Sweden

Marigold IceUnity: 2014 World Champions

The 2014 ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships wrapped up today in Italy, with some familiar names landing on the podium. Finland 1 (Marigold IceUnity) were gold medalists after last medaling in 2011. Canada 1 (NEXXICE) won the silver medal for the third straight year, narrowly edging out Finland 2 (Rockettes), who won bronze after not qualifying for the event last year. All three teams skated clean in both segments, and were the only teams to get all of their technical calls in the short or the free.

Complete results are available here.

Some other fun facts about the 2014 Worlds podium:

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2013 Worlds: Videos from Boston

If you were in Boston last week at the 2013 World Synchronized Skating Championships, you were fortunate to witness some of the best skating this sport has ever seen. If you couldn’t make it to the event, you can thank the magic of the Internet for providing access to the performances on video, below.

I make a point to attend the World Championships whenever they’re in North America, and while each time I leave feeling that our sport is headed in a great direction, this time I was truly blown away by the improvement I saw across the entire event since being in Colorado in 2010. Every single team has upped their game. The quality of skating from the top teams was particularly incredible, but there wasn’t a team in Boston that didn’t contribute something positive to the intense competitive atmosphere of the event, and didn’t impress me with some aspect of their skating. Thank you to every athlete, coach, manager, choreographer, trainer, and supporting cast member for working your butts off so the rest of us could watch such fabulous skating! (more…)

Worlds on CBC Saturday, April 21: TV broadcast, web stream and chat

The champions were crowned at the World Synchronized Skating Championships nearly a week ago, but thanks to the CBC we can re-live all the excitement this Saturday. CBC will be broadcasting highlights from the competition on TV on April 21, along with a web stream and chat with PJ Kwong. (Presumably the TV broadcast will only be available in Canada, though perhaps fans in other countries will be able to see the web stream on iPhones and iPads as we could with the Swedish feed last weekend.)

Here are the details:

PJ also posted a nice recap of last weekend’s events here.

Thanks to the CBC for their continued support of synchronized and figure skating!

Videos from the 2012 World Championships

If you missed seeing last weekend’s World Championships live from Gothenburg, you can see some of the performances online. I’ll add more links as they surface.

[ADDED April 19: CAN2 short and free and USA1 short.]

[ADDED April 20: USA2 short and free, GER short and free.]

[ADDED April 23: FRA, HUN, JPN short and free, RUS1 free, and new versions of SWE1 free, RUS1 short, and GER short and free.]

Team Sweden 1 reclaims top step of World podium

USA1 (Haydenettes) were the only repeat medalists from 2011 at the conclusion of the 2012 World Synchronized Skating Championships today, while SWE1 (Team Surprise) and CAN1 (Nexxice) reclaimed World podium spots after missing out on medals in 2010 and 2011. SWE1, CAN1, and USA1 finished first, second, and third respectively while the Finnish teams were shut out of the medals for only the second time in history. The last time that happened was in 2007, which is also the last time Team Surprise were World Champions. That year, USA (Miami University) and CAN (Nexxice) also rounded out the podium. Team Surprise’s gold in Gothenburg marks the second time they’ve won at home, and is their sixth World Championship title.

After surprising even themselves by winning the short program yesterday, an excess interruption fall in the free took RUS1 (Paradise) out of medal contention. And while FIN2 (defending champions, Rockettes) rebounded from a sixth place skate yesterday to win the free today, it wasn’t enough to land them a spot on the podium. (more…)