An Evening with Champions
Encyclopedia
Figure skating
Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
show hosted by Eliot House
Eliot House
Eliot House is one of twelve residential houses for upperclassmen at Harvard University and one of the seven original houses at the College. Opened in 1931, the house was named after Charles William Eliot, who served as president of the university for forty years .-Traditions:Before Harvard opted...
of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. The event is a two-day skating show in October, which regularly attracts world-class skaters, thousands of spectators, hundreds of Harvard students, special guests, donors, and of course the children for whom the event is for. The show is entirely student-run and is managed completely by volunteer work.
Although the show has been in October in the past, the 40th Anniversary of An Evening With Champions was held in the spring, on April 16th and 17th, 2010. The 2011 show will return to the October date, but will have a new Saturday evening and Sunday matinee format, to be held on October 15th and 16th, 2011.
The show was originally conceived in 1970 by John Misha Petkevich
John Misha Petkevich
John Misha Petkevich is an American former figure skater. He won the 1971 United States Figure Skating Championships in men's singles and the North American Figure Skating Championship in the same year. He placed 6th at the 1968 Winter Olympics and 5th at the 1972 Winter Olympics...
, the two-time Olympic competitor who was at that time a junior at Harvard living in Eliot House.
Michelle Kwan
Michelle Wingshan Kwan is an American figure skater. She is a two-time Olympic medalist, a five-time World champion and a nine-time U.S...
, Brian Boitano
Brian Boitano
Brian Anthony Boitano is an American figure skater from Sunnyvale, California. He is the 1988 Olympic champion, the 1986 and 1988 World Champion, and the 1985-1988 U.S. National Champion. He turned professional following the 1988 season...
, Scott Hamilton
Scott Hamilton (figure skater)
Scott Scovell Hamilton is an American figure skater and Olympic gold medalist. He won four consecutive U.S. championships , four consecutive World Championships and a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics....
, Kristi Yamaguchi
Kristi Yamaguchi
Kristine Tsuya "Kristi" Yamaguchi-Hedican is an American figure skater. She is the 1992 Olympic Champion in ladies' singles. Yamaguchi also won two World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and 1992 and a U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1992. She won one junior world title in 1988 and two...
, Ekaterina Gordeeva
Ekaterina Gordeeva
Ekaterina "Katia" Alexandrovna Gordeeva is a Russian figure skater. Together with her late partner and husband Sergei Grinkov, she was the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion and four-time World Champion in pair skating...
, and the Haydenettes synchronized skating team who have made "EWC" their opening appearance for many years. Paul Wylie
Paul Wylie
Paul Stanton Wylie is an American figure skater and 1992 Olympic silver medalist.-Biography:Born in Dallas, Texas, Wylie began skating at the age of three. At age eleven, his family moved to Denver, Colorado, where he began to train with Carlo Fassi...
, himself a former resident of Eliot House, has usually hosted the show in recent years. Ludmila Belousova
Ludmila Belousova
Ludmila Yevgenyevna Belousova is a Russian pair skater who represented the Soviet Union. With her partner Oleg Protopopov, she is a two-time Olympic champion and four-time World champion .- Career :Belousova started skating relatively late, at age 16. She met Protopopov in 1954 and they began...
and Oleg Protopopov
Oleg Protopopov
Oleg Alekseyevich Protopopov is a Russian pair skater who represented the Soviet Union. With his partner Ludmila Belousova, he is a two-time Olympic champion and four-time World champion .- Career :Protopopov started skating relatively late, at age 15...
have also had a particularly long association with the show, and continue to make annual appearances.
All profits go to the Jimmy Fund, one of New England's most cherished charities. The Jimmy Fund is dedicated to pediatric cancer research and treatment, and the affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana–Farber Cancer Institute is part of a Comprehensive Cancer Center designated by the National Cancer Institute. It is a major affiliate of Harvard Medical School and is located in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts.-Overview:...
has similar important goals. Since 1970, An Evening with Champions has raised over $2.5 million for the Jimmy Fund.
The show was formerly televised each year on PBS, but the broadcast ended in 2001. More recently, it had been televised on the Comcast Network
Comcast Network
Comcast Network is a cable television station that is shown mostly in parts of Comcast Cable services in the Eastern part of the US. Viewed in four states and 20 television markets from New Jersey to Virginia on Comcast cable systems. The main focus of the network is Philadelphia although they...
cable channel CN8.
41st An Evening with Champions
The 41st An Evening with Champions will take place on October 15th at 7:00 PM and October 16th at 2:00 PM at Harvard's Bright Hockey Center. Tickets went on sale and the cast list was announced on August 15, 2011. The cast includes reigning Olympic Champion Yuna Kim, 2010 US National Champions Rachael FlattRachael Flatt
Rachael Elizabeth Flatt is an American figure skater. She is the 2010 U.S. national champion, 2008, 2009 and 2011 national silver medalist, and 2008 World Junior Champion....
, 2011 US National Bronze Medalist Ross Miner
Ross Miner
Ross Miner is an American figure skater. He is the 2011 U.S. national bronze medalist, 2009 Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medalist and 2009 U.S. Junior National Champion.- Personal life :...
, 2011 World Bronze Medalists Maia Shibutani
Maia Shibutani
Maia Harumi Shibutani is an American ice dancer. She competes with her brother Alex Shibutani. They are the 2011 World bronze medalists, 2011 Four Continents silver medalists, 2009 World Junior silver medalists, 2011 U.S. national silver medalists, 2011 NHK Trophy champions and 2010 U.S...
and Alex Shibutani
Alex Shibutani
Alex Hideo Shibutani is an American ice dancer. He competes with younger sister Maia Shibutani. They are the 2011 World bronze medalists, 2011 Four Continents silver medalists, 2009 World Junior silver medalists, 2011 U.S. national silver medalists, 2011 NHK Trophy champions and 2010 U.S...
, legendary Ludmila Belousova
Ludmila Belousova
Ludmila Yevgenyevna Belousova is a Russian pair skater who represented the Soviet Union. With her partner Oleg Protopopov, she is a two-time Olympic champion and four-time World champion .- Career :Belousova started skating relatively late, at age 16. She met Protopopov in 1954 and they began...
and Oleg Protopopov
Oleg Protopopov
Oleg Alekseyevich Protopopov is a Russian pair skater who represented the Soviet Union. With his partner Ludmila Belousova, he is a two-time Olympic champion and four-time World champion .- Career :Protopopov started skating relatively late, at age 15...
, and many other phenomenal skaters. The full cast list is updated on the An Evening with Champions website.
Embezzlement scandal
Chas LeeChas Lee
Charles K. "Chas" Lee embezzled over $100,000 from a Boston-area charity in 1991 and 1992, while still a Harvard University undergraduate.-About An Evening with Champions:...
pleaded guilty to charges of embezzling
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
over $100,000 from the show in 1991 and 1992, when he was co-chairman of the event as an Eliot House undergraduate. David Sword, another Harvard undergraduate who served as the event's treasurer around the same time, was also convicted of embezzling a lesser amount of money. The scandal received a considerable amount of press coverage in the Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
area at the time the theft was uncovered in 1994.