As seen on NBC Thursday night... OK, let's roll.
TUGBA KARADEMIR, Turkey… (NBC’s favorite lead-off girl)
Wearing: black sleeveless w/violet skirt
Music: Tango de los Exilados
3 salchow OK, looked like a botched combo though… 3toe OK to 2axel FALL… 3lutz changed to flip, popped… next jump 2’d… gets timing back on 2axel… 3 salchow OK… 2axel… combo spin slow…slow on step sequence too. She looks bummed… again.
78.80 FS; 129.54 TOTAL. FINISHED 24th.
CYNTHIA PHANEUF, Canada…
Wearing: olive green/cream/gold heavily jeweled halter…
Music: Mission Cleopatra
3toe to 2ax… 3lutz FALL… 3Loop/2toe… 3Loop… flying sit… 3salchow 2/d… 2axel fall out… 3toe/2toe (no 2loop add-on)… spin series at end.
99.46 FS; 156.62 TOTAL. FINISHED 12th.
CHELTZIE LEE, Australia…
Wearing: sleeveless deep purple w/gold accents & criss-cross back…
Music: From Elizabeth: The Golden Age
This is her first-ever long program on an international stage? Wild… 3sal/2toe good, 3toe/2toe OK…2axel…2axel/2toe good…footwork takes a long jumping break… then to 3toe, splat, long time getting up because I think she’s so tired… but gets off another 2axel… then spin at the end… she looks defeated but as they all said in the booth, nothing to be ashamed of…
86.00 FS; 138.16 TOTAL. FINISHED 20th.
ELENE GEDEVANISHVILI, Georgia (Knew it! They HAD to show her… I think it’s in Scott’s contract)
Wearing: Red long sleeves w/cut outs
Music: Carmen
3lutz FALL… 3Toe/2toe?/2toe… 3salchow becomes a double with big fallout anyway… 2axel/2toe… 3salchow 2 hands down… 2axel/2toe… another 2axel out of spiral sequence… wow. Pretty lackluster. They say this is uncharacteristic of her, but have they been watching who I’ve been watching the past couple years? This was pretty par for the course.
93.32 FS; 155.24 TOTAL. FINISHED 14th.
Meanwhile we see all the final flight for a moment before they launch into their last big RIVALRY piece… another pretty cool “countdown” theme.
BUT—wow, they didn’t show 4 skaters I thought they’d show for sure! Let’s go find their scores (and I’ll add notes from the protocols if I can)…
LAURA LEPISTO of Finland did the best of the 4—at least the judges thought so…
126.61 FS; 187.97 TOTAL. WHAT??? FINISHED 6th with the “4th best” free skate of the night?! I’m so studying this one.
Then AKIKO SUZUKI of Japan…
120.42 FS; 181.44 TOTAL. FINSHED 8th… sure wish we could’ve seen that one.
Then ALENA LEONOVA of Russia…
110.32 FS; 172.46 TOTAL. FINISHED 9th.
Then who else? Oooh, CAROLINA KOSTNER of Italy…
ouch… OK, I can see why they didn’t show this one.
88.88 FS (nineteenth best of the night. Out of 24.); 151.90 TOTAL.
FINISHED 16th, with THREE deductions. I’m not a big fan, but still…you just don’t wish that on anyone. I’m not sure if I want to see that one. Makes her Worlds free skate last year sound like a medal-winner.
HERE WE GO… FINAL FLIGHT…
RACHAEL FLATT, USA…
Wearing: red “strapless” (we should just call it “Skating Strapless”, right? Which is to say “Not Strapless in the least”) w/gold flowered bodice…
Music: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Back spiral into 2axel good… 3flip/3toe looked good… 3lutz from footwork that looked better than other night…spins still look a little slow, but I do think she’s emoting more… 3Loop nice…3lutz/2toe good…3flip/2toe/2loop yep… 3salchow, uh-huh, Scott’s fired up now… gosh this is going by fast… wow, done! Atta girl!
Sandra says she hasn’t practiced well here at all—what? First time we’ve heard that.
117.85 FS; 182.49 TOTAL. And holy cow, she’s behind Lepisto?? 8 points worth of downgrades, they say… Ugh. FINISHED 7th. Something’s not right there.
MIKI ANDO, Japan…
Wearing: Teal & gold Cleopatra stuff… I’m sure you get the picture.
Music: Romeo & Juliet… KIDDING! It’s Cleopatra/Marco Polo. And I liked this program for Ando a lot, back in November, for about 6 days. So did she, I think.
3lutz/2Loop OK… 3salchow to 2axel… 3 flip… all seem OK… spiral break… 3 lutz OK… 3 salchow… are you bored yet? 3 toe loop…2 axel/2loop/2loop…
Yawn. OK, back to Flatt… interesting that it seems like what happened w/Nagasu at Nationals just happened here—everyone thought she did SO WELL, but then the evil downgrade gods (aka technical specialist) put her 2nd. Behind LEPISTO, and now I never thought I’d say this but I want to see that Lepisto skate. Won’t believe it till I see it. Oh look, Ando’s done…
124.10 FS; 188.86 TOTAL. FINSHED 5th… and by the way, Lepisto beat ANDO in the Free Skate. Chew on that for a bit…
YU-NA KIM, South Korea! OK, let’s get this party started.
Wearing: halter-style royal blue with jeweled neckline.
Music: Concerto in F by G. Gershwin
3lutz/3toe fine… 3flip looked good… 2axel/2toe/2loop…lovely spirals, and then into 2axel/3toe great… 3salchow good…oh she’s looking like this is fun, good!... 3lutz, “yah” from Sandra, grunt of joy from Scott, sounds good girl!! Everything just looks… so…easy… 2axel… flying spin… get ready to RUMBLE!!!! I cannot believe how cool this girl is under pressure. She just did what a half-dozen expected Olympic champs before her could never do. Holy crap. Perfection, anyone?
150.06 FS; 228.56 TOTAL… WOW WOW WOW. I’ll take that look between Brian and Yu-Na as my favorite mental picture of the Games… way to go. Both of you.
WON GOLD!
MAO ASADA, Japan…
Wearing: Long-sleeve red/black w/black gloves; I wouldn’t be surprised if Taratsova put little weights in the fingertips of those gloves to ensure that she’d feel the weight of this music, which is…
Music: Bells of Moscow. Putting it on your IPod, are you? I didn’t think so.
3axel clean…then 3axel/2toe clean too, who would have guessed… good for her; that monkey’s sayonara… 3flip/2loop… flying sit…spirals; are you sick of this music yet? 3loop… 3flip/2loop/2loop and there was a little glitch on that… but not as bad as the 3toeloop glitch that came 20 seconds later… right there is maybe when it dawned on her that somehow, even with two triple axels in one program, she STILL wasn’t going to come close to Yu-Na…sigh… let it go, girl… 2 axel, OK she’s back… the straight line steps look very difficult, and I’d applaud if this music didn’t make me want to SLIT MY WRISTS… ugh.
Say something nice, Kelli… OK, I’m still impressed because to see her earlier this season was to think she should never consider so many triple axels…
131.17 FS; 205.50 TOTAL WON SILVER.
She looks pretty unhappy for someone who just “made history”. Sorry Mao. You deserved better than that program. Did I mention I loathed that music?
JOANNIE ROCHETTE, Canada… she’s looking OK, everyone. This should be good.
Wearing Blue halter w/cut-outs
Music: Samson & Delilah
3 lutz/2toe/2loop…3flip step out (shake it off, Rochette)…3loop good… fly sit combo…spirals… 3lutz YEA…3 toe to 3 salchow good!... 2 axel but had to get out quick and couldn’t do another in sequence as she’d planned…3salchow good… is there any place she can put that other 2axel back in? Hope that doesn’t make the difference, this is stellar…SO. PROUD. (And apropos of nothing, my husband thinks she has great “guns” (arms).)
131.28 FS; 202.64 TOTAL. WON BRONZE. And is a hero to so many it's just silly.
MIRAI NAGASU, USA…
Wearing red w/black appliqué overlay halter
Music: Carmen selections
3lutz/2toe/2toe… 2axel/3toe great… 3flip, on into flying sit…hope she gets better than average for the layback…footwork to 3lutz good… bauer into 3loop to 2axel… another 2axel… 3toe nice… and I can say it now that the jumps are done: I can’t recall a cleaner final group in the Olympics… anyone else?? Cinquanta be damned; these girls have it going on.
Now—will SHE get downgrades this time? I have a feeling she might indeed end up higher on the list than Rachael. Medal? I’m thinking no… though I’d love her to top Ando…
Hey, she did! 126.39 FS; 190.15 TOTAL. FINISHED 4th. She might just be the happiest Olympian to ever finish in that “dreaded” slot.
Wow, it’s only 1:33 AM Eastern time and I daresay I’m done! Guess I get to thank NBC for that… CHACK CHACK CHACK. We’ll get those other performances looked at and do our own commentary sometime shortly after the Games, maybe? Oh, so much still to talk about!
Keep coming back, I’ll be here all week and then some-!
As they often say in TV control rooms at the end of the day… GOOD SHOW, EVERYONE!
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9 comments:
Believe it or not, I stumbled on this article while trying to find out the music that Mao Asada skated to so that I *could* put it on my ipod! I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Thanks for the answer though!
Kim was good but she was WAY over scored. I wasn't really impressed with most of the skaters last night... just so underwhelming really
I'm surprised nobody in the final group fell! Rocket had a stumble but that's not a fall. :) And after KYN skated I just figured they'd give her the gold already.
Very happy for Ando-san, Asada-san, KYN, and Rocket! \m/
Anonymous... glad I could help... it's all yours :-)
Wagrobanite-- wow, underwhelming? That's one word I hadn't heard yet about it...
Kelli, I want to tell you about my week. There was a dull pounding in my head that started around Monday after the free dance. It was...the bells. I knew I would have to hear it later in the week and it started to haunt me. Every day, the bells. Stuck in my head. And after seeing Mao in the free skate, it has only gotten worse. THE BELLS! heeelp
Rachmaninoff, by the way, is apparently who we have to thank for dem bells... Laura are you sure it's not on YOUR IPod by mistake? If so perhaps Anonymous could take it off your hands :-)
Some observations:
The final group of skaters all did extremely well. Yes, there were a few blips on the radar-neither Mao Asada or Joannie Rochette skated a completely clean program-but both deserved their medals, as did Kim Yu-Na who was simply breathtaking. Once Kim finished, there was no debate about the Gold Medal.
Some factions on internet message boards clearly feel Joannie got either a sympathy vote or a "home country favor" to wind up with a bronze medal. That to me is TOTALLY bogus. Everyone on the podium deserved their spots. Reading some of the internet chatter reminds me of one of my favourite quotes; from Henry Ford: "Thinking is the hardest work there is. Perhaps that is why so few people engage in it." Clearly, most of these people have no clue about figure skating. That is why I rely on people such as yourself that do. Your blog is one of the few places to find intelligence and clarity in situations like this.
Rachael Flatt was downgraded on at least one of her jumps-Laura at Required Elements can fill you in more clearly than I can-and to me, it was justified. Yes, I am an American, but I am not blindly jingoistic. I try to see things through the prism of the truth. Sorry, back on subject. Rachael to me is a very slow, not very artistic skater. Those are two areas she will need to improve dramatically upon to contend with Kim, Asada, Rochette, etc. Mirai may have been downgraded but not a lot.
As much as I hate saying this-because I LOATHE the way they cover some sports-I hope ESPN does win the American broadcasting rights to the 2014 winter and 2016 summer Olympics. According to a nytimes.com story, ESPN might bid for the games and says they will broadcast all events in their entirety and live, regardless of the time differences between Sochi, Russia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Given that ESPN has about a jillion channels, that may not be a terribly bad thing.
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