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Yesterday evening, I was lucky enough to attend the pairs short program at the Pacific Coliseum. It was pretty interesting watching an Olympic skating event take place at a rink I know so well and used to skate at occasionally.
I watched all 20 couples perform their short program, starting with the famous Chinese couple Shen and Zhao who have just returned to the sport after retiring two years ago. (See? Not just football QBs can come out of retirement.) They skated a clean program and scored the best marks of the evening. But I would have had them third, despite the fact that they posed for picture with me.
The German team deserved to be first. Their program and elements were the strongest (though I loathed their costumes -- 'Send in the Clowns' is not a song about clowns actually -- ask Catherine Zeta Jones who is currently singing it on Broadway in A Little Night Music).
The Russian team of Kavaguti and Smirnoff should be in second. They are youthful, talented and exquisite, and I was fully moved by their performance.
Shen and Zhao should be in third. Skating first and coming off of retirement, I just think the judges over scored them. Their program was clean and strong but did not resonate with the audience and I didn't see anything 'new'.
With regards to my Canadians, Langois and Hay should have fended off Dube and Davidson for the sixth position. Though they didn't have the triple twist, their program was fantastic and gave me a jolt of Canadian pride.
Both American teams gave strong skates and the crowd loved them almost as much as their home team, well almost. They all have bright futures ahead of them.
By the way, coaches and choreographers? I suggest you hire someone who knows something about music in the future. Skating to a piece composed by Hans Zimmer is a good thing. Skating to a techno version of Carmen is not. The British team skated to a version of Linkin Park's 'Numb' which made me smile -- even if the program was pretty devastating.
But overall, great job skaters! I remember the days when doing side by side double axles was a big thing, let alone pair skaters with good extensions. Now the short program has everyone doing the triple salchows, throwing triple loops and employing expression worthy of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Can't wait to see the free skate tomorrow night and see who brings it! And you all have to bring it, you have nothing to lose.
Pair skating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pairs Skating : Pairs Skating News and Photos - chicagotribune.com
Figure Skating : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics
Medal winners: Figure skating - Olympics - medal winners ...
Resonation with the audience and showing something "New" is not how scoring works. They are scored on the elements they performed, how well they performed them, and how well they integrated their moves with the music. I felt they were the most musical, they had tremendous speed on the ice, and they executed all their moves beautifully.
They quality of the moves they performed well in the long program meant they had high enough scores to compensate for the wonky landing on the side-by-side jumps, the lack of synchronicity in the side-by-side spins and the wonky landing on the overhead lift.
If Pang & Tong had just scored 3.5 points more in their long program, or in combination with their short, they would be olympic champions.
Compared to the Speed Skating competition for example, Figure Skating does not even qualify as a sport.
Arguably, you could also eliminate short track speed skating, because judges are disqualifying so many for their supposed elbows, pushes and other moves.
http://tarynattheolympics.tumblr.com/post/389659973/in-defense-of-sequins-and-spirals
Hopefully HuffPo will post my review of the Pairs final last night- Though making an unusual error on their lift, I think Shen and Zhao were well deserving of the gold. Save for the other Chinese pair Tong and Pang, it was a mess of a night for the competitors.
However, where it falls short for me as a sport is the relative suggestive scoring that falls at the mercy of the individual scorer. Also, the skaters are limited as to what they can and cannot do.
If they're good at something, they should be able to do it. You don't tell your starting quarterback not to throw the ball deep in the fourth quarter because the other quarterbacks are incapable of doing it themselves.
The scratch spins from the 50's and 60's just cannot be duplicated today. I look at film of Dorothy Hamill or Janet Lynn spinning in the 70's and can't believe their good posture, positions and speed compared to today.
What would men's skating look like if they limited them to just 1 quad and 5 triples? force them to rack up points doing other things!!!
Looking forward to the men's short programs tonight.
I used to watch old Sonia Henie movies, was a Dorothy Hamill fan. I fall in and out of love with it depending on who's skating. I was a big fan of Michelle Kwan and loved when she re-introduced the Charlotte Spiral. I'm not very interested in the women this year but will watch anyway.
The Germans may have been harmed by their costumes, but more importantly they weren't synchronous at significant points in their program, and the connection between elements was considerably less than that of Shen & Zhao. I actually think the line-up of one-two-three is correct, but definitely some teams with falls were overmarked, so places 4 through 9 aren't actually representative of how well the teams skated.
I thought the top 3 were well scored, but the Americans were scored too low and the Russians and Ukranians too generously. Neither of the American teams had a fall, and yet 2 teams were placed ahead of them that had somebody's ass on the ice. Not fair.
And speaking of costumes, it must be Putin who designed those cruelly unflattering electric blue unitards sprayed onto the Ukrainian team.
IMHO, spinning and jumping for 5 minutes coupled with footwork and choreography is just as demanding as other sports.
Hope that Stephan Lambiel captures the gold. Reminds me of Toller Cranston of Canada. If not Stephan, I hope one of the Americans captures the gold.
Not fond of Plasheno's overall presentations...