2015 Gardena Spring Trophy

Gardena Spring Trophy is an annual B competition taking place in Selva Val Gardena, Italy, from March 22-24 this year.

Website
Results, entries, starting orders
Schedule

Disciplines: men, ladies
Levels: advanced novice, junior, senior
Notable entries: Nina Ouellette (adv. novice), Akari Nakahara (adv. novice), Mai Mihara (junior), Emily Chan (junior), Rin Nitaya (senior), Keiji Tanaka (senior), Mikhail Kolyada (senior)
How to watch: Live stream. The official Youtube channel might also upload some videos.

2015 Coupe du Printemps

Coupe du Printemps is an annual B competition that takes place in Luxembourg. It is held on March 13-15 this year.

Website
Entries, starting orders, results
Schedule

Disciplines: men, ladies, pairs (senior only)
Levels: basic novice A, advanced novice, junior, senior
Notable entries: Joshi Helgesson, Viktoria Helgesson, Riona Kato, Ivan Righini, Daisuke Murakami
How to watch: Audience members might take videos and upload them to Youtube.

2015 Junior World Championships: Info & streaming

The 2015 Junior World Championships will take place in Tallinn, Estonia from March 4-8. Information will be added to this post as it appears.

Live results, starting orders etc.
Website

SCHEDULE

All times in Eastern European Time (UTC+2). Convert to your time zone.

Mar. 4: Ladies’ SP 10:30; Pairs’ SP 18:45
Mar. 5: Short dance 13:45; Pairs’ FS 19:00
Mar. 6: Men’s SP 10:45; Ladies’ FS 18:00
Mar. 7: Free dance 13:30; Men’s FS 18:00
Mar. 8: Gala 15:00

HOW TO WATCH

ISU: The official ISU stream will show the entire competition live, including the gala. This stream is blocked in countries that have bought broadcasting rights for the competition (Canada, USA, Japan, S. Korea, Italy), so you may need to use Hola to unblock it.

Icenetwork: Icenetwork will stream the entire event live for subscribers in the US.

CBC: CBC will stream the free skates live on their website. The official stream is geoblocked to Canada. There will be TV recaps of the free skates on Mar. 7 and 8 at 3:00PM EST.

Fuji TV: Fuji TV will air the last few groups of the ladies’ and men’s free skates live, but I don’t know of any reliable internet streams at this time. Broadcast times: Ladies’ FS Mar. 7 at 02:30 JST; Men’s FS Mar. 8 at 02:10 JST

Youtube: If you can’t watch live, videos from the competition are usually uploaded to Youtube pretty quickly, so you can always catch up later.

2015 Challenge Cup

Challenge Cup is an annual Senior B competition taking place in The Hague, Netherlands from Feb. 18-22 this year.

Results, entries, schedule
Website

Disciplines: ladies, men, pairs
Levels: basic novice (singles only), advanced novice (singles only), junior, senior
Notable entries: Kanako Murakami (senior), Joshi Helgesson (senior), Ivan Righini (senior), Ryuju Hino (senior), Gretchen Donlan/Nathan Bartholomay (senior), Rebecca Peng (junior), Tomoki Hiwatashi (junior), Yuna Aoki (adv. novice), Sena Miyake (adv. novice)

How to watch: The Challenge Cup Facebook is uploading some videos from the competition.

2015 Four Continents Championships

The 2015 Four Continents Championships, the second of four ISU Championships, will take place this week in Seoul, South Korea from Feb. 11-15. This post will be edited if more information becomes available.

Live results, starting orders etc.
Website

SCHEDULE

All times in Korean Standard Time (UTC+9). Convert to your time zone.

Feb. 12: Short dance 11:30; Pairs’ SP 14:10; Men’s SP 17:15
Feb. 13: Free dance 13:30; Ladies’ SP 17:00
Feb. 14: Pairs’ FS 14:30; Men’s FS 17:30
Feb. 15: Ladies’ FS 12:30; Gala 17:30

HOW TO WATCH

(* = experimental)

KAZSport: KAZSport will show the entire competition live. Streams: link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4

CCTV5: CCTV5 and CCTV5+ will show most of the events live. Free streams for CCTV5: link 1, link 2, link 3. Free streams for CCTV5+: link 1 (first two options on the left sidebar seem to work best, but still freeze often), link 2. The schedule in China Standard Time:

2/12 CCTV5 Pairs’ SP 13:35 (live?)
2/12 CCTV5+ Men’s SP 16:15 (LIVE)
2/13 CCTV5 Free dance 12:30 (LIVE)
2/13 CCTV5+ Ladies’ SP 16:00 (LIVE)
2/14 CCTV5+ Men’s FS 16:30 (LIVE)
2/14 CCTV5 Pairs’ FS 18:35 (delayed)
2/15 CCTV5+ Ladies’ FS 11:25 (LIVE)
2/15 CCTV5+ Gala 16:30 (LIVE)

*Daum: Daum Sports appears to be streaming the entire event live and may or may not be geoblocked (further information pending). The stream is here and you will need to download a plugin for it to work. Click on the red download button and run the .exe file.

Icenetwork & NBC: If you live in the US and have a subscription, Icenetwork will show the entire event live. NBC will air a short recap of some programs on Feb. 21 from 3-4:30PM EST.

CBC: CBCSports.ca will stream the free skates and gala live on their website. The official stream is geoblocked to Canada. CBC will also air a recap on TV on Feb. 21 at 3:00PM.

Eurosport: Eurosport 2 will air delayed recaps of the competition. Free unblocked streams (usually of British Eurosport) may be found here or here an hour or so before an event starts. Check the schedule for your local broadcast times.

Youtube: If you can’t watch live, videos from the competition are usually uploaded to Youtube pretty quickly, so you can always catch up later. This channel might upload videos.

Other TV channels may also air the competition. Check your local TV listings for more info.

2015 Winter Universiade

The Winter Universiade is an international, multi-sport winter sports competition for university students. Both the Summer and Winter Universiade take place every two years. This year, the figure skating portion of the Winter Universiade will take place in Granada, Spain from Feb. 4-8. This post will be updated as more information appears.

Live results, entries, starting orders etc.
Website

Notable entries: Mae Berenice Meite, Viktoria Helgesson, Alena Leonova, Maria Artemieva, Miyabi Oba, Nan Song, Peter Liebers, Takahiko Kozuka, Ryuju Hino, Artur Gachinski, Sara Hurtado/Adria Diaz, Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri, Federica Testa/Lukas Csolley, Xiaoyu Yu/Yang Jin, Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres, Vera Bazarova/Andrei Deputat, Kristina Astakhova/Alexei Rogonov

SCHEDULE

All times in Central European Time (UTC+1). Convert to your time zone.

Feb. 4: Men’s SP 11:00
Feb. 5: Pairs’ SP 15:20; Men’s FS 16:45
Feb. 6: Short dance 16:00; Pairs’ FS 20:00
Feb. 7: Ladies’ SP 13:35; Free dance 19:00
Feb. 8: Ladies’ FS 14:00; Gala 19:00

HOW TO WATCH

The Universiade website will livestream the entire competition.

Spain’s Teledeporte channel will air most of the skating events. The official stream on the website is blocked outside of Spain; you can try using Hola to unblock it. There are also some free streams available on the internet (but watch out for ads and popups).

Known TDP schedule so far (in local time):

Wed. 2/4: Men’s SP 13:30 (LIVE, later groups)
Thurs. 2/5: Pairs’ SP 15:20 (LIVE)
Thurs. 2/5: Men’s FS 23:30 (delayed)
Fri. 2/6: Short dance 16:00 (LIVE)
Fri. 2/6: Pairs’ FS 23:30 (delayed)
Sat. 2/7: Ladies’ SP 17:15 (LIVE, later groups)
Sun. 2/8: Free dance 04:15 (delayed)
Sun. 2/8: Ladies’ FS 18:15 (delayed?)

2015 European Championships

The first of the four 2014-15 ISU Championships will take place this week in Stockholm, Sweden from Jan. 28 to Feb. 1.

Live results & starting orders
Website

SCHEDULE

All times in Central European Time (UTC+1). Convert to your time zone.

Jan. 28: Men’s SP 11:00; Short Dance 17:55
Jan. 29: Ladies’ SP 11:00; Free Dance 18:30
Jan. 30: Pairs’ SP 14:00; Men’s FS 18:00
Jan. 31: Ladies’ FS 12:00
Feb. 1: Pairs’ FS 10:35; Gala 15:00

HOW TO WATCH

Sport 2: Russia’s Sport 2 channel will show the entire competition live. You can watch here (not geoblocked) or on sportbox.ru; links are provided below. Sportbox is geoblocked to Russia, so you will have to use Hola or a similar service to unblock it.

Men’s SP, Short dance
Ladies’ SP, Free dance
Pairs’ SP, Men’s FS
Ladies’ FS
Pairs’ FS, Gala

Eurosport: Eurosport 2 will air the competition live, except for the ladies’ FS, which will be aired in a delayed broadcast. Earlier groups might not be shown. Streams may be found here or here an hour or so before an event starts. They should work anywhere.

YLE: Finland’s YLE channel will stream the competition live on their website and air it on TV in delayed broadcasts. Links to the official streams are listed below; they are geoblocked to Finland and will have to be unblocked.

Men’s SP, Short dance
Ladies’ SP, Free dance
Pairs’ SP, Men’s FS
Ladies’ FS
Pairs’ FS, Gala

Icenetwork & NBC: If you live in the US and have a subscription, Icenetwork will show the entire event live. NBC will air a short recap of some programs on Feb. 7 from 4:00-6:00PM EST.

Youtube: If you can’t watch live, videos from the competition will be uploaded to Youtube very quickly, so you can always catch up later.

Other TV channels (eg. Spain’s TDP) may also air the competition. Check your local TV listings for more info.

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)

2015 US & Canadian National Championships - Info & streaming

Japan and Russia have crowned their national champions for the season, and now all eyes will turn to the other two major national championships, both starting next week. Greensboro, North Carolina and Kingston, Ontario will host the US and Canadian National Championships, respectively.

Note: While Russia and Japan hold their novice/junior/senior/etc. nationals separately, the US and Canada hold them all at the same time. This post will mostly focus on the senior competitions, but I will try to provide some info for the other levels as well.

US NATIONALS (Jan. 17-25, Greensboro, NC)

SCHEDULE, LIVE RESULTS & STARTING ORDERS
Website
Entries

Local time is Eastern Standard Time UTC-5; convert to your time zone. Seniors-only schedule:

Thurs. 1/22
Pairs’ SP 4:35PM
Ladies’ SP 7:00PM

Fri. 1/23
Short dance 5:15PM
Men’s SP 8:15PM

Sat. 1/24
Free dance (groups 1-3) 10:45AM
Pairs’ FS (groups 1-3) 12:20PM
Pairs’ FS (group 4) 2:30PM
Free dance (group 4) 4:20PM
Ladies’ FS 7:00PM

Sun. 1/25
Men’s FS 2:00PM
Gala 7:15PM

Disciplines: ladies, men, pairs, dance
Level: juvenile, intermediate, novice, junior, senior

Notes: US Nationals is one of the competitions used to decide the Four Continents and World teams, though international competitions are also taken into account. However, the top few medalists usually end up being the World team. US Nationals also rewards a “pewter medal” to fourth-place finishers, so their podium actually has four spots. The US is the only country to do this.

How to watch: Icenetwork will stream almost the entire competition live, at all levels, except for the later groups of the senior free skates, which will be aired live on NBC. Icenetwork requires a subscription and is only available to users in the US. Videos from Icenetwork are usually uploaded to Youtube soon after an event.

The NBC broadcast schedule in local time:

Sat. 3:00PM: Pairs’ FS & Free dance (LIVE; last groups)
Sat. 8:00PM: Ladies’ FS (LIVE; last group)
Sun. 4:00PM: Men’s FS (LIVE; last group)

Free NBC streams may be found online. (Beware of many ads and popups, though.) Try the following:
http://freetvall.com/video/G1Y4X26W9R21/NBC
http://www.time4tv.com/2013/08/nbc.php
http://livetvcafe.net/video/8XBK9SMHGS9U/NBC
http://www.stream2watch.me/live-tv/nbc-live-stream

Official NBC stream (geoblocked)

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CANADIAN NATIONALS (Jan. 19-25, Kingston, ON)

SCHEDULE
LIVE RESULTS
RESULTS, ENTRIES & STARTING ORDERS
Website

Local time is Eastern Standard Time UTC-5; convert to your time zone. Seniors-only schedule:

Fri. 1/23
Ladies’ SP 11:35AM
Men’s SP 2:20PM
Short dance 6:30PM
Pairs’ SP 8:50PM

Sat. 1/24
Ladies’ FS (groups 1-2) 10:40AM
Men’s FS (groups 1-2) 12:40PM
Ladies’ FS (group 3) 2:45PM
Men’s FS (group 3) 3:55PM
Free dance (groups 1-2) 5:25PM
Pairs’ FS 7:10PM
Free dance (group 3) 8:30PM

Sun. 1/25
Gala 1:30PM

Disciplines: ladies, men, pairs, dance
Level: novice, junior, senior
Notes: Canadian Nationals is one of the competitions used to determine the 4CC and World teams.

How to watch: The novice and junior competitions and senior practices will be livestreamed by Skate Canada. The senior competition will be aired on TSN and CTV. Unfortunately, not all the groups will be shown. Broadcast schedule in local time:

TSN Fri. 3:00PM: Ladies’ & Men’s SP (delayed)
TSN Fri. 7:30PM: Short dance & Pairs’ SP (delayed)
TSN Sat. 2:30PM: Ladies’ & Men’s FS (last groups)
CTV Sat. 7:00PM: Pairs’ FS & Free dance (last groups)

Free streams may be found at these sites (watch out for ads and popups):
http://cricfree.sx/tsn-1-live-stream
http://hdfree.tv/tsn-live-stream.html
http://www.olweb.me/ctv

Official TSN stream (geoblocked; requires signing in with TV provider)
Official CTV stream (geoblocked; requires signing in with TV provider)

2014-15 Russian, Japanese & Chinese National Championships

With the conclusion of the Grand Prix Series, many countries will be holding their national championships before the ISU Championships take place in the second half of the season. Three of them will take place this week, and for Russia and Japan, competition will be fierce.

Note: I am not 100% sure if the streams listed in this post will work until an event actually begins. I will update this post with more info as it appears.

RUSSIAN NATIONALS (Dec. 24-28, Sochi)

LIVE RESULTS (Russian)

Schedule

Thurs. 12/25: Men’s SP 14:00; Pairs’ SP 17:45; Short dance 20:00
Fri. 12/26: Ladies’ SP 14:00; Mens’ FS 16:45; Free dance 20:00
Sat. 12/27: Pairs’ FS 15:00; Ladies’ FS 17:15
Sun. 12/28: Gala 14:00

Local time is Moscow Time UTC+3; convert to your time zone.

Website
Entries (Russian)
Disciplines: ladies, men, pairs, dance
Level: senior

Notes: Russian Nationals is one of the competitions used to decide the European and World teams. If the federation has not decided the World team after Nationals, the results of Euros may also become a determining factor.

How to watch: The competition will be broadcasted on Sport 2 and Russia 2 on TV, and sportbox.ru online. Sportbox.ru is geoblocked to Russia and will have to be unblocked with Hola or something similar. The official Russia 2 stream may or may not be geoblocked. Here is the broadcast schedule in local time (live broadcasts are marked):

Sport 2/Sportbox Fri. 14:00: Ladies’ SP (LIVE) (stream)
Sport 2/Sportbox Fri. 16:45: Men’s FS (LIVE) (stream)
Russia 2 Fri. 18:50: Men’s FS later groups (LIVE) (stream)
Sportbox Fri. 20:00: Free dance (LIVE) (stream)

Sportbox Sat. 15:00: Pairs’ FS (LIVE) (stream)
Sportbox Sat. 17:30: Ladies’ FS (LIVE) (stream)
Russia 2 Sat. 19:10: Ladies’ FS later groups (LIVE) (stream)
Sport 2 Sat. 22:45: Pairs’ FS (delayed)
Sport 2 Sat. 23:55: Ladies’ FS (delayed)

Sportbox Sun. 14:00: Gala (LIVE) (stream)
Sport 2 Sun. 16:55: Gala (delayed)

The Thursday events will not be aired, but it is very likely that fancams from all the events will be uploaded to Youtube. More options for streams: Sport 2 and Russia 2 (these should work anywhere in the world).

UPDATE: ESPN3 will show the competition live, including Thursday events but excluding the gala. This stream may be geoblocked to the USA.

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JAPANESE NATIONALS (Dec. 24-29, Nagano)

Schedule

Fri. 12/26: Men’s SP 16:25; Short dance 20:30; Jr & Sr Pairs’ SP 21:45
Sat. 12/27: Ladies’ SP 15:00; Men’s FS 19:10
Sun. 12/28: Free dance 13:30; Jr & Sr Pairs’ FS 15:05; Ladies’ FS 15:50
Mon. 12/29: Gala 17:00

Local time is Japan Standard Time UTC+9; convert to your time zone.

Website
Entries & results (Japanese)
Disciplines: ladies, men, pairs, dance
Level: all seniors; junior pairs

Notes: Japanese Nationals is one of, but not the only, deciding factor for the 4CC and World teams. JSF invites the top skaters at their junior nationals to compete at senior nationals; they must modify their programs to suit the senior layout. The gala is called “Medalists on Ice” and usually invites a couple of skaters from other countries to participate. Fans are not allowed to take video at Japanese skating events, so all videos will have to come from official sources.

How to watch: Fuji TV will broadcast the competition. The broadcasts will be slightly delayed from real time, but it is possible that the last groups may be shown live. Here is the broadcast schedule in local time:

Fri. 19:00: Men’s SP
Sat. 18:30: Ladies’ SP, Men’s FS
Sun. 19:00: Ladies’ FS
Mon. 18:00: Gala

Currently, I don’t know of any reliable streams for Fuji online. You can download software that allows you to watch Japanese TV channels:

Keyhole TV (really terrible quality) (download “viewer”, not “broadcaster”)
Niji TV (tutorial; only works for Windows)
jpPlayer (requires fee; only works for Windows)

These programs may be temperamental, and usually it is easier to just wait for videos from the competition to be uploaded to Youtube. They usually appear very quickly.

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CHINESE NATIONALS (Dec. 27-28, Changchun)

Website
Entries (unofficial)
Disciplines: ladies, men, pairs, dance
Level: senior

Notes: Chinese Nationals is one of the competitions used to decide assignments in the second half of the season, though it doesn’t have as much weight as international events. Skaters receive “bonus” TES for executing difficult elements, such as 3-3s for ladies and quads for men.

How to watch: This competition will not be broadcasted. It is likely that fans will upload videos to Youku and other video sharing sites, though.