# Olympic Figure Skating
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 12, 2006, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105 "2006-02-12T13:00:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105/141 "2006-02-26T20:30:14Z")
> [@annieclaus](#):
>
> I watched Sasha Cohen very carefully last night during her demonstration skate. . . or whatever you call it. . . the “Don’t Rain on My Parade” number. (How fitting!) She didn’t do much really, other than her famous spirals and spins. And then I watched her during her interview with Bob Costas. And I think I figured out what it is about her that creeps me out. She’s kind of the Stepford Skater. Wind her up and she skates like a dream. Wind her up a bit too tightly and she falls down and fails to win the gold medal. Wind her up again and she gives all the pat answers to an interviewer. I just don’t know who or what the real Sasha Cohen is inside the shell. (And, no, I don’t know who the real Michelle Kwan is either, but I don’t feel the Stepford-ness in Kwan.)
>
> And Dick Button gushed, by the way!
I saw the interview with Costas, and I thought she handled it very well. And I thought Costas was a tremendous jerk for putting up that clip of the snowboarder wanting to go out with her, and then demanding that she give him an answer on the air. She handled it about as well as she could, given that she didn’t want to date the crazy red-haired snowboarder. She said, “Well, I’m very flattered, and it’s awfully nice of him, but… Well, let’s just leave it at I’m very flattered.”
What else was she going to say? Costas made sure both of them would be embarassed.
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### Author:  [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105/142 "2006-02-26T21:38:06Z")
Sublight - Japan _never_ accomplishes anything meaningful at either the Summer or Winter Olympiads. They’ve been completely overshadowed in a sport they _invented_, judo.
Granted, their best chance certainly was in ladies figure skating, which requires grace and artistry (and friendly judging, of course) more than athletic ability. But this is also a hotly contested event which the Americans and Eastern European powers usually have a death grip on. In all, I’d say that Arakawa winning the gold (the only medal won by the entire nation in Torino) is downright phenomenal.
Equipoise - Ugh. Grumbling, pouting, I can understand, but throwing away the medal where everyone can see it is just plain wrong, not to mention a slap in the face to everyone who’s ever won a bronze medal. Someone from the Russian selection committee really needs to grab her by the shoulders and say “not cool”.
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105/143 "2006-02-27T01:00:04Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#):
>
> What else was she going to say? Costas made sure both of them would be embarassed.
Costas did that? What a prick. He is the female Katie Couric.
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### Author:  [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2006, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105/144 "2006-02-27T05:22:32Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> What a great thread. I learned a lot.
>
> The only time I watch figure skating is during the Olympics. What is that move that some of the women are doing – the one where they raise a leg in **front** of their body and skate forward?
>
> It’s not attractive. You’d never see a ballet dancer do that, and most of the skating moves seem to be drawn from ballet.
>
> Is it new? I’ve never seen it before. Never want to see it again.
I think the move you’re referring to is called a Charlotte. I’ve heard it pronounced with the accent on the second syllable.
[More.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_(figure_skating))
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2006, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105/145 "2006-02-27T05:42:41Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#):
>
> I think the move you’re referring to is called a Charlotte. I’ve heard it pronounced with the accent on the second syllable.
>
> [More.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_(figure_skating))
Now **that’s** a pretty move, the one in the photo.
The move I didn’t care for is the opposite position. The skater leans back with a leg raised – not quite a Candlestick because they can’t lean back as far as they can lean forward.
So one move is a forward Charlotte and the other is a backward Charlotte. Must be the backward Charlotte that looked so awkward to me. It must be terribly hard on the groin area (either one of the moves).
Thanks. 🙂
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### Author:  [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105/146 "2006-02-27T06:18:53Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> Now **that’s** a pretty move, the one in the photo.
>
> The move I didn’t care for is the opposite position. The skater leans back with a leg raised – not quite a Candlestick because they can’t lean back as far as they can lean forward.
>
> So one move is a forward Charlotte and the other is a backward Charlotte. Must be the backward Charlotte that looked so awkward to me. It must be terribly hard on the groin area (either one of the moves).
>
> Thanks. 🙂
You’re welcome. 🙂
If performed incorrectly I also find the move very ugly. But when done right (like Ms. Cohen) a Charlotte in either direction is very beautiful. I think they’re doing more Charlottes now because the new scoring system rates them highly.
My favorite all time skating move was when 1988 Olympic Champion Brian Boitano did one of his inside edge spirals. He leans back heavily on his skates until he’s almost at a 45 degree angle to the ice. His was total perfection. My boyfriend at the time was watching with me in 1988. He doesn’t particularly care for figure skating but he still remembers ooing at Boitano.
Kwan also did lovely spirals. She’d time them to the musical crescendo and then just slide for awhile.
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### Author:  [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105/147 "2006-02-27T14:39:06Z")
> [@Hilarity N. Suze](#):
>
> I don’t get the bad-Sasha vibe either, but I have always, always gotten a really bad diva-vibe from Kwan.
Me too. That’s why I have a hard time understanding all the people gushing over Kwan and then turning around and saying they get bad vibes from Cohen.
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### Author:  [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105/148 "2006-02-27T18:56:22Z")
I think the move AuntiePam is talking about is not a Charlotte - either forward or backward. In either one, doesn’t the leg stay in the same place and "forward means the skater glides forward; and “backward” means the skater glides backward? I think she’s referring to the move where the skater lifts one leg straight/high up in the air to the side, sort of like a stradde or split, and holds the boot in order to keep the leg up. It’s a hideous move. Maybe it’s hard and that’s why they do it, but it’s very ugly. It seemed like a LOT of skaters were doing it this year.
Same for that other move where they spin and grab a boot and lift their back leg up while leaning backwards, holding the boot high in the air. It’s a very pretty move but what’s with the endless repetition in the same routine? It used to be an occasional move - probably it’s very hard - and now some people did it 10 times during their program. It’s pretty but even pretty gets boring after a while.
I don’t think I saw one single person do that standard two-foot spin - kind of like a pirouette - where they spin faster and faster while standing up straight. It used to be a common closing move. I can’t remember seeing it one time this whole Olympics.
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### Author:  [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-figure-skating/344105/149 "2006-02-27T21:20:58Z")
Button has always found Cohen to be “delicious”–seriously, the man is not level headed about her, gay or not gay. He fawns over almost all the female skaters, but Sasha seems to be in class all her own for him. Maybe he thinks he’s being avuncular–I find him creepy beyond belief.
I missed the exhibition (although a friend sent me Plushenko’s Tom Jones routine–I thought it was funny).
I like the either Charlotte and the back leg bent, forward leg raised up move–but the skate is kinda going at a curve from what I can tell. My daughter (resident skating expert) isn’t home, so I can’t ask.
Too bad about Irina doing that. At the risk of stereotyping, how very Slavic of her. I’ll bet is was a momentary thing-and one that she shouldn’t be beaten up about for the rest of her life. Who hasn’t done an impetous and tantrum-y thing in their life? No-one I know.
I hope she and Cohen both hang up their skates at this point. I could go my whole life without seeing Sasha on the ice again. I also hope that Kwan moves on as well. If she doesn’t, she will invite criticism, IMO.
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