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Champs Camp Quadmania

Champs Camp is going on right now at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.  It's an event that the A and B envelope (basically, the top) U.S. skaters are invited to attend, which U.S. Figure Skating refers to as a "conference."  This is also a great chance to show off new programs and jumps and get some feedback.

A lot of the news coming out of this year's Champs Camp seems to be focusing on the quad progress of some of the top male skaters.

This article from Universal Sports talks about how Brandon Mroz is hoping to land a quad flip in competitions (Twitter reports also have him attempting a quad loop), and how Adam Rippon is hoping to land the quad lutz. The video of Rippon's quad lutz has been around for a few months. I think in the long run, a quad (lutz!) would particularly help out Adam Rippon.  He's a beautiful skater who really needs to beef up the technical side in order to compete with the best in the world.

An article on Richard Dornbush from earlier today on Icenetwork also mentioned his quad toe loop attempts - he's going to give it a shot in some summer competitions.  Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like Dornbush's quad is quite ready for primetime.

Still, Dornbush and his longtime coach, Tammy Gambill -- who has taught him since he first stepped on to the ice for a group lesson more than 13 years ago -- know a quad would help solidify the skater as a world medal threat.

"The quad is going okay," Gambill, who trains her skaters in Riverside, Calif., said. "He will hit some, miss some.

"Last year, I said he rented it but did not own it yet. At this point, he still doesn't own it yet. We are going to try it here at Champs Camp in the long and then try it again at Golden West [Competition, Aug. 31-Sept. 4]. If it goes well, he may do it at Skate America [Oct. 21-23] as well."

After his shocking free skate victory at the 2011 U.S. Nationals, I forget that Dornbush is still pretty young - turning 20 this weekend.  Hopefully he can improve on that quad and get it into some major competitions this season.

Universal also has some video interviews from Champs Camp.