Wednesday, November 24, 2010

This and That


The Florida Gators completed another intrasquad before Thanksgiving Break.  Rhonda Faehn just gave birth to a son Isaiah.

BARS- Ashanee Dickerson, -Nicole Ellis, -Brittney Noble, -Alicia Goodwin, -Elizabeth Mahlich.
BEAM- Liz Green, -Randy Stageberg, -Alicia Goodwin, -Marissa King, -Brittney Noble
VAULT- Randy Stageberg, -Nicole Ellis, -Brittney Noble, -Maranda Smith, -Marissa King, -Ashanee Dickerson
FLOOR- Amy Ferguson, -Randy Stageberg, -Marissa King, -Brittney Noble, -Maranda Smith, -Ashanee Dickerson


Absent from the video is Alaina Johnson.  Alaina has been resting a bruised rib for the last two weeks but should be back up to speed in a week or so.  With the addition of Alaina, Macko and Kytra, UF is looking like a contender.



Miss Val is taking your questions at UCLABruins.com

Stanford posted a few beam videos.

Allyse Ishino


Melissa Gregory watched Skating With The Stars from the audience and posted her views on youtube.  Melissa may be the new Paula of youtube:


An open letter from Evgeny Plushenko.  No laughing, please!


An english language translation below provided by poster 'IceAlisa' @ Figure Skating Universe
(Published on Monday, Nov. 22, 2010)
After (having endured) trauma, surgeries, a divorce and a woeful lack of faith in my return after almost four years of absence, I had come back nonetheless.

The point was not just figure skating itself. Coming back you should know why you are enduring all the sweet and not so sweet torture of practices, all the injections and bandages. I didn’t have doubts there. I skated not only for myself but for my country, for my city, for my family and for my coach.

I felt powerful. I knew that I could beat the pain. I fought the extra weight like it was my worst enemy. And together with Alexei Nikolayevich and the whole team we won the Russian championship and the championship of Europe.

Don’t think that I overestimate myself but I still believe that I did not lose the Olympics in Vancouver either. No one can convince me otherwise and those who wish to try should remember my quads and those other jumps that were sufficient for my rival to step above me on the podium. I don’t blame him for anything but there is after all a sense of justice.

The lack of this sense of justice in the judges deeply unsettled me. I am not going to express contrition but after the Olympic passions slightly cooled, only slightly, mind you, I see and realize that I had lost control of my overwhelming emotions. Perhaps, I was emotionally overwhelmed during some of the interviews. But I felt such pain—the physical merged with the psychological. I was hurt.

Among those to blame I saw not only the judges but also people who had helped me for many years, the ones close to me. I mean the president of many years of our skating federation, Valentine Nikolayevich Piseev. In the event that these people were upset by what I said, I’d like to ask them to forget all the superficial that was said in the heat of the moment and to resume our cooperation.

I am convinced that the new president of our federation, the Olympic Champion Alexander Gorshkov, understands me well. The ISU has banned me from amateur competition. But I do know that the last word in figure skating has not yet been said. Together with Alexei Nikolayevich I had gone through the full training cycle, maintaining my weight and regimen. I am still a member of the Russian team. But that’s not the important thing. I really want to represent my country.

I am convinced that I could help the Russian federation that had previously shared a common language with me, to win a medal and even medals in Sochi. I had come back not just to skate for another season or two. I dream of skating at the Olympics at home. And in contrast to the baron Pierre de Coubertin, my goal is not just participation but a victory. And I do swear (excuse my highfalutin style) to give everything that I have, everything that is possible (to achieve) this goal
.

3 comments:

  1. Don’t think that I overestimate myself but I still believe that I did not lose the Olympics in Vancouver either. No one can convince me otherwise and those who wish to try should remember my quads and those other jumps that were sufficient for my rival to step above me on the podium. I don’t blame him for anything but there is after all a sense of justice.

    Oh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ugh. The 3 absentees are the gymnasts we care most about!

    ReplyDelete