Nicole Bobek has begun skating pairs in Florida with a Spaniard who used to train for singles with world champions Evgeny Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin in Russia.Bobek, the 1995 U.S. women's singles champion who gave up Olympic eligibility in that discipline, hopes her partnership with Miguel Alegre develops well enough for her to compete again in Olympic-style skating. She would contend that she never lost eligibility in pairs.Alegre, 22, of Jaca, Spain, twice skated singles at the World Junior Championships with unremarkable results."It's something completely different," said Bobek, 23, a well-traveled Chicago native. "It looks effortless, but it isn't."Bobek tried pairs briefly at age 12. Noted pairs coach John Nicks counseled her against continuing because he thought she would become too tall.Bobek, 5 feet 5 inches, and Alegre, 6-3, started practicing in early January with Russian coach Valeri Spirdionov. Their training time has been curtailed by her commitments to the Champions on Ice tours."We can do all the lifts, some pairs spins, a throw axel, throw double salchow and throw double loop," Bobek said.

Bobek is eager to debut a new a Spanish-themed flamenco short program-with a choreographic assist from former World Ice Dance Champions Isabelle & Paul Duchesnay, who now coach at J.P. Igloo. "She has an emotional involvement in the short because the guitar music is played by her boyfriend," Leitch says. "It's a Spanish guitar piece. It's very classical and incredibly beautiful. She gets inspired by it."Bobek will probably perform two long programs this season: the Titanic program that never had a chance to surface last year and a new program under development, Leitch says. "She has another piece selected, but it's got some vocal to it, and we want to make sure we can get the instrumental version.- Link to the article.