****SPOILER**** Figure skating free skate

[flamingyouth]

Sasha Cohen fell twice. :(

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_fig_cohen_falls_tr2;_ylt=Aj4zSlKSFZdee2kGXNHcZFYLMxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

[LynneSin]

1. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry, she's a Bush suck-up.

Hope she had fun cleaning up the ice with her ass!

[flamingyouth]

2. I didn't know she was a Bush suck up

I was hoping the US would get a medal, but it doesn't look like it now.

[LynneSin]

3. Hey, don't count out Kimmie Messner yet

She's got some difficult jumps in her arsenal. I'm not anti-us, just not into these Bush suck-ups!

[flamingyouth]

4. That's true - and she was awesome on Tuesday!

I was really pulling for her!! If she doesn't medal in this Olympics, you know she'll be back in 2010. In fact, I hope to make the trip up to Vancouver to see it in person!

LOL - I know you're not anti-us :rofl: - it's hard to keep track of who's sucking up to Bush these days. :D

[LynneSin]

5. Here's the scoop on Cohen

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/2002/02/022602_Cohen_Beef.html

Later that same day, Bush traveled to Utah and participated in the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. After appearing in the national anthem ceremony, Bush showed up sitting in the stands amongst the US athletes. NBC showed him humbly perched next to a shocked and giggly young lady who handed Bush her cell phone so he could say hi to her mommy. The young girl was figure skater Sasha Cohen. A few nights later, NBC interviewed Sasha and played up the Presidential encounter including a quick interview with the mother. Sasha gushed about her fondness for the President. While endearing, NBC's somewhat over the top coverage of the entire event and Sasha's almost too glowing endorsement of the President prompted the eternal political cynic in me to do a little digging.

I appreciate that these atheletes will get the old "Meet & Greet" with Bush when they Olympics come around and one would expect them to be polite. BUt then to go on and gush about him is a little too much.

Kimmie trains here in Newark Delaware along with Johnny Wier who is anything but a Bush suck-up. Let's hope he's given Kimmie the lowdown on the Bush Regime.

Go Kimmie!!

[flamingyouth]

7. EEEEUUUUUUUUUWWWWWWWWW!

Well, that's it, I'm glad she fell on her GOP-lovin' ass.

And hell yeah, go Kimmie!!! :woohoo:

I loved Johnny - I was really pulling for him. He was awesome, I thought.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

8. Lynne, Kimmie fell on her opening jump and is presently in 5th place.

She'll end up in sixth place with Emily Hughes in 7th. Not bad for the two young'uns. Slute is skating as I write this.

[flamingyouth]

10. Oh no!

Well, she did a great job, and I know she'll be back in 2010.

[LynneSin]

12. I saw she was in 5th - I hope she tries again in Vancouver

and I hope that Sasha Cohen has to drop out because of a medical issue. I thought she seemed kinda snarky about the whole Kwan thing. Michelle brought class to figure skating whereas the Sasha Cohens just dumb us down

[flamingyouth]

20. Sasha will be 25 then, just like Michelle

And Sasha already has hip problems. She won't be skating in Vancouver. It's highly doubtful.

Michelle brought class to figure skating whereas the Sasha Cohens just dumb us down

God, ain't that the truth! :applause:

[liberalpragmatist]

31. I think LynneSin's saying Meisner and Hughes should skate at Vancouver

I'm hardly a skating enthusiast, although I do enjoy watching figure skating at the Olympics. So somebody more in-tuned with figure skating - you, perhaps? :) - should fill me in.

Obviously, in 4 years there will be some new up-and-comers, but do you think Emily Hughes and Kimmie Meisner will be medal-contenders in 2010?

[flamingyouth]

33. Yeah, I was concurring that Sasha won't be back in 2010

Sasha dissed Michelle Kwan for being "too old" to be on the team this year, and she'll be the same age in 2010, so hopefully this will be her last Olympics.

I definitely think both Emily Hughes and Kimmie Meissner have bright futures. I'm hardly a skating expert and I haven't seen their free skates yet, but they were both great on Tuesday. :)

[LostinVA]

50. Agreed! Michelle Kwan is grace and class personified!

[liberalpragmatist]

Well, she WAS sixteen

Hell, half of my liberal friends (I'm 20) were Bush-lovers 4 years ago. She could've seen the light.

[IA_Seth]

45. Agreed, too much harshin on that girl...

When I was 16, in 1994, I was a Clinton supporter, but only because he seemed "cool".

A LOT of young people, especially youngsters devoted to anything as much as an Olympic skater must be, has plenty of things on their minds other than partisan politics.

It was probably just cool to meet the Pres.

[LostinVA]

52. She's also considered a bad sport

[KFC]

65. You said it

Shit, I thought U2 was cool when I was 16.

[ronnykmarshall]

15. Ha-HA!

Stuck up little spastic!

[LostinVA]

48. HAHAHHA HAHAHaHAHA HAHAHA

[RevolutionaryActs]

73. I hated her and I didn't even know she was Bushie!

Oooh this makes it all the better. :7

[Catchawave]

6. Glad there's a thread now !

I really don't care to suffer through the NBC coverage/commercials tonight. Good luck to all the skaters, and truly, may the best lady win :)

[flamingyouth]

9. I didn't know Irina Slutskaya was 27 and was chronically ill

Watching that story about her the other night was amazing. It would be cool to see her win the gold, I think.

And yeah, I don't think I can stand to wait nine godawful hours to find out who wins either.

[LynneSin]

13. I'm glad she won

People kept bitching that Michelle Kwan was too old at 25.

:grr:

[liberalpragmatist]

27. Too bad she got a bronze

Although I guess if she fell; I mean, from what it sounds like, Arakawa simply outskated everybody.

But given her backstory, it would have been great for her to go home with a gold.

But I guess there's no shame in having an Olympic Silver and a Bronze - just ask Kwan and Nancy Kerrigan.

[liberalpragmatist]

11. Well, it looks like Cohen will medal

But she'll probably wind up with a bronze, unless Slutskaya comes in 3rd and Arakawa wins gold.

[flamingyouth]

16. Arakawa wins gold

Cohen silver
Slutskaya bronze

[liberalpragmatist]

17. That's too bad

Obviously I haven't seen the program, but I was really hoping Slutskaya would win gold.

Congrats to Arakawa though. The Japanese must be thrilled - they haven't medaled at all in these games.

[LynneSin]

19. Me too!!

Actually I was really just hoping that Cohen would go home empty handed

[Catchawave]

24. Meow...me too !

I was rooting for Emily to pull a Sarah !

[AtomicKitten]

28. me too, that would have frosted Kwan

[LostinVA]

56. Kwan? She wasn't even there -- and Kwan is a great sport

[AtomicKitten]

59. I realize she wasn't there, but Emily replaced her.

[LynneSin]

41. I was rooting for Kimmie to pull a Sarah

although I would have not been upset if Emily had pulled it.

[July]

61. Me, too. I thought she was great in her short program.

Both graceful and athletic, the way they should be (IMO).

[Liberalynn]

64. I wanted either Emily

or Kimmie to pull a Sarah too. I don't think I will watch now.

On Michelle Kwan never winning Olympic Gold-ALL JMHO and no offense meant to Michelle and those who support her!


I agree Michelle was always very graceful and elegant to watch, and she has great dignity in the way she carries herself, but I admit I was kind of happy when Sarah won the gold instead, in the last Olympics over Michelle.

It was just such a Cinderella moment and Sarah just glowed such enthusiasm in both her free skate and short program , that it burst through the screen. You could just see and feel how much she loved and enjoyed skating. Even if that is not an accurate assesment of her mind set at the time, then at least she gave an Oscar worthy acting job of convincing me as an audience member that it was.

I never ever got that same sense that Michelle loved or even particularly enjoyed what she was doing. I definitely believe she was intensely devoted to the discipline of skating and wanted to be the best at it, but I just personally never felt that she allowed herself to ever relax and simply revel in the pure joy of skating. I think she never seemed to quite grasp the concept that skating is not just a solo artistic creation, or a sporting discipline done only for a panel of judges, but rightly or wrongly depending on your opinion, an entertainment medium as well. I never felt entertained by Michelle, but quite honestly and sorry for the Simon like assesment here, quite simply bored to tears.

She IMHO never seemed to remember there was even an audience other than the judges there. It's not just that she rarely smiled, it was like she never even looked at the audiences, or acknowledged their prescence in any way. It was more like she looked through them and never really at them. I think and again JMHO that is the sole reason why she never had even a prayer of being an Olympic champion. If you don't capture the souls or the imaginations of the crowd, and take them along with you on your ride to your dream, or like Dorothy Hamil did "Over The Rainbow" you are never going to snag that Gold, no matter what the experts predict, or how technically perfect, or graceful you may be.

JMHO and I shouldn't be second guessing Michelle's feelings, which I have no way of actually knowing, I'm just stating that it's why, I could never quite share in her dream for the gold like I did Sarah or Kristy's, or Dorothy's, or Peggy's. Heck I was singing "Over the Rainbow" for months after Hamil won.

[liberalpragmatist]

78. You had to root for Sarah Hughes in the last Olympics

The way she came out of nowhere was so spectacular. It was unfortunate to see Kwan fall and underperform, but Hughes' gold really was deserved.

I've never watched a national or world championship, but I do know that Michelle Kwan's fans will say that she never skated anywhere near her best during the Olympics. The Olympics, however, are the only times I really ever saw her.

I did rewatch the '98 performances recently online and she did pretty well then. Her short program in '98 was beautiful; her long program was well-done but kind of boring like you said. Tara Lipinski did skate the long program really well and seemed to have a lot more energy that Michelle. That said, Michelle clearly wound up being the better skater; Lipinski flamed out, got injured and is now just another washed-up former athlete living off the memories of her Olympics win. I respect Kwan for getting a college education, for continuing to perform well for so long, and being very level-headed. Hughes, likewise, is very grounded and very smart; I'm sure she'll be very successful in whatever she does in the future.

I did read in one interview that Sarah Hughes said she would consider making a comeback in 2010, as she'll only be 24. There apparently were also some rumors that she would consider skating for Canada, as she is a dual-citizen (she was asked about it in the interview and said "no" but admitted she thought about it). She wants to finish college first, though. Personally, I kind of doubt she will, especially if her sister Emily does well enough to became a top contender.

[WolverineDG]

84. You hit the nail on the head

This is why Oksana won & not Nancy. I first thought Nancy was robbed, but when I saw the 2 skate a few months later, I understood why the gold was given to Oksana. She had that "something extra" that Nancy was lacking.

dg

[LostinVA]

53. Me too, Lynne. I'm actually a bit bummed by that, but HAHAHAHHA

[LisaL]

66. I was hoping Irina would win too.

It's simply amazing to come back after such a serious illness as she had.
But it was not to be. None of them really skated well, though. Even Shizuka didn't do all her planned elements.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

18. Final results:

Shizuka Arakawa Japan Gold
Sasha Cohen USA Silver
Irina Slutskaya, Russia Bronze.

Thank you skategods, this is wonderful!! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[ronnykmarshall]

23. Very cool .... almost

I'm really thrilled for Arakawa and for Japan.

I was rooting for Slutskaya to win .... I just wish that Cohen wouldn't have won shit.

Snotty ass little Bush loving skuzzball.

[flamingyouth]

25. Wow, Sasha's popular!

I can just feel the love! :rofl:

[begin_within]

77. The final results are very appropriate IMO. Based on how they skated.

[Catchawave]

14. live coverage here....

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/olympics/2006/02/23/free.skatechart/index.html?cnn=yes

[GalleryGod]

21. Nice silver, Sasha ! See you in..'Capades.

[jakefrep]

26. Will she be the one in the Snoopy costume? nt

[GregW]

35. Her 'wings' are showing

:puke:

[nini]

22. I hate that bitch

she's a snot, a bush brat (see above) and a total bitch.


She's tried to make Kwan fall in warmups more than once at previous events and I simply cannot tolerate her entitlement attitude. hissssssssssssssssssssssss


I wanted Slutskaya to win, but oh well.

[LostinVA]

54. Sasha is a real Repub -- can only beat the better opponent if she cheats

[WolverineDG]

85. She also

accidentally on purpose almost collided with Arakawa during the warm-up too. I don't mind a competitor's political leanings (much) but I do get pissed off at bad sportsmanship.

While Arakawa didn't skate all her elements, after Cohen fell twice, she knew all she had to do was skate clean & she'd beat Cohen.

dg

[arwalden]

29. Isn't She A BushBot?

[ronnykmarshall]

30. Yup ....

and she fell on her Bush loving ass!

[arwalden]

32. Good! I'd Prefer NO Medal For Her.

It's good for the USA to learn a little humility... be it in sports... or global politics... or global military actions.

[MsUSA]

34. Number of falls, = medal placement, 1 fall = gold, 2 falls =

silver, etc.....and it sure seems like there are more falls in figure skating then there used to be.....yikes.

[flamingyouth]

36. OK, I'm glad you said that

I thought that was just me. When I heard that Cohen fell twice, I immediately thought, "Well, she's out of medal contention." Then next thing I hear, she's won the silver. :D

[nini]

37. It's because they're all expected to do all kinds of wild jumps etc

I wish they would stick to the art of this more. Jumps etc.. are necessary to show skill but do we really need to have quads? The quest for the quad jumps etc.. is ruining the sport as the falls are more common and break up the whole routine.


Give me Michelle Kwan's artistic style and grace over the wild jumping any day.

[LynneSin]

39. I have to agree with you on that one

That guy that won the gold for men's figure skating - he was all these big jumps but nothing in between those jumps. And with the new scoring system I guess you're rewarded for trying all these jumps.

I wish they'd take a little bit of emphasis off of the jumping and put it into the artisticness of the performance. Personally I thought that guy from Canada skated a better performance than the russian

[July]

62. I was asking about this the other day.

As I understood the commentary, if a skater completes the revolutions on a quad and then FALLS ON HIS ASS, he still gets the points for a quad.

How does this square with the entire history of the sport, which has always emphasized grace as well as athleticism?

Does this mean that a guy who does a beautiful program, landing triples, will lose to a guy with a less graceful program in which he does the revolutions of the quad and then FALLS ON HIS ASS?

I can't make sense of it.

[flamingyouth]

63. And they just get one point deducted for the fall, it seems.

I don't get this new scoring system.

I think we will see a lot more crashing and falling in the future, much like at this Olympics. It's rather unfortunate.

[LisaL]

68. They should definitely deduct more for falls, IMO.

Fall really does ruin a program. I don't think skater should get quite as much credit for a fall as they do now.

[colinmom71]

70. Not necessarily....

A quad attempt does get the base value for the jump if fully rotated before the fall, but the judges must take off points (usually 3) for a negative Grade of Execution on that jump. A fall on a quad can result in a lower score than a clean triple with a positive GOE. Plus, the skater's overall score also receives a mandatory 1 point deduction for having a fall on an element.

The overall score still depends on how well the skater performs other elements, like spins and footwork, and on what level of difficulty those elements are awarded. Having even a clean quad jump in a performance isn't going to be very helpful if the skater is performing only level 1 and 2 elements for the rest of the program against a skater with clean triples and higher valued level 3 and 4 elements...

[LynneSin]

71. No, they get the points for a triple AND bonus for trying a quad

I kinda got it this way

Say a triple is 5 points
But a quad in the same jump is 10 points

If you try the quad, get most of the rotations but fall on your ass then you'd get credit for a triple and a bonus - so you'd end up with a 7.5 (mind you, I'm not exact on any numbers.)

So, if someone skates an artistic program that is clean and filled with jumps but no big risk, that skater would be rewarded less than someone who tries all the big jumps and falls on their ass alot.

[colinmom71]

72. No, it would work more like this....

Take two skaters, A and B. A plans a quad toe loop in his program, hoping to earn a larger point value by doing so. B sticks to his more reliable and good quality triple toe loop, hoping to earn extra points over the jump's base value with a positive Grade of Execution (GOE).

Under the Code of Points system, the triple toe loop is worth 4.5 points as a base value, while the quad toe loop is worth 8.0 base points.

If A falls on his quad attempt and does not manage to get the full 4 rotations before falling, the jump will be downgraded to a triple, and a poor quality one at that. This would reduce his points earned for the quad attempt to 4.5 for the triple jump minus either 2 or 3 points for a negative GOE, giving him only a possible 2.5 - 1.5 points for the jump. Then, the overall skating score for the entire program also receives an additional 1 point deduction for a fall. Essentially, he's looking at only earning a total of 1.5 - 0.5 points for that failed jump...

B however skates with a clean, very good quality triple toe loop. He earns the base value of 4.5, plus 1 - 3 extra points for a positive GOE depending on how good the jump's height, ice coverage, and air position are. We'll say here that B's very good quality triple earns an average of +2 GOE points added to the base value. For his effort, B has earned 6.5 points - 5 points over A's failed quad attempt.

This is why we've actually been seeing *fewer* quad attempts these last few years. While the potential is there to earn big points, there is even more potential that the skater will fall or be short on rotation and wind up having the jump downgraded to a poor quality triple. It's simply safer to go with the triple jump and hope it's good enough for extra GOE points.

[LisaL]

67. Oh get a clue. That guy who won gold also won silver

in the previous Olympics under an old system. If he was so awful artistically, how do you think that happened? It's not like he couldn't win nothing under the old system, is it?

[Hardrada]

38. I don't remember Olympic figure skaters ever falling.

At least not when I watched in the days before cell phones and PC's.

[CBHagman]

75. Maybe you aren't as old as I am!

I remember coming home from work or something and hearing my family announce, "Everybody fell!" regarding a skating program in the Olympics.

And I recall Janet Lynn, who I believe was the silver medalist at Sapporo (brain could be playing tricks here) did indeed fall during one of her Olympic programs. The fact that she got up and still kept smiling apparently won her a lot of fans.

By the way, if there's any more sniping on this thread, I'll think you're all using Dick Button as a role model. Whatever you do, don't be a Dick.

[LostinVA]

55. That's because of the new scoring

Brain Boitano says he thinks it's WORSE than the old system, because there's zero accountability, and it's forcing skaters to do stuff they really shouldn't do.

[LisaL]

69. I hated the old system.

The old system had no accountability. At least with new system, the judges have only a set number of points to award or not.

[Puglover]

40. I LOVE this thread...

I thought I was the only person in the world who could'nt stand little Shitsa...I was hoping all day that the little brat would wipe out. That "phone call" vignette made me :puke:

[CatholicEdHead]

42. Here are the complete results from the CBC

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/results/figureskating/individual_women.shtml

[ronnykmarshall]

43. Picture of the medal winners w/ my smart assed comments.

What they are really thinking:

Cohen: If she waves that god-damn gold medal in my face one more time, I'll fucking go Tonya Harding on her ass! Just stand and smile. Just stand and smile.

Arakawa: Looky what I got! Looky what I got! You can't have it! You fall on assssss!

Slutskaya: Good thing Soviet Union is gone. In old days they shoot you for winning bronze. Where's vodka?

[Shakespeare]

44. Looks about right to me!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I wanna move back to WeHo just so I can finally meet you. Your posts always crack me up!

[ronnykmarshall]

46. Here's another .....

AH SHITSKI!!!!

[IA_Seth]

47. HA! funny shit. n/t

[Fenris]

49. Bitch, Yakov Smirnov's gonna sue your ass for that joke.

:P

[ronnykmarshall]

51. Is he still around?

[flamingyouth]

58. I think he has his own club in Branson.

[Shakespeare]

60. Wow. That's.....kind of horrifyingly perfect. n/t

[LostinVA]

57. BWAHHHHH!

[LibDemAlways]

79. I watched the playing of the Japanese anthem and

have to say that Cohen and Slutskaya looked like they were sharing a plate of big sour grapes. I realize both would have preferred to win a gold, but for God sake's they'd both just won Olympic medals that any of the other skaters would have been thrilled to have, and both of them stood there on that podium with looks that said, "I came all the way to the Olympics and all I got was this lousy non-gold medal." Sore winners both.

[nickinSTL]

80. Well, in Slutskaya's defense...

it's her last Olympics, for certain. (might be Cohen's too, but that's not as certain)

She's gone through a lot to try to get an Olympic gold, and she's been nearly unbeatable for 2 seasons.

I suspect she was just disappointed in her own performance (unlike Cohen, who, Repug that she is, probably hates Arikawa for doing a better program...or the judges for not giving her the gold because she's 'Murkan).

[ronnykmarshall]

81. Cohen didn't deserve that silver.

Her performace sucked.

I can't stand the commentators either. When Arikawa was skating they didn't fawn over her FANTASTIC performance like they did to Cohen.

[nickinSTL]

82. I actually think Cohen DID deserve the silver

Yes, she fell. And she's a Bush-bot (apparently). But...

Slutskaya also fell. And she was behind Cohen after the short program.

Also, Slutskaya's program...had zero choreography. And she seemed to have no connection to the music. Cohen did. Good choreography and great artistry. I did expect their scores to be closer, but the end result, I agreed with.

As to the announcers gushing over Cohen and ignoring Arikawa, I absolutely agree. The jingoistic, pro-American crap annoys the hell out of me.

[ronnykmarshall]

86. She did NOT deserve that medal !!!!

and I don't wanna hear nothing more about it ..... unner stand???

Don't make me come in there!!!

:silly:

[nickinSTL]

87. ...

well...I guess you're entitled to your opinion...

Even if I don't agree.

:evilgrin:

[mvd]

74. Good compromise for me

Bush supporter didn't win the gold, but the U.S. got another medal.

[cynatnite]

76. I hate seeing any skater fall...I don't care who they are

It's nauseating to see.

[CBHagman]

83. I am with you there.

It takes so much work just to get to the nationals, let alone the Olympics, that it hurts to see someone take a fall. There are times when nationality doesn't matter, and it's definitely true for this Olympics.

I've been really disappointed at the open nastiness of DUers indulging in Schadenfreude because someone's Olympic dreams have been shattered.