2006 Torino - Winter Olympics!!
The Winter Olympics are here!!! I am so excited - I adore the Winter Olympics. Back when I was a little girl watching Brian Boitano win gold in Calgary, I've been hooked. I love all the countries coming together, the spirit of sportsmanship, the intermingling of different athletes, so many people all in one place having a grand time, the world joined for something good. I love the human interest stories and the underdog victories. I enjoy the Winter Olympics because I like winter sports more (being a figure skating fan), its smaller and there just seems to be a keener sense of collectiveness. For me, the Winter Olympics are a nice break from the mundanity of everyday life.
My sport of passion is figure skating...I will be watching it avidly over the next two weeks as Olympic Gold is the pinnacle award of figure skating. There are some really great match up's and there are some blow-outs. Here are my predictions of the winners. Going in order of the competitions as they are scheduled:
Pairs
Gold - Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin (Russia)
Silver - Xhue Shen and Hungbo Zhao (China)
Bronze - Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov (Russia)
Shen and Zhao are my favorites, they have this great hard luck story, they are so cute as a team and you can tell they truly love to skate. However Zhao has been battling a major achilles injury and the team missed the entire season, this will be their first international competition, which is not good. They have been known to pull out all the stops, she can skate through anything, if he can keep it together and they can land all their jumps, they could win the gold! Otherwise it's all Totmianina and Marinin, who are techinically good but lifeless, which can also be said for Petrova and Tikhonov. If any of these predicted teams really mess up, Qing Pang & Jian Tong (China), Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang (China) and Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy (Germany) could come in and snatch a medal. This competition will not be that exciting unless Shen and Zhao bring it on!
Men's
Gold - Evgeni Plushenko (Russia)
Silver - Stephane Lambiel (Switzerland)
Bronze - Jeffrey Buttle (Canada)
This is Plushenko's to lose, he is the heir apparent, he just needs to come out and perform halfway decent and the gold is his (which makes for a really boring competition, but apparently the judges don't care). Silver and bronze are still relatively up for grabs, it really will be a game of who can stay up in their jumps. Other contenders who could just as easily be on the medal stand (as silver or bronze) are Johnny Weir (USA), Emanuel Sandhu (Canada), Brian Joubert (France), Evan Lysacek (USA), and true dark horses but might surprise us Daisuke Takahashi (Japan), Kevin Van Der Perren (Belgium) and Takeshi Honda (Japan).
Dance
Gold - Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov (Russia)
Silver - Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto (USA)
Bronze - Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov (Ukraine)
THIS is when the figure skating competion will really start to sizzle, it is going to be intersting! While Navka and Kostomarov have the gold cinched up, silver and bronze is where the contest begins. There are so many great, top-notch dance teams out there, a few coming out of retirement, it is the making of the perfect storm! With everyone being so good, it will come down to the teams that put the whole program together, have not only the techinical proficiency (fast twizzles, interesting innovative lifts, perfect footwork) but also smooth, flawless artistry. Other teams that are real contenders are Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski (Bulgaria) they've been out all season and didn't have a great last season but have won world placements in the past so who knows. Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas (Lithuania) are coming back from retirement, they were robbed in 2002 of a world bronze medal and they skate like a dream. They placed third at this year's Europeans, so they could really challenge also. Also potential coming out of retirement contenders, Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio (Italy) who are 2002 Olympic Silver Medalists and Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schonenfelder of France a fun team that is always near the top could sneak in there. With this line-up - don't miss the free program of the 2006 Winter Olympics Dance competition!
Ladies
Gold - Sasha Cohen (USA)
Silver - Irina Slutskaya (Russia)
Bronze - Shizuka Arakawa (Italy)
After Dance, this will the be THE competition to watch! Anything is possible with the ladies. I personally prefer Sasha over Irina. Irina has the jumps but absolutely NO artistry - I think she has been propped up and I'm not impressed. If Sasha holds it together, lands all her jumps, she IS the better skater, cause she has the whole package, not just jumps but this amazing spiral (almost vertical), a beautiful lay-back spin and a finesse that is mesmorzing to watch. She just has to land all the jumps! Arakawa is also very pretty not as clean but a polished skater, she won the 2004 World title, so she can play in the big league. I am actually rooting for Michelle Kwan who was robbed in 1998 by that twit Tara Lipinski. Kwan is one of the best skaters in the history of figure skating, she has this amazing spiral sequence, she still has this graceful artistry and when she lands her jumps they are solid! But Michelle has not competed internationally at all this season, she has been dealing with a groin injury and last year at Worlds she placed fourth. She doesn't seem to me to be comfortable with the new scoring system and if she can't master that, she can't win. It would be great if the headlines after the ladies free skate read, "third times a charm," but it will take a lot on Michelle's part (and probably some mistakes on others). Dark horses in this race include home town favorite Carolina Kostner (Italy), Elena Sokolova (Russia), Fumie Suguri (Japan), Joannie Rochette (Canada), and Sarah Meier (Switzerland).
As you can see some of these races are going to be very edge-of-your seat, to win skaters will have to land all of their jumps, not trip or fall or some equally silly mistake and create an atmosphere with their artistry that leaves an everlasting impression - an Olympic worthy program.
Let the games begin!
posted by Virginia Gal @ 1:33 PM
9 Comments:
I love the figure skating and dance teams as well, I hope I have a chance to watch some of it.
Wow! you sure are educated in your olympics!
I'm not as fond of watching figure skating as I am of watching gymnastics, but I'll check it out if I get a chance. Thanks for posting comments about it. I feel more educated now :)
I'm not as into figure skating as I used to be - I guess not since all of the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan drama a while ago. And Debi Thomas . . . and that wonderful girl from France who would do all those flips, even though they weren't cool for real competition . . . and Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano and Torvil(?) and Dean . . . and Katerina Witt . . .
Goodness, I swear I'm not that old but it certainly feels like it. Folks just don't seem to have the personalities or be quite as compelling to me anymore . . . now if I do watch, it's to see if anyone falls, and how many times . . . I'm sad, I know!
The Brian Boitano years were the best. Remember, "The Battle of the Brians?" Boitano vs. Orser.
I liked watching all of the skaters Random Kath mentioned above, as well as Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan, Gordeeva and Grinkov (so sad). I lost interest around the time of Tara Lipinski.
They've increased the technical difficulty of the programs so much that people keep falling down. It's hard to watch. It was a lot more fun to boo the judges when they were choosing between 2 nearly flawless programs for gold. Now, anyone who doesn't bruise their bum has a shot at gold.
I am impressed by how informed you are V! I have never really had the chance to really get into the Olympics although now I may just have to! ;-P
Brenda - I hope you get a chance to watch also, the Olympics are an event unto themselves.
Joe - like the Torino Olympic motto, Passion Lives Here (in my case it's all figure skating).
Cinthia - oh you're most welcome, I'm glad my analysis will help some out. Funny enough I'm not that into gymnastics but watch during the Olympics, vice versa.
Random Kath - The Frenchwoman you're talking about - Surya Bonlyi (sp). hee hee, no you're not sad to watch to see who falls, nowadays most of the competitions are just to see who can stand up - too many high level jumps not enough artistry if you ask me!
Merci - I'm so NOT a fan of Tara, don't get me started. I agree regarding who wins the gold, it is really sad that there is so much emphasis on jumps. I think that is why I really like Sasha, she does these other artistic elements, just gorgeous!
Snicks - oh man, hee hee I'd totally agree with your mom, very few are of the hetereo persuasion. I'd say most of the non-homosexual men figure skaters are in pairs skating.
Mizbohemia - thank you (takes little curtsy). I'm glad if my analysis helps you get into the Olympics, I just love the games!
Laurie - oh thanks for thinking - I am so envious you live so close to where Agosto and Belbin practice, that is so cool!!!
See my post today about Kwan. Sad.
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