In mid-August Laurie an I went to the Cranberry Cup figure skating competition like we do every year. Just a week later there was another event at Skating Club of Boston called The Summer Sizzler. The Sizzler had all of the best American skaters from all of the disciplines. They were expected to show their new routines for the upcoming season.
Cranberry Cup
We had hoped that since this is an Olympic year that the Cranberry Cup would be stacked with probable Olympic athletes hoping to get the season started. Four years ago, during the first Cranberry Cup held at The Skating Club of Boston the competition was loaded with many of the best skaters from all over the world. There almost no fans at the Cranberry Cup. The rink holds 2500 people but I bet there was less than 150 fans each day
Unfortunately, the depth of both the men's and women's events was lacking. For the men, Roman Sadovsky of Canada was the only real good skater. He easily won the event. The best American skater in the event was Jimmy Ma. He was leading after the short program but after a disastrous long program he ended up seventh. At his best, Jimmy is probably the fifth or sixth best American. He trains at The Skating Club of Boston and we have seen him many times.
For the ladies, Isabeau Levito, an American was the biggest name at the event. She will be in the hunt for an Olympic medal. She came in second at World's last year. Isabeau won the competition as expected. However, the real surprise of the ladies was a girl from Kazakhstan named Sophia Samodelkina. She was in one of the first groups during the short program which is where most of the less talented athletes perform. During the short she was amazing. She did multiple triples and her combination was perfect. After the short she was in second place.
On day two, for the long, Sophia went second to last. She actually beat Isabeau in the long but Isabeau had a big enough lead to stay in first place. Laurie and I were very impressed and will follow Sophia during the season.
Summer Sizzler
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| World Champion Alyssa Liu |
The Sizzler was billed as a place for the Americans to show off their new programs for the season. The top men, women, pairs, and ice dancers from the USA were all ther.e The entire rink was sold out with fans. A few of the athletes performed their new routines though for the most part they were watered down. No one did a triple-triple combination. Almost all the men did triples instead of quads and most of the ladies did doubles instead of triples.
While a few did the watered down version of their new routines, most of the athletes treated the Sizzler as a Stars on Ice exhibition. Most of them did what would be called their "exhibition" routines. People like World Champion Alyssa Liu did her routine from last year as did others. World champions from the dance comp, Chock and Bates, did their exhibition routine that involved a flowy fabric they wrapped themselves in.
All in all, the Summer Sizzler was a disappointment. We did not see high quality skating. Anything new was watered down and most of it wasn't new anyway. So in the end, Laurie and I agreed that we would rather go to the Cranberry Cup. Though most of the competitors are not going to make the Olympic teams for their country at least they were giving it their all. I'd rather see someone fall trying to do a triple-triple competition than not try at all. We decided to skip the Summer Sizzler next year because we know we will be disappointed.
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| World Champion Ice Dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates to the right World Champion man Ilia Malinin |
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| Roman Sadovsky in the middle |
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| Isabeau Levito |
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