Olympic Catch Up ~ My Thoughts on Joannie Rochette's Golden Bronze
Sigh...The final day. But gosh the last two weeks have been fun and what a Party we've hosted. Actually though...Starting tomorrow is just a stop gap between parties. Two weeks time, the Paralympics start and I can't wait for those just as much as I was counting down to these Olympics. I read somewhere that tomorrow, most of the Venue Staff get four days off, then those Venues that will be used for the Paralympics, the Staff come back to get them ready.
Noticed I haven't mentioned a certain game of Shinny going on at Canada Hockey Place right now?
Me? Nervous? Nooooo...Not me...
;oD
Have I mentioned I've got my Team Canada Hockey Team Hoodie over top of my 2010 Team Canada Olympic Team long sleeved top?
:oD
Okay now...Time to catch up on a couple of days of Olympic Glory for Canada... :oD
Reason you guys haven't seen me the last two days is because I had a bad bout w/whatever is going on w/me. Yesterday was worse than Friday,, but still spent more time in bed in pain and freezing watching the coverage than out of it sitting on my Exercise Ball watching it, as I usually do when I watch TV in my room.
BTW...For anyone who's a Sports Fan like me, who lives and die w/every shot, or Triple Axel/Triple Toe Loop... ;oD ..., using an Pilates Exercise Ball as your TV chair is a wonderful way to work off the stress of what's going on. There was some vicious bouncing going on the other night during the last ten minutes of the Ladies Gold Medal Hockey Game in this room. :oD Just as an example of course.
Before I say anything else about the last couple of days, you all know I have to talk about our Golden Bronze Joannie gave us Thursday night.
I'm not sure how many realize just *how* long I've been watching Joannie. I've actually had the great privledge of watching that young lady from the very start of her Career in the Senior Ranks here in Canada. I was at 2002 Canadians, which was her first year Senior, eagerly looking forward to seeing this young lady from Quebec that everyone was talking about. First year Senior, but she stole the show and ended up making her first podium, which also earned her a place on The National Figure Skating Team for the next Season. I came home from that week, all excited for Jamie and David and Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, but also talking about the great potential I saw coming up.
Those names would be Joannie, Jeffery Buttle and a little Junior Dance Team by the names of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Then, I was lucky to attend both 2005 and 2006 Canadians, which not only was Jeff's first two Canadian titles, as well as making his first (and little did we know only) Olympic Team, but the same also for Joannie. While I knew she wouldn't be in the mix for the Medals in Torino, I also knew she could go to Torino and make a splash. Which she did w/her fifth place finish.
For the next two years though, it started to look like Joannie was going to be another one of our Ladies Champions that had so much potential, but next to no nerves. Then Manon Perron, Joannie's Coach, made a decision and a phone call to Skate Canada that I truly believe is what turned everything around in the Summer of 2008. That was to find a Sports Psychologist to not only work w/Joannie, but who would also really click w/her. Not long after that, there was another decision made that also IMO also helped big time.
As much as I love David Wilson's choreography and what he'd done w/Joannie in the past, it was time to change things up a bit. That's when Shae-Lynn Bourne came in to do her Short Program and Lori Nichol to create the Long and...You combine all of those changes together and it was a very different Joannie Rochette that I watched win Skate Canada in 2008 in Ottawa. The confidence kept blossoming and it all ended w/a Silver Medal at last year's World Championships in LA.
In one of the Profiles of Joannie CTV did for the Games, Joannie said that she knew not many people thought she'd be able to medal at the World Championships after all these years, even if she never lost faith in herself. She also said she knew many of the skating fans had jumped off the bandwagon..
I never did. I always knew Joannie was an awfully strong young lady and it was only a matter of time before her and Manon figured out what needed to happen for Joannie to show that potential was more than that. Case in point...After a very so so Grand Prix Season, the knives came out for Joannie on the various MB's. "Oh, last year was only a flash in the pan....So much for the new and improved nerves of steel Joannie Rochette..." and other disgusting things I won't mention. As I told these people, here's this charming, personable young lady, who is bilingual and who made herself a favourite for an Olympic Medal at the glamour event of the Games.
In this Country, you combine all of that and Corprate Canada pounding on Joannie's door should not have come as any surprise to anyone. Nor should have the revelations that Joannie just didn't know how to say "No!!". As someone else on the Skating MB's said in defence of Joannie after the Grand Prix Final, when you've got a CEO telling you that if you sign a contract w/them to promote their product, you'll be able to make enough money to help your Parents pay off the Mortage on their home...How do you not say "Yes!!" to that offer?
Kurt Browning said one of the hardest lessons he learned after his first World Championship, was how to say "No!!" and that everyone that told him the Season after winning a World Championship was the hardest one due to all of the demands on your time was right. Everyone wants a piece of you, you get sucked into everyone telling you how wonderful you are and your Training suffers. So when Joannie and Manon decided that after the Grand Prix Final to just hunker down in the rink, figure out what wasn't working in the programs, change accordingly and then just work like there was no tomorrow, I thought it was the smartest thing in the World they could have done. There were some snarky things said online about "Took em long enough to figure out...", but I just "love" how some people who have never skated a stroke in their lives think they know it all about the Sport. :o/
The Joannie at Canadians last month was the Joannie of last Season and w/the time still between then and the Olympics, I was really feeling great about Joannie's chances.
Then last Sunday night happened.
The grace, courage and determination that young lady has shown all of the World the last week is worthy of remembrance. I still don't know how Joannie was able to do it. As Dad reminded me last Monday though, out there on the ice was the only place where Joannie could go where things were as normal as it was going to get. The performances she skated here this week...As I said, that Medal is a Bronze, but it's a Golden Bronze.
Some of the things she's had to cope w/though. I completely forgot the fact that w/her being from Rural Quebec, her father doesn't speak English. In fact, it wouldn't shock me to learn that Joannie's one of the very few in her small home town/villiage who does speak English. In her first interview w/CTV Friday morning (and Bev Thompson, who did an awesome job w/how she conducted it and w/the questions she asked Joannie. Never crossing the line, but at the same time, also asking questions that she had to ask, but w/great compassion and gentleness. Bev deserves huge Kudos for that), Joannie in replying to a question about how her Dad was coping, mentioned that she had to go to the Hospital and do all of the paperwork because not only did her Father not speak English, but he couldn't read it either. Since those forms needed to be filled out by a family member...
As I said, that never even crossed my mind. Sure there were people there from both Skate Canada and the COC to help them, but they could only do so much too.
I've actually seen people say the only reason Joannie was on the Podium, was due to the Judges feeling sorry for her and Home Ice Advantage w/the Olympics being in Canada. Well, I've only got one thing and one thing only to say to those creatures...
When the lists of the Protocols and Stats were released on Friday, there was one Stat that Joannie owns. She, out of all that talent on Thursday night, landed the most Triple Jumps of the entire field in the Long Program. That would be seven and only one more than Olympic Champion Yu Na Kim did in her gorgeous Long Program.
Regardless of what certain idiots may think, Joannie earned that Bronze Medal and not just because of what happened off the ice.
Since Thursday night, Joannie has been awarded two more Honours.
She is the Co Winner of The Terry Fox Memorial Award w/Slovenian cross-country skier Petra Majdic..
www.cbc.ca/olympics/figureskating/story/2010/02/27/sp-rochette-fox-award.html
I couldn't see VANOC and the Committee in charge of deciding who this Award would go to doing anything but deciding Co Winners. Both Joannie and Petra are deserving due to what they've done and coped w/at these Olympics. Very, very deserving.
and...
Joannie will be the Flag Bearer for Canada at tonight's Closing Ceremony...
www.cbc.ca/olympics/story/2010/02/28/spo-olympics-flag-hamelin.html
I really thought it would go to Alex Bilodeau due to him being the First Athlete to win a Gold Medal on Home Soil, but am delighted Joannie's been given the honour.
I'll post a little later about the rest of the fantastic performances our Athletes have given us this weekend. What a weekend though!! We went from being the only Country to host the Olympics and never winning a Gold Medal on Home Soil at the beginning of these Games to breaking the record for the most Gold Medals won by a Host Country at the end of them.
Oh Canada!! :oD
Noticed I haven't mentioned a certain game of Shinny going on at Canada Hockey Place right now?
Me? Nervous? Nooooo...Not me...
;oD
Have I mentioned I've got my Team Canada Hockey Team Hoodie over top of my 2010 Team Canada Olympic Team long sleeved top?
:oD
Okay now...Time to catch up on a couple of days of Olympic Glory for Canada... :oD
Reason you guys haven't seen me the last two days is because I had a bad bout w/whatever is going on w/me. Yesterday was worse than Friday,, but still spent more time in bed in pain and freezing watching the coverage than out of it sitting on my Exercise Ball watching it, as I usually do when I watch TV in my room.
BTW...For anyone who's a Sports Fan like me, who lives and die w/every shot, or Triple Axel/Triple Toe Loop... ;oD ..., using an Pilates Exercise Ball as your TV chair is a wonderful way to work off the stress of what's going on. There was some vicious bouncing going on the other night during the last ten minutes of the Ladies Gold Medal Hockey Game in this room. :oD Just as an example of course.
Before I say anything else about the last couple of days, you all know I have to talk about our Golden Bronze Joannie gave us Thursday night.
I'm not sure how many realize just *how* long I've been watching Joannie. I've actually had the great privledge of watching that young lady from the very start of her Career in the Senior Ranks here in Canada. I was at 2002 Canadians, which was her first year Senior, eagerly looking forward to seeing this young lady from Quebec that everyone was talking about. First year Senior, but she stole the show and ended up making her first podium, which also earned her a place on The National Figure Skating Team for the next Season. I came home from that week, all excited for Jamie and David and Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, but also talking about the great potential I saw coming up.
Those names would be Joannie, Jeffery Buttle and a little Junior Dance Team by the names of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Then, I was lucky to attend both 2005 and 2006 Canadians, which not only was Jeff's first two Canadian titles, as well as making his first (and little did we know only) Olympic Team, but the same also for Joannie. While I knew she wouldn't be in the mix for the Medals in Torino, I also knew she could go to Torino and make a splash. Which she did w/her fifth place finish.
For the next two years though, it started to look like Joannie was going to be another one of our Ladies Champions that had so much potential, but next to no nerves. Then Manon Perron, Joannie's Coach, made a decision and a phone call to Skate Canada that I truly believe is what turned everything around in the Summer of 2008. That was to find a Sports Psychologist to not only work w/Joannie, but who would also really click w/her. Not long after that, there was another decision made that also IMO also helped big time.
As much as I love David Wilson's choreography and what he'd done w/Joannie in the past, it was time to change things up a bit. That's when Shae-Lynn Bourne came in to do her Short Program and Lori Nichol to create the Long and...You combine all of those changes together and it was a very different Joannie Rochette that I watched win Skate Canada in 2008 in Ottawa. The confidence kept blossoming and it all ended w/a Silver Medal at last year's World Championships in LA.
In one of the Profiles of Joannie CTV did for the Games, Joannie said that she knew not many people thought she'd be able to medal at the World Championships after all these years, even if she never lost faith in herself. She also said she knew many of the skating fans had jumped off the bandwagon..
I never did. I always knew Joannie was an awfully strong young lady and it was only a matter of time before her and Manon figured out what needed to happen for Joannie to show that potential was more than that. Case in point...After a very so so Grand Prix Season, the knives came out for Joannie on the various MB's. "Oh, last year was only a flash in the pan....So much for the new and improved nerves of steel Joannie Rochette..." and other disgusting things I won't mention. As I told these people, here's this charming, personable young lady, who is bilingual and who made herself a favourite for an Olympic Medal at the glamour event of the Games.
In this Country, you combine all of that and Corprate Canada pounding on Joannie's door should not have come as any surprise to anyone. Nor should have the revelations that Joannie just didn't know how to say "No!!". As someone else on the Skating MB's said in defence of Joannie after the Grand Prix Final, when you've got a CEO telling you that if you sign a contract w/them to promote their product, you'll be able to make enough money to help your Parents pay off the Mortage on their home...How do you not say "Yes!!" to that offer?
Kurt Browning said one of the hardest lessons he learned after his first World Championship, was how to say "No!!" and that everyone that told him the Season after winning a World Championship was the hardest one due to all of the demands on your time was right. Everyone wants a piece of you, you get sucked into everyone telling you how wonderful you are and your Training suffers. So when Joannie and Manon decided that after the Grand Prix Final to just hunker down in the rink, figure out what wasn't working in the programs, change accordingly and then just work like there was no tomorrow, I thought it was the smartest thing in the World they could have done. There were some snarky things said online about "Took em long enough to figure out...", but I just "love" how some people who have never skated a stroke in their lives think they know it all about the Sport. :o/
The Joannie at Canadians last month was the Joannie of last Season and w/the time still between then and the Olympics, I was really feeling great about Joannie's chances.
Then last Sunday night happened.
The grace, courage and determination that young lady has shown all of the World the last week is worthy of remembrance. I still don't know how Joannie was able to do it. As Dad reminded me last Monday though, out there on the ice was the only place where Joannie could go where things were as normal as it was going to get. The performances she skated here this week...As I said, that Medal is a Bronze, but it's a Golden Bronze.
Some of the things she's had to cope w/though. I completely forgot the fact that w/her being from Rural Quebec, her father doesn't speak English. In fact, it wouldn't shock me to learn that Joannie's one of the very few in her small home town/villiage who does speak English. In her first interview w/CTV Friday morning (and Bev Thompson, who did an awesome job w/how she conducted it and w/the questions she asked Joannie. Never crossing the line, but at the same time, also asking questions that she had to ask, but w/great compassion and gentleness. Bev deserves huge Kudos for that), Joannie in replying to a question about how her Dad was coping, mentioned that she had to go to the Hospital and do all of the paperwork because not only did her Father not speak English, but he couldn't read it either. Since those forms needed to be filled out by a family member...
As I said, that never even crossed my mind. Sure there were people there from both Skate Canada and the COC to help them, but they could only do so much too.
I've actually seen people say the only reason Joannie was on the Podium, was due to the Judges feeling sorry for her and Home Ice Advantage w/the Olympics being in Canada. Well, I've only got one thing and one thing only to say to those creatures...
When the lists of the Protocols and Stats were released on Friday, there was one Stat that Joannie owns. She, out of all that talent on Thursday night, landed the most Triple Jumps of the entire field in the Long Program. That would be seven and only one more than Olympic Champion Yu Na Kim did in her gorgeous Long Program.
Regardless of what certain idiots may think, Joannie earned that Bronze Medal and not just because of what happened off the ice.
Since Thursday night, Joannie has been awarded two more Honours.
She is the Co Winner of The Terry Fox Memorial Award w/Slovenian cross-country skier Petra Majdic..
www.cbc.ca/olympics/figureskating/story/2010/02/27/sp-rochette-fox-award.html
I couldn't see VANOC and the Committee in charge of deciding who this Award would go to doing anything but deciding Co Winners. Both Joannie and Petra are deserving due to what they've done and coped w/at these Olympics. Very, very deserving.
and...
Joannie will be the Flag Bearer for Canada at tonight's Closing Ceremony...
www.cbc.ca/olympics/story/2010/02/28/spo-olympics-flag-hamelin.html
I really thought it would go to Alex Bilodeau due to him being the First Athlete to win a Gold Medal on Home Soil, but am delighted Joannie's been given the honour.
I'll post a little later about the rest of the fantastic performances our Athletes have given us this weekend. What a weekend though!! We went from being the only Country to host the Olympics and never winning a Gold Medal on Home Soil at the beginning of these Games to breaking the record for the most Gold Medals won by a Host Country at the end of them.
Oh Canada!! :oD