US champs to star with Lysacek out

KENT, Washington (AFP) –

Jeremy Abbott of the US performs in April 2012 in Tokyo. Four reigning US champions will star in this weekend’s Skate America after reigning Winter Olympic men’s champion Evan Lysacek will not make his return on home-nation ice as once planned.

Four reigning US champions will star in this weekend’s Skate America after reigning Winter Olympic men’s champion Evan Lysacek will not make his return on home-nation ice as once planned.

A nagging groin injury will keep Lysacek from the event, which runs from Friday through Sunday. It was to have been his first competition since capturing figure skating gold at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

But the opener of the ISU Grand Prix season features 2012 US men’s champion Jeremy Abbott, women’s champion Ashley Wagner, pairs champions Caydee Denney and John Coughlin and ice dance champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

Davis and White took the silver medal at the 2010 Olympics and won the 2011 world title.

Also slated to compete are China’s Qing Pang and Jian Tong, who captured pairs silver at the 2010 Olympics, and Russia’s Alena Leonova, the women’s runner-up at this year’s world championships.

The Grand Prix series will decide competitors at the ISU Grand Final on December 5-9 at Sochi, Russia — the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.