At the 2008 U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships in Lake Placid, New York, three highly accomplished skaters who share 21 years in Adult Nationals experience between them, placed first, second and third in the Championship Masters Men's event.
42-year-old Joseph Radomile of Liberty FSC of Philadelphia won the event with a flawless skate to An American in Paris, which also happens to be my all-time favorite movie musical. (Movie synopsis: Gene Kelly is an American artist living in Paris, who falls in love with Leslie Caron, who happens to be engaged to Georges Guetary.) I remember that after I saw the movie, I immediately went out and bought the soundtrack and also thought that this was great skating music. (YouTube link to Joseph's program)
Joseph, a business analyst in a pharmaceutical company, said that, "The point of my program was to show the joy that I have in skating. I picked a piece that was very calm, very suited to my skating, very easy to be smooth and have good transitions." I would describe Joseph's skating style as carefree and relaxed, and which makes you forget the high level of difficulty of his program. Joseph, who won the 2008 Adult Eastern Sectionals held this year in Wayne, New Jersey, was back for his ninth Adult Nationals. In 2005, he won this event, in 2006, he placed second and last year, he placed sixth because he "got all caught up trying to maximize...points." When asked why he liked coming to Adult Nationals so much, he held up one of the packages that the ice sweepers handed him -- a bag of chocolates that an audience member threw onto the ice, and said, "Look, they threw me chocolate, it doesn't get any better than that!"
As a reminder, U.S. Figure Skating holds the Eastern, Midwestern and Pacific Coast Sectionals. Skaters wishing to compete in Championship events at Adult Nationals must place high in sectionals. The Championship events also do not have age categories so you may see skaters in their twenties competing with forty-somethings and beyond, which certainly makes it more interesting and exciting!
Giving Joseph a run for the gold was silver medalist, Davin Grindstaff from the Georgia FSC. Davin, a 38-year-old college professor in communications studies at Georgia State University as well as a skating coach, also came in second behind Joseph at Eastern Sectionals, and I thought both men were equally matched in artistry and technical ability. David won this event in his first try at Adult Nationals in 2001 and again, won in 2007. I spoke with Davin after the medals were awarded and he said that he has met some of his best friends at this event. Speaking of his friend Joseph Radomile, Davin said that, "I told him that if I have to take second to anybody, I wanna take second to a performance like that," and described Joseph's program as "phenomenal." There is a lot of respect, admiration and support that the men show each other and it is really great to see.
Bronze medalist Larry Holliday from Windy City FSC, who placed first at the 2008 Adult Midwestern Sectionals held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was also one of those cheering his colleagues when they took to the ice. Larry, who is 43-years-old and a skating coach, has a style that is exciting to watch and the audience went along for the ride, giving him a thunderous round of applause after his performance. He skated to a piano composition by a Swedish composer, Kurt Atterberg. Larry won this event in 2002, 2003 and 2004, and skipped the competition for 2005 and 2006 due to knee surgery. In 2007, he placed second. Larry told me that he started skating at age 12, after watching Dorothy Hamill skate in the Olympics when he was 11-years-old. His proudest moment in competition history was when he made the national team in 1990 as a senior and "competed against the best in the world."
I also had the pleasure of chatting with Larry's biggest supporter, mom Norma Jean Holliday, after the awards ceremony. Norma Jean, very charming and eloquent, had high compliments for Larry and other competitors at Adult Nationals. By the way, she has written a book about Larry entitled The Larry Holliday Story: Someone you should know
A special congratulations also to fourth place finisher Jason Spicer of Rye FSC (who also came in fourth in Championship Masters Pairs with partner Joy Dubost of Hickory Hill FSC). I remember years ago Jason taking lessons at Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers in NYC where I skate, and it's amazing to me how far he's come. Jason also had the crowd rolling when he held his spiral and counted out with his fingers how many seconds he was holding it. Hmm...wonder if it was for the benefit of the judges. It's those kinds of moments that make Adult Nationals special.
Note: U.S. Figure Skating does not allow the media to film the actual competition; however, if you are an icenetwork subscriber, you can watch many of the performances on video.
Complete result for the men are as follows:
Pl. |
Name |
Total segment score |
Total element score |
Program component score |
1 |
Joseph Radomile Liberty FSC of Philadelphia |
48.54 |
23.41 |
25.13 |
2 |
Davin Grindstaff Georgia FSC |
42.68 |
18.94 |
23.74 |
3 |
Larry Holliday Windy City FSC |
41.11 |
19.89 |
22.22 |
4 |
Jason Spicer Rye FSC |
40.06 |
20.47 |
19.59 |
5 |
Brooks Jones DuPage FSC |
38.87 |
19.45 |
20.42 |
6 |
Edward VanCampen American Academy FSC |
35.61 |
16.52 |
21.09 |
7 |
Burton Powley Individual |
33.30 |
14.29 |
19.01 |
8 |
Charnell Evans Houston FSC |
31.36 |
12.53 |
18.83 |
9 |
Scott Powell Frederick FSC |
30.52 |
14.19 |
17.33 |
10 |
Ted Gradman SC of San Francisco |
25.45 |
10.32 |
16.13 |
(from left to right: Davin, Joseph, Larry, and Jason)
