Day Four

We drove into the Arena today, but didn’t get back any later tonight because, true to form, I got lost coming back to the hotel. No trip can be perfect, I suppose.

What is perfect, or nearly so, is the figure skating. It’s been good so far, but as we get further on in the week, it’s getting better and better. Here’s the schedule:

9am: Arrived at the Arena to watch practices. I had unfortunately missed most of the senior women, so I missed Emily Hughes. We did, however, get to watch the senior men practice their long program. Evan Lysacek gave me quite a scare. He was in the first group, and arrived late, so I was afraid the injury that took him out of the Grand Prix finals was going to take him out of the Nationals. I was happy when he showed up.

Watching his practice, I have some real concerns about his chances here. He didn’t have a disastrous practice, but he did miss some of his triples and didn’t have his normal stamina. He’s definitely off his top game, probably because of all the time he missed on the ice healing from his injury.

I also got the pleasure of watching Johnny Weir practice. I’ve heard that most of his skating is about his mental discipline, and that was obvious from his practice this morning. He barely went through his program; instead, he skated around the rink, obviously thinking about his moves. Towards the end of the practice, though, he started practicing his triples (everyone out there was), and I believe he attempted a quad, at least once, but popped it. At any rate, it was very interesting to witness it.

12pm: Lunch. We had plenty of time, so we took the shuttle downtown. I wanted at least one of our meals to be at a nice place, so we stopped at the restaurant at the Davenport Hotel. A little pricy, but excellent food and service. My mother-in-law Audrey and I both had the tomato basil soup, the best soup I’ve had in a long time. I recommend it.

2:45pm: After walking around downtown for a while, we went back to the Arena for the junior women’s short program at 3:30pm. Again, I continue to be impressed by the caliber of the skating at the junior level. It was great fun, mostly because the scores were so close after the short program. Mirai Nagaso won the gold; the top two girls both had scores in the 150s, which is comparable to the scores that many seniors get. I predict that Mirai (and Caroline Zhang, who came in third) will be seniors next year, and I look forward to following their careers.

7:30pm: Opening ceremonies. They kicked us out of our seats between events, so I bought some almonds and wandered around for a while. I’m too short to be able to see the fireworks outside the windows, so I wandered over to the ESPN area. They were broadcasting a short show about the Nationals right there, with Terry Gannon, Peggy Fleming, and Kurt Browning. It was so cool to actually see them in person! And Peggy is so beautiful. I think she’s more beautiful than she was when she was skating.

The opening ceremonies were cutesy, of course, with skaters from Spokane performing and the appropriate politicians giving welcome speeches. The youth orchestra that performed was excellent. A nice touch: the conductor wore ice skates as he performed. I just love those little touches.

8:15pm: Senior pairs short program. What a privilege to witness such exceptional skating. The stars of the show, Inoue and Baldwin and Trent and Vise were off their game a little. Of course, I feel a little ridiculous saying that, since John and Rena came in first. They attempted their famous quad throw, but Rena two-footed it as she landed. I’ve seen them do better.

Vise and Trent had this bizarre fall, so they were way down in fourth by the end of the evening. They also weren’t as good as they’ve been in the past. The scores are tight, though, with only four points separating them from first. The exciting thing is that Nam and Leftheris, who have had an uneven season this year, is barely 0.2 points behind Inoue and Baldwin. I can’t wait until we see how things shake out on Friday night.