Here’s a short recap of what happened in the past week in the world of figure skating.

Hanyu Tops The Charts

Figure skating fever shows no signs of abating in Japan. After capturing the number one spot in the Oricon DVD charts on its release last month (a first for a title about a Japanese sportsperson), a Yuzuru Hanyu documentary continues to sell well and has shifted over 70,000 copies so far. Produced by Fuji TV, “Kakusei no Toki” (The Time of Awakening) follows Hanyu on his journey from Junior World gold medallist in 2010 to Olympic champion in Sochi 2014.

According to a Yahoo! Japan article, the reigning World champion commands an appearance fee of 80 million yen (approximately 600,000 euros) per commercial endorsement which is the highest amount for any Japanese athlete currently.

Junior Grand Prix Moves To Slovenia

The second installment of this season’s ISU Junior Grand Prix was held in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, over the weekend. Serafima Sakhanovich of Russia romped home to victory with a total of 191.96 points, a score that would have placed her 8th at the senior World Championships in March of this year. The Russian Junior national champion trains under Eteri Tutberidze, who also coaches European champion Julia Lipnitskaya. Yuka Nagai from Japan and Leah Keiser of the United States took silver and bronze respectively.

Boyang Jin from China attempted three quads in his free skating and won the men’s title quite comforable with a total score of 220.17 points. Russia claimed both the second and third positions on the podium in the form of Alexander Petrov and Dmitri Aliev.

Russia also secured a second consecutive gold in ice dance with Daria Morozova and Mikhail Zhirnov winning their first Junior Grand Prix title, despite only coming third in the free dance. Brianna Delmaestro and Timothy Lum grabbed Canada’s second JGP silver medal in a row and missed out on gold by a mere 0.24 points. The bronze went to the winners of the free dance Americans Holly Moore and Daniel Klaber .

Stephane Lambiel Opens Skating School

2006 Olympic silver medallist and two-time World champion Stephane Lambiel formally launched his own training facility this week for elite and up and coming skaters. The Skating School of Switzerland is based in the Palladium ice rink located in the small town of Champéry and the coaching staff includes Lambiel, his coach Peter Grütter and his choreographer Salome Brunner. The school aims to provide skaters with everything they need under one roof, both on and off the ice, to aid them in their development.

French And Russian Skaters Named For Home Grand Prixs

France filled some of their host picks for the 2014 Trophée Eric Bompard when Romain Ponsart and Anais Ventard were slotted in to the singles categories.

Artur Gachinski in men, Nikol Gosviani in ladies and Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov in pairs were likewise given berths at Rostelecom Cup. Japanese champions Narumi Takahashi and Ryuichi Kihara will also now skate in Moscow.