Skate America is an international, senior-level invitation-only figure skating competition organized by the USFSA. It is the first ISU Grand Prix event to be held. The location changes yearly. Medals are awarded in four disciplines: men's singles, ladies' singles, pairs, and ice dancing.
The 2002 competition was held at the Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington, from October 23 through 27. The compulsory dance was the Austrian Waltz.
Reigning Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin withdrew with injury after the short program in what became the final competition of his amateur career. French skater Brian Joubert went on the win the men's event for his first international title. Yukari Nakano and Ludmila Nelidina both landed a triple axel in their long programs, together becoming the first female skaters to perform the jump in international competition since Midori Ito landed it at the 1992 Winter Olympics. Nakano landed it first and Nelidina, who skated after her, also performed it successfully.
Famous quotes containing the words skate and/or america:
“Wait, Kate! You skate at such a rate
You leave behind your skating mate.
Your splendid speed won’t you abate?
He’s lagging far behind you, Kate.”
—David Daiches (b. 1912)
“While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily
thickening to empire,
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out,
and the mass hardens,”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)