Grand Prix Paris

The figure skating season opened in Paris last weekend with the first of six Grand Prix events. This season the series serves as a pre-Olympic warm-up where skaters can test their new material in front of international judges and see what it will take to be competitive in Vancouver in February. Here's what we learned from event No. 1.

Kim is queen
Known in her native South Korea as "Queen Yu-Na," proved it's no longer a rivalry between her and 2008 world champion of Japan. Mao Asada, who finished second, needed to land every one of her three triple Axel attempts if she hoped to keep up with Kim, but the Japanese phenom went one-for-three and Kim won the title by more than 36 points. While the all time head-to-head favors Kim just six to five, in the last three events the South Korean superstar has distanced herself from Asada. The shift began last year and was amplified by a decisive Kim victory at the 2009 world championships. Asada had the summer to up her game, but, as Paris proved, even a triple Axel doesn't put a dent in Kim's solid triple-triple combination and overall consistency.

While still early in the season, Asada looked uncomfortable and out of sorts in practices and carried it with her to the performances. Though most skaters saw Grand Prix France as their warm-up and were not expecting season-ready performances, Kim's coach Brian Orser said he wanted his star to make a statement at her first event. She did just that, besting her own world record scores in the free skate (even after entirely missing one jump because she spotted something on the ice) and total score. Orser added he expects Kim to stabilize at the next two events and then hit her peak in Vancouver, where as of now she is the only favorite for gold.

Happiness does not help you land a quad
Frenchman Brian Joubert has switched coaches five times in six years, but in his second stint with Laurent Depouilly he arrived in Paris with a new sense of calm. Depouilly coached Joubert to his first European title in 2004, but Joubert changed coaches before the Torino Games. Back with his former coach, in Paris Joubert spoke of how happy he was with the team around him and appeared to be focused heading into this Olympic season. Joubert said he wasn't expecting to be 100 percent at his first event, but after three jumps went awry in the short program Joubert was in sixth and no longer talking to the media. With a mediocre free skate, he moved up two spots to finish fourth.

Good news - Joubert attempted two (different) quads in the free skate. The 2007 world champion has planned two (or three) for the past three seasons, but had not attempted two quads at an ISU competition since December 2007. Also, after opening the free skate with mistakes on both quad attempts, Joubert went on to land the remainder of his jumps. As shown in the short program, often one mistake by the Frenchman can lead to many.

Bad news - Joubert has yet to establish consistency under pressure on the jump he has become the spokesman for. When 2008 world champion Jeffrey Buttle of Canada did not attempt a quad en route to his title, silver medalist Joubert said he believes a world champion should have the four-revolution jump and has been forced to defend that statement at every event since. In Paris, Joubert finished behind Nobunari Oda of Japan and American Adam Rippon, who did not attempt quads. At 2009 worlds where Joubert was third, champion Evan Lysacek of the U.S., and silver medalist Patrick Chan of Canada also kept to the safer triples. It appeared the quad would regain its former importance with the return of Russia's Yevgeny Plushenko this season, but event No. 1 proves it is still extremely risky and playing it safe can pay off. (Plushenko makes his return this week at Grand Prix of Russia.)

It's ice - anything can happen...
Paris was a perfect reminder of the uncertainties of competing on ice. German pair Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy were in the lead by more than six points after the short program and looking to cruise to another Grand Prix title. Several freak-occurrences in a free skate that included four major mistakes on not only jumps, but also spirals, landed them in third place. Savchenko and coach Ingo Steuer were laughing in the kiss and cry and in the press conference the team said they had no idea what happened. (Steuer is the 1998 Olympic bronze medalist with partner Mandy Woetzel and the mastermind behind his team's success.) The two-time reigning world champions will likely regroup and should go on to win their second event-though they will face the Grand Prix of France champions Maria Mukhortova and Maksim Trankov at Skate Canada, too.

The Russian pair had the best competition across all disciplines at Grand Prix of France. The team, who beat the Germans in the short program twice last season, has been known to completely fall apart in the free skate. In Paris, the Russians performed a flawless free skate en route to their first gold medal at a senior international. Skating to Love Story (inspired by 2002 Olympic co-champions Jamie Sale and David Pelletier), Mukhortova and Trankov skated their first clean free skate in what's now their fifth year on the senior circuit.

Canadians have Olympic material
Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir debuted their new original and free dances in Paris and the word to best describe their musical selections and choreography is "Olympic." Their flamenco original dance stood out amid a slew of American and Russian folk dances with sharp choreography and technical difficulty. In contrast, their free dance to a Gustav Mahler symphony earned a standing ovation for its smoothness and sophistication, weaving innovative lifts into a romantic dance. With reigning world champions Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin of Russia withdrawing from the Grand Prix because of Shabalin's knee problems, look for Virtue and Moir to dominate the series-a perfect set-up for the ultimate goal of gold at home in Vancouver.

The podium will be tightly contested in February and tough to predict with not only the Russians, but 2008 world champions Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France out of the Grand Prix series. (Delobel's son Lois was born on Oct. 1.) Add in the two strong American teams of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto and Meryl Davis and Charlie White to the Canadians, Russians, and French and the math tells the story-three medals and five capable teams. Of the five teams the Canadians not only have the material, but also home-ice advantage and are the safest best for a spot on the podium.