What to expect at Skate America

Skate America returns this weekend to Lake Placid, where the event was first held 30 years ago. The 2009 edition features reigning world champions, Evan Lysacek and Kim Yu-Na, in both the men's and ladies' fields. Below are the top story lines to watch at the fifth of six Grand Prix stops this season.

Ladies
For South Korea's Kim Yu-Na, Skate America is another chance to build her brand as the Olympic gold medal favorite for Vancouver. She wasn't perfect at her first event of the season in Paris, but she was pretty close, and Kim even managed to demonstrate improvements in her already superb skating. She received positive grades of execution on every element she attempted (she did fail to attempt an element, the triple flip, in her free skate, so watch for that correction in Lake Placid) and did a masterful job of blending technical proficiency with unique, personality-driven programs. Rachael Flatt is seeking her first medal of the season after finishing fourth at Cup of China. While she hasn't been plagued by downgrades of her triple jumps the way the other Americans have, Flatt did get wrong edge calls on her triple flip in Beijing and appeared somewhat lethargic in presenting her new programs. The top U.S. finisher at 2009 Worlds, Flatt has been the most consistent of the U.S. ladies over the past two seasons. But Ashley Wagner, with two Grand Prix medals this season, is making a convincing case for herself as the safest bet for one of two available spots on the U.S. Olympic team. Flatt needs to take advantage of a relatively shallow talent pool in Lake Placid - none of Japan's top guns, who have the four best scores this season after Kim, are assigned to Skate America - and record a podium finish. In a reprise of her Torino role, Emily Hughes will compete as a last minute substitute - this time for Sasha Cohen instead of Michelle Kwan. Hughes, who hasn't competed internationally in a full year and hasn't appeared at Nationals in two, looks to put her name back in the Olympic discussion.

Men
The headliner here is Evan Lysacek, competing in his sixth straight Skate America. The 24-year-old American has won medals at each of the last four, but has never stood on the medal podium's top step. That stat should change in Lake Placid. Watch for the triple flip, which gave Lysacek trouble in both the short and free in China, as well as the quad. He left the four-revolution jump out of his programs two weeks ago, but if Lysacek is going to start working it into his Olympic programs, he'll need to start soon. His top challenge will come from Tomas Verner, and it should be a formidable one. The Czech skater has personality, polish and a soaring quad, but the one thing he has lacked is Lysacek's greatest strength: consistency. Verner was fourth at Worlds last season, as he was in 2007, but in 2008 - the year he won the European title - he plummeted to 15th. Verner has become increasingly reliable and won silver at his Grand Prix opener in Paris, landing clean quads in both programs. With his high-scoring quad combination in the short program, Verner could claim the lead. But one way for Lysacek to make up points is by achieving high levels of difficulty on his non-jump elements. Verner failed to earn a level four (the highest level) on even one element in Paris and counted several level one spins.

Pairs
This Olympic season has provided a happy surprise: a renewed chance to admire the dynamic skating of Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, the two-time Olympic bronze medalists and three-time World Champions from China. The duo made a stunning comeback at Cup of China, returning from a two-and-a-half year absence to become the first pair team to surpass the 200-point mark this season. Their closest competitors in Lake Placid should be teammates Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, the 2006 Olympic silver medalists. Though Zhang and Zhang can almost match the power of Shen and Zhao, they can't match their precision or their passion. All three Chinese teams - including Pang Qing and Tong Jian, who are not competing here - have podium potential in Vancouver, but Shen and Zhao will be the technical and sentimental favorites to win their country's first Olympic figure skating gold. Two-time U.S. champions Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker make their second Grand Prix appearance of the season in Lake Placid, facing Shen and Zhao for the first time ever. They seek to build on the improved consistency they showed at Cup of Russia and win their sixth medal in six Grand Prix appearances. Injury-plagued Brooke Castile and Ben Okoloski, the 2007 U.S. champions, return to the Grand Prix for the first time since 2005, trying to build their case for one of two U.S. pair spots in Vancouver.

Dance
2006 Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto should win their fifth Skate America title in Lake Placid. Their closest competition, as it was two weeks ago at Cup of China, will be Jana Khoklova and Sergei Novitski. The Americans will look to beat Russia's second-ranked team by a considerable margin, as they did in Beijing, and affirm their place in ice dancing's top-tier Though point totals can't exactly be compared from one Grand Prix event to the next, Belbin and Agosto are skating primarily against the scoreboard. Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who won the 2009 U.S. title in Belbin and Agosto's injury absence, have posted the top two scores this season and are the only team so far to break the 200 point barrier. Their Canadian training mates, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, have scored 197.71, while Belbin and Agosto's best is 194.51. These three teams won't meet until the Grand Prix Final; only then will they be "ranked" against each other, rather than simply scored. And these three won't face the teams that have won the last two world titles - Russia's Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin (2009) and France's Isabel Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder (2008), both sitting out the Grand Prix season - until the Games.