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U.S. Figure Skating Championships 100 days away

From left, Josie Griffin, of Boise, and Savannah Hanby, Michelle Murphy and Alyssa Brooks, of Seattle, put blade guards back on their skates after placing third, second, first and fourth in the intermediate ladies division of the Northwest Pacific Regional Figure Skating Championships on Saturday at Eagles Ice-A-Rena. Spokane will host the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships from Jan. 21 to 28. (Photos by HOLLY PICKETT / The Spokesman-Review)
By Hilary Kraus hilaryk@spokesman.com
From left, Josie Griffin, of Boise, and Savannah Hanby, Michelle Murphy and Alyssa Brooks, of Seattle, put blade guards back on their skates after placing third, second, first and fourth in the intermediate ladies division of the Northwest Pacific Regional Figure Skating Championships on Saturday at Eagles Ice-A-Rena. Spokane will host the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships from Jan. 21 to 28. (Photos by HOLLY PICKETT / The Spokesman-Review)

Is an event really an event before the “schedule of events” is announced? The 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships officials don’t need to bother about such technicalities anymore. On Wednesday, the Spokane competition was lifted to official event status with the announcement of the schedule.

The announcement comes as the countdown to the nationals drops to 100 days from today. Local organizers Toby Steward and Barb Beddor’s busy week will continue at 10 a.m. Saturday when tickets go on sale for individual sessions for the competition, which runs Jan. 21-28. Organizers also announced this week that all-event packages will include tickets to 21 sessions.

“A lot of people still think it’s a long way off, but we’re on the closing stretch of this event,” said Steward, who announced in 2004 that Spokane had won the bid for the 2007 event.

The first night of the Spokane championships will start the junior ladies performing their short programs at the Spokane Arena. Junior skaters are one step below the top level. Because of live TV coverage, the senior ladies – the most popular competition – will perform their free-skate programs beginning at 10:40 a.m. on Jan. 27. It starts so early so ABC-TV can live-broadcast the top skaters late that afternoon on the East Coast. Those top skaters are expected to hit the ice about 1 p.m. Spokane time.

Senior men’s free skate will close the competition, beginning at 5:40 that night. It, too, will be broadcast live, on ESPN2.

The exhibition of champions on Jan. 28 is sold out.

Spokane’s field is expected to be loaded as 11 of the 16 Olympians have registered to compete.

Sasha Cohen, Johnny Weir, pairs Rena Inoue and John Baldwin, and ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto plan to defend their 2006 national titles. Defending world champion Kimmie Meissner, Emily Hughes and Evan Lysacek also will compete.

Katy Taylor and Beatrisa Liang, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively, at the 2006 nationals in St. Louis, and fifth-place men’s finisher Scott Smith, also have registered to compete. Matt Savoie and Michael Weiss, who competed in Spokane during the 2002 Skate America, have retired.

Naomi Nari Nam has returned and is teaming with Themistocles Leftheris in pairs. Nam, second in the 1999 nationals behind Michelle Kwan, left skating because of injuries. That year, at 13, she electrified the crowd when she landed five triple jumps.

“It’s tremendous,” Lindsay DeWall, U.S. Figure Skating director of media relations, said of the field of competitors.