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ABC Sports skating analyst and Olympic silver medallist Peter Carruthers provides a preview to the State
Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Mr. Carruthers will be stopping by from time to time to answer user questions about figure skating. So if a question you have wasn't answered in his preview then feel free to fire off a question to him now.
Without a doubt, Michelle Kwan is the favorite to retain her national championship when she takes the ice at the State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championship on Saturday.
Kwan received a wake-up call when Irina Slutskaya upset her at the ISU Grand Prix Final. Kwan is a beautiful skater with a very sound technique, but the judges want to see her improve the technical side of her skating with more difficult triples in her program.
There are some definite shining stars on the horizon that will look to dethrone Kwan. Naomi Nari Nam, who was hot on the scene last year, continues to show improvement. She didn't have a great Junior Grand Prix; however, she is showing a lot of improvement with her artistry and balancing out with the technical side of her skating.
Sasha Cohen, who is exciting to watch because she is a well-balanced skater, is also on the way up. Cohen has a beautiful line in her skating, as demonstrated by the way she holds her body as she glides across the ice. She has a maturity that is wonderful to see in a young skater.
It is good to see that these up-and-coming skaters are starting to understand the importance of having some great style in their skating as well as the big, difficult jumps.
Going over to the men, all eyes are on Timothy Goebel because of the many quads he landed at Skate America. He is very athletic but needs to develop his artistry to balance out what is called the "total package" in skating. He must be better at interpreting the music and showing good strength within his style as he does difficult quads. Judges take a lot of notice of quads, but they want to see the jumps backed up with good choreography.
Michael Weiss has some good experience behind him and is a good competitor. He has been trying to get his quad to be a standard part of his skating repertoire. Weiss needs that added element to be competitive on the world level with guys like Goebel, Evgeny Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin.
Everyone is curious to see what Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman, who have had an up-and-down season, will bring to nationals. They really want to get their unison going so that they will look smooth and create the wonderful picture on the ice that pairs need to create. Ina and Zimmerman are exciting to watch, but at times they can be a little rough.
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