Figure skating is impressive, but I still have that issue with sports that are so much like art. It's just strange that costumes & artistic expression factor into this.

I feel the same about gymnastics, and I used to do gymnastics. But as a guy we didn't have as much emphasis on the artistic side. It was more about specific moves (like a triple axle in skating) and how perfectly you executed them.

On a related note, they interviewed a pair of figure skaters and asked if it was easier to perform together since they were not a couple.

I thought that was such a ridiculous question that wouldn't be asked of hockey teammates.

But it shows that people see these sports differently.

NDRU said:

i used to think the same, but, like traditional athletes, they are extremely fit, and dedicated, and train very hard.

not everyone are adrenaline junkies, like a lot of the extreme sports in the winter olympics, but no less athletes.

now, summer olympics, gymnastic withs balls/ribbons etc

prb said:

yes it's definitely athletic, but so is ballet

so what distinguishes skating from ballet? I guess it's the fact that it's a competition and they get judged.

It's just a little odd, I am not taking away from what they do.

Vonn captures gold in women's downhill



Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso go 1-2 for U.S. in women's downhill

http://seattletimes.nwsou...ill17.html

Lindsey Vonn lived up to expectations and won the Olympic downhill Wednesday, and childhood rival and American teammate Julia Mancuso took a surprise silver medal.

By Andrew Dampf

SeaTimes Olympics

WHISTLER, British Columbia — If this is how Lindsey Vonn skis with a bruised shin, then the rest of the field has no chance.

Vonn showed no signs of discomfort when she won the Olympic downhill by more than half a second Wednesday, with childhood rival and American teammate Julia Mancuso taking a surprise silver medal.

"This is everything I've wanted and hoped for," Vonn said, her voice choked with emotion.

Vonn hurt her right shin Feb. 2 during pre-Olympic training in Austria and had hardly skied over the past two weeks. Still, as the two-time defending overall World Cup champion and the winner of five of the six downhills this season, she was an overwhelming favorite.

"She had the weight of the world on her," said Vonn's husband and chief adviser, a former U.S. skier who also serves as a personal coach. "People were basically hanging the medal around her neck before the start. That's incredibly hard to deal with."

Thomas Vonn was up at the start before his wife's run to calm her down, and the Vonns embraced in a hug that lasted for 30 seconds when they reunited at the finish.

"It was one of the most clutch runs I've ever seen," Thomas Vonn said.

In a race characterized by several crashes -- including one to Swedish standout Anja Paerson -- Vonn's sped down Franz's Downhill in 1 minute, 44.19 seconds.

Mancuso finished 0.56 seconds behind, and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria took the bronze medal, 1.46 seconds back.

Maria Riesch of Germany, Vonn's best friend and usual rival of late, finished eighth.

Andrea Fischbacher of Austria placed fourth, Fabienne Suter of Switzerland fifth and Whistler local Britt Janyk of Canada sixth.

It's the third time two Americans have finished 1-2 in an Olympic Alpine race, and the first time in 26 years.



At the 1984 Sarajevo Games, brothers Phil and Steve Mahre took gold and silver in the slalom and Debbie Armstrong and Christin Cooper accomplished the feat in giant slalom.

No American woman had won the Olympic downhill before. Hilary Lindh and Picabo Street both took silver -- in 1992 and 1994, respectively.

Vonn swept the downhill and super-G at last season's world championships in Val d'Isere, France, but had never won an Olympic medal. She had a horrific crash in downhill training at the 2006 Turin Games.

Mancuso won the giant slalom in Turin but hadn't finished on the podium since the Olympic test downhill here two years ago. The Squaw Valley, Calif., skier has won only two World Cup downhills in her career, the last nearly three years ago.

"Coming off a back injury last year, I was in a lot of rehab. I knew that I just had to hang on and keep going for it," Mancuso said. "It's really been a tough, long road. I'm happy to be in a position where I feel healthy."

Mancuso was an early starter and still led when Vonn skied.

Vonn, a Minnesota native who lives and trains in Vail, Colo., put on a skiing clinic for all the world to see.

Waiting in the starting gate with the sun reflecting orange off her goggles as she stared down the course, Vonn was a study in concentration. Kicking out of the start without regard to her bruised shin, she increased her lead at the first three checkpoints, kicking up a trail of smoky snow in her wake as if she were a race car, tucking at every opportunity.

Just when it seemed Vonn might go wide, she applied even more leg pressure, shifted her weight and maintained her line.

It wasn't all perfect, however, and Vonn lost nearly two tenths on the bottom, almost getting knocked off balance as she went over a small bump just before the finish.

But it was more than enough for gold, and Vonn collapsed on her back and yelled with joy in the finish area. She then raised herself and placed both arms in the air in triumph.

"It was not the perfect run by any means. But I attacked and made it down. It's awesome," Vonn said, crying.

A few moments later, Vonn's smile turned to a frown, as she watched Paerson lose control off the final jump, getting a huge amount of air and sliding through the finish headfirst.

Paerson bruised her left calf and was shaken up, but otherwise appeared OK, said Sweden team official Uls Lars Emilsson.

Due to the extended run of bad weather in Whistler over the past week, only one official downhill training session was held before the race, and all the fresh snow prevented organizers from creating a perfectly smooth surface. Even with sunny weather on race day, the course appeared extremely bumpy from top to bottom, creating a serious fitness test for skiers' legs -- resulting in several crashes.

"It was a little bit ragged the whole way," Vonn said.

The difficulties were evident from the start as the first skier, Klara Krizova of the Czech Republic, fell midway down and got spun around as she slid into a gate at high speed. Her skis remained attached, though, and she was able to get back up and complete her run.

Several other early starters collapsed in exhaustion upon crossing the finish line, and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland also crashed while landing the final jump. She slid downhill, then was launched back into the air when she hit a bump on the side of the course and landed hard on her back. She sat right up, though, and eventually walked away under her own power.

The next skier, Daniela Merighetti of Italy, fell right before the final jump and went head first through a gate, losing both of her skis. She ended up sliding downhill on her backside, waving to show she was OK to the delight of the fans.

Marion Rolland of France fell before she even got to the first gate, and one of the later starters, Edith Miklos of Romania, hit the safety nets at high speed and was airlifted off the course by helicopter.

Starting 10th, several skiers ahead of the race favorites, Mancuso put down a majestic run from start to finish. Beforehand, she was seen near the start with her eyes closes and her arms out simulating her run in her head.

"I've been practicing a lot of visualization and getting aggressive," Mancuso explained. "I really just had to give my all today."

She must have followed her plan to perfection, because Mancuso increased her lead at each checkpoint and maintained her balance off the big finishing jump, even though as one of the smaller downhillers she was launched high into the air.

"I felt like I was a little out of control," Mancuso said.

At the finish, Mancuso knew right away she had done something special and let out a big scream of delight, pumped her right fist and showed a big smile. Then she put on a pair of black sunglasses and waited for the favorites to come down.

It was a long wait, because all the crashes caused several delays.

Vonn will again be the favorite for the super-combined race Thursday, which was originally scheduled to open the women's Alpine competition last weekend.

thanks for the spoiler alert!

NDRU said:

Yeah THAT just sucked




oh well ...

NDRU said:

For TV. People watch TV? Sorry..

Mach said:

july said:

Indeed you are

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 United States 5 3 6 14
2 Germany (GER) 3 4 3 10
3 South Korea 3 2 0 5
4 Switzerland 3 0 1 4
5 Canada (CAN) 2 3 1 6
6 France (FRA) 2 1 4 7
7 China (CHN) 2 1 1 4
8 Sweden (SWE) 2 0 0 2
9 Austria (AUT) 1 2 2 5
9 Norway (NOR) 1 2 2 5
11 Russia (RUS) 1 1 1 3
12 Slovakia (SVK) 1 1 0 2
13 Czech Republic 1 0 1 2
14 Netherlands 1 0 0 1
15 Poland (POL) 0 2 0 2
16 Italy (ITA) 0 1 3 4
17 Japan (JPN) 0 1 1 2
18 Australia 0 1 0 1
18 Estonia (EST) 0 1 0 1
18 Finland (FIN) 0 1 0 1
18 Latvia (LAT) 0 1 0 1
22 Croatia (CRO) 0 0 1 1
22 Slovenia (SLO) 0 0 1 1
Total 28 28 28 84

NDRU said:

dancers are amazing athletes as well

That Shawn White is insane!

We watched his competition last night.. and his final run!

Congrats to all!


About figure skating being sport v art... this is the problem.

Plushy.. love him or hate him isn't he the only one who completely a quad in his short program? The rest of it looked pretty frenetic to me... but dang.. the guy can jump. He's not the most artistic skater... but as long as he can successfully complete his jumps... it's enough to edge out his competition.

I don't like how he's "goating" Evan! Well... yeah I do! I actually like trash-talking in sports!

But the thing with Evan is he's got a bad left ankle.. I think he's capable of doing a quad but his ankle just won't let him. So Plushy is being unfair. I have a feeling the other guys are going to step up and give Plushy what he's asking for!

I think the best scenario for me would be if Johnny Weir decided to just go for his quad.. landed it... and won the whole thing! I would just love that! He said he just might go for it!

I really like Johnny Weir in much the same way I like Plushenko. I've read Johnny has gotten some criticism by some gay commentators(????) about not being a good representative or something like that But Johnny is just being himself.. and calling it as he sees it--just like Plushy in a way. Plushy doesn't really have anything to prove since he's won everything before.. and Johnny seems pretty content with himself, too, even though he hasn't had Plushy's success.

It would be great if Johnny could win this.. Scott Hamilton would have a fit!

Mach said:

As you are

lazycrockett said:

Flawless is right. She's always flawless. She can sing for real. Who cares about the flub at the end when we have k.d. singing such an amazing song written by another amazing Canadian. We don't need no Beyonce's

NBC's 'live' Olympic coverage is anything but for West Coast viewers
Better get used to watching live coverage of the Winter Olympics on delay. That's NBC's strategy for "live" coverage for the West Coast.


Ron Judd

Seattle Times staff columnist

http://seattletimes.nwsou...udd17.html

Ron Judd's Olympics Insider Blog
Vancouver countdown

26 days to the start of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., on Feb. 12

SPOKANE — Here's what we wonder: If, god forbid, some major international incident occurred at the next Olympics at, say, midday: Would NBC delay coverage until prime time?

Seriously: Why not? They do it with all other instances of breaking news, including most of the major competitions that ardent Olympic fans most want to see.

Better ratings, says NBC, which says it has the market research to back that up — ostensibly provided by the same market-research geniuses who insisted Jay Leno would be a hit at 10 p.m.

The subject hit home again this week at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, where we noted, much to our chagrin, that when it comes to NBC, the insanity never stops.

The network, as usual, will hose the tiny, insignificant, barbed-wire-tangled portion of the United States known as the "West Coast" by delaying broadcast of the main event for three hours to viewers from San Diego to Blaine.

NBC says it will show Saturday's women's free skate live, simultaneously, to both the East and West Coasts — which is perfectly doable — and have it magically appear at 9 p.m. in both places, which is perfectly NOT doable. Either the Fourth Place Network has already reinvested some of that Conan O'Brien money in new time-shifting broadcast technology, or the "live" designation is a lie to those of you unfortunate enough to live on the West Coast. It's the same intentional falsehood the peacock network foisted upon the not-fooled public during the Beijing Games.

So when you see "ET/PT," rest assured that means that the East Coast, the Coast That Matters, will get the event live in prime time. The rest of you will get it in prime time, too. Delayed by three hours. Even though it happened in your own time zone.

Got it? Good. Might as well get used to it, because you're going to get the same thing next month from Vancouver/Whistler. That's right: If you're thinking you'll be able to dial up, say, the men's downhill, live at 11 a.m. from Whistler, right in your own time zone, on NBC, you're a hopeless dreamer. Odds are you'll see it on the prime-time show, sometime after 7:30 p.m. About eight hours later. And a full three hours after all your buddies on the East Coast have already seen it, commented on Twitter, discussed it with their kids and watched it two or three more times on TiVo.

And they do this why? Because it's what you want, NBC says. They've got market research to prove it. YOU want to watch major sports half a day old, because prime time is the only time you're capable of plunking down to watch. And yep, that includes weekends.

We offer our usual response, which as usual will be ignored: If NBC really believes most people want to be spoon fed by Bob Costas only after dark, but knows that some other malcontents prefer to watch sports live, why not do both? Use a second-rate cable network to put morning events on in the morning. Don't worry about people finding it and making the time. Even out here in the West, most of us can carve out time to clamber off our horse and find live skiing in the TV grid.

It'd be a win-win. The reality TV crowd could still open up the face slit in their Slanket for the daily prime-time feeding by NBC's distinguished cast of hyperventilators. And it'll never happen under Dick Ebersol's NBC. Which is another good reason to give the Olympic contract to a network that treats the Olympics as a live event, not schlock content to be repackaged at its own convenience.

Shani Davis, left, and Chad Hedrick of the USA celebrate on the podium after the men's speed skating 1000m final at the 2010 Winter Olympics.








Davis won the gold medal. Hedrick won the bronze.

prb said:

What about curling? Now someone explain to me how THAT'S a sport, because I don't get it.

1 United States 6 5 7 18
2 Germany (GER) 4 4 3 11
3 Norway (NOR) 3 3 2 8
4 Canada (CAN) 3 3 1 7
5 South Korea 3 2 0 5
6 Switzerland 3 0 1 4
7 France (FRA) 2 1 4 7
8 China (CHN) 2 1 1 4
9 Sweden (SWE) 2 0 1 3
10 Austria (AUT) 1 2 2 5
11 Russia (RUS) 1 2 1 4
12 Netherlands 1 1 1 3
13 Australia 1 1 0 2
13 Slovakia (SVK) 1 1 0 2
15 Czech Republic 1 0 1 2
16 Poland (POL) 0 2 0 2
17 Italy (ITA) 0 1 3 4
18 Japan (JPN) 0 1 2 3
19 Belarus (BLR) 0 1 1 2
20 Estonia (EST) 0 1 0 1
20 Finland (FIN) 0 1 0 1
20 Kazakhstan ( 0 1 0 1
20 Latvia (LAT) 0 1 0 1
24 Croatia (CRO) 0 0 1 1
24 Slovenia (SLO) 0 0 1 1
Total 34 35 33 102

I had issues with last nights men's figure skating.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Weir's low score?

I was SO HAPPY Lysacek won...he deserved it. Weir should have been scored MUCH higher though.
=0P

SUPRMAN said:

I love Weir but I do understand that his transitions are easier than the top 3. Yeah, he could've been judged higher for artistry.

I agree on the gold it's just that he was all technical, no artistry. That's just my opinion, it doesn't make me right.

I wish there was artistry and technique all wrapped up in one person.

^ Artisty took a back seat to technique bout 10 years ago. Now its all Quads and Triples.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Russian figure skater Evgeny Plushenko has found a powerful ally in Vladimir Putin to support his claim that he was robbed of a gold medal as diplomacy lost out to finger-pointing and insult trading at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Friday.

The Americans shrugged off Russia's complaints as nothing more than sour grapes but did lodge their own protest against the crash helmet worn by Britain's Amy Williams, the leader of the women's skeleton, one of the fastest and most frightening events at the Olympics.

Austria also complained about the modified boot bindings worn by Swiss ski jumping Simon Ammann, arguing that they gave him an unfair advantage to fly further.

Officials from both sports dismissed the complaints but the bitter fallout over the figure skating showed no immediate signs of thawing.

BADLY WRONG

Plushenko was adamant the judges had got it badly wrong when they handed him the silver medal behind American Evan Lysacek on Thursday and his cries of foul were backed by one of the most powerful men in the world.

"I would like to sincerely congratulate you with the wonderful Olympic performance, your silver is worth gold," Russian Prime Minister Putin, the former President, told Plushenko in a telegram.

"You were able to overcome all the obstacles in your brave comeback and performed the most accomplished program on the Vancouver ice."

The judging system used in figure skating has always been a complicated and highly emotive issue but Plushenko said the current format, where skaters are given marks out of 10 rather than six, was flawed.

The 2006 Olympic champion said he was not given enough credit for landing a quadruple jump, a notoriously difficult maneuver that only a handful of top skaters have ever mastered. Lysacek did not even attempt the trick in his routine.

'NOT PROGRESS'

"You can't be considered a true men's champion without a quad," Plushenko told Russian state television RTR.

"For someone to stand on top of the podium with the gold medal around his neck with just doing triple jumps, to me it's not progress, it's a regress because we've done triples 10 or even 20 years ago."

The U.S. team, meanwhile, accused Williams of having illegal aerodynamic features on the helmet she used to break the track record at the Whistler Sliding Center but the International Bobsleigh Federation (FITB) disagreed.

Williams held a 0.30 second advantage over Germany's Kerstin Szymkowiak after Thursday's first two runs. Noelle Pikus-Pace was the highest-placed American in fifth spot, half a second behind.

The medals were to be decided on Friday after the third and fourth runs. Latvia's Martins Dukurs led the men's event, which would also be completed on Friday.

There were just two other medals up for grabs on the seventh full day of competition, the men's Super G at Whistler Mountain and women's 15 kilometer cross-country skiing.

Austria, who said Ammann's equipment allowed him to fly further than his rivals and was therefore illegal, were threatening to protest if the Swiss jumper used the bindings in Saturday's large hill competition.

The Swiss ski team accused the Austrians of using the bindings as an excuse for their underwhelming performances so far after the International Ski Federation said they were perfectly legal.
[EDITED]
http://www.reuters.com/ar...sportsNews

Drama, drama . . . .

(Seattle)


Ohno becomes most reviled athlete in South Korea

By JEAN H. LEE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


USA's Apolo Anton Ohno leads the pack during the sixth heat of the men's 1000m short track skating competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

SEOUL, South Korea -- Apolo Anton Ohno may be feted at home for his Olympic feats, but he's better known in South Korea as the "king of fouls."

The American short-track speedskater, who goes up against the South Koreans again when he races for a historic seventh Winter Olympics medal on Saturday, may well be the athlete South Koreans hate the most.

One company once sold toilet paper emblazoned with Ohno's face: Ohno joyfully winning the gold, Ohno kissing his medal, Ohno laughing. One video game features an Ohno character you can shoot in the head, and to call something "Ohnolike" is to deride it as a dirty trick.

The bad blood goes back eight years to the Salt Lake City Olympics, where South Koreans believe Ohno stole the gold from Kim Dong-sung, who finished first in the 1,500-meter race but was disqualified for blocking. Ohno, then a teenager competing in his first Olympics, threw up his arms as he tried to pass Kim, as though to cry foul.

As Ohno stepped up to claim his gold, his joy only sealed South Koreans' disgust for an athlete lambasted as ungracious and unsportsmanlike. Thousands of angry anti-Ohno e-mails shut down the U.S. Olympic Committee server for nine hours.

Hatred of Ohno is said to have fueled anti-American sentiment back then, and it doesn't help that his father, Yuki, was born in Japan, the nation that colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945. South Koreans try to trounce Japan as often as possible on the playing field, and Ohno is not exempt.

The animosity toward Ohno grew so heated that the entire American short-track team withdrew from a World Cup event held in South Korea in 2003, citing death threats against Ohno. In 2005, the athlete traveled in South Korea, reportedly under the guard of police.

Last year, with tensions appearing to simmer down, Ohno chose to make the trip for a World Cup event and was roundly booed by the crowd in the coastal city of Gangneung. And when a South Korean won gold and Ohno was disqualified, the audience roared and cheered with approval.

Ohno, older and wiser, shrugged off the booing. And he managed to earn the crowd's grudging respect with a clean skate later in the competition, drawing applause for an undisputed gold medal finish.

South Koreans are possessive and prickly about short-track speedskating, until now the country's best Winter Olympics event. The Asian nation of 49 million routinely churns out Olympic medalists in the short track, and two coaches on the U.S. short-track speedskating team were born and raised in South Korea.

At these games, the South Koreans have emerged as a surprise force not only on the short track but also on the long track. South Korea has five medals so far, one of them a gold to Ohno's silver.

The traditional rivalry between Ohno and the South Koreans flared up again in that race, the 1,500 meters. Three South Koreans were in the lead as they rounded the last turn, but two crashed out, allowing Ohno to slip across the finish line in second.

Incensed gold medalist Lee Jung-su criticized Ohno as "too aggressive" in a post-race news conference.

"Ohno didn't deserve to stand on the same medal platform as me," he told Yonhap. "I was so enraged that it was hard for me to contain myself during the victory ceremony."

South Korean broadcaster SBS posted a clip online from the semifinal with a caption saying it shows Ohno "pushing" Lee.

"I understand that in sports, you naturally want to win. But sports competitions should be won through fair play," Jung Kyung Kim, a 21-year-old college student, said in central Seoul on Friday.

Ohno called the final a "crazy race" full of bumping and grabbing. He also admitted he had been hoping to capitalize on a South Korean mistake.

"At the end of the race, I was hoping for another disqualification, kind of like what happened in Salt Lake City," Ohno said.

Still, Ohno later offered his congratulations to Lee in a Twitter post. "Wow Koreans are strong as always," he added.

The rivals will have a chance to put their trash-talking to the test this weekend. Ohno, Lee and the two who crashed in the 1,500, Lee Ho-suk and Sung Si-bak, will compete Saturday in Canada to qualify for the 1,000-meter final.

If he wins, Ohno will become the most decorated American in Winter Olympics history.

But at least one blogger hopes to see him fall flat on his face: "He should fall down on the ice and have (figure skater) Kim Yu-na land on his disgusting face after she performs a triple axel."

1 United States 6 6 8 20
2 Norway (NOR) 5 3 2 10
3 Germany (GER) 4 5 4 13
4 Canada (CAN) 4 3 1 8
5 South Korea 3 2 0 5
6 Switzerland 3 0 1 4
7 France (FRA) 2 1 4 7
8 China (CHN) 2 1 1 4
8 Sweden (SWE) 2 1 1 4
10 Austria (AUT) 1 2 2 5
10 Russia (RUS) 1 2 2 5
12 Netherlands 1 1 1 3
13 Australia 1 1 0 2
13 Slovakia (SVK) 1 1 0 2
15 Czech Republic 1 0 1 2
16 Great Britain 1 0 0 1
17 Poland (POL) 0 2 1 3
18 Latvia (LAT) 0 2 0 2
19 Italy (ITA) 0 1 3 4
20 Japan (JPN) 0 1 2 3
21 Belarus (BLR) 0 1 1 2
22 Estonia (EST) 0 1 0 1
22 Finland (FIN) 0 1 0 1
22 Kazakhstan 0 1 0 1
25 Croatia (CRO) 0 0 1 1
25 Slovenia (SLO) 0 0 1 1
Total 38 39 37 114

uPtoWnNY said:

me either

SUPRMAN said:

Go Torah!!!