Gracie Gold: A Woman On The Move (And On Her iPhone)

My introduction to Gracie Gold took place during the Team USA Olympic Media Summit in Park City, in October.

The 18 year old originally from Newton, Mass., spoke to attendees and performed a skating demonstration, dazzling the crowd who would report on her rising star status as Olympic hopeful.

After seeing her pre-season skate that evening in Utah, it was no surprise Gold emerged the U.S. national champion a few weeks ago.

Here's a young woman on the move.

At least I think it was Gracie on the ice that night -- turns out she has a twin sister, Carly, who also skates at the senior level.

Gold's bio notes in the media summit press book note she aspires to be an orthodontist after her skating career, putting her on a similar track to another U.S. Figure Skating Olympian, Debi Thomas (now a physician).

I haven't yet spotted Gold in Sochi but look forward to the figure skating event on Feb. 19, which will be the last event of these Games for which I have a ticket.

It will be fun to experience first-hand the escalating on-ice competitiveness for Gold, her U.S. teammate Ashley Wagner and the Russian media and skating darling Julia cover girl turned Olympic gold medalist via the team figure skating competition earlier today (wish I'd been there).

Lipnitskaia, Time magazine's European edition

All three of the aforementioned skaters better watch out for reigning Olympic champion Kim Yuna of Korea. She put on a spectacular performance in Vancouver (I was there and it was surprising), and with PyeongChang 2018 on the horizon methinks Yuna has a lot at skate, er, stake.

Who is your favorite in the women's figure skating competition? Please vote in the poll along the right column of this blog (failing to cast a ballot puts everyone on thin ice).

Gracie Gold photos by Nicholas Wolaver except Sochi 2014 image via USA Today; Julia Lipnitskaia photo via EPA/Barbara Walton; Kim Yuna photo via Olympics.org

Sorry, Sasha

It was thrilling tonight to see Olympic Figure Skating silver medalist Sasha Cohen give it a shot for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Team. It would have really been something for her to be a three-peat Olympian after skating at Salt Lake in 2002 and Torino in 2006.

Watching Cohen skate this evening -- during the AT&T 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash. -- brought back memories of last March, when Cohen was skating on tour in Atlanta and she took time for a blogger interview rink side at Philips Arena (was it really only 10 months ago when it was uncertain whether she'd be competitively skating now?).

Sorry to see Cohen won't be in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic figure skating as a returning Olympian, but I have a feeling she'll be spotted around town doing paid appearances to adoring fans.

Best of luck to the U.S. Figure Skaters who apparently will be coming to Vancouver, including Rachel Flatt and Mirai Nagasu (is it just me, or is it too weird to see another U.S. ladies figure skater, Nagasu, head to a Canada Olympiad with music from "Carmen" in her main routine? Not another Debi Thomas, please -- if Nagasu is to skate to Bizet, she better keep her Witts about her).

Now Hear This

Saw some Tweets about this, and later read the news that Michael Phelps landed a new endorsement deal. Has it really been four months of "waiting in the weeds" since news broke of his adventures in South Carolina? (photo courtesy H2OAudio.com)

In other "news," this week's version of The Onion News Network has a quirky video feature on the latest in the world of gymnastics Olympic champion and "Dancing With The Stars" champion Shawn Johnson. I was chuckling until The Onion's broadcast crawl flashed a spelling error regarding Olympic figure skater Debi Thomas (d'oh! copy editing!).

On a more serious Olympic note, however, it was all business in Lausanne, Switzerland, this week as the four candidate cities for the 2016 Olympic Games presented their latest and greatest to the International Olympic Committee, as reported here by Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune.