How well (or badly) did my predictions go for the 2008 World Figure Skating Championship
*WARNING* SPOILER RESULTS AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO MAY NOT WANT TO KNOW THE RESULTS BEFORE THEY WATCH ON TV (or whatever other reason one might have for such things).
I’ll just keep editing this post each day as the final events conclude for each discipline. Full results can be found at: http://st.sportcentric.org/results/wc2008/
PAIRS: Well, not the best predictions but I was in the right ballpark, at least. 
1. Zhang/Zhang ————-finished in 2nd place overall
2. Savchenko/Szolkowy–finished in 1st place overall
3. Pang/Tong—————–finished in 5th place overall
4. Kawaguchi/Smirnov—-finished in 4th place overall
5. Volosozhar/Morozoc–finished in 9th place overall
6. Dube/Davison————finished in 3rd place overall
7. Mukhortova/Trankov—finished in 7th place overall
8. Inoue/Baldwin———–finished in 10th place overall
9. Langlois/Hay————finished in 8th place overall
10. Castile/Okolski——-finished in 11th place overall
LADIES: there was a lot of mix-up between the short program finishes and long program finishes… interesting. Can’t wait to see the performances though there doesn’t seem to be too clean and consistent of performances since only the top five passed the 175 score mark, and Mao won with only a 185. :>/)
Can’t wait to see the performances though there doesn’t seem to be too clean and consistent of performances since only the top five passed the 175 score mark, and Mao won with only a 185. :>/) 1. Mao Asada ————finished in 1st place overall
2. Miki Ando ————withdrew after the short program 
3. Joanie Rochette——finished in 5th place overall
4. Carolina Kostner—–finished in 2nd place overall
5. Yu-Na Kim————finished in 1st place overall (won the freeskate from 5th place!)
6. Kimmi Meisner——-finished in 7th place overall (interesting how there was such drastic fall/rises in skater’s placements in the freeskate, that Kimmi placed 9th in the short, and *12th* in the freeskate but still managed to rise to 7th overall when the scores were combined. woah!) <br>
7. Yukari Nakano——-finished in 4th place overall
8. Sarah Meier———–finished in 6th place overall
9. Ashley Wagner——-finished in 16th place overall
10. Kirra Korpi———-finished in 9th place overall (4th in the SP to 17 in the LP? )
) 11. Laura Lepisto——-finished in 8th place overall (21st in SP to 7th in the LP? Wow!)
12. BeBe Liang———-finished in 10th place overall
13. Anastasia Gimazetdinova—–finished in 21st place overall
14. Julia Sebestyen—-finished in 11th place overall
15. Mira Leung———finished in 14th place overall
MEN: Men, as always in skating, seemed to be all over the place in inconsistencies… Congrates on Jeff Buttles win: he definately wasn’t a favor to win, much less even medal this year. Another cheer for Johnny Weir’s bronze medal: the ONLY American medal at this year’s world championships. *Sigh*. His placement and Stephen’s will secure us our three spots at worlds next year, so that’s a sigh of relief.
1. Daisuke Takahasi ————-finished in 4th place overall
2. Brian Joubert——————finished in 2nd place overall
3. Tomas Verner—————–finished in 15 place overall (OUCH! He was in 4th…)
4. Stephane Lambiel———–finished in 5th place overall
5. Johnny Weir——————-finished in 3rd place overall
6. Jeffrey Buttle —————–finished in 1st place overall (?!? 245? I can tell I missed out on watching skating this fall season: great for him!)
7. Stephen Carrier————–finished in 10th place overall
8. Jeremy Abbott————–finished in 11th place overall
9. Patrick Chan——————finished in 9th place overall
10. Chenjiian Li—————–finished in 23 place overall ????
11. Kevin Van Der Perren–finished in 6th place overall
12. Takahiko Kozuka ———finished in 8th place overall
13. Sergei Davydov———–finished in 12th place overall
14. Alban Preaubert———-*withdrew, did not skate
15. Christopher Mabee——*withdrew or was never even on the team?
ICE DANCE: Well, it wasn’t Belbin/Agosto’s year to win despite the expectations. The falll in the first of three events really just killed their chances. (Oh, the compulsory dance Argentine Tango twizzle… I *love* that move, but I’ve probably face-planted on it once before. It happens, as easy as it is.)
1. Delobel/Schoenfelder —-finished in 1st place overall
2. Belbin/Agosto—————finished in 4th place overall… ouch… just 0.26 pout of 3rd place
3. Virtue/Moir——————-finished in 2nd place overall
4. Khokhlova/Novitski——–finished in 3rd place overall
5. Davis and White———–finished in 6th place overall
6. Faiella/Scalia—————finished in 5th place overall
7. Pechalat/Bourzat———finished in 7th place overall
8. Kerr & Kerr——————finished in 8th place overall
9. Navarro & Bommentre–finished in 12th place overall
10. Zaretski/Zaretski——–finished in 9th place overall
Another cheer for Johnny Weir’s bronze medal: the ONLY American medal at this year’s world championships. *Sigh*. I remember when Americans took 3-5+ medals at any given world championship… oh, the 90s. But… I think we only need to give it 1-3 years given the current crop of junior international skaters, two of whom are our national champions but are too young to compete at the senior level in international competitions.
I enjoyed reading your blog. I am 37, started skating 5 years ago and just passed my first tests last week -Adult Pre-Bronze. I’m hooked now and can’t wait to work on Bronze.
Re: your job search. Is advertising/PR/copywriting up your alley?
Wasn’t the best year for the U.S. but I still enjoyed the event. I was very happy for Delobel and Schoenfelder as well as Johnny Weir.
I know I miss the glory days of the US in the 90’s. I still cry when I watch the ‘98 Olympics. We were the ones to beat. As in any sport, it’s a rebuilding time for us. We’ll be back on top (I hope) soon!