Todd Eldredge Spends Summer Coaching

Three-time Olympian Todd Eldredge is spending his summer coaching, and he is enjoying every minute of it.
"The funny thing is I used to think, 'I don't want to be a coach,'" says six-time U.S. men's champion, world champion and three-time Olympian Todd Eldredge, who is at Incredible Ice in Coral Springs, Florida, working with 2006 world champion, 2007 U.S. champion Kimberly Meissner, as well as a bunch of kids.

"They're fun to work with because most of the younger kids will try anything," says Eldredge, 36. "They have neat personalities. You see their excitement when they work with you and all of a sudden they land their double Axel or double flip or their single toe for the first time. They light up in their faces like, 'Wow, I did it! That's really cool.' It's neat to see."

He's helping coach Richard Callaghan get Meissner's career back on track. "Trying to get her to come out of her shell a little bit," Eldredge says. "Get her consistent on her jumps. Get her spins better. Get her footwork better.

"Right now, I'm trying to get her to use her knees a lot when she's skating. She skates a little bit stiff in her knees. If she were able to get down in her knees a little bit it would look nice and help her posture. I'm working on little nit-picky things. Obviously, she's a world champion, so she's good. But it's the little nit-picky things that you try to pick up and improve on to make her that much better."

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SYTYCD's Gev Manoukian Has Strong Skating Ties

The competition for season four of the hit FOX show So You Think You Can Dance is and among the top 18 is a young hip-hop/break dancer with a very tight bond to the skating world. During the audition shows Gev Manoukian, 21, from Centerville, Utah, was shown doing a bit of break dancing on ice. But skating is more than a casual hobby.

To many skating fans, his last name is quite familiar. Gev is the son of acrobatic show skater Akop Manoukian, who has performed all over the world, first with Ari Zakarian and for the past few years with Armen Saakian. Manoukian and Saakian appeared in the movie Blades of Glory. He showed a tape of Gev's on ice moves to Blades choreographer Sarah Kawahara, who said he wasn't right for the movie but she'd keep him in mind for future projects.

"Sometimes we go to the rink and I teach him a little bit. Everybody stands around watching and clapping," said Manoukian. "I'm a better skater, but he does cooler tricks."

Gev Manoukian grew up in Kazakhstan with his mother (Manoukian's ex-wife), but visited his father in the U.S. every summer. After graduating high school at 16, he moved permanently to the U.S., where he attended 11th and 12th grades in Utah, and graduated from high school again. He enrolled in the University of Utah and decided to stay there with his aunt and grandparents when Manoukian moved to Jackson, Wyoming.

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Ari and Akop- on ice

Mens Champion Crowned

In a free skate where one top contender fell completely apart and two others had repeated flaws, Johnny Weir's conservative but nearly error-free skating won the bronze medal Saturday at the World Figure Skating Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Jeffrey Buttle, rebounding from two subpar seasons and a defeat in the Canadian Championships. became the first Canadian man to win the title since Elvis Stojko in 1997.

Buttle won the free skate as easily as he had won the short program and was the only man to do two outstanding programs.




France's Brian Joubert, the 2007 champion, rallied from sixth in the short program to take the silver.

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Brilliant short program for Weir but Buttle Leads

Canadian Jeffrey Buttle won the men's short program at the world figure skating championships on Friday.


In a confident performance to Astor Piazzolla's Adios Nonino, Buttle took a surprise lead going into Saturday's final as several of the favorites, including defending champion Brian Joubert, made crucial mistakes.

Buttle, second in this year's Four Continents competition and bronze medalist at the Turin Olympics, scored the highest technical mark to end on 82.10 points, comfortably ahead of American Johnny Weir in second on 80.79 points.

Weir, coached by 1992 Olympic champion Viktor Petrenko and Galina Zmievskaia, turned in a near-faultless skate. Japan's Daisuke Takahashi was third on 80.40 points after a jump error.

Frenchman Joubert fell on his triple lutz and eked out just 77.75 points to stand sixth after a two-point deduction. An ISU official said France was appealing one of the deduction points, which was for the use of music with vocals.

Buttle said he felt "comfortable and confident" on the ice as he executed a clean short program.

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Plushenko Will Return

Olympic and three-time world figure skating champion Yevgeny Plushenko of Russia announced yesterday that he has decided to return to amateur competition in a bid to defend his title at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

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Verner Captures European Skating Title

The Czech Republic's Thomas Verner, skating to the theme of Oscar-winning epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" captured the European title on Thursday delivering a shattering blow to world champion Brian Joubert.

Verner, the silver medallist in 2006, went one better this time round, pushing double world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland into second place with Frenchman Joubert, whose season has been dogged by injury and illness, settling for a tearful third.

Verner achieved a mark of 153.64, his best of the season, after pulling off a quadruple toe-loop and seven triples.

Already leading after the short programme, Verner finished with a competition total mark of 232.67 points.

"I am really happy to have won my first title," said the Czech skater. "It wasn't my best programme but I put all of my heart into it and the judges felt that."

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Source: Google News

Johnny Weir Chasing Fourth U.S. Title

Don't let the new North Jersey address fool you. Or the new Russian coaches. Or the new Russian choreographer. Or the new Russian music. Or the new Russian training regimen.
Johnny Weir, unlike the swan he portrayed in his most famous skating routine, is incapable of transformation.

Despite relocating, redesigning Team Weir and rededicating himself in an effort to win a fourth national title this week and an Olympic gold medal in 2010, the Coatesville-born figure skater remains what he has always been - as outspoken off the ice as he is graceful on it.

On his personal website and in a telephone interview before leaving for this week's 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Paul, Weir displayed his diva side, a catty candor that he acknowledged often turns people off.

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