I went to the ladies LP practice this morning. Lucinda Ruh hardly landed one triple jump clean but practiced her spins for the long and got the small crowd excited!

Shizuka Arakawa (JPN) had a good practice including landing most every triple she tried. Her presentation is still lacking though.

Silvia Fontana (ITA) was smiling broadly as usual and did pretty well with her jumps today.

Elena Sokolova did great and landed a 3s 3l sequence. She had trouble with the flip today and it took her 5 tries to get it. She later landed another sequence of 3t 3t 3t. WOW! She was very nice and signed lots of autographs and posed for lots of pictures. I like her attitude and her skating.

Joanne Carter (AUS) is very strong and landed a 3l 3l!! She skates very fast, one of the fastest I've seen here. She also landed a 3t 3t 2t combination!

Marie Pierre Leray (FRA) is so adorable but doesn't commit to the landings of her jumps and thus sits most of them down.

Diana Poth (HUN) the "Swimsuit girl" (she almost always wears swimsuits in practice, no skirts) is fun to watch and has good fast jumps.

Vanessa Gusmerolli (FRA) is definitely not as good as last year but did manage one 3l 2l.

Tonia K is still having lots of fun with her coaches in practice. It's so nice to see her work hard AND have fun (sound familiar). She did great today and began by knocking off all the doubles and then landing all the 3's on the first try except 3l which she had a little trouble with at first. She skipped all the jumps in her run-through. I noticed that her spins seem a little slow in comparison to the other good spinners.

Tanja S was a mess today and seemed frustrated. She also seems nervous about crashing into other skaters. I wonder if she always trains in a rink by herself. Even on her run-through (when she has the right of way) she was looking around for the other skaters instead of concentrating on her skating. It's too bad that's she's having a rough time because we all hoped for her to do well here.

Julia Vorobieva (AZE) has great speed on her spins, watch for these.

Tatyana Malinina (UZB) has an amazing ability to land any jump she goes up for. now matter how crooked it is she lands it! Amazing! She is also very tiny!

Yulia Lavrenchuk (UKR) has big jumps like Anna Rechnio and could place pretty high if she lands them.

The last group to practice was Michelle, Maria, Irina, Anna, Elena L and Laetitia.

Michelle and Anna were talking and laughing while they were waiting to go on. Some Canadian fans yelled "Hi Mr. Carroll" before practice and he waved back and smiled. Michelle seemed very happy and relaxed. We waved our American flags and she seemed to like that. She started by practicing the 2x a couple of times but no triples. She was first for the run-though and most skaters that are early don't do the jumps. She only did the 2x and 3l in the run-though but landed all the others later in practice, including many 3z 2t's. She then practiced her spins and did a spiral just to get a loud cheer! She left early (which most skaters are doing today) and signed only a few autographs. As she was leaving the ice I was near to her and said "Way to go Michelle" she looked right at me and smiled!

Anna looks as if she's taken on even more confidence and Maria has lost most of hers. She landed every jump and didn't double any triple attempts that I saw. She did most of a full run-through and was magnificent. She has very muscular legs and great posture and uses these qualities well. I didn't watch Irina, Elena or Laetitia much but they looked OK I guess.

I noticed that there were a few policemen here today. Hmmmmmm

Onto the ladies free skate competition.

WAY TO GO MICHELLE!!! I was so happy for her and seemed thrilled when she got on the top of the podium again. She was so excited to hear the National Anthem played for her that when the trumpets started playing to signal the entrance of the medals and flowers she put her hand on her heart waiting for the anthem to start. She finally realized it and made a silly face and put her hand down.. She then turned to Maria to tell her how foolish she must have looked. It was very cute and fun to see her excitement! OK, let's back up.

A few notes on skaters probably not on TV. Silvia did great and seemed very proud of herself. She placed 15th in the free and ended up 18th over all. Diana Poth and Tanja S switched places 9 & 10. Diana Poth only fell once and landed all the other triples. She needs to work on her presentation but was fun to watch! Elena Sokolova botched all 3 3z attempts but had some great combinations.

I was glad for Irina that she got a Silver medal (her best at worlds ever) She seemed to have a rough start to the season but this competition was very wonderful for her I'm sure. Maria now has her first world medal, way to go!

It was very fun to be in attendance for Michelle's second world title and feel the energy in the building. Tonia made us all so very proud! 6th is awesome considering she wasn't even supposed to be here! Now the US gets to send 3 ladies, 3 men and 3 pairs but only 1 dance team to worlds next year.

I'll be back tomorrow with notes on the exhibition and closing ceremonies.