2011 Skate America Isabella TOBIAS Deividas STAGNIUNAS 2

The 2011

Skate America Skate America is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by U.S. Figure Skating. The first Skate America was in held in 1979 in Lake Placid, New York, as a test event fo ...

was the first event of six in the 2011–12 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, it lies ...

on October 21–23. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles,

pair skating Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating ...

, and ice dancing. Skaters earned points toward qualifying for the 2011–12 Grand Prix Final.

Eligibility

Skaters who reached the age of 14 by July 1, 2011 were eligible to compete on the senior Grand Prix circuit. In July 2011, minimum score requirements were added to the Grand Prix series and were set at two-thirds of the top scores at the 2011 World Championships. Prior to competing in a Grand Prix event, skaters were required to earn the following:

Entries

The entries were as follows.

Schedule

* All times are

Pacific Standard Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

(GMT -08:00). * Friday, October 21 ** 7:05 p.m. – Men's short program ** 8:45 p.m. – Short dance * Saturday, October 22 ** 11:39 a.m. – Men's free skating ** 1:34 p.m. – Free dance ** 7:00 p.m. – Pairs' short program ** 8:25 p.m. - Ladies' short program * Sunday, October 23 ** 1:05 p.m. - Pairs' free skating ** 2:45 p.m. - Ladies' free skating ** 7:00 p.m. - Exhibitions (Skating Spectacular)

Results

Men

Michal Březina took an eight-point lead in the short program. He was concerned by the narrowness of the rink: "I was kind of scared if I will fit with the curve because the rink is not so wide. I almost hit the board in practice when I was going for the triple flip." He was third in the free skating but held on to win his first Grand Prix title.

Kevin van der Perren Kevin van der Perren (born 6 August 1982) is a Belgian former competitive figure skater. He is the 2007 & 2009 European Figure Skating Championships, European bronze medalist, a three-time Grand Prix medalist, and an eight-time (2000–2004, 200 ...

placed fourth in the short program and won the free skating to take silver medal, his first GP medal since

2007 Skate Canada International The 2007 Skate Canada International was the second event of six in the 2007–08 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Colisée Pepsi in Quebec City, Quebec on November 1 ...

. It was the third Grand Prix silver medal of his career. The 2009 Skate America champion, Takahiko Kozuka, took the bronze medal. This was the first time that no US skater stood on the men's podium at

Ladies

Alissa Czisny won the short program, while Carolina Kostner placed first in the free skating. Czisny edged out Kostner by only 0.13 points for the gold medal. Viktoria Helgesson took the bronze and became the first Swedish skater to win a Grand Prix medal.

Pairs

In the short program, Savchenko and Szolkowy attempted the rare throw triple Axel for the first time in their career but experienced a hard fall. They were given credit for completing the revolutions and finished in 5th place, 3.4 points off the lead. They rebounded to place first in the free skating and won their second consecutive Skate America title and third in their career. They added a reverse lasso lift to their free skating but performed only a double twist because they were still working on a new entry to the triple. Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang took silver, their fifth medal at Skate America, after missing the previous season due to hand, shoulder and knee injuries. Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch won the bronze, their second medal at the event.

Ice dancing

Davis and White repeated as Skate America champions, with Pechalat and Bourzat winning the silver medal, and Tobias and Stagniunas pulling up from fifth to take bronze, their first Grand Prix medal. Bourzat was recovering from bronchitis.

References

External links

*
2011 Hilton HHonors Skate America
at U.S. Figure Skating
ISU GP Skate America 2011: Entries, time and practice schedule
at the International Skating Union {{DEFAULTSORT:Skate America 2011 Skate America 2011 in figure skating 2011 in sports in California October 2011 sports events in the United States