Odds And Ends – The Simple Topic Thread | Golden Skate

Odds And Ends – The Simple Topic Thread

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
When I was a member of the Shanadoo forum a few years ago, I created a thread where members could post about topics that didn’t fit into any other threads, but at the same time didn’t really warrant their own thread.

For example, for simple questions that only really needed one answer.

Well, I thought that would be a good idea for this forum as well.


So, to kick off, I would like to ask about our 2012 Ice Dance Youth Olympics Bronze Medallists: Maria Simonova and Dmitri Dragun.

When I was on vKontakte the other day, there were a couple of items on my news feed from Maria Simonova. I haven’t heard anything about her for a while, so I went to her profile for a nosey.

Firstly, can I just say that since the Youth Olympics, Maria has grown up into a seriously sexy young woman. And “sexy” is not a word that I use too often, so that in itself should say something! ;)

There was no sign of any news about her skating, though, so I went onto Google. And I found out why – she is currently on Ice Partner Search.

Her profile was last updated about 3 weeks ago.

So, does anybody know what happened that she and Dmitri Dragun split? Has anybody heard any whispers about a prospective new partner for Maria? And, for that matter, has anybody heard anything about Dmitri?

I really hope Maria and Dmitri find new partners soon as, from what I remember of Innsbruck, they were pretty good (hence why I went looking for them on Facebook back then!)

Caroliza_fan
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
In the thread about the Banquet at the 2014 Europeans, a discussion developed about skaters wearing glasses:


I'd more wonder about Carolina's choice of dress and those glasses. She's a beautiful woman but the first thing that comes to mind with that combination is my parents showing me old pictures of themselves when they were in college.

I've seen many pictures of Carolina with glasses off the ice
maybe she has eye sight problems

Oh, glasses are fine. I wear glasses. If she needs them, that's not an issue at all. I just think her choice of frames isn't that flattering.


I think as well that Carolina's glasses, while modern, are not very flattering for her.

Hopefully those are Kovtun's real glasses - as someone that wore glasses for almost 2 decades before lasik, it's one of the most annoying things to see people wear the fake glasses for a fashion statement. :no:

He does wear glasses off ice. So they are real

I wear glasses too, and I would love to be able to see without them, but I am too squeemish to have laser eye surgery. But, I think if I did, I would continue to wear glasses. I just look weird without them! :laugh:

My Dad had the laser treatment a good few years ago, and I still can't get used to him without the glasses.

Since we are talking about glasses, here is a photo that a certain somebody posted to her vKontakte profile yesterday

http://cs311116.vk.me/v311116529/b1cb/LjimKB4nTgM.jpg

To be honest, I don't know if these glasses are necessary or not. I've seen her wearing a different pair of glasses before (which, incidentally were far too big for her face), but in the vast majority of photos I've seen of her, she doesn't.

Whilst people wearing glasses as a fashion statement doesn't annoy me, what does annoy me is wearing glasses that don't suit you. Those glasses that Caro was wearing at the Euros banquet look awful on her. Similarly, that black pair of Liza's that I referred to in the previous paragraph, and the pair that Maxim Kovtun was wearing in that photo with Julia that sisinka posted above.

Many skaters wear glasses and many of those don't want to share their secret of having glasses. On the ice they take contact lenses and many of them take contact lenses off the ice as well.

I saw Tukhtamysheva with another glasses

adhkdf.jpg


Maxim Kovtun wears glasses, he needs them.

34ir7cw.jpg


But he has better-looking glasses also.
2yx2i38.jpg

9pqt7m.jpg


Javier Fernandez has a nice glasses which are suitable for him (in my opinion).
2195o42.jpg

Yep. That's the pair I was referring to when I said they were too big for her face.

Did you see the (almost obligatory if you're a girl wearing glasses) "naughty secretary" pose she did wearing that pair?

http://cs322123.vk.me/v322123529/3f7e/zwOYMFHJ5ww.jpg



Yes, those glasses definitely suit Maxim better than the ones he was wearing at the Euros banquet! And those glasses that Javi is wearing really suit him too!

Anyway, I hope you don't mind but I'm going to take this conversation into a different thread, as I want to continue talking about skaters and glasses, but it starting to get a bit too far off topic for this particular thread.

CaroLiza_fan


I do a martial art, and I always continue to wear my glasses whilst I am doing it. Put simply, I want to see! :p And I am too squeemish to wear contact lenses.

So, what I would like to know is - can anybody think of any skaters wearing glasses on the ice?

In particular, I would like to know if any skaters have worn glasses in competition. Because, I can't think of any off hand.

Thank you

CaroLiza_fan
 

desertskates

Medalist
Joined
Nov 19, 2013
Interesting about all the glasses. I'm not all that surprised, though. I wear glasses, but for things like the gym, etc... I put in contacts. A lot people with vision issues often switch out.

So, back to skating. Does anyone know, on average, how many pairs of boots an Olympic level skater will go through in a year? I've always wondered about this.
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
In the thread about the Banquet at the 2014 Europeans, a discussion developed about skaters wearing glasses:

Larry Pierce, who with his partner Diane Sherbloom won the 1961 U.S. Ice Dance title, wore glasses on the ice when he competed. They sadly both perished in the tragic 1961 plane crash en route to Worlds that year. You can read about/see wonderful pictures of them in Patricia Shelley Bushman's books Indelible Tracings & Indelible Images. Here's a video of their winning 1961 free dance from Nationals that year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDWF8VSuOOU

Thank you for the tip-off, Ryan.

That was way before my time (hey, it was before my Mum's time as well!), so I wouldn't have been able to think of them at all.

Although I may not be familiar with the victims, it is so sad thinking about the talent that was lost in that plane crash.

And thank you for the video. It is fascinating to see skating from the past, and to see how different it is to what we see nowadays.

Maybe it is just the style of the glasses, what with the big lenses and the thick black frames. But, it does kinda look strange to see on the ice!


So, back to skating. Does anyone know, on average, how many pairs of boots an Olympic level skater will go through in a year? I've always wondered about this.

That is a very good question too!

I don't pretend to know much about ice skates (they go on your feet and have a lump of metal sticking out the bottom). But I would like to think that the boot and the blade would both last a good while (at least a year!), and that it is just a case of replacing one part or the other when it gets damaged or eventually wears out.

But, as I say, I don't know anything about them!

CaroLiza_fan
 

sisinka

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
So, back to skating. Does anyone know, on average, how many pairs of boots an Olympic level skater will go through in a year? I've always wondered about this.

As I know it is three pairs of boots, sometimes two, it also depends on which company made it, some skates are softer, which are more comfortable and destroy legs less, but then you have to change skates more often - like three times.

CaroLiza_fan said:
In particular, I would like to know if any skaters have worn glasses in competition. Because, I can't think of any off hand.

Jan Hofmann used glasses for compulsory figures, but not for free skate.
 

TryMeLater

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Midori Ito often wore glasses for her compulsory figures. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeGxA1PkMIQ

She never wore them in competition though. I do wonder if poor eyesight had anything to do with her always jumping near and sometimes almost crashing into the barriers.

I remember reading somewhere that her poor eyesight caused her a lot of problems with compulsory figures.
Don't know about the barriers though. I think it was more of a confidence issue.
 

Crystallize

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
I remember reading somewhere that her poor eyesight caused her a lot of problems with compulsory figures.
Don't know about the barriers though. I think it was more of a confidence issue.

I figured she was having confidence issues as the '92 Olympics drew near, with the pressure and all, but even earlier on, when she was always quite the performer and seemingly so fearless, she would get so close to the barriers. I sometimes thought maybe she couldn't see how close she was until she was right on them. I think that would be an interesting question to ask her in an interview.
 

blue_idealist

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
A skater at Canadian nationals (specifically, a low-ranked senior man) wore glasses during the competition in 2012. I think his name was Ronald Lum or something like that. That might be the wrong name.. I'm thinking that may actually be the name of a skater from another country. But anyway, he was Asian. I'll go try to find the name..

ETA: Actually, it was 2011, and it was Andrew Lum.
 

lynneheintz

Spectator
Joined
Jan 20, 2013
At this year's Canadian nationals, Charles Dion competed while wearing glasses. I had never seen that before. We were trying to figure out if they were strapped on and eventually concluded that they were not. They must have fit tightly around his ears to not go flying off during the spins and jumps.
 

desertskates

Medalist
Joined
Nov 19, 2013
Are they together romantically? Or just friends? (I am not asking for rumors/speculation, just wondering on the off chance it's confirmed).

I don't know if it's confirmed anywhere but seeing her all dressed up reminds me that she's a young lady, not just a little kid, so it could be possible.

And thank you, sisinka for my answer on the boots question. 2-3 would have been roughly my guess.
 

BusyMom

Medalist
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
And thank you, sisinka for my answer on the boots question. 2-3 would have been roughly my guess.

I think it depends on each skaters' habits(practice) and financial situations. I read from somewhere that Mao and Dai went through 1 pair a month. It is for safety reason. When the boots gone soft around the ankle area from all those jumps it could easily caused injuries.
 

Icey

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 28, 2012
Will NBC show every competing skater's performance on regular tv? If not, where will they be shown?
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Will NBC show every competing skater's performance on regular tv? If not, where will they be shown?

The NBC primetime broadcasts on TV will not show figure skating in entirety.

For authenticated U.S. viewers, live streaming of all figure skating (and all competition for all sports) will be available on NBCOlympics.com.

The cable network NBCSN also will show live coverage of all figure skating, EXCEPT for the Feb 6 team skating (Men's SP and Pairs SP).
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
We were watching an episode of Malcolm in the Middle the other day (S3 Ep22 Monkey). One of the characters (Craig) is watching TV, and I thought - and exclaimed: "Is that Yagudin? It looks like his Winter costume!" (My eyesight is very bad and I believe the TV screen shown was rather fuzzy as well.) "I don't know," said my husband, "but it does look like him."

I know this is pretty "old news" - well, obviously! - but since I just saw it myself, and was quite excited by it, I thought I'd just share. :)
 
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