The 2011

Skate America Skate America is an international, senior-level figure skating competition held as part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. It is hosted by U.S. Figure Skating. The location changes yearly. Medals are awarded in four disciplines: me ...

was the first event of six in the

2011–12 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating The 2011–12 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating was a series of senior international figure skating competitions in the 2011–12 season. Skaters competed in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies singles, pair skating, and ice dancing at six ...

, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the

Citizens Business Bank Arena Toyota Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Ontario, California, United States. The arena hosts local sporting events and concerts and is suitable for indoor events, including basketball, ice hockey, ice shows, boxing, graduation ceremonies and co ...

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan are ...

on October 21–23. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles,

pair skating Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating a ...

, and

ice dancing Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976 ...

. Skaters earned points toward qualifying for the 2011–12 Grand Prix Final.

Eligibility

Skaters who reached the age of 14 by July 1, 2011 were eligible to compete on the senior Grand Prix circuit. In July 2011, minimum score requirements were added to the Grand Prix series and were set at two-thirds of the top scores at the 2011 World Championships. Prior to competing in a Grand Prix event, skaters were required to earn the following:

Entries

The entries were as follows.

Schedule

* All times are

Pacific Standard Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

(GMT -08:00). * Friday, October 21 ** 7:05 p.m. – Men's short program ** 8:45 p.m. – Short dance * Saturday, October 22 ** 11:39 a.m. – Men's free skating ** 1:34 p.m. – Free dance ** 7:00 p.m. – Pairs' short program ** 8:25 p.m. - Ladies' short program * Sunday, October 23 ** 1:05 p.m. - Pairs' free skating ** 2:45 p.m. - Ladies' free skating ** 7:00 p.m. - Exhibitions (Skating Spectacular)

Results

Men

Michal Březina Michal Březina (; born 30 March 1990) is a retired Czech figure skater. He is the 2013 European bronze medalist, 2011 Skate America champion, 2009 World Junior silver medalist and four-time Czech national champion. He also won the 2014-15 I ...

took an eight-point lead in the short program. He was concerned by the narrowness of the rink: "I was kind of scared if I will fit with the curve because the rink is not so wide. I almost hit the board in practice when I was going for the triple flip." He was third in the free skating but held on to win his first Grand Prix title.

Kevin van der Perren Kevin van der Perren (born 6 August 1982) is a Belgian former competitive figure skater. He is the 2007 & 2009 European bronze medalist, a three-time Grand Prix medalist, and an eight-time (2000–2004, 2007, 2011, 2012) Belgian national champi ...

placed fourth in the short program and won the free skating to take silver medal, his first GP medal since

2007 Skate Canada International The 2007 Skate Canada International was the second event of six in the 2007–08 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Colisée Pepsi in Quebec City, Quebec on November 1 ...

. It was the third Grand Prix silver medal of his career. The 2009 Skate America champion,

Takahiko Kozuka is a former competitive Japanese figure skater. He is the 2011 World silver medalist, a two-time Grand Prix Final medalist, a two-time Four Continents medalist, and the 2010–11 Japanese national champion. He is also the 2006 World Jun ...

, took the bronze medal. This was the first time that no US skater stood on the men's podium at

Ladies

Alissa Czisny Alissa Czisny (born June 25, 1987) is an American former competitive figure skater. She is the 2010 Grand Prix Final champion, a two-time Skate Canada champion (2005, 2010), the 2011 Skate America champion, and a two-time U.S. national champion ( ...

won the short program, while

Carolina Kostner Carolina Kostner (born 8 February 1987) is an Italian figure skater. She is the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2012 World champion, a five-time European champion (2007–2008, 2010, 2012–2013), and the 2011 Grand Prix Final champion. She ...

placed first in the free skating. Czisny edged out Kostner by only 0.13 points for the gold medal. Viktoria Helgesson took the bronze and became the first Swedish skater to win a Grand Prix medal.

Pairs

In the short program, Savchenko and Szolkowy attempted the rare throw triple Axel for the first time in their career but experienced a hard fall. They were given credit for completing the revolutions and finished in 5th place, 3.4 points off the lead. They rebounded to place first in the free skating and won their second consecutive Skate America title and third in their career. They added a reverse lasso lift to their free skating but performed only a double twist because they were still working on a new entry to the triple. Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang took silver, their fifth medal at Skate America, after missing the previous season due to hand, shoulder and knee injuries. Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch won the bronze, their second medal at the event.

Ice dancing

Davis and White repeated as Skate America champions, with Pechalat and Bourzat winning the silver medal, and Tobias and Stagniunas pulling up from fifth to take bronze, their first Grand Prix medal. Bourzat was recovering from bronchitis.

References

External links

*
2011 Hilton HHonors Skate America
at U.S. Figure Skating
ISU GP Skate America 2011: Entries, time and practice schedule
at the International Skating Union {{2011–12 in figure skating Skate America, 2011 Skate America