ISU World No35 May 2008

INTERNATIONAL SKATING UNION OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER

INSIDE • ISU NEWS • SEASON REVIEW • CONGRESS PREVIEW • RESULTS

NO 35 MAI 2008

ISU COUNCIL More and more in the world of sport there are concerns about the fact that young people seem to be less inclined to practise sport and to follow sport disciplines.

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An explanation could be that there are many alternative ways to spend free time. New opportunities, also offered by technology, could be responsible for young people’s reduced interest in sport.

However, we believe that there is another second explanation: it is a more complex analysis and one that requires prompt action. In the first case there is undeniably an increase in the use of computers and new types of entertainment, think for instance of how many children have a PC at home and enjoy spending a lot of time on it. The second explanation is however related to the sport activity itself.

Let us focus on this second aspect. The proliferation of commercial interests in the area of sport, with high exposure on TV and via the press, has remarkably stimulated youth to approach the sport activity to gain money and fame. Therefore they are moved to compete in all events, with high technical performances being given by very young athletes.

The consequence of such a situation is that many young athletes decide to stop the activity when they realize that their sporting competitors of the same age, but already high calibre athletes, are so strong that they can not be contended with. This is an example that shows how sport, in a certain sense, can kill sport.

A very simple calculation can show that a young person who starts sport activity at eight years old, after ten years is still a teenager and has already had a pretty long career.

In such a case the youth may stop as there may not be enough motivation to continue.

Of course this example doesn’t involve those who have chosen the sport as a future profession, but future professionals remain a minor number compared to the ones who joined the sport for the sake of the competition.

Sport entities, in the front line the International Olympic Committee, have already taken steps to help the young athletes. The Youth Olympic Games is an initiative that will have the first event in 2010 in Singapore. The International Skating Union is consistently working in the same direction to provide youth with international sport activity, giving due respect to the categories among the young. The issue today is not recruitment of young athletes, rather we now have to focus more on what to do to keep the skaters on the ice. In addition to this, the presence of young coaches and sport administrators is also a priority.

Life is so. There are moments for innovation and development, but there are also times for consolidation. In this moment both approaches are valid.

Ottavio Cinquanta President, International Skating Union

ISU World is the official newsletter of the International Skating Union Published and produced by ISU, Chemin de Primerose 2, 1007 Lausanne, Switzerland Telephone: +41 21 612 66 66. Facsimile: +41 21 612 66 77.

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Front cover photograph: Apolo Anton Ohno (USA) Photo by Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images Photography: © Getty Images / AFP: Joe Klamar, Jamie McDonald, Yuri Kadobnov, © Alison Gilkes / Albar Photo Media, © Getty Images / AFP : Vincent Jannink, Toshifumi Kitamura, Kazuhiro Nogu, Anton Want / Allsport

The ISU Council met in Gothenburg Sweden on March 22-25, 2008. At this meeting the ISU Council granted the Skating Association of Montenegro (MNE) ISU Membership and accepted the Singapore Ice Skating Association (SIN) as a provisional Figure Skating Member. The Ice Skating Association of Ireland (IRL) also recently joined the ISU as a provisional Figure Skating Member (ISU Communication 1485).

The Council has also agreed on additional criteria for the annual Development Contribution to Members, commonly known as the C Contribution. Further information about this and other decisions can be found in ISU Communication 1492.

A new event is planned for 2009, called the ISU World Team Trophy in Figure Skating.

It is a competition between six national Figure Skating teams from ISU Members including the host. The first edition of the ISU World Team Trophy has been allotted to the Japan Skating Federation to be held in Tokyo, Japan on April 16-19, 2009. More information is available on the website in ISU Communication 1490.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded Ulf Lindén, ISU Treasurer, with the IOC President’s Award. The honor was presented to Ulf Lindén by the IOC Vice President Ms. Gunilla Lindberg.

Ulf Lindén (SWE) was named Treasurer to the ISU in 1994 and has represented the ISU continuously in that capacity to date. He came to the ISU after a long financial career as CEO of a data management company and member of 32 boards of which he was chairman to 22.

He was also Vice President and then President of the Swedish Speed Skating Association from 1988-1994, Honorary Member of the Swedish Speed Skating Association and Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the ISU World Speed Skating Championships in 1994 and Chairman of the ISU Restructuring Commission from 2002 to 2003.

ISU SPORTS DIRECTORATE

The Sports Directorate continued to work with the ISU President, the ISU Vice Presidents, the ISU Council, the ISU Technical Committees and ISU Secretariat to improve ISU sports and events. In Figure Skating the Memorandums for both the ISU Championships and the Grand Prix events were revised, an educational DVD for the Program Components is on the way and an ISU Communication providing updates and clarifications for the next season has been prepared. The Sports Directorate was again proactively involved in

ISU NEWS this year’s Pair Skating development seminar which took place in Berlin (GER) in March.

30 young Novice/Junior pairs, 33 coaches and 38 judges attended. The initiative is part of on-going work to develop pair skating in new geographical areas and to reinforce the discipline in traditional pair skating regions.

In Speed Skating ice control equipment continued to be used at Speed Skating World Cup events and the Speed Skating Memorandum has been revised. Members of the Sports Directorate also met with the ISU Short Track Technical Committee in March to discuss initiatives to further increase public interest and spectator appeal in this discipline.

The Sports Directorate and the Development Coordinator discussed project applications put forward by Members for ISU support.

Guidance was given to the applying Members and project modifications made as required.

The Sports Directorate will continue to work on ensuring more Members are integrated into development program initiatives especially in the area of Synchronized Skating and Pair Skating.

Novice categories across all disciplines are under evaluation and will be discussed at the next ISU Congress in Monaco.

ISU TECHNICAL COMMITTEES

Ahead of the 2008 Congress the Technical Committees submitted proposed changes to the Special Regulations and Technical Rules and reviewed proposals put forward by Members.

Single & Pair Skating

The annual Technical Committee meetings were held in March in Sweden and in May in Italy. These meetings allowed the Committee to give its recommendations on the List of all categories of Officials for the season 2008-2009. Time was devoted to preparing proposed changes in the Scale of Value Charts, Levels Charts and Grade of Execution guidelines which were then presented by the Committee, approved by the Sports Directorate and published in an ISU Communication. Coaches and skaters will use this information to prepare their new programs. Members of the Technical Committee served as Technical Controllers and Referees at several ISU Championships including the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships and ISU World Figure Skating Championships. They served as Moderators at Sponsored and Recognized Judges Seminars. Alexander Lakernik moderated in Berlin (GER), Junko Hiramatsu in Seoul (KOR) and Rita Zonnekeyn in Warsaw (POL).

Ice Dance

The annual meeting between the Technical Committee, Ice Dance Coaches and Skaters brought together more than 50 coaches, skaters and judges who discussed proposed changes to the requirements for the next season. Ideas for the further development of Ice Dance and in particular the role of Compulsory Dances in Junior and Senior events were also reviewed in detail. The new Ice Dance Communication for Season 2008/2009 has been prepared. Changes can be expected to the composition of the Original Dance and Free Dance for next season.

There are also plans to update the levels of dance elements. A further Communication outlining the ISU educational materials available in Ice Dance will be released shortly along with relevant materials for the new compulsory Dance - the Finnstep. ISU Recognized educational seminars have taken place in Italy and Poland this spring. See ISU Communication 1489 for more information.

Synchronized Skating ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta with Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden as she cuts the ribbon to open the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2008

This year’s Synchronized Skating ISU Judges’ Examination was held during the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships in Budapest Hungary on March 28-30.

Two judges, from Netherlands and United

States took the examination, both of whom successfully passed. The ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships 2008 also provided the opportunity to hold a coaches meeting which was moderated

by Cathy Dalton. Earlier in the season trial judging took place in Rouen, France during the French Cup in February 2008. Judges were sent by Great Britain, New Zealand and Republic of South Africa.

Speed Skating

The Speed Skating Technical Committee met once this year in Berlin (GER) in February.

During the season Technical Committee members attended 5 ISU Championships and 10 other ISU Speed Skating Events, supervising the technical organisation of the competitions and performing comprehensive controls of logos/trademarks on team uniforms and racing suits. Special attention was paid to monitoring ice conditions.

Dedicated equipment was used to collect data in addition to information provided by the local ice technicians. This will allow comparisons across venues and give the Technical Committee representatives a better basis to fulfil their Ice Commission duties. Photo-finish equipment has been put in place at all ISU Speed Skating Events and procedures were developed to review multiple time-keeping sources in order to establish the correct results. During the season these procedures were streamlined and further rule adjustments have been proposed for Congress. The programme and regulations for the 2008/09 World Cup has been prepared in detail, partly based on input from this year’s season evaluation meeting with coaches.

Short Track

A record number of athletes participated in this season’s Samsung ISU World Cup Short Track series held in six different locations across Asia, North America and Europe. The number of athletes participating in the ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships was also a historical high indicating solid development among the younger age group. Officiating at ISU Events this season continued to improve further to measures being taken to ensure consistency.

The ISU Short Track Speed Skating Technical Committee met in March in the Republic of Korea on the occasion of the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships to address issues related to protection for athletes, officiating at the events, the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and Novice programs.

ISU WEBSITE: WWW.ISU.ORG

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EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS In January the ISU European Figure Skating Championships returned to Zagreb for the third time after 1974 and 1979. The reigning Champions in all four disciplines had come back to defend their titles, and two did so successfully. Carolina Kostner (ITA) scored 171.28 points and kept the European crown ahead of last year’s silver medallist Sarah Meier (SUI), who won the Free Skating and moved up from fourth in the Short Program to second. Like last season, the bronze went to Finland, but this time newcomer Laura Lepistö stood on the podium. Former European Champion Julia Sebestyen (HUN) placed fourth and 2007 European bronze medallist Kiira Korpi was fifth.

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Aliona Savchenko/ Robin Szolkowy (GER) claimed their second consecutive title with Russia’s Maria Mukhortova/Maxim Trankov and Yuko Kawaguchi/Alexander Smirnov finishing second and third. The Germans posted a new personal best total score of 202.39 points and cracked the 200 points for the first time in their career. Both Russian couples debuted at the event. Tatiana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov (UKR) were fourth ahead of Arina Ushakova/Sergei Karev (RUS).

Tomas Verner (CZE) upset two-time World Champion Stéphane Lambiel (SUI) and defending European Champion Brian Joubert (FRA) to take the first European title for a Czech man since 1992. He collected a new personal best total score of 232.67 points. Sergei Voronov (RUS) finished fourth in his debut at Europeans and Kevin van der Perren (BEL) was fifth.

Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy (GER)

In what was an exciting dance competition, last year’s silver medallists Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin (RUS) overtook defending Champions Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder (FRA) in the Free Dance to claim their first European title with a new personal best of 207.14 points. Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski (RUS) earned the bronze, their first ISU Championships medal. Federica Faiella/ Massimo Scali (ITA) were ranked fourth ahead of Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat (FRA).

SINGLE AND PAIR / ICE DANCE FOUR CONTINENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS The tenth edition of the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships took place in Goyang City, (KOR) on February 11-17.

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Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) landed two quadruple toeloops in the Free Skating and accumulated a new record total score of 264.41 points on his way to his first Four Continents title.

Jeffrey Buttle (CAN) won the silver medal ahead of defending Champion Evan Lysacek (USA). Stephen Carriere (USA) came in fourth in his debut at an ISU senior level Championship ahead of Jeremy Abbott (USA).

Tessa Virtue/ Scott Moir (CAN) accumulated 207.32 points and danced to victory in the Ice Dancing event followed

by Meryl Davis/Charlie White and Kimberly Navarro/Brent Bommentre (both USA). It was the first medal for Davis/White at an ISU senior level Championships and the first ISU Championships medal for Navarro/Bommentre. Jennifer Wester/ Daniil Barantsev (USA) and Kaitlyn Weaver/ Andrew Poje (CAN) came in fourth and fifth.

Mao Asada nailed a beautiful triple Axel on her way to the gold medal. She picked up 193.25 points. Joannie Rochette (CAN) beat 2007 World Champion Miki Ando (JPN) for the silver medal. A new talent from the host country, Na-Young Kim, placed fourth. Mira Leung (CAN) finished fifth. Yu-Na Kim (KOR) was absent due to injury.

Qing Pang/Jian Tong (CHN) prevailed with 187.33 points over their teammates Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang in the Pairs event. Brooke Castile/Benjamin Okolski (USA) captured their first ISU Championships medal, a bronze. Last year’s bronze medallists Rena Inoue/John Baldwin (USA) were ranked fourth this time and Jessica Miller/Ian Moram (CAN) were fifth.

Mao Asada (JPN)

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

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The ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2008 were a huge success with more than 78,000 spectators following the exciting and high-level competition from March 17-23 in the Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The World Championships returned to Gothenburg for the first time in 32 years.

The twelve medals went to nine different ISU Members. A record number for World Championships of 203 skaters/couples from 48 countries competed in the event. Puerto Rico was represented for the first time at

ISU World Championships with an entry in the Ladies division.

Savchenko/Szolkowy skated off with the gold medal, the first World title for Germany in 11 years. They also slightly improved their personal best by accumulating 202.86 points total. Zhang/ Zhang (CHN) settled for the silver with 197.82 points and Jessica Dubé/Bryce Davison (CAN) were the surprise winners of the bronze medal. Kawaguchi/Smirnov (RUS) became the first couple to perform a quadruple throw Salchow at the ISU World Championships and finished fourth ahead of Pang/Tong (CHN).

Asada, who was a runner-up last year, claimed the gold in a close Ladies event with 185.56 points. Kostner became the first Italian Lady to win a silver medal at Worlds (184.68 points) and Yu-Na Kim (KOR) took her second consecutive bronze medal (183.23 points). She was ranked fifth in the Short Program but won the Free Skating to move up two spots. Yukari Nakano (JPN) came in fourth with Rochette following in fifth. Defending Champion Ando suffered a muscle injury and was forced to withdraw during the Free Skating.

Delobel/Schoenfelder stood on the top of the podium in the dance event and earned 212.94 points. Virtue/Moir continued their ascent by winning the silver medal with 208.80 points, and Khokhlova/Novitski captured the bronze (203.26 points).

All three couples medalled for the first time at World Championships and set a new personal best for themselves.

Top contenders Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto (USA) finished fourth. A fall in the Compulsory Dance cost them dearly.

Faiella/Scali (ITA) placed fifth. European Champions Domnina/Shabalin withdrew before the event started as he had an aggravated knee injury. Buttle won the first gold in the men’s event for Canada in 11 years and improved his personal best by 11.15 to now 245.17 points. The 25-yearold turned in two excellent performances.

Joubert rallied back from a fall in the Short Program and soared from sixth to second at 231.22 points. Johnny Weir (USA) claimed the bronze, his first World medal (221.84 points). Takahashi finished fourth followed

by Lambiel.

WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

Jeffrey Buttle (CAN)

The 2007/2008 season of the junior skaters cumulated with the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia (BUL) on February 25 - March 2. Junior Worlds was once again a showcase for the emerging talent from all over the world. The event set a new record with 207 entries from 50 ISU Members. Brazil was represented for the first time at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships and entered two competitors in Ladies and Men’s singles.

Rachael Flatt led the second consecutive podium sweep at Junior Worlds for team USA in the Ladies event. In her debut, the 15-year-old gave two flawless

SINGLE AND PAIR / ICE DANCE performances to score a new personal best of 172.19 points and edged out defending champion Caroline Zhang (USA) by 0.35 points. The bronze medal went to Mirai Nagasu (JPN). Jenni Vähämaa (FIN) was fourth like last year. Yuki Nishino (JPN) was ranked fifth.

Adam Rippon (USA) was another newcomer to Junior Worlds and skated off with the gold with two strong outings that earned him 199.90 points. Artem Borodulin (RUS) earned the silver medal and Jinlin Guan (CHN) claimed the bronze. Brandon Mroz (USA) finished fourth like he had last year and Michal Brezina (CZE) came in fifth.

After winning two bronze medals in their previous appearances at Junior Worlds, Ksenia Krasilnikova/Konstantin Bezmaternykh (RUS) now stepped on to the top of the podium and accumulated 148.12 points. Liubov Iliushechkina/Nodari Maisuradze (RUS) came in second in what was their first international competition.

They won the Free Skating and collected 144.86 points. Huibo Dong/Yiming Wu (CHN) moved up from fifth to capture the bronze medal. Ekaterina Sheremetieva/ Mikhail Kuznetsov (RUS) completed the success of the Russian pairs in fourth place.

Jessica Rose Paetsch/Jon Nuss (USA) were ranked fifth.

won in 2002, 2004 and 2006 after not even qualifying for the World Championships last year. The Finns accumulated 210.48 points. Team Sweden 1, the five time and defending World Champions, settled for the silver this time at 205.71 points. Team Canada 1 claimed their second consecutive bronze medal in the event. Team Finland 2 finished fourth ahead of Team USA 1.

ISU WORLD STANDING BONUS The ISU awarded the ISU World Standing Bonus for the 2007/2008 to the three skaters/couples having earned the most

After withdrawing from Junior Worlds in the middle of their Free Dance due to injury last year, Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates (USA) now came back to take the title with a new personal best of 181.66 points.

Vanessa Crone/Paul Poirier (CAN) captured the silver ahead of Kristina Gorshkova/Vitali Butikov (RUS). Maria Monko/Ilia Tkachenko (RUS) and Madison Hubbell/Keiffer Hubbell (USA) were fourth and fifth.

WORLD SYNCHRONIZED CHAMPIONSHIPS The 2007/2008 Figure Skating season concluded with ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships on March 28-29, 2008. 22 teams from 17 countries competed in the ninth edition of the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships in the Papp Laszlo Sport Arena in Budapest (HUN). Team Finland 1 celebrated a huge comeback and retained the title they had

Isabelle Delobel / Olivier Schoenfelder (FRA)

World Standing points during the season.

Kostner earned the World standing bonus of 45,000 US$. Asada came in second (27,000 US $) and Kim was third in this season’s bonus race (18,000 US$).

Takahashi pocketed the top prize in the Men’s category like he did last year. He edged Van Der Perren by just 1 point.

Weir finished third. Savchenko/Szolkowy took the bonus for the Pairs (67,500 US$).

Zhang/Zhang were second (40,500 US$) while Dubé/Davison were third (27,000 US$). Delobel/Schoenfelder picked up the top prize in the ice dance category.

Virtue/Moir came in second ahead of Domnina/Shabalin.

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Meng Wang (CHN) ahead of Seung-Hi Park (KOR)

SHORT TRACK World Junior Championships The ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2008 in Bolzano (ITA) in January was the first short track event of the calendar year. Yun-Jae Kim, Jung-Su Lee and Han-Bin Lee made it a 1-2-3 for Korea in the men’s event. Ah-Reum Noh and Eu-Byul Lee (both KOR) won gold and silver in the ladies’ event with Qichao Zhang (CHN) in third.

European Championships The ISU European Short Track Speed Skating Championship brought new champions to the podium with Arianna Fontana (ITA) and Haralds Silovs (LAT) becoming respectively the ladies’ and men’s 2008 European champions.

In the men’s event Haralds Silovs (LAT) racing in front of a home crowd won the 1500 meter race at the outset of the competition.

British sprinter Jon Eley won the 500 meter men’s race. Silov was outpaced by Niels Kerstholt (NED) in the 1000 meter final, but the Latvian’s silver medal was sufficient to give him the edge before the superfinal. The 3000 meter super final race in the men’s event was held with raucous support from the local crowd as Haralds Silovs skated to the gold medal overall. Niels Kerstholt was second overall and Nicola Rodigari took third place.

The young Italian Arianna Fontana won the 1500 meter competition in the ladies event.

Annita Van Doorn (NED) took the 500m sprint and the most titled European athlete Evgenia

Radanova won the 1,000 meter race. Fontana won the superfinal and became overall champion, Radanova took the silver and Nina Evteeva (RUS) the bronze. Great Britain won the 3000 meter ladies relay and the 5000 meter men’s relay was won by the Italian team.

World Championships Over 150 athletes from 32 countries participated in the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2008 from March 7-9, 2008 in Gangneung City (KOR).

The Gangneung sports complex was full to capacity throughout the championships. Apolo Anton Ohno (USA) took the World Short Track title for the men and Meng Wang (CHN) is the ladies 2008 World Short Track Champion.

Ohno won the men’s title with total of 68 points picked up by a golden finish in the 500m distance and a silver in the 1000m distance. He had come in third in the 3000m Super Finals. Korea took second and third place overall. Ho-Suk Lee earned 63 points and Kyung-Taek Song was third with 62 points. The Ladies champion Meng Wang took her title with ease on a total of 107 points. She had had a sublime competition winning triple gold in the 500m, 1,000m, and 1,500 meters. Team mate Yang Zhou took second place with 76 points, Shin-Young Yang of Korea was third overall on 37 points. Korea won both the men’s and ladies’ relay.

Team Championships Harbin, China was the venue for the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Team

Championships 2008. China and United States won the ladies’ and men’s competitions respectively. In the men’s event the United States team of Apolo Anton Ohno, Jeff Simon, Charles Ryan Leveille, JP Kepka and Jordan Malone had a solid competition. The team won the relay and were rarely out of the top two in the individual races. Defending champions Canada won silver and Korea took the bronze. Meng Wang, Yang Zhou, Quihong Liu, Nannan Zhao and Tian Yu Fu comprised the winning ladies’ team from China. They underlined their strength winning in the relay and showing aptitude in the individual races.

Korea took second place and Canada third.

Samsung ISU World Cup Short Track The ISU World Cup Short Track series finished on a high note with two sold out events in February in Quebec City (CAN) and then in Salt Lake City (USA). After six events across Asia, Europe and North America it was China and Korea who confirmed their competitive excellence with Meng Wang (CHN) topping again this year the ladies 500m World Cup Short Track classification and China topping the ladies Relay and ladies Team classification. However the biggest winner overall was Korea who had a particularly successful World Cup. Korean Sun-Yu Jin finished first place overall for the ladies 1000m and 1500m distances. For the Men SiBack Sung (KOR) finished in first place overall in the 500m, Hyun-Soo Ahn (KOR) took the 1000m, Ho-Suk Lee(KOR) topped the 1500m and Korea took the top spot in both Men’s Relay and Team classification.

SPEED SKATING SPEED SKATING

1500m Ladies

Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating

The 1500m ladies competition was tight.

Christine Nesbitt (CAN) had been leading the World Cup from the start of the year, but Kristina Groves (CAN) had the strongest finish this season, Nesbitt with a groin injury settled for second. Last year the two had a similar battle but for the bronze. Ireen Wüst, Anni Friesinger and Paulien Van Deutekom (NED) also won some races. Anni Friesinger decided to focus on the 1000m and lost a possible podium place in the last World Cup to Ireen Wüst.

100m and 500m Ladies

3000m/5000m Ladies

The Dutch energy company Essent, title sponsor of the Speed Skating World Cup since 1998, has decided to reinforce its presence at ISU Events. Essent has signed a four year deal starting in 2009 as title sponsor of the ISU World and European Speed Skating Championships. The sponsorship will start on January 10, 2009 with the Essent ISU European Speed Skating Championships 2009.

This season the 500m ladies was dominated

by Jenny Wolf (GER), who whittled her world record down to 37.02 and won the distance with 1460 points, more than 500 points lead over Annette Gerritsen (NED), who finished second. Sang-Hwa Lee (KOR) was third. Wolf also successfully defended her 100m title, ahead of Judith Hesse (GER) and Shihomi Shinya (JPN).

1000m Ladies

Anni Friesinger (GER) won the 1000m convincingly. She lost only twice, once to Beixing Wang and once to Chiara Simionato (ITA), who both could not skate in the second half of the season. Ireen Wüst (NED) finished in second place and Shannon Rempel (CAN) took third place after gradually improving her results throughout the season.

Kyou-Hyuk Lee (KOR)

Martina Sáblîková (CZE) had already secured the long distance World Cup before the last race, dominating the long distances as she had done last year. Claudia Pechstein (GER) finished in second place, Kristina Groves, Daniela Anschütz-Thoms (GER) and Renate Groenewold (NED) battled to overtake Clara Hughes (CAN) who missed out on taking third position. It was Groenewold who took the third place on the podium.

100m and 500m Men

In the men’s World Cup 500m, Jeremy Wotherspoon (CAN) came back from a sabbatical year in style. He took a world record of 34.03 in the 500m. Behind him, Korean skater Kang-Seok Lee finished ahead of the other competitors. Dmitrij Lobkov from Russia beat Kyou-Hyuk Lee (KOR), Mika

Poutala (FIN) and Joon Mun (KOR) to finish in third place. In the 100m, competition was of a high level. Kang-Seok Lee took the 100m, with one absence, a win and a second place, gathering 220 points in total. Mika Poutala also had 220 points, but no single win, and therefore had to settle for silver. Joji Kato won the final race, which edged him up enough to earn third place overall with 210 points.

1000m Men

Shani Davis (USA) won the 1000m World Cup, with Denny Morrison (CAN) taking second place. Simon Kuipers (NED) was heading for the podium, but had some untimely health problems. Experienced Dutchman Jan Bos took the third spot. The season started with a world record of 1:07.00 by Finnish Pekka Koskela, but a groin injury kept him away from racing for much of the season.

1500m Men

Shani Davis (USA) took home his second World Cup of the season in the 1500m.

He was followed by the Dutch trio Simon Kuipers, Mark Tuitert and Erben Wennemars (NED). The top three skaters from last year finished fourth, fifth and sixth on this distance this year. Erben Wennemars who last year won the 1000m and 1500m started the season equalling the world record held by Davis (1:42.32) on the 1500m, but couldn’t keep his shape throughout the year and finished fourth.

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SPEED SKATING

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Ladies Team Pursuit - Netherlands

5000/10000m Men

Young Norwegian Håvard Bøkko won the long distance World Cup breaking the Sven Kramer (NED) stronghold. Kramer lost only the first long distance this season, to Enrico Fabris (ITA), who consequently held the world record (6:07.40) for a week until Kramer skated a new record 6:03.32 in Calgary.

Kramer skipped the 10,000m races and Bøkko moved ahead. Bøkko consistently skated well in spite of a shoulder injury. Kramer was runner-up. Fabris finished in third. In the World Cup Team Pursuit, the Canadians beat the German ladies ahead of Russia. The Dutch men successfully defended their Team Pursuit World Cup title ahead of Canada and Norway.

Sven Kramer won three distances, including the 500m, but not the 1500m where he finished third behind Yevgeny Lalenkov (RUS) and Enrico Fabris. The Italian runner-up from last year, Fabris took third place as Håvard Bøkko crept ahead of him to second place.

Kramer brought the championships record points to 147,716. In the ladies’ event, Ireen Wüst not only won the 1500m, but also finished second on both long distances, not too far behind last year’s champion Martina Sáblîková, who finished third overall. The second place was for Wüst’s team-mate Paulien Van Deutekom, who finished second in the 1500m and third in the other distances.

Wüst gathered a championships record amount of points, 160.533.

and championships record and the fastest times ever on a lowland rink. She also had improved her 1000m. Anni Friesinger and Ireen Wüst shared the first two places on the 1000m. Friesinger thus got second overall, Annette Gerritsen, who made both the 500m and 1000m podium, finished in third.

In the men’s competition, Jeremy Wotherspoon won the first 500m in a track record of 34,81, and Jan Bos won the 1000m, and seemed the one to battle with Wotherspoon for the title. But in the second 500m, Bos fell in front of Wotherspoon, who lost his concentration briefly. This opened the way for Kyou-Hyuk Lee, who pulled off a winning 1000m defending his World Sprint Speed Skating title. Wotherspoon finished second and Joon Mun finished third overall.

European Championships

World Sprint Championships

World Allround Championships

The ISU European Speed Skating Championships 2008 were held in the impressive new skating centre in Kolomna, Russia. It was a double Dutch victory as Sven Kramer took the title for the men and Ireen Wüst for the ladies. Championships records were set by Yekaterina Lobysheva (RUS) on the 500m and by Martina Sábliková in the 3000 and 5000m. Sven Kramer also improved the championships records on the long distances (5000m and 10,000m).

Jenny Wolf (GER) and Kyou-Hyuk Lee (KOR) were crowned the ISU World Sprint Speed Skating Champions of 2008 in Heerenveen (NED). Kyou-Hyuk Lee defended his title from last year, now coming from behind by winning both distances the second day, and beating his main rival Jeremy Wotherspoon head-tohead in the final pair.

Defending champion Anni Friesinger gave up her title to Wolf who won the 500m races.

Wolf skated 37,64 and 37,60, both a new rink

Two Dutch skaters topped the ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships in Berlin (GER). Paulien Van Deutekom and Sven Kramer were crowned 2008 World Champions for the ladies and men respectively.

In the ladies competition, Van Deutekom won the 3000m ahead of Sábliková and Groves. Wüst made it to the 500m podium and won the 1500m, but her lead on Van Deutekom was narrow and Van Deutekom took a podium finish in the 5000m with a 2.4

ISU CONGRESS PREVIEW second margin on Wüst. This was enough to bring Van Deutekom the title. Martina Sábliková won the 5000m in a new track record time of 6:59.26. In the men’s event Sven Kramer skated a track record on the longest distance, and also won the 5000m.

He already had a significant advantage after three distances and took the title. Håvard Bøkko came in second. Shani Davis finished third overall.

World Junior Championships

Dutch skaters Jan Blokhuijsen and Marrit Leenstra became the 2008 World Junior Champions in Changchun (CHN) in February.

The Dutch had their best ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships ever, winning also the team pursuit ladies and men. The Canadian team also had one of their most successful events in several years, taking four medals in total (distances and classification).

World Single Distances Championships

Nagano (JPN) hosted the World Single Distances Championships in March and there were track records in all distances apart from the 1000m men. Jeremy Wotherspoon confirmed his strength in the 500m by winning both races. Both times, World Sprint champion Kyou-Hyuk Lee was the runner-up.

Joji Kato reached the podium pleasing the home crowd with a good second run. For the ladies 500m Jenny Wolf won, taking both races. Beixing Wang was second, and Annette Gerritsen earned the bronze.Shani Davis confirmed his 1000m excellence, as he won again the men’s 1000m, with Yevgeny Lalenkov in second place and Denny Morrison close behind him. Morrison beat Davis on the final day in the 1500m, winning in a 1:45.22 track record. Davis finished 0.1 second slower, but had to share the second place with Sven Kramer. Anni Friesinger won the 1500m as well as the 1000m ladies. In the 1500m she was followed by Paulien van Deutekom and Kristina Groves. In the 1000m by Groves and Annette Gerritsen. Kristina Groves won her first world title in the 3000m, with Paulien van Deutekom and Daniela Anschütz-Thoms joining her on the podium. Martina Sábliková did not medal in the 3000m but defended her 5000m title with another sub-7 race. Clara Hughes narrowly beat strong Groves to the silver. Sven Kramer won both the 5000m and the 10,000m men’s gold, beating Enrico Fabris who took silver both times. Håvard Bøkko could not participate due to shoulder surgery.

Wouter Olde Heuvel (NED) finished third in the 5000m, Bob de Jong was third in the 10,000m. The Dutch ladies and men won the Team Pursuit. The Canadian ladies and Italian men took silver, the German ladies and men bronze.

The International Skating Union travels to Monaco for the 52nd ISU Ordinary Congress on 16-20 June 2008. Delegates will meet in the Meridian Beach Plaza in the heart of Monte-Carlo. Over 250 participants are expected, representing ISU Office Holders and Member Federations. Every Congress sees major decisions about the future direction of the ISU. For 2008 a total of nearly three hundred proposals are present. The Congress begins on 16 June with workshops followed by one day of debate on the Constitution and General Regulations. Joint Members for Figure Skating and Speed Skating have two votes on each proposal whereas Members for Figure Skating or Speed Skating alone are entitled to one vote. Wednesday and Thursday will be dedicated to parallel Figure Skating and Speed Skating sessions, before a concluding, plenary session on Friday 20 June. Proposals require a two thirds majority of Members in favor in order to be accepted.

THE PROPOSALS

The full agenda has been published on the ISU website, www.isu.org. Some of the proposals from the ISU Council and Technical Committees covering a number of key areas are summarized below

General

Proposals for Congress include the introduction of a Novice category age group consistent across all ISU disciplines. This initiative aims to further reinforce the role of youth and youth related activities, thus enhancing the development of skating at a grass roots level. There are also proposals to bring further improvements to the Sports Directorate. This body has been working successfully since June 2006.

A proposed update of ISU membership requirements and corresponding procedures has also been put forward. And in the area of trademarks to facilitate sponsor support for competitive Figure Skating athletes, changes to the size of trademarks on clothing and technical equipment will be reviewed.

Speed Skating

An extension to the program of the World Junior Speed Skating Championships so as to include single distance competitions on all Olympic distances is proposed. Other Speed Skating items include revised entry quotas and format of the last distance of the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships.

A revised qualification procedure for the

Olympic Winter Games is put forward.

Reviewed use of different time keeping technologies and enhanced recognition of the photo finish system will also be decided on.

Short Track

There is a proposal to introduce a World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Relay Champion title (ladies and men) thus enhancing the value of this race. Proposed revisions of the qualification procedure for the Olympic Winter Games have been put forward. For the Super Final over 3000m Congress will decide on a proposal aimed at raising the strategic importance of the first part of the race and improving attractiveness of the competition.

Single and Pair Skating / Ice Dancing The introduction of a new team event called the ISU World Team Trophy in Figure Skating is presented for ratification. Thus Single and Pair Skating /Ice Dance will have a team event as of April 2009 (NB Short Track and Speed Skating already have a team event).

For Compulsory Dances decisions will be taken on the introduction of a new Compulsory Dance called the “Finnstep” and on a new procedure to determine which Compulsory Dances are to be skated.

Synchronized Skating

Harmonization of rules- the Synchronized Skating Technical Committee propose making the rules consistent with Ice Dance and Single and Pair Skating regulations. Well Balanced Program – adjustments could be made to the required elements for the Short Program and Free Skating.

Congress Program Sunday 15 June Arrival and Welcome Reception Monday 16 – Tuesday 17 June Workshop and Full Congress Session Wednesday 18 – Thursday 19 June Congress / Sections Figure Skating and Speed Skating Friday 20 June Full Congress and Closing Banquet

11

FIGURE SKATING EUROPEAN FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 21 - 27 January 2008, Zagreb (CRO) Pairs Men Ladies

12

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Carolina Kostner Sarah Meier Laura Lepisto Julia Sebestyen Kiira Korpi Valentina Marchei Elene Gedevanishvili Jenna McCorkell Ksenia Doronina Jenni Vahamaa

ITA SUI FIN HUN FIN ITA GEO GBR RUS FIN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Tomas Verner Stephane Lambiel Brian Joubert Sergei Voronov Kevin Van Der Perren Adrian Schultheiss Kristoffer Berntsson Andrei Lutai Sergei Davydov Alban Preaubert

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

CZE SUI FRA RUS BEL SWE SWE RUS BLR FRA

Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy Maria Mukhortova / Maxim Trankov Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Smirnov Tatiana Volosozhar / Stanislav Morozov Arina Ushakova / Sergei Karev Stacey Kemp / David King Mari Vartmann / Florian Just Melodie Chataigner / Medhi Bouzzine Dominika Piatkowska / Dmitri Khromin Marika Zanforlin / Federico Degli Esposti

GER RUS RUS UKR RUS GBR GER FRA POL ITA

FOUR CONTINENTS FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 11 - 17 February 2008, Goyang City (KOR) Ladies Men Pairs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Mao Asada Joannie Rochette Miki Ando Na-Young Kim Mira Leung Katrina Hacker Cynthia Phaneuf Ashley Wagner Anastasia Gimazetdinova Fumie Suguri

JPN CAN JPN KOR CAN USA CAN USA UZB JPN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Daisuke Takahashi Jeffrey Buttle Evan Lysacek Stephen Carriere Jeremy Abbott Chengjiang Li Vaughn Chipeur Takahiko Kozuka Shawn Sawyer Jialiang Wu

JPN CAN USA USA USA CHN CAN JPN CAN CHN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Qing Pang / Jian Tong Dan Zhang / Hao Zhang Brooke Castile / Benjamin Okolski Rena Inoue / John Baldwin Jessica Miller / Ian Moram Jiaqi Li / Jiankun Xu Mylene Brodeur / John Mattatall Tiffany Vise / Derek Trent Marina Aganina / Dmitri Zobnin

CHN CHN USA USA CAN CHN CAN USA UZB

WORLD JUNIOR FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 25 February - 2 March 2008, Sofia (BUL) Men Ladies Pairs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Rachael Flatt Caroline Zhang Mirai Nagasu Jenni Vahamaa Yuki Nishino Alena Leonova Joshi Helgesson Sarah Hecken Katarina Gerboldt Myriane Samson

USA USA USA FIN JPN RUS SWE GER RUS CAN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Adam Rippon Artem Borodulin Jinlin Guan Brandon Mroz Michal Brezina Kevin Reynolds Ivan Bariev Jeremy Ten Tommy Steenberg Florent Amodio

USA RUS CHN USA CZE CAN RUS CAN USA FRA

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ksenia Krasilnikova / Konstantin Bezmaternikh RUS Lubov Iliushechkina / Nodari Maisuradze RUS Huibo Dong / Yiming Wu CHN Ekaterina Sheremetieva / Mikhail Kuznetsov RUS Jessica Rose Paetsch / Jon Nuss USA Maria Sergejeva / Ilja Glebov EST Yue Zhang / Lei Wang CHN Monica Pisotta / Michael Stewart CAN Amanda Velenosi / Mark Fernandez CAN Chelsi Guillen / Danny Curzon USA

WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 17 - 23 March 2008, Gothenburg (SWE) Ladies Men Pairs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Mao Asada Carolina Kostner Yu-Na Kim Yukari Nakano Joannie Rochette Sarah Meier Kimmie Meissner Laura Lepisto Kiira Korpi Beatrisa Liang

JPN ITA KOR JPN CAN SUI USA FIN FIN USA

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Jeffrey Buttle Brian Joubert Johnny Weir Daisuke Takahashi Stephane Lambiel Kevin Van Der Perren Sergei Voronov Takahiko Kozuka Patrick Chan Stephen Carriere

CAN FRA USA JPN SUI BEL RUS JPN CAN USA

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

WORLD STANDINGS POINTS 2007/2008 Ladies Men 1 2 3

Carolina Kostner Mao Asada Yu-Na Kim

ITA JPN KOR

1 2 3

Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy Dan Zhang / Hao Zhang Jessica Dube / Bryce Davison Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Smirnov Qing Pang / Jian Tong Meagan Duhamel / Craig Buntin Maria Mukhortova / Maxim Trankov Anabelle Langlois / Cody Hay Tatiana Volosozhar / Stanislav Morozov Rena Inoue / John Baldwin

GER CHN CAN RUS CHN CAN RUS CAN UKR USA

Pairs

Daisuke Takahashi Kevin Van Der Perren Johnny Weir

JPN BEL USA

1 2 3

Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkow Dan Zhang / Hao Zhang Jessica Dube / Bryce Davison

GER CHN CAN

SYNCHRONIZED SKATING WORLD SYNCHRONIZED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 28 - 30 March 2008, Budapest (HUN) Teams 1 2 3

Team Finland 1 Team Sweden 1 Team Canada 1

4 5 6

Team Finland 2 Team USA 1 Team Canada 2

7 8 9

Team Germany Team Russia 1 Team USA 2

10 11 12

Team Russia 2 Team Italy Team Switzerland

13 14 15

Team Sweden 2 Team Hungary Team Czech Republic

SPEED SKATING ESSENT ISU WORLD CUP SPEED SKATING – FINAL STANDINGS Ladies 100 m

Ice Dance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Oksana Domnina / Maxim Shabalin Isabelle Delobel / Olivier Schoenfelder Jana Khokhlova / Sergei Novitski Federica Faiella / Massimo Scali Nathalie Pechalat / Fabian Bourzat Sinead Kerr / John Kerr Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte Alexandra Zaretski / Roman Zaretski Pernelle Carron / Mathieu Jost Kristin Fraser / Igor Lukanin

RUS FRA RUS ITA FRA GBR ITA ISR FRA AZE

Ice Dance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir Meryl Davis / Charlie White Kimberly Navarro / Brent Bommentre Jennifer Wester / Daniil Barantsev Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje Allie Hann-Mccurdy / Michael Coreno Cathy Reed / Chris Reed Xiaoyang Yu / Chen Wang Xintong Huang / Xun Zheng Danielle O’Brien / Gregory Merriman

CAN USA USA USA CAN CAN JPN CHN CHN AUS

Ice Dance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Emily Samuelson / Evan Bates Vanessa Crone / Paul Poirier Kristina Gorshkova / Vitali Butikov Maria Monko / Ilia Tkachenko Madison Hubbell / Keiffer Hubbell Ekaterina Riazanova / Jonathan Guerreiro Alisa Agafonova / Dmitri Dun Kharis Ralph / Asher Hill Isabella Pajardi / Stefano Caruso Karen Routhier / Eric Saucke-Lacelle

USA CAN RUS RUS USA RUS UKR CAN ITA CAN

Ice Dance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Isabelle Delobel / Olivier Schoenfelder Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir Jana Khokhlova / Sergei Novitski Tanith Belbin / Benjamin Agosto Federica Faiella / Massimo Scali Meryl Davis / Charlie White Nathalie Pechalat / Fabian Bourzat Sinead Kerr / John Kerr Alexandra Zaretski / Roman Zaretski Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte

FRA CAN RUS USA ITA USA FRA GBR ISR ITA

Ice Dance 1 2 3

Isabelle Delobel / Olivier Schoenfelder Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir Oksana Domnina / Maxim Shabalin

16 Team France

17 Team Japan

18 Team Austria

19 20 21 22

FRA CAN RUS

Team Australia Team Croatia Team Great Britain Team Serbia

1 2 3 4 5

Jenny Wolf Judith Hesse Shihomi Shinya Svetlana Kaykan Sang-Hwa Lee

GER GER JPN RUS KOR

Ladies 500 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Jenny Wolf Annette Gerritsen Sang-Hwa Lee Svetlana Kaykan Sayuri Yoshii Marianne Timmer Beixing Wang Shannon Rempel Aihua Xing Yuliya Nemaya

Anni Friesinger Ireen Wust Shannon Rempel Chiara Simionato Annette Gerritsen Christine Nesbitt Cindy Klassen Marianne Timmer Paulien Van Deutekom Sayuri Yoshii

Kristina Groves Christine Nesbitt Ireen Wust Paulien Van Deutekom Anni Friesinger Daniela Anschütz Thoms Claudia Pechstein Jorien Voorhuis Martina Sablikova Diane Valkenburg

CAN CAN NED NED GER GER GER NED CZE NED

Ladies 3000 / 5000 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Martina Sablikova Claudia Pechstein Renate Groenewold Kristina Groves Daniela Anschütz Thoms Clara Hughes Ireen Wust Catherine Raney Cindy Klassen Katrin Mattscherodt

Points

Points

GER 1010 NED 602 CAN 516 ITA 440 NED 429 CAN 370 CAN 334 NED 298 NED 273 JPN 273

Ladies 1500 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

350 270 175 166 135

GER 1460 NED 928 KOR 714 RUS 681 JPN 648 NED 600 CHN 520 CAN 365 CHN 344 RUS 325

Ladies 1000 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Points

CZE GER NED CAN GER CAN NED USA CAN GER

Points 555 508 338 330 312 283 264 207 206 205 Points 730 490 355 310 305 285 262 239 212 185

Men 100 m 1 2 3 4 5

Kang-Seok Lee Mika Poutala Joji Kato Maciej Ustynowicz Jan Smeekens

KOR FIN JPN POL NED

Men 500 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Jeremy Wotherspoon Kang-Seok Lee Dmitry Lobkov Kyou-Hyuk Lee Mika Poutala Joon Mun Joji Kato Tucker Fredricks Keiichiro Nagashima Ki-Ho Lee

Shani Davis Denny Morrison Jan Bos Simon Kuipers Jeremy Wotherspoon Kyou-Hyuk Lee Joon Mun Mark Tuitert Erben Wennemars Mika Poutala

USA CAN NED NED CAN KOR KOR NED NED FIN

Men 1500 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Shani Davis Simon Kuipers Mark Tuitert Erben Wennemars Enrico Fabris Denny Morrison Sven Kramer Yevgeny Lalenkov Håvard Bøkko Ivan Skobrev

USA NED NED NED ITA CAN NED RUS NOR RUS

Men 5000 / 10000 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Håvard Bøkko Sven Kramer Enrico Fabris Bob De Jong Wouter Olde Heuvel Chad Hedrick Carl Verheijen Tom Prinsen Arne Dankers Øystein Grødum

NOR NED ITA NED NED USA NED NED CAN NOR

Ladies Team Pursuit

Points

Men Team Pursuit

Points

1 2 3 4 5

350 330 330 305 155

1 2 3 4 5

375 360 330 305 156

Canada Germany Russia Japan Poland

Netherlands Canada Norway Russia Germany

220 220 210 200 155 Points

CAN 1080 KOR 775 RUS 725 KOR 714 FIN 714 KOR 675 JPN 586 USA 567 JPN 540 KOR 373

Men 1000 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Points

Points 840 736 550 471 456 433 387 300 290 269 Points 460 426 413 397 359 356 320 309 305 210 Points 445 430 300 284 250 250 220 220 215 184

13

SPEED SKATING WORLD SINGLE DISTANCES SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 6 - 9 March 2008, Nagano (JPN)

EUROPEAN SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 12 - 13 January 2008, Kolomna (RUS) Ladies 1 2 3 4 5

14

Ireen Wüst Paulien Van Deutekom Martina Sablikova Claudia Pechstein Daniela Anschütz Thoms

Men NED NED CZE GER GER

1 2 3 4 5

NED NOR ITA NED RUS

WORLD SPRINT SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 19 - 20 January 2008, Heerenveen (NED) Ladies 1 2 3 4 5

Jenny Wolf Anni Friesinger Annette Gerritsen Chiara Simionato Marianne Timmer

1 2 3 4 5

Kyou-Hyuk Lee Jeremy Wotherspoon Joon Mun Simon Kuipers Keiichiro Nagashima

KOR CAN KOR NED JPN

Paulien Van Deutekom Ireen Wüst Kristina Groves Christine Nesbitt Martina Sablikova

NED NED CAN CAN CZE

1 2 3 4 5

Sven Kramer Håvard Bøkko Shani Davis Chad Hedrick Wouter Olde Heuvel

NED NOR USA USA NED

WORLD JUNIOR SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 22 - 24 February 2008, Changchun (CHN) Ladies Men 1 2 3 4 5

Marrit Leenstra Justine L’Heureux Jorieke Van Der Geest Roxanne Van Hemert Nicole Garrido

NED CAN NED NED CAN

1 2 3 4 5

Jan Blokhuijsen Koen Verweij Berden De Vries Trevor Marsicano Xingyu Song

Team Pursuit Ladies

Team Pursuit Men

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Netherlands Germany China Canada

Netherlands Italy USA Japan

1 2 3 4 5

Jenny Wolf Beixing Wang Annette Gerritsen Sang-Hwa Lee Sayuri Yoshii

GER CHN NED KOR JPN

1.15.62 1.16.28 1.17.20 1.17.22 1.17.30

NED NED NED USA CHN

Anni Friesinger GER Kristina Groves CAN Annette Gerritsen NED Christine Nesbitt CAN Paulien Van Deutekom NED

Anni Friesinger

GER Paulien Van Deutekom NED Kristina Groves CAN Daniela Anschütz Thoms GER Christine Nesbitt CAN

Kristina Groves

CAN Paulien Van Deutekom NED Daniela Anschütz Thoms GER Martina Sablikova CZE Claudia Pechstein GER

Martina Sablikova CZE Clara Hughes CAN Kristina Groves CAN Claudia Pechstein GER Daniela Anschütz Thoms GER

Kyou-Hyuk Lee Joji Kato Joon Mun Dmitry Lobkov

KOR JPN KOR RUS

1 2 3 4 5

Shani Davis USA Yevgeny Lalenkov RUS Denny Morrison CAN Jeremy Wotherspoon CAN Jan Bos NED

1 2 2 4 5

Denny Morrison Sven Kramer Shani Davis Enrico Fabris Simon Kuipers

CAN NED USA ITA NED

1 2 3 4 5

Sven Kramer NED Enrico Fabris ITA Wouter Olde Heuvel NED Carl Verheijen NED Shani Davis USA

1:08.99 1:09.39 1:09.42 1:09.67 1:09.71

1:45.22 1:45.32 1:45.32 1:45.83 1:46.34

6:17.24 6:20.22 6:24.05 6:29.41 6:30.00

Men 10 000 m 6:58.22 7:04.79 7:04.94 7:05.44 7:07.23

1 2 3 4 5

Sven Kramer Enrico Fabris Bob De Jong Øystein Grødum Mark Ooijevaar

NED 12:57.71 ITA 13:18.81 NED 13:25.01 NOR 13:28.09 NED 13:31.34

Team Pursuit Ladies

Team Pursuit Men

1 2 3

1 2 3

Netherlands Canada Germany

1.10.01 1.10.32 1.10.35 1.10.38

Men 5000 m 4:05.03 4:05.49 4:05.76 4:05.92 4:08.40

Ladies 5000 m 1 2 3 4 5

Jeremy Wotherspoon CAN 1.09.46

Men 1500 m 1:56.06 1:57.36 1:57.63 1:58.81 1:58.85

Ladies 3000 m 1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Men 1000 m 1:15.37 1:16.01 1:16.35 1:16.44 1:16.89

Ladies 1500 m 1 2 3 4 5

WORLD ALLROUND SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 9 - 10 February 2008, Berlin (GER) Ladies Men 1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Ladies 1000 m

Men GER GER NED ITA NED

Men 500 m combined times

Ladies 500 m combined times

Sven Kramer Håvard Bøkko Enrico Fabris Wouter Olde Heuvel Ivan Skobrev

3:02.19 3:02.87 3:07.57

Netherlands Italy Germany

3:41.69 3:46.76 3:47.71

SHORT TRACK WORLD JUNIOR SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, SAMSUNG ISU WORLD CUP SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING – 11 - 13 January 2008, Bolzano (ITA) Final Standings Ladies 1 2 3 4 5

Ah-Reum Noh Eu-Byul Lee Qichao Zhang Arianna Fontana Soo-Min Son

Ladies 500 m

Men KOR KOR CHN ITA KOR

1 2 3 4 5

Yun-Jae Kim Jung-Su Lee Han-Bin Lee Guillame Blais Dufour John Celski

KOR KOR KOR CAN USA

EUROPEAN SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 18 - 20 January 2008, Ventspils (LAT) Ladies 1 2 3 4 5

Arianna Fontana Evgenia Radanova Nina Evteeva Erika Huszar Annita Van Doorn

Men ITA BUL RUS HUN NED

1 2 3 4 5

Haralds Silovs Niels Kerstholt Nicola Rodigari Jon Eley Tyson Heung

Ladies Relay

Men Relay

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Great Britain Bulgaria Germany Poland

LAT NED ITA GBR GER

Italy Great Britain France Russia

WORLD SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 7 - 9 March 2008, Gangneung City (KOR) 1 2 3 4 5

Meng Wang Yang Zhou Shin-Young Yang Kalyna Roberge Qiuhong Liu

CHN CHN KOR CAN CHN

1 2 3 4 5

Apolo Anton Ohno Ho-Suk Lee Kyung-Taek Song Seung-Hoon Lee Charles Ryan Leveille

Ladies Relay

Men Relay

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Republic of Korea Canada China Italy

1 2 3

Meng Wang Qiuhong Liu Kalyna Roberge

CHN CHN CAN

Meng Wang Yang Zhou Kalyna Roberge

CHN CHN CAN

Meng Wang Shin-Young Yang Yang Zhou

1 2 3

Apolo Anton Ohno Charles Hamelin Kyung-Taek Song

USA CAN KOR

1 2 3

Ho-Suk Lee Apolo Anton Ohno Kyung-Taek Song

KOR USA KOR

Men 1500 m

Ladies 1500 m 1 2 3

Republic of Korea Canada Great Britain USA

Men 1000 m

Ladies 1000 m 1 2 3

USA KOR KOR KOR USA

Men 500 m

Ladies 500 m

CHN KOR CHN

1 2 3

Kyung-Taek Song Ho-Suk Lee Charles Ryan Leveille

KOR KOR USA

WORLD SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS, 15 - 16 March 2008, Harbin (CHN) Ladies

Men

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

China Republic of Korea Canada USA

USA Canada Republic of Korea China

Meng Wang Tian Yu Fu Nannan Zhao Seung-Hi Park Kalyna Roberge Sae-Bom Shin Evgenia Radanova Qiuhong Liu Jessica Gregg Tatiana Borodulina

CHN CHN CHN KOR CAN KOR BUL CHN CAN AUS

Ladies 1000 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Sun-Yu Jin Meng Wang Shin-Young Yang Yang Zhou Katherine Reutter Eun-Ju Jung Evgenia Radanova Seung-Hi Park Qiuhong Liu Amanda Overland

KOR CHN KOR CHN USA KOR BUL KOR CHN CAN

Ladies 1500 m

Men

Ladies

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Sun-Yu Jin Eun-Ju Jung Yang Zhou Shin-Young Yang Qiuhong Liu Katherine Reutter Sae-Bom Shin Mika Ozawa Kalyna Roberge Xiaoxue Meng

KOR KOR CHN KOR CHN USA KOR JPN CAN CHN

Points 6000 4192 3904 2732 2540 2136 2096 1640 1071 1050 Points 4502 4322 3772 3074 2315 2050 1788 1640 1312 1305 Points 4172 3882 3658 3315 1993 1904 1800 1580 1574 1529

Men 500 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Si-Bak Sung Yoon-Gy Kwak Francois-Louis Tremblay Charles Hamelin Satoru Terao J.P. Kepka Jon Eley Alex Boisvert-Lacroix Jialiang Han Satoshi Sakashita

KOR KOR CAN CAN JPN USA GBR CAN CHN JPN

Men 1000 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Hyun-Soo Ahn Ho-Suk Lee Kyung-Taek Song Charles Hamelin Si-Bak Sung Jordan Malone Bao Ku Sui Francois-Louis Tremblay Zhiqiang Zhang Seung-Hoon Lee

KOR KOR KOR CAN KOR USA CHN CAN CHN KOR

Men 1500 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ho-Suk Lee Hyun-Soo Ahn Seung-Hoon Lee Kyung-Taek Song Jordan Malone Yuri Confortola Charles Hamelin Si-Bak Sung Weilong Song Ryan Bedford

KOR KOR KOR KOR USA ITA CAN KOR CHN USA

Ladies Relay

Points

Men Relay

Points

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4000 2824 2610 2362 2002 1870 1640 1280 1128 926

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4000 3040 2752 2132 2120 1706 1562 1398 1364 926

Ladies Team

Points

Men Team

Points

1 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5400 5400 3584 2618 2234 1720 1640 1337 1231 908

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6000 4640 3514 3252 2132 1706 1614 1270 1018 907

China Republic of Korea Italy Canada USA Japan Russia Bulgaria Netherlands Germany

China Republic of Korea Canada USA Japan Bulgaria Italy Russia Netherlands Germany

Republic of Korea Canada China USA Italy Great Britain Russia Japan Germany France

Republic of Korea Canada USA China Japan Great Britain Italy Russia Germany France

Points 5600 4104 3600 3440 2497 1501 1438 1217 1024 980 Points 3800 3592 2824 2432 2000 1873 1786 1562 1477 1420 Points 5200 3640 2810 2342 2231 2213 2080 2000 1376 1312

15

PAST MASTERS OKSANA GRITSCHUK (RUS) born 1972 EVGENY PLATOV (RUS) born 1967 Olympic Ice Dance Champions 1994 and 1998 World Ice Dance Champions 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997 World Ice Dance Silver Medalists 1993 World Ice Dance Bronze Medalists 1992 European Ice Dance Champions 1996, 1997, and 1998 European Ice Dance Silver Medalist 1993 and 1994 European Ice Dance Bronze Medalist 1992 Oksana Gritschuk and Evgeny Platov marked Ice Dancing in the 90’s with an immaculate competitive history. After winning a first Olympic Gold in 1994, they went on to take four consecutive World titles before making history by winning their second Olympic Ice Dance gold medal in 1998. To date they remain the only Ice Dance couple to have won two consecutive Ice Dance Olympic gold medals. Their dance technique and ability to combine difficulty and speed earned them 14 Olympic, World and European medals over just six years between 1992 and 1998. Prior to teaming up both had been Junior World Champions with their former partners.