Oh Olympics...
Oh Olympics how I love you... and hate you... and love you.
I'm very happy for Evan Lysacek. He earned that gold medal and I believe he deserved to win. Of course, I'm of the school of thought that I prefer to see a clear program with a slightly lower degree of difficulty than one where the skater just barely holds on to every jump. So he didn't throw a quad. He didn't need to. He outskated Plushenko in every way that matters, IMO.
Of course, my feelings about the judging of the skating tonight are not without conflict. Figure skating is hands down the most infuriating sport I love to watch. Every Olympic year I wonder why I don't follow it more closely between Olympiads, but then something invariably reminds me of why I can't follow it seriously and invest more into it emotionally than I do.
Setting aside for the moment how Johnny Weir was scored (that's another rant for later in this post), how on earth does Plushenko get the EXACT SAME program component score for his free skate as Evan Lysacek? I just don't get it. And I'm no big fan of Lysacek's! In fact, his skating nearly always leaves me feeling very blah. I don't connect emotionally to his performances and I never have. I had the same feelings (or lack thereof) about Michelle Kwan. But Plushenko's no dazzling artiste out there either and his program left a lot to be desired (I especially despise the front loading). Lysacek landed everything perfectly with no quad, Plushenko hung on to some iffy looking jumps with a landed quad combo. Even with how much I prefer to see the clean program well executed, I'm baffled by how Lysacek outscores Plushenko on technical elements. I Just. Don't. Get It. This god-awful Code of Points was supposed to resolve or at least greatly lessen the confusion and corruption in scoring, right? Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. The judging is the same shit as it's always been, now just more skaters are grabbing their blades on spiral sequences and contorting themselves into hideous positions during spins. Bravo, ISU. Bravo.
You know, I actually don't even have the energy to get into the way Johnny is treated. Am I surprised by it? Not even a little bit. Am I disgusted by it? With every fibre of my being. Watch Johnny's free skate tonight, then go back and watch Nobunari Oda's (which incidentally was actually rightly called "youthful" and "junior" by the commentators and had its flow, such as it was, interrupted by a three minute pause while he fixed a broken skate lace). Then consider this: Johnny's program components score was only 0.10 higher than Oda's. What. The. Fuck. Seriously, that cannot be defended in any way, shape, or form. But way to go, Johnny! You skated your heart out and you left the Olympic ice with your head held high knowing you skated your best. Go pro, honey, and be fabulous!
Okay, figure skating's ability to make my blood boil aside... I frickin' love the Winter Olympics. I enjoy the Summer Games too, but not in the all encompassing way I love the Winter. There's a lot I don't care for in the Summer (track and field for the most part, volleyball, water polo, that weird cycling thing on the tilted track... just to name a few). But there's pretty much nothing I won't watch when it comes to the Winter Olympics. Curling? Don't mind if I do! Skeleton? Those people are insane, yo. But I love it. Short track speed skating? Why not? The X-Games type of stuff like snowboard-cross has also really grown on me, to my great surprise. And even the somewhat occasionally dull things like long cross-country ski races aren't bad enough to make me turn the channel (unless it's to another channel covering a different event). I am very sad I don't have Canadian coverage this year since the CBC was outbid by Rogers for the Games. But NBC has been doing a very nice job and with USA and CNBC in the mix they're doing almost all the hockey games so that makes me very happy. And HD is so pretty. Yay Olympics!
I'm very happy for Evan Lysacek. He earned that gold medal and I believe he deserved to win. Of course, I'm of the school of thought that I prefer to see a clear program with a slightly lower degree of difficulty than one where the skater just barely holds on to every jump. So he didn't throw a quad. He didn't need to. He outskated Plushenko in every way that matters, IMO.
Of course, my feelings about the judging of the skating tonight are not without conflict. Figure skating is hands down the most infuriating sport I love to watch. Every Olympic year I wonder why I don't follow it more closely between Olympiads, but then something invariably reminds me of why I can't follow it seriously and invest more into it emotionally than I do.
Setting aside for the moment how Johnny Weir was scored (that's another rant for later in this post), how on earth does Plushenko get the EXACT SAME program component score for his free skate as Evan Lysacek? I just don't get it. And I'm no big fan of Lysacek's! In fact, his skating nearly always leaves me feeling very blah. I don't connect emotionally to his performances and I never have. I had the same feelings (or lack thereof) about Michelle Kwan. But Plushenko's no dazzling artiste out there either and his program left a lot to be desired (I especially despise the front loading). Lysacek landed everything perfectly with no quad, Plushenko hung on to some iffy looking jumps with a landed quad combo. Even with how much I prefer to see the clean program well executed, I'm baffled by how Lysacek outscores Plushenko on technical elements. I Just. Don't. Get It. This god-awful Code of Points was supposed to resolve or at least greatly lessen the confusion and corruption in scoring, right? Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. The judging is the same shit as it's always been, now just more skaters are grabbing their blades on spiral sequences and contorting themselves into hideous positions during spins. Bravo, ISU. Bravo.
You know, I actually don't even have the energy to get into the way Johnny is treated. Am I surprised by it? Not even a little bit. Am I disgusted by it? With every fibre of my being. Watch Johnny's free skate tonight, then go back and watch Nobunari Oda's (which incidentally was actually rightly called "youthful" and "junior" by the commentators and had its flow, such as it was, interrupted by a three minute pause while he fixed a broken skate lace). Then consider this: Johnny's program components score was only 0.10 higher than Oda's. What. The. Fuck. Seriously, that cannot be defended in any way, shape, or form. But way to go, Johnny! You skated your heart out and you left the Olympic ice with your head held high knowing you skated your best. Go pro, honey, and be fabulous!
Okay, figure skating's ability to make my blood boil aside... I frickin' love the Winter Olympics. I enjoy the Summer Games too, but not in the all encompassing way I love the Winter. There's a lot I don't care for in the Summer (track and field for the most part, volleyball, water polo, that weird cycling thing on the tilted track... just to name a few). But there's pretty much nothing I won't watch when it comes to the Winter Olympics. Curling? Don't mind if I do! Skeleton? Those people are insane, yo. But I love it. Short track speed skating? Why not? The X-Games type of stuff like snowboard-cross has also really grown on me, to my great surprise. And even the somewhat occasionally dull things like long cross-country ski races aren't bad enough to make me turn the channel (unless it's to another channel covering a different event). I am very sad I don't have Canadian coverage this year since the CBC was outbid by Rogers for the Games. But NBC has been doing a very nice job and with USA and CNBC in the mix they're doing almost all the hockey games so that makes me very happy. And HD is so pretty. Yay Olympics!