Tuesday, February 15, 2011

This and That


Evan Lysacek, Sarah Hughes and Tara Lipinski rang the closing bell for the New York Stock Exchange.

Frank Carroll on marking the anniversary of the crash of Sabena Flight 548.

Kat Ding designed four of UGA's leotards for this season.  She aspires to own a fashion boutique after graduation.


Corey Hartung and Nicola Willis are enjoying their life on the road with Saltimbanco.

Alex Johnson is off the ice until at least March with bone contusions and microfractures in his ankle.

Joshua Farris' Nationals were a nightmare.  He has a torn abductor muscle in his left hip, broke his fibula on his second triple axel, sprained a tendon and was in the hospital until 3 AM the night before his long program due to have an allergic reaction after eating at a restaurant.  The boy is tough: he plans on being back on the ice in about two weeks.

Rhonda Faehn on the Gators last meet.

UF Practice Update

Rest assured, Chinese Officials are going to investigate the age discrepancies made by the Chinese Skating Association on their website.  AKA, they'll fake some documents and cut off someone's hands for posting those ''incorrect'' birth dates.

The Russian Figure Skating Federation announced its World Team:
Bobrova and Soloviev and Ilinykh and Katsalapov
Alena Leonova and Ksenia Makarova
Artur Gachinski
Volosozhar and Trankov, Kavaguti and Smirnov, and Bazarova and Larionov


The first token Mao vs. Miki Four Continents preview from Japanese TV


Mai Murakami won Floor Exercise at the Japanese National Championships

28 comments:

  1. 2 of the 3 worst Olympic champions in history. It makes me sick they stole Kwan's medals and I can make a case for Kwan beating both. Lipinski deserving 5.8 and 5.9's for presentation is a travesty.

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  2. do i see the funky chicken dance in marakami's floor?

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  3. Is Marakami a senior next year or not until 2013?

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  4. People at the College board are blaming the cheerleaders for doing the wave while uf was on bb, but they are so wrong:
    From twitter " Courtney Kupets
    Weekend in Athens, watching a gym dog meet on sat was the best ever. My throat hurts from screaming, and starting the wave was awesome!"

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  5. Holy Sushi, Mai may be tiny, but the Jap's got legs! As a "2nd" tumbling pass: tucked double-twisting double back STUCK, dang.

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  6. Please don't use the word "Jxx" unless you want to hurt her or other Japanese. It's so painful.

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  7. Someone wrote 2 out of 3 worst gold medalists ever. Their focus was on Kwan but Lysacek is far far far far worse for his win could have meant total technical regression where men stopped doing quads and erasing a major progression in skating jumps. Lysacek is the worst the most grotesque winner ever. It was just a total debacle and disgrace and will always be a debacle and disgrace. I am trying to believe the changes the ISU made in putting the value back in quads will somehow make up for the totally horrible lysacek win of disgrace.

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  8. Kwan fell in SLC, and love her or hate her, but Lipinski outskated Kwan in Nagano. I think Lipinski's presentation ability is underrated by skating fans... For her age, I thought she was quite good.

    Mai is old enough for 2012... She'll turn 15 this year. She is SO small.

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  9. I'd say 3 of the 3 worst Olympic champions in history. Their 'artistry' as well their jumping 'technique' are laughable, yet they represent the 'best' of the sport.

    But it's like beating the dead horse all over again :) i.e. pointless.

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  10. Yeah Mai's so small you almost wonder about age cheating for her. She is definitely one of the most talented female gymnasts Japan has ever had.

    That said, if she is 15 it's a real pity Grandi changed the rules about 15 year olds competing at Worlds in the pre-Olympic year, she's definetly a gymnast who'd benefit from going to worlds early and she'd get to compete in her home country.

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  11. No one disputes that Tara's Oly program was more ambitious technically than Michelle's. But consider this: Tara never did a true lutz, her spirals were pathetic, there was no footwork to speak of in her program and she had a very tight landing on her second difficult combo--and it may have been under-rotated, too. But even giving her higher tech marks than Kwan, she still should not have won because she did not deserve any higher than 5.7s on the second mark. Clearly of the top three ladies--Kwan, Chen and Lipinski, her artistry should have been ranked third.

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  12. I agree with anon@4:51 and anon@7:25 but as anon@4:51 says it's pointless. The OG just doesn't mean as much imo as it use to be when the actual best skaters don't win. It's whoever was lucky a lot of times in that moment.

    One last point... kwan still skated better than Irina even with the slight fall and should have came in 2nd in the long and still won. Sarah should never have been in 4th in the short program. Anyway it was obviously meant to be...for what I don't know. It's certainly not for the good of this sport.

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  13. So true ..I think Taras artistry was underrated ...Michelle was two yrs older and if you go back and watch Tara had very nice lines and was very emotive and she really was developing into quite the artist thruout the rest of her career.
    Like it or not to the general public these three will be remembered for all time. The OGM is the one that counts. To the general public Michelle just fell short. I know Kwan fans get really upset by this fact but you guys need to face it at some point. All three of these skaters represented the US and made our country proud. Tara has one of the most memorable Olympic skates of all time.
    Kwan fans get over it.....!!! Michelle lost Tara won. And for good reason. Michelle was a beautiful skater but was not meant for competition. She crumbled every time. Remember guys this is a sport not a personality contest

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  14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zZ6ijLdfXI&feature=fvsr
    I just love this performance and I agree w the two people that said her artistry was under rated...yes it was! look at this performance..Such joy ..MK could never bring that to the ice and thats why she never won...This is an artist that can jump and compete

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  15. Yeah right...a lot of people remember Tara and Sarah...lol Most think Michelle won the OG. Neither Tara or Sarah seem to have many fans or even people wanting to skate like them. Michelle fell short but that's who I hear about when people reference skating. It's kind of weird and funny at the same time. It always surprises me when people hardly know who they are but definitely know Michelle. it's like they came and went. It would have been nice to see if they would grow as skaters but that didn't happen.

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  16. The above person is a certified idiot. No one thinks jagged tooth Michelle Kwan won the OG. People know her as the most well known choker to hit the Olympic Scene, and the only American Skater that grew up in LA with an Asian accent. Maybe if Danny let her out in the sun for awhile, (he could of still payed off the judges) and maybe she would be acclimated to...people.

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  17. Is MsJess an accomplice or also spend time in the classroom critiquing little boys and girls???

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  18. Lysacek didn't make America proud. He embarassed it with his chicken quadless skate of disgrace.

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  19. I'm someone who should probably have known better than to feed the trolls.

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  20. Msjess, if you're not feeding the troll you're probably feeding your 25 cats which is better than you judging kids making yourself feel better because of your lack of athletic ability and/or anger that you are a complete failure

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  21. Brainless moo on mission.

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  22. DRA-MA I love how people get soooo worked up over blog comments.

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  23. If I had kids, I'd be happy for you to teach them because you're a tremendously talented writer. I'd be happy if my kids picked up some of those skills.

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  24. Lipinski fans are on crack if they think Kwan could never bring joy to the ice like Tara. That is literally the dumbest comment I have ever read on this blog and there have been some pretty stupid things said by AJ's blogger fans.lol

    Kwan was robbed twice. First in the SP, second in the LP equal Gold. Sarah should have been much lower then 4th. Fumie out skated her and her two flips in that SP.

    In 98 Tara looked like a junior out there. Her presentation marks were a joke.

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  25. Quid rides? Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur

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  26. Mai reminds me of a small moceanu doing that routine...its the choreo

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  27. Tara actually had mature presentation for someone so young. I honestly have not seen many 15 yr olds since with that type of presentation...She wasn't at Michelle's level, but she certainly held her own, and when she delivered dramatically stronger technical programs than Michelle, the Olympic result wasn't a big surprise.

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