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hermionesviolinThe first one I saw tonight was the woman from Turkey. I remember ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sk8eeyore being excited by her very existence -- first Olympic skater from Turkey.
I remembered Dick talking in a previous night about the skaters who hesitate before their jumps, coming from setup rather than from footwork as Scott(?) phrased it later in the night about someone else, and that seemed to be how she was doing her jumps.
Italian skater: "I finally enjoyed my audience, instead of being worried about disappointing them."
Finland: Kira Korpi - age 17, also a model
very much at ease
10% bonus for stuff in the second half? Nice. given how tired they must get and all.
Russian: Yelena Sokolova
- I know she's not a super strong skater, but I just really really like her. I want to take her home and cuddle her.
- Okay, the flesh-toned section on her costume is a little bit skanky/distracting, but the starburst and the black pants? I'm a big fan. (Sidenote: A couple LJ commenters mentioned that they thought they'd seen women in outfits with pants at previous Olympics. I wonder if they were more like full leotard outfits like this, rather than the obvious pants [witness the flared ankles, for example] of Irina's outfit last night)
- announcer: in this new system, the placement of jumps in your program is so important (because of the bonus) and she did her triple something ten seconds before the bonus kicks in
- from announcer: in new system: required 7 jump passes, spirals footwork . . . little time for creative expression (though the best skaters managed to fit it in anyway)
- Dick: "I'm sorry to sound so negative, but that's the way I saw it." (I wonder if someone called him aside a couple days ago to point out his negativity/criticalness. However, later he was saying how he was disappointed in someone's performance, and I was thinking that it feels so much better when it's phrased like that, like he's doing it out of love that he genuinely wants them to do well.)
China: Liu Yan
- announcer: to showcase jumps takes experience
- lyrical but not inspiring
Finland: Susanna (student of textile design)
- skating to Romeo and Juliet
- announcer: she knows she's not going to medal, but going into a 4 year period, you want to establish yourself
- Dick: the whole souffle un-soufle
Japan: Miki Ando (age 18)
- if she landed it, it would be the first quadruple ever landed at the Olympics. of course she doesn't land it, but I can understand her going for it, though if she hasn't landed it in a couple of years . . . (announcer: you can't pull a rabbit out of a hat at the Olympics. announcer: more like pulling a rhinoceros out of a hat. me: hey now.)
- she fell, recovered, and then kept falling
USA: Emily Hughes
- announcer: her program is so intelligently built
- Dick: (paraphrased) beautiful split. you don't see those very often anymore because you don't get any points for them.
- I'd been expecting her to fall, but that was still unfortunate. but she kept smiling throughout the whole program, including the end.
- announcer: skates like gliding; they don't like stopping
Switzerland: Sarah Meiser
- her costume had the one sleeve thing plus the faux-cleavage, but the red top and the black bottom and the spirals of sparkle . . . yeah, hot [though her face I wouldn't be particularly drawn to if I saw her out of context]
Canada: Joannie Rochette (age 20)
- pink outfit; I wasn't a huge fan
- the story of the song she skated to was one her mom found solace in after her fiancee died? I totally got teary. I was on the verge of sobbing when they did the Irina profile.
- smiled and calm
Italy: Carolina Kostner (age 19)
earth toned costume with sparkles
really lovely snowflake hairpiece
her costumes will be auctioned off to raise money for a hospital in Denmark
commentary consensus is that she's very speedy but needs to learn to harness that
Georgia: Elene (age 16)
- I wasn't a huge fan of the yellow stripes on the black costume. She has a very pretty face. She's another one I'd love to cuddle, but I would totally be interested in doing more than that with her.
- I liked her music a lot.
USA: Sasha Cohen
- red outfit with gold trim and front
- female announcer: different eyes than she had before the short program. male announcer: there's doubt.
- after her first fall I thought, "she's done," in so much as she wasn't going to get the gold medal, but after her second fall, when the female announcer said it was a fight just to get on the podium now, I thought, "ifsk8eeyore were watching this, she would be so happy, and feel so guilty about it."
- Dick: "i'll take those two mistakes for that exquisite choreography."
- female announcer: "Everyone else skates to Romeo & Juliet; she is Juliet."
- scores: 55.22 + 62.41; that second score so much higher than the first one
Japan: Shizuka Arakawa
- She always looks so sad whenever I see her. I just can't get into her. The announcers kept calling her calm, which is so true, but when the camera was on her after Irina skated she seemed so detached, it was just too much for me.
- I like her half&half light/dark blue costume
- Dick: easy elegance, strength underneath, this is a lady skating
- 62.32 + 63.00
Japan: Fumie
- male announcer said she looked "uncertain, concerned" after her program, and I feel like that's always how she's looked to me; I can't get into her either
- nice multi-toned purple outfit
USA: Kimmie
- 5th after the short program. announcer: she believes it's possible (to end up on the podium). me: which is crucial.
- step out on early jump
- score: 52.77 + 53.54
- 5th place
Russia: Irina (age 27 -- would be oldest to win a gold medal; plus the Russians would sweep the skating)
- she got a silver in Utah and thought she deserved gold. am now trying to remember who did get gold at Salt Lake. (I didn't watch any of it; first year of college and all)
- nice music
- I was expecting her to fall, especially after Dick's "oh" (which was about some jump/landing but I couldn't quite discern what the mistake was) but it was still sad, 'cause she'd lost the gold. she wasn't skating as well as she had last night, so she legitimately didn't deserve the gold but still, she had been my personal root
- 3rd? by like 2 points. that surprised me.
First Japanese gold medal, plus the first Japanese medal of these Olympics. I can't bring myself to be excited, but given my general noninvolvement in Skating/Olympics for so many years now this isn't a huge surprise.
gala skate with the medal winners tomorrow night, which should be enjoyable to watch. and then I can return to getting enough sleep (or at least doing something else with my late nights).
sk8eeyore being excited by her very existence -- first Olympic skater from Turkey.I remembered Dick talking in a previous night about the skaters who hesitate before their jumps, coming from setup rather than from footwork as Scott(?) phrased it later in the night about someone else, and that seemed to be how she was doing her jumps.
Italian skater: "I finally enjoyed my audience, instead of being worried about disappointing them."
Finland: Kira Korpi - age 17, also a model
very much at ease
10% bonus for stuff in the second half? Nice. given how tired they must get and all.
Russian: Yelena Sokolova
- I know she's not a super strong skater, but I just really really like her. I want to take her home and cuddle her.
- Okay, the flesh-toned section on her costume is a little bit skanky/distracting, but the starburst and the black pants? I'm a big fan. (Sidenote: A couple LJ commenters mentioned that they thought they'd seen women in outfits with pants at previous Olympics. I wonder if they were more like full leotard outfits like this, rather than the obvious pants [witness the flared ankles, for example] of Irina's outfit last night)
- announcer: in this new system, the placement of jumps in your program is so important (because of the bonus) and she did her triple something ten seconds before the bonus kicks in
- from announcer: in new system: required 7 jump passes, spirals footwork . . . little time for creative expression (though the best skaters managed to fit it in anyway)
- Dick: "I'm sorry to sound so negative, but that's the way I saw it." (I wonder if someone called him aside a couple days ago to point out his negativity/criticalness. However, later he was saying how he was disappointed in someone's performance, and I was thinking that it feels so much better when it's phrased like that, like he's doing it out of love that he genuinely wants them to do well.)
China: Liu Yan
- announcer: to showcase jumps takes experience
- lyrical but not inspiring
Finland: Susanna (student of textile design)
- skating to Romeo and Juliet
- announcer: she knows she's not going to medal, but going into a 4 year period, you want to establish yourself
- Dick: the whole souffle un-soufle
Japan: Miki Ando (age 18)
- if she landed it, it would be the first quadruple ever landed at the Olympics. of course she doesn't land it, but I can understand her going for it, though if she hasn't landed it in a couple of years . . . (announcer: you can't pull a rabbit out of a hat at the Olympics. announcer: more like pulling a rhinoceros out of a hat. me: hey now.)
- she fell, recovered, and then kept falling
USA: Emily Hughes
- announcer: her program is so intelligently built
- Dick: (paraphrased) beautiful split. you don't see those very often anymore because you don't get any points for them.
- I'd been expecting her to fall, but that was still unfortunate. but she kept smiling throughout the whole program, including the end.
- announcer: skates like gliding; they don't like stopping
Switzerland: Sarah Meiser
- her costume had the one sleeve thing plus the faux-cleavage, but the red top and the black bottom and the spirals of sparkle . . . yeah, hot [though her face I wouldn't be particularly drawn to if I saw her out of context]
Canada: Joannie Rochette (age 20)
- pink outfit; I wasn't a huge fan
- the story of the song she skated to was one her mom found solace in after her fiancee died? I totally got teary. I was on the verge of sobbing when they did the Irina profile.
- smiled and calm
Italy: Carolina Kostner (age 19)
earth toned costume with sparkles
really lovely snowflake hairpiece
her costumes will be auctioned off to raise money for a hospital in Denmark
commentary consensus is that she's very speedy but needs to learn to harness that
Georgia: Elene (age 16)
- I wasn't a huge fan of the yellow stripes on the black costume. She has a very pretty face. She's another one I'd love to cuddle, but I would totally be interested in doing more than that with her.
- I liked her music a lot.
USA: Sasha Cohen
- red outfit with gold trim and front
- female announcer: different eyes than she had before the short program. male announcer: there's doubt.
- after her first fall I thought, "she's done," in so much as she wasn't going to get the gold medal, but after her second fall, when the female announcer said it was a fight just to get on the podium now, I thought, "if
sk8eeyore were watching this, she would be so happy, and feel so guilty about it."- Dick: "i'll take those two mistakes for that exquisite choreography."
- female announcer: "Everyone else skates to Romeo & Juliet; she is Juliet."
- scores: 55.22 + 62.41; that second score so much higher than the first one
Japan: Shizuka Arakawa
- She always looks so sad whenever I see her. I just can't get into her. The announcers kept calling her calm, which is so true, but when the camera was on her after Irina skated she seemed so detached, it was just too much for me.
- I like her half&half light/dark blue costume
- Dick: easy elegance, strength underneath, this is a lady skating
- 62.32 + 63.00
Japan: Fumie
- male announcer said she looked "uncertain, concerned" after her program, and I feel like that's always how she's looked to me; I can't get into her either
- nice multi-toned purple outfit
USA: Kimmie
- 5th after the short program. announcer: she believes it's possible (to end up on the podium). me: which is crucial.
- step out on early jump
- score: 52.77 + 53.54
- 5th place
Russia: Irina (age 27 -- would be oldest to win a gold medal; plus the Russians would sweep the skating)
- she got a silver in Utah and thought she deserved gold. am now trying to remember who did get gold at Salt Lake. (I didn't watch any of it; first year of college and all)
- nice music
- I was expecting her to fall, especially after Dick's "oh" (which was about some jump/landing but I couldn't quite discern what the mistake was) but it was still sad, 'cause she'd lost the gold. she wasn't skating as well as she had last night, so she legitimately didn't deserve the gold but still, she had been my personal root
- 3rd? by like 2 points. that surprised me.
First Japanese gold medal, plus the first Japanese medal of these Olympics. I can't bring myself to be excited, but given my general noninvolvement in Skating/Olympics for so many years now this isn't a huge surprise.
gala skate with the medal winners tomorrow night, which should be enjoyable to watch. and then I can return to getting enough sleep (or at least doing something else with my late nights).
no subject
Date: 2006-02-24 06:15 am (UTC)I felt badly for Irina. I didn't want her to win the gold, but... She really wanted it. *sigh*
You may be right about the pants thing I'm remembering. It was probably just colored tights.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-24 11:18 am (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-24 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-24 03:17 pm (UTC)I was thinking that it feels so much better when it's phrased like that, like he's doing it out of love that he genuinely wants them to do well I really think he is. He comes across so harshly sometimes, but when it comes down to it there's no one in the world who knows, loves, and respects this sport and its people more, and he really wants to see the best from each skater. I agreed with his assessment...Elena was second in the world at '03 Worlds, and that's just kind of hard to believe now...subpar skating in many aspects.
I was on the verge of sobbing when they did the Irina profile. Awww... :) Funny how these things get to you when you're so much less invested than I am. I didn't shed a tear this whole Olympics, and I had BIG reasons to... I think the closest I came was during the end of Silvia Fontana's skate, and during Tugba's profile...
She's another one I'd love to cuddle, but I would totally be interested in doing more than that with her. Really? I thought there was definite hotness potential, but she still seemed rather little girlish to me.
I thought, "if sk8eeyore were watching this, she would be so happy, and feel so guilty about it." Haha, you know me :) Actually I celebrated when I read online that she had fallen, but on TV she had such a terrified look as she took the ice that I kind of felt for her.
She always looks so sad whenever I see her. I just can't get into her. The announcers kept calling her calm, which is so true, but when the camera was on her after Irina skated she seemed so detached, it was just too much for me. She does have a very reserved style that doesn't really invite the viewer into the performance. I didn't read her as sad or detached though. Same with Fumie-- male announcer said she looked "uncertain, concerned" after her program, and I feel like that's always how she's looked to me -- I thought she just looked emotional after the performance, and it really annoyed me that the announcer read concern/whatever into her expression. I'm wondering if this is in part a cultural thing. I think maybe the Japanese skaters just aren't as in-your-face emotive as we're used to seeing from others, and so their expression is harder for us to interpret.
am now trying to rememeber who did get gold at Salt Lake. (I didn't watch any of it; first year of college and all) Boy, you really *must've* been in your own world :)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-24 03:43 pm (UTC)Point taken re: little girlish-ness. Basically I have no shame. I'm like, "She's post-pubescent, right?"
I've been reading your LJ so I have a pretty good bead on your major opinions this round.
Front page of the Boston Globe's Torino section above the fold is almost entirely a picture of one of Sasha's falls. That felt a bit over-the-top to me. I wish they had used a picture of Shizuka rejoicing instead. I was glad/impressed that Sasha continued to skate so solidly even after her falls, though. And she seems like she's been pretty professional about the loss (witness this article (http://www.nbcolympics.com/figureskating/5130164/detail.html)) which is good.
Possibly a cultural thing with the Japanese re: emotions visible/readable to us.
Boy, you really *must've* been in your own world :)
Hey, like I said, college. I carved out time to watch Joss's shows and that was it. I hadn't been watching skating regularly during high school anyhow 'cause I had homework etc. plus Joss. I've always enjoyed watching figure skating, but I've never been fannish about it. And none of my friends were particularly into it, so I didn't hear about it (we hadn't friended yet).