Perfection in Sochi: Carolina Kostner

I haven’t really blogged about the events so far at the Olympics, partly because I just want to enjoy them and partly because I’m at a loss at how to talk about the programs and performances without videos for you to watch. Videos of Olympic programs are hard to come by right now because of copyright issues but if I can find anything, I will do my best to make a highlights post.

Ever since the ladies team event has ended, I’ve been trying to find what I think was the highlight of the night: Carolina Kostner’s perfect SP. She finished 2nd in the short, but I think that the #1 lady right now, Julia Lipnitskaia was a tad overmarked on the PCS. Either way, this skate shows that Carolina has maturity, elegance, musicality and just pure magic that the young Lipnitskaia has yet to develop.

EDIT: So, as expected, the video got taken off. I’ll try to look for another one. If you have a video link, link me in the comments! New link found!

Enjoy~!

What did you think of the team events so far? Let me know in the comments!

~The Rinkside Cafe

Canadian and American Olympic Teams Announced!

In the weekend that just passed, Canada and the U.S. had their National figure skating championships and with that came two announcements that decided the fate of a lot of Olympic hopefuls. Videos of many of the performances at Nationals have yet to surface so I can’t quite post highlight videos or make many comments. Then again, let’s just cut to the chase.

Also, want to know how we decide how many skaters and which ones go to the Olympics? I have a Skating 101 post for that.

Canada’s Olympic figure skating team:

Men

Patrick Chan
Kevin Reynolds
Liam Firus

Ladies

Katelyn Osmond
Gabrielle Daleman

Pairs

Meaghan Duhamel & Eric Radford
Kirsten Moore-Towers & Dylan Moscovitch
Paige Lawrence & Rudi Swiegers

Ice Dance

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir
Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje
Alexandra Paul & Mitchell Islam

For more information as well as the source of this list, consult the official Skate Canada page here or the CBC article here.

The Americans had their figure skating championships in Boston last weekend but the Olympic team announcement contained a huge surprise for the ladies team. In my Skating 101 post, I mentioned that the U.S. tends to decide which skaters to send to the World Championships and the Olympics based solely on the results of their national competition. (If you’ve ever watched Johnny Weir’s reality show, you might remember how much emphasis was put on the National Championships – something we don’t hear or see in news reports of skaters from other countries.) According to many news reports, Grand Prix Final silver medalist Ashley Wagner did not perform her best and ended up with the pewter medal (4th place) at Nationals, behind Gracie Gold, Polina Edmunds and Mirai Nagasu who won gold, silver and bronze respectively. However, this is the…

U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Team:

Men

Jeremy Abbott
Jason Brown

Ladies

Gracie Gold
Polina Edmunds
Ashley Wagner

It seems that Mirai Nagasu was cut from the Olympic team probably because of Wagner’s success this season in the Grand Prix series. Nagasu was named first alternate.

Pairs

Marissa Castelli & Simon Shnapir
Felicia Zhang & Nathan Bartholomay

Ice Dance

Meryl Davis & Charlie White
Madison Chock & Evan BatesMaia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani

For more information, as well as a list of alternates, please consult the U.S. Figure Skating page.

What do you think of Canada and the U.S.’ figure skating teams? Was there a skater or a team that should have gone in lieu of another in your opinion? Let me know in the comments!

~The Rinkside Cafe

As well, I’m still looking for a reliable source for the Chinese and Russian Olympic figure skating teams. If anyone has any information, let me know! So far, I think I have a reliable list for the Chinese team but further verification would be greatly appreciated!

Two Olympic Champions: Two Comebacks?

So, the Olympic season is upon us and of note this season, two Olympic champions are coming back. Sort of. And the “sort of”s mean different things in the two situations.

Yuna Kim is the first Olympic champion is coming back to compete for a full season. Well, actually, a slightly less truncated season. It was announced recently that Yuna will be off the ice for 6 weeks due to a foot injury and as a result, will miss Skate Canada International. (Article here.) Sad, but with her result at Worlds this year, Yuna has shown us that she can come back and win it all without a shadow of a doubt. If Yuna can show the judges that she can skate two clean programs after her foot injury, I think she’ll have a good shot for gold. And yes, she will have to skate clean at the Olympics. Her jumps are fantastic, as always, but her extension still needs work and she really needs to push herself a little more in expressing the music. Her rivals will bring their all (or at least I hope they will) and I’m sure Yuna will want nothing but perfection in all her performances anyways.

I expect Carolina Kostner to be nipping at Yuna’s heels with her improved consistency, lovely flow and wonderful expressiveness – those who aren’t totally blinded by their fandom will have to admit, it was hard to keep your eyes off of Carolina last season. (Especially during her Bolero LP.) As for Mao, well… she’s been brave and she’s been trying and I hope to see her in tip-top shape. I’d love to have a season that harks back to the golden days of the Yuna/Mao rivalry (without the nasty racist comments) just for the sake of being able to watch purely beautiful skating. Rivalries are wonderful when they push two competitors to be at their best all the time.

Windmill Guy Seizures on ice Evan Lysacek

Evan Lysacek is supposed to be coming back this season but all in all, I highly doubt that Evan will either 1) be able to compete seriously and 2) be able to defend his title if he somehow makes it to the Olympics.

Exhibit A: Evan is only assigned to one Grand Prix event.

Grand Prix events are a season starter and a way to establish yourself in the game. Grand Prix wins may not lead to medals at Four Continents/Euros or Worlds but it helps the judges and fans figure out who the A and B and under-list skaters are. Many of those who come out on top during the GP series will be frontrunners at Worlds or in other events in future seasons. However, coming back and doing two GP events show that 1) you are serious about your comeback and 2) you think you can win with or without the home ice advantage that skaters like Lysacek get. Lysacek is assigned to Skate America and the roster is often compiled to give the home favourites an easy win so I’m guessing he may get on the podium at the very least at Skate America just to prove he still “has it” OR he’ll conveniently get an injury and not compete at all

Exhibit B: Lysacek won without the quad in Vancouver

Sorry, Windmill dude, but the quad is securely back in the men’s arsenal. As much as I resent Chan’s inflated scores and performances, I will give him credit for helping to put the quad back on the map in men’s programs. You can’t beat Chan without a quad nowadays and Chan is the one to beat. I will also admit the Chan is definitely the lesser of two evils between him and Lysacek because Chan can skate… without looking like a windmill. (For more information, check out Morozombie’s awesome post.) In any case, Lysacek faces tougher competition this season in Sochi than in Vancouver and he can’t sweep the rest of the competition away like Yuna can.

Wildcard: Lysacek’s legendary work ethic

Unlike some of Frank Carroll’s students, Lysacek does not suffer from a poor work ethic. Commendable, yes, but why Frank hasn’t made him work on not looking like a windmill skating to overused music is confusing to me. In any case, Lysacek can prove me totally wrong. Usually, I’d encourage skaters to do it but my dislike of his skating style makes me think that I may have to drink myself into oblivion if he wins another Olympic gold. And I don’t even drink. Often, that is.

What do you think of these two comebacks?

~The Rinkside Cafe

The Coveted Spoils for the Victors in Sochi

This is what our skaters will be competing for next year in February: the elusive Olympic medals.

The design:

The coveted gold Olympic medal:

The silver:

The bronze:

The Paralympic medals.

Despite the debacle that was the mascot selection for the Sochi Olympics (both the initial slate of candidates as well as the allegedly rigged voting process to vote for the winners), I must admit that these medals are absolutely gorgeous. The Vancouver Olympic medals had a more earthy feel to them which I find to suit the feel of Vancouver. These medals are elaborate and flashy though not in a tacky way, which is definitely not in line with Russian figure skating costumes. Oh well. That’s fine with me.

What do you think of the medals for Sochi?

~The Rinkside Cafe

Edit: The people at ontd_skating have provided a picture of previous Winter Olympics medals. I personally like all the ones after 2002 Salt Lake (aka Turin and Vancouver).

And just for fun, I’ll throw in this picture of the medal designs for the Summer Olympics. You can see that the Winter Olympic medals are a lot more interesting and varied.

Moment in History: HAPPY GOOSE DAY!

Don’t know what I’m talking about?

‘Nuff said.

~The Rinkside Cafe

(Credits for the name of this sort-of holiday to a member of the Tessa & Scott fangroup on facebook.)

Moment in History: HAPPY NEW YEAR~! (Part II of yesterday’s post)

So, today on the lunar calendar, Shen and Zhao set a new world record at the Olympics for their short program. (I did yesterday’s post a day too early.) The day after that last year, something even more magical happened:

Mother Russia’s reign over the pairs discipline was completely shattered – they weren’t even on the podium – and China came out on top with the gold and silver medal. I remember that night as if it were yesterday…

The evening was full of splatfests: on the fashion front and on the skating front.

Shen and Zhao had never skated their long program clean and they unfortunately couldn’t skate it clean at the Olympics. It was still a valiant effort and their scores from the SP held them up for gold. (Please ignore the lady commentating, it’s true that they made mistakes but the lady commentator was just being a bitch.)

Shen and Zhao’s LP

However, if it makes you feel better, no team skated clean that night except for Pang and Tong. It was such a refreshing thing to watch:

Pang and Tong’s Olympic LP

And of course, the one who is probably proudest of this moment was this man:

I don’t think anyone is laughing at him now.

Just a correction, I messed up the dates for the lunar new year. So this day last year on the lunar calendar would be the pairs SP while the pairs’ LP would have been tomorrow. >_< I did everything a day early. Oh well.

Happy New Year~!

~The Rinkside Cafe

Moment in History: This Day Last Year… sort of (Part I)

***Correction: I wrote this post a day too early so pretend it was published the next day.

So last year, on this day on the lunar calendar, something super special happened. You don’t remember? Well, first of all, it was the first day of the year of the Tiger.

The special thing happened in Canada. And on the Gregorian calendar, it was Singles Awareness Day Valentine’s Day.

Still don’t remember what happened?

Moment in History: The Definitive Carmen

I’ve been reading a book on George Bizet’s “Carmen” and it’s been interesting so far. Spain is currently considered to be part of Europe so we forget that it was once considered to be part of the “exotic Orient” and that Bizet’s opera(s) was/were a product of the prevalent Orientalist attitudes of his time. All of that interesting scholarly analysis aside, I wonder if Bizet ever knew that his opera would end up as the most overused piece of figure skating music of all time. Almost everyone who skates has skated to “Carmen” at some point in their career. It’s classical but everyone knows it, so it’s a way to get the crowd while showing that you can skate to a classical piece.

In any case, of all the Carmens out there, it seems to be general consensus that Katarina Witt skated the definitive “Carmen” in her short (thanks Ay-sa) long program – complete with her dying on the ice – for the 1988 season, where she won Olympic gold against her main competitor, Debi Thomas, who also skated to Carmen in the battle of the Carmens.

Here is Debi Thomas’ Carmen if anyone was wondering:

I also just wanted to post this because it’s so rare. Sasha Cohen skating a long program to Carmen… but she doesn’t fall! There were 2-footed jumps, unsteady landings and a hand down but *gasp* no falling!?

Another interesting tidbit – Carmen on Ice starring Katarina Witt (Carmen), Brian Boitano (Don Jose), Brian Orser (Escamillo):

(Prelude + Parle-Moi de Ma Mere)

Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
Part X

All in all though, this woman is THE definitive Carmen.

And that, is today’s moment in history.

Enjoy~!

~The Rinkside Cafe

The Highlights of 2010

2010 has been a great year for figure skating. The Vancouver Olympics were absolutely amazing and it’s sad that the year is about to end. Let’s hope that 2011 will be just as amazing. For now, let’s stroll through memory lane and think of a few good times in 2010.

(More under the cut since this is a bit of a long post…)

Happy Chanukah!

Let’s celebrate Chanukah with our favourite Jewish princess. Malaguena is still my favourite program from Sasha Cohen but I thought we’d change it up a bit.

Enjoy~!

~The Rinkside Cafe