaller, select few continue to to compete at the highest ranks in their twenties. Most former 13-year-old champions will fail to the burden of expectations, devastated by the "puberty monster" as it is known in figure skating. Injuries. Burn-out. Eating disorders. A plethora of problems can take their toll on a talented figure skater. They are no fragile ice princesses.

Michelle Kwan and Caroline Zhang Discuss Their Coaching Relationship


Rachael Flatt's (silver medalists) long program


(will put up more videos as they come)

Tonight was a struggle for 18-year-old defending U.S. Champion Kimmie Meissner. If you watched the last 30 minutes of the event, you would've noticed that the Kiddie Korps consisting of Mirai Nagasu, 14 (1st), Rachael Flatt, 15 (2nd), Ashley Wagner, 16 (3rd) and Caroline Zhang, 14 (4th) all gave incredible - no, make that outstanding - long programs. Perhaps some of the best in U.S. skating history.

SoCal native and Michelle Kwan protege Caroline Zhang started off the trend by landing 7 triples, including a triple lutz/triple toe combination, as well as breathtaking spins and spirals. However, a lackluster short program possibly cost Zhang a medal. As The 2007 Junior World Champion and two-time Grand Prix medalist, she was a favorite going into the competition.

Rachael Flatt, who placed fifth at the senior level at Nationals, also landed 7 triples, and like Zhang, a triple lutz - triple toe combination. Rachael, an exquisite technician and spinner who competed on the junior international circuit this season, took over Zhang's lead. A defining moment of the championships was the image of 4-11 Flatt, seconds after her phenomenal performance, pumping her hands up in the air as her wide, braces-covered grin beamed across the country. Ashley Wagner, 16, the 2007 U.S. and Junior World bronze medalist, skated a wonderful program which included a triple lutz - triple loop, the hardest combination a woman can do. She had a minor wobble midway, which may have cost her first place in the freeskate.

Mirai Nagasu, who had a gigantic lead in the short program, stumbled on a double axel but recovered in order to do a triple lutz-triple toe as well as five other beautifully executed triples. Her music was to the ballet, "Copellia" in which she performed as a doll come to life. At 14, she still has a lot to learn, but she has set the foundations for an incredible career at the senior level.

As with all the success that came to the "airborne adolescents" as Dick Button called the quadruplet of Nagasu, Flatt, Wagner and Zhang, the sometimes cruel nature of figure skating was made evident when 2006 Olympian and World Champion Kimmie Meissner fell three times in her long program to the music of Puccini's "Nessum Dorma", at 18 and skating with the body of a woman, it became evident that figure skating, like gymnastics, has become a sport for little girls. As Kimmie skated off the ice to the support of the crowd, a forced smile and a slight laugh, made it perfectly clear that it was a warning to the girls ahead of her: Sure you can jump up a storm now inside of your little girls bodies, but will you be me in four years? In two? In one?

19-year-old Bebe Liang and 20-year-old Alissa Czisny who were fourth and third last year, dropped in the standings and barely made the top 10.

The truth is, as the sport has been hinting at for the last 12 years, "ladies figure skating" is a misnomer. Ukrainian Oksana Baiul was 16 when she took gold at the 1993 World Championships, and gold again at the 1994 Winter Olympics. That same year, now nine-time U.S. Champ Michelle Kwan was 13 when she won the silver medal at the 1994 U.S. Championships. Since then, the baby ballerinas have overrun a sport once reserved for women who often reached their peak at age 19. With Kwan's emergence in the mid 90s, she proved that the small body of a prepubescent girl was best suited for the rigorous technicalities of a sport which requires skaters to twist their bodies into unnatural positions and jar spines with crushing falls.

Kwan, however, created a monster in her own image; Tara Lipinski, like Kwan, was just 13 when she won her first medal at the U.S. Championships in 1996. Shortly after Lipinski made her debut at the Worlds that year, the ISU banned skaters 15 or younger from competing at Worlds unless they medaled at Junior Worlds the same year. That loop hole is now erased. Lipinski, even tinier than Kwan - standing at 4'10 to Kwan's 5'1" in 1998 - and much thinner - 77 pounds to Kwan's 99 pounds - ushered in the era of the triple-triples jumps. No longer was skating based on the ethereal grace of movement, but had rather transformed into gymnastics on ice. Skaters competed to see who could rotate the most, spin the fastest and jump the highest. Lipinski won the U.S. Nationals at the age of 14 in 1997 after Kwan, 16, fell time and time again in her program, most likely due to the changes of adolescence, much like Kimmie Meissner did tonight. Kwan went on to win eight more U.S. Championships in her career. It also shows that Kimmie may very well be able to make a rebound after her devastating loss this weekend in St. Paul.

The question remains: what do we do with underage figure skaters (by underage, I mean under 15)? The International Skating Union doesn't quite no either. Zhang skated in the senior Grand Prix, with the likes of Meissner, Yu-Na Kim of Korea and Mao Asada of Japan - arguably the top two skaters in the world. Yet at the World Championships in March, neither Flatt or Nagasu will be able to compete. Mao Asada was a 15-year-old jumper who beat Irina Slutskaya (the 2004 World Champ and 2006 Olympic silver medalist) at the 2005 Grand Prix Final, but was barred from the Olympics, an event which featured many of the same skater whom she had beaten that year. The core difference between the events? Well, nothing, except the prestige. The ISU claims they are trying to protect underage skaters. There isn't much protection if they are doing the exact same moves, jumps and spins, and are competing in all the exact same events (albeit Worlds) as age-eligible skaters.

So, tonight, as we smiled and clapped for the four young women - a trio of whom may be representing the country at the Olympics in two years - we must remember that the burden of expectations we put on these young girls is excruciating. Algebra tests, first dates and braces are hard enough to deal with in high school. Imagine the pressure of being a world class athlete.

Bethanie's Slightly Insane Quest for a Backyard Rink

Call me crazy.
Call me delusional.

But I'm going to try it.

We all know most of the ice found in Texas is located in your grandmother's glass of sweet tea in the middle of July.

So I am on a quest. Despite popular belief, ice is possible in Texas. Last November, I remember when we got about an eight of an inch of snow. There was a puddle of water in our front yard a couple inches deep; it was frozen completely solid for a couple days.

So that sparked an idea: if Canadians and Minnesotans can have backyard rinks, why can't Texans?!

Well, obviously temperature is a big deal. But if for three or four days out of the winter, if I can skate in my backyard rink, then building it in the first place is worth it. For the first time in my life, I have a backyard big enough to build a rink on. Weather is also a couple degrees colder in the country verses the city.

My father thinks its a ridiculous idea, but he gave me the okay, but I'm on my own. I have some experience building (I framed my room!) so I think I can handle it.

I'm going to start building in on November 1st, so I'll post some pictures as I head it up.

Predictions (A.K.A Hopes) for next season

It feels like I just did this. Insane how time flies.



I have a feeling Savchenko/Szolkowy will dominate next year now than Shen/Zhao are retiring. If Aliona can land her triples, then they will be untouchable, because they have something that the Chinese power houses Pang/Tong don't have - artistry. The Chinese have made milestones in the area of artistry, but with their anorexic pair girls matched with brute, strong guys, they're able to do lifts and throws the Europeans can only dream of. No offense to the 5'2", 95lb Savchenko, but when Qing Pang looks as though she hasn't had a decent meal in four years, there is an obvious difference in weight.


Please, someone give Qing Pang a sandwich.

Worlds prediction:
1. Savchenko/Szolkowy (Germany)
2. Pang/Tong (China)
3. Kawaguchi/Smirnov (Russia - I have a feeling they'll be a dark horse next year)

Onto the ladiezzzzz.



Can I use the term Asian Invasion? Or is that un-PC? Remember the good 'ole days of watching figure skating and seeing the token Asian chick and without taking a second glance knowing it was either Michelle Kwan or Kristi Yamaguchi? Well, those days are over. Figure skating has finally realized the art of diversity! It has gone from being 95% White in 1995 to being just 91% White in 12 years!

Well, un-PC or not, the top ladies are strictly Asian. Toss in an Italian an American for affirmative action purposes (we don't want them to feel left out) and you've got Miki Ando, Mao Asada and Yukari Nakano of Japan, Yu-Na Kim of South Korea, Carolina Kostner of Italy and Kimmie Meissner of the U.S.

But realistically, unless Meissner can buckle down, stop underrotating her triple-triples and stop her incessant arm flapping, she's going to remain in perpetual fourth-place. Carolina Kostner probably should consider a career in speed skating, as she skates about 100 miles per hour, often rushing herself into huge combinations (that she sometimes lands, and sometimes doesn't). She could challenge Kim, Asada and Ando if she can keep her head straight.

Worlds predictions:
1. Mao Asada (Japan)
2. Yu-Na Kim (Japan)
3. Meissner/Kostner

(I think Ando will suffer from the Meissner post-Worlds win fourth place syndrome and choke at Worlds)

I'll think about the men later. And, honestly, I know nothing about ice dancing. That's for the Europeans.

Random Salute to Johnny Weir

So he's not the best male figure skater in the world. Heck, or even in America. But we'll get to that later.



No, that title is reserved for Brian Joubert, the sexy Frenchman who won the Worlds this year (see post below for shirtless action). Sure his footwork sucks and his spins are only slightly more original than Surya Bonaly's (the French aren't known for their artistry), but he has the quads. And in men's figure skating, a quad equals gold.

And with causal reasoning, we can assume that because Johnny failed to win one gold medal last season, he doesn't have a quad. Yes, that's right. No quad for Johnny.

Nearly four years ago he won his first of three U.S. titles with a breathtaking long program set to the music from Dr. Zhivago. The following year he debuted two wonderful programs, for his short he danced to Rondo Capriccioso and for his long - in my opinion one of the best long programs ever choreographed - Otonal by Raul de Baggio. Call me an unabashed Johnny fan, but that program make me go gaga. The beauty, the balletic technique, the jumping, the music and the costume. I could go on and on.

Once known as a rising talent during the 2003-04 and 2005-06 season that could threaten Plushenko's supremacy, he is known more for being the American version of the overly-flamboyant, overly-weird, overly-inconsistent and overly-talented Emanuel Sandhu.

Johnny knows he has what it takes to be a World champion. He has gorgeous spins, beautiful ride out and rotation in his jumps, incredible footwork and gorgeous body line. He even has the quad somewhere. He just needs to put it together, because there are so many countless fans who want to see him reach the top.

Why is it the most "talented" skaters are always the ones who under-perform? Is it a fear of success? Is it the burden of premature expectations?

I don't think its any of that for Johnny.

I think he realizes after the 05-06 and 06-07 seasons what he needs to do. He is graceful, balletic, free on the ice. He doesn't need to fake anything, all he needs to do is be himself.



So this is a salute to Johnny Weir, the most talented figure skater in the world. Get that quad nailed. Be balletic. Dress up in voidy Swan outfits and pretend you're Oksana Baiul. Send Dick Button into cardiac arrest with your quality of edges! Show Evan "I hate glitter and rhinestones" Lysacek that real men can land quads AND wear see-through black shirts!

Blades of Glory reviews - Triple lutz for a klutz

Triple lutz for a klutz
See Photos:
1
Friday, March 30, 2007
MIKE RUSSELL

"Blades of Glory" falls midway down the "good" column in Will Ferrell's comedy filmography. It's about the struggles of the first male-doubles ice-skating team (Ferrell and "Napoleon Dynamite's" Jon Heder).

As with most of Ferrell's best stuff, "the funny" lies in barely coherent lines and out-of-nowhere absurdity. "Blades" doesn't hit the non sequitur heights of "Anchorman" or "Talladega Nights," but the cast is great and several gags hit hard. It's on par with another Frat Pack sports comedy, "Dodgeball."

David Mamet has something to say about the modern big-studio comedy in his terrific new book on Hollywood, "Bambi vs. Godzilla":

"The trend in comedy, of late, is toward the nondramatic. The late spate of summer comedies have a pretext (rather than a plot). They are, not unlike the porno film, a loose assemblage of (in this case) humorous effects or scenes. These hemstitched entertainments are not, per se, bad or indictable. Their antecedent, however, is not the drama but the circus."

As Mamet writes, this isn't inherently wrong. In fact, couldn't you level this accusation against "Duck Soup," "A Hard Day's Night" or "The Bellboy"? I only bring this up because with "Blades of Glory," I'm finally starting to see that the Frat Pack comedies -- movies starring that loose-knit group of comedians including Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Wilsons Owen and Luke, and Ferrell -- are getting in a structural rut.

Make no mistake: "Blades of Glory" is frequently laugh-out-loud funny. It imagines an alternate universe where ice-skating is a national pastime that plays a bit like pro wrestling with drag queen flourishes. Ferrell plays Chazz Michael Michaels, an "ice-devouring sex tornado" who plays to the crowd with obscene skate routines and shameless trash-talking. In one queasy bit, he makes obscene overtures to Nancy Kerrigan; in another, he shows off a tattoo commemorating his sexual conquest of Michelle Kwan.

But when his rivalry with prissy perfectionist Jimmy MacElroy (Heder) turns violent, both men are thrown out of singles skating for life and tumble into the gutter. That is, until a fallen coach (Craig T. Nelson) talks them into mounting a comeback in the doubles division -- a comeback that could be triumphant if they can:

A) beat the creepy brother/sister doubles champs (Will Arnett and Amy Poehler), who keep putting their adorable sister (Jenna Fischer) in tarty outfits to seduce and divide our heroes;

B) master Nelson's top-secret skating move, the Iron Lotus. The Lotus was only tried once, in North Korea, and the results of that failed attempt are too funny to spoil here.

I love Ferrell's nonsensical style of arguing, in which he responds to Heder's "Get out of my face!" with "I'll get into your face!" Also fun: tiny characters such as Jimmy's surprisingly helpful stalker (Nick Swardson); the film's final moments, which owe more than a little to "Grease"; and the skating costumes, which take their influence from such cultural touchstones as "Tron."

However. The basic premise of loser fools tumbling from grace and then triumphing over prissy rivals during a comeback (or raising money to save their orphanage/career/the world/whatever) in a heightened-reality version of a sport or profession has now formed the foundation of the following Frat Pack comedies: "Dodgeball," "Talladega Nights," "Nacho Libre," "Zoolander," "Anchorman," "Kicking & Screaming" and probably a couple more I'm forgetting.

So I guess my question is: If you're going to string these bizarrely hilarious gags and ideas along a flimsy premise, must it so often be the exact same flimsy premise?

I can't believe I didn't post earlier....

about Junior Worlds!

First of all, Junior Worlds was incredible. The performances in all of the disciplines, especially the ladies, were wonderful. Of the men, I really enjoyed Sergei Voronov and Patrick Chan, the bronze and silver medalists, respectively. I liked Voronov's traditional Russian style, and Chan, his edges and energy were mind-blowing. His short program was one of the best I've seen this year - senior or junior. I didn't really get Stephen Carierre, however. I won't deny he had the best free skate, but it really fell flat for me. Perhaps it was his music choice.

As for the ladies team, I was in complete awe of the American girls. Caroline, Mirai and Ashley were flawless. Their short and longs could have been competitive with the top seniors in the world. Mirai is extroverted and outgoing, and has a wonderful, advanced style. Caroline is balletic and graceful, perhaps one of the most balletic I have ever seen. Ashley goes all out in her performances, and it shows. Her technical ability seems to be almost better than her teammates. Still, I agree with the finish in Germany.

I didn't catch much of pairs, but I did see McLaughlin/Brubaker. Wonderful team.

I'll go into detail about senior worlds in a later post.

Men's, Ladies, Pairs LP

I'm not much of a dance fan.

The pairs long program was incredibly surprising. There were really only a handful of pairs I thought had a chance at medaling - Inoue/Baldwin, Nam/Leftheris, Vise/Trent, Vlassov/Meekins and a few others. Castile and Olaski (SP, I know) seemed completely off the radar, but they did a beautiful routine. There split 3 twist was incredible. Its a shame that the other two contenders, Nam/Leftheris and Inoue/Baldwin fell apart. Still, that's a great podium finish.

I wasn't surprised who won the men's event - Evan Lysacek. But I was surprised who won silver, Ryan Bradley. I was hoping Johnny would lay it down, like he does at every Nationals. He landed the quad, but everything seemed to fall apart after that. His routine lacked the beauty and feeling we know so well about Johnny and I am not surprised he fell to third. Unfortunately, while Johnny received his marks, he simultaneously explained how the Kiss & Cry got its name. Evan, meanwhile, had an incredible performance. A quad-triple. He was alive that program, and I hope he does incredible at Worlds.

Kimmie Meissner won the National title, as expected. Emily Hughes came in second, as expected. What wasn't expected was Alissa Czisny winning the free skate as well as the bronze medal. I was cheering her on in the short program - her spins, spirals and edge quality is light years beyond any of her competitors. Still, her jumps are inconsistent, and when she popped her lutz in the short, I knew it was over. Then, I saw the results for the long, and I couldn't believe she skated the best free skate of the night. Incredible. I'm glad to see her get her dues.

I couldn't help feeling sorry for Bebe Liang. She's been at Nationals for so long - since 2001 - and hasn't been on the podium (technically, her fourth place finish gives her a podium finish here). Placing fourth this year was her best ever. She could've held on to second or third had she not fallen on the second jump. Like, Czisny, Liang has great edge quality and good spirals and spins - better than many of the other ladies. Still, her consistency has always been a problem. I was giddy after her short programs.