Rachael Flatt--Of all the skaters they aired tonight, Rachael to me is the only one with the typical skater's build and I think it looks much more natural. I thought she was great, and I loved her program. I didn't see any reason for her to be scored so low, though it was a personal best. I was watching the online scoring sheets live, but there was a glitch and hers got skipped so I don't know what the deductions were. She ended up in 7th place, which I'm not sure I agree with completely. She was in 5th, and I expected her to end up anywhere for 4th to 6th. I watched the girl from Finland that placed ahead of her and scored higher in the free skate (online, since they didn't air her), and I still don't understand how that happened. Rachael looked much better to me, but I still applaud her accomplishment!
Kim Yu-Na--This girl is freaking crazy gorgeous before she even starts to skate, and then when she skates it gets even better! I have no idea how these tall skinny girls manage to have enough power to skate like that, but good for her! Not to mention she has ridiculous pressure from her country and she was still amazing! She can't even train in her own country because of all the pressure and people following her. She had every right to cry those tears of joy, and she should be proud of what she accomplished. Wow! And she set all kinds of records with her scores, and she's only 19! I wouldn't be surprised if she's back in four years and still be amazing!
Mao Asada--First of all, I have to say congrats on the three triple axels. The second bit of skating history made tonight. That being said, I didn't think she performed as well, and honestly I think the judges could've deducted more and not been faulted for it. But that's just me. I feel sorry for her that her country will be so upset with her less-than-flawless performance, and I think it is wrong of them, but that's the cultural difference between USA and Japan. I think she deserves to be proud of her entire Olympic performance and to enjoy the moment. She obviously wasn't.
Joannie Rochette--OMG cry-fest! I guess this drama replaces the other needless drama the other competitions had. Honestly, this girl is a winner in my book, medal or not. I so wanted her to be perfect, for her. But it doesn't matter, she's a hero in my book anyway and Canada loves her. That being said, she had two beautiful performances and should be so proud of herself. My guess is this is the last we'll see of her, but I would love to be wrong. It was so hard to watch, but at the same time I couldn't tear myself away. She did seem a lot calmer the second night, which I hope isn't what caused her problems, but it was nice to see her succeed.
Mirai Nagasu--She is beautiful!!! I love her! She scared me a few times because she was soo close to the wall, which makes me nervous. And, she spins so fast! In fact, in her short program she actually got a nosebleed from it! Wow! I don't want to sound un-American, but I didn't think we had a chance to medal this Olympics. But after Mao's mistakes, Mirai came out of nowhere and I was so hoping she had enough to pull it off. I was actually a little torn, because that would've knocked Joannie off the podium, but of course my first choice is always an American! Her score sheet came up and she had a few difficulty level 2's instead of the 3's and 4's everyone else had, but no downgrades or deductions. It wasn't quite enough this time, but if she steps those difficulties up and continues to be perfect, she'll be really hard to beat in Russia!
I think all the medals awarded were well-deserved. I really loved having to actual score sheets pop up in front of me, that was cool and everything made sense that way. I love the skating medals' ceremonies--the way they do it right after the competition, right there on the rink. I am so glad I wasn't wearing mascara today, though! Mao did not look happy at all, which is so strange to me. It reminded me of the men's ceremony and the sour face the Russian had. A silver medal is an amazing accomplishment, enjoy it, whether your country will or not! It was nice to see Kim enjoy her gold! She earned it! I wish they could have played Korea's and Canada's anthems though, as an exception.
As in the other post, I mentioned there are some weird things they do now with the new scoring system that to me make things seem less graceful. Some things just don't look as pretty, and I wonder sometimes how they decide which to do. It seems to me like it should be an easy choice, but then they come out with all these weird poses and moves that don't look as good as the ones other skaters choose.
Like this. This is a spiral sequence, which all the girls are required to do. No big deal, really, they just glide across the ice on one foot in a few different poses. Now the one on the left I see quite a few girls do, especially the lower ranked skaters. Which is okay I guess. Looks kinda awkward. The one on the right, almost all of the top girls do. To me, it looks so much more graceful. And, I personally think it shows much more flexibility. Whatever.This stuff looks awkward too. But I guess they do what makes the judges happy!
Well, I guess that's all for my figure skating talk for a while! Hope you enjoyed my somewhat knowledgeable ramblings! Until next competition!
~B~
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