Sochi 2014: Men's free, ice dance (short and free)
Well, after watching a lot of Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski commentating on the official NBC broadcast, I kind of miss the lower-key commentators on the online streaming site. (Johnny Weir, can you please stop talking about the ice dancers as peacocks?!) Though I will have to find pics of what Johnny Weir was wearing every night!
Also, based on Yuzuru Hanyu's outfit and one of the ice dancers' outfits (the woman from Azerbaijan?), I have decided multicolored, large sparkly jewels on an outfit always look bad.
Men's free
Well, I suppose things had to come down after the excitement of the short program...
Le sigh, Florent Amodio really blew it =(.
OTOH, go Michael Martinez!!!! I was so happy he was first out of his starting group of six! I mean, placement fell pretty fast through the night, but this is totally the feel-good stuff I watch Olympics for. Lone flagbearer for the Philippines in the opening ceremony! Also, it sounded like he got a bit more sponsorship right after, and I hope he gets more later. (Also also, he was the only other person besides Yuzuru Hanyu to do a Biellmann, right? I was impressed!)
Pretty much everyone fell or had some errors in their programs, which doesn't make for exciting watching, but seeing Denis Ten keeping his place in first until the final group was kind of amazing! And then he got bronze!! (Also, wow, silver medalist at 2013 Worlds.)
I haven't been watching recently enough to see the rise of Javier Fernandez, but I am a sucker for that story too.
And go Jeremy Abbott for making it through relatively mistake-free. I was sad Jason Brown didn't skate as well as he did in the team program, but I love his program nonetheless. It's always surprising to see how beautiful his spins and his positions are; I usually don't associate the fun programs with that. Very looking forward to what he does going forward.
Yuzuru Hanyu's free wasn't nearly as amazing as his short, and poor Patrick Chan had issues with his triple axel as usual. Yay Hanyu for getting Japan's first men's gold in the Olympics! And um... at least Chan landed on the podium this time, as opposed to in Vancouver?
And finally, Daisuke Takahashi! Oh man, I will miss watching him. He double footed his first few jumps, as he did in the short, but I don't really watch Takahashi for the jumps. Just... love watching him do footwork always. And on a somewhat petty note, I was happy to see that his program component score was second highest of the night, beaten only by Chan. (Okay, Hanyu was .02 behind, which is negligible, but you know.)
Ice dance
Sigh, not really sure how I feel? Yay first US gold in this event, but tbh, it's not like the US is lacking in gold medals. Also, even though I love their short dance and acknowledge the difficulty of their free dance, still annoyed at Scheherazade! You can skate to it without doing all the orientalizing outfits and such! So... I guess grudging acknowledgement that they skated it very well, and that although I like Virtue and Moir's program more, the transitions and etc. in Davis and White's program were clearly more difficult. And I just like Davis and White a lot better when they aren't skating to Big Dramatic Stuff; i.e. their My Fair Lady short dance, which I love, and one of their older routines (short dance I think?) to La Traviata (eta: and their 2012 long program, which is what I was thinking of). I think they do those so well, and they can get a bit OTT with the Big Drama. Plus, I think it's actually more difficult to do the light, airy effortless(-looking) skates instead of Big Drama, though it's usually not appreciated as much (see also: all awards ever). Also, Orientalism. I did think they skated the short dance better in the team event, but I guess the judges did not agree!
Virtue and Moir's free was just gorgeous, like their Vancouver one.
Also loved Pechalat and Bourzat and will miss them as well.
I feel like I wasn't really paying as much attention to the free dance? I did love the Shibutanis, though, and I thought they did a much better job of choreography and dancing than the other team that did a Michael Jackson medley. Also, Maia's freckles! SO CUTE!!!! Madison Chock and Evan Bates seem to consistently get higher scores and I guess will be the successors to Davis and White, but I am just not nearly as fond of them. There's something nice and classic feeling re: the Shibutanis that I felt came out well in their quickstep/foxtrot short. And I really liked their free dance outfits. /shallow
Really enjoyed the Swan Lake free dance of the Russian pair who took bronze, even if pas de bourree (?? those quick tiny steps done en pointe) on toe picks looks kind of silly. Also loved the music of one of the other Russian pairs (a remix from Tosca?), though I didn't think the routine quite lived up to it.
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Also, based on Yuzuru Hanyu's outfit and one of the ice dancers' outfits (the woman from Azerbaijan?), I have decided multicolored, large sparkly jewels on an outfit always look bad.
Men's free
Well, I suppose things had to come down after the excitement of the short program...
Le sigh, Florent Amodio really blew it =(.
OTOH, go Michael Martinez!!!! I was so happy he was first out of his starting group of six! I mean, placement fell pretty fast through the night, but this is totally the feel-good stuff I watch Olympics for. Lone flagbearer for the Philippines in the opening ceremony! Also, it sounded like he got a bit more sponsorship right after, and I hope he gets more later. (Also also, he was the only other person besides Yuzuru Hanyu to do a Biellmann, right? I was impressed!)
Pretty much everyone fell or had some errors in their programs, which doesn't make for exciting watching, but seeing Denis Ten keeping his place in first until the final group was kind of amazing! And then he got bronze!! (Also, wow, silver medalist at 2013 Worlds.)
I haven't been watching recently enough to see the rise of Javier Fernandez, but I am a sucker for that story too.
And go Jeremy Abbott for making it through relatively mistake-free. I was sad Jason Brown didn't skate as well as he did in the team program, but I love his program nonetheless. It's always surprising to see how beautiful his spins and his positions are; I usually don't associate the fun programs with that. Very looking forward to what he does going forward.
Yuzuru Hanyu's free wasn't nearly as amazing as his short, and poor Patrick Chan had issues with his triple axel as usual. Yay Hanyu for getting Japan's first men's gold in the Olympics! And um... at least Chan landed on the podium this time, as opposed to in Vancouver?
And finally, Daisuke Takahashi! Oh man, I will miss watching him. He double footed his first few jumps, as he did in the short, but I don't really watch Takahashi for the jumps. Just... love watching him do footwork always. And on a somewhat petty note, I was happy to see that his program component score was second highest of the night, beaten only by Chan. (Okay, Hanyu was .02 behind, which is negligible, but you know.)
Ice dance
Sigh, not really sure how I feel? Yay first US gold in this event, but tbh, it's not like the US is lacking in gold medals. Also, even though I love their short dance and acknowledge the difficulty of their free dance, still annoyed at Scheherazade! You can skate to it without doing all the orientalizing outfits and such! So... I guess grudging acknowledgement that they skated it very well, and that although I like Virtue and Moir's program more, the transitions and etc. in Davis and White's program were clearly more difficult. And I just like Davis and White a lot better when they aren't skating to Big Dramatic Stuff; i.e. their My Fair Lady short dance, which I love, and one of their older routines (short dance I think?) to La Traviata (eta: and their 2012 long program, which is what I was thinking of). I think they do those so well, and they can get a bit OTT with the Big Drama. Plus, I think it's actually more difficult to do the light, airy effortless(-looking) skates instead of Big Drama, though it's usually not appreciated as much (see also: all awards ever). Also, Orientalism. I did think they skated the short dance better in the team event, but I guess the judges did not agree!
Virtue and Moir's free was just gorgeous, like their Vancouver one.
Also loved Pechalat and Bourzat and will miss them as well.
I feel like I wasn't really paying as much attention to the free dance? I did love the Shibutanis, though, and I thought they did a much better job of choreography and dancing than the other team that did a Michael Jackson medley. Also, Maia's freckles! SO CUTE!!!! Madison Chock and Evan Bates seem to consistently get higher scores and I guess will be the successors to Davis and White, but I am just not nearly as fond of them. There's something nice and classic feeling re: the Shibutanis that I felt came out well in their quickstep/foxtrot short. And I really liked their free dance outfits. /shallow
Really enjoyed the Swan Lake free dance of the Russian pair who took bronze, even if pas de bourree (?? those quick tiny steps done en pointe) on toe picks looks kind of silly. Also loved the music of one of the other Russian pairs (a remix from Tosca?), though I didn't think the routine quite lived up to it.
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