Get ready for your next World Champion.
This is mostly the post where I go on and on about the World Figure Skating Championships. But first, some things for those of you who see the words "figure" and "skating" together in this journal and don't click past the cut tag:
1. It is snowing like a motherfucker out there, but I have coffee. I drink a lot of mediocre coffee from the university cafe, and the drugs work fine (and seriously, their coffee is about three steps up from Starbucks). But every so often I have a snow day or something, and I make my own coffee from the really good stuff I have stockpiled, and my God. Real coffee tastes chocolatey and smooth, with minimal acid aftertaste. Today, I remembered to put in the milk (organic skim) and sugar (turbinado) before the coffee and dissolve the sugar in the milk, which makes everything mix together more quickly and thoroughly and gives the whole brew a glorious caramel flavor.
2. When people I fangirl collide: not only have Michael Stipe and Mario Batali met, they've gone to a U2 concert together. It's a YouTube link, and will be completely boring for non-fans. But worth it if you're into any of the above.
3. Despite my complete lack of interest in baseball, I am participating in a fantasy league, because one of the ones callmesandy is running had an odd number of teams and I filled in. Because I know nothing about the sport beyond Go Cubbies! I let the draft pick for me at random. Before the draft, I was pretty sure I was going to leave the game alone to play itself. Post-draft, I find myself with a roster including Ryan Howard, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, and David Ortiz. So I guess I know enough about baseball to realize that I am leaving this fucker alone.
4. The 2007 World Figure Skating Championships start on Monday. For those of you who have been tuning me out for the past year, this is the big one, especially in a non-Olympic year. Not only is it the culminating event of the season, but it decides things like who gets to make money next year. It's all of the people I drone on about, gathered in one place, dead-set on kicking each others' asses. Of all the figure skating events in a given year, Worlds is the one that makes this look most like a sport, both in the athleticism that emerges at the top and in the competitive attitudes of its participants.
In the United States, Worlds will be broadcast on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings on ESPN. There will also be substantial coverage in Canada and Japan, and if you live in Europe and get Eurosport, you'll probably be able to watch virtually the whole competition. And no matter where you live, there's always the OCD boards, although you'll have to follow the instructions to get access to the Worlds section.
The usual rundowns for each event, accompanied with pie-in-the-sky sentimental picks and more realistic predictions. Put another way, the first top five in each section is who I'll be rooting for; the second top five is how I think it'll actually go down.
Pairs
The usual disclaimer of how little I care about pairs applies here, as usual, although Worlds matters enough that I will actually be watching the pairs competition. The few teams I like have been suffering from injuries and, in at least one case, mental weirdness: as much as I'd like to see the Zhangs and Inoue & Baldwin on the podium, I'm very skeptical. I assume the Chinese will dominate, although Petrova & Tikhonov or even Savchenko & Szolkowy (who surprised even themselves by winning Euros) could pull an upset. And I'd love to see the insanely talented young Canadians, Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison, do well, especially after Dube's horrific injury at Four Continents. It takes some resolve to go to Worlds when you slashed your face open at your last competition.
My sentimental top five:
1. Dan Zhang & Hao Zhang (CHN)
2. Rena Inoue & John Baldwin (USA)
3. Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov (RUS)
4. Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy (GER)
5. Jessica Dube & Bryce Davison (CAN)
My realistic top five:
1. Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao (CHN)
2. Qing Pang & Jian Tong (CHN)
3. Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov (RUS)
4. Dan Zhang & Hao Zhang (CHN)
5. Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy (GER)
Ladies
This is the year when the sweet little tomboys take over. It's not just that the four best ladies' skaters at the moment are all teenagers, but that they're all unpretentious jocks who collectively have the potential to nail shut the coffin of the Michelle Kwan era, mostly by landing their triple axels on top of it. While I'm rooting for Kimmie, I will not be disappointed to see Mao Asada, Miki Ando, or Yu Na Kim win; in fact, my real disappointment will come if the top four is not some combination of the above. Other contenders include boring Canadian Joannie Rochette; boring and unpleasant Swiss Sarah Meier; and back-from-the-dead and strangely electrifying Italian Carolina Kostner, who put on her pink dress and bitchslapped everyone at Euros this year. Okay, I take it back, I would not mind seeing Kostner in the top four after that performance. There are other skaters I love making the trip to Worlds this year, and I'd be pleased to see them round out the top ten: Elene Gedevanishvili, the Georgian powerhouse who sadly spent more of the last season dealing with immigration issues than actually training; the Russian up-and-comer Arina Martinova, who reminds me more and more of Slutskaya; spunky Emily Hughes; and amazing spinner and official Team USA smartypants Alissa Czisny. But in the end, this is going to be a jumping contest. If you ain't got a triple-triple combination in your arsenal, you might as well not bother showing up.
My sentimental top five:
1. Kimmie Meissner (USA)
2. Miki Ando (JPN)
3. Mao Asada (JPN)
4. Yu Na Kim (KOR)
5. Carolina Kostner (ITA)
My realistic top five:
1. Mao Asada (JPN)
2. Yu Na Kim (KOR)
3. Kimmie Meissner (USA)
4. Miki Ando (JPN)
5. Carolina Kostner (ITA)
Ice Dance
It's a seriously tight race this year. There are a lot of ridiculously talented teams, and so much depends on who fucks up and who skates clean. The rest largely depends on who's being overscored (I'm looking at you, Dubrueil & Lauzon) and who's been struggling to get a coherent free dance together all season (hello, Tanithandben). Anyone who has met me knows that I'll be rooting for Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto, but they've been struggling to please the judges all season. I have an equal and opposite antipathy for unpleasant, sexless Canadians Marie-France Dubrueil & Patrice Lauzon, but they've been having tremendous success throughout the year. I'd like to think the awesome blond Bulgarians, Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski, can teach the odious Canadians a thing or two about treating this game like a sport, but they stumbled at Euros and wound up in third place. One of the teams that beat the Bulgarians at Euros, Russians Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin, is dynamic and intense, and I'd love to see them do well; the others, French team Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder, can bite me very hard. It's unrealistic to think adorable, graceful Canadians Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir or freaky, athletic Russians Jana Khokhlova & Sergei Novitski will place in the top five, but hope springs eternal: these are the teams pushing the boundaries of the sport right now. I'm also fond of both American teams. Melissa Gregory & Denis Petukhov are on the tacky side, but they're both visually arresting and technically precise. Meryl Davis & Charlie White epitomize the new generation of ice dancers, and I love their light touch and sweet, sibling-like chemistry. My other favorites are two real brother-sister teams, Britain's John & Sinead Kerr and Israel's Alexandra & Roman Zaretski. That's a lot of teams to mention, but I think they all need to be mentioned -- and that reflects, more than anything, the strength and diversity of the ice dance field this year.
My sentimental top five:
1. Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto (USA)
2. Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski (BUL)
3. Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin (RUS)
4. Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir (CAN)
5. Jana Khokhlova & Sergei Novitski (RUS)
My realistic top five:
1. Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski (BUL)
2. Marie-France Dubrueil & Patrice Lauzon (CAN)
3. Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto (USA)
4. Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin (RUS)
5. Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder (FRA)
Men
And here's where things get complicated for me as a fan. The men's field is almost as crowded at the top as the ice dance field, but with the injuries and mental breakdowns and surprise pronouncements of heterosexuality this season, it's got an extra factor of goofy unpredictability. It's to the point where I have to make three lists instead of two: one that reflects my fannish fondness for certain skaters, one that reflects my innate sense of justice and fair play, and one that reflects my prediction of what's actually going to happen on the ice. Because the fact is, it would be unfair and sad if anyone other than Brian Joubert won the world title this year. He's far and away the best technical skater at the moment -- three quads in his free skate! -- and he's found a way to present himself as both campy and sexily masculine at the same time. Also, there's more than a ghost of a chance that if he wins, he'll be so excited he'll rip off the top half of his costume.
The real battle here is for silver and bronze, and there are a lot of people those spots could go to, not just because there are a lot of guys who ooze style and elegance while putting down quad toe loops and triple axels right now, but because every one of those guys is prone to complete emotional meltdown. Stephane Lambiel, who's been brandishing that world title for a couple of years now, sat out most of the season with what is probably a case of clinical depression; he's the best spinner in the business and he has one hell of a quad, but nobody's forgotten Skate Canada, mister. (We also haven't forgotten that he somehow managed to win that.) Jeff Buttle had an amazing free skate at Canadian Nationals and a great short program at Four Continents, but he's been popping his axels. He seems refreshed after sitting out the Grand Prix with a back injury, but that also means he's out of practice. Nobunari Oda has all the talent in the world, but he's been sucking in competition all season. Daisuke Takahashi has been seeing better results, but it's not so much that he's skated well, as that everyone else has skated for shit. And we haven't seen a quad from either of the top Japanese men all season. And oh, the American men. Drama aside, Evan "Needs to Shave" Lysacek has a very good chance at another medal, especially if he puts down a quad-triple like the one we saw at US Nationals, and even more so if he doesn't trip all over himself in the short program. Johnny Weir has the opposite problem, of course, and it's not outrageous to believe this might be the competition where he finally nails that free skate.
Other men I'd like to see in the top ten include Belgian perpetual second-stringer Kevin van der Perren, who nabbed bronze at Euros; charismatic Canadian Chris Mabee, who might finally be having his year; Tomas Verner, of the Czech Republic, who keeps astonishing himself and everyone around him by doing things like coming in second at Euros; Frenchman Alban Preaubert, who takes his odd-looking face and messy jumps and raises them to the level of art; and Andrei Lutai, who looks like a refugee from a boy band and skates like there's still some life in the Russian men's figure skating program.
My sentimental top five, in which medals are handed out based on how much I enjoy their skating and respect them as people:
1. Stephane Lambiel (SUI)
2. Johnny Weir (USA)
3. Jeffrey Buttle (CAN)
4. Brian Joubert (FRA)
5. Tomas Verner (CZE)
My sentimental top five, in which justice is totally served:
1. Brian Joubert (FRA)
2. Stephane Lambiel (SUI)
3. Jeffrey Buttle (CAN)
4. Johnny Weir (USA)
5. Evan Lysacek (USA)
My realistic top five:
1. Brian Joubert (FRA)
2. Evan Lysacek (USA)
3. Daisuke Takahashi (JPN)
4. Stephane Lambiel (SUI)
5. Jeffrey Buttle (CAN)
1. It is snowing like a motherfucker out there, but I have coffee. I drink a lot of mediocre coffee from the university cafe, and the drugs work fine (and seriously, their coffee is about three steps up from Starbucks). But every so often I have a snow day or something, and I make my own coffee from the really good stuff I have stockpiled, and my God. Real coffee tastes chocolatey and smooth, with minimal acid aftertaste. Today, I remembered to put in the milk (organic skim) and sugar (turbinado) before the coffee and dissolve the sugar in the milk, which makes everything mix together more quickly and thoroughly and gives the whole brew a glorious caramel flavor.
2. When people I fangirl collide: not only have Michael Stipe and Mario Batali met, they've gone to a U2 concert together. It's a YouTube link, and will be completely boring for non-fans. But worth it if you're into any of the above.
3. Despite my complete lack of interest in baseball, I am participating in a fantasy league, because one of the ones callmesandy is running had an odd number of teams and I filled in. Because I know nothing about the sport beyond Go Cubbies! I let the draft pick for me at random. Before the draft, I was pretty sure I was going to leave the game alone to play itself. Post-draft, I find myself with a roster including Ryan Howard, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, and David Ortiz. So I guess I know enough about baseball to realize that I am leaving this fucker alone.
4. The 2007 World Figure Skating Championships start on Monday. For those of you who have been tuning me out for the past year, this is the big one, especially in a non-Olympic year. Not only is it the culminating event of the season, but it decides things like who gets to make money next year. It's all of the people I drone on about, gathered in one place, dead-set on kicking each others' asses. Of all the figure skating events in a given year, Worlds is the one that makes this look most like a sport, both in the athleticism that emerges at the top and in the competitive attitudes of its participants.
In the United States, Worlds will be broadcast on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings on ESPN. There will also be substantial coverage in Canada and Japan, and if you live in Europe and get Eurosport, you'll probably be able to watch virtually the whole competition. And no matter where you live, there's always the OCD boards, although you'll have to follow the instructions to get access to the Worlds section.
The usual rundowns for each event, accompanied with pie-in-the-sky sentimental picks and more realistic predictions. Put another way, the first top five in each section is who I'll be rooting for; the second top five is how I think it'll actually go down.
Pairs
The usual disclaimer of how little I care about pairs applies here, as usual, although Worlds matters enough that I will actually be watching the pairs competition. The few teams I like have been suffering from injuries and, in at least one case, mental weirdness: as much as I'd like to see the Zhangs and Inoue & Baldwin on the podium, I'm very skeptical. I assume the Chinese will dominate, although Petrova & Tikhonov or even Savchenko & Szolkowy (who surprised even themselves by winning Euros) could pull an upset. And I'd love to see the insanely talented young Canadians, Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison, do well, especially after Dube's horrific injury at Four Continents. It takes some resolve to go to Worlds when you slashed your face open at your last competition.
My sentimental top five:
1. Dan Zhang & Hao Zhang (CHN)
2. Rena Inoue & John Baldwin (USA)
3. Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov (RUS)
4. Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy (GER)
5. Jessica Dube & Bryce Davison (CAN)
My realistic top five:
1. Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao (CHN)
2. Qing Pang & Jian Tong (CHN)
3. Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov (RUS)
4. Dan Zhang & Hao Zhang (CHN)
5. Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy (GER)
Ladies
This is the year when the sweet little tomboys take over. It's not just that the four best ladies' skaters at the moment are all teenagers, but that they're all unpretentious jocks who collectively have the potential to nail shut the coffin of the Michelle Kwan era, mostly by landing their triple axels on top of it. While I'm rooting for Kimmie, I will not be disappointed to see Mao Asada, Miki Ando, or Yu Na Kim win; in fact, my real disappointment will come if the top four is not some combination of the above. Other contenders include boring Canadian Joannie Rochette; boring and unpleasant Swiss Sarah Meier; and back-from-the-dead and strangely electrifying Italian Carolina Kostner, who put on her pink dress and bitchslapped everyone at Euros this year. Okay, I take it back, I would not mind seeing Kostner in the top four after that performance. There are other skaters I love making the trip to Worlds this year, and I'd be pleased to see them round out the top ten: Elene Gedevanishvili, the Georgian powerhouse who sadly spent more of the last season dealing with immigration issues than actually training; the Russian up-and-comer Arina Martinova, who reminds me more and more of Slutskaya; spunky Emily Hughes; and amazing spinner and official Team USA smartypants Alissa Czisny. But in the end, this is going to be a jumping contest. If you ain't got a triple-triple combination in your arsenal, you might as well not bother showing up.
My sentimental top five:
1. Kimmie Meissner (USA)
2. Miki Ando (JPN)
3. Mao Asada (JPN)
4. Yu Na Kim (KOR)
5. Carolina Kostner (ITA)
My realistic top five:
1. Mao Asada (JPN)
2. Yu Na Kim (KOR)
3. Kimmie Meissner (USA)
4. Miki Ando (JPN)
5. Carolina Kostner (ITA)
Ice Dance
It's a seriously tight race this year. There are a lot of ridiculously talented teams, and so much depends on who fucks up and who skates clean. The rest largely depends on who's being overscored (I'm looking at you, Dubrueil & Lauzon) and who's been struggling to get a coherent free dance together all season (hello, Tanithandben). Anyone who has met me knows that I'll be rooting for Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto, but they've been struggling to please the judges all season. I have an equal and opposite antipathy for unpleasant, sexless Canadians Marie-France Dubrueil & Patrice Lauzon, but they've been having tremendous success throughout the year. I'd like to think the awesome blond Bulgarians, Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski, can teach the odious Canadians a thing or two about treating this game like a sport, but they stumbled at Euros and wound up in third place. One of the teams that beat the Bulgarians at Euros, Russians Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin, is dynamic and intense, and I'd love to see them do well; the others, French team Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder, can bite me very hard. It's unrealistic to think adorable, graceful Canadians Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir or freaky, athletic Russians Jana Khokhlova & Sergei Novitski will place in the top five, but hope springs eternal: these are the teams pushing the boundaries of the sport right now. I'm also fond of both American teams. Melissa Gregory & Denis Petukhov are on the tacky side, but they're both visually arresting and technically precise. Meryl Davis & Charlie White epitomize the new generation of ice dancers, and I love their light touch and sweet, sibling-like chemistry. My other favorites are two real brother-sister teams, Britain's John & Sinead Kerr and Israel's Alexandra & Roman Zaretski. That's a lot of teams to mention, but I think they all need to be mentioned -- and that reflects, more than anything, the strength and diversity of the ice dance field this year.
My sentimental top five:
1. Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto (USA)
2. Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski (BUL)
3. Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin (RUS)
4. Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir (CAN)
5. Jana Khokhlova & Sergei Novitski (RUS)
My realistic top five:
1. Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski (BUL)
2. Marie-France Dubrueil & Patrice Lauzon (CAN)
3. Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto (USA)
4. Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin (RUS)
5. Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder (FRA)
Men
And here's where things get complicated for me as a fan. The men's field is almost as crowded at the top as the ice dance field, but with the injuries and mental breakdowns and surprise pronouncements of heterosexuality this season, it's got an extra factor of goofy unpredictability. It's to the point where I have to make three lists instead of two: one that reflects my fannish fondness for certain skaters, one that reflects my innate sense of justice and fair play, and one that reflects my prediction of what's actually going to happen on the ice. Because the fact is, it would be unfair and sad if anyone other than Brian Joubert won the world title this year. He's far and away the best technical skater at the moment -- three quads in his free skate! -- and he's found a way to present himself as both campy and sexily masculine at the same time. Also, there's more than a ghost of a chance that if he wins, he'll be so excited he'll rip off the top half of his costume.
The real battle here is for silver and bronze, and there are a lot of people those spots could go to, not just because there are a lot of guys who ooze style and elegance while putting down quad toe loops and triple axels right now, but because every one of those guys is prone to complete emotional meltdown. Stephane Lambiel, who's been brandishing that world title for a couple of years now, sat out most of the season with what is probably a case of clinical depression; he's the best spinner in the business and he has one hell of a quad, but nobody's forgotten Skate Canada, mister. (We also haven't forgotten that he somehow managed to win that.) Jeff Buttle had an amazing free skate at Canadian Nationals and a great short program at Four Continents, but he's been popping his axels. He seems refreshed after sitting out the Grand Prix with a back injury, but that also means he's out of practice. Nobunari Oda has all the talent in the world, but he's been sucking in competition all season. Daisuke Takahashi has been seeing better results, but it's not so much that he's skated well, as that everyone else has skated for shit. And we haven't seen a quad from either of the top Japanese men all season. And oh, the American men. Drama aside, Evan "Needs to Shave" Lysacek has a very good chance at another medal, especially if he puts down a quad-triple like the one we saw at US Nationals, and even more so if he doesn't trip all over himself in the short program. Johnny Weir has the opposite problem, of course, and it's not outrageous to believe this might be the competition where he finally nails that free skate.
Other men I'd like to see in the top ten include Belgian perpetual second-stringer Kevin van der Perren, who nabbed bronze at Euros; charismatic Canadian Chris Mabee, who might finally be having his year; Tomas Verner, of the Czech Republic, who keeps astonishing himself and everyone around him by doing things like coming in second at Euros; Frenchman Alban Preaubert, who takes his odd-looking face and messy jumps and raises them to the level of art; and Andrei Lutai, who looks like a refugee from a boy band and skates like there's still some life in the Russian men's figure skating program.
My sentimental top five, in which medals are handed out based on how much I enjoy their skating and respect them as people:
1. Stephane Lambiel (SUI)
2. Johnny Weir (USA)
3. Jeffrey Buttle (CAN)
4. Brian Joubert (FRA)
5. Tomas Verner (CZE)
My sentimental top five, in which justice is totally served:
1. Brian Joubert (FRA)
2. Stephane Lambiel (SUI)
3. Jeffrey Buttle (CAN)
4. Johnny Weir (USA)
5. Evan Lysacek (USA)
My realistic top five:
1. Brian Joubert (FRA)
2. Evan Lysacek (USA)
3. Daisuke Takahashi (JPN)
4. Stephane Lambiel (SUI)
5. Jeffrey Buttle (CAN)