Winter Federations Roundup -- New Skating Champions Crowned; White Shines at X-Games

Jeremy Abbott, 23, became the oldest first-time male champion at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Cleveland, Ohio. (Getty Images)Unseasoned Skaters Qualify for Worlds at U.S. Championships

Skaters who have never competed at a previous Olympics or even medaled at the world championships stood on the podium at the U.S. championships in Cleveland, Ohio this weekend.

That means the U.S. will send a relatively unseasoned team to the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships in March with Olympic qualifying berths at stake. Fading from the scene are longtime audience favorites Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen or the flamboyant Johnny Weir.

The new guard includes Jeremy Abbott, 23, the oldest first-time U.S. male champion since Rudy Galindo in 1996 and Allison Czisny, 21, the oldest female champion since Nancy Kerrigan in 1993.

Ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White became first-time national champions while Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker defended their pairs title.

Abbott was 11th at last year's Worlds, Czisny was 15th in 2007, Davis and White were seventh in 2007 and sixth in 2008 and McLaughlin and Brubaker are world junior champions.

Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, who won the 2006 Olympic ice dancing silver medal, missed the U.S. Championships because Agosto has a back injury. The U.S. Figure Skating Association granted their petition to compete at the world championships if Agosto is fit.

Placements at the world championships in Los Angeles in late March determine how many competitors a country will be allowed to send to the Vancouver Games.

Based on a lackluster performance at the 2008 Worlds, the U.S. qualified only two competitors for the ladies' event -- Czisny and Rachael Flatt. Their combined placement must total 13 (for example, third and 10th) to allow the U.S. to send three skaters to Vancouver. The last time the U.S. did not send the full allotment in the ladies' event was 1994, when Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan were the biggest story of the Games.

The U.S. did not win a gold medal in figure skating in Turin. Cohen won a silver, but has not competed since 2006 although she has appeared in shows.

Evan Lysacek, who was fourth at the 2006 Olympics and has won two world bronze medals, was third at the U.S. championships behind Abbott and Brandon Mroz, who is in his first year of senior competition.

White Wins Snowboard Gold

Olympian Shaun White won his second consecutive X-Games gold in snowboard superpipe, the games’ star event, over Kevin Pearce on the final day of competition Sunday. Shaun White in mid-flight during the Winter X Games. (Getty Images)Superpipe is a halfpipe that is generally longer than the course used during the Olympics.

White, 22, won snowboard gold at Turin, and has a total of nine Winter X-Games golds. He has also medaled in skateboarding at the summer version of the X-Games.

White’s performance, “cemented his status as the world's greatest freestyle snowboarder” according to USA Today.

Pearce has not yet qualified for the Vancouver Olympics but is aspiring to do so.

Olympian Daron Rahlves finished fourth in the men’s skicross competition. Skicross will be contested for the first time in Vancouver. Rahlves won the event in 2008.

Other notable performances from Olympians included Nate Holland and Lindsey Jacobellis, who both won the snowboard cross golds.

Originally created by U.S. sports network ESPN, the games are shown exclusively on the network’s various outlets. Since 2002, the Winter X Games have been held at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colo. and will continue to be held there until 2012.

The Winter X Games are the biennial competition of “extreme” winter sports and considered to be the largest non-Winter Olympics platform for winter sports.

First Finnish Ladies Figure Skating Champion Crowned at Europeans

Laura Lepisto excited the home crowd as she became the first figure skater from Finland to win the ladies title at the European Championship in Helsinki this weekend.

Laura Lepisto became the first Finnish ladies champion at the European Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki. (Getty Images)With her gold medal, the 20-year old Lepisto was one of two Finns to win medals in the ladies competition, with Susanna Poykio placing third. Italy’s Caroline Kostner finished second.

France’s Brian Joubert won his third European men’s title, with Italy’s Samuel Contesti finishing second and Belgium’s Kevin van der Perren third.

Germans Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy won the pairs title, while Russians Jana Khokhova and Sergei Novitski claimed the title in ice dance.

A total of 51,940 spectators attended the six-day competition at Helsinki’s Hartwall Areena.

World Curling Championships to Offer “Tattoo” During Opening Ceremonies

The 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship will get under way with a special “World Curling Tattoo” in the opening ceremonies for the event, which will be held April 4-12 in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Organizing committee chair Jim Lockyer confirms that the tattoo, a traditional Canadian military ceremony that features marching bands, dancers, cadence of pipes and military displays, will be the centerpiece of the event’s opening ceremony on April 2.

“It will be a show that will be two-and-a-half hours long,” Lockyer said. “It will be a spectacular event that will consist of music, historical curling pageantry and heritage, former world champions, audio visual presentations and also the elements of the official ceremony.”

More than 16 performers have been confirmed for the show, including the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, HMCS Stadacona Band and Royal Canadian Mounted Police Pipes and Drums. Up to 30 pageant performers will also perform.

...Briefs

…Jaako Paavela, a former executive vice president of Finnish television network MTV3 and current board member of sports channel Urheilukanava, criticized the media for showing and potentially glorifying hockey fights in an interview with the country’s biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. “Through television, the fighting is marketed directly to 400,000 people. In the arena, it is only the immediate audience that sees the squabbles,” Paavela said. Swede Jessica Lindell-Vikarby won her first International Ski Federation World Cup event today. (Getty Images)

Paavela advocates tougher sanctions against players who fight and punishing referees who allow fighting.

…Swede Jessica Lindell-Vikarby won her first International Ski Federation World Cup event today, winning the Super-G event in Cortina d'Ampezzo. "This is an amazing win, I didn't expect it this morning," said the happy Swede afterwards. "It has been a while that I dreamed of such a first big win, and it's wonderful to get it here, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, such a prestigious place on our circuit," she added. Her previous best at a world cup event was a third place finish last year.

Lindell-Vikarby is now third in the FIS Super-G women’s rankings and 20th overall.

Written by Greg Oshustand Ed Hula III.