The easiest way to describe Christina Gao is to call her an Iron Butterfly.  She is beautiful to watch with a sweet finesse that belies her unbelieveable strength and steely resolve. 

This is a young woman who has come a long way in terms of her relationship to and with skating.  It wasn't that long ago when she wasn't all that sure about why she was skating.  That has all changed and she says candidly that she doesn't want to ever leave the ice with anyone having worked harder than she has.  That work ethic was clearly in evidence as I watched her recently on a practice session and she never stopped.  She says: "I want to know that I have given it all.  There is no holding back and no reserving energy."  She goes flat out each and every time.

That strategy seems to be working to her advantage.  In Summer competitons in Detroit and in Thornhill where she competed as a Senior and Junior respectively she walked away with both the short and free programs each time.  There is a definite buzz about this young skater.

Her coach Brian Orser said to me: "It's interesting.  It's like she has been  skating under the radar, but it doesn't look as if she will be for much longer."  No kidding.

Christina says her goal would be to make the World team and to perform well as a Senior at Nationals and as a Junior on the Grand Prix circuit this Fall.  So...how does she do it?  I mean that has to be tough to train both as a Junior and a Senior at an elite level. In case you don't know, the Senior free program is 30 seconds longer than the Junior program and the 2 shorts are the same length but differ in a couple of the elements.  This year's programs were choreographed by David Wilson.  The short program is to Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and the Free is to the Yellow River Concerto. She says: "the music is Chinese and I am Chinese and it's really pretty." (So is she!) The best part was that David is fun to work with. She says: "I love working with him. He feels the music like I do."

Christina says that she focused on her Senior training before Detroit and has now switched gears and is working on her Junior programs in preparation of her Junior Grand prix event in Austria.   If she does well there, her hope is that she will be sent to an additional event and hopefully qualify for the Junior GP Final in Beijing in December.   It will only be at this point that she will re-focus her attention on the Senior event at US Nationals which will take place in January in North Carolina.

As you might imagine, having a skater at this level requires a tremendous amount of effort and sacrifice on the family's part.  The Gao family is no different in that Mr Gao has re-located to Toronto so that Chrisitina can train while her Mom and younger sister are still in Cincinnati.  She says she misses them and the family does its' best to visit  back and forth as much as possible.  Also on the Honourable Mention list for effort is Christina's home school which has allowed her to do her schooling online.  Her favourite subject is Math and she likes it because there are no gray areas:  in math, it's right or it's wrong.

Aside from upping the technical ante this year with a solid triple filp/triple toe combo she has worked really hard on her presentation and connection to the audience.  She wants to "look like a Senior"; like she belongs in "the final flight."  Believe me - she is already there.

"When I was a baby for some reason my dad said I would be a skater." Sometimes as a parent you just know. 

Advance order forms for Pj's Book now available at www.takingtheice.com

From the stands, both in practice and performance, I am completely drawn in to Kharis and Asher's Short Dance.  Romantic and light and set to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella Waltz, it takes me a minute appreciate the degeree of difficulty in the skating and not simply just enjoy the performance.  Giving my head a shake, I get down to the task of really watching their skating. I realize that although they have been just beyond the horizon for some as Canada's 4th place Senior Dance team, I have had my eye on them for quite some time and with good reason.

One of their coaches, Jon Lane says "I am maybe not the best person to speak about them - I am their number one fan.  I am entranced by what they are doing.  Someone might critique them and I will say I didn't see that because I am entranced by them.  There has to be something said for that."

Kharis and Asher are warm, friendly and keenly intelligent young people, which should be enough for most folks.  In addition to competing at the highest level in ice dance, they are both into post-secondary studies: Asher  is at Ryerson University studying Occupational Health and Safety and Kharis, fellow Language Nerd (like me!), will be studying Spanish and Mandarin at the University of Toronto.  Here's a tidbit for you:  Kharis once won the chance to go to Europe to compete in a Mandarin competition for non first language Mandarin speakers! Feichang Bang!  Que Bueno!(excellent in Mandarin  and Spanish respectively ;) )

Back to their skating.  One of the mysteries is how coaches Carol Lane and Juris Razgulajevs have been able to weave the magic they do with two skaters who have some obvious physical differences.  He is black, she is not. She is dainty and feminine with a smile that lights up a room and he is a powerhouse of dashing masculinity.  Their solution has been to use the differences to their skaters' advantage and create a picture of harmony on the ice that is perfect. 

Take this year's Free Dance.  The choice of the Gershwin classic "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess was enhanced by the fresh perspective given to the piece from African songwriter and vocalist Angelique Kidjo.  The effect of the music hanging in the air coupled with their innovative choreography is memorable to say the least.

Both skaters are big fans of Olympic Champions and Canadian National Team mates Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and recount watching the Olympics.  Kharis was tied to her Mom's computer waching the event while Asher found himself in a movie theatre surrounded by fans wathing it on the big screen.  he says it was "thrilling and nerve-wracking at the same time." Both skaters are quick to point out the lessons they have learned from skating to this point: Asher:  "Being able to go out and do something while camouflaging your emotions is something I have learned; To just 'get on with it'".  For Kharis, she says it is "the ability to handle nerves and put on a good show regardkess of what else is going on" will serve her well in the business world.

The skaters are competing at Grand Prix events in China and France and see making the Four Continents and maybe even the World team this season as their goal.

Coach Donna Ijima who has been with Kharis since the very beginning says: "They are both very special and have a great connection on the ice." She goes on to say: "Kharis is very special to me. She is the sweetest person, is never mean and is very well grounded."  The same could be said for both skaters.  Just another part of the wave of Great Canadian ice dancers ....or maybe just Great Canadians?

Info about Pj's Book including pre-order forms, go to:  www.takingtheice.com

Sitting down recently with American 2 time Junior World Champion and 2010 Four Continents Champion, Adam Rippon, I was delighted to find an intelligent, thoughtful young man with a wonderful sense of humour. He told me about trying skating once when he was 8 and again at 9 and "retiring" each time. It wasn't until he received group lessons for his birthday in the Fall that he turned 10 that figure skating "stuck."  With  pasion and single minded determination as his drving force, his mother eventually secured keys to the arena building so that Adam could have the access to the ice when he needed to.  I am even more impressed by a Mom who was able to balance the needs ot a demanding and talented skater's schedule with that of his 5 younger siblings!!

Adam has had some great support along the way and credits first coach Yelena Sergeva with great basics and a satisfying mentor relationship with current coach Brian Orser, whose guidance he sought in moving to Toronto to train in 2008.

Before our interview, I watched him skate and was drawn by the elegant simplicity and beauty of his line and his unbelievable speed.  I saw him run through this year's short program to Romeo and Juliet choreographed by David Wilson and Sebastien Britten.  He says that "it was quite an experience" on the ice with David and Sebastien in which their passion for skating came through and was passed from one skating generation to the next.  Adam says:  "I've always felt the music and had a connection - the biggest thing was to harness it and use it in the right way." Capitalizing on his musicality, the team has chosen Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto for the Free program,.

I watched as Adam stay upright on the landings of all of the Quad Toes that he attempted.  They are a work in progress and he says:. "The Quad is just one more element that I can add to my score.  I have never understood the hype - it's important to have but more important to skate well."

Not knowing much about him personally, I was reminded of a young John Curry  as I watched Adam skate.  The same grace, elegance and attention to physical detail that I had seen in ( the late) 1976 Olympic Champion Curry's skating when he skated on this same ice surface in Toronto one summer about 20 years before Adam was born.  John Curry is one of Adam's idols and in fact would like to one day have his own large, well-produced skating show and tour featuring the very best skaters like Curry had done.  Although John reportedly didn't like to compete and Adam does, the pursuit of a World or Oylmpic title to facilitate this dream is the same for both men and is a source of Adam's inspiration.  In hearing that he was on the same ice surface where John Curry had once skated, Adam said with a smile: "It makes sense on a spiritual level that I am drawn here."

Our conversation naturally flowed from one subject to the next and I was interested to hear  his idea of having a GOE scale of -5 to +5, especially for men's footwork and ladies' spiral sequences, that could more accurately reflect what the skaters do.  He is conscious of those skaters coming before him and admires the confidence with which Olympic Champions Evan (Lysacek), Evgeni (Plushenko) and Alexei (Yagudin) skate. He has taken in the way they reach up and connect with the audience and the fact that no matter how they skate "you believe what they are selling." 

He counts clean short and free programs at every outing this season among his goals. He says that being technically sound at GPs in Canada and the US as well as the Japan Open is required to allow his skating to come across.  In describing himself: "Fun-loving, hard-working and passionate - I'm a person who loves what they do."  It shows.