There is nothing more exciting than seeing something innovative, fresh and daring especially when it come to figure skating and even more so before the seaon starts. 

The innovation was delivered by Lori Nichol to Patrick Chan in the form of this season's new short program which debuted a short time ago today  at the Liberty competition.

Speaking to Lori just after the event she told me that: "after the heaviness and stress of last season, it was time to' shake it off' and move forwar refreshed and energized."  Her goal for this program was to capitalize on the ground she gained when she choreographed a new show program for Patrick this past Spring. She chose the Doin't Worry be Happy song by Bobby McFerrin.  At the time that she suggested the music  to Patrick, it took some convincing because he would have to learn how to move in a completely different way.  It is a program that makes him reach out to the audience and relies on his use of character. The result was a perfectly charming show program that illuminates his particular brand of joie de vivre.

Lori is so smart in the way she develops the skaters and their ability to perform what is required.  She uses her choreographic wizardry as a way to teach lessons sometimes.   Patrick told me in the Spring that as a result of missing  his triple loop at Worlds, Lori put it in the show program to force him to perform it and get over whatever  mental glitch might have been lurking. He discovered along the way how much fun he had skating in character once he learned how and was ripe for more.

This year's short program is to Take Five - a jazzy upbeat piece and takes Patrick Chan out of the realm of teenager to young man in a way that is beautiful to watch. 

If you can imagine a classical pianist:  sombre, earnest and committed and as he sits on his piano stool playing exquisitely, you get lost in the music and are aware but only incidentally of his talent.  Now imagine that same pianist getting introduced to jazz and suddenly the talent that was buried in the music is brought to life and you are face to face with the man who is playing and completely struck by  his individuality.  That's what Patrick's  program felt like for me today. 

  In talking to Lori, I said that the feel that Patrick created on the ice was light and romantic and took on an almost giddy quality.  Sort of like falling in love with all of its' goofy charm.  She chuckled and said that the inspiration for the piece was "Last Call and seeing the girl of his dreams."  How cool is that when what I experienced  was what she as the choreographer had  intended.

The elements were all there including a huge quad toe and a footwork sequence which is more than a step above.  It's true that he did fall on his triple Axel and that his pant strap came undone which was a bit of a distraction 3/4 of the way to the end of the music.  The program needs miles, they all do at this time of year, but he is using a Rolls Royce vehicle as far as I am concerned.

Not everyone sees things the way I do: I spoke with a skating fan after the fact who said that she had never been completely convinced about Patrick's skating and was sorry to have missed his short..  I told her what I thought and that I hadn't felt this way, in terms of this being a special or memorable program since seeing Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's free dance last summer when it debuted in competiton.   Still on the bubble, I finally sai to her:  "Look - good is good, even if you aren't sure.  Good is still good and for me this is way above good."

She smiled and said: "You're right; good is good."

Bet you're going to agree.

The purpose of  summer competitions, like the one in Aston, PA is to provide a place for the skaters to work the kinks out of a new program and to gain some competitive experience.

Walking into the rink this morning, I ran into Bruno Marcotte who was speaking to 13 yr old student Luke West from Lake Placid, who had just skated his free program.  It wasn't the skate he had hoped for so the goal, as Bruno so aptly put it,  was to try and figure out what happened and how to cope differently the next time. Based on the smiles from the skate, ,Bruno did a wonderful job of framing what had happened so Luke has the courage  to skate another day.

So much preparation ahppens during the summer and it sometimes feels like you are seeing skaters for the first time.  Skate Canada's high performance director Mike Slipchuk travelled to Pennsylvania to monitor Patrick Chan but has already started the rounds of visiting skaters. Recently, he spent the first couple of days of  a weekin Arizona  where  Canada's pair champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison had gone for some additional support from former Canadian pair champion and now coach, Doug Ladret.

Michael said: "The skaters had a great week.  They decided that they needed to do something differently in order to move from 6th in the world."  He elaborated that that included some great new entries into lifts  that he calls "cutting edge"   as well as enhancing technique.

Primary coach Annie Barabe is pregnant so the idea of expanding the teamto include Ladret and create additional support made sense for everyone.  Montreal is their home base with Ladret coming in from time to time to see them.  By all accounts they are a brand new team; it will be exciting to watch.

You can sense the enjoyment that Michael has as he makes his way from one skating location or competition to the next.  He is the first to admit that he doesn't do it alone and also looks to members of his team in order to asess skaters when he can't get to see people.  As a former skate and Olympian, Michael knows first hand what has to happen as the athletes go through the season and it seems as if helping to pull the Canadians to the next level is personal  for him.  You can feel his pride in developing skating.

Also exciting to watch were the Senior Ladies at Liberty.  A special shout out has to go to 2 time world junior bronze medallist Ashley Wagner,.  A young woman I didn't intially recognize took the ice today,  looking elegant, tall and mature.  The last time I saw Ashley Wagner up close, she ws cute and perky and a  totally adorable girl  to watch.  Here was a powerhouse young woman who skated with confidence and speed. Gone were the somewhat suspect jumps, replaced with clean ones.  She gets my vote for most improved. 

Fellow American and 2010 Junior ladies American champion Agnes Zawadzki was a total surprise for me.  I don't know what I was expecting when I was told that I needed to see this girl, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw.  Powerful and elegant, she was totally reminiscent of a Carolina Kostner type - on a good day-  with the best kind of feminine and graceful style.

More surprises to follow.

I am at liberty to say that the Liberty competition is well under way. (See what I did there? A function of being up too late too many nights in a row...never mind) My friend Carol Nugent, with whom I announced the Olympics in Salt Lake in 2002 is here as the chief announcer and tells me that there will be between 800 and 900 starts at this event; meaning that many programs.  A pretty impressive record including skaters at all compettive levels from bottom to top.  She uses this event as a training opportunity for would be PA announcers to get experience.

She isn't the only one,

I ran into Canadian coach Bruno Marcotte who was standing rinkside with one of his pairs, Jade Savannah-Godin and Andrew Evans who are in their second year as a team and as Senior competitors.  Bruno sad that he feels that the American skaters often get a head start on the season and he sees that having this team compete here is a way of getting them out with lots of time before the heavy competing starts in the Fall.  He sees this competition as the incentive to get things together more quickly. 

Andrew at 22 years old is already a pair veteran with a couple of partnerships, while Jade is only 17 and still a relative newcomer.   This team got together only four months before Canadians in 2010. In Bruno's words: "last year it was like having two separate skaters skating together.  This year's goal is to have them skate together as one; as a team."

As they took the ice for warm-up you could defintely appreciate the potential in this team.  Their short program seemed to be in the right place for this point in the seaon, not perfect yet but definiitely headed in the right direction.  The most difficult part was when the music died about 2/3 the way through the program after their lasso lift.  It took a bit of time to re-group as they had to have someone get their back-up CD but when the music came back on they were right back in the groove and put down a beautiful throw 3Sal and an inside death spiral.  I was impressed that in a relationship that continues to evolve they were comfortable enough with each other that they remained composed and focused despite the delay.

The skaters told me about their goals for the season, Andrew said that he would love to compete and have 2 clean programs at a competition.  Jade says that she would love to skate a clean free and was telling me that her biggest challenge to overcome is her confidence.  Although she may not yet feel like it, she has the look of a thoroughbred on the ice - in other words, she needn't worry.   Bruno commented that he knows they have the tricks, they just have to get them out there.

 I asked Bruno about the difference between being a skater and a coach and he said that in both places he felt passion for the sport and has a fierce competitive drive.   He wants to be able to share what he knows and to infuse his skaters with this same passion.  It's a good thing too because at the moment he has 3 senior Canadian teams: Savannah-Godin and Evans, Mylene Brodeur and John Mattatal, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, 1 junior team as well as a 4 more international teams that come to him for training. 

I know.  It's hard to imagine but if you had been in my place tonight, you would have felt the same way.

I was privileged to be invited to come and be the French announcer for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Special Olympics Summer National Games taking place this week in London, ON. 

In many ways it was as if Special Olympics came full circle tonight as Dr Frank Hayden described how his inspiration for the movement came from an idea the he developed in a tiny office in Thames Hall at the University of Western Ontario in the early 1960s. I had also heard him speak in December at the Special Olympics Sports FestivalI  and am truly in awe of "the power of one."  Tonight, I got to speak to him, shake his hand and tell him that I feel like the world owes him one.   His accomplishments humble me and meeting him makes me feel like we all need to try harder and be better humans. 

From a modest beginning with 1400 athletes in three sports, Special Olympics has grown to over 34,000 athletes across the country with the top 1057 competing here for the chance to represent Canada in 2011 at the World Games taking place in Athens, Greece.

Ken Heslop, a (the?) Detective Superintendent for the London Police has been totally immersed for the last 2 years in his role of organizing the Opening, Closing, protocol and Medal ceremonies for these games.  His face beamed with pride as he told me "tonight was all about the athletes.  Everything we did was for them, their family and friends."  Ken and his team hit it right out of the park.  In addition to entertainment provided by 3 bands and dancers from Dance Extreme, there was a 13 yr old singer named Saveria who sang the National anthem as well as the Olympic "I Believe" song.  This girl has "the goods"  - watch your back Niki Yanofsky - there's a new girl in town!

As I faced the the crowd, the provincial delegations were seated in front of me and wore different coloured t-shirts in their provincial colour.  I was tickled to see the excitement on their faces as surprise after surprise was revealed during the Opening.  There was the helicopter, courtesy of the RCMP, that arrived on the field carrying the Special Olympics flag.  There was the arrival of the flame that was carried in by members of the Law Enforcement Torch Run.  There was a great moment when swimmer Alison Lang from London got up to take the athletes' oath.  She didn't have to say it on behalf of the athletes as all of the others joined her in a chorus of voices: "Let me Win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."  and then with her voice at a fevered pitch, she yelled "Go Ontario!!!!"  Nothing restrained about that and it couldn't have been more refreshing.

The excitement kept on coming as a Tactical Unit truck carrying some pretty impressive looking officers on it did a pass around the stadium and came to a stop.  When the door opened none other than Don Cherry popped out.  He was set to present the flag that had just arrived by helicopter to the officer who was going to be raising it.  The crowd went wild.  When Don finally took his seat, he patiently signed autographs and posed for pictures when there was a break in the proceedings.  When he arrived on stage to speak, he delivered some great words of encourgament with the perfect Coach's Corner kind of delivery.  The athletes were thrilled to have a Canadian icon in their midst and for him to be exactly as you imagined he would be was wonderful.  He even smiled at me!   Hmmm...maybe the "dark side"  ( my term for hockey) isn't quite so dark after all.  I do believe I may have developed a crush on him!  Hard not to fall in love just a little bit on such a magical night.  

At least that's what Carol Lane thinks. 

During the in-between time after the old season ends and  before it's time to get revved up for the new season, Carol and coaching partner Juris Razgulajevs met with Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier  to discuss how to approach the 2010/11 season.  They decided it was time to look at using a different choreographer for their free dance.  Carol and Juris agreed that it needed to be entertaining and although they both felt a pang at not doing the FD choreography this year, it was decided that Christopher Dean would be the perfect (and only) choice.   Carol and Chris used to compete against each other in Britain and have a friendship dating back decades.

Apparently  Christopher asked Carol why she wanted him to come and create a free dance for students Vanessa  and Paul  when, as far as he was concerned, the choreography that she creates along with  Juris  is more than up to the challenge.

She told him: "There is no substitute for genius." 

Dean recently spent a week in Toronto and Carol commented on the experience as fulfilling the coaches' goal of helping to broaden Vanessa and Paul's skating horizon.  It was a dream come true for Carol to have their work showcased at Olympics and Worlds in 2010 with such enormous success, after all Vanessa and Paul finished in 7th place in Torino. 

Now it was time for something different and the hunt for the perfect music was the first obstacle.  Carol talks about her reaction to music as being visceral.  She immediately connected with Joshua Bell's  version of the Beatles' classic Eleanor Rigby and brought it to the skaters, who loved it.  She says that the music is a bit of a risk, given the climate and the fact that the new rules insist on "uplifing" music choices.  That said, she says:  "Just because music is 'cha cha cha' doesn't always make for a good program."

The music was massaged to perfection by Hugo Chouinard and Carol says she feels that the story of the free dance parallels Eleanor Rigby's life and quest for love with Paul as Father McKenzie.

The creative process was simple.  With only choreography as his agenda, Chris had carte blanche to create what he wanted and Carol was there every step of the way to ensure that they were able to still stay within the rules.  She knew that they would be able to keep the best of what was created and that she and Juris could tweak the rest in order to satisfy the "rules beast".

Paul's face was absolutely glowing in speaking of his biggest lesson from the ice dance living legend: "learning how to use every part of our bodies and to move in a cohesive unit as well as broadening our range of movement."

He says that one of their goals for the season is to show that they belong in the top senior ranks.

With a Christopher Dean free dance and their amazing dedication, talent and work ethic, it would appear as if they are already there.