The Olympic Games

[ironcat]

I was thinking the same thing, Crit. As I watched Plushekno skate I was chanting "fall, fall, fall".

So happy to see Lysacek win...he was awesome. Too bad Plushenko was such a poor sport about it. He looked like a kid who had his ice cream stolen when they were on the podium.

To me it seemed like as soon as Plushenko landed his quad, he assumed the gold medal was his, and the rest of his program was self-congratulatory (as if he was taking his curtain call), and as a result, he got sloppy. A few of his jumps were so crooked in the air that I couldn't believe he didn't fall on his butt! Clearly it speaks to his athleticism and ability that he was able to land them, but he didn't deserve full points for them, and his degree of execution or whatever it's called was rightly judged inferior to Evan's.

He really carried on to the media afterwards, showing what an arrogant poor sport he is. I couldn't be happier to witness his displeasure.

[RealityLovesMe]

Last night the Canadian Commentator, Elizabeth Manley, stated that Johnny Weir usually loses points because of his foot work. That he doesn't do enough of it, especially compared to Evan or Stephan Lamballe or even Patrick Chan.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the men last night. And the Japanese guy who's laces broke....so upsetting but he kept his cool and hopefully he'll be back next time with new skates.

After reviewing the judges scores, Johnny did lose points for his transitions but he still scored higher than Plushenko in that category. Apparently, transitions aren't necessary since Plushenko didn't need them. Johnny's choreography, execution, and interpretation scores were shockingly low. In other words, the judges didn't like his routine. Hard to believe, right? But Johnny's larger than life personality has always worked against him and in subjective sports, you are not judged solely on how you skate. Too bad. He would have been a contender for the bronze if he was judged fairly.

[football_chick]

A trend that I've noticed and don't really like is when an announcer says "Well, he/she wasn't really expecting to medal at the Olympics. They're just happy to be here." Well maybe so but I think everyone who goes to the Olympics wants to win a medal. I don't think the athletes showed up in Vancouver and said "Boy, am I ever happy to be here! I don't care if I win a medal. Maybe I'll only do a single axle instead of a triple because who cares if I win a medal?"

I'm probably in the minority but that irks that heck out of me...

CrossingGuard - if you really, really want mittens I can probably send you some - we have tons left where I live. Well, we did last Saturday - they could be gone by now

[AJane]

Will have to go against the majority here and agree 100% with Stoyko's comments. Pluschenko may be a tool but he is the best there is right now. I believe that in an athletic competition, the best athlete should be rewarded and that is Pluschenko. Stoyko, IMO, was also the best athlete in figure skating in his day. And as much as I love and support Patrick Chan, I'm also on board with Stoyko's comment that Weir deserved 5th and Chan should have been 6th. We were almost in tears here at my house when Chan fell, but at the same time I think he should have been marked accordingly. Uggghhh, I'm going to resist going into another rant about figure skating scoring so I must stop now. In Pluschenko's coach's defense, I can relate to his frustration with the judges. The Olympics is the pinnacle of their professional lives, and only in figure skating the athlete is (in part) at the mercy of a panel of judges who have considerable leeway in how they mark you. It's not like winning a race, where you either cross the finish line first or you don't. When you have the only skater who is master of the most difficult jump in skating and also turns in two virtually flawless performances and still doesn't prevail...well, the anger is understandable. I guess this was a rant after all.

While I'm at it, I don't appreciate the Canadian men's hockey team sending my blood pressure soaring. :nono Kudos to Sid the Kid for saving the day, but after last night I'm concerned about how they're going to fare against the Americans.

[canuckinchile]

Pluschenko's program was top loaded, so I was happy to see a person with more artistry win. Lycasek threw in elements at the end when his legs must have been burning...that's got to count for something. And at risk of being vilified, I thought the Canadian Chan was over-marked, and the Japanese kind of got the shaft. I am now in love with Kevin Martin...this guy is a curling god. He just never misses. I am having a lot of fun watching the games!

[Critical]

I have to disagree about Plushenko being the best skater - he's the best jumper, not the best skater. If this was the old scoring system, where skaters loaded all the big elements into the first half of the program and only had to do big jumps to win, Plushenko probably would have won. His execution and artistry are far below Lysacek and many of the other skaters, including Weir and Chan.

It felt to me like he came into this competition expecting them to hand him a gold medal. He skated exactly like he used to - same type of routine, with lots of jumps and not much else. He did four jumps very quickly at the beginning of is free skate with (as Sandra Bezic pointed out) not much else between them. That routine last night had no jumps for the entire final minute. The new rules make them actually skate a complete routine rather than a bunch of jumps. Plushenko's arrogance in interviews after the competition only confirm for me that the best man won. Part of being an athlete is learning how to be a gracious loser because, no matter how good you are, sometimes you just don't win. I hope he retires and goes away.

Evan does have a quad, but the injury to his foot was causing him pain in practice this week and decided against doing it, especially since it would have been at the beginning of his program and could have sunk him if it had exacerbated the injury further.

Sorry, but I can't stand Elvis Stojko. Never did like him. He's probably defending Plush because he too was more of just a jumper than an artistic skater. My ideal male figure skater - masculine, powerful, graceful, consistent - is still Brian Boitano. No one can ever match him in my eyes.

[ironcat]

Will have to go against the majority here and agree 100% with Stoyko's comments. Pluschenko may be a tool but he is the best there is right now. I believe that in an athletic competition, the best athlete should be rewarded and that is Pluschenko. Stoyko, IMO, was also the best athlete in figure skating in his day. And as much as I love and support Patrick Chan, I'm also on board with Stoyko's comment that Weir deserved 5th and Chan should have been 6th. We were almost in tears here at my house when Chan fell, but at the same time I think he should have been marked accordingly. Uggghhh, I'm going to resist going into another rant about figure skating scoring so I must stop now. In Pluschenko's coach's defense, I can relate to his frustration with the judges. The Olympics is the pinnacle of their professional lives, and only in figure skating the athlete is (in part) at the mercy of a panel of judges who have considerable leeway in how they mark you. It's not like winning a race, where you either cross the finish line first or you don't. When you have the only skater who is master of the most difficult jump in skating and also turns in two virtually flawless performances and still doesn't prevail...well, the anger is understandable. I guess this was a rant after all.

While I'm at it, I don't appreciate the Canadian men's hockey team sending my blood pressure soaring. :nono Kudos to Sid the Kid for saving the day, but after last night I'm concerned about how they're going to fare against the Americans.

I agree that the best athlete should be rewarded provided that he/she gives the best performance in the moment of competition, and outside of the quad (which he got full points for), the rest of Plushenko's performance was inferior to Lysacek's. Likewise, a sprinter who consistently has faster times than the rest will only win the gold medal if he beats his competition in the gold medal race.

Figure skating is not the only sport that is at the mercy of judges. So are diving, gymnastics, and aspects of snowboarding, freestyle skiing and ski jumping to name a few.

[MsDiva2007]

Personally it kind of reminds me of a dancer who can do all the steps expertly and yet not make the viewers feel the dance. Alot of fluff and little Substance. The correct skater won. I think maybe someone needs to practice more on Artistry and less on showy tricks.

Am I the only one bugged by Scott Hamilton and his OOhs and Ahhs. The sounds he makes and very little comments. Please stop it Scott!

[ClosetRTWatcher]

My ideal male figure skater - masculine, powerful, graceful, consistent - is still Brian Boitano. No one can ever match him in my eyes.

Brian Boitano was wonderful!!!

Altho Lysachek isn't my fav, I have to give him credit for the interview he did earlier with Bob Costas. He did a great job being gracious and not talking smack about Plushenko when confronted with the comments that had been made about him.

I would like to send out best wishes tonight to Patrik Jaerbyn. It sounded like he was stable now, but that crash he took in the men's Super G earlier was scary!!

[dagwood]

Altho Lysachek isn't my fav, I have to give him credit for the interview he did earlier with Bob Costas. He did a great job being gracious and not talking smack about Plushenko when confronted with the comments that had been made about him.

Agreed. He was very gracious, I was impressed with how he was about Plushenko. Great attitude.