Rose City ices up on final day of competition
PORTLAND – On the final and most anticipated day of the State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships competition, an ice storm assaulted Portland, making the sidewalks impassable and the streets resemble a skating rink – and leaving Spokane’s mayor stranded at the airport.
Fans attending Saturday morning’s men’s free skates slipped and slid their way into the Rose Garden. Traveling by air was even more of an inconvenience as flights into the city were canceled and delayed. Mayor Jim West had a full day planned in Portland, but never made it out of Spokane.
“I’m disappointed,” West said in a telephone conversation, after the third flight he tried to board was canceled. “I was going to come down and help sell Spokane. I was going to see what U.S. State Figure Skating expects out of us. I guess I’ll have to go to St. Louis next year.”
St. Louis plays host to next year’s event, which is five weeks before the 2006 Turin Olympics. Spokane plays host in 2007.
Inland Northwest fans should expect eight full days of skating, spread over two venues, the Spokane Arena and the new Spokane Convention Center.
The competition features men, women, pairs and ice dancers at the championship, junior and novice levels. Aside from the competition that finishes with the wildly popular women’s finals Saturday night, hundreds of fans attend practices and warm-up sessions, some beginning as early as 7 a.m.
The day after the competition, many of the medalists skate in an Exhibition of Champions.
“It’s an extremely large and long event,” said Barb Beddor of Star USA, who is the Spokane event chairman along with her husband, Toby Steward. “You hear ‘eight days of competition,’ but until you see it, you have no idea.”
Beddor, who also organized the 2002 Skate America in Spokane, said about 100 all-events packages were sold here, translating into about 2,300 tickets. Their goal, Steward said, is to sell more than 150,000 tickets.
Managing director Mike Rosenberg said that, as of Friday night, about 106,000 were sold to the Portland event.
Steward and Beddor, who worked with the Spokane Convention & Visitors Bureau here, created a buzz around the Spokane 2007 booth at the Rose Garden both Friday and Saturday. Championship women’s skater Jennifer Kirk, a name to remember for Spokane 2007, and novice pair’s team of Kalie Budvarson and Chris Anders of Coeur d’Alene, signed autographs at the booth for almost a half-hour Friday night.
Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, winners of their second straight title in ice dance, stopped by Saturday. The pair got 6.0s across the board for presentation Friday night, the first time any skater at nationals earned perfect marks from all nine judges.
Belbin likely will be staying home for the 2006 Olympics, because as a Canadian she isn’t expected to get her citizenship until 2007.
The dancers, who won at the 2002 Skate America, plan to skate in the Spokane nationals if all goes as planned.
“Spokane was so friendly and warm,” Belbin said. “It had the proper atmosphere and we definitely felt comfortable there. We’re definitely looking forward to coming back.”