To me, Johnny's skating was one of the brightest spots of the evening. It was no accident that the crowd stood up after he skated; his programme was beautiful. CoP is not about beautiy, or about heroic efforts, it is merely about points. Because of this, there is a lot of frenetic skating, and not enough truly beautiful skating in men's singles now. Johnny reminded us what beautiful skating looks like. Thank you, Johnny. As to his rose crown, I thought it infinitely gracious of him to honor his fan that way, and watching him in the K and C, I thought of the ancient Greek athletes and their laurel wreaths. It seemed wonderfully apt to me that Johnny, at that moment, should be crowned with red roses, and I am grateful to the fan that gave that crown to him. To me, that moment, with Johnny crowned in red roses, holding a red rose bouquet, was a moment of "Nike", i.e., of victory, victory of beautiful athleticism, and artistic power. The word "artistry" gets slung around a lot in the world of CoP, but its use often is not justified; Johnny displayed genuine artistry in his programme. His graciousness in the face of being underscored was also beautiful. I felt as if we were seeing the real Johnny last night, and it was very good to see.
As for Patrick, he showed such promise when he was 16, with his smooth, fluid motion on the ice. I thought then that we might some day see great things from him. I never imagined that we should see so much self-righteous judgementalism from him toward veteran skaters. Somehow, he seems to have gotten confused about what really matters. I hope that he will settle down, and think things through.
Needs to work on his breakup skills.
