Crystal Skate

He wouldn't be the first Olympic champion to try and score another gold medal, but could Evan Lysacek be the first one (at least in recent years) to actually achieve his goal? The American's plans to leave Sochi with a gold medal have been common knowledge for the past three seasons, when he constantly tried to come back on ice, but failed. In 2011/2012, he had some disagreements with the US Federation and in 2012/2013 he got injured right before Skate America. This was followed by a hernia surgery that prevented him from competing at the National Championships. Could fate be telling him something? Now that he's feeling a lot better, the big question for Lysacek is not whether he can perform at his best or not, but whether his best is still good enough. Lysacek's Olympic victory was so acclaimed not only for defeating Evgeni Plushenko, but also for lacking a quadruple jump, thus proving that technical elements do not make or break a programme. Four years later, the

It's time to dig into the Olympic season and what better way to do it then talk about Miki Ando's unexpected  (and somewhat shocking) announcement that she plans to compete at Sochi despite giving birth this very April? The Japanese skater, who has two World gold medals and three National ones, announced on Monday, July 15 that she is the proud single mother of a baby girl, news which immediately got categorized as s candalous  because apparently having children without a wedding band on your finger is something we have never heard of before. I would like to quickly get the news of her giving birth out of the picture by saying "Congratulations!" and stating that Miss Ando (like any other woman out there) should have the right to do whatever she wants with her private life without being attacked by the media because of something that stopped being Breaking News  hundreds of years ago.On the same show, she also said she plans to storm into Sochi, which is the real big

One could argue that comebacks in figure skating are a bad idea (check out Johnny Weir's performance this season), if it weren't for Yuna Kim's astonishing start of a second attempt to become Olympic Champion once more. She proved that 'veterans' are a force to be reckoned with at the same time that some of the most experienced skaters out there show signs that they can't cope with the youth invasion. You have to admit, no matter how big a Kim fan you are, that her return on the ice made you if not a bit nervous, then at least curious. Suddenly, it didn't matter anymore what the other skaters did; everyone was waiting to see if she is still 'The Queen.' The fact that it took her a lot less than expected and what looked like almost no effort at all to make the world title hers again proves how brilliant this Korean skater is. Not that she needed to prove  that. Her Short Program featured James Bernard's Kiss with a Vampire  and the chore