Olympics: women's figure skating, long program

[hermionesviolin]

The first one I saw tonight was the woman from Turkey.  I remember 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).

Comments

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Shizuka was very...well, Japanese. :-P I liked her. I thought Sasha was the best artistically, but Shizuka had the cleanest performance.

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.