Impressive Figure Skating; Classless Speed Skating

[kevin_standlee]

I've been accused of only watching the women's figure skating because of the skimpy outfits, so I suppose folks might expect I would be disappointed in recent rule changes that allow the women to forgo the short skirts and wear pants, but Russian skater Irina Slutskaya's outfit was just as attractive as any of the other women's and she placed a strong second.

I was impressed by all of the performances, even those that didn't go as well as the skaters would have liked. The amount of strength and flexibility it takes to perform is astonishing, and the pressure must be nearly impossible.

The American women did quite well, even late substitute Emily Hughes. The big performance was from Sasha Cohen, who finally managed to live up to the much-discussed "potential" and hit all of her moves. The tiny lead she has means that she'll still have to be perfect in the long program.

I'm no expert on figure skating; indeed, I'm predisposed to not like it. But tonight's performances were good, and the new scoring system appears to work. I can't claim to understand the fine points of it, but I'm pretty sure that if things weren't right, the NBC commentators, who include Dick Button, would be saying if things were not right. Button, in particular, is reputed to know just about anything there is to know about the sport.

-------

Usually the soap opera is at the figure skating, but at these games, it appears that the speed skaters are stepping up to the drama plate. Over at speed skating, the Americans went 2-3 in the 1500m, and the simmering feud between Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick continued. For those of you not following the dispute, Hedrick is annoyed that Davis took himself out of the team pursuit competition, ruining the USA's chances in that event. Davis responds in kind, complaining that Hedrick didn't shake his hand when Davis won the 1000m event, although Hedrick did shake his hand after the 1500m. Showing how little he values the silver medal, Davis stormed out of the post-1500m press conference saying, "Shakes my hand when I lose. Typical Chad."

Grow up, guys, both of you! So you don't like each other, but this sniping at each other is really classless.

-------

Curling starts again Wednesday morning 5 AM my time. I'll see some of it, because I'll be up relatively early and working from home, taking a departmental conference call at home before heading off to the dentist. Unfortunately, it looks like the men's semi-final will be on tape delay. I'll be taping what I think is the right time and will try to avoid the news so I can watch it when I get home Wednesday night.

Comments

[kshandra]

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, considering the advances in technique throughout the sport (both men's and ladies'), but the number of women doing Bielmann spins in the short program caught me off-guard. It really is a fine way to display one's flexibility, though.

[johno.livejournal.com]

I've been accused of only watching the women's figure skating because of the skimpy outfits

And your point being??? ;)

I've only caught Sasha's gold winning performance and I must say she look very fine. Both from the the male perspective, the occasional figure skating watcher and theatre/costume geek.

I was struck by how well done her hair and make-up were done. Her features were clear from distance, but she didn't look like a painted doll close-up.

Her costume was sexy, flirty, but so well fitted it never moved, nor impeded her movement.

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

My main problem with Dick Button is that his commentary, as with most of the others on NBC, is jingoistic. I do far prefer more-balanced unbiased commentary. He also often stands alone in his regularly harsh opinions. He does add spice though, that's for sure. Still, I enjoyed the skating enough to post about it myself, including mentioning the "celebratory" gunshots. I thought Sasha was awesome and finally there was a skater who lived up to the commentary, as well as her own enormous potential. Effectively Sasha and Irina are tied for first. To have two skaters so close, after some of the big gaps in other events, is quite tantalizing. Shizuka is also right there just .71 behind. I can't wait for Thursday.

As for the classless bickering pair, well I was delighted that the "unheralded" Italian beat them both. It was reminiscent of the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan drama, where the media beat a subject to death, only for an "unexpected" outsider (Oksana Baiul) to slip through and win. Fortunately this drama involved far less controversy, on all fronts. Having said all that, I think Hedrick has a point. It seems to me that the spirit of the Olympics does not include pulling out of a team event to focus on individual ones. The USA do indeed go to the games as "a team" and it is a pity that Davis pulled out of the team, and seemed to do so with little or no grace.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Is curling *really* a sport?