Some of the skating stories this week:
-Evgeny Plushenko has withdrawn from the Panin Memorial competition in St. Petersburg due to lack of prep time, but he still plans to compete at the 2012 Russian nationals.
-Mao Asada, mourning the loss of her mother, intends to compete at the Japanese Nationals in less than two weeks. That is a nice article from The Japan Times on Mao and her mother.
-Alissa Czisny injured her calf last Thursday before the Grand Prix Final competition began, and skated through the injury, which may explain her poor performance. (For those asking, no, this is not the same as Rachael Flatt at worlds. At worlds, Flatt had plenty of time to alert USFSA and have them call an alternate. It was too late to replace Czisny at Grand Prix Final). She was expected to take at least a week off from skating to recover but it's unclear how long she will definitely need.
-Patrick Chan has been awarded the Lou Marsh award as Canada's athlete of the year. Over all those hockey players! I suppose he can't say he doesn't get no respect anymore.