Frank Carroll's new crop of students

Frank Carroll, coach of 2010 Olympic champion Evan Lysacek, is going to be one busy guy.

Last month, it was announced that Kazakhstan's Denis Ten, who skated to a top 10 finish at Worlds in 2009, was moving to El Segundo, Calif., to train with the renowned coach.

Earlier this week, Jonathan Cassar announced he was leaving coach Julie Berlin and the Detroit Skating Club to move west and be guided by Frank, too.

Today, three young, promising U.S. ladies also announced that they are to be coached under the tutelage of Mr. Carroll. Leah Keiser, the 12-year old reigning U.S. novice national champion, will be joining Carroll's stable of students along with Ellie Kawamura and Kristiene Gong, second and fourth, respectively, at the 2009 U.S. junior ladies event.

Carroll is the master at bringing out the best in his students. His work with Mirai Nagasu in less than a year took her from 5th in the United States to 4th at the Olympic Games.

Through the summer, he will surely be working with each skater to make them stronger athletes and competitors. Ten needs a confidence boost, while Cassar has all the makings of a champion -- except for the more difficult jumps. Keiser is an incredible talent with great technique already, but Frank has the ability to take her to senior national champion by 2012. Kawamura and Gong will benefit from the same jump and confidence overhaul he gave Nagasu this year.

Don't count Nagasu out just yet

2008 U.S. champion Mirai Nagasu may have not been as successful as her American rivals so far this season, but she is far from out of contention to make the Olympic team.

Nagasu's rise to the top of the elite skating scene has been meteoric. She surprised many when she won the 2007 U.S. junior title, upsetting Caroline Zhang. A year later, Nagasu became the first American woman since Peggy Fleming to win the senior title on her first try. At age 14, she was the second youngest American ladies champ since Tara Lipinski in 1997, setting herself up for a trip to Vancouver this year.

A disappointing, injury filled season last year was not part of the plan. She fell to 5th at Nationals and missed making the World Championship team. This summer, Nagasu split with coach Charlene Wong and is now under the tutelage of the legendary Frank Carroll in Los Angeles. While she didn't medal in either of her Grand Prix events this season, I believe Mirai is still very much in the running to make the U.S. Olympic team.

Argument 1: Nagasu, known as a chronic "under-rotater," has improved tenfold this season under Carroll. At the Cup of China event in November, she lead after the short program but then faltered in the free skate, getting downgraded on four triple jumps, and dropping to 5th place overall. However, just three weeks later at Skate Canada, she was given full credit for all five triples she attempted. She scored a respectable 100.49 points for that long program, infinitely better than the dismal 74.08 she scored a year earlier at the NHK Trophy.

Carroll has done wonders for Nagasu's skating in such a short time. Her technique improved so much in the weeks between her two fall events, which gives great hope to an even more improved Mirai showing up in Spokane later this month.

Argument 2: While she was overshadowed by teammates Ashley Wagner, Rachael Flatt, and Alissa Czisny this season on the Grand Prix circuit, it may have been a blessing in disguise. Mirai didn't qualify for the Grand Prix Final which is probably a bit disappointing for her, but it also means that she didn't lose any training time travelling to and from Tokyo in December. What she really needed was to stay at home drilling her jumps over and over, and I have no doubt she did just that. Nagasu has said she has an incredible amount of respect for Carroll, and after her free skate in China earlier this season, she exclaimed that she "just wanted to go home and train harder." She was a self-proclaimed "rebellious teenager" last season, but so far this season she appears to be all business.

Argument 3: Winning the '08 National title was no doubt the highlight of her young career, but it also placed an incredible amount of pressure on her. This showed last year at Nationals, where she delivered a flawed short program and was in tears as she took to the ice for her free skate. This year, Nagasu has nothing to lose and nothing to prove: she enters this year's event as a challenger and will not have the weight of the U.S. title resting on her slight, 16-year old shoulders.

Mirai may seem like a longshot to make the Olympic team, but the U.S. ladies field is so unpredictable that it is impossible to tell. With continued, steady improvement, she may in fact be in the best position of all the American ladies to sneak under the radar and nab one of the two available spots on the team.

Cohen's absence doesn't dampen excitement in Grand Prix opener

Sasha Cohen's withdrawal from Trophee Eric Bompard - the Grand Prix series opener - didn't come as much of a shock to those in the skating community.

Cohen, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, had her comeback bid interrupted last Thursday when she announced that she would be withdrawing from the event due to tendinitis in her calf. Although this is bad news in her attempt to make a third consecutive Olympic team, the ladies field in Paris this week is still the deepest of all the Grand Prix events.

In her first competition of the season, reigning World champion Yu-Na Kim of Korea looks to capture her eighth Grand Prix gold medal. Armed with a new triple-triple combination (Lutz-toe loop), Kim is the overwhelming favorite here, though the competition will be nipping at her heels.

2008 World champ Mao Asada will be battling it out with her arch-rival Kim for the top spot. Asada, the 19-year old Japanese phenom, appears to have plateaued or even regressed since her '08 Worlds win. At the recent Japan Open invitational, Asada was only credited with three clean triple jumps, and her trademark triple Axel was downgraded and awarded a Grade of Execution of -2.24. She finished third among the ladies competing there, far behind Canada's Joannie Rochette and nearly 8-points off of Laura Lepisto of Finland. With the plethora of top ladies competing in Paris, Asada cannot rely solely upon her Program Component Scores to carry her to the podium.

Among the other competitors are Italy's Carolina Kostner, a two-time World medalist, and Japan's Yukari Nakano. Kostner changed coaches in the off-season, and is now under the tutelage of iconic American coach Frank Carroll in Los Angeles (Carroll also coaches Americans Evan Lysacek and Mirai Nagasu). In an Italian TV news clip that recently surfaced, Kostner's jumps look more secure and solid, marking her as a legitimate threat to Kim and Asada.

The United States women will be represented by Caroline Zhang and Alexe Gilles. Zhang, the reigning U.S. bronze medalist, is recovering from a summer knee injury, but should be much improved over her form at the Golden West Championships in early September. Known for her consistency, Zhang could very well find herself in medal contention, though she may have to rely on out-scoring the rest of the field on spins and hoping for mistakes from the other ladies.

In the other disciplines in Paris...Brian Joubert will face off against Japan's Nobunari Oda, with American Adam Rippon looking to break through for his first Grand Prix medal. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada will likely be golden in ice dance, and two-time World pairs champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany will look to top Russian's Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov, Canadians Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison, and Americans Rena Inoue and John Baldwin.