Four reigning U.S. figure skating champions are expected to compete in the 2012 Hilton HHonors Skate America Oct. 19-21 at the ShoWare Center in Kent.
Ashley Wagner (ladies), Jeremy Abbott (men’s), Caydee Denney and John Coughlin (pairs) and Meryl Davis and Charlie White (ice dancing) were selected Monday for the 2012 International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series that opens in Kent, according to a ISU media release. Davis and White also were World silver medalists.
Other featured skaters include European silver medalists in ice dancing Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev of Russia and Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje of Canada; World silver medalists Alena Leonova of Russia and Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov (pairs) of Russia; 2010 Olympic silver medalists Qing Pang/Jian Tong (pairs) of China and World bronze medalist Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan.
The Grand Prix Series, entering its 18th season, incorporates six international figure skating competitions as a unified point-scoring series that awards prize money to eligible skaters.
At the conclusion of the series, points are totaled, and the top six ladies, men, pairs and ice dancing teams are invited to compete at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final Dec. 5-9 in Sochi, Russia, site of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
The other Grand Prix events include Skate Canada International – Windsor, Ontario, Oct. 26-28; Cup of China- Shanghai, Nov. 2-4; Rostelecom Cup – Moscow, Nov. 9-11; Trophee Eric Bompard – Paris, Nov. 16-18; and NHK Trophy – Miyagi, Japan, Nov. 23-25.
The complete list of skater selections for the 2012 Grand Prix Series is available at www.isu.org.
In Kent, the U.S. competitors are expected to be:
• Ladies: Rachael Flatt, Christina Gao, Ashley Wagner
• Men’s: Jeremy Abbott, Douglas Razzano
• Pairs: Caydee Denney and John Coughlin, Gretchen Donlan and Andrew Speroff
• Ice Dancing: Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Lynn Kriengkrairut and Logan Giulietti-Schmitt
Skaters will compete for $180,000 in prize money at the Kent event, including $18,000 for the winners in each division; $13,000 for second; $9,000 for third; $3,000 for fourth; and $2,000 for fifth.
The number of entries for each event in Kent is 10 Ladies, 10 Men, eight Pairs and eight Ice Dance couples.
Competitors collect points in their Grand Prix events towards the qualification for the Grand Prix Final. Skaters are eligible to compete in two of the six events to earn points to advance to the final.
For more information and tickets, go to www.2012skateamerica.com.
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