Everett takes center ice
Published 12:16 pm Friday, October 17, 2008
EVERETT — This time of year, the Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center is generally a place of slap shots, hip checks and power plays. But later this week, with the hockey players out of town, that same ice will be a scene of dazzling sit spins, elegant salchows and breathtaking toe loops.
Brace yourself, Everett. Skate America is coming.
On Oct. 23-26, a bevy of Olympians, world champions, national champions and some of the most promising up-and-comers in worldwide figure skating will transform Everett’s home rink into an international stage. Virtually all of the top United States skaters will be on hand, and they’ll be joined by some of the very best from Canada and countries in Europe and Asia.
“This will be an amazing opportunity to see these world-class skaters compete,” said Scottie Bibb, director of media and public relations for the United States Figure Skating Association. “These are top senior competitors from all around the world, so it’s a unique chance for folks to see Olympic-level skaters without having to be at the Olympics.”
“To sum it up, this is the best of the best,” said Steve Baker of Edmonds, a longtime figure skating coach and the co-president of Production Sports, which is promoting the event. “This will be all you see on TV and more.”
For many in the Skate America field, the visit to Everett will be the first of two to the Northwest in the space of 16 months. After all, the next Winter Olympics will be in nearby Vancouver, British Columbia, in February of 2010.
“I think it’s safe to say you’ll be seeing quite a few of the people at this event (in Vancouver),” Baker said.
Though the lineup is subject to last-minute changes, 59 skaters representing 17 nations are scheduled to compete. (Skate America roster)
As the host country for this Grand Prix event of the International Skating Union, the United States will have the largest contingent — three individuals each for the men’s and ladies’ singles, and three teams for pairs and ice dancing, for a total of 18.
Representing the U.S. in the ladies’ singles event will be 2008 national champion Mirai Nagasu; Kimmie Meissner, a 2006 Olympian, the 2006 world champion and the 2007 U.S. champion; and Rachael Flatt, the 2008 junior world champion.
The American men will include Evan Lysacek, a 2006 Olympian and the 2007 and 2008 national champion; Johnny Weir, another 2006 Olympian and the U.S. champion from 2004-06; and Adam Rippon, the 2008 world junior champion.
In the pairs competition, Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker are the reigning American champions. They’ll be joined by two-time U.S. pairs champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin; and Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin, who placed sixth at last year’s U.S. Championships.
Headlining the ice dance competition will be Americans Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, winners of the U.S. title the past five years and the 2006 Olympic silver medalists. Other U.S. skaters in the event will be Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates, the 2008 junior world champions; and Jane Summersett and Todd Gilles, who were sixth at the 2008 national championships.
Yes, the United States will be well represented at this event, but the field is thick with outstanding international skaters, too. Among them, 2007 world champion Miki Ando of Japan and three-time Chinese champion Yan Liu in ladies’ singles; Kevin Van Der Perren of Belgium, sixth at the 2008 world championships, and Chengjiang Li, a six-time Chinese national champion in men’s singles; Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, the reigning world pairs champions; and Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France, the current world ice dance champions.
“This will be the first time in the 2008-2009 season that all these skaters have faced off against each other,” Baker said. “So this is going to be quite a battle.”
The awarding of Skate America to Everett was announced on Oct. 23, 2007. Having a tremendous facility like the Everett Events Center was instrumental, of course, but it was also the result of Baker and Laura Lee, his co-president with Production Sports, making a bid that had the support of top government and business officials from Everett and Snohomish County.
The United States Figure Skating Association, it would seem, also has a soft spot for this part of the country, as evidenced by the U.S. Championships being held in Spokane in 2007 and scheduled again for 2010.
“We’ve just had such phenomenal success in the Pacific Northwest,” Bibb said. “Spokane set all sorts of attendance records (in 2007), and people are still talking about how successful that event was. The city just embraced the event, and that was really kind of the same feeling we got from Everett. Everyone is very excited for us to be there.”
Although major figure skating events often end up in larger cities, the awarding of bids “doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the size of the town,” she added. “It’s more about how enthusiastic the folks are to host the event. And (the people behind Everett’s bid) let us know they were absolutely capable of putting on an awesome event.”
“If you take a large event and dump it in a big venue in a big city,” Baker explained, “it becomes just another skating event. But if you place it in a smaller community, it makes it much easier to get community involvement. And we wanted this to be an event that the community can get on board with and embrace, which they certainly have done.”
When Skate America wraps up, he went on, “we want people to walk away and say, ‘Wow, that was a great event.’ Not just, ‘That was a great skating competition.’ Of course the skating will be fabulous, but it’ll be all the other things that change it from being just another skating competition to something you’ll really remember.”
