Is anyone watching?
Will the US pairs continue to suck?
Will Johnny Weir defend his title?
Will Sasha Cohen finally defeat Michelle Kwan?
I’m so excited. 
I don’t have cable, so all I’ll see is tomorrow afternoon – taped, I have to go to a memorial service – and tomorrow night. (And. BTW. does anyone know why ABC didn’t air the Grand Prix series this year? Was there one? and who skated and who did well? I keep forgetting to search for results.)
I haven’t seen a second of amateur skating this season, so have no idea who’s even competing this year, let alone who I’m rooting for. I’m esp. pissed off about this since next year is an Olympic year – how can I get psyched for that if I miss the previous season?
I hate to be a wet blanket, but can someone tell me how this got to be an Olymnpic sport? It seems, well, out of place. It’s not really what you call ‘pushing the limits of human acheivement’, y’know?
So you can do a quadruple jump? Cool!
I have no idea why it wasn’t shown.
But here are the results of the final.
The ladies event features Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen. The men’s event has Michael Weiss, Timothy Geobel and Johnny Weir. Most of the skating will be shown on ABC this Saturday between 4 and 11 EST.
I’m in Portland visiting my parents and everyone is talking about it…the local channels are showing recaps on the news and the Oregonian had a feature section as well earlier this week. I’m trying to convince one of my relatives to go to one of the events (just to say I was there mostly). The ticket prices are pretty reasonable, $20-50 depending on the program.
The big downer is the death of Angela Nikodinov’s mother in a traffic accident on the way from the airport to their hotel.
Just for the record, I’ld like to mention I can barely skate let alone do a triple lutz.
Last year, ABC and ESPN had a whole other sport to cover. With the NHL on lockout, they’re putting lots of different stuff on the air to fill holes. Some of it’s pretty ridiculous–weren’t the national jump rope championships or something on ESPN2 the other night?–but some of it’s deeply cool, like this.
Sweet Jesus, I hope not. Fall, Sasha, fall!
Huh? Have you ever skated? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get to their level? I’m sincerely curious how you have come to the conclusion it doesn’t deserve to be an Olympic sport. Do tell.
My boss and her husband are both nuts about skating. They travel all over the world to attend skating shows. I was wondering why they were off this week, now I know why.
I saw the mens and ladies short programs on ESPN.
The men were sort of meh. Goebel and Weir were okay but nothing special.
The ladies were more impressive. Beatrisa Liang was excellent and deserved a higher placement. I thought her music and choreography were mesmerising. Jenny Kirk was good but cautious. Kimmie Meissner has great potential. She’s young but the artistry is there. Sasha Cohen made a few mistakes but it’s still hard to take your eyes off her. That last combination spin she did was particularly awe inspring. Kwan’s program started off a little slowly but she had me by the middle.
The long program is tomorrow. I expect the results will be equally fascinating.
I can’t watch live figure skating – I hold my breath the whole time, fearing that the skater will fall. Too much tension for me.
I don’t have any trouble watching a repeat though, when I know in advance that the skater made it through the program.
I don’t think there’s anything more athletically beautiful that can be done with a human body than figure skating.
NPR was talking about a new scoring system yesterday – I don’t understand enough about the old system to have an opinion about whether the new one is an improvement.
There are a great many things that are hard. Good writing is hard. It isn’t an olympic sport. Neither is hot-dog eating. In a more plainly physical level, we don’t have a
My point is that Figure Skating isn’t judged on a rational basis, but on aesthetic virtues (and apparently quid-pro-quo, too, but that’s a whole nother ballgame). IMHO, the Olympics should be restricted to sports with a scientifically detemined (by time, weight, etc) or openly apparent victor (ie, I won the race plain 'n simple). I simply can’t a figure skating Gold as seriously as, say, someone who gets theirs in track. I also dislike most of the team sports that keep showing up.
On the other hand, I’d love to see caber-tossing in there.
Granted, the original Olympics had sports including massive bare-knuckles brawls and fights to the crippling, but I think we can generally leave them out.
Ah, I see your point and, actually, totally agree about the scientific determination. The problem is that as much as I dislike the judging in skating (and gymnastics and I’m sure there are many more worthy of scorn), I do think skating deserves to be an Olympic sport. But I get where you are coming from.
Scoring isn’t just on aesthetics, is it? Don’t they get points for executing specific moves, based on their degree of difficulty?
If figure skating doesn’t belong in the Olympics, then neither does diving or gymnastics.
The Games would be pretty boring if sports were restricted to those that could be measured by running time, distance tossed or jumped, points scored, weight lifted. There wouldn’t be any pretty stuff. 
Coding oops. :smack:
Coding fixed.
– Uke, who just watches skating for the teeny tiny skirts
Well, I’d agree. I think diving is pretty, and a few times there’s a clear difference (i.e., did they come down cleanly) but it’s impossible for any outsider to judge on the merits; it’s just subjective. But tat’s tolerable compared to nigh-obscene way they turn gymnastics and skating into a beauty & youth competition.
I mean, it’s just disturbing. Women can’t win practically unless they’re either prepubescent in gym (which is freaky, given their age) or unmarried and at least theoretically virgins in skating. That’s just not the Olympic spirit.
Well, I’m not so sure. Track n’ Field can be pretty cool. Granted, it’s not very cool on TV.
Certain olympic events that meet this criteria are timed to the thousandth of a second. Is that really a meaningful way to judge a human endeavor?
The “asthetic virtues” as you dub them have a solid grounding in physicality. For instance a good spin isn’t good just because it looks pretty. It’s good because it’s centered in one spot. It’s good because the skater changes arm and leg positions during the spin. It’s good because the spin is done on the edge of the blade and not the flat. It’s good because it’s fast.
All of those criteria really are fairly plain and simple. The skaters and judges agree.
I’ve been watching figure skating closely for twenty years. With rare exceptions the person who deserves to win usually does win. Or else they finish second.
The men’s competition is a good illustration of this point. The man who finished second simply wasn’t as good as the person who finished first. He had fewer jumps and they were not performed as well. His connecting steps weren’t as fast or intricate.
A properly executed skating move is inherently a thing of beauty. The same is true of many sports moves such as a well executed pole vault or a perfectly returned tennis serve. Beauty does not mean something isn’t a sport.
The women tend to weigh less because less weight means it’s easier to perform the elements of a program very well. That’s no different than the fact that most weightlifters aren’t skinny. The truth is that most olympic athletes – even those in track and field – have bodies that simply aren’t like the rest of us.
To get back to this year’s nationals, if we may –
Damn. Nine national titles.
It was a damn shame she effed up the timing at the end of the program, which I thought was wonderful. Like lavendarlemon, I’ve been following the sport for 20 years, so I remember the Torvill and Dean “Bolero” (which is one of the things that turned me from an occasional viewer to a rabid fan), and I thought this was a worthy resurrection of the music. I also thought the passing of the torch of Chris Dean choreographing it was way cool.
There was a period a few years ago when I was very much of the opionion that Michelle Kwan should retire from amateur skating – I’m glad she didn’t. This clearly is where her heart is, and she’s clearly still skating at a level that sets the bar for the younger skaters. She is an amazing athlete.
As are a couple of the young 'uns – Kimmie Meissner has real potential, I think – unlike a couple of other people who have shown up once or twice and nationals and even medaled, never to be heard from again. (Naomi Nari Nam – remember her?)
Haven’t watched the men’s yet – I taped it – but liked what I heard about the results – I like the guy who won.