On My Knees… and Plushenko’s Knees, and Shabalin’s Knees…

Fortunate soul that I am, I was a grown woman before I ever found myself sitting in a hospital awaiting surgery. But ten years ago, there I sat—anxiously awaiting a “scope” on my knee with the following ideas churning through my brain:

--Will this hurt as bad after surgery as it does right now?
--I’m a terrible sleeper; will the anesthesiologist really be able to “knock me out”? And if he does, what if I wake up while they’re still sucking stray cartilage out of my body?
--Does this surgery officially make me an athlete like everyone else in my family that has knee trouble?

I was still skating weekly back then—nothing fancy, but I quietly hoped my scope could be attributed to hundreds of sit spins in my lifetime. It seemed more glamorous than saying I’d spent too much time on the Stairmaster in the early 90s… even though it happened to be true, and was in all likelihood a bigger contributor than the skating.

For what it’s worth, I learned plenty of lessons about myself as I got back up to speed in the weeks that followed. Among them:

--I can never develop an addiction to Vicodin—I was sick to my stomach soon after taking my first post-surgery dose.
--Me and crutches don’t mix. In short? They suck.
--Hospitals charge something like $12 a roll for extra-wide Ace bandages. (This is probably common knowledge, but as I said at the top, I’m a fortunate soul and hadn’t spent much time in medical facilities at that point)

But of course the most important lesson: RESPECT YOUR KNEES.

As that Baz Luhrman ditty about sunscreen famously told us about a decade ago—coincidentally, around the same time as my scope-- “you’ll miss them when they’re gone.” Ah, how true. In the days leading up to surgery I was hobbling around like an injured monster in a horror flick, yearning for the days when I could bend down to tie my shoes normally again. I thought of two of my brothers (and maybe a sister too?), all athletes of some kind, all having undergone surgery themselves. I thought of my dad, an all-around jock back in the day, with the long surgical scar on one knee that I used to trace with my finger when he was sitting around in shorts watching TV.

I think of all of that nowadays too, as I carefully pace my daily exercise in efforts to keep my knees from hurting. But since hearing about His Evgeniness and how his knee problems have returned, and why they’ve returned…(hint: as you might have already read, Plushy is reportedly practicing quad/quad and triple axel/quad combos to give himself even more of a competitive edge.)

… I have to ask, in all honesty: Dude, have you lost your mind? You have Olympic silver, Olympic gold, and a string of World titles. Is it really worth pounding your joints into a creaky, aching mess for the rest of your life? (And, um, wouldn’t it be kinder to your body—and the skating world—if you’d pour some of that energy into the footwork and spins you claim you heard “whispers” about?)

And I perpetually think of Maxim Shabalin (of the world champion ice dance team Domnina/Shabalin), and how he continues to suffer from chronic knee pain, and probably has no business continuing to compete… but whether it’s pressure from the Powers That Be for his skating federation, or his own determination, he’s surely training as hard for the Olympics as he possibly can. His motivation is a bit plainer to see; they’ve only got one World title to show for their trouble thus far. But good Lord, where do you draw the line between gutsiness and simple common sense?

True, I have no real interest in seeing either of these guys in Vancouver anyway. I admit that. But I have one other name that comes to mind with all of this; an American, still-young woman by the name of Tara Lipinski. It wasn’t her knees that gave her trouble, it was her hips—one hip in particular, messed up so badly by repetitive jumping passes at age 18, two years after her Olympic victory, she was having the kind of surgery usually reserved for women over the age of 70. To my knowledge, she hasn’t been able to skate professionally in seven years. Julia Sebestyen and Fumie Suguri are older than her… and are still competing!

Whether it was “worth it” or not could probably be debated for hours. The fact that it’s heartbreaking, sad, and could have been prevented… not so much.

What price glory?

An old question, but I guess that’s all I’m really asking.

A 2002 Ice Wars appearance by Lipinski— her last time on that once-annual event—is the Clip of the Day.

In Closing... a Few More Grand Prix Prayer Requests

Continuing the theme of the last post… imagine you’re at a church that takes written prayer requests, which a certain fine group of, um, church folks get together and pray for sometime after the service. Now imagine they have nothing better to do than tolerate a whole offering plate full of silly skating-related, post-GPF requests. Here’s what I would be jotting down during the sermon:

+ A request to help poor JeremEEE make up his mind: Simple black Costume A for the free skate (worn at TEB), Cinderella’s Coachman Costume B (worn at Skate Canada), and not-quite-finished-dressing-for-that-important-meeting Costume C (worn at the GPF). Since he’s still deciding, I’m offering up three more shirt options… as you can see above. Thoughts?

+ A request that all funky death spiral holds be banished… why must I be forced to say that Muk/Trank have the loveliest one in the business these days… mostly because it’s so classic?

+ And while we're on the subject, a request for an explanation of the actual kiss at end of Muk/Trank’s "Love Story"… wha?? Are they going completely Cutting Edge on us now that Olympic time is near? In three performances they’ve gone from him carrying her at the end… to carrying, then setting down and almost poised to kiss… to full-out liplock. Hmmm.

+ A request for special care to Dan Zhang, as she continues to struggle these days and her partner in Zhang crime looked PISSED this time. The little shake of the head right at the end of their free skate, body language that reminded me, momentarily, of Fusar-Poli in the Torino OD…the way he stalked out of K & C before he was supposed to…speaking of Torino, that doesn’t really seem like the same guy that tended to her so kindly when she crashed on the quad salchow back at the last Olympics.

+ A request to find me a way to see Japanese Nationals this year… (is any explanation necessary? I didn’t think so.)

+ A request to kill the Kiss’n’Cry mics when someone is, er, clearing their sinuses… yes, Tomas, I’m looking at you. We all were, and we knew what you were thinking, too, when you looked up so sheepishly: my God, I just had one of my worst skates since 2008 Worlds…must everyone witness me BLOWING IT here as well??

+ A request to put a ceiling on the amount of “silent hidden messages to friends” allowed in the Kiss ‘n’Cry… yep, pointing at you, Abbott. You’re hitting the threshold right about now.

+ And finally, a request for… more Stro-motion !! (It almost made me feel like “ESPN on ABC” was at the helm again… sigh)

For the Clip of the Day here is Yu-Na Kim’s GPF exhibition number.

Are You There, God? It's Me, The One With The Skating Blog.

(No, not that skating blog… the other one. Yep, now You’ve got it.)


So, God, I was watching the Grand Prix Finals over the weekend, and boy were my predictions a joke! I was only 5 for 12 this time. I was starting to think that maybe I’d gotten better at guessing the podium because we’ve now been following most of these competitors for the better part of four years, and have a better sense of what to expect… but then the GPF comes along, and I realize all over again how clueless I am when we get down to brass tacks! Yes, ice is slippery. Thanks for reminding me.

But as long as I’ve got Your attention, there are a few prayers I’d like to send Your way…

+ For the pairs: could You please help make the event in Vancouver as exciting as it was in Tokyo? As the only event at this particular GPF where every likely top Olympian actually competed, it was exceptionally compelling. I was surprised to see another flawed performance (or two) on the part of Sav/Szol, but if anyone deserved silver ahead of them it was definitely Pang/Tong. I would love to see all three of these teams on the podium in Vancouver…

+ By the way… if anything happens to Shen/Zhao between now and mid-February, I will weep openly and often.

+ For ice dance: I know it is a lot to ask from this particular discipline, and I know I’ve brought it up before…but in watching the loveliness that is Davis/White and/or Virtue/Moir as they twizzled it out yet again, I was saddened to think that history dictates at least one of these fine teams (if not both) will be denied an Olympic medal, even if they are spot-on when others falter. Please, can the big news this time be that an Olympic ice dance competition was judged fairly??

+ For the ladies, a few individual requests: a) that Akiko Suzuki still has some gas left in the tank for Japanese Nationals, because I like her more and more… b) that some sort of “skating angels” come down and keep Ashley Wagner’s feet from screwing up a powerful and gorgeous program with edge calls and 2-footed landings… c) that Joannie Rochette works out her pre-Vancouver jitters, or whatever’s keeping her from turning in great programs of late.

+ And for the men—look, here’s all I want to say… these guys are STUNNING. Save for the pitiful performances of Tomas Verner (I didn’t hear the NBC commentary yet—does anyone know if Verner was still sick?), they are amazingly talented, have by and large dug deep this year to assemble some beautiful programs, and deserve so much more than for His Evgeniness to stride in like he owns Vancouver, throw down a couple of quads, flail his arms like a contender in a Dance Fever tournament, wave his stupid “#1” finger in the air, not even bother to put an ending pose on his program… and walk out with the gold. Can You think about it? Oh please oh please?

Amen for now… (but I’ll probably be back with several more “minor” requests later)

The Clip of the Day just had to be one of the many glowing SPs from this past weekend’s men’s event, so I went with the one at the top of the heap (Dice-K).

More Studying: ISU Grand Prix Finals, Men's and Ladies Predictions

I saw an ad on Universal Sports yesterday promoting the GP Final, with the push being on the fact that Yu-Na Kim faltered at her last event… can she come back stronger?? Or words to that effect.

Answer: Uh, yeah… probably.

Anyway, here are a bunch of Universal airtimes (and 2 hours for NBC as well; the NBC time will be in bold)… all times are Eastern, as usual… and I’m still seeing conflicting reports about these times, so if any of it needs correcting, please send the link with the correct info and I’ll accommodate!

Thurs Dec. 3, 6-7:30: Grand Prix Final (Pairs Short & Original Dance)

Fri. Dec. 4, 6-7:30: Grand Prix Final (Mens & Ladies Short)

Sat. Dec. 5, 6-7: Grand Prix Final (Pairs Long)
Sat. Dec. 5, 7-8:Grand Prix Final (Men’s Long)

Sat. Dec. 5, 9-10: Grand Prix Final (Free Dance)

Sun. Dec. 6, noon-2: Grand Prix Final, NBC (probably Men’s and Ladies FS)

Sun. Dec. 6, 5-7: Grand Prix Final (Ladies Long)


And here come the rest of the predictions:

For MEN…
Gold—Nobunari Oda
Silver—Evan Lysacek
Bronze—Daisuke Takahashi
Also competing: Verner, Abbott, Weir

I was watching Dice-K’s 2007 World Championship skate recently—he won silver there—and was enamored with his smooth, easy jumps, deep knees, and gorgeous flow… and realized it reminded me somewhat of what Oda is skating like this season. Both their free skates are among my faves of the year thus far, but I’m picking Oda for his consistency. Lysacek’s been almost as consistent, but his triple axel technique still tends to get him in trouble sometimes. Plus, Oda’s bound to get some home-team advantage in Tokyo—thus far I don’t think I’ve seen him crumble under pressure.


And finally, the LADIES…
Gold-- Yu-Na Kim
Silver—Joannie Rochette
Bronze—Miki Ando

Also competing: Leonova, Wagner, Suzuki

I think it’ll be back to business for Yu-Na in this final, and I’m hopeful Rochette will step up and skate like the world silver medalist she is. I would not be shocked if ANY of the other ladies claimed bronze; each have had moments of brilliance so far this season… just not enough of them. I’m picking Ando because, like Pang/Tong in pairs, I think she’s somewhat less likely to make any major slip-ups.

From the GPF of approx. 10 years back, here’s Alexei Yagudin’s final-winning FS as the Clip of the Day.

Studying for ISU Grand Prix Finals: Pairs & Dance Predictions

This time I’m going to break the Finals predictions into two parts, like I did with all the GP predictions last season. And since I’ve been trying to post TV times, I’ll split those in half as well. Here are Tokyo streaming times for IceNetwork:

Thursday, Dec. 3
5:50 a.m.- Pairs Short Program
7:05 a.m. - Original Dance

Friday, Dec. 4
4:20 a.m. - Men's Short Program
5:40 a.m. - Ladies Short Program
6:40 a.m. - Free Dance

Saturday, Dec. 5
2:15 a.m. - Pairs Free Skate
3:50 a.m. - Men's Free Skate
5:20 a.m. - Ladies Free Skate


Predictions In PAIRS…
Gold-- Shen/Zhao
Silver-- Savchenko/Szolkowy
Bronze-- Pang/Tong

Who else is there: Murkhortova/Trankov, Yavaguti/Smirnov, Zhang/Zhang

It’s been 2 ½ years since Shen/Zhao last went up against Sav/Szol… the former won gold (at Worlds 2007); the latter took bronze. Has the latter caught up? They’re probably quite a bit closer, but it’s hard to imagine Shen/Zhao anywhere other than first, especially after seeing them in recent events. They’re truly in a class by themselves at this point. As for bronze—believe it or not, I’m not super-confident about P/T, and am willing to admit either Russian pair could get it. But I still think P/T have the smallest likelihood of making major mistakes.


In DANCE…
Gold-- Virtue/Moir
Silver-- Davis/White
Bronze-- Pechalat/Bourzat

Who else is there: Cappellini/Lanotte, Kerr/Kerr, Crone/Poirer

I know that V/M and D/W tend to go neck-and-neck when competing directly these days… but I’m picking the Canadians this time, if only because I’d love to see Davis/White over them when it counts a little more. In VANCOUVER. (Quite a pipe dream, I realize, with it being home turf for V/M and all… but skating fans have to know how to dream or else we go crazy, yes?)

I’d rather see the Kerrs or Crone/Poirer for bronze, but I know they don’t have the complexity of the French team. Besides, who doesn’t want to root for a guy dressed like a clock :-)


Men and ladies predictions to come soon… for the Clip of the Day here’s a look at the GPF winner from 5 years ago… hmmm, mighty familiar-looking…

As The Calendar Turns (Towards Vancouver)… Roundup #1

For some, Black Friday= early rising, marathon shopping, awesome deals.
For skating fans, Black Friday= A Friday in late fall without any GP events.

What on earth are we to do—watch Skate America reruns on Universal Sports? Watch college football? Catch up on gardening? Play with our children? Read??

If you tend to lean toward that last one, I’ll try to help you out. While I was whipping up Thanksgiving pies over the past few days, life rolled on for Olympic hopefuls around the globe. Here are the headlines:

No BelGosto at the Grand Prix Final.
According to this Phillip Hersh article and other reports, an infected wisdom tooth of Belbin’s that requires immediate oral surgery means no GP Final for them. Rumor has it that the 1st GP dance alternates, Khoklova/Novitski, have passed on their invite to the GPF (citing illness), which means Canada’s Crone/Poirer are next in line.

Also, no Jourbert at the GPF.
Might I just start this briefing by saying injuries are especially dreadful to read about—and live through, I suppose—when the injured one reports, at one point, that “he could see bone”. Aack!

In any case, here’s the Ice Network article that explains Brian Joubert’s withdrawal/injuries. Next one in line to go to the GPF, should he accept such a mission, is Tomas Verner. Just what you want to hear at the last minute when you’re recovering from the flu… yep, let’s hop a plane to Tokyo, breathe other people’s germs for hours on end, exert tons of energy I wasn’t planning to have to exert again for a while, and get sick all over again in time for Olympic trials. Sounds good. Where’s my Zorba costume?

Verner is probably not much of a whiner, so you’d likely never hear him say that outloud. But as others have said before me—why would any skater hoping to make that season’s Olympic team really want to make the GPF a priority? Perhaps they should allow each competitor to simply throw on their costume and perform from their home rink while it’s shown via webcam…

Oh, and by the way—no Lutai anywhere for a year.
Here’s the article talking about his ban due to the post-Skate America incident. After what happened to Nobunari Oda a few years back when he was charged with a DUI while on his moped, I suppose we saw this coming. Unfortunately for Lutai (and unlike Oda), he wasn’t competing strong enough for this ban to have much impact on the skating world.

*PURE SPECULATION ALERT*… do you suppose somewhere deep inside the guy might’ve just said look, Plushenko’s gonna get the bid, I’m not skating that well anyway, let’s just take myself out of the running now…?

On a lighter note, for PETA’s sake…
If you’ve ever wondered What Tai Babilonia looks like (almost) naked , click on the link because this is your lucky day. All I have to say here is that I hope I look that good (almost) naked when I’m 49.


Finally-- ICE CASTLES… the trailer is here!
In lieu of a Clip of the Day, I’ve got the Ice Castles trailer at the ready if you click on the link. I recently heard they still weren’t sure if this film was to be a theatrical release, a direct-to-video, or a TV film… does anyone have an update? It would seem the TV option is out if they’re sporting a trailer…

Skate Canada '09: The OTHER Battle of the Blades

Things For Which I Am Thankful After Watching Skate Canada:

in PAIRS...

+ Thankful that Muk/Trank still give me plenty to joke about despite the fact their FS is infinitely more watchable this year. (Like what? Well, that's for another post.)

+ Thankful Denney/Barrett have had such a nice debut GP season… coming in 5th at Skate Canada was as impressive as could be with a TOUGH and experienced field.

+ Thankful the Germans completely changed their free skate… not that I minded the previous one, but I do suspect this one (“Out of Africa”) will be more competitive with Shen/Zhao.


in DANCE...

+ Thankful to catch Canada’s Weaver/Poje in the Free Dance. I hate to say this, but when they took the ice just after USA’s Samuelson/Bates I felt like a baton had been passed between the wanna-bes and WILL-bes, if that makes any sense. (I'm just not liking SamBates’ choice of FD music again, for the 2nd year running.)

+ Thankful again for Virtue/Moir’s Mahler FD, though I’ve decided someone needs to get Tessa a shorter, more practical OD dance skirt for Christmas. The current one has a very laborious appearance to it. I think it might have been a weighted tablecloth in a previous life.


for the LADIES...

+ Thankful Cynthia Phaneuf’s Free Skate finally came to an end at some point. It DID end, right? Four falls…egads. Also, OW. By the way, Laetitia Hubert called… and wanted to remind her that it could be worse—this could’ve been at the Olympics …

+ Thankful the judges still have someone they can overmark when Carolina Kostner isn’t around. Laura Lepisto for bronze? Seriously? Methinks I should go study the protocols between her and Mirai Nagasu if I think I can do it without getting too pissed off.

+ Thankful that Alissa Czisny can fall twice in the free skate but, because no one skated clean, still come away with silver. The APB she has out for back-to-back solid programs remains in effect. (If you’re interested in re-visiting her flawless short program, though, here it is as the Clip of the Day .)


and for the MEN...

+ Thankful both Abbott and Takahshi skated as well as they did, grabbing spots in the GP Final while Patrick Chan faltered. (I know Chan couldn’t qualify anyway, but if he’d won this event I don’t know if either of those guys would’ve made it.)

+ Thankful for watching Denis Ten execute the Bielmann spin few men are capable of, for it inspired a new term for my skating lexicon: MannBiel . (Try it in a sentence this holiday weekend…)

So what inspired YOU to give thanks after watching the action in Kitchener?