1. Skate Canada is the last of the six regular-season Grand Prix events, and Czisny's short-program total, 63.52, has been topped by just two other women on the circuit this season: Yuna Kim of South Korea (76.08 in Paris, 76.28 in Lake Placid) and Joannie Rochette of Canada (70.0 today to beat Czisny.)

2. It bettered Czisny's previous personal best, which came in 2005, by a whopping 5.98 points.

3. And although Czisny's artistry is considered her strength, her technical score, 36.60, has been topped this season by just Kim (43.80 and 44), Rochette (38.40) and Mirai Nagasu of the U.S. (37.40 in China).

What does that mean?

Despite the effort to create a system that seeks to standardize scores, each judging panel looks at things differently, so comparisons are tricky.

But the good thing is the Skate Canada judging did not appear overly generous (except for Rochette, the homie), so Czisny's scores seem a fair measure of her performance.

The bad thing is Czisny previously has been unable to do back-to-back strong performances (for evidence, check the 2009 U.S. Championships), so there will be a lot of breath held during Saturday's four-minute free skate -- especially because Czisny always seems to lose it at just about the point (2 3/4 minutes) a short program would have ended.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Alissa Czisny reacts to her high scores in the short program at Skate Canada. Credit: Paul Chiasson / Associated Press)

A few figure skating observations as the Grand Prix series heads into its last event before the Dec. 4-5 final in Tokyo:

*Over dinner Sunday night in Lake Placid, five reporters who will be covering figure skating at the 2010 Olympics agreed to hazard predictions on the Winter Games medals.

I decided to come up with an aggregate of our picks by assigning five points for a prediction of gold, three for silver, one for bronze.

I know the whole thing is very unscientific, but the point here is simply to have some fun.

The results showed: no man getting votes from all five of us; Yuna Kim of South Korea being unanimous for gold; wide difference of opinion on the other women's medals; and compelling unpredictability in three of the four disciplines.

In ice dance, we liked reigning world champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia even though they have not competed this season because of his knee injury, and a couple of us thought Isabelle Delobel would come back so strong from giving birth to a son Oct. 2, and that she and Olivier Schoenfelder, the 2008 world champions from France, could make the Olympic podium.

(Our panel was Juliet Macur and Jere Longman of the New York Times; Christine Brennan and Kelly Whiteside of USA Today; and me.  FYI: Groups of us have done this in the past, and although the predictions have been lost to the mists of history, it should be noted Longman was the only one among a previous panel to pick Tara Lipinski as 1998 Olympic champion.)

In listing the 2010 predictions, I will give total points and votes by place.  So, for example, in ice dance, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the United States had 17 (2-2-1), which means 17 points on 2 firsts, 2 seconds and a third.

Without further ado, the envelope, please:

WOMEN:  Yuna Kim, South Korea, 25 (5-0-0); Rachael Flatt, U.S., 6: (0-2-0); Joannie Rochette, Canada, 4 (0-1-1); Mao Asada, Japan, 3 (0-0-3); Miki Ando, Japan, 3 (0-1-0); Akiko Suzuki, Japan, 3 (0-1-0); Julia Sebestyen, Hungary, 1 (0-0-1).

MEN: Evgeny Plushenko, Russia, 16 (2-2-0); Evan Lysacek, U.S., 12 (1-2-1); Patrick Chan, Canada, 7 (1-0-2); Nobunari Oda, Japan, 6 (1-0-1); Brian Joubert, France, 4 (0-1-1).

PAIRS: Savchenko-Szolkowy, Germany, 21 (3-2-0); Shen-Zhao, China, 16 (2-2-0); Pang-Tong, China, 5 (0-1-2); Zhangs, China, 2 (0-0-2); Mukhortova-Trankov, Russia, 1 (0-0-1).

DANCE: Domnina-Shabalin, Russia, 19 (3-1-1); Belbin-Agosto, U.S., 17 (2-2-1); Davis-White, U.S., 7 (0-2-1); Delobel and Schoenfelder, France, 2 (0-0-2)

*Surest sign the Olympics are approaching:  an attractive U.S. female athlete pictured in a state of undress for a magazine.

This time, it's ice dancer Tanith Belbin on the cover of Men's Health, where she is called, ``America's hottest Olympic athlete.''

The hottest stuff is nothing new for Belbin, 25 a naturalized U.S. citizen from Canada (and ex-girlfriend of reigning world champion Evan Lysacek).  Voters on ESPN.com had called Belbin ``the hottest female athlete,'' period, in 2006, when she won the Olympic silver medal with partner Benjamin Agosto, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs.

The Men's Health photo spread, titled "How to Woo a Tech Girl,'' said Belbin, "loves SIM cards more than the average 25-year-old woman does.''

Belbin's relatively modest poses, by comparison with those of Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard and high jumper Amy Acuff, who posed nude for Playboy, follow in a tradition of self-revelation that includes, among others, swimmer Jenny Thompson, volleyball player Logan Tom, soccer player Brandi Chastain and water polo player Amber Stachowski.

Maybe Belbin is hoping the judges will find her love for everything hi-tech so convincing they give her higher technical scores in a scoring system that relies on all manner of gadgetry.

If it is an all-male panel, she's as good as gold.

*Rachael Flatt's performance at Skate America had big mistakes [fall on the jump combination in the short program, botched combination spin in the free skate] but it still clearly established her as the favorite in January's U.S. Championships -- unless, of course, Alissa Czisny or Caroline Zhang or Mirai Nagasu blows the doors off in this weekend's Skate Canada.

Flatt, known for her consistency, had been consistently lackluster in her earlier Grand Prix event, Cup of China, finishing 5th in the short program and free skate.  Slow and steady can only take you so far. 

"This certainly gives me a lot of confidence heading into nationals,'' Flatt said after Skate America, when she hit seven triple jumps.  "I have been doing clean programs or close-to-clean programs in practice, so I'm glad to finally compete the way I've been practicing.''

Should Flatt win nationals, she would be the fifth different women's champion in the past five years.  That never has happened before under normal circumstances.

The only similar streaks occurred in the seven years from 1990 through 1996 and the five years from 1960 through 1964.

There were six different champions from 90-96 but the 1994 title, won by Tonya Harding, was vacated because of Harding's involvement in the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.  Harding also won in 1991.

There were five different champions from 1960 through 1964, but the elite of U.S. skating was wiped out in a 1961 crash of the plane taking the team to the world championships.

Flatt, 17, has been the runner-up at nationals the past two years.

*In the ships-passing-in-the-night dept., we have U.S. men Brandon Mroz and Ryan Bradley, who are both coached by Tom Zakrajsek in Colorado Springs.

Mroz had plenty of bravado after the short program at Skate America, telling reporters he had the same technical ammunition as Russia's Evgeny Plushenko, the 2006 Olympic champion, who has made an impressive return to competition after a three-season absence.

Then Mroz, 18, shot himself in the foot (feet?) over and over again at Skate America, in one of the worst performances I ever have seen an accomplished skater give.  It compared (unfavorably) with Carolina Kostner's mess at the 2009 worlds.

Against the weakest men's field in any of the first five Grand Prix events this season, Mroz finished 11th of 12 in the free skate.  His scorecard: one fall, only one decently executed triple jump, other triples repeatedly turned into doubles.

Bradley had several performances similar to Mroz's disaster since finishing second at the 2007 U.S. Championships.  One was at the Paris Grand Prix this season, where he finished 10th of 12 in a free skate he amazingly opened with a successful quad jump.  Bradley was 8th overall there.

Bradley, who turned 26 Tuesday, was headed for the abyss again at Skate America after botching his first two jumps and finishing eighth in the short program.  Then he rallied to finish second in the long program -- and overall -- with solid skating in a delightfully whimsical interpretation of a program called ``Chamber Music,'' which includes snippets of Albinoni, Mozart and others.

Bradley's scores were a long way from those of winner Lysacek -- but also a long way from where he had been.

``I didn't put myself on the Olympic team today, but I didn't take myself out of the running, either,'' Bradley said.  ``There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  It was looking a little dark for a while.''

*Frank Carroll, paraphrasing a quip he had heard another coach say, delivered the best line ever about most skaters' lack of relationship to the sounds they are skating to.  Said the coach of a skater after a particularly tone-deaf effort:  ``The music never bothered her.''

-- Philip Hersh

Ten things I have learned after three days at Skate America:

1. Vera Wang designed the costume that reigning world champion Evan Lysacek is wearing while performing his short program to Stravinsky's "Firebird.'' Lysacek was skeptical about the feathers Wang hung from the gloved wrists when he first saw them, but now thinks of them as a good fit with the Stravinsky piece. "Stravinsky is sort of a bizarre artist,'' Lysacek said. "The accent of the feathers adds to that.''

2. Bizarre hand coverings are hardly unusual in men's figure skating. Russia's Alexei Urmanov, the 1994 Olympic champion, was known for costumes that often included outlandish gloves. Three-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir, for whom outlandish is de rigueur, wore a glove he named Camille while skating his 2006 Olympic short program, in honor of composer Camille Saint-Saens, because Weir was performing to "The Swan'' from Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals."

3. Lysacek is going against type in his programs this year -- both his own and skating's. "Firebird'' is frequently used in the sport, but it has been the province of female skaters. The same is true of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade," which Lysacek is using in his long program.

4. And then there is South Korean Kim Yu-na, doing a short program to a James Bond medley. That music has traditionally been used by male skaters. Kim portrays a Bond girl. "Not a particular Bond girl, but all of what they are,'' said her coach, Brian Orser. "Mysterious, sexy, confident.''

5. Czech Tomas Verner is a stand-up guy. Verner, who came here ranked No. 1 in the world in the International Skating Union rankings, utterly bombed his short program Friday, falling on a quadruple jump and turning two triples into doubles. Then he walked into the mixed zone and told the truth, nothing but the truth, calling the program "a disaster,'' saying the double jumps were like "doing a program with no jumps at all'' and figuring sarcastically he would have been better off using the time wasted on the jumps to show off his edge work and basic skating skills.

6. Olympic silver medal ice dancer Tanith Belbin decided her compulsory dance dress was "Tiffany turquoise'' when she noticed it looked like the same color as the Tiffany bag she uses for the circular, diamond-looking earrings that go with the dress. The earnings are neither from Tiffany nor diamonds, but they are special to Belbin because a Korean fan gave them to her. "They are Swarovski, so I guess they're crystal,'' Belbin said. And the trademark Tiffany color is actually blue.

7. Lysacek's coach, Frank Carroll, is deep into "Wolf Hall,'' the novel about Henry VIII's fixer, Thomas Cromwell, that won the prestigious annual Man Booker Prize. "This is my last book about the Tudor era,'' Carroll said. "I've got to find another time period. I've been reading nothing but books about the Tudors.''

8. French skater Florent Amodio, 19, was born in Brazil and adopted as an infant by a family from the Paris suburbs. The first day his mother took the 4-year-old Florent to skate at a group session, he impressed the man leading the session so much that he went to find the mother. "He had fluidity and an ease on the ice that were remarkable,'' said Bernard Glesser, who has been Amodio's coach from that day.

9. Belbin's partner, Chicago native Ben Agosto, is an accomplished acoustic and electric guitarist. (This is fairly well-known already, but still interesting.) Agosto has skated while playing the music -- Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven'' -- to which he was performing.

10. Mike Burg, a cancer survivor who was Tara Lipinski's agent when she won the 1998 Olympic gold medal, was the catalyst for the deal that made Cancer.net the title sponsor of Skate America. Burg brought together the American Society of Clinical Oncologists, which manages the informational website, and U.S. Figure Skating for the one-year deal, which also will give the website and the society exposure at other USFS events. 

-- Philip Hersh in Lake Placid, N.Y

Photos: Top, Evan Lysacek as a fine-feathered "Firebird." Credit: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images. Bottom, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto. Credit: Mike Groll / Associated Press.

The deal all but fell into U.S. Speedskating's lap.

And it quickly has made the sport's athletes feel more confident they won't be lapped by the competition in this Olympic year for financial reasons.

I'm talking about the fundraising arrangement between the Colbert Report and the speedskating federation, making the Colbert Nation the official sponsor of U.S. Speedskating.

It was announced Nov. 2 on the show, barely a week after the U.S. media -- me among them -- reported that the collapse of Dutch bank DSB had left a $300,000 hole in the federation's budget with the 2010 Winter Olympics on the horizon.  (The deficit actually was bigger, as DSB's contract gave U.S. Speedskating $350,000 in cash, of which $50,000 went directly to athletes and $300,000 to federation programs.)

Host Stephen Colbert told viewers to send donations to U.S. Speedskating through www.colbertnation.com. He promoted the effort again last Thursday with an appearance by 2006 Olympic speedskating champion Joey Cheek, who played along with a Colbert riff about lambasting Canada for its decision to limit U.S. athletes' training time on the 2010 Vancouver oval.  The segment (below) ended with cheers of "U-Ice-A!''

Monday night, Colbert announced on the show that $202,000 had been raised in the first week.

"We are exuberant,'' said Bob Crowley, the executive director of U.S. Speedskating.  "The skaters are really pumped.''

Crowley first heard from the Colbert people Oct. 27.  The next day, he was on a teleconference with Colbert. Sunday, Nov. 1, when he was at a World Series game in his native Philadelphia, Crowley got a call saying the Colbert Report wanted him on the Nov. 2 show. He was joined by 1994 Olympic speedskating champion Dan Jansen, who had run the New York Marathon the day before.

"We signed the deal that night,'' Crowley said.

Since then, Crowley said the link to Colbert has prompted interest from several other potential sponsors.

"Most of them want something we don't own -- mentions on the show,'' Crowley said.  "But we have some other leads as well because of our partnership with the Colbert Nation.''

Nearly all the athletes began wearing skin suits with the Colbert Nation logo at last weekend's short- and long-track World Cup meets. Olympic champions Shani Davis and Apolo Anton Ohno, the leading U.S. long- and short-track skaters, respectively, so far have chosen not to wear the logo.  Some skaters are wearing a mix of old warmup gear with the DSB logo and new racing gear with the Colbert Nation logo.

"It's not an issue for us,'' Crowley said of Davis and Ohno's non-participation.  "Anyone who has not signed our athlete agreement (which provides some funding in return for endorsing federation sponsors) is under no obligation. We are talking to Shani and Apolo about it, but our main focus is supporting their efforts to do the best they can this season.''

Davis, who had a personal endorsement deal with DSB end two years ago, is off to a fast start.

At the U.S. trials for the World Cup team in Milwaukee two weeks ago, the Chicagoan told reporters he was faster and stronger than ever before at this point in the season.

At the opening World Cup meet in Berlin last weekend, Davis set track records in winning the 1,000 and 1,500 meters.

But Davis didn't get a mention in the segment on Monday's Colbert report about World Cup successes (see below) because he wasn't wearing the logo.

The props went to Colbert Nation citizens Tucker Fredricks, who won a 500-meter rave in Berlin, and Katherine Reutter of Champaign (left), who won the 1,500 at the short-track meet in Montreal.

Maybe that will convince Davis to buy into what could be a significant endorsement for Olympic sports.

Olympic leaders lately have noted  difficulty in attracting younger audiences.

Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" reaches just that demographic.  And it looks as if the host is going to play this for all it's worth leading up to the Vancouver Olympics. It already is worth plenty to U.S. Speedskating.

(Photo of Katherine Reutter:  David Boily / Getty Images)

That is the only way to begin addressing issues highlighted in postmortems after the dismal failures of the last two U.S. bids to host a Summer Olympics.

1.  The United States has no clout in the Olympic world.

2.  The U.S. Olympic Committee leadership has changed so frequently in the past decade it has developed none of the relationships to create such clout.

The current situation:

The United States has ZERO presidents of international federations with sports still on the Olympic program.

And ZERO places on the 15-member executive board of the International Olympic Committee.

And just two IOC members -- compared, for instance, with five each for Italy and for Switzerland.  Neither U.S. member -- Anita DeFrantz nor Jim Easton -- is considered a major player in the IOC.

Switzerland and Italy have so many IOC members because they have people who qualify as leaders of international federations as well as athletes selected to the IOC in a vote of current Olympic athletes.

Those paths to membership were created in the 1990s. (Previously, no country could have more than two IOC members.  As the late international track federation president, Primo Nebiolo of Italy, famously said in 1991 when he was pushing successfully for a rule change allowing the IOC president to appoint more members per country -- notably him:  "The pope should have the right to choose his own cardinals.'')

Another path to IOC membership is being the leader of an important National Olympic Committee, like that of the United States. But no USOC president/chairman has been an IOC member since Sandra Baldwin in 2002, and her stay lasted less than four months because she resigned as USOC chair after admitting to falsifying her academic history.

Peter Ueberroth, USOC chairman from 2004 through 2008, made too many enemies on the IOC to be considered as a member.

That brings us to 2009 and Probst, who succeeded Ueberroth as chairman.

Probst, who has admitted to surprise over the time demands of the unpaid USOC position, vowed after Chicago finished dead last of the four finalists for the 2016 Summer Games (New York was next-to-last of five for 2012) to devote full time -- or as much time is necessary -- to the USOC job.

That commitment was evident last week when Pan American Sports Organization President Mario  Vazquez Rana of Mexico asked Probst to fill the PASO executive board position vacated when Bob Ctvrtlik resigned as USOC vice president to work for the Chicago 2016 bid committee.

Probst immediately accepted.

Before Chicago's defeat, Probst had told several people privately that he was unsure about staying in the chairman's job beyond the 2010 Olympics. He told me in a recent conversation that he intends to serve the full four-year term mandated by the USOC board when it made him chairman last year.

The current USOC bylaws allow board members to serve one six-year term and allow the board to define the length of the chairman's term when he or she is selected.

The time has come for the USOC board to amend its bylaws and extend that term to at least eight years.  Or more.

And not just for Probst's sake. For the sake of the USOC and any U.S. hopes to be an Olympic host again.

A longer term is the only way the USOC can have its leader become an effective IOC member.

And, referring specifically to Probst, why would the IOC want to select someone who is an almost immediate lame duck?

How much relationship-building could Probst do in less than three years, anyway?

Any decision on extending the chairman's term must wait until after the USOC selects a new chief executive, which Probst said should happen before the end of the year, although it might take until mid-January.

If the USOC board does as badly with this CEO choice as it did in forcing Jim Scherr out last March and naming Stephanie Streeter acting CEO, all of its members should resign. (And quickly, before the mob of angry National Governing Body leaders reaches their doors.)

The CEO selection is not an easy task. As a person close to the search said, only half in jest, "All we need is someone with a cape on his or her shoulders and an S on the chest who is willing to live in Colorado Springs and work for a dollar a year.''

I wonder whether the firm hired by the USOC to do the CEO search has contacted Kim Bohuny. She is the NBA's VP of international basketball, in charge of its Basketball Without Borders program; she has experience in TV (Turner Broadcasting), and she is on the board of USA Basketball, the sport's National Governing Body. Bohuny may not be a caped crusader, but she should be put in the mix.

No matter who becomes CEO, the chairman's position still retains an infinitely higher profile among other international sports leaders.

The person in it needs more time to flesh out that profile.

-- Philip Hersh

It is the second Grand Prix event this fall from which the 2006 Olympic silver medalist has withdrawn because of the problem in her right calf.

This time, the withdrawal casts significant doubt on whether she can make a successful comeback after three seasons away from Olympic-style skating.

She will replaced at Skate America in Lake Placid, N.Y., by Emily Hughes, who finished seventh at the 2006 Olympics as an eleventh-hour replacement for an injured Michelle Kwan.

[Updated at 10:17a.m. Hughes, 20, who is taking a year off from Harvard University to train full time, missed the last two U.S. Championships with injuries. She has finished two years at Harvard.

By virtue of her 2006 Olympic medal, Cohen is an automatic qualifier for January's U.S. Championships, at which U.S. Figure Skating will pick its two women's singles entrants for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Hughes now will also receive a bye to nationals because the final qualifying event, Eastern Sectionals, begins just three days after Skate America.  She finished second in last month's North Atlantic Regionals, her first competition in a year.]

-- Philip Hersh

Jocelyne Lamoureux of Grand Forks, N.D., scored the only goal for the U.S., which had won its previous four major tournaments -- the 2008 World Championships, 2008 Four Nations Cup, the 2009 World Championships and 2009 Hockey Canada Cup.

Canada scored three times on the power play today to win its first tournament since the 2007 Four Nations Cup.

The U.S. and Canadian women's teams are expected to be among the medal contenders at the Vancouver Olympics in February.

Team USA will resume its pre-Olympic preparation on the Qwest Tour on Nov. 22 in Durham, N.H., against the Hockey East All-Stars.

The tournament, which began on Wednesday and is taking place in Finland, brought together the top four women's hockey teams in the world -- the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden -- and is the last international women's hockey tournament before the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in February.

In today's match, the final one in the preliminary round, the U.S. beat Canada 3-2 behind Natalie Darwitz, who had a goal, Hilary Knight, who tallied a goal and an assist, and Meghan Duggan, who scored the game-winning goal late in the second period after an assist from Kelli Stack. 

Team USA finished first in the preliminary round standings with a perfect 3-0-0-0 record.

Also Friday, Sweden beat Finland 2-1 with an overtime goal; they will play for third place Saturday.

The Americans are the defending champions after beating Canada in a penalty shootout last year. Saturday's championship is at 8 a.m. PST. USAhockey.com will have a live webcast of the game.

-- Debbie Goffa

He trained long and hard, skating powerfully through a morning practice session at the Toyota Sports Center.

Although a surprise blizzard delayed his return from last week’s Cup of China competition in Beijing, he was on the ice Wednesday as usual, sharing the surface with Italy’s Carolina Kostner, 2008 U.S. champion Mirai Nagasu, Bebe Liang and others. Afterward, he pondered whether 100 days is a long time or a short time to wait for what looms as the biggest moment of his career.

“Both. I have mixed feelings,” said Lysacek, who pulled up from third after the short program to finish second at the Cup of China behind Japan’s Nobunari Oda.

“I feel like I’m really in a good place physically and mentally for this season, but at the same time, 100 days is a long time to stay calm. As it gets closer, anxiety will start to kick in a little more than it already has, but I feel like the last several years for me have been so rewarding.

"I’m really satisfied with the way things are going. I don’t feel the constant need to be proving myself, and proving myself and proving myself, and I think with that, I’ve found an inner peace where I truly love skating every single day and being with my friends and traveling.”

That, he said, has helped him rediscover the essential joy of skating.

“I’ve sort of come full circle. I feel like I’m right back where I started where I’m just doing it because I love it,” he said. “And I really hope I can keep that, because I want to have that feeling at the Olympics and be able to enjoy the experience and not be so hung up on how every tiny little detail is going in my skating.

"I know it’s about the sport as a whole, but like any athlete will tell you, we’re ambassadors for our sport, our country, each of our families and cities and clubs and coaches.”

That sounds like a lot of responsibility, but not to him.

“No. It’s an honor,” he said.

Lysacek also said he was happy with his performance at the Cup of China.

“I just had a couple of questionable calls on edges,” he said. “I sort of had my list of what I wanted to work on, but reviewing them, I don’t so much. It seemed like just calls. I’ll just try to make it more obvious, I guess. What they say with this system is, ‘Don’t leave any gray area.’ Even though I think it was correct, what I did, I did leave a gray area so that’s what I have to correct.

“I’ve seen great skating so far this season. It’s going to be a really exciting season leading up to the Games.”

And, as of Wednesday, there were only 100 days left until the Feb. 12 Opening Ceremony.

San Jose also hosted the nationals in 1996 when Michelle Kwan won the first of her nine championships.

The 2010 nationals and Olympic trials will be held in Spokane, Wash., in January.

-- Austin Knoblauch

In alphabetical order, the list is:

Belarus: Dec. 23
Canada: Dec. 31
Czech Republic: Dec. 30
Finland: Dec. 30
Germany: Dec. 30
Latvia: Dec. 29
Norway: Dec. 29
Russia: Dec. 25
Switzerland: Dec. 30
Slovakia: Dec. 29
Sweden: Dec. 27
U.S.: Jan. 1 (during NHL Winter Classic)

The last day to change the roster will be Feb. 15, when members of the directorate -- the mucky-mucks in charge of the tournament -- will meet on the eve of the first men's game.

Here's the men's Olympic schedule.

In honor of today being the 100-days-out point before the Games, the IIHF unveiled a new hockey page on its website with links to Olympic hockey rules, trivia and other information.

The announcement of the team that will compete at the Vancouver Games in Canada will be made during NBC's national telecast of the Philadelphia Flyers playing the Boston Bruins on a temporary rink set up in the middle of Fenway Park.

"It’s terrific to have partners like NBC and the NHL,” said Dave Ogrean, executive director of USA Hockey, in a news release. "I think by announcing our men’s Olympic team as part of the broadcast of the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, we all feel like it will add to the pageantry of what is sure to be a spectacular event."

The men's hockey tournament at Vancouver will begin Feb. 16 and will end with the gold medal game Feb. 28.

The U.S. women, who have most of their team in place and will make only a few cuts before Vancouver, continued their Olympic preparation by defeating host nation Finland, 4-0, in the first game of the Four Nations Cup.

Goaltender Molly Schaus of Natick, Mass., got the shutout by stopping 15 shots. The U.S. women took 52 shots and got goals from Monique Lamoreux, Erika Lawler,Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej and Hilary Knight.

-- Helene Elliott

Jennifer Kirk, who won the 2000 world junior figure skating championship, finished third at the U.S. championships in 2004 and fourth in 2005, will write a weekly blog for The Times providing insights into the skating world during the months leading into the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Since retiring from figure skating in 2005, Kirk, 25, has been working on obtaining a college degree in broadcast journalism and has spent the last few months blogging about skating at Trueslant.com/jenniferkirk.

Americans Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu came to the weekend’s Cup of China event with high hopes. Facing a relatively weak field, both had a reasonable shot at medaling. 

It was shocking, then, when the ladies’ podium was void of an American flag. After dealing with their respective struggles in Beijing, Flatt and Nagasu were left with disappointment and empty hands heading home from their first Grand Prix event of this Olympic season.

What’s most significant about the weekend’s event isn’t that Flatt and Nagasu left a relatively mid-level Grand Prix event without a medal, but rather what it means for the larger hopes for American ladies’ figure skating.

Without a clear standout star among the American women, to some degree, the hopes of an Olympic medal rests in the hands of a relatively unpredictable group of young women who have yet to establish themselves as consistent threats for international medals. 

This week’s Cup of China served as a microcosm of this predicament. That said, it’s important to note that although the Cup of China was a disappointment, Flatt and Nagasu have the ability to rebound from the weekend’s setbacks and revive American ladies’ skating. But it will take some work.

Nagasu, who trains in El Segundo, skated with good speed and security in Friday‘s short program, winning the first phase of the competition. After a 2009 season that was marred with injuries and inconsistency, Nagasu came to Beijing looking to display an improved jump technique and more mature choreography.

She showed marked improvements in these areas in the short, getting through her jumps and receiving level 4’s on four of her elements. 

While Nagasu’s win in the first phase of the competition was promising and well-deserved, she learned an unfortunate lesson in her long program: If you’re going to jump, you have to make sure that jump is fully rotated. 

Although Nagasu’s jumps were strong in her short program, with better technique and height than we saw from her last season, Nagasu seemed to revert to old habits in the long. It appeared as if she tried to play it safe and, instead of getting the height and distance needed to fully complete the rotations, Nagasu muscled through her jumps, trying to assure she landed on her feet -- even if that meant her landings weren’t entirely backward. 

Nagasu received downgrades on five of her seven jumping passes in her long program, which completely killed her in the standings. Dropping from first to sixth in the long program, Nagasu was left to settle for fifth place overall and was more than twenty points behind the winner, Japan’s Akiko Suzuki, who had 176.66 points. Nagasu had 155.38, just behind Flatt’s 157.71.

The key for Nagasu is to keep herself from slipping into old habits under pressure. As a skater, it’s really easy to try to skate “safe” when you are leading after the short program, but the weekend taught Nagasu that safety isn’t going to win her international medals. 

The opening Grand Prix brings with it a ton of pressure and personal expectations for skaters. It’s understandable that Nagasu succumbed to this pressure in the long program. To some degree, all skaters have a moment where they drop the ball after an impressive short program, allowing mental lapses and safe skating to keep them off the podium. (Mine came at Skate America in 2002.) However, Nagasu can’t afford to make the mistakes we saw from her in Beijing in future events.

Like Nagasu’s shocking win in the short program, it was equally as alarming to see U.S. silver medalist Flatt struggle with her consistency and landings throughout the event. Flatt is known for being a clutch skater under pressure, but it seemed like she was off in China, leaving her usually secure jumping legs back at home. 

Although Flatt is a two-time national silver medalist, she lacks the speed on her spins and finesse to be competitive with the top international skaters. Because of her consistency, Flatt usually benefits from others’ mistakes, but, as we saw in the short program in China, when everyone skates well, there’s not a lot about Flatt’s skating that stands out. 

Flatt could fix this if she focused on polishing her stroking and improving her second mark. She needs to skate faster, work on the speed of her spins and her skating skills. While Flatt has a ton of potential, without the artistry and maturity of skaters such as Joannie Rochette or Kim Yu-Na, she’ll have a tough time breaking onto the podium at international events. Flatt has two weeks to get the timing back on her jumps and work on skating with more energy and command before her next event, Skate America.

While Flatt and Nagasu are surely frustrated by how their seasons began, both have the talent and opportunity to learn from the weekend’s competition. My advice to them would be to leave the Cup of China in the past. If they don’t, and they fail to spend the time fixing what’s been lacking from their skating over the last few seasons, American women’s figure skating will remain a rudderless ship still waiting for the next great star to emerge.

For Flatt, this means focusing on polishing up her skating, working on her flexibility and polish. And for Nagasu, it means working on the height and rotations of her jumps and her consistency under pressure.

The worst thing either could do right now would be to get too down about a rocky start to their Olympic seasons. The season’s far from over, and what they‘ll remember the most about this year isn‘t how it began, but how it ended.

-- Jennifer Kirk

They handed it off to rower Silke Laumann, a three-time Olympic medalist, and diver Alexandre Despatie, a two-time medalist and the first Canadian man to win an Olympic diving medal.

The Vancouver Olympic website has a nifty section about the torch relay, with an interactive map, videos and stories on some of the 12,000 folks who will carry the torch across the country and back in time for the Feb. 12 Opening Ceremony. 

Among the higher-profile torchbearers: NHL standout Sidney Crosby, who is scheduled to carry the flame in his home province of Nova Scotia on Nov. 18. Crosby was left off Canada's Olympic team for the 2006 Turin Games but that won't happen this time.

-- Helene Elliott

One is the committee, as previously promised by USOC board Chairman Larry Probst, includes representatives of every USOC constituent group, including two members of the Athletes Advisory Committee.

The other is that it does not include any of the U.S. sports federation (NGB) leaders who have been publicly critical of the current USOC leadership --  Probst and acting CEO Stephanie Streeter.

But there are valid reasons for not having the two most outspoken NGB leaders, Steve Penny (gymnastics) and Skip Gilbert (triathlon).

Since Penny's name has been bandied about as a candidate for CEO, it makes sense that he would not be on a search committee.  Gilbert was not interested in the role. And the NGBs backed the choice of USA Hockey boss Dave Ogrean -- a former USOC deputy marketing director -- as their representative in the search process, for which the USOC announced Thursday it has hired Spencer Stuart as its search firm.

And the search committee does include the one USOC board member, Mike Plant, willing to be loyal opposition -- both to the previous chairman, Peter Ueberroth, whose ideas had been essentially rubber-stamped by a board full of Ueberroth appointees, as well as to Probst.

Penny and Gilbert were, however, among several NGB leaders who met with Probst on Tuesday at his office near San Francisco. Probst also had a private meeting with Gilbert, who recently had called for him to resign as chairman. The feeling that emerged, sources said, is that Probst does not bear grudges.

During the general meeting,  Probst let all the NBG leaders candidly air their grievances and suggestions. A key one was that the new CEO needs real familiarity with the world of sports (and preferably the Olympic movement) to avoid a long learning curve. Whether Probst agrees remains to be seen.

Streeter and two of her three immediate CEO predecessors, Lloyd Ward and Norm Blake, all came from corporate backgrounds, were unsuited for the USOC post and spent little time in the job.

Maybe that is why the USOC won't a) pay the search firm until 18 months after the CEO is in place and b) retained the right to set the amount of the payment.  If the result is another short-term stiff, the USOC should stiff Spencer Stuart, selected from nine search firm candidates.

The search committee can recommend one or more CEO candidates to the board.

Probst reiterated to the NGB leaders what he had told the media when Streeter announced Oct. 7 she did not want to be considered for the permanent post:  That he now is willing to devote full time to the chairman's job and that he is in it for the long haul, which presumably means his four-year term that ends after the 2012 Summer Olympics. 

The most significant promise Probst made at the Tuesday meeting was for more transparency in the USOC board's activities, a move NGB leaders have been advocating for the last three years.  That will include having NGB leaders among  outside observers at the board meetings and publishing minutes of the meetings.

Now everyone interested can only hope the board doesn't sidestep that scrutiny by going into executive session to discuss everything.  I want to know what they ordered for lunch.

--Philip Hersh

Olympic all-around champions Mary Lou Retton (left) and Carly Patterson, with USA Gymnastics Chief Executive Steve Penny, a potential candidate to lead the USOC.  Photo: USA Gymnastics.

Yes, the $5.7-billion NBC paid for U.S. broadcast rights to the Summer and Winter games from 2000 through 2012 had something to do with it. So when NBC was angry the U.S. Olympic Committee did not cut a deal with its "mini'' Olympic network, Universal Sports, the IOC told the USOC to cease and desist on the launch of its own planned network for the immediate future.

But there is another reason why the IOC loves its U.S. rights-holder, and that will start to be evident Nov. 4 when NBC launches its "Countdown to Vancouver,'' 100 days before the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Games.

The IOC wants to drum up interest in both the next Olympic Games and the idea of the Olympics.

Never has a U.S. broadcaster committed to an effort of the scope that NBC has planned to promote both its own upcoming Olympic coverage and the Olympics in general.

Using all its broadcast platforms, including NBC, Universal Sports, MSNBC, CNBC and the Weather Channel, NBC will air more than 1,250 hours of pre-Olympic winter sports competition, plus a variety of other Olympic-related segments beginning with the Nov. 4 "Today" show.

That night there will also be a prime-time Olympic segment across all the networks featuring U.S. Olympic champions Shaun White (snowboard) and Apolo Anton Ohno (short track speedskating) and the designated star-to-be of the 2010 Winter Games, alpine skier Lindsey Vonn.

[Updated 4:45 p.m. Tuesday] Expect NBC to give Vonn the Michael Phelps treatment as she goes after medals in several events. The difference is skiing is so much less predictable than swimming that no one would dare suggest Vonn should win multiple gold medals, even if she is the favorite in downhill, Super-G and combined. (An earlier version of this article said: The difference is skiing is no much less predictable than swimming that no one would dare suggest Vonn should win multiple gold medals, even if she is the favorite in downhill, Super-G and combined.)

The things Vonn can't control, like wind gusts that might hit during her run but affect none of the other skiers (which is entirely possible), mean her superior ability can be negated. That's just the inherent injustice of the sport, which is why skiers chant the mantra that the season-long World Cup is a better reflection of an athlete's prowess.

Vonn opened the 2009-10 World Cup season last Saturday with a solid ninth in giant slalom, her weakest event.

You can see plenty of Vonn on the NBC pre-Olympic event coverage, since it will broadcast (on NBC Sports, Universal Sports and Universalsports.com), the entire World Cup seasons of alpine skiing, long and short track speedskating, snowboard, bobsled and luge plus some events in freestyle skiing, ski jumping and cross-country skiing; the figure skating Grand Prix series; and the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Beginning Dec. 1, Universal Sports will have a "Countdown to Vancouver'' show every night (5 p.m. Pacific).

And if that's not enough for Olympic and winter sports junkies, nbcolympics.com will be up and running Nov. 4. 

And I will be frequently blogging about things Winter Olympic as well.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Lindsey Vonn figures to be the star of NBC's enormous pre-Olympic and Olympic coverage this winter. Credit: Thomas Vonn  

Jennifer Kirk, who won the 2000 world junior figure skating championship, finished third at the U.S. championships in 2004 and fourth in 2005, will write a weekly blog for The Times providing insights into the skating world during the final months leading into the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Since retiring from figure skating in 2005, Kirk, 25, has been working on obtaining a college degree in broadcast journalism and has spent the last few months blogging about skating at Trueslant.com/jenniferkirk.

When reigning Olympic gold medalist Evgeni Plushenko announced his plans to compete this season following a 3½-year hiatus from the competitive arena, most were initially skeptical about the success of his return. Would he be in competitive form? Was he going to be able to adapt to the various changes in the judging system? Would he regain his standing as the No. 1 male skater in the world?

Last weekend Plushenko answered those questions.

Winning his first and only Grand Prix event of the season, Plushenko kicked off his return to competitive skating with a bang. Skating a squeaky-clean long program and commanding the ice in Moscow, he picked up exactly where he left off in 2006. Not only did Plushenko take the gold, but he crushed the competition, winning by 25 points over Takahiko Kozuka of Japan.

What was most impressive about Plushenko’s skating in Moscow was his unwavering confidence. Though  his victory dance after the completion of his long program could be perceived as cocky by some, this blend of cockiness and confidence proved to be the reigning Olympic champion’s winning ingredient. Plushenko seems incredibly committed to his quest of winning a second Olympic crown, and after two events of the Grand Prix series he’s the front-runner heading into the Games.

Although Plushenko may be leading the pack at this point, Olympic gold is by no means solely his for the taking. Even as clean as he was last week, the reality is Plushenko is still beatable. It seems as though the shock of how well he did has masked the apparent flaws in his skating, but these weaknesses have the potential to be the deciding factor in Vancouver.

Although Plushenko’s spins are faster than they were in 2006, they are still slow. The ending combination spin in his short program inched along, and he needs to work on adding more variety to his spins. Along with this, the choreography in both of his programs isn‘t as strong as it could be, and his programs have far too much two-footed skating. Plushenko’s hip rolling and rapid arm movements may be fun to watch, but I don‘t know how they‘ll stand up to Patrick Chan‘s edgework and artistry.

That said, Plushenko won fair and square in Moscow, and without a second Grand Prix event he has a lot of time to work on fixing his flaws. What will be telling is how Plushenko responds to his season opener, which then leads to more questions.

Will last weekend’s overwhelming victory lead him to fall off from his training, now that he has answered his critics and, I’m sure, some of his own doubts about his return? Or will this win motivate him to work harder, culminating in gold in Vancouver?

Perhaps the most important question surrounding Plushenko’s win is whether his performances will spook his closest competitors. I’m sure most of his competitors weren’t planning on having to contend with such a strong Plushenko. If I were reigning world champion Evan Lysacek, I’d use this weekend’s Cup of China to respond to Plushenko by not only winning the event but beating his score of 240.65.

Among all the questions, what we do know is that there is only one Olympic gold medal up for grabs, and the season is still young. Although Plushenko’s skating in Moscow was beyond expectations, we shouldn’t hand him Olympic gold just yet.

-- Jennifer Kirk

MILWAUKEE --  It was a great weekend for Olympian-turned-coach Nancy Swider-Peltz until her husband, Jeff Peltz, drove back to their Wheaton, Wis., home with her car keys Sunday.

Jeff would be the one who paid for that mistake, having to drive nearly all the way back to the Pettit National Ice Center to give his wife the keys.

Before that little inconvenience, it was all good for the Swider-Peltz family.

Two of the skaters Nancy coaches made the U.S. team for the fall World Cup circuit, where the results will determine how many 2010 Olympic places the United States gets in long track speedskating -- and which skaters get most of the spots.

One of the two is Nancy's daughter, Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. The other is Brian Hansen of Glenview, Ill., a 2009 graduate of Illinois' Glenbrook South High School.

Both qualified in the 1,500 meters and the distance races and were put in the five-person pool for team pursuit.

The Olympic-qualifying situation would take the better part of a week to explain, but it boils down to this for both Swider-Peltz Jr., 22, and Hansen, 19:

Their best chance at both the Olympic team and an Olympic medal will be in team pursuit.

Hansen skated on the U.S. pursuit team that won a bronze medal at the 2009 World Single Distance Championships. Swider-Peltz won a bronze medal in pursuit at one of last season's World Cup meets.

Four men and four women will be selected in December for the U.S. Olympic team in pursuit. Three skate in the race.

The World Cup season begins 12 days from now in Berlin. That is too soon for coach Swider-Peltz, a four-time speedskating Olympian (1976 through 1988).

"We need three or four weeks more training before we begin serious racing," she said, but the system the International Skating Union "set up for Olympic qualification means you have to be there."

There could be two 2009 Glenbrook South grads skating in the Olympics. Lana Gehring, 19, made the U.S. short track team. Whether she competes in Vancouver will depend on results of four global qualifying events in short track. Her best chance is to make it on the relay.

Jonathan Kuck's skating in the World Cup team trials clearly justified his decision to take the fall semester off from the University of Illinois.

And there is a good chance he will be taking the second semester off as well to compete in the Olympics.

Kuck, 19, of Champaign, Ill., made the World Cup team in four events -- 1,000, 1,500, distance (5,000 / 10,000) and team pursuit. His most impressive performance came in the 10,000, where Kuck finished second to Shani Davis.

"It would have been disappointing if I hadn't made it after taking a semester off," Kuck said.

Kuck is a junior majoring in engineering physics. He plans to get a minor in computer science and specialize in computational physics.

-- Philip Hersh

Photos: At top, Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. gets some pointers from her mother and coach, Nancy Swider-Peltz, before her final race at the World Cup team trials Sunday in Milwaukee. Credit: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images. Lower, Glenview's Brian Hansen skating onto the U.S. World Cup team. Credit: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images

Even if Davis is offered one of the five team pursuit spots on the World Cup circuit today and declines it, that does not definitively rule him out of skating team pursuit at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The U.S. Speedskating rules say the four Olympic team pursuit members may or may not be from the five team pursuit members selected for the fall World Cup events.

There appears to be a Catch-22 in the situation, though.

The rules also say the Olympic team pursuit members will be chosen, in part, based on performances in the fall World Cups.

If Davis chooses not to skate pursuit on the fall World Cups, he would have no such performances as selection criteria.

Forget all these scenarios. The best thing for everyone involved would be for U.S. Speedskating and Davis to give a definitive yes or no about team pursuit today and not leave uncertainty that could cause a repeat of the 2006 Olympic controversy on this very issue.

-- Philip Hersh

That's because Doug Arnot is going to work as director of games operations of the London Summer Games.

Arnot was director of sport, venues and Games operations for Chicago 2016. His star did not fall when Chicago's burned out in the first round of the Oct. 2 voting that made Rio de Janeiro the 2016 Olympic host city.

During Chicago's final presentation, Arnot began and ended by speaking French (the only Chicago presenter to deliver a sentence in anything but English), therein recognizing and honoring the idea that French is one of the two official languages of the Olympic movement.  Such a gesture was, of course, too little, too late for a bid that foundered at least partly because of the United States Olympic Committee's inability to communicate, through either the words or actions of its leadership, a real desire to be part of the Olympic world as more than an occasional Games host.

Arnot went to Chicago 2016 after resigning as the chief executive of USA Rugby. (Coincidentally, rugby was voted onto the 2016 Olympic program a week after the host city selection.). He had been managing director of operations for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games and managing director of venues for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games. He has worked on eight Olympics as a consultant or organizing committee staffer.

Arnot, an avid cyclist, is part of a group of Olympic nomads that go from Games to Games, bid to bid, passing on their knowledge. If Chicago had won, Arnot would have been in line for a top organizing committee position, perhaps even chief operating officer.  

It figured Arnot wouldn't be out of Olympic work for long.

Photo: Doug Arnot addresses the International Olympic Committee this month during Chicago's final presentation before the vote for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Credit: Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune