Monday, March 08, 2010

Olympic afterglow

Now that the 2010 Vancouver Olympics have been over for a week, it's finally time to share my thoughts on the figure skating events.

Pairs
I was thrilled that Shen & Zhao won! Their short program was a masterpiece, and unfortunately suffered for being the first one to be performed, before the crowd had filled in. I was concerned that Pang & Tong would overtake them in the free after they (P&T) skated brilliantly, and Sandra Bezic's anguished "aaaghhggHHH" during Shen & Zhao's slip on an overhead lift certainly did nothing to allay my fears, but fortunately the error was not as severe as Bezic thought, and S&Z were able to hang on to the gold. Savchenko & Szolkowy also had a lovely performance for bronze. I was not impressed with either Zhang & Zhang or Kavaguti & Smirnov, and the emaciated-looking Yuko Kavaguti has surely overtaken Qing Pang for the "eat a cookie, please!" award. While the American pairs did not finish high, they skated fairly well; it was especially nice to see Evora & Ladwig so thrilled with their personal best scores.

Men
Despite his windmilly footwork and lack of quadruple jump, I think Evan Lysacek deserved the win. Plushenko's program was poorly constructed by comparison, his jumps, while clean, were often wonky in the air, and he didn't have the same flow as the other top men. I actually preferred Daisuke Takahashi's program to Plushy's, and I think a case could have been made for him to finish second. Lambiel and Chan are beautiful skaters, but were a little overmarked, IMO. Johnny Weir was wonderful aside from that one slip on a spin, and legitimately could have finished fourth or fifth. Jeremy Abbott redeemed himself somewhat from a rotten short and pulled up to finish in the top 10, but this was a disappointing Olympics for him.

Dance
A North American sweep of the ice dance medals would have been justified in my book. Both Virtue & Moir and Davis & White were wonderful, and either couple would have been a worthy champion. I dislike Belbin & Agosto's free dance, but it should still have beaten Domnina & Shabalin's for third place overall. It was nice to see Samuelson & Bates do well in their first Olympics.

Ladies
Yu-Na Kim withstood the immense pressure on her and delivered two flawless programs. I think the scoring was a little OTT, but no question she deserved to win both the short and free. I'm not so high on Mao Asada's skating; she's clearly very good, but something about her style of movement or something just doesn't appeal to me. That said, it was quite a feat for her to hit three triple axels over the course of the competition, and her silver medal was well-deserved. Joannie Rochette's brave performances just days after her mother's sudden death brought a lump to my throat, and while I thought maybe Mirai Nagasu could have edged her in the free, Rochette surely earned her bronze medal with her intricate and mature programs. Nagasu skated brilliantly and definitely made her mark here; this was like her "Michelle Kwan at 1995 Worlds" moment. Miki Ando is totally the Japanese Irina Slutskaya. Good for her for avoiding a repeat of her Torino implosion, I guess. Poor Rachael Flatt looked a bit deflated to see that she wasn't even in first place after she skated a clean and solid free skate; I'm not so sure Laura Lepisto, lovely as she is, should have beaten Flatt, but what do I know?

Overall it was an enjoyable two weeks of skating, with inspired performances by so many of the skaters, and largely free of judging controversy, yet still drama-filled. Bring on Worlds!