Friday, February 24, 2006
Skating shakeup and a speedy hurricane......
I predicted correctly that results of the women's free skate would depend on who could skate cleanly. I just didn't envision it being the debacle it was. I don't know if it was exhaustion from trying to stay consistent during a four minute program or just nerves that made these women self-destruct, but some of these efforts got downright ugly. It just hurt to watch the ones who lost heart after a failed jump and then just went through the motions for the rest of the program.
With the top scores being incredibly close, it very nearly was anyone's gold to win. Emily Hughes had a few mistakes, but nothing disastrous, and placed a respectable seventh. She is young enough to probably attend another Olympics, so she'll be one to watch in the next few years. Same with 16 year old Kimmie Meissner, who also had a few bumps in her program but otherwise skated quite gracefully. She took sixth and will probably view Torino as a learning experience.
The highest American hope for a medal was Sasha Cohen, who had first place by the tiniest of margins going into the long program. But in her warm-ups, she was falling, and when she took the ice to perform, she looked scared, with none of the confidence she'd appeared to have in the compulsories. And it began to be a self-fulfilling prophecy because she fell, not once, but twice at the start. I was sure she'd completely implode like I'd seen several women do earlier, but she didn't cave. Instead, she kept her speed and her spins and her excellent choreography. I didn't think she'd end up on the podium, though.
As soon I saw the third-place Japanese skater, Shizuka Arakawa, land her first jump cleanly, I knew she had a good chance of overtaking the lead. She had seen Cohen's crashes, and instead of doing the triple-triple jumps originally planned for her program, she switched to the safer triple-double. No bobbles, no awkward transitions, no loss of speed toward the end of her program. Just elegance, flexibility, confidence. She was quite beautiful to watch. And the judges were appropriately generous. The only question was whether Irina Slutskaya would land a triple-triple and gain more technical points.
It was not to be. I thought it would be a cinch, since the Russians had won all the other figure skating golds at these games. But Slutskaya fell, and this seemed to just deflate her. The rest of her program was slow and uninspired.
So Arakawa got a much-deserved gold, much to her and and all of Japan's delight. This was Japan's first medal of the games, and their only gold in figure skating. I was shocked that Cohen still received a silver despite her two falls. When interviewed, she said the medal was a "gift", and frankly, I have to agree. But even more shocking was Slutskaya taking the bronze. She seemed dazed.
I watched men's freestyle aerials with interest. Not only is it a fascinating event, but there was an American in the finals, and it was none other than Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, who was just itching to perform his trademark trick, dubbed "the Hurricane". The move is the most difficult in the sport, consisting of three somersaults with FIVE twists. He probably could have medaled had he done one less twist and landed well, but he went for the gusto. And he looked GREAT in the air! Problem is, he put a hand down to steady himself on the landing, and his competitors were sticking their landings. So the judges had to knock his score down for that. The end result was seventh place, but that seemed just fine by Speedy. He's way cool in my book. And I predict the freestyle aerials in the future are gonna contain more twists, heh heh.
No appointments for me tomorrow. Maybe I'll practice doing "Hurricanes". Or maybe I'll just fall on my butt a few times to emulate the skaters. Yeah, that's the ticket.
With the top scores being incredibly close, it very nearly was anyone's gold to win. Emily Hughes had a few mistakes, but nothing disastrous, and placed a respectable seventh. She is young enough to probably attend another Olympics, so she'll be one to watch in the next few years. Same with 16 year old Kimmie Meissner, who also had a few bumps in her program but otherwise skated quite gracefully. She took sixth and will probably view Torino as a learning experience.
The highest American hope for a medal was Sasha Cohen, who had first place by the tiniest of margins going into the long program. But in her warm-ups, she was falling, and when she took the ice to perform, she looked scared, with none of the confidence she'd appeared to have in the compulsories. And it began to be a self-fulfilling prophecy because she fell, not once, but twice at the start. I was sure she'd completely implode like I'd seen several women do earlier, but she didn't cave. Instead, she kept her speed and her spins and her excellent choreography. I didn't think she'd end up on the podium, though.
As soon I saw the third-place Japanese skater, Shizuka Arakawa, land her first jump cleanly, I knew she had a good chance of overtaking the lead. She had seen Cohen's crashes, and instead of doing the triple-triple jumps originally planned for her program, she switched to the safer triple-double. No bobbles, no awkward transitions, no loss of speed toward the end of her program. Just elegance, flexibility, confidence. She was quite beautiful to watch. And the judges were appropriately generous. The only question was whether Irina Slutskaya would land a triple-triple and gain more technical points.
It was not to be. I thought it would be a cinch, since the Russians had won all the other figure skating golds at these games. But Slutskaya fell, and this seemed to just deflate her. The rest of her program was slow and uninspired.
So Arakawa got a much-deserved gold, much to her and and all of Japan's delight. This was Japan's first medal of the games, and their only gold in figure skating. I was shocked that Cohen still received a silver despite her two falls. When interviewed, she said the medal was a "gift", and frankly, I have to agree. But even more shocking was Slutskaya taking the bronze. She seemed dazed.
I watched men's freestyle aerials with interest. Not only is it a fascinating event, but there was an American in the finals, and it was none other than Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, who was just itching to perform his trademark trick, dubbed "the Hurricane". The move is the most difficult in the sport, consisting of three somersaults with FIVE twists. He probably could have medaled had he done one less twist and landed well, but he went for the gusto. And he looked GREAT in the air! Problem is, he put a hand down to steady himself on the landing, and his competitors were sticking their landings. So the judges had to knock his score down for that. The end result was seventh place, but that seemed just fine by Speedy. He's way cool in my book. And I predict the freestyle aerials in the future are gonna contain more twists, heh heh.
No appointments for me tomorrow. Maybe I'll practice doing "Hurricanes". Or maybe I'll just fall on my butt a few times to emulate the skaters. Yeah, that's the ticket.
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