2016 Medal Winners Open & New Year on Ice

MEDAL WINNERS OPEN

The third Medal Winners Open will take place in Osaka, Japan on Jan. 15. Medal Winners Open is an invitational professional competition judged by ISU judges but with a different format and scoring from regular competitions. Five men and five ladies will compete with one “free skate” at MWO. Most of the participants have retired from competitive skating, though some have not. MWO will be held a day before the New Year on Ice shows at the same venue.

Results & protocols
ISU Announcement
Schedule
Website

COMPETITORS

Ladies: Carolina Kostner, Joannie Rochette, Miki Ando, Kimmie Meissner, Yuka Sato
Men: Ilia Kulik, Jeffrey Buttle, Johnny Weir, Nobunari Oda, Jeremy Abbott

PROGRAM FORMAT

• Length: 3min. 30s. (+/- 10s.) for men; 3min. 10s. (+/- 10s.) for ladies

• Program should include 3 jumps with at least 2 rotations. One of these can be a combination of 2 jumps or a sequence with any number of jumps. (Only the 2 most difficult jumps in a sequence will be counted.)

• Program should include any 3 spins of different types and a choreographic sequence.

• Any music, including vocals, can be used.

• Carried/worn props such as hats, capes, umbrellas etc. can be used, but chairs and tables cannot.

• The program should focus on artistic merit.

TV BROADCAST

MWO will air live on Jan. 15 at 14:00-17:00 JST on TBS2. LIVE STREAM (doesn’t work with AdBlock)

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NEW YEAR ON ICE

New Year on Ice is a new skating show hosted by TBS along with Medal Winners Open and will take place at the same venue. Most of the competitors of MWO will skate at NYOI along with several other skaters.

Website
Schedule

Where: Osaka, Japan
When: 2 shows; Jan. 16-17 at 12:00 JST
Cast: All the participants of MWO except Miki Ando (see above); Shizuka Arakawa, Akiko Suzuki, Evgeni Plushenko, Yuzuru Hanyu, Shoma Uno, Satoko Miyahara, Koshiro Shimada, Sena Miyake, Kaori Sakamoto, Wakaba Higuchi, Mai Mihara

TV BROADCAST

The first NYOI show will air live on TBS2 on Jan. 16, 12:00-15:00 JST. LIVE STREAM (doesn’t work with AdBlock)

2015 Medal Winners Open

The second Medal Winners Open will take place January 16th at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan. This is an invitational professional event involving skaters who have retired/are not currently competing, and will be judged by ISU judges, although with different guidelines to normal competitions. The competitors include six men and six women from various countries. They will only perform free skates. All competitors will earn prize money. This event was first held in 2012, in conjunction with the 2012 Japan Open; this year it precedes the Tokyo stop on the 2015 Stars on Ice: Japan tour.

ENTRIES

Ladies: Joannie Rochette, Irina Slutskaya, Miki Ando, Kimmie Meissner, Laura Lepisto, Sarah Meier
Men: Evgeni Plushenko, Evan Lysacek, Jeffrey Buttle, Johnny Weir, Takeshi Honda, Nobunari Oda

PROGRAM FORMAT

• Program length: 3min. 30s. (+/- 10s.) for men; 3min. 10s. (+/- 10s.) for ladies

• Three jumps with at least 2 rotations. One of these can be a combination of 2 jumps or a sequence with any number of jumps.

• Any 3 spins of different types

• A choreographic sequence

• Any music, including vocals, can be used.

• Props such as hats, capes, umbrellas etc. can be used.

• The program and scoring will focus on artistic merit.

HOW TO WATCH

MWO will air on BS-TBS on Jan. 17th at 15:00 JST. It will re-air on TBS ch.2 Jan. 24th at 12:00 JST and Feb. 6th at 20:00 JST. There are no streams, but videos will probably be uploaded to the internet.

MORE INFO
ISU announcement
Website (Japanese)