Figure Skating: He's Here, He's Weir, Get Over It

[carrier76]

Sasha Cohen has joined Stars on Ice. I guess that means she is no longer an amateur.

What happened to her big acting dreams?

[lpatrice]

I just saw something terrifying: Belbin and Agosto performing to a medley of Punk Ass Bitch songs!! Please tell me that was exhibition skate and not an actual Free Dance/Original Dance. It was awful, they were awful, it was awful - have I mentioned it was awful.

[swanflake]

lpatrice said:

I just saw something terrifying: Belbin and Agosto performing to a medley of Punk Ass Bitch songs!! Please tell me that was exhibition skate and not an actual Free Dance/Original Dance. It was awful, they were awful, it was awful - have I mentioned it was awful.

It was an exhibition. They did it at the 2007 USFSA Spring Open event.

Have you seen their original dance for this season, though? I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet...

[The Brunette]

lpatrice said:

I just saw something terrifying: Belbin and Agosto performing to a medley of Punk Ass Bitch songs!! Please tell me that was exhibition skate and not an actual Free Dance/Original Dance. It was awful, they were awful, it was awful - have I mentioned it was awful.

The British team actually did a PAB free dance for 2004-05 (although technically, one of the songs used was NSYNC).

As you watch, keep in mind that they're sister and brother.

[Deleted]

Swan, Sarah doing the "I'm going back to the amateurs" pose was just a veiled threat to her coach Robin Wagner.

[swanflake]

deaconblue said:

Swan, Sarah doing the "I'm going back to the amateurs" pose was just a veiled threat to her coach Robin Wagner.

Ooh, tell us more. I was told that Sarah and Robin had a falling out between the 02-03 and 03-04 season. I remember that Sarah filled out the paperwork to go to 2004 Nationals, but was nowhere to be seen that season, so I never knew what was going on with her that year.

The last time I saw Sarah skate on TV, she couldn't even do a Double Axel.

Does Robin coach anymore? I remember someone saying that Sarah was her only pupil, and that her husband was really wealthy so she never coached because she needed the money.

[Deleted]

As you can imagine Swan, everyone in the skating world gossips big time. You'll never see an cattier and more competitive environment. Everyone was absolutely shocked when Robin became Sara's coach after she won Jr nationals. Debbie had been her coach forever and was the one who taught her how to skate. They were very close, Debbie was very maternal towards Sara and it was a super crappy thing to do. I saw Robin coach for years. She was ok, never had a particularly talented student. Not the coach one would choose to train at that level.

Robin's husband is loaded, she never needed the $$. The thing is, so are the Hughes and at that point you receive tons of sponsorship $$, so paying a coach isn't really an issue. I think Robin used to coach her other students in the morning, then take Sara to New Jersey, where she had the rink to herself and she trained most of the day.

If you remember, after Sara won her gold medal, she skated in shows for a year, then all of the sudden she went back to school to get an education. Here's the scoop and others will deny it but I know for a fact its the truth. Robin agreed to coach Sara for free. The deal was if Sara won gold, Robin would receive half of her earnings for a set period of time (it was a few years, I don't remember exactly anymore). Sara's parents agreed because they knew she wasn't that good and figured she would never win.

So, Sara won. she skated for a period of time. Things started getting nasty over the deal and Sara went back to school so Robin would get nothing from her. So Sara saying she would compete again was a message to Robin telling her she wasn't going to get anymore $$.

I don't know if Robin coaches anymore. I knew it would never work with Sasha, Robin isn't a good enough coach for her. Notice that Emily is still with her original coach. the Hughes learned a lesson.

Sara not being able to jump doesn't surprise me. She put on weight, she doesn't train hard. She (and Emily) do not have skaters bodies. They have large thighs and asses and need to fight their genetics daily in order to maintain the weight and do those jumps.

[Deleted]

I love gossip. Thanks Deacon Blue!

[swanflake]

Yeah, thanks a lot for sharing that, Deacon Blue. What an ugly situation. And how sad it is that Sarah was willing to put such a halt on her professional career over it. I've read articles where people attributed a big reasons the huge decline in the popularity of figure skating over the last four years to Tara and Sarah because they haven't been out there very much visible to mainstream audiences.

Emily has finally left Bonni Retzkin, but only because she's going to Harvard now and had to find a new coach in Boston. Now she's with Mark Mitchell and the Swedish guy who skated in the '88 Olympics.

Deacon Blue, do you know if its true that Naomi Lang faked that big ankle injury that led to Peter and her retiring? And can you share anything about what all brought Sasha and Tatiana Tarasova to part ways? I remember at the 2004 European Championships, ABC interviewed Tarasova about it, and she said something like "American famous skaters should have American famous coaches."

[oceansun]

Whee, a skating thread! I'm a crazy fan. Thanks for the gossip Deacon Blue.

My favorite eligible skaters at the moment are Yu-Na Kim, Miki Ando, Mirai Nagasu, Daisuke Takahashi, Tomas Verner, Savchenko & Szolkowy and Domnina & Shabalin. Past skaters I've also love: Midori Ito, Sasha Cohen, Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze, Totmianina & Marinin, and Yagudin. On the Hate list: Plushenko and um...actually that's the only one I can think of right now.

I like Uncle Dick - most of the time. Half the fun is listening to him contradict himself on everything. Peggy is useless. Bezic and Scott Hamilton need to go away - NBC needs some competent commentators who know what they are talking about and are informed about the new system and don't gush over (imo) overhyped skaters with serious skating deficits. Give me Suzie Wynn and Terry anyday!