Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Reliving Nagano- The Ladies Part 1
It was the best of times for figure skating. The personalities were like no other.
Viva Michelle
Reliving 1994
Team USA's SP Practices- Note the insufferable duo of Roz and Peter. No one has ever made Peter sound so pleasant.
Guide to judging the ladies short (with a good explanation of spinning)
Masha's Fever- A program like no other. Amazing or amazingly awful? I still can't quite decide.
Lu Chen? Chen Lu? Rotated Jumps? It doesn't matter, this program is fab!
Aladdin's short
Surya and Suzanne Bonaly!
Vanessa Gusmeroli
The dress is hideous, but the program is irresistibly infectious. My God, the speed!
The Greatest Short Program Ever
Bobek's Chief Rival
Embracing her manliness
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So many thoughts. The ONLY nice thing I can say about IJS is that spirals have improved immensely. It's kind of shocking how short/not extended they are. Tara is as electric as I remember (and I've seen her programs a million times). I can see how tight Michelle is. Forgot how much freaking fun these ladies were. Gusmeroli is HILARIOUS. And Irina doesn't even bug me as she started to in the 2000s.
ReplyDeleteThat spinning video is fab. Roz's interview with Jean Senft was about as frank as one could expect. I also love the videos from the early 90's with Jean's discussions about CD patterns.
ReplyDeleteWow--Michelle, Tara, Shizuka, Maria, Irina, Lulu. Six past, current or future World Champions (and two who would win Olympic Gold medals). This may have been the best Olympics ever, as far as the ladies are concerned.
ReplyDeleteKwan was robbed. Tara getting 5.9 in presentation is a joke
ReplyDeleteOh please don't make us revisit the fascinating horror that is the ladies' event in Nagano, the most devastatingly heartbreaking event in the history of everything. This may sound melodramatic, but I'VE NEVER BEEN THE SAME.
ReplyDeleteWho am I kidding? I already revisit it on a regular basis. It flits in and out of my consciousness like a moth, a moth forever doomed to the same flameful fate.
Thoughts:
I do appreciate Tara's skating now much more than I did at the time. As an amateur she was a lovely little skater. After her Olympic win, I wanted to love her so that I could have some sort of peace with the universe, but I could never talk myself into not seeing how superficial she was. I tried to change her; she resisted. These early years (1997-1998) are her most likeable - her most innocent and genuine (genuine exuberance, genuine youthful purity - THIS is the beauty of her skating). But as a professional, as she strove to be an artist on ice, she only ever achieved imitation of what she thought artistry was. What Tara didn't know and will never know is that she doesn't possess the necessary raw material, which is a good soul. Tara thought artistry was something outward, something she had to "put on" (therefore, her artistry was only ever as good as her acting); she never understood that what Michelle was doing was the complete opposite. Michelle just let her good soul shine through - this was the essence of her artistry.
On a sidenote, poor Tara always did have the worst dresses. Darn you, Lauren Sheehan! *Shakes fist*
I can't believe Shizuka Arakawa is an Olympic Champion. Of course, after Sarah's win in 2002, I really stopped taking the Olympic gold medal seriously. It kind of lost all meaning for me.
He doesn't mind this time because he's close friends with TL now.
ReplyDelete