Sports: Hail, Caesar!

[nebroadwe]

Olympic Figure Skating, Day 4:

Watched Evan Lysacek's program through my fingers. V. good!

Evgeni Plushenko salutes crowd with Emperor's New Sword. Poser. Dick Button's axels less tilted in the air than his.

Still not evolved.
*
Today's lesson: talent, hard work and Lori Nichol's choreography will always beat talent, 'tude and a quad. Heh. And we all know why Plushenko's jumps were so tilted in the air, don't we? He must have been feeling the weight of that imaginary sword on his left hip. Heh, heh, heh -- ahem.

My goodness, that was exciting. And I can be at least as magnanimous in victory as Johnny Weir in defeat: Plushenko didn't implode; he just didn't perform as many of his money elements as well as Lysacek did his. One definite advantage of the new scoring system is that, while a successful quad remains the tac nuke of men's figure skating, it's perfectly possible to engage in conventional warfare and win the day as long as your other elements take up the slack and your performance is clean and graceful. Takahashi probably made an error in attempting the quad, given the trouble he's had with it all season; Weir's coach certainly made the right choice by having him omit the jump. (This despite Weir's program's lack of choreographic complexity -- sometimes putting together two competent performances in the same competition is worth the price of admission all by itself. Just ask Jeremy Abbott.) I recommend looking at the score breakdown sheets over at the Olympic website to get a feel for how close Plushenko and Lysacek were technically (even their program components scores were equal!); what won the night for Lysacek was his consistent advantage in grade of execution.

Other notes: Here's hoping Abbott pulls it back together for worlds -- he came out looking constipated determined, but that determination didn't do much for him initially. I did breathe a sigh of relief to see him strengthen through the program, since I get quite frustrated with skaters whose conditioning, say, lets them down around the three-minute mark. Get back on the bike, dagnabit! Oda's wardrobe malfunction was a dam' shame, but he dealt with it well; ditto Weir's bizarre edge catch coming out of his one spin sequence. I suppose it's something to have environmental factors trip you up, rather than something you can actually control. In that vein, it was unfortunate that Takahashi didn't bring his A jumps this evening; had he done so, he might have blown both his rivals off the podium on what used to be called the intangibles-- check out his program components score and the GOE he pulled on his circular footwork. Zowie. Of the second tier guys, I was ho-hum about Ten, but enjoyed Amodio and didn't think Sandra Bezic needed to have her nose quite so high in the air about Brezina's "American in Paris" program. IMO it's a good choice for someone with technique but still learning about artistry: the music is upbeat, well-known, and gives you an easily intuited persona to work with. (And it's not "Malaguena.")

Next up: ice dancing, which has gotten far more interesting since I started watching it back in the Pleistocene. Evolution FTW!

Comments

[a-big-apple.livejournal.com]

And what was up with Plushenko's little hip gyrations and bizarre arm choreography? Just as I was saying to my roommate that he seemed so dignified on the ice, he started humping thin air, and I had to take it back.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I know! And yet he gets an 8.75 for interpretation and an 8.8 for performance in his component mark, while Takahashi gets 8.65 and 8.5 for the same. TANJ. I think air-humping should be an automatic .5 deduction, but that's just me. Still not evolved ...

[a-big-apple.livejournal.com]

Takahashi was so charming, too! *sigh*

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Worlds is going to be very interesting on the men's side this year. I'd love to see a rerun of last night with everyone on their game (except Plushenko. Not evolving at all just now ...)

[a-big-apple.livejournal.com]

Lol...but I concur.