Great topic!
Have a number of Best and Worsts, so will just make a Best and Worst category--then analyze the five component scores, multiply by .6, add or subtract the GOE...okay, not funny.
BEST CATEGORY (no order)
--Irina's LP and gold medal win. I was teary-eyed through the last third of her program and when she started crying at the end, I was blubbering. I had so many memories of Irina, starting back in 1996, as she skated to this win. Also, the vasculitis, had it not been properly diagnosed and treated in time, could have killed her. I mean, the world without Irina Slutskaya?! And I'll say one mean thing and then shut-up about it. Before the ladies final, there was a lot of talk--I know some of it was joking--about how the judges were going to "hand the gold to Irina" for various reasons. Given everything Irina has been going through the past few years and is still going through, I thought it was uncalled for, especially when it was said before people had even seen the competition.
--Stephane Lambiel's skating and win. I've
loved the way this guy could move since I first saw him about three years ago, and of course his spinning is gorgeous. But it's his slinky spine, feline movements that grabbed me and the way his choreographers made the best use of his unique talent. We haven't seen a lot of him because of injuries, so I didn't know how he'd progressed. So to see him come out and land those beautiful quad combos and then do all the other things even better than he'd done before was just thrilling. So he looked like a hockey goalie without the mask in his LP costume. I didn't care.
--Jeff Buttle skating to Phillip Glass's "Noyanitsquatsi." Here's my headline for Buttle: "Skater Breaks Glass Barrier!" I've always thought there was a lot of Glass's music out there that would be great for skating, but it took Jeff Buttle and his choreographers to finally do it. Plus Jeff got the silver without a quad. This is what I love about the COP.
--Sasha Cohen finally skating three strong programs entirely on her feet--almost. One fall in the Q-round. [Thanks for the reminder, Lavender
altho I did remember some hours later and thought, "Oops, I'm gonna get it for that mistake, lol."] She also skated her first seven triple program in competition. She had her problem moments, but she was NOT going down. This year she really earned the silver, IMO, instead of just being in the right position to get it. Now if somebody can just get ballet and folk music away from her...
--Totmianina and Marinin's win. At the SLC Olympics, I didn't like this team at all. I remember thinking, "All that technical ability but yuck!" Of course they were skating the "Cotton Club" program that fit them like a plaster cast. They just couldn't move that way. But their short programs since have been so ethereal and Schpilband now seems to know what works best for them in the LP. Another couple of gutsy Russian skaters.
--Petrova and Tikhonov hanging in there through all those lacklustre years just so they could skate at Worlds in Moscow. They looked like a whole new team--faster, sleeker, more aggressive. Good for them.
--Belbin and Agosto. Everything about them. Their skating, their attitude, their partnership, their silver medal. I love 'em. I know rules are rules and they're not complaining, so I will. Gee whiz, strings have been pulled for a lot less than the first US ice dance team in however many years to have a shot at an Olympic medal. I know they're young and say they'll wait till 2010, but besides that being the year we get two suns (yuk-yuk), anything can happen. C'mon IOC! Let 'em skate!
--That the US had a skater or team on three out of the four podiums. Whoop-whoop-whoop!
WORST
--The gabfest with Kimmie Meissner during Miki Ando's SP. I already complained about that.
--Brian Joubert's LP. Brian--get rid of Yags as a coach or consultant, whatever. His influence is moving you backwards. Also, I don't think we're seeing Joubert skating. I think we're seeing Joubert's poor imitation of Yags on the ice. Yags was Yags. You're you. Joubert strikes me as the Sasha Cohen of France. He became hot young and then spent the next few years in the doldrums. Get your head right. You're a gorgeous hunk and I'd love to see you skate to your potential in your own style, not anyone else's.
--The withdrawals: Plush and Shen & Zhao. Plush for having to withdraw with Worlds in Moscow. S/Z just because it took them so long to reach that level of emotional connection they have and I treasure every time I get to see them skate.
--Johnny Weir's injury, "illness"--don't know, he just referred several times to "not feeling well," and finishing just off the podium.
--ESPN's coverage. Thursday night after the Worlds coverage, ESPN showed a repeat of "Brian Boitano's Holiday Spectacular." Now, dammit, you're in the middle of Worlds before an Olympic year. There are at least 3 to 4 skaters or teams in each discipline who you
should have showed at least one of their competitive programs. Why, in addition to endless shots of Red Square and the useless "Ice Moves" and fluff pieces ("Hi, I'm Sasha Cohen and I love make-up and fashion." Well, duh.) do you need to program two hours of a mediocre pro skating show? Just save yourself the bucks and pipe in CBC's coverage.
--What happened to Goebel?
Rgirl
***BTW, props to Joe for predicting at least two years ago that Stephane Lambiel would be World Champ. At the time, I loved how he moved, but he was young, only 16 or 17 and I didn't know if he would get his jumps consistent, much less the quad. But you called it, Joe. Way to go!
(eeeevil)
Still, I'm so happy with the results of most of the results I'm not gonna bust my brain trying to figure it out too hard. (Are there any websites though that explain CoP? In layman's terms that a newbie skating fan might understand?)
