Lacadaisical Ladies
I finally watched my tape of the Women's Free Skate from Torino. For the umpteenth time in a row, the person most expected to win didn't, and a person utterly unexpected to win, did.
Coming from the Short Program, Sasha Cohen was in first place. She also had a nasty groin injury wrapped up. I don't think I know how you wrap a groin injury, and I'm not sure that I want to. She bombed her way through the warm up, falling on jumps, bumping into other skaters, and generally looking miserable. She had a nasty fall on an early jump, followed by a badly botched landing on a second one, forfeiting any chance at the gold medal. Once again, Sasha's reputation for falling apart under stress proved well-earned. Kudos to her, however, for sticking out the rest of her program with panache. She had a really nice step sequence that fit excellently with the music, and accepted her performance with grace. For her trouble, the judges awarded her the silver medal. I'm still not clear on how she managed that one, and she herself mentioned that the silver was "like a gift". Lovely. It seems that figure skating's reputation for havign the results fixed long before the competition starts is in no danger.
Irina Slutskaya entered the Long Program in 2nd place, only a few hundreths of a point behind Sasha Cohen. She jumped and spun with ease, and clearly enjoyed her program. Unfortunately, however, she also fell on one of her later jumps. Unlike many skaters, who seem most likely to fall on their first or second jumps, Irina often hits her problems later in her program, usually after the halfway mark. She recovered quickly and managed to pull off a series of mind-bending spins in positions that look liek somethign out of celtic knotwork. Somehow or another, she ended up with the bronze. I am not clear on how Sasha did better than Irina, but see my above comment.
Shizuka Arkawa was ranked at about 9th in the world. The Japanese have an amazing array of talented women skaters, and Shizuka is probably the least of them. Her program wasn't technically remarkable, but she won for the very same reason Michelle Kwan won for so long: she didn't screw up. Shizuka didn't fall on any jumps, although she doubled a loop that had been intended as a triple. He program was to Puccini's Turandot, probably the most appropriate music used at this entire Olympics. She was pretty, skated gracefully, and managed to avoid hitting parts of herself on the ice, something the other women seemed unable to avoid. Low and behold, she won the gold for performance. Now, She really did deserve to win. Her program had no true mistakes, and she did it well. It also wasn't terribly exciting. Frankly, this is what has happened at the last 4 Olympics in Women's Skating. It's...boring.
In other amusements, Germany won the 4 man and 2 man bobsled. In act, the same man was the driver for both sleds, making him an instant national hero. I was just sad that neither Britain nor France got on the podium (they tied for Bronze in 1998). Apolo Anton Ohno, short-track prima donna extrodianire, finally managed to win a pair of medals, gold and bronze. Good going for him, but not all that impressive compared to the ego that he hauls around with him attached to that omnipresent bandana. Bode Miller succeeded in failing to medal in any of his 5 events, getting DQ's from 2 of them. He may be a great alpine skier, but he doesn't seem to have it where it counts -- Torino, Italy.
Ah, curling. The sport that only 3 countries really care about: Canada, Britain, and Japan. Yes, Japan. In Nagano, the Japanese had drums and flags and cheerleaders...for curling. Canada made good on its OTHER national obsession, and won the gold in men's curling, and bronze in the women's. The Finnish men took the silver, and in a totally bizaare twist of fate, the USA won the bronze. In curling. Bemidgi, Minnesota (the curling capital of the USA, and the only place where it's done) must be so proud. Britain took 4th. Poor Britain. In women's curling, the Swedes charged ahead to gold, with Switzerland snapping up the silver. Great. Now ever more people than ever before are going to confuse the countries on utterly insignificant issues. Canada beat Norway for the bronze, leaving the defending gold medalists from Great Britain in the dust (or, should I say frost? They didn't eve get to the semi-finals.)
Coming from the Short Program, Sasha Cohen was in first place. She also had a nasty groin injury wrapped up. I don't think I know how you wrap a groin injury, and I'm not sure that I want to. She bombed her way through the warm up, falling on jumps, bumping into other skaters, and generally looking miserable. She had a nasty fall on an early jump, followed by a badly botched landing on a second one, forfeiting any chance at the gold medal. Once again, Sasha's reputation for falling apart under stress proved well-earned. Kudos to her, however, for sticking out the rest of her program with panache. She had a really nice step sequence that fit excellently with the music, and accepted her performance with grace. For her trouble, the judges awarded her the silver medal. I'm still not clear on how she managed that one, and she herself mentioned that the silver was "like a gift". Lovely. It seems that figure skating's reputation for havign the results fixed long before the competition starts is in no danger.
Irina Slutskaya entered the Long Program in 2nd place, only a few hundreths of a point behind Sasha Cohen. She jumped and spun with ease, and clearly enjoyed her program. Unfortunately, however, she also fell on one of her later jumps. Unlike many skaters, who seem most likely to fall on their first or second jumps, Irina often hits her problems later in her program, usually after the halfway mark. She recovered quickly and managed to pull off a series of mind-bending spins in positions that look liek somethign out of celtic knotwork. Somehow or another, she ended up with the bronze. I am not clear on how Sasha did better than Irina, but see my above comment.
Shizuka Arkawa was ranked at about 9th in the world. The Japanese have an amazing array of talented women skaters, and Shizuka is probably the least of them. Her program wasn't technically remarkable, but she won for the very same reason Michelle Kwan won for so long: she didn't screw up. Shizuka didn't fall on any jumps, although she doubled a loop that had been intended as a triple. He program was to Puccini's Turandot, probably the most appropriate music used at this entire Olympics. She was pretty, skated gracefully, and managed to avoid hitting parts of herself on the ice, something the other women seemed unable to avoid. Low and behold, she won the gold for performance. Now, She really did deserve to win. Her program had no true mistakes, and she did it well. It also wasn't terribly exciting. Frankly, this is what has happened at the last 4 Olympics in Women's Skating. It's...boring.
In other amusements, Germany won the 4 man and 2 man bobsled. In act, the same man was the driver for both sleds, making him an instant national hero. I was just sad that neither Britain nor France got on the podium (they tied for Bronze in 1998). Apolo Anton Ohno, short-track prima donna extrodianire, finally managed to win a pair of medals, gold and bronze. Good going for him, but not all that impressive compared to the ego that he hauls around with him attached to that omnipresent bandana. Bode Miller succeeded in failing to medal in any of his 5 events, getting DQ's from 2 of them. He may be a great alpine skier, but he doesn't seem to have it where it counts -- Torino, Italy.
Ah, curling. The sport that only 3 countries really care about: Canada, Britain, and Japan. Yes, Japan. In Nagano, the Japanese had drums and flags and cheerleaders...for curling. Canada made good on its OTHER national obsession, and won the gold in men's curling, and bronze in the women's. The Finnish men took the silver, and in a totally bizaare twist of fate, the USA won the bronze. In curling. Bemidgi, Minnesota (the curling capital of the USA, and the only place where it's done) must be so proud. Britain took 4th. Poor Britain. In women's curling, the Swedes charged ahead to gold, with Switzerland snapping up the silver. Great. Now ever more people than ever before are going to confuse the countries on utterly insignificant issues. Canada beat Norway for the bronze, leaving the defending gold medalists from Great Britain in the dust (or, should I say frost? They didn't eve get to the semi-finals.)