Skate America returning to Xfinity Arena next year

Published 1:30 am Thursday, November 16, 2017

EVERETT — The world’s best figure skaters are coming back to Everett.

U.S. Figure Skating announced Thursday that Everett’s Xfinity Arena has been selected to host the 2018 Skate America competition. The event takes place Oct. 19-21.

”It’s an exciting day,” Tammy Dunn, sports development director for the Snohomish County Sports Commission, said. “It really puts us back on the map, that we can host international events and national events in Snohomish County.”

Skate America is an international competition that is the first of six stops on the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series. The event features some of the best skaters in the world in men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dancing competitions.

This will be the second time Xfinity Arena hosts Skate America. It was also the site for Skate America in 2008, when the event featured six past and future Olympic medalists, including 2010 men’s Olympic champion Evan Lysacek of the United States and 2010 women’s Olympic champion Kim Yuna of South Korea.

For more video clips of the 2008 Skate America, click here.

The 2008 event set an attendance record for Skate America, a mark that still stands. According to U.S. Figure Skating, 29,477 spectators attended the 2008 event, which spanned six sessions over the course of three days. The competition also was seen by a national television audience.

“U.S. Figure Skating is excited Skate America will return to Everett after the event set a record for attendance in 2008,” U.S. Figure Skating president Sam Auxier said in a press release. “We saw a truly passionate fan base and skating community, and we believe the athletes and officials will enjoy that experience again next fall.”

Dunn said efforts to bring Skate America back to Everett began last October. She credited Xfinity Arena, Snohomish County and the City of Everett as being key parties in making it happen. Dunn also said the increased hotel capacity created by two new hotels opening in downtown Everett was a factor.

Dunn said she hopes Everett can surpass the 30,000 attendance mark at the 2018 event. Based on the excitement that surrounded the event in 2008, Dunn said that’s a realistic goal.

“People from the area were so excited to see well-known skaters,” Dunn said. “There were skaters who went on to be Olympians, and this was right before the Vancouver Olympics (in 2010) so it was great timing for us.

“It’s also a great opportunity for our local figure skating clubs in Snohomish County, the Everett Figure Skating Club (based out of the Xfinity Community Ice Rink) and the Seattle Skating Club (based out of OlympicView Arena in Mountlake Terrace). For the girls and boys who put in a lot of work, they get to see their idols and mentors and be a part of that. It brings our community together.”

Next year’s Skate America could feature a local connection. Jean-Luc Baker, a member of the Seattle Skating Club who graduated from Kamiak High School, and his partner, Kaitlin Hawayek, are competing in ice dancing at this year’s Skate America, which takes place Nov. 24-26 in Lake Placid, New York. Baker and Hawayek won the gold medal at the 2014 World Junior Championships and placed fourth at Skate Canada, a Grand Prix event, in October.

The list of those who will compete at 2018 Skate America will be announced in June.

In 2008, at what was then named Comcast Arena, Japan’s Takahiko Kozuka held off Americans Johnny Weir and Lysacek to win the men’s competition; Kim won the women’s competition ahead of Japan’s Yukari Nakano and Miki Ando; Germany’s two-time Olympic bronze medalists Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy won the pairs competition ahead of the U.S.’s Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker and Russia’s Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov; and France’s Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder edged the U.S.’s Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto and Great Britain’s Sinead and John Kerr in ice dancing.