More Penultimate Olympic Ladies... But Hey, Did You Hear What ABC is Doing With Our Skaters?

Hot!! Hot hot!! Strike that iron, Evan Lysacek!! Strike it now!!!

(So hot, you see, that I must post at least a little about very recent developments before I continue with my breakdown of the rest of the top 15 Olympic ladies… no dull moments these days!)

GOLD MEDAL NEWS: Evan has decided to follow in the shuffling footsteps of fellow skating gold medalists Kristi Yamaguchi and Apollo Ono… and join the latest cast of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. (Let the “he’s a ringer!!” commentary begin…)

Here’s the TVGUIDE.com article that announces the cast; one of many articles out there today… but the question is how many will, like this one, have reader comments that will automatically lapse into calling him “Evan the Figure Skater” because Lysacek seems too hard to figure out? I think we should all call him Evan The Figure Skater for the duration of his time on this show, which could be until… May? Depends of course on how well he does. With Kristi and Apollo having both won their respective seasons, what sort of pressure will poor ETFS be to capture that little disco ball trophy??

We’ll surely be discussing this more in the days/weeks to come, including some of his dancing peers (Kate Gosselin? Really? Talk about someone I’d like to see leave early…)

And no, I’ve no clue how he’ll work this with his SOI headliner commitments. But keep in mind that this is a show that has literally brought the rehearsal TO the dancer, in the past, when they’ve had to spend a few days away…


SILVER MEDAL NEWS: Lysacek is also slated to read the Top Ten list tonight on The Late Show with David Letterman. I saw a sneak preview; it's awesome as expected... the only thing I'm going to tell you is that Guitar Hero gets a mention. Heh.


BRONZE MEDAL NEWS: Not to be outdone with that DWTS news (but, um, sorry, they WERE outdone big time), the upcoming ABC “reality show” Thin Ice was reportedly hoping to firm up its cast after the Olympics were over… and the one they’ve snagged is Stephane Lambiel. Go here to find out more about this 2-episode program that’s scheduled to hit the air 2 weeks from Friday (and see for yourself how ABC included a mention of Lambiel in the cast without a mention of his world titles or 2006 Olympic Silver Medal. Niiice.)

Hmmm, is it a slap in the face if OGM Lysacek preferred a dancing show to this one as his vehicle? That’s one random thought on this whole thing. Here’s another: I wonder how many skaters in the Thin Ice cast are on board because they said “Well… if you get through the Olympics and you can’t pull in anyone else…”

Just kidding. I admit the whole thing sounds decidedly cheesy, but it’s been so long since pro skating turned up on prime time TV… I hope it goes well!

And ooh, late-breaking PLATINUM MEDAL NEWS (that one’s for Plushy, heh heh): according to a Domnina/Shabalin “tweet” from a little earlier this evening… (which was actually a link to a message on their website):

Unfortunately we will not be participating in the 2010 World Championships in Turin: it is now time for us to rest, and take care of our health. But this is not a goodbye! Please keep checking the website for reports, and for updates on our future plans.
Yours, Oksana and Maxim

Not shocking, but there you go. So who’s getting bronze at Worlds this time? The Italians? Early guesses, anyone?


OK, now back to the faux commentary on some of our unseen Olympians…


KIIRA KORPI, FINLAND (skating to Crooked Room and Passenger to Copenhagen in navy cap sleeves & scoop back, studded with rhinestones and edged on sleeves in crimson and black skirt—kind of understated, but for cap sleeves I really liked it)

3lutz/2toe… steps into 3salchow, straight (no hop) into 2axel… 3flip… then flying combo spin… then 3loop that’s OK, but doesn’t hold the landing for very long… Spirals, level 4…triple loop that was supposed to be in combination was popped, but 5 seconds later she turned her next jump (2axel) into the combo 2axel/2toe/2loop…flying sit level 4…straight line steps level 3…another 2axel…change foot combo spin level 4.

In looking at her scores, it’s interesting in how average they are compared to how satisfied she seems (which is to say VERY). Just a couple of negative GOEs of less than a point (one on the popped loop)… and only one notable positive GOE (a +1 on her spirals)… the moral being, I guess, look what decent scores you can pull off if you just do your jumps…?

I’ve been fond of that music for a while now—pretty snappy. Raise your hand if you think this is the kind of music Rachael Flatt should use in her FS (as opposed to classical)…

SCORES: 108.61/161.57 TOTAL. FINISHED 11th.


LAURA LEPISTO, FINLAND (skating to Adios Nonino and Fuga Y Misteri, in bright red sleeveless with silver sparkles)

Looks very confident when she starts (when she finally gets to her starting position), like she’s about to kick some Finnish tango muzak ass… if that’s possible. But then what happens… false start on the music? She gives someone a little cue that looks like “rewind”…They re-introduce her. Sounds like maybe the music was just a little miscued past the first several seconds… but good for her for being cool about it and asking for a re-start; some might have decided on the spot to just go with it and then been off-balance the rest of the program. 3toe/3toe to start, and good for her because I’ve never seen her go 3/3 on that before. 3lutz is next, not stellar but good enough (it’s the only thing she got a slight negative GOE on)… 3loop/2toe, into flying spin level 4 with good speed… shortly after that is a level 4 layback, but it’s the kind of layback that doesn’t have good roots (not much arch and a leg position Dick Button would ridicule in a heartbeat)… double axel very nice… triple loop in the “slow-er” section (this music doesn’t seem to have the traditional tempo changes until it pumps up a little at the end)…level 4 spirals that look OK, not remarkable extension though… into 2axel… next is supposed to be 3sal/2toe/2loop but she doubles the salchow. Still does the whole combo, but seems a little behind the music when it’s over because she plunged right back into choreography… oh, I see, this is her circular FW (level 3) she’s into already… change foot combo spin level 4 at end… and, she’s done.

SCORES: 126.61, and she and her coach are floored (no doubt; this ended up being scored the fourth-best free skate of the night). 187.97 TOTAL. FINISHED 6th.


KSENIA MAKAROVA, RUSSIA (skating to 13th Warrior by J. Goldsmith; wearing blue longsleeves with nude mesh on one arm and a gold/blue/pink(?) sprig-like thing on the front… this kind of looks like it might have been in Kostner’s closet first. Oh, and looks like her buddy Johnny Weir has given her a neon orange tassle to hang at the waist…)

3toe/3toe landed, not particularly well… 3flip looked a little bit wide on the free leg but landed… 2axel good…3loop with the multiple 3’s setup Slutskaya used… good… 2axel… level 4 layback spin that looks infinitely better than Lepisto’s… level 4 spirals…3salchow/2toe/2loop… 3 salchow/2toe… flying spin that completely got away from her; too bad (she put both hands down on it) in the end it was given a level 2… straight line steps level 3… stars to change foot combo spin level 4 (no one ends with anything else anymore, do they?)…

Ah, no wonder Johnny Weir tweets about her…Galina and Petrenko are on either side of her. SCORES: 112.69/ 171.91 TOTAL. FINISHED 10th.


Since you’re less likely to know this last skater (who beat out Alena Leonova for the title at Russian Nationals), here she is in the Clip of the Day .