U.S., Russia offer sites for figure skating worlds this spring
Little did I know how accurate my Alice-in-Wonderland references from an earlier blog about the fate of the World Figure Skating Championships would prove to be.
The latest developments in the Mad Tea Party:
Russia and the United States now have joined the festivities by offering alternate sites for the event that was supposed to begin Monday in Tokyo but has been postponed indefinitely because of conditions in Japan following last Friday's earthquake and tsunami.
I have learned U.S. Figure Skating wrote the International Skating Union Wednesday to propose that the 2011 worlds be held either in Colorado Springs or Lake Placid, N.Y. in late April or early May.
According to allsportinfo.ru, the Russian Minister of Sport has written the International Skating Union to propose the event go to Moscow ``in the very near future.''
``Yes, it will be difficult, hard, expensive,'' Yuri Nagornykh, the vice-minister of sport, was quoted as saying in the allsport story. ``But we felt it was right to (give) the ISU a friendly shoulder.''
In an interview I did with ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta earlier today, he downplayed the possibility of moving worlds to another site in April or May because of both the short preparation time and problems with skaters who already have contractual obligations to other events in that time period.
Both Turin, Italy and Malmo, Sweden, also have let it be known through media reports that they are interested in taking over the worlds this spring if the ISU chooses to move it from Japan. The ISU is in discussions with the Japanese Skating Federation about the possibility of having the worlds in Tokyo in October.
The Herb Brooks Arena, Lake Placid's 7,700-seat rink, was the site of the 1980 Olympic figure skating as well as three editions of Skate America, most recently in 2009.
The 8,000-seat World Arena in Colorado Springs has three times been used for Skate America and twice for the Four Continents Championship, scheduled to go there again next season.
The 2005 worlds took place in Moscow, which would have a huge advantage over the U.S. sites in terms of lodging and access, since the city has two international airports and direct flights to and from most of the world.
Source
The latest developments in the Mad Tea Party:
Russia and the United States now have joined the festivities by offering alternate sites for the event that was supposed to begin Monday in Tokyo but has been postponed indefinitely because of conditions in Japan following last Friday's earthquake and tsunami.
I have learned U.S. Figure Skating wrote the International Skating Union Wednesday to propose that the 2011 worlds be held either in Colorado Springs or Lake Placid, N.Y. in late April or early May.
According to allsportinfo.ru, the Russian Minister of Sport has written the International Skating Union to propose the event go to Moscow ``in the very near future.''
``Yes, it will be difficult, hard, expensive,'' Yuri Nagornykh, the vice-minister of sport, was quoted as saying in the allsport story. ``But we felt it was right to (give) the ISU a friendly shoulder.''
In an interview I did with ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta earlier today, he downplayed the possibility of moving worlds to another site in April or May because of both the short preparation time and problems with skaters who already have contractual obligations to other events in that time period.
Both Turin, Italy and Malmo, Sweden, also have let it be known through media reports that they are interested in taking over the worlds this spring if the ISU chooses to move it from Japan. The ISU is in discussions with the Japanese Skating Federation about the possibility of having the worlds in Tokyo in October.
The Herb Brooks Arena, Lake Placid's 7,700-seat rink, was the site of the 1980 Olympic figure skating as well as three editions of Skate America, most recently in 2009.
The 8,000-seat World Arena in Colorado Springs has three times been used for Skate America and twice for the Four Continents Championship, scheduled to go there again next season.
The 2005 worlds took place in Moscow, which would have a huge advantage over the U.S. sites in terms of lodging and access, since the city has two international airports and direct flights to and from most of the world.
Source