Podcasts about us figure skating

Join MEMBERS ONLY for Early and Ad-Free Podcasts: https://www.elitefts.com/join-the-crew   Dr. Christle Guevarra, DO, MS, CAQSM, and Dr. Mike Israetel join us for this episode of Dave Tate's Table Talk podcast.    Dr. Christle Guevarra earned her M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her D.O. from Western University of Health Sciences. She previously taught as a Pre-Doctoral Teaching Fellow at WesternU and completed her Family Medicine residency at Crozer Health in PA, where she was named “Resident of the Year.” After a Sports Medicine fellowship at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, she now runs a telemedicine practice, serves as a Team Physician for US Figure Skating, and manages projects for RP Strength. An advocate for Exercise Is Medicine, Christle, a former competitive powerlifter, enjoys weightlifting and training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.   Dr. Mike Israetel holds a Ph.D. in Sport Physiology from Lehman College, CUNY, where he teaches. He co-founded Renaissance Periodization, a diet and training consultancy, and has earned a purple belt in BJJ and a brown belt in jiu jitsu. Mike also competes as an NPC bodybuilder.   Christle's IG: https://www.instagram.com/dr.christle/ Mike's IG: https://www.instagram.com/drmikeisraetel/ Renaissance Periodization: https://rpstrength.com/   THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS  AG1: https://drinkag1.com/DAVETATE Marek Health: https://marekhealth.com/tabletalk (CODE: TABLETALK) LMNT: https://partners.drinklmnt.com/free-gift-with-purchase?utm_campaign=agwp&am…  RP Hypertrophy App:https://go.rpstrength.com/hypertrophy-app/ (CODE: TABLE TALK)  elitefts: https://www.elitefts.com/ (CODE: TABLE TALK)     SUPPORT THE SHOW    All profits from elitefts Limited Edition Apparel, Table Talk Coffee, and Team elitefts Workouts, Programs, and Training eBooks support Dave Tate's Table Talk Podcast.    Shop these elitefts items: https://www.elitefts.com/content/table-talk/  elitefts Shop: https://www.elitefts.com/  elitefts IG: https://www.instagram.com/elitefts/ elitefts  Limited Edition Apparel: https://www.elitefts.com/shop/apparel/limited-edition.html

Disaster over the Potomac. We're learning more about the victims of the plane and helicopter crash in DC. The US Figure Skating community speaking out after it's revealed several champions of the sport were on board. Plus, why a former MTV reality star is leading the investigation into the tragedy. Then, Katy Perry nearly disfigured by an explosion. The whole thing caught on camera. And, why Blake Lively's brother-in-law is apologizing after her legal battle with Justin Baldoni heats up. The comments he now regrets. Then, ET's at “The Voice” for Adam's return. Plus, Netflix reveals all their plans for 2025. From Robert DeNiro's first TV series ever, to a new collab from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Plus, a scoop on returning hits. And, Kaia Gerber's new man? The actor she's getting cozy with after her split from Austin Butler. Then, Reese Witherspoon's long list of Hollywood besties. But why she didn't work with Will Ferrell until now. Plus, Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy spill the E-Tea. And, an “In Living Color” reunion on the ET stage. The TV project that has Damon Wayans and Tommy Davidson teaming up again. Plus, why Damon was once fired from “SNL”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you tired of talking about Indiana basketball and its troubles?  Me too, so let's talk about Indiana football and the Pacers wacky game last night vs Detroit. Some sad news from DC as a plane goes down with members of US Figure Skating.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indiana-sports-beat-radio-with-jim-coyle--3120150/support.

Dr. Christle Guevarra is a family medicine doctor, the Director of RP University (RPU), the Production Operations Manager at RP Strength, a traveling team physician for US Figure Skating, and runs a telemedicine private practice. She has a wealth of personal and clinical experience of modern weight loss drugs, such as semaglutide. In this interview, we discuss: Evidence-based benefits and side effects of these drugs The best candidates for their use Lifestyle strategies and supplements to get the most out of these medications Christle's personal struggle with long-term weight loss maintenance and how these drugs have changed her life … And more! Links and resources: Connect with Dr. Christle on Instagram @dr.christle: https://www.instagram.com/dr.christle/  Sign up for one on one coaching with me: ⁠https://www.fittotransformtraining.com/coaching.html⁠ Follow me on Instagram @nikias_fittotransform: ⁠http://instagram.com/nikias_fittotransform/⁠ Visit my website: ⁠https://www.fittotransformtraining.com⁠ Sign up for my free newsletter: ⁠https://mailchi.mp/157389602fb0/mailinglist⁠ Sign up for the No Quit Kit email series on retraining your mindset for long-term fat loss success: ⁠https://mailchi.mp/4b368c26baa8/noquitkitsignup⁠

Dr. Christle Guevarra, DO, is the Director of RP University (RPU), an online educational platform launching in 2025. She is also the Production Operations Manager at RP Strength, a traveling team physician for US Figure Skating, and runs a telemedicine private practice.https://rpstrength.com/pages/team/chr...https://www.instagram.com/dr.christle...PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING ONCE OR MONTHLY!https://app.redcircle.com/shows/5bd95...Follow me everywhere:https://linktr.ee/KyleMatovcikEverything Tiger Fitness:https://www.tigerfitness.com/?a_aid=6.Fox N' Sons Coffee!Https://www.foxnsons.comUse code KYLE at checkoutGet DEEMED FIT clothing! Use code "SARAHM25" at checkouthttps://deemedfit.co/?ref=bihbnoap&fb...Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/in-liberty-and-health/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

When we think of athletes being professionals, we often think of the big bucks that are in major sports. But for most Olympic and Paralympic sports, the pot of money is pretty small and that's because the National Governing Bodies (NGBs) behind them are running on shoestring budgets.   On this episode we talk with Ramsey Baker about the challenges small NGBs face and how they think about sponsorship and broadcast rights in working to increase their budgets. Ramsey is a SVP at Aggregate Sports, a consulting firm that helps NGBs find sponsors and broadcast partners. Prior to joining Aggregate Sports, Ramsey spent 18 years at US Figure Skating in various leadership roles including Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Director.   Also, a doping case has rocked the swimming world. The World Anti-Doping Agency just confirmed that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for TMZ ahead of Tokyo 2020, but took those positives to be inadvertent and dismissed the cases. However, this has many up in arms.   We have plenty of news from Paris 2024, including: More hospitality houses An installment of our new medal-payment novela, in which the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations is furious with World Athletics (get your popcorn for this one!) Intel has an number of AI initiatives ready for Paris A Russian modern pentathlete wants to go neutral, and gets a rude awakening NBC will give some athlete parents heart monitors so TV viewers can see their reactions Paris police have cleared out another group of refugees In our visit to TKFLASTAN, it's been a slow week, but race walker Evan Dunfee has some great news! For a transcript of this episode, please visit http://flamealivepod.com.  Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive! Photo courtesy of Ramsey Baker. *** Keep the Flame Alive: The Olympics and Paralympics Fan Podcast with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown. New episodes released every week and daily during the Olympics and Paralympics. Also look for our monthly Games History Moment episodes in your feed.   Support the show: http://flamealivepod.com/support Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod   Hang out with us online: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod Insta: http://www.instagram.com/flamealivepod Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flamealivepod Facebook Group: hhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/flamealivepod Newsletter: Sign up at https://mailchi.mp/ee507102fbf7/flamealivepod VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348    

Carrie is a sport dietitian with the United States Olympic Committee and shares insights into the challenges and strategies of managing nutrition while traveling for athletes and active individuals. Carrie discusses her journey from a figure skater to a dietitian for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. She highlights the importance of planning and flexibility in athletes' diet, the role of supplements, and the importance of coaches in impacting travel nutrition. We also discuss the psychological aspects of eating, how athletes can optimally fuel in any environment, and on-the-go snack options that maximize space and provide necessary nutrition. Carrie Aprik, MS, RD, CSSD is the winter sport dietitian for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Prior to serving in this role, she was a Team USA contract dietitian for US Figure Skating and USA Hockey, and served as a team dietitian at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Additionally, she spent 5 years as the sport dietitian for the Detroit Pistons, and 10 years with Oakland University Athletics.  The views discussed in this podcast episode do not represent that of the United States Olympic Committee. 

Gracie Gold (@GracieGold95), 2-Time US Figure Skating Champion and Olympic Medalist as well as Author of her new tell-all memoir OUTOFSHAPEWORTHLESSLOSER, joins Sports Business Radio for an in-depth conversation about the figure skating and Olympic culture that requires perfection with performance and appearance, to taking us inside of her challenging family life, to sharing sobering details about her trip to rehab where Gracie battled depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, Gracie tells us why she wrote this book, how she hopes it helps others and what her path forward looks like. This is a deep and meaningful conversation that you will want to listen to. In our Sports Business headlines of the Week segment, we recap Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas and share our thoughts on Tiger Woods' new venture with Taylor Made Golf. LISTEN to Sports Business Radio on Apple podcasts or Spotify podcasts. Give Sports Business Radio a 5-star rating if you enjoy our podcast. Click on the plus sign on our Apple Podcasts page and follow the Sports Business Radio podcast. Follow Sports Business Radio on Twitter @SBRadio and on Instagram, Threads and Tik Tok @SportsBusinessRadio. This week's edition of Sports Business Radio is presented by Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment - the Exclusive Financial Partner of Sports Business Radio. Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment is a division of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management dedicated to serving the unique and sophisticated needs of elite and professional athletes, entertainers, executives, creators, and other top talent and professionals in the sports and entertainment industry. The division consists of over 200 Financial Advisors with the Global Sports & Entertainment Director/Associate Director designation, several of whom are former professional and collegiate athletes who once embarked on a similar journey to that of today's talent, leaders, executives and creators. Visit morganstanley.com/gse to learn more. #GracieGold #FigureSkating #Olympics #Book #USOC #TeamUSA #NFL #SuperBowl #Golf #TigerWoods  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Cheeky MidWeeky, we are joined by Scot Prohaska to discuss the growing popularity of hockey in Southern California. Scott shares how the owner of the Anaheim Ducks recognized the booming youth participation in hockey and decided to invest in building a state-of-the-art facility to meet the demand. With four sheets of ice and various amenities, the facility has attracted major organizations like US Figure Skating and has become a hub for hockey enthusiasts. _______________________________ Be sure to hit the subscribe button to get more free content from us #education #learning #coaching #podcast ___ CONNECT:

Episode Notes Today's guest is Ryan Stevens. Ryan is the author of three reference books about figure skating history and the fantastic resource that is the Skate Guard blog. A former figure skater and judge from Halifax, Nova Scotia, he also writes for “Skating” magazine and US Figure Skating. I've appreciated Ryan's interest in all corners of skating history, especially the figures who have been forgotten by mainstream history. This conversation gave us a chance to talk about why things are the way they are, the processes of change, and our hopes for the future of the sport! A full transcript is available here You can follow Ryan on Twitter and Instagram @SkateGuardBlog and at https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/ where you can also pre-order his upcoming biography of Jackson Haines. You can reach me with comments or suggestions for topics and people I should talk to, by email at fsfuturepodcast@gmail.com or on Instagram and Twitter @futurefspodcast  If you appreciate the podcast, you can also support my work with the Tip Jar at https://futureoffigureskating.pinecast.co Remember to subscribe to The Future of Figure Skating podcast on whatever platform you use, and share it with your friends! Resources: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/ Ryan's books are Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps, The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating, and Figure Skating: A Bibliography You can buy them on Amazon! Madge Syers: The Mother of Figure Skating https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2013/06/spotlight-on-madge-syers-mother-of.html Fancy Dan's and Figure Eights  https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2016/06/fancy-dans-and-figure-eights-skatings.html Example of a “well-balanced program” from the 1970s including intentional single, double and triple jumps - Toller Cranston 1972 World Championship FS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQnf6kOtbFQ Atoy Wilson (Ice Theatre of NY profile) https://www.icetheatre.org/atoy-wilson-blm.html Axels at the Apollo: The Joseph Vanterpool Story https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2021/03/axels-at-apollo-theater-joseph.html The Almanac of Professional Figure Skating Competitions https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-almanac-of-professional-figure.html One Night Only: Professional And Pro-Am Competitions That Didn't Stick Around https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2020/06/one-night-only-professional-and-pro-am.html Isabela Butler: Figure Skating's Best-Kept Secret https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2016/03/isabella-butler-figure-skatings-best.html Jackson Haines: The Skating King (Ryan's new book) https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2015/08/jackson-haines-definitive-biography.html A History of Doping in Figure Skating https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-history-of-doping-in-figure-skating.html Support The Future of Figure Skating by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/futureoffigureskating Find out more at https://futureoffigureskating.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Episode Notes TW: Eating Disorders. Today's guest is Rachael Flatt. Rachael was the 2008 World Junior Champion, and the 2010 US National Champion and placed 7th in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. After retiring from competitive skating in 2014, she completed her degree from Stanford University and has gone on to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, with a focus on eating disorders and mental health in athletes. As an athlete member of the US Figure Skating board of directors, and as part of the US Olympic and Paralympic Task Force on Mental Health, Rachael has brought both her personal and professional expertise to making elite sport a healthier environment. This was a great conversation drawing connections between health and inclusion! The transcript is available here. You can follow Rachael on Twitter @RachaelFlatt and on Instagram @reflatt  You can reach me with comments or suggestions for topics and people I should talk to, by email at fsfuturepodcast@gmail.com or on Instagram and Twitter @futurefspodcast  Remember to subscribe to The Future of Figure Skating podcast on whatever platform you use, and share it with your friends! Resources: Changing the culture of mental health in sports | Rachael Flatt | TEDxUNC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7lumbNhZeM USOPC Task Force on Mental Health Recovery Record App Find out more at https://futureoffigureskating.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

观众为何向花样滑冰运动员扔毛绒玩具？|Why Do People Throw Stuffed Animals at Figure Skaters?Moments after a figure skater finishes their program, adoring fans fling gifts onto the ice. There have definitely been some weird ones over the years. As NBC Sports reports, Sasha Cohen was once given multiple cashmere sweaters; Canada's Elvis Stojko and Patrick Chan have walked away with lingerie; and Debi Thomas even got a box of Domino's pizza after her performance at the 1987 world championships. (Another skater, Doug Mattis, had tossed it onto the rink because Thomas had jokingly wondered why people “don't throw something good, like pizza?”)在一名花样滑冰运动员表演完节目后不久，喜欢这位运动员的粉丝们就会开始往冰场上扔礼物。过去这些年粉丝们还真扔过一些不寻常的礼物。据NBC体育台报道称，萨莎·科恩曾收到过几件羊绒衫，加拿大的埃尔维斯·斯托伊科和陈伟群曾收到过女用内衣，黛比·托马斯在1987年世界花样滑冰锦标赛表演结束后甚至收到了一盒达美乐披萨。（因为托马斯曾经开玩笑说，为什么人们“不扔一些好东西，比如披萨？”于是另一位滑冰运动员道格·马蒂斯就把一盒披萨扔到了冰场上。） Carbs and clothing aside, the post-program offerings are mostly stuffed animals. Though it's not clear exactly how or when this custom began, there are a couple of factors that help explain why it's so popular. First and foremost, flowers, once the go-to item to toss at skaters, are messy. The “sweepers”—the kids who skate around collecting all the gifts between each program—have a much easier time grabbing plush toys than scrabbling at every petal and leaf that fell off its flower.除了碳水化合和衣服以外，节目结束后粉丝们扔的大多是毛绒动物玩具。尽管不清楚这种习俗是怎么来的或从何时开始的，以下两个因素可以帮助解释为什么毛绒玩具这么受欢迎。首先，过去粉丝们也曾向花滑运动员扔过鲜花，结果把场地弄得很凌乱。其次，在节目的间隔时间负责清场的冰童需要一边滑冰一边收集所有礼物，捡毛绒玩具比收拾花束上掉下来的花瓣和叶子要容易得多。There's no global ban on chucking bouquets, but organizations have made attempts to discourage the practice in the past. In 1989, US Figure Skating banned arenas hosting national championships from selling flowers. And ahead of the 2002 national championships, the association outright prohibited fans from bringing their own flowers (and other items) to the arena at all.国际上对于往冰场上扔花束并没有禁令，但是过去多个组织曾试图阻止这一行为。1989年，美国花样滑冰协会曾禁止举办全美花滑锦标赛的场馆销售鲜花。在2002年全美花滑锦标赛举办前夕，该协会完全禁止粉丝自带鲜花（或其他物品）进入场馆。"Flowers have always been a problem. Even when they're wrapped, the staples pop out and become a hazard,” Larry Kriwanek, chair of the event's organizing committee, told the Los Angeles Times. “Flowers were going to be eliminated. It was just a question of when.” Instead, fans could purchase already-authorized stuffed animals inside the arena and shower their favorite skaters with those.这场赛事的组委会主席拉里·克里瓦尼克对《洛杉矶时报》记者说：“往冰场上扔鲜花一直是个问题。即使是包装好的花束，花朵和叶子也会掉出来，从而造成隐患。应该让鲜花从冰场上消失，这只是个时间问题。”作为替代，粉丝们可以在场馆内购买官方授权的毛绒动物玩具，然后抛给他们喜欢的花滑选手。Stuffed animals also give supporters an opportunity to choose presents that seem more personal. "We sometimes will get stuffed animals made in custom costumes to match what we're wearing,” American ice dancer Meryl Davis, who won gold with partner Charlie White in 2014, told NBC Sports. It turns out that skaters often do try to take especially meaningful or thoughtful gifts home with them.选择送毛绒玩具还有一个好处，粉丝们可以有机会选择更个性化的礼物。曾在2014年与搭档查理·怀特一起赢得奥运会金牌的美国花滑运动员梅丽尔·戴维斯告诉NBC体育台说：“我们有时候会收到与我们的服装相配的定制款毛绒动物玩具。”事实证明，花滑运动员往往会把特别有意义或贴心的礼物带回家。Note: Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022has cancelled the toy throwing part of the figure skating events due to the guidelines on pandemic preventionand control.注：今年北京冬奥会出于防疫的要求，取消了花滑比赛的扔玩具环节。cashmere英 [ˈkæʃmɪə(r)]；美[ˈkæʒmɪr] n. （山羊绒）开司米；山羊绒;克什米尔羊毛lingerie英 [ˈlænʒəri]；美[ˌlɑːndʒəˈreɪ] n. 女内衣chuck英 [tʃʌk]；美[tʃʌk] v. 扔出；（随便或贸然地）扔，抛；放弃；终止n. （固定钻头等用的）夹盘；（熟人之间友好的称呼）小亲亲；牛肩胛肉outright英 [ˈaʊtraɪt]；美[ˈaʊtraɪt] adj. 完全的；彻底的；绝对的；公开的；直率的；直截了当的adv. 公开地；直率地；毫无保留地；完全彻底；干净利落；立即

American Nathan Chen did what he set out to do in Beijing - have fun, and win gold. This week on Ice Talk, Tara chats with Jackie Wong to recap a remarkable men's competition that had all the highs and lows the Olympic Games can bring.  And yes, the Games began with the Team Event competition... which has become the talk of the town, since the medal ceremony was postponed indefinitely due to an ongoing legal issue reportedly involving the Russian Olympic Committee team who finished the competition in first place.  Beijing brought the drama in week one... it's all here in this episode of Ice Talk.

With the figure skating competition heating up at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Northeast Ohio native and 1960 Olympics gold medal winner Carol Heiss Jenkins shares insight into what the future may hold for Team USA competitors on this week's 3 Things to Know with Stephanie Haney podcast. Carol breaks down the field of competition, shares which Team USA Figure Skating athletes she's watching closely, reveals where she keeps her gold and silver Olympic medals, and more. Plus, Stephanie shares what you Need to Know in NEO to watch the figure skating competitions on 3News, and why US Figure Skating is such A Good Follow on Instagram (and really, all platforms). Need to Know in NEO: How to watch Figure Skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics on NBC http://nbcolympics.com/news/how-watch-figure-skating-2022-winter-olympics-nbc-and-peacock A Good Follow: Team USA Figure Skating http://instagram.com/usfigureskating http://twitter.com/usfigureskating http://facebook.com/usfigureskating http://youtube.com/usfigureskating Connect with Stephanie Haney here: http://twitter.com/_StephanieHaney http://instagram.com/_StephanieHaney http://facebook.com/thestephaniehaney

BONUS EPISODE - Lace those skates and hit the ice with us as we talk with Michael Terry, Director, Communications and Media Strategy for U.S. Figure Skating as they head to Beijing to compete in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Michael gives us an inside look into what it's like being involved in the big event, how things have changed due to the pandemic, what led him into working for the national governing body, and some of the challenges and rewards of promoting an international sport. With the Olympics opening ceremony today, enjoy this fun inside look into one of the biggest winter sports that is sure to leave you longing for quads and axels as the skaters hit the rink in Beijing.Michael Terry: Twitter | LinkedInU.S. Figure Skating: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Women 'Who Put The Work In' Are Making Major Strides Getting Hired In The NFL. There's a very cool five part series documentary just out about powerful women in the NFL. It's  called 'EARNIN' IT. You can find it on the Peacock Channel and  NBC aired some of it on game day. It's all about 'firsts' but thanks to some strong smart capable women who earned the right to be hired - it sure won't be about lasts. This is a good story about the beginning of change in NFL hiring practices. Why shouldn't women who love the game be able to earn a living in the sport? Women like the first female NFL Referee and two female football coaches who took teams to the Superbowl, and wait till you see the female Tom Brady throw a spiral!  Did you even know there was a women's s Pro Football League? Now you will, thanks to Co-Executive Producers Teri Wagner Fynn and Jane Skinner Goodell. Teri who you'll meet in this podcast of our radio conversation, is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of 'Good Story Content'. Teri Wagner Flynn loves to tell a good story. She oversees the development slate, sales and creative execution and deals with athletes writers and ‘on camera' talent. She's had a 'wow' career path as paths go. Founder of Newsweek Films, Chief Content Officer of Apex Entertainment , Independent Producer for Netflix and Pop. Consulting producer on multiple NFL related TV specials. Before that she was 'THE" gal in TV Sports SVP of Programming & Content Development at ABC Sports/ESPN steering and negotiating deals with the NFL, College Football, the PGA, NBA, the British Open, US Figure Skating and on and on. Teri is also a regular guest speaker at the NFL Owners meetings and has been honored by many. So happy to support her work and happy to champion the ongoing breakthrough of women getting hired in traditionally male roles because  hellooooo ...They EARNED IT! Enjoy our chat and Tune in to all 5 parts of EARNIN' IT On The Peacock Channel and watch the beginning of big change.

Subscribe to the podcast!  https://podfollow.com/everythingeverywhere/ In 1961, the United States figure skating team was one of the top programs in the world. The year before at the 1960 Olympics, they took the gold in both the men's and women's competitions.  Then on February 15, 1961, the team suffered a terrible catastrophe. One which took the better part of a decade for the US program to recover from.  Learn more about Sabena Flight 548 and the fate of the 1961 US figure skating team, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.   -------------------------------- Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere   Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/EEDailyPodcast/ Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/

Congratulations to Lindsey Byer for qualifying for the US High Development Team! She is one of only 30 skaters across the nation who qualified for this opportunity! Congratulations to her coaches as well. In January of 2020, U.S. Figure Skating launched the National Development Team Camp, a brand new initiative to enhance the skills of their developmental athletes (juvenile through novice).Participating skaters were given the opportunity to observe the U.S. Championships with officials and other experts. The officials broke down the event's various routines and techniques with the athletes in hopes of motivating them to one day compete at such a level.Want to see Lindsey's submission video? Click here.

Spencer talks Nathan Chen and US Figure Skating. President Biden. Mets fire GM Jared Porter. George Springer, Blue Jays deal. College Basketball- Michigan and the Big Ten, Blue Bloods, Florida. NBA- COVID PSA, Malone criticizes Zion. Tiger Woods gets another back surgery.

Michelle Hong is a world renown coach who has worked outside of the traditional norms of on ice coaching. She's utilized digital media to create a brand new type of platform for skaters. It's been quite incredible watching her growth and now she's an integral part of F.S.D.I.A. who have pushed US Figure Skating to develop the Mabel Fairbanks Fund for BIPOC skaters. Always a pleasure to chat with Coach Michelle Hong!Find Michelle here:CoachMichelleHong.comInstagramTik TokYouTube

Jessica Calalang is the 2019 US Championship Silver Medalist with her partner Brian Johnson. Coming to us from sunny Southern California Jessica recaps her 2020 for us, her humble beginnings and how the transition to pairs came to be. She talks about her journey with Brian as well as past pairs partners and shares some insight on what the future holds. Enjoy our last episode of 2020!Find Jessica on:Instagram @jessicacalalangOfficial Website: https://jessicabrian.com/

Ben Loggins of Loggins, Kern, McCombs in Atlanta, Georgia, joined us for this episode of Where Accountants Go, the Accounting Careers Podcast.  In this episode, we discuss the growth and progression of Ben's firm, and also his outside-of-work interest in the area of Roswell history and supporting US figure skating! We initially asked Ben to be on the show to discuss the progression and growth of his accounting firm because it has been a while since we had a long-term CPA firm owner on the program.  And we did have a good discussion of the history and changes with their firm over the years, including some talk regarding finding the right partners for your firm.  However, we also happened into a discussion surrounding Ben's hobbies, both of which originated due to interests his daughter had.  His daughter was involved in figure skating for many years, and because of that Ben served on the Finance Committee for the US Figure Skating organization.  And in an even more interesting turn of events in our interview, we also found out that Ben speaks on the history surrounding extra-terrestrial events in Roswell, New Mexico – you know, alien stuff!  He's done quite a bit of research on the topic, and even has a YouTube video about Roswell.  Check it out at: https://youtu.be/lQf8-AoAyoI This interview was fun on many levels. For more information on Ben's firm, please visit their site at: https://www.logginscpa.com/our-firm/ I'm sure you will really enjoy this interview.  To listen in on the discussion we had with Ben Loggins, please use the player below:

Having recently stepped away from competitive figure skating, we catch up with US Figure Skating's very own Sean Rabbitt!

Podcast meets Podcast! Polina Edmunds joins us to talk all things skating as well as post career where her journey is taking her!We cover:+ Sochi Olympics+ McDonalds in the Olympic Village+ Having her mom as a coach+ Her thoughts on the quad revolution+ Life after skating+ Best Bay Area eats & more!Listen to Polina's podcast: Bleav In Figure SkatingFind Polina on Instagram

A TikTok deal in the US was just approved, so this TikTok superstar can keep giving us the content we oh so want! Joining us this week is USA's Amber Glenn! We talk about skating in Dallas, TX, skating with the Cains and her dear friend Ashley Cain, Tik Tok stardom, being comfortable in your own skin and her own coming out. We reversed the flow of this episode, so we can jump right into it! Enjoy!IG: Amber Glenn

What do Austin Powers, Black Swan and Dad Jokes have in common? They all require the ice dance team of Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean Luc Baker! Mitch and Kevin catch up with these two after their return to Montreal. We talk COVID, Detroit Days, Gadbois, Salad Boy and much more. This was a great episode catching up with DJ KHaw and JLB, hope you enjoy!DJ KHAW SoundcloudIG: Jean Luc BakerIG: Kaitlyn Hawayek

USA Hockey Executive Director Pat Kelleher is one of the most highly respected leaders in sport. He's been a player, a coach and is a sport parent. He knows right now that playing sport is beneficial. But how do you do it safely? Quick to act, Kelleher joined forces with US Figure Skating and the Ice Rink Association to develop a return to sport plan. It's a little different playing hockey today. But it's working.

MEET LAUREN VERMILLION Lauren Vermillion has a passion for leadership, learning, taking on challenges, and helping others. As a young athlete, she was always driven to succeed. After years of failure, she overcame obstacles and setbacks to achieve her life-long goal becoming a US Figure Skating double gold medalist. It was through this ultimate test of character, motivation, and faith that she learned how to harness the will to succeed, control her thoughts and mindset, and to never give up on her dreams. While in pursuit of her figure skating goals she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she started the competitive figure skating team. Later she went on to earn a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. As a driven, analytical thinker, she made a career pivot to become a Scrum Master. Lauren attributes her success to having great coaching and mentorship in all areas of her life. She is never one to rest on her laurels and enjoys new experiences and challenges, whether that be in figure skating, business, or her career. She is passionate about paying it forward, starting non-profits, her family, traveling, hiking, and photography. She firmly believes in being intentional and living life to the fullest. As she likes to say, “You only have one shot, so go for it”. BOOKS:   (https://amzn.to/2ULYHaa) John David Mann (https://amzn.to/2y8DBv5) Stephen R. Covey (https://amzn.to/3bzEfjE)   CONTACT: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-vermillion-7ba14066/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-vermillion-7ba14066/) https://www.instagram.com/lvermillion/ (https://www.instagram.com/lvermillion/) SUPPORT THE SHOW BECAUSE I LOVE PUPPIES! Are you interested in being a super learner who can read at lighting speeds with complete comprehension? Check out Berg Learning and see how. I am currently taking these classes https://www.berglearning.com/ (https://www.berglearning.com/)  Use coupon code:Yuri10 This podcast is brought to you by Audible. I have used Audible for years, and I love audiobooks. Click on the link to get a 30-day free trial, complete with a credit for a free audiobook download Audible.com (https://www.audible.com/ep/freetrial?source_code=PDTGBPD060314004R) BUY MY BOOK!!! BE LEFT BEHIND: Discover Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Before Your Grandma Beats You to It (https://amzn.to/3afTmOu) https://www.beleftbehind.com/ (https://www.beleftbehind.com/)

Alissa Czisny is a two-time U.S. ladies champion (2009, ‘11) from Bowling Green, Ohio. Czisny got her start in skating at the Detroit Skating Club and continues to coach there today. Jerod Swallow is a five-time U.S. ice dance champion (1991, ‘94, ‘96, ‘97, ‘98) and two-time Olympian (’94, ’98) with partner, and now wife, Elizabeth Punsalan. They both are here to talk about the Geico U.S. Figure Skating Championship at Little Cesaers Arena.

This week, Kristin Ray chats with Mia Corsini, Director of Events for U.S. Figure Skating. With events jobs in such a high demand from young women around the country, Mia shines some light on the ins and outs of handling events in the sports industry. They discuss how the events industry is more than movies and television portray it to be—and most of the time not nearly as glamorous—while listing some of the traits that the most successful events professionals often possess, like organization and strong communication. She also tells us about her journey to working in events and how it started with her following her instincts very early on in college. For show notes and related links for this episode click HERE. For more conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcast visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports Radio is the World’s Largest Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 20 hosts, 1000+ episodes across 30+ shows and a global audience of 2 million. WiSP Sports Radio is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com. 

We go live tonight at 9pm CST talking all things sports.  1-347-857-1060 is the number to listen via mobile. We open tonight going deep into this NCAA College Basketball scandle.  What does this do to the sport, along with the integrity of the league, and how can we fix this?  We talk the schools, players and more all tied up into this, and what are some ideas moving forward. We dive into the Winter Olympics as we discuss everything that has been going on since day one.  Has the US Figure Skating factory finally fallen?  Jordan also brings up the state of Men's Hockey again after Ryan's small rant last week.  We discuss why the NHL not including their players was a miss, and also what they need to do as well to bring the league to where it should be in America. Lakers talk at 10pm tonight as Corey Hansford from lakersnation.com comes by.  With the team winning 15 of 22, 9 straight at home, they have a chance if they do this again to finish the last 22 games at .500.  That is mind blowing, but the team continues to over achieve.  How long can they hold onto this?  Also, we pick Corey's brain as to what he would like to see next for the team, including the off season, and with guys like Juilus Randle. We have Real MVP's tonight, some spit takes, and more all on Sportscast Radio! Make sure to like, comment, share, rate and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Radio Tune-In and Google Play!

We go live tonight at 9pm CST talking all things sports.  1-347-857-1060 is the number to listen via mobile. We open tonight going deep into this NCAA College Basketball scandle.  What does this do to the sport, along with the integrity of the league, and how can we fix this?  We talk the schools, players and more all tied up into this, and what are some ideas moving forward. We dive into the Winter Olympics as we discuss everything that has been going on since day one.  Has the US Figure Skating factory finally fallen?  Jordan also brings up the state of Men's Hockey again after Ryan's small rant last week.  We discuss why the NHL not including their players was a miss, and also what they need to do as well to bring the league to where it should be in America. Lakers talk at 10pm tonight as Corey Hansford from lakersnation.com comes by.  With the team winning 15 of 22, 9 straight at home, they have a chance if they do this again to finish the last 22 games at .500.  That is mind blowing, but the team continues to over achieve.  How long can they hold onto this?  Also, we pick Corey's brain as to what he would like to see next for the team, including the off season, and with guys like Juilus Randle. We have Real MVP's tonight, some spit takes, and more all on Sportscast Radio! Make sure to like, comment, share, rate and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Radio Tune-In and Google Play! This podcast is sponsored by Anchor

We go live tonight at 9pm CST talking all things sports.  1-347-857-1060 is the number to listen via mobile. We open tonight going deep into this NCAA College Basketball scandle.  What does this do to the sport, along with the integrity of the league, and how can we fix this?  We talk the schools, players and more all tied up into this, and what are some ideas moving forward. We dive into the Winter Olympics as we discuss everything that has been going on since day one.  Has the US Figure Skating factory finally fallen?  Jordan also brings up the state of Men's Hockey again after Ryan's small rant last week.  We discuss why the NHL not including their players was a miss, and also what they need to do as well to bring the league to where it should be in America. Lakers talk at 10pm tonight as Corey Hansford from lakersnation.com comes by.  With the team winning 15 of 22, 9 straight at home, they have a chance if they do this again to finish the last 22 games at .500.  That is mind blowing, but the team continues to over achieve.  How long can they hold onto this?  Also, we pick Corey's brain as to what he would like to see next for the team, including the off season, and with guys like Juilus Randle. We have Real MVP's tonight, some spit takes, and more all on Sportscast Radio! Make sure to like, comment, share, rate and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Radio Tune-In and Google Play! This podcast is sponsored by Anchor

We go live tonight at 9pm CST talking all things sports.  1-347-857-1060 is the number to listen via mobile. We open tonight going deep into this NCAA College Basketball scandle.  What does this do to the sport, along with the integrity of the league, and how can we fix this?  We talk the schools, players and more all tied up into this, and what are some ideas moving forward. We dive into the Winter Olympics as we discuss everything that has been going on since day one.  Has the US Figure Skating factory finally fallen?  Jordan also brings up the state of Men's Hockey again after Ryan's small rant last week.  We discuss why the NHL not including their players was a miss, and also what they need to do as well to bring the league to where it should be in America. Lakers talk at 10pm tonight as Corey Hansford from lakersnation.com comes by.  With the team winning 15 of 22, 9 straight at home, they have a chance if they do this again to finish the last 22 games at .500.  That is mind blowing, but the team continues to over achieve.  How long can they hold onto this?  Also, we pick Corey's brain as to what he would like to see next for the team, including the off season, and with guys like Juilus Randle. We have Real MVP's tonight, some spit takes, and more all on Sportscast Radio! Make sure to like, comment, share, rate and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Radio Tune-In and Google Play! This podcast is sponsored by Anchor

We go live tonight at 9pm CST talking all things sports.  1-347-857-1060 is the number to listen via mobile. We open tonight going deep into this NCAA College Basketball scandle.  What does this do to the sport, along with the integrity of the league, and how can we fix this?  We talk the schools, players and more all tied up into this, and what are some ideas moving forward. We dive into the Winter Olympics as we discuss everything that has been going on since day one.  Has the US Figure Skating factory finally fallen?  Jordan also brings up the state of Men's Hockey again after Ryan's small rant last week.  We discuss why the NHL not including their players was a miss, and also what they need to do as well to bring the league to where it should be in America. Lakers talk at 10pm tonight as Corey Hansford from lakersnation.com comes by.  With the team winning 15 of 22, 9 straight at home, they have a chance if they do this again to finish the last 22 games at .500.  That is mind blowing, but the team continues to over achieve.  How long can they hold onto this?  Also, we pick Corey's brain as to what he would like to see next for the team, including the off season, and with guys like Juilus Randle. We have Real MVP's tonight, some spit takes, and more all on Sportscast Radio! Make sure to like, comment, share, rate and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Radio Tune-In and Google Play! This podcast is sponsored by Anchor

Olympic Figure Skater Mirai Nagasu joins Ryan Kaufman to talk about being named to the US Figure Skating team that will compete in PyeongChang, whether being on Drive Time Sports before helped her make the team, and how if it weren't for some rain she wouldn't even be a skater

February 2014An interview with the legendary Dick Button. What hasn't he done? He's practically the father of our sport (if Jackson Haines were Grandfather). The two-time Olympic Gold medalist invented many of the jumps and spins we see today, and he invented figure skating commentary. He's a skater, producer, commentator, actor, truth-seeker, hall-of-famer, stirrer-upper, and figure skating's biggest fan. This first episode focuses on his new book Push Dick's Button, a fantastic book that is a really wonderful conversation on skating. 55 minutes, 50 seconds. [display_podcast] AM: Allison ManleyDB: Dick Button AM:  Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Manleywoman Skatecast. I'm your host, Allison Manley, and this is Episode 73, an interview with Dick Button. That's right!  You heard it, here it is! Any longtime fan of my podcast knows I have been chasing this interview for years. Years! And it only took writing a poem, some polite stalking, a pinch of begging, and quite a bit of persistence and tenacity — and let's face it, it doesn't hurt that he was trying to spread the word about his new book. All I know is that I'm thrilled to have been finally able to interview him. So, in case you don't know his many accomplishments, I'm going to list them off first. Here is the general overview of what Dick Button has done for this sport. He was the first skater to have won the men's novice, junior and senior titles in three consecutive years. He was the first skater to land a double axel. He was the first skater to land a triple jump, which was a triple loop, and the first male skater to perform a camel spin. And he was the inventor of the flying camel spin, also known as the Button camel. He's the only American to win the European title. He's the first American world champion, the first American to win the Olympic title in figure skating, the first and only American back-to-back champion. He is the first and only American skater to simultaneously hold all of the following titles: national, North American, European, World and Olympic. That's five. He's the youngest man to win the Olympic title in figure skating, at age 18, and it shocks me still that this record stands today. He is the winner of the Sullivan Award. In the 1960s he began doing television commentary, and has been gracing our television sets for decades since. He was inducted into the World Skating Hall of Fame in 1976, which was the initial class. He won an Emmy Award in 1981 for outstanding sports personality/analyst. He was a producer of skating shows including The Superstars, which was the first of the reality shows. He starred in movies and on television, and on the stage. The autobiography he wrote in 1955 is a fount of knowledge, and is incredibly well written. I highly recommend that you all find a copy and give it a read. And, of course, he is the author very recently of Push Dick's Button, a fantastic book that is a really wonderful conversation on skating. Dick and I decided to do this interview in two parts. The first will be focused on his book and all the ideas within. The second part will focus more on his career and life in skating, and will follow at a later date to be determined.  Anyone who knows my podcast knows that I've been dying to capture his voice on tape for the fans. So, ladies and gentlemen, may I present — Dick Button. ----- AM:  All right, Dick Button, are you ready? DB: I am. AM: So, thank you so much for your book. It's wonderful. I have to ask, why did you write it at this time? DB: And my question to you is, what do you mean by “at this time”? Are you saying that I'm a very old poop [laughs] and therefore don't have any understanding of what the hell is going on in today's world? Or are you asking it because it's been a long time since I have written? I wrote a book in 1952 or 1954, when I was a very young person, and then I did one other paperback kind of book a couple of years later. I don't understand the question “at this time”?  I mean, that does that mean? Am I missing something? AM: I guess it is curious that it has been such a long time. I do actually have the book from the 1950s, and I think it's interesting that the book that you chose to release now, rather than being a biography or an autobiography, is such a conversational book. So I suspect that you felt the need to have this conversation, so that's why I'm asking. Is skating frustrating you to the point where you felt like you had to tell these opinions? DB: I'll tell you what it really is. Number one, it was in the past exceedingly difficult for me to write. The advent of the computer and the lectures that I give on gardening introduced me to an entire new way to write. If you write on your computer, you can erase things, you can change things, you can move things around, and you don't have to rewrite painfully every single word. So the system and the ability to write was exceedingly pleasant. Then I also have a very good friend who had gotten me a major contract ten years ago, that was with Simon and Schuster, and I had a great opportunity to write a very good book at a very high-priced contract. And that was at the same time that I had gone skating on New Year's Eve, and fell and fractured my skull, and got concussions and lost the hearing in my left ear. And I also had a co-writer with me, and it didn't work. We just didn't work out. In other words, it was too much. I couldn't handle it at that time. It took me about two or three years to really get my act together and to recoup from that fall. So the important thing was, this same lady, who is a great friend of mine and who got me that contract, her name is Pat Eisemann-Logan — I finally said to her, Pat, what can I do for you? And she said, I'll tell you what you can do. I would like it if you would come and sit on the couch next to me and tell me what the heck is going on with what we are watching. So I sat down one day and I just wrote out a couple of things, a few chapters, and she said, yeah, that's terrific. And I love it because, number one, it doesn't have to be The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire of Skating. It is a simple conversation. Conversations are meant to be interrupted, to have answers, to have somebody kvetch about it. Conversations can range from any subject to any subject, and that's why I like the idea of this. I did not want to do a history of skating, which others have done before this, and I did not wish to do a biography. I think there's far too much more of great interest around the world of skating. I wanted to do what subjects came up to my mind, what it is to watch for at the Olympics, and most of the questions you've asked me about this are  all in that book. So it was a very pleasant experience for me, I enjoyed it no end, and I'm happy to have done it and done it the way I did. Although I will tell you that there are three books that you write and three skating programs that you skate and three pictures that you paint.  They are, number one, the book you plan, number two, the book you do, and number three, the book you wish you'd done [laughs]. So if you can put up with that, you're a good gal. AM: It does seem to have worked out that this is the book you wish you had done. You seem very pleased with it. DB: Oh, yes, but there's a lot of things that I . . .  listen, if I had started with all the things I made notes of, I would have had six more volumes [laughs]. I don't think so. AM: Well, I do love the fact that even though it's not biographical, that you have a lot of sprinklings of your history in there. I mean, I think that's a great addition to the opinion pieces that are in there, because there's definitely opinions in there as well. DB: Well, it's a conversation. It covers whatever's on your mind. The one chapter that many people have criticized, they say, we know what jumps are, you don't have to put a chapter in there saying the different jumps. But my doctor said to me, "Dick, my daughter skates and we all really like watching the skating, but I can't tell one jump from another, how can I do that?" And it annoyed him. So I put in this brief explanation, if you don't know what a jump is, there's three or four or five or six pages of it, and if you already know which jumps are which — skip over it! This is not the end of the world book. This is not the end of the world subject. It is a conversational piece. And I hope like the devil that people can figure out that they can learn something from it. Because I enjoyed very much doing it. AM: Well, great. And I do want to ask you some questions about it, obviously without giving away too much, because people should buy it and read it, of course [laughs]. DB: [laughs] Well, we don't have long enough on this conversation, so go ahead and spring your questions. AM: Well, one of the things you are concerned about is losing the theatrical part of skating. And I wonder, from a competitive standpoint, how you think it can be preserved. There are a lot of people trying to preserve it outside of competition, but in the competitive arena, what are your thoughts on that? DB: Let me also start out by saying that competition, the Olympic Games which we're about to start into in another day or two — they get the most audience. Figure skating and dancing, they're kissing cousins, and figure skaters have the opportunity to become instantly famous and household names. Dancers don't have that. So if a figure skater has that opportunity, and the Olympic competition is there, it's marvelous that they take part and do it. However, figure skating is a complete sport. It's a sport that has music, choreography, costuming, performance level, story level — it has so many different aspects that are intimately intertwined with each other. Figure skating is theatre, and I don't care who tells me that it's not. The head of the ISU, the head of the Olympic Committee, and a lot of guys get all honked about it and say it's not a sport. Well, don't watch it! If you think it's not a sport, don't watch it, and I couldn't care less. However, the point is very simply that it is all of these things. It is theatre, it always has been theatre, and it will always continue to be theatre. And that is the very reason that makes it so popular at the Olympic Games. Now the reason I'm saying this is, there's an old saying that Oleg Protopopov used to tell me all the time, and that was, “Deek! Deek! You cannot have artistry without technique. But neither can you have technique without artistry”. The old votes, the old judging system had two marks. They were for technical merit and for artistic impression. The new marks, in essence, if you really want to see what the icing on top of the cake is, the subterfuge of it all, is they have all the marks that you get on your point system first, and then they have the component scores. Have you ever read the component scores? AM: I have. DB: Then you know that they mix together choreography, step sequences, footwork, et cetera, et cetera, and they have something like 27 or 28 different criteria to figure and allot to a skater's program within about two seconds. That's almost an impossible thing. And also, you will never know what it's about because it's secret. All I'm saying is that yes, there are many other organizations — there's Disney on Ice and Stars on Ice and individual singles skating here and there, and there's ensemble skating with the Ice Theatre of New York, and there's synchronized skating, and there's all kind of things. But it's the theatrical performance level that mesmerizes us. I mean, why did we look at Katarina Witt? Not only was she sensational looking, but she had personality and pizzazz. Let me ask you a question. Why is Evgeni Plushenko such a hot subject? I'll tell you why. Because he has personality. He's a great jumper, not a great spinner. But he has personality. He has pizzazz. And you can't take your eyes off him, watching what he's going to do. He will bamboozle you with his wrist movements . . . AM: He'll make you think he's skating with those wrist movements [laughs]. DB: Of course, I've seen him do that half a dozen times. He stops and does a bunch of fancy wrist movements around his belt line, and that's supposed to be great theatrical skating or something. Let me tell you something. Who is it that you want to watch at this Olympic Games? Who is it they are looking forward to watching? AM: Jeremy Abbott and Jason Brown. DB: You mean you want to see the competition between them. AM: The competition between them, but I think both are so wonderful. They bring something so different. DB: Absolutely right. And so do half a dozen of these skaters. I think what you really want to see also is Davis and White and how they impact the show. And who do we remember out of the past? Come on, you remember the stars that had pizzazz, that had presence, that grabbed you. There's a whole chapter in my book there about entrances and exits, and it's all about the difference between an Irina Slutskaya entering the skating arena — the first thing she does is skate over to her coach, takes a swig of water, high fives her coach, and adjusts the pants on her dress. And the next thing she does is blow her nose. Now, come on, is that theatre? That's not a humdinger of an entrance. The point is that, how does Katarina Witt do it? She doesn't lose for one moment the presence, the theatre aspect of it. And the gal we remember most of those two has gotta be Katarina Witt. And that's why there's a chapter in the book called "Where Are You When We Need You, Katarina Witt?" And . . . what else can I tell you? [laughs] This is my favorite rant. AM: You're passionate and I love it. I love every minute of it. DB: Well, come on, you know, it's a fun activity. It's a very complicated activity. It has so many elements to it that you simply cannot avoid any one of them. And the level of performance is one of those characteristics. AM: Yes. Well, you are a vocal critic of the judging system, but I am curious because you have said that there are parts of it that you think are worth preserving. What parts would that be? DB: Well, for example, I think you should always have a markdown if you fall. Right now what we are seeing is — how many people fell in the last [2014] National Championship, both men and women, in the different parts. How many people fall down? AM: Not a lot this year, actually. DB: Well, Ashley Wagner, she did. But you're being rewarded if you do a quadruple jump and you fall down but you're rotated almost enough to complete the thing in the air. This is all part of Ottavio Cinquanta's desire to — if he had his way, he would not have any judges there at all, and it would all be based on points and timing. I would like the fact that there would be no reward at all for a fall. And a deduction if you fall down.  I write about this in my book, there was a communiqué from the ISU explaining what falls were. You don't know what a fall is, I don't know what a fall is, certainly. But this rule came out and then three months later, there was — I mean, the question was, what part of the body was the fall on, was it on your bottom, was it on your core, and if you were on your fanny, were you on one buttock or another buttock or were you on both buttocks [laughs]. And then along came three months later this explanation, this clarification, and then changes to the rule that explained what a fall was [laughs]. So you have to read all that to understand the sense of the nit-picking. Now listen, let me tell you something else, and I write about this in the book . I challenge you to count — take one of the ladies anywhere, not necessarily Ashley Wagner, but start with a young lady and start counting the number of times when they're doing step sequences and all of those wonderful things, where they raise either one or the other or both arms over the level of their shoulders. And if you start counting, my bet is that you will get to 20 very, very quickly, and then you can stop. They're like flailing windmills. That's exactly the point. That does not augur well, in my book. First of all, there's just gotta be less talk about it. Why do you have to have something that is exactly two minutes with so many seconds on either end of it? That isn't the way. You should have one program that is your technical program, and one program that is your creative or other program, but neither one should be acceptable or be able to be marked well unless it has the qualities of the other one. One should be of technical merit and one should be of — the old judging captions, artistic impression, they are in a sense that way now, they're just called something different, it's technical marks and the program components. AM: So I wonder, you do outline at the end of the book your wishes and suggestions for better scoring, and they do include that the two programs should be different and that there shouldn't be a time limit. DB: Put it this way, there should be a time limit, but a generous one. I mean, during the World Professional Championships, we recorded the length of time of every skater, and only once did somebody ever go over, I think, maybe four and a half or five minutes.  So if you have three and a half minutes or four minutes, a generous thing — what difference does it make? Why do you just have to limit yourself? This is just the one program, not the technical program, the artistic impression program. AM: Well, I'm curious, what do the powers that be think about your ideas? Have you gotten any feedback? DB: No, I don't have feedback, because they . . . Ottavio Cinquanta does not want any subjective judging there. Remember, he is a speed skater, and all he can see — number one, he has two goals to his agenda. And once you understand a man's agenda, you will understand what he will do. His agenda is to have, number one, to never have another scandal like we had in Salt Lake at the pairs skating competition. And number two, he's all for eliminating anything subjective about the sport. He would like it to be like speed skating. You get over the line first, you've won. Now that is not figure skating. And besides he's said it too many times, and he's the one who put the new rules system in. My chapters go into all of that and show the chicanery that was involved with it. And now because he [laughs] made a contractual offer and placed every officer in their position for an additional period of time, he will now remain as head of the ISU until the year 2016. It's a chapter in the book as well. AM: You have always been an advocate for great spinning. You've talked about Dorothy Hamill, Lucinda Ruh, Ronnie Robertson, so I have to wonder, that in the new judging system, it has to be nice that at least you see the spins getting rewarded even if you don't always love the positions. DB: Well, I find that the multiple levels — you know, everything that you look at, there's a grade of execution, there's a level of difficulty. If you add more moves and turns into your spin, you get more points. But nobody gets points for blurred spinning. Nobody gets points for the things that used to make the audience stand on their feet and cheer. Spinning is just as important as jumping, and it's one of the two major technical elements in skating, the other being jumping and then of course there's spinning. And when you see somebody moving from position to position and changing their edges, all that sort of thing, you're not looking at the spin. At least have one spin that reflects the total true quality of a fast, delayed, long lived spin, where everything counters on the centering and everything counters on the blurring of it and on the finishing of it. Look, I don't have to have everything that I like, it's what other people like too, but I will tell you, there's very little to cheer for when you get a 243.8 personal best score. That doesn't give the average person an understanding of what the heck the score is all about, except that somebody else can get 283.9. And I trust that was more than the first number I gave [laughs]. AM: Well, I've actually always wanted that. I've always wanted there to be at least one spin that was skaters' choice, if you will, that they could do just for choreographic effect. Just like they've finally done with the step sequences, where you can just do one that you don't have to do without so many turns and flailing and windmilling, but it's one that just works with the music. DB: Well, there's very little — you can't really create things that are unusual or unexpected or different and expect to get anywhere under the current judging system. AM: Well, you have of course mentioned before that the ISU needs to be split, that skating shouldn't be run by a speed skater any longer. It's going to be a while, of course, since Ottavio wrote his own contract . . . DB: Well, of course he did, and nobody stood up to him. Nobody was able to stand up to him because he has cultivated so many federations which are all speed skating federations which get their money from figure skating. So what do they care? Why would they care what the rules for figure skating are, any more than a figure skater would care less whether the speed skating race is another 50 meters or not?  That's up to the speed skaters to understand that. And the very fact that they — did you know that there are over 80 federations in the world of skating? AM: I didn't know there were that many. DB: Over 80, and most of them all — the majority either are speed skating or joint speed skating and figure skating. And they get money from figure skating, the ISU pays them money from figure skating. And the end result is that of course they're going to do what he wants. AM: Do you think there's anyone out there right now who can challenge him, who can be the next great leader, to separate the two? DB: I think probably everybody is scared beyond belief. You see, the impact of the Olympic Games is always the most publicized event, but I can guarantee you, even the world championships which are taking place after the Olympic Games, they're not going to be on live. They're going to be in about two weeks in a summary program on NBC. Now maybe there's some obscure cable system or Ice Network that will show them, but you have to buy that cable system. I'm sure there will be recordings of it. But [laughs] here's a world championship that will be coming up a month later than the Olympic Games. Wouldn't you think it should deserve — and it used to always be very much of a highlight. Now it's sloughed off and it's shown a week or two weeks later after the world championship is over. I don't like that. AM: I don't either. All right, well, let's move on from the judging and talk about which skaters for you right now are really exciting. You've mentioned Davis and White. DB: Well, look, let me tell you something. My book covers a point about to wilt or not to wilt. When you have somebody who simply does not wilt, that in itself is exciting. And many a time, those people that can rise to the occasion, and suddenly pull together a program that is phenomenal — it's what you want to see. I mean, I found myself rising out of my seat when Jason Brown performed, because he in a sense broke the rules. It will be very interesting to see how he fares in this international competition, when he has competition from not only Jeremy Abbott but from Chan, Plushenko, Denis Ten, Javier Fernandez, and the Japanese skaters. It'll be very interesting to see how he compares in that to them. Remember, the national championship is one where it's a single country. And there aren't countries that are vying to improve their lot because that's the way they get money from the ISU. It's a different situation. I hope like the devil that he does brilliantly. I find him a fascinating skater and I was entranced by the choreography. And the choreography was done by Rohene Ward. I remember talking to him a couple of years ago, saying, you are going to keep on skating, aren't you? And he said, no, I'm not. And I felt that was a great loss. I'm very happy now to see him back in force as a choreographer. AM: Yes. And I'm happy to see someone, that he has a student that can interpret that choreography so well. Because, you know, Rohene was a very unusual talent, and oddly enough Jason has a lot of the same qualities, with his extreme flexibility and his showmanship. DB: Wait a minute. Are you telling me that that flexibility can't be gained by other people? They can, if they would understand what that is and follow that. AM: No, but I think Rohene was very unusual for a male skater to be able to use it to choreographic effect. DB: Why as a male skater? AM: Well, because most men, if they could do the splits like that, they certainly wouldn't lower themselves on the ice and pull themselves back up and do a lot of — Johnny Weir could lift his leg all the way up before a lutz, too, just like Jason and Rohene can, but it is unusual. DB: Well, that's because they don't follow that either. If you look at the number of skaters among the ladies that – well, look, there's a totally developable way. Guys can learn. You see it in gymnastics, for heaven's sake, If they do it, why can't figure skaters? Look, this is called the development of the — right now, I can guarantee you there's very, very little of the component score voting for some of the stuff that Jason Brown did. He was marvelous in the fact that he did not open his program with the single most difficult jump that he could. I'm really fascinated to see how the international version of this will work out, the international competition coming up in the Olympic Games. AM: So you did mention that he is a bit of a rule breaker in that sense, and you have said in your book that rules are made to be broken. And you did use Torvill and Dean as a perfect example of that, of course, from 1984. Is there a rule that you see right now that you wish someone would break, or push a little more? DB: Yeah. If you look at the rules of the component scores, you will see that, number one, they include skating skills, transitions/linking footwork and movement, performance and execution, choreography, and composition. Now what is the difference between choreography and composition, and transitional and linking footwork and movement, et cetera? I mean, aren't these the same things? AM: To me they are. To me it's semantics. DB: That's right. And isn't it better to have a skater develop that through their own intelligence rather than having to control those step sequences through it? And the linking movement and the linking footwork? And the transitions and the linking movement? [laughs].There was a wonderful English lady who would always comment on English television, and she had a very high voice, and when it came out, linking movements, we were all happily amused [laughs]. AM: Well, that's a good challenge for the next person listening to this, to try to push those boundaries a little bit per Dick Button's request. All right. So, you have a chapter on music choices, and there are a lot of choices as you know that are constantly overused and that we are all tired of hearing about. So is there a piece of music that you have never gotten tired of hearing, that you feel is underutilized? DB: Look, these pieces of music are time-honored pieces of music. So if you look at, for example, Swan Lake, I still will go, when I go to the theatre in the winter time, I still will go to New York City and see Swan Lake. I mean, it doesn't stop any more than certain songs that you get tired of. It is the way they're developed, and I do a whole thing in this book on the development of music by the skater, and whether they understand what the music is saying. And when you pick a piece of music like Carmen or Swan Lake, it comes with over a hundred years — one comes with much more than a hundred years and one comes from close to a hundred years — of very fine history and development and interpretation. Are you telling me that because six skaters do it within a two-year period of time that you're tired of it? I find it's that the skater hasn't developed it. We're always seeing different interpretations of dance, and if you get tired of Swan Lake being done, then try to bring a great quality into it that makes it sing. Swan Lake is wonderful for skating because it has long sweeping movements. It is not Irish clog dancing or step dancing. AM: Well, I think if you're going to pick, and this is my opinion, but I think if you're going to pick one of the commonly used pieces, you better make it good and different and that's what I think — Samantha Cesario, I don't know if you saw her program, when she did it this year at Nationals I thought it was fantastic. And I am not a fan of using Carmen because I think that after Debi Thomas and Katarina Witt had the battle of the Carmens, you'd better leave Carmen pretty dead. You know? [laughs] DB: But one of the things is, you have to understand what the music is. I write about this in the book, and I talk about Mao Asada who is a lovely skater and a very nice person. But she had all the white feathers and all the music, et cetera, but there was no understanding of the movement of a swan in that. There was no understanding of the history of Swan Lake. I mean, you can't have a program that has been performed for more than one hundred years now, nearly one and a half centuries, in great companies with great choreography and great sweeping music, and not understand what that performance level is. You must understand the music, you must be able to — and there are different interpretations of the music, different orchestrations, there are many times different ones. Whatever the piece of music it is that you choose, you can find sometimes more than one interpretation, and unfortunately we don't hear about that on the commentary, I don't think. AM: Is there a piece of music you would like to hear more? DB: Look, that's like saying is there a great skater that I'd like to see more of. Always! Always.  I like great skating. That's all I'm saying, I like the best. And I want to be — it's theatre, it's athletic ability, it's competition, it's technical demands, it's music, it's choreography, it's costuming, it's the whole kit and caboodle. And I guarantee you, do you think they're going to cut out — I wouldn't be at all surprised, if Ottavio Cinquanta had his way, that he would make everybody wear the same costume for the team competition. AM: They were talking about that. One of the articles this week was talking about putting all the athletes in Nike outfits [laughs]. DB: Yeah, yeah, yeah, remind me of one event I don't want to see if that's the case [laughs]. Oh, gawd. If you have a great product, don't mess with it. Skating was a great product. Now we've messed with it so completely and for so long that it's very disheartening. Remember, you're not a member of the rules committee if you're not making rules. If you're a rule maker, you have to be making rules or otherwise you're not a rule maker. AM: [laughs] They got a little over-zealous. All right. Your commentary is epic. People still talk about it, they miss hearing you, your catchphrases have inspired a drinking game and compilations on YouTube. And you have gotten some heat for your comments such as “refrigerator break”. DB: I'd like to address that. What the heck, would it have been better if I had said, it will give you an opportunity to make a toilet break? I don't think so. A refrigerator break — you know, I think I got over 1100 letters from people saying that I had only said that, I wouldn't have said that if this, that, and the other thing. And I wrote each one of them back and I said, look, Angela Nikodinov was a very talented skater, but she was skating against Michelle Kwan, and there is no problem coming in second behind Michelle Kwan, but she was coming in fifth, fourth, second, third, fourth, that sort of thing, floating around. But what she allowed you to do was to lose your sense of concentration on her. That's where performance level comes in. She was a gorgeous, lovely skater, with wonderful technique and very, very beautiful on the ice. But she allowed you to lose your sense of concentration. She allowed you to switch off and take a refrigerator break. And after I answered that, I never heard anything more about it. AM: But she did listen to you, though. Because she came back amazing the next year. She made you pay attention. DB: [laughs] Well, that's my gold medal. My gold medal is when I hear, when I make a criticism of somebody and then I see later that they have either improved it or changed it. One of the things I always said about Evgeni Plushenko was, way back in 2002, I said, he's a wonderful jumper but he's a lousy spinner. And the next year, or two years, I was at a championship, and he said, how are my spins? Are they better? So he was listening, and he made it good. And his spins were better. And that's a great compliment to me, when somebody does that. AM: So how many skaters would you say have come up to you and talked to you about your comments about their performance? DB: Well, I had a lot of skaters say, can you point it out to me. One of them was Jason Dungjen and his partner, Kyoko Ina. Kyoko Ina had exquisite posture and stretch and arching of the back, and Jason was like a nice all-American skater without that same stretch. So when they did a pair move, hers was extended beautifully and his was not parallel to it. As soon as I pointed that out to him, he understood exactly what I was talking about, and I think they worked hard on it. So that was a great honor to me. That is my gold medal, my reward, when a skater will do that. And look, you really only criticize, I say this in the book, you really only criticize a skater if they're talented. If they're not talented, it doesn't spark comment. AM: Would you say the refrigerator break comment was the largest reaction you've gotten over the years from fans, or was there another one? DB: It was one of them. Another one of them was when I commented one time about, I think it was crossing the street in New York, and everybody said, oh, you wouldn't have said that if the skater that I was referring to wasn't black. And come on, I encourage my kids to cross the street, I say, stop and look in both directions, otherwise you'll get run over and then you'll look like a pancake on that road. It's about an awareness of your surroundings, and you've got to be aware of the surrounding effect in an arena. How many times do you see — go back and look at programs. That's why some day I would like to see a great media museum of skating. Because if you go back and you look at these performances and you consider them, then you will never forget that. And it will apply itself, it will be another basis for another understanding of what it is that you're doing. Every position you take on the ice should be thought out. You cannot just do these positions where you see the skater come out and they take their position and the free leg toe is pointed behind and to the side of the skating leg — you know, the kind of position you take where one foot is flat on the ice and the other is on a point behind you. Look at the number of times you see, what is the position of that foot? Is it turned under, or is it not in an elegant position? If you want to see proper position, look at Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov, and John Curry, and Janet Lynn, and Peggy Fleming. And Dorothy Hamill, who became an infinitely better skater after she had won the Olympics. I was a better skater after I had finally learned, long after I had retired, and learned from — there's a whole chapter in this, it's called "Open Your Eyes, Dummy." And it was my opening my eyes which led me finally to understand what the heck skating was all about. AM: Well, I would love it if we finally had a media museum with all those performances. DB: There is the museum in Colorado Springs, but it doesn't have any money. US Figure Skating is not really going to support it because they want to support skating today. But sometimes the education, the media education is imperative. AM: Yes. Well, I am hopeful that one day will come to fruition, that there will be a central place where all that is housed, and it's not just Youtube [laughs]. So, all right, your book, I sort of felt like as I was reading it, and this is sort of getting heavy here, I really felt that it was a metaphor for living a balanced and fulfilling life. It talks about centering yourself, breaking the rules, having a solid foundation, fighting the good fight, not wilting under pressure, and having a whole lot of fun. Do you view skating that way? DB: Yep. You know, skating is no different than gardening, than painting, than anything else. You know, I hope you'll come some day and see my garden lecture [laughs]. Then you can do a conversation on that for a different sport. But all of these things intertwine. Why do you dress the way you do? Why do you speak the way you do? Why do you live in a house, if you have the opportunity to live in a house, why do you choose the style of house you do? All of these are inherent in skating, and they are inherent in everything else. It is called not only what the eye beholds, it's what the eye registers. One of my pet peeves is watching skaters take position in the center of the ice, when they skate down and they're on one foot, and the other knee is bent. Time after time, you look at that particular entrance move on one foot, and it's not a beautiful move, but yet there is every skater doing it. What is that move, what is that position supposed to be? If you ask the skater, what are you trying to express by that, are you expressing a welcoming moment to the crowd? You don't have to be on one foot to do that. Take a look at it yourself, and I urge all your listeners to take a look at that, and take a look at the number of times an arm flings above the shoulder. And question each and every one. Peggy Fleming, always, I would see her in front of a mirror at a rink, constantly checking out the way she finished a turn or a pirouette, or made a turn, and how the dress worked with it. She was constantly looking at that. And you will find that she does not make a move even today without knowing exactly what that position is, whether she's on skates or not. Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov, and I talk about this in the book, I went up to Lake Placid where they were getting a lifetime achievement award, and of course the Lake Placid club or whoever it was didn't have any money for publicizing it, and it was an almost empty arena. However, the Protopopovs skated in it as if they were skating for the King and Queen of England. And Oleg took an opening position with Ludmila, and you take one look — without them moving one inch, they took a position, and I said, that's it, that's their whole performance right there in that position.  They were stunningly beautiful in that position. And they're well into their 70s, and there was the story, right there. My problem is, I can't look at skating — that's one of the sickening things with having watched it for so long, is that I've seen extraordinary performances, Belita Jepson-Turner, Noffke and Schubach, pairs skaters who were champions of the US in the 40s, the movement, their parallelism of their moves was extraordinary. They couldn't do throw axels and they couldn't know what triple side-by-side jumps were and so forth, but their pair skating quality was without compare. I mean, it was just extraordinary. All I'm asking the skaters to do, and everybody else to do, is to look at it, and say, why are we doing this? Each step, what is it supposed to do, and is it? Does it interpret the music and does it interpret — John Curry, we did a thing with Ice Theatre of New York, Dance on Camera, at Lincoln Centre over the weekend, and it was all about, it was a great deal of comment and production in the John Curry film of what he was teaching skaters and the way he was making them look at film. Slavka Kohout used to do that. She would take all her dancers in to see the ballet, or any other production that had dance movement in it. It wasn't about seeing it, it was about registering it. And that's the important thing. If there's only one thing I hope for in this book, with a little bit of tomfoolery that you don't get stuck into something serious, and, number two, that it opens your eyes. AM: I love that. All right, I just have one more question for you, then, since we are just days away from the Olympics. I am curious what you think about the new team event. DB: Oh, I don't really think much about it at all one way or the other. I think if they want to do it, that's fine. It gives a secondary skater a secondary choice, and it gives somebody who may not win a medal another chance to win a medal, and I'm fine with that. I don't have any great problem with it. You know, God bless them, what they're doing is trying to get another set of television exposure, and that produces money and blah blah blah. The one thing, though, that I did understand was that when the rules were not quite set in Budapest, at the European championships, the newspaper people were asking Ottavio Cinquanta what was the rule about such and such, and he said he didn't know. He said, you have to ask the Russians about that. Well, hello! Are the Russians the ones that are controlling the sport? I mean, the Russians are a hell of a good skaters, and very efficient, and they've got a wonderful team going, but are they the arbiters of our sport? That's my complaint. “I am a speed skater, I know nothing about figure skating.” AM: I know, it's incredible. Well, I agree with you that it's wonderful that there's another opportunity for skaters to get medals, because there's just been the one chance all these decades. But I also don't think that it was done for any reason other than ratings and money. I'm cynical enough for that. But I'm glad to see the skaters get another opportunity. DB: Right. But you've also got to remember that that's why figures are no longer with us. They didn't bring in any money, nobody watched them, they took a lot of time, they were expensive, and they didn't add anything to the income. So this is another one that adds to the income, and it really doesn't change anything. I'm sure they'll all do their same programs that they will do again. They're not going to create a new program now. They might for another year. AM: Maybe for the next round. But we'll see. To be determined [laughs]. Well, I am going to take you up on your offer and invite myself to one of your garden lectures someday. DB: [laughs]. All right. I just finished one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and one at the Botanic Garden in Arizona, and I've done several in the New York area, in the New York and Connecticut area, and maybe there'll be one in the early spring or so in a nearby city to New York. So I'll let you know. AM: Please! And as we've discussed I'm hoping to come out and see you in a couple of weeks, and do another interview more about you. DB: Good. AM: And I hope that you'll let me come up and take a look at your fantastic art collection of skating art. DB: Oh, you're more than welcome. AM: I would love it. DB: You're more than welcome. You have a good one, my dear, and keep the faith. AM: You too. Enjoy the next couple of weeks of good television. DB: Thank you, ma'am.   AM: And there it is. I have finally had my dream of interviewing Dick Button. I can now die happy. I think. Although, as you heard, he did want to have another conversation later. So we will plan to do that. And until next time —May you be a pioneer with whatever you choose to do. May you be as opinionated and passionate about your life's work as Dick Button is about his life's work. And as he says in his new book Push Dick's Button, on page 46, and yes, I'm paraphrasing just a little bit: don't skate to Carmen. Bye-bye!

MAY 2012 With his partner Kyoka Ina, John Zimmerman was three time US National Champion, 2002 World Bronze Medalist, and 5th at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. He's been a Stars On Ice performer, a model, a coach, and is also (with wife Sylvia Fontana) the founder of Karisma Sportswear. He talks about starting skating in an Alabama mall, his role models in Pair skating, and how much fun he had shooting Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. 45 minutes, 22 seconds Win a pair of Women's Pants from Karisma Sportswear! One lucky winner can win a pair of women's pants from Karisma Sportswear. To enter, send me either through email, twitter or my Facebook page the answer to the following question: what music did Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman skate to during their Short Program at the 2002 Olympics? All entries received between May 13, 2012 and June 11, 2012 are eligible. The winners will be picked at random from all correct entries sent. Click here to learn more about how to enter. Thanks to Fiona Mcquarrie for transcribing these interview highlights: On his most embarrassing skating moment: I can clearly tell you right now. For me, it was 2001 Worlds. I was very excited, very hyper. Usually Kyoko and I went and did our own thing, just skated on our own, and I went — somehow I caught my heel on crossovers, fell and slid into the wall. On crossovers. Pretty humiliating. Just as we're starting to vie for a position at Worlds. Pretty stupid [laughs]. On how he began skating: I started in a mall rink in 1976 or 1977. My mom was a skater from Michigan. They ended up moving down to Montgomery [Alabama], and on the weekends she wanted to go skating, so she took me to the mall. I just took to it, I loved it. It kept me off the streets and gave me something to do [laughs]. And there was a game room in the mall so I'd go play games afterwards. It was just a fun-filled afternoon for me. By the time I was eight we moved up to Ohio, and I'd done ISI [Ice Skating Institute] competitions, and there I got into USFSA [US Figure Skating Association] competitions, so it got a little more competitive, and that's where it really took off. On starting as a pairs skater: I remember seeing little newspaper articles from when I was about eight, with a girl, but we didn't really skate pairs, we just stroked around a lot and probably argued [laughs]. I didn't start skating pairs until I was 17. Most of the time everyone's pursuing a singles career, and that's the mentality I'm trying to change a little bit. I was 17, I enjoyed it, and it was an attractive idea, wondering if I could compete internationally now, instead of waiting until I got this triple jump or whatever. On being coached by Peter Oppegard, while skating with Stephanie Stiegler: Peter was intense and he had a vision for his teams. I loved it then, but I appreciate it even now. He still has a reputation for being an intense coach, and I think it's great. Peter has a very good way of being able to draw your potential out with his ideas and his intensity, and as long as everyone's on the page, these things work. On working with Tamara Moskvina: She was a master of trying to make the most of things for the team, and she took responsibility for it. A lot of coaches just say, I'm trying to do this, I'm trying to do that, but if the team's not up to par, she feels that she hasn't done something. She hasn't been creative enough, or she hasn't figured out a way to get it to where we believe in it, or figured it out. I remember a couple of times at competitions, she took the blame for it, like, I have not done my job as a coach to get him to understand, or get her to understand. And I'm like, whew, the pressure's off me [laughs]. But as a coach now, I mention that to my teams, but I don't think I'm at the level yet to take full responsibility. I don't know if I can handle that yet [laughs]. On pairs skaters changing partners: It's kind of a delicate situation because you have to stay on the ethical side of things. Usually, like in everything, face to face dialogue and honesty is best. Having a clear game plan with the students, getting clear goals from them, getting them to understand your goals, and if something's not being met, having that be addressed. And everyone needs to know that if it's not being addressed, then there needs to be a meeting, and everyone has to decide which way to go, and everything needs to be clear. When you address another coach, you just go straight up to them and talk to them about it, maybe get US Figure Skating involved, but never to the student. If the student wants to talk to another student, to their friends, then that's one thing to do, but I still think the best way to do it is from coach to coach. On working with Tamara Moskvina, Igor Moskvin, and Artur Dmitriev during his partnership with Kyoko Ina: They harnessed me down a lot in my thoughts and my emotions, which for 90% of the part was great. Sometimes it's good to let a little bit out, a little wildness in a skating program or in how a person goes about their practice or their competition. But they definitely taught me structure of thought, structure of competition and practice, and how to know my body, know myself and what to expect. And at high-level competition, to learn from each mistake and to know your body. Peter brought out a great artistic flair in me. Tamara got it to where I controlled it a bit more, and Kyoko is a technician. She was the go-to person on the jumps, she had extremely efficient skating. I had to work on that a bit more, I was a little bit of a bull in a china shop that way, but I offered a side of it that she didn't have and that she could grow from. Artur was my hero growing up, it was the reckless abandonment of skating, and he had the cool hair and he was big and strong [laughs]. The confidence in his face, and the care for the woman, their cultural way on the stage, in the presence of the audience, of handling the woman — it's more than just skating pairs, it's the whole look. And I aspired to be like him, I wanted to move like him and skate like him. On being a cute boy and then a handsome adult in skating: Well, coming from Alabama, you know, you certainly weren't regarded as a good looking guy, because I was wearing spandex outfits, and if I ever had any friends come to see me, they would make fun of me and think it's silly, I'm lifting up my leg and moving my hand in a balletic way or whatever. I was humbled big time. And then I had a ballet teacher I worked with in Alabama, she was cute and I responded to what she wanted me to do. She was telling me I was looking good, and I was feeling the confidence [laughs]. It gave me confidence in a way I'd never experienced before. But I don't think about looks or anything, I just enjoy doing what I'm doing. And if that portrays a certain look or whatever, that's great. On competing at the 2002 Olympics: We wanted to know what kind of emotions we were going to have walking into it. We had a four-year plan with Tamara, and we worked out the placements we wanted to get. We had good performances and we had moments where we looked like we had two left feet, but the second year we placed seventh [at Worlds]. The third year, we placed seventh again, so we were duplicating that, which was devastating, because we needed to be fifth. So we hit a couple of Grand Prix finals, we did okay, we were there, which was the most important thing. But replicating the seventh place was so bad that we had to go back home and work that much harder. So that last year, in my mind, we worked hard, US Figure Skating gave us great support financially and with anything we needed to be the best. But also, the way we went into that last year, it was like, this is it. This might be the only Olympics I get to go to, and I really dedicated myself. It was intense, but it was so long, it was like ten months. I wanted to be a vegetable on the couch at the end of the day, knowing that I could not have done any more. I was sick of going to competitions and being nervous. So I wanted to go and enjoy myself. And when I was at the Olympics walking around, one of the first days, I was thinking, I'm healthy, I've never been in better shape, and here I am at the Olympics representing my country. [The judging scandal] I don't know if it affected our results that much, but it really comes down to feeling you've done the best you could. A month later, we got the bronze medal at Worlds, but we didn't skate that well, and I don't even hardly remember that performance. The crowning moment of my career was the Olympics, what it meant, and the way we skated. You have a four year plan, and you go four years later and you know exactly where you are. That was cool. But what really irritated me about the whole judging scandal is that there are people who have their own political purposes, and they're using all of us for pawn pieces, you know, from chess, and it does make me sick to think — I come from Alabama, I skated in a mall rink, my dream was to be in the Olympics, and these people don't know that if that little boy had that dream, he could have had the misfortune from someone else's decisions and their political games, and that's kind of unfortunate. Even if it's 13th or 14th place, with the sacred Games that it is or it's touted to be, it's a placement and it should hold a lot more sanctity, I think. On skating in Stars on Ice: It was phenomenal. All of us who were on it, it was our dream to be on these tours. The camaraderie and the ensemble work, it's just cool. It was the best, great lights, great music, intimate setting on the smaller ice. That first year, it was with Katarina Witt, Tara Lipinski, Gorsha Sur and Renee Roca, Jenni [Meno] and Todd [Sand}, Kurt Browning, Scott Hamilton, all these great skaters. Your jaw is dropping, thinking, I can't believe I'm with this group of people, I'm from Alabama, this doesn't make any sense [laughs]. But you feel intimidated, so the thing you'd better do is keep working, and I loved it and wanted to keep on that job. And what cooler job can you have than ice skating and making money doing it? So we always would work really hard to be more capable and to figure out the direction that would keep us unique. On working with his wife, Silvia Fontana: We're together 95% of the time. The only time we're apart is if she's off doing a show in Italy or something or I'm off doing a show. We love it. We coach every day together. We respect each other as athletes and as people, and we learn from each other every day, and make each other laugh. There's no other place I'd rather be than by her side, anywhere. On being on the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy TV show: When I got the call, they called my agent, I wasn't sure, I was like, isn't this the show where they cut the guy's hair off all the time? No, thank you. I wrote that in the contract, can you believe that? Yeah, you can do the show but you're not going to cut my hair [laughs]. I didn't know what to expect with those guys, it was a four-day taping , and it was like a hurricane. They come in, and you're supposed to only interact with them on camera, because everything has to be spontaneous. So we could be in different rooms for two hours, setting up the scene, and then meeting and being spontaneous [laughs]. Oh, wait, can you make that reaction again? Burst in the door and be surprised [laughs]. But we enjoyed the show, we got a ton of things out of it, great exposure, and we loved the guys. We still see Carson [Kressley] every once in a while. On being on the Skating with Celebrities TV show: It was cool, but it was intense. Since I had already been on one reality show, I figured it was going to be staged. It wasn't, and it was a lot more competitive than you'd imagine. Especially Lloyd [Eisler] and I, coming down to the wire in the end, we were doing a lot of these crazy moves that we shouldn't have been doing with people who hadn't really skated [laughed]. I did the same kind of show two years ago in Russia, Night on Ice. I got to skate with Leo Tolstoy's great-granddaughter, which was kind of cool, but it was four and a half months long, 15 episodes, which was like forever [laughs]. On running the Karisma sportswear line: It's been a lot of fun, and it's certainly a direction I never thought I would go, women's sportswear [laughs], but . . . Silvia started it a few years ago. She was teaching in Italy when I was teaching there as well, and she gave a present to a skating mother over there, it was a little skating dress, and they talked about starting their own company over there, which they did [laughs]. They wanted a nice, upscale, very beautiful Italian representation for figure skating, something that looked classy and elegant, and cute, and something made with the best materials in the world. So we have a very good line that has some great interesting textured fabrics, and every kid will ooh and aah once they touch it, and the colors really pop. And it's been three years and we are selling all over Russia and Japan and Europe. It's a lot of work but it's a lot of fun. On the state of pairs skating in the US: There's some classical-looking teams there that look unique. I think another year or so and we're going to have some depth to it. It's important to me. I'd like to have good access for all the kids in this country looking for teams and looking for partnerships, and getting more boys. If we're going to be competitive with the world, we need to get more guys around 14 or 15 thinking of pairs right away. That's going to be the hard part, because it's a commodity, in a way, it's rare to find a good guy.