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Thursday, January 13
 
ISU Grand Prix Final, Jan. 15-16

The International Skating Union's Grand Prix Final is the culmination of six Grand Prix of Figure Skating events that took place throughout the season. U.S. skaters Michelle Kwan and Timothy Goebel and Russian star Maria Butyrskaya head the list of eligible (non-professional) skaters as ABC Sports presents coverage of the ISU Grand Prix Final from Lyon, France, Saturday, Jan. 15 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET) and Sunday, Jan. 16 (4:00-6:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

ABC Sports, the Network of Figure Skating, is your home for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Feb. 12 (4:00-6:00 and 9:00-11:00 p.m., ET); the European Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, March 4 (1:30-3:30 p.m., ET); and the World Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, April 1 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET), Sunday, April 2 (1:00-3:00 p.m., ET) and Saturday, April 8 (3:30-6:00 p.m., ET).

COMMENTATORS: Terry Gannon, Peggy Fleming, Dick Button, Lesley Visser and Susie Wynne will provide commentary from the Palais des Sports Gerland in Lyon, France.

ISU GRAND PRIX FINAL: The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series featured six competitions -- Skate America, Skate Canada, Nations Cup, Trophee Lalique, Cup of Russia and NHK Trophy -- in which eligible skaters skated for points and the right to compete in the ISU Grand Prix Final.

LADIES: The ladies field is headlined by two-time World champion Michelle Kwan of the U.S. and current World champion Maria Butyrskaya of Russia. Also competing in the ladies field is current Russian national champion Irina Slutskaya and reigning World bronze medalist Yulia Soldatova. Rounding out the ladies field is Elena Liashenko of the Ukraine and Viktoria Volchkova of Russia.

MEN'S: Russian skater Evgeny Plushenko, the current World silver medalist, leads a very talented men's field. Joining him are Timothy Goebel, the current U.S. National bronze medalist, and two-time Olympic silver medalist Elvis Stojko of Canada. Five-time Chinese national champion Zhengxin Guo, current Russian national bronze medalist Alexander Abt and Vincent Restencourt of France complete the men's field.

PAIRS: Two-time World champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze headline the pairs competition, which also includes fellow Russian skaters Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, the reigning European champions. Joining in the competition are seven-time French champions Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis, Canadian silver medalists Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, and reigning World silver medalists Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao of China.

DANCE: Competing in the dance portion of the show will be Olympic bronze medalists Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France, four-time World bronze medalists Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz of Canada and Russian national champions Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh. Rounding out the field will be seven-time Italian national champions Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, and seven-time Lithuanian national champions Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas.

FIGURE SKATING ON ABC SPORTS: The Road to Gold is here on ABC Sports, the Network of Figure Skating. This winter, ABC Sports will broadcast the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships for the 37th consecutive year and the World Figure Skating Championships for the 21st year. In all, ABC Sports will cover 14 events and provide 41 hours of original figure skating programming this season. In addition, ABC will also produce an additional 40 hours of figure skating coverage to air on ESPN and Lifetime.




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