Two weeks ago, Alissa Czisny was in Kingston, Ontario, winning gold at Skate Canada, part of the International Skating Union Grand Prix.

Czisny will be following up that impressive performance this weekend at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube, before heading off to Paris, France for another leg of the Grand Prix.

The Ann Arbor Figure Skating Club is set to host the Midwestern Sectional Figure Skating Championships this weekend at the Ice Cube, as Czisny and 173 other skaters from around the country compete to qualify for nationals.

It is rare for a skater with Czisny’s international credentials to have to qualify in sectionals, but after taking a disappointing 10th place last year at nationals, the 2008 national champion must work her way back up.

Czisny will be performing her short program in a flight that begins at 8:55 p.m. tonight, and then competing in the senior ladies free skate beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are available in the form of day-passes or all-weekend passes, and can be purchased at the door.

No AAFSC members are skating in this weekend's competition, but Pioneer High School student Katia Shpilband, who trains with Arctic FSC in Canton, will be competing in the Novice Ladies division.

The AAFSC’s top dance team of Logan Giulietti-Schmitt and Lynn Kriengkrairut was awarded a bye to nationals so they could compete this weekend in Skate America, another leg of the ISU Grand Prix, which will be televised Saturday and Sunday on NBC.

Giulietti-Schmitt, an Eastern Michigan graduate, and Kriengkairut, currently enrolled at the University of Michigan, are entering their fifth season together, and their fifth season with the AAFSC.

The team previously skated in a Grand Prix event, the Cup of Russia, in 2007. They are hoping that Skate America, in Portland, Ore., will provide a more comfortable setting.

“Skating in Russia in our first Grand Prix was quite the experience,” said Giulietti-Schmitt. “It wasn’t as friendly an environment. It’ll be nice to be in our home country in front of a home crowd.”

Giulietti-Schmitt and Kriengkairut are using Skate America as preparation for their ultimate goal this year: improving on last year’s eighth-place finish at U.S. Nationals.

It wasn’t long ago that the AAFSC had more of its own skaters finding international acclaim. Most notably, former AAFSC members Evan Bates and Emily Samuelson competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics, taking 11th place in Ice Dance.

But now for the AAFSC, after seeing Bates and Samuelson and two other top dance teams move on to other clubs, and grappling with the struggling economy, the club now finds itself trying to rebuild from the ground up.

Bates and Samuelson were part of a wave of new skaters who came to the AAFSC in the mid and late 90s. Within six months of the Ice Cube opening in December of 1995, membership in the AAFSC more than doubled.

But the Cube is no longer the fresh new facility that it was 15 years ago, as new ice facilities have gone up nearby in Chelsea and Canton. And the majority of the skaters that flooded into the club after the Cube opening have now graduated and moved on.

So the club is now refocusing its efforts in training young children in the basic skills program -- an area that lacked emphasis for the club during the years when it was so strong at the highest levels.

Giulietti-Schmitt is a major part in those efforts. In between his own practice sessions with Kriengkairut, he is the director of the AAFSC’s basic skills program, which offers learn-to-skate classes for all ages, from 3-year-olds to adults.

“I learned to skate at 3 and a half years old in one of those beginners classes and worked my way up,” Giulietti-Schmitt said. His classes, however, are not aimed at grooming future international stars, but to make sure students enjoy themselves.

“There are lots of ways to coach and make sure the kids have fun and also teach the skills as well,” Giulietti-Schmitt said. “It’s important that coaches emphasize that more than anything else. You have to have enjoyment before you go on and progress.”

Club officials are also hoping that the high-level skating featured in this weekend's competition will encourage people locally to grow more interested in the sport.

“We want people to come and be inspired and see what really good skating is,” said Ann Dougherty, the AAFSC's chairperson of competitions. “I think you have to see it and be inspired.”

Having Czisny competing here, along with a talented group of skaters in the senior men’s division, could be the linchpin to that inspiration.

Czisny, who grew up in Bowling Green, Ohio, often came up to Ann Arbor in her youth to compete in the AAFSC’s Springtime Invitational competition, but this is her first visit back to Ann Arbor ice since winning gold at nationals two years ago.

“I’m sorry for her that she has to qualify,” Dougherty said. “But I’m thrilled that we get to see her.”

For more information on the AAFSC and this weekend’s sectional competition, visit www.mids2011.annarborfsc.com.