Figure Skating - Canadian Women

In today's edition, we're going to talk about Joannie Rochette. It's very refreshing to finally be able to talk about a decent female figure skating competitor! Seriously, Canadian women have struggled with consistency for the past 20 years!! (that's really pathetic!) But let's take a minute to look back at the past World Championship results to see the top Canadian women placed, shall we?:

2009: 2nd - Joannie Rochette
2008: 5th - Joannie Rochette
2007: 10th - Joannie Rochette
2006: 7th - Joannie Rochette
2005: 11th - Joannie Rochette
2004: 8th - Joannie Rochette
2003: 9th - Jennifer Robinson
2002: 9th - Jennifer Robinson
2001: 15th - Jennifer Robinson
2000: 8th - Jennifer Robinson
1999: 18th - Jennifer Robinson
1998....
Look, the gist here is that we ladies don't do so well under pressure. In fact, I had to stop my little chart here because I would have had to go all the way back to 1988 when Elizabeth Manley won a silver. (Same year she also won silver at the Calgary Olympics.)

Here are some Joannie Rochette facts:
She's our FIVE TIME national champion, she's currently ranked 2nd in the world. She will be 24 by the time Vancouver 2010 rolls around and she placed 5th in Turino 2006.

Now, here are some examples of her amazing talent.

This is her long program from the 2005 Canadians, if you're bad at math, it's the first time she won the Canadians. (Don't worry, I'm bad at math too!)



Okay, so incase you aren't a figure skating judge, let me tell you what you just watched:
Triple toe, triple toe combination
Triple lutz
Triple loop
Double axle
Camel spin
Triple lutz, double toe combination
Triple flip, triple salchow combination
Camel, sit, layback, back sit, Y-spin combination
Layback spin
Spiral sequence
Footwork sequence
Double axle
Footwork sequence
Flying camel spin

Next we have her long program from the 2009 Canadians.



And here's what you saw there:
Triple loop, double toe, double loop combination
Triple flip
Triple loop
Flying cannonball sit, sit variation combination
Y-spin, attitude spin combination
Triple lutz
Triple toe, triple salchow combination
Footwork sequence
Spiral sequence
Double axle, double axle combination
Triple salchow
Back-inside camel, Y-spin, forward sit, cannonball spin combination

So there you have it, and I'm going to stop blogging now because I'm sick of typing the word "combination" :)