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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2014 0:09:56 GMT
@polinaedmunds At the White House with the best! @felicia_zhang @natebartholomay @jasonbskates @marissacastelli @simonshnapir Two months after Sochi, and two weeks after Japan, Polina Edmunds is now in Washington, D.C. In a tweet Thursday morning, the 15-year-old San Jose Olympic skater said that she and fellow figure skater Jason Brown, 19, of Chicago are "off to the White House." Brown told the Today Show on Wednesday that he is so excited, he doesn't "know how I'm going to handle it." @polinaedmunds The famous White House Library inside the ◻️ ? #WhiteHouseTour #WheresTheSecretRoom The teenage skating sensations are there as part of a celebration hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to to thank the Winter Olympics and Paralympics teams "on their performance... for representing the United States during the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia," according to the White House. About 200 athletes came to the event. @polinaedmunds 1 2 3 Jump! Or drop. #WhiteHouseShenanigans #FrontLawnWaddup Obama adressed the Olympians Thursday afternoon, rooting on "Team USA" for bringing home 46 medals for the "red white and blue." He credited all the athletes, giving some special mentions to the hockey players, slopestylers and the American women who won more medals than the women from any other country.
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Post by Admin on Apr 5, 2014 0:08:24 GMT
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Post by Admin on Apr 9, 2014 2:08:31 GMT
Meryl Davis and Charlie White were America's golden sweethearts at the Sochi Olympics. They won the ice dancing competition and have taken their fame to the floor of "Dancing With the Stars." Despite that commitment, they are in the lineup for the Stars on Ice tour, which stops at the Prudential Center on Wednesday. These ice shows are a chance to perform for a crowd in a way that the Olympics don't allow. Joining Davis and White are two-time U.S. champion Ashley Wagner, along with 2014 U.S. champion Gracie Gold, reigning U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott, Jason Brown and two-time reigning U.S. pairs champions Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir — all of whom comprised the bronze medal-winning team in the new Olympic team competition. This will be a different kind of show, Wagner promises, one that offers some exciting departures from the norm and a new look at the sport. "This is not your average figure skating show," said Wagner, who noted there are group skates and contemporary music to keep the crowd entertained. "It's not old lady figure skating … but it's still family friendly." The skaters are particularly happy to tour while the Olympic competition is still in the forefront of people's minds. "It'll be really nice to be in front of an audience that has fresh excitement from the Olympics," said Wagner, who may be best known for her facial expression — and the ensuing viral GIF — after getting scores she didn't agree with during the February Olympic Games. There is no scoring here, it is all performance, and even the hyper-competitive Wagner is happy about that. "I'm a total show pony," she said. "I have no problem admitting that." This is for the costumes — "It's always fun to see what you can do with sequins and sparkles" without going overboard, Wagner said — music, performance and applause, for connecting with an audience that they often have to block out during stressful competitions. "It's a lot more relaxed and you pick up on that energy from the crowd," she said. "It's so incredibly fun."
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Post by Admin on Apr 12, 2014 22:05:16 GMT
Figure skaters have the option of performing to vocal music with lyrics next season, but top U.S. skaters aren’t committing to change just yet. Olympians Jason Brown, Gracie Gold and Polina Edmunds said they would stick to music without lyrics for next season. “I have no idea how people are going to utilize it and what they’re going to do,” Brown said, taking a wait-and-see approach. The reigning U.S. champion Gold said she wants to see how judges react to the skaters who do skate to vocal music before she gives it a shot. “We’ll let people experiment before me,” Gold said, “but maybe in a couple years.” Edmunds said she had not thought about the new International Skating Union rule, which goes into effect for men, women and pairs. It had already been allowed in ice dance. “But I think I’m going to keep it the classic way,” Edmunds said. “I think it’ll be interesting to see what everyone does with it.” Two-time U.S. champion Ashley Wagner, with more senior experience than Brown, Gold and Edmunds, said she hasn’t decided if she will embrace the change yet. “I think that it really is going to require a fine balance,” she said. “It needs to be done tastefully. I’m just so traditional when it comes to figure skating. Yeah, it’ll be awesome to have that extra choice. We’ll see. I think it would be really cool to bring some classic rock in with the lyrics. That would be really awesome. It would bring in a new crowd to figure skating.”
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Post by Admin on Apr 18, 2014 21:50:40 GMT
International skating officials are reviewing a complaint from South Korea over the judging of the women's event at the Sochi Olympics. International Skating Union spokeswoman Selina Vanier confirmed Thursday that the complaint from the Korean Skating Union and Korean Olympic Committee is in the hands of the federation's disciplinary committee. The ISU won't comment further, Vanier said. Adelina Sotnikova's victory over 2010 Olympic champion Yuna Kim of South Korea has been controversial because of the makeup of the judging panel for the final. One of the judges is married to a top Russian skating official, and she was seen hugging Sotnikova after the competition. Another judge was suspended for a year for trying to fix the ice dance competition at the 1998 Olympics. Also, the head of the technical panel, which decides the value of the elements in a program, was Alexander Lakernik, a vice president of the Russian skating federation.
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