An Evening with Champions features blockbuster cast The 44th annual “An Evening with
Champions” Jimmy Fund benefit fea- tured a larger-than-usual cast and the return of Johnny Weir to Harvard Uni- versity September 19 and 20. Weir, a three-time U.S. champion
and two-time Olympian, had not ap- peared in the show since 2001, and his many fans greeted his appearance with great excitement. Skating to Christina Perri’s “Human,” the skater delivered a program with emotion and clean triple jumps. Jeremy Abbott premiered a brand-
new short program to Sam Smith’s “Lay Me Down.” The new pairs team of Ma- rissa Castelli and Mervin Tran also per- formed their short program, to “Sum- mertime,” as did Joshua Farris, to Ed Sheeran’s “Give Me Love.” Farris was still recovering from two ankle sprains, but said he was eager to compete on the Grand Prix circuit.
“I’m going to come back stronger,”
he said. “I’d been skating great before I got injured.” Courtney Hicks was a standout
technically, landing a triple Lutz, triple flip and double Axel in her powerful “Amazing Grace” program. Showing off a new short program to “Agua” by Los Van Van, were the 22-time U.S. synchro- nized skating champion Haydenettes. Emily Hughes and Paul Wylie co-
hosted the show, which also starred Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, Kimmie Meissner, Alissa Czisny, Ross Miner, Agnes Zawadzki, Shawn Sawyer, Anastasia Cannuscio and Colin McMa- nus, Act I of Boston, Team Excel, Alexan- dra Aldridge and Daniel Eaton, Douglas Razzano, Ashley Cain, Nathan Chen, Shotaro Omori and Harvard students Christina Gao, Yasmin Siraj and Maria Kalina.
— Sarah Brannen
Courtney Hicks
HQ Profile – Tami Spears I am the Basic Skills specialist at
U.S. Figure Skating Headquarters. I work closely with Basic Skills Manager Erin Schopf on the addition of new programs and assist Basic Skills directors with any Members Only, membership, instructor and competition questions. What is your favorite part about
this job? Working with Erin (Schopf) is the best part, because I never know what she’s going to say or do. I also love working with all the Basic Skills directors. What do you like to do in your spare time? I love to read and
go camping in my spare time, if I have any. What would people be surprised to know about you? I am
from Colorado Springs and I have 22 members in my immediate fam- ily that all live in Colorado Springs. My husband is from Colorado and he has 21 immediate family members that all live in Colorado as well. Parties are a big thing when our families get together, which we do every chance we get. What would be your ideal vacation? Being from Colorado
Springs, I would love to go to the Bahamas, because my first beach visit was just last year when we went to San Diego. Tell us a little bit about your family. My husband and I have
been married for 17 years and we have three children. My husband is Reuben and my oldest son, Daryon, is 21; my daughter, Jaenah, is 13 and my youngest son, Trisdon, is 11.
Between Champs Camp and their first competition of the
season, U.S. ice dance bronze medalists Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani embarked on a three-day North Carolina me- dia tour to promote the sale of single-session tickets for the 2015 U.S. Championships. To cover more ground in less time, Maia spent a morning
in Charlotte while Alex tackled Raleigh. They then met up for interviews, a sponsor dinner and a box office appearance in Greensboro. In all, the #ShibSibsinNC covered three cities, 12 TV affil-
iates, the Charlotte Observer, the Greensboro News-Record, Clear Channel radio, two rinks and one box office (and a few flight delays but who’s counting).
SKATING 7
#ShibSibsInNC
PHOTO BY SARAH BRANNEN
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