Now that the competition portion is over...
-NO REALLY, I am mostly OVER THE MOON about the skating results, and I never am with the Olympics, so I'm a bit terrified that it's an "Enjoy it now, Courtney, because soon you will DIE" type of situation.
-I'm happy for Shen & Zhao, but their programs did them no favors. Lori gave all her good stuff away to other people, apparently.
-Pang & Tong were pretty lovely.
-Jess and Bryce. ;_;
-I was THRILLED for Amanda and Mark.
-I was really hoping for a Morgan Freeman Visa commercial for Evan, but considering that some of them have made me CRY, perhaps it was better that there wasn't.
-Evan was brilliant throughout. He earned and deserved his medal. Everyone knows how I feel about this. ;)
-Off the ice, he's been gracious, mature, classy, and a true sportsman. I couldn't be prouder.
-Random stupid, superstitious worries I had about Evan here:
1. Skating first, he was going to be Nagano'd, a la Kwan.
2. Skating to Scheherazade, he was going to fall on his flip, a la Kwan.
Little did I know he was freaking TARA LIPINSKI in this situation (reigning World Champ, lost Nationals coming into the Games [to someone with a brilliant performance], second after the SP at the Olympics). Glad it worked out happily for me this time.
-I'm almost as thrilled for Frank as I am for Evan, and I just love that it was Evan who got Frank his gold.
-Plushenko should be ashamed of himself.
-I will reiterate a thought from 2006: I would watch endless amounts of speed skating, men or women, any length, team or individual, short track or regular, if only they'd put a little picture of Evan in the corner...
-Blatantly begging here: does anyone have videos of Evan's post-win interview, medal ceremony, any of the Bob Costas interviews, or anything from the British Eurosport guys? I DON'T ASK FOR MUCH, DO I.
-Who knew that Putin was a figure skating expert? When you look into his eyes you can see a K, a G, and a B, and then he will talk to you about how real men do quads!
-On a similar note, every-four-years figure skating experts are hilarious. And when I say hilarious, I mean I'd like to hit them.
-There are huge swaths of the Russian skating community that have lost their damn minds.
-Tatiana Tarasova, a noted ice skating coach who helped to train gold medalist Evan Lysacek last year, complained in an interview to Vesti FM radio station that the high evaluation of the components of Lysacek's program in Vancouver was "simply hooliganism," adding that in Plushenko's gold medal "was taken away from him."
STFU, Tatiana Tarasova. Screw you and your horrible Rhapsody in Blue costume and the fact that you gave Evan a program that Lori had to rush in and fix because you have no idea how to choreograph for the CoP. Coincidentally, your pal Plushenko has some similar troubles. Oh yay, I get to use my Tarasova tag again.
-I heard that Sasha Cohen was a little bitchy toward Evan, but I haven't searched it out. If it's true? Classy, that one.
-The Evan-Michelle interview from Good Morning America MADE MY LIFE.
-Hey, has FSU all hanged themselves?! NO, DON'T TELL ME, I want to think that they have. If I still went to FSU, I would be tempted to pull a DanRad-on-election-night and watch them all cry.
-Johnny may have been robbed of a better placement, but he wasn't robbed of a medal-- and anyone who says he was is smoking something. Do I need to break out the essay I wrote after 2008 Nationals? BECAUSE I WILL. He skated well, he should be proud of himself, but the levels just weren't there. I'd have had him ahead of Chan at least, though.
And I always hear from his fans that Johnny didn't place well because of his Johnny-ness, but honestly, his programs don't have the difficulty and that's the problem. Evan beat Plushenko in part because of transitions, and well, Johnny doesn't have them either.
I swear to God I recently saw some people freaking out because "THEY DIDN'T INVITE JOHNNY TO THE GALA OMG IT MUST BE BECAUSE HE'S SO OUTRAGEOUS, HOW DARE THEY." Uh, no, it's because he finished 6th. Thanks for playing, though.
-I think they should keep the Compulsory Dance at the Olympics.
-Some of the original dances this year are just hideously bad. I'm looking at you, Samuelson/Bates and Pechalat/Bourzat. But the gold medal of bad goes to DomShabs.
-That the OD costumes are hideously bad goes without saying.
-I spent most of the dance event trying to explain dance to my friend Dean. And it's sad that as much as I love ice dancing, I spent at least half of the OD going, "WHAT IS THIS AND WHY DO I LIKE IT AGAIN." And then D&W and V&M skated and I was like, "Oh. That's why."
-My mom and me, before V&M took the ice for their FD:
Mom: ...Are you trembling?
Me: ...Yes.
Mom: Are you cold or nervous?
Me: ...Yes.
-I watched most of the free dance with my mom, who pretty much hated everyone but Tessa and Scott, who she is now kind of stanning for. They are her favorites, along with Evan. You don't know how weird this is for me. My mother hates skating.
-VIRTUE AND MOIR. OMG. I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DID IT. Actually I can, they are phenomenal, I CAN'T BELIEVE THE JUDGES LET THEM DO IT. So proud of them.
-DAVIS AND WHITE. OMG. I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DID IT. Actually I can, they are phenomenal, I CAN'T BELIEVE THE JUDGES LET THEM DO IT. Way to be awesome, bbs!
-D&W are more fun and energetic while V&M are more elegant and refined, and it's great to see them both do well with such different programs. I love them pretty much equally... though I give a slight edge to V&M for their matching leg lines and cleaner execution.
-Belbin & Agosto's programs this year just do nothing for them. That being said, I do think politics played a part here, in that there was always going to be one American team kept down in favor of the Russians, and it was just B&A's bad luck that this was the year Meryl and Charlie got really, really good.
-Clearly Evan, Tessa, and Scott needed to put out a joint press statement, directed to the Russians, saying, "We were awesome and won, you weren't and you lost. Get over it." ...I am not as classy as they are.
-Mirai is as adorable as ever.
-I was quite impressed with Mao Asada's SP, and I don't usually enjoy her.
-Yu-Na is great, but I still say she's overscored. Her layback is ugly as hell and her spirals are nothing special.
-God, I can't even imagine what Joannie Rochette is going through. You can't not cheer for her.
-I couldn't believe both American girls made it into the final flight.
-Sorry, Rachael Flatt's skating is tedious.
-I thought it was funny that the commentators HAMMERED Miki on just being a jumper with no artistry but didn't give Rachael the same treatment. Oh, but she's American.
-Yu-Na is a gorgeous skater, but she seriously needs to point her damn toes. I think that score was pretty ridiculous and not in a good way. It was a beautiful skate, but she has some truly awkward positions and I just think they're ignored. I'm glad she won, though.
-OMG, that free skate edit for Mao was horrible. I love Bells of Moscow, but there weren't enough highs and lows. The triple Axels were pretty awesome, though.
-Mirai was FANTASTIC and my favorite of the night. I'm thrilled for her. I'm just saying, there was another time we saw a Frank Carroll skater finish fourth at the Olympics skating to Carmen.
-Whatever y'all, Yu-Na didn't have a quad. Please to be handing that gold medal over to Evgeni Plushenko.
-Excuse you, Figure Skaters Online, retweeting that Brian Orser is the new Frank. Frank is the HBIC always and forever and Orser does not even begin to compare.
-I think, overall, that the judging for the entire skating event was pretty spot-on, and certainly a huge improvement over previous years.
NON-FIGURE SKATING THOUGHTS
-Short track is the craziest thing I've ever seen, omg. I've been following it since 2002 when I thought Apolo Ohno was just dreamy, and I still do not understand it at all. WHAT IS THIS SPORT.
-J.R. Celski is adorable. I still love Ohno. Why do I always collect boys at the Olympics?
-My friend Dean, after seeing Evan and Apolo's tweets to each other, told me that he "ships it." Looooolz. He's never really watched the Olympics before so I've been making him watch with me. What I really should have done was write his thoughts down, because they were more entertaining than mine.
-I... don't really have many other things to write about. I love the Winter Olympics, but I mostly have them on in the background while I do other things, whereas I'm absolutely glued to the Summer Games.