Man, there was some good figure skating today! When I have more time, I intend to verify it (yet another item on my expanding to-research list), but I suspect that most skaters this week have made their personal bests. Like I said yesterday, there must be something in the water here in Spokane. It’s like this little town has spurred the skaters onto excellence. I know this sounds hokey, but I’m honored to have helped out in just a little way.
10am: Arrived at the Arena for the junior men’s free skate. To be honest, I wasn’t as impressed with these guys. Perhaps my expectation of the skating is higher now than it was earlier in the week. I’ll look up their scores later, probably after I get home.
12:50pm: Things were pushed together this week, and the arena is starting to get really crowded. I was barely even able to grab lunch! The pairs free skate was worth the price of admission for the entire week. I’m still amazed at the outcome—these skaters from Michigan that no one has heard of, Brooke Castile and Ben Okolski, actually won the whole thing, by the slimmest of margins (.25 of a point). They competed in sectionals this season, and didn’t even win them. And they came in eighth at last year’s Nationals. Absolutely amazing.
I feel bad for Inoue and Baldwin. They fell twice; I thought that one of the falls was during one of their attempted throw quads (which they missed in their short program), but the newspaper stories (“The Spokesman Review”) I read this morning didn’t report that. They did report on something I missed, though, because we hadn’t gotten back in time for it. Vise and Trent, during their warm-up earlier in the evening, successfully accomplished a quad throw Salchow, something that’s never been done before in competition. They attempted it during their long program, but unfortunately wasn’t able to do it. Something in the water!
In between groups, we were treated to the induction of Charles Schultz to the Figure Skating Hall of Fame. (He was a huge supporter of the sport.) Scott Hamilton gave the award to Schultz’s widow. The audience gave him a standing ovation. Man, I love that guy. He’s so brave, and talented, and still cute as heck.
5:30pm: Dinner at the Sawtooth Grille in the mall in downtown Spokane. Adequate food; their calamari was a little rubbery. The fun part about out break was the shuttle trip to and from. We were lucky enough to sit next to a novice pair skater, Casey Sullivan, from Oregon. I think I’ll write it up as an interview at a later time. It was like sitting through a mini-lecture on what it’s like to be a young skater, given by a very articulate young man. On the shuttle trip back, we were entertained by the bus driver. Here’s the joke she told over the intercom:
“If ya get thirsty over there at the Arena, you should be fine; I hear there’s lots of ice.” The entire shuttle groaned, and then, in the spirit of Johnny Carson, she made us laugh, anyway.
7:50pm: Well, that’s not entirely true. For some reason, they started late. But it was worth the wait, and we have some really fun seatmates.
Ice dancing! Great, great skating. Of course, there was no question who’d end up winning. Belbin and Agosto changed their long program! I’m glad, because the long program they’ve been performing all season just wasn’t doing it for them. They got it together in mere weeks, and it was great. I laughed as the scores were read, they were so high. At any rate, I think this program will suit them well as they go into World’s.
As I end, I have a request to ask my readers, if there are any out there. The phrase I heard for the first time on Thursday was used again yesterday. Is it “Dang, you’re hot!” or “Damn, you’re hot!” or “Yeah, you’re hot!” I must know!
I can’t believe that today’s the last two competitions, men and women’s long programs. Man, it should be good!
Showing posts with label Juniors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juniors. Show all posts
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
Day Five
If I were to summarize this day, it would be with two phrases: “Dang, you’re hot!” and “There’s something in the water.”
The first phrase is a quote from some girls watching the competitions; when a skater (usually male) would take the ice, one of them would yell out, “Dang, you’re hot!” I’m old, so I never heard it before. I assume it’s an adolescent-thing I know nothing about.
The second phrase is something I came up with on my own. I intend to some research to back up my claim, but I suspect that several personal bests were made.
Anyway, here’s our schedule. I’m writing it on Friday, the sixth day, because we have a late morning today and I have more time. We spent the entire day at the Spokane Arena.
9am: Arrived at the Arena. We drove in, parked, and as we walked in, I found a large copy of the full skating schedule right there. Someone must have dropped it just a few minutes before because it wasn’t even wet or dirty. My mother-in-law Audrey commented that “God must be with us.” That inspired a discussion about the saints, and I decided that I would research if there was a “patron saint of figure skating.” We weren’t sure there was even one, and I wondered how to name one. Hmm, another thing to research.
The real reason we were there, instead of Catholic theology, however, was skating. We caught some of the senior women’s warm-up. I learned something new: skaters at competitions basically have two types of “practice” sessions. The first, one for each program, is called “practice,” and each skater gets to hear his or her music and run through their programs. The second is called the “warm-up,” and it consists of groups of skaters practicing without their music. It looked like the skaters went through their elements and skills.
I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to have the opportunity to catch Emily Hughes and miss out on my assignment to interview her. Fortunately, she was there and after her warm-up, asked if I could talk to her. She told me, “I have to take off my skates,” directed me up to her father sitting in the stands, and said that she’d try to join us later.
So instead of interviewing Emily, I got to interview her dad! What a nice man he is. (I’ll write up the interview this morning and send it to Ron Porter for Emily’s webpage.) I got a nice interview with him, and waited for Emily, who never came, probably because she got caught up doing something else. I gave Mr. Hughes my cell phone number, and left to get ready for the next competition. I probably should’ve waited a little longer, but there’s still time to talk with Emily. I’m happy with the interview I got, though.
11:00: Took my seats for the junior pairs free skate. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see their short program. The winners, Keanna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker (named for Knute Rockne, I believe), won handily, by almost twenty points over second place. I suspected that it meant that they had an outstanding short program. At any rate, I continue to be awed and impressed by the quality of skating at this level.
I think the week finally caught up with me, because I had a headache and had to go seek out some aspirin from first aid. Lunch, which we caught there at the Arena, also didn’t set well with me. Fortunately, the meds kicked in and I perked up for the afternoon competitions.
2pm: Senior men’s short program. This is when I started thinking that there must be something in water at the Nationals here in Spokane. The audience was great, and it was great to be in a place where the fans and the athletes fed off each other. Lysacek and Weir are basically in a tie after the short program, with less a point separating them.
4:30pm: Dinner across the street at The Ticket. It was packed, so we sat sit with two ladies from Spokane who had tickets for the evening’s competitions. I continue to be impressed with the friendliness of this town.
5:50pm: Women’s short program. More great skating. Again, personal bests….
The scores are close here, too, making the gold anyone’s game. Kimmie Meissner was amazingly good. And there’s less than half a point separating BeBe Liang and my girl, Emily Hughes.
So I’m looking forward to seeing how things turn out. There’s been talk about the lack of “drama” here this year, but that’s fine with me. The skating is dramatic enough. I like that we have no distractions and tire irons this year, because we can focus on the exceptional skating.
The first phrase is a quote from some girls watching the competitions; when a skater (usually male) would take the ice, one of them would yell out, “Dang, you’re hot!” I’m old, so I never heard it before. I assume it’s an adolescent-thing I know nothing about.
The second phrase is something I came up with on my own. I intend to some research to back up my claim, but I suspect that several personal bests were made.
Anyway, here’s our schedule. I’m writing it on Friday, the sixth day, because we have a late morning today and I have more time. We spent the entire day at the Spokane Arena.
9am: Arrived at the Arena. We drove in, parked, and as we walked in, I found a large copy of the full skating schedule right there. Someone must have dropped it just a few minutes before because it wasn’t even wet or dirty. My mother-in-law Audrey commented that “God must be with us.” That inspired a discussion about the saints, and I decided that I would research if there was a “patron saint of figure skating.” We weren’t sure there was even one, and I wondered how to name one. Hmm, another thing to research.
The real reason we were there, instead of Catholic theology, however, was skating. We caught some of the senior women’s warm-up. I learned something new: skaters at competitions basically have two types of “practice” sessions. The first, one for each program, is called “practice,” and each skater gets to hear his or her music and run through their programs. The second is called the “warm-up,” and it consists of groups of skaters practicing without their music. It looked like the skaters went through their elements and skills.
I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to have the opportunity to catch Emily Hughes and miss out on my assignment to interview her. Fortunately, she was there and after her warm-up, asked if I could talk to her. She told me, “I have to take off my skates,” directed me up to her father sitting in the stands, and said that she’d try to join us later.
So instead of interviewing Emily, I got to interview her dad! What a nice man he is. (I’ll write up the interview this morning and send it to Ron Porter for Emily’s webpage.) I got a nice interview with him, and waited for Emily, who never came, probably because she got caught up doing something else. I gave Mr. Hughes my cell phone number, and left to get ready for the next competition. I probably should’ve waited a little longer, but there’s still time to talk with Emily. I’m happy with the interview I got, though.
11:00: Took my seats for the junior pairs free skate. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see their short program. The winners, Keanna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker (named for Knute Rockne, I believe), won handily, by almost twenty points over second place. I suspected that it meant that they had an outstanding short program. At any rate, I continue to be awed and impressed by the quality of skating at this level.
I think the week finally caught up with me, because I had a headache and had to go seek out some aspirin from first aid. Lunch, which we caught there at the Arena, also didn’t set well with me. Fortunately, the meds kicked in and I perked up for the afternoon competitions.
2pm: Senior men’s short program. This is when I started thinking that there must be something in water at the Nationals here in Spokane. The audience was great, and it was great to be in a place where the fans and the athletes fed off each other. Lysacek and Weir are basically in a tie after the short program, with less a point separating them.
4:30pm: Dinner across the street at The Ticket. It was packed, so we sat sit with two ladies from Spokane who had tickets for the evening’s competitions. I continue to be impressed with the friendliness of this town.
5:50pm: Women’s short program. More great skating. Again, personal bests….
The scores are close here, too, making the gold anyone’s game. Kimmie Meissner was amazingly good. And there’s less than half a point separating BeBe Liang and my girl, Emily Hughes.
So I’m looking forward to seeing how things turn out. There’s been talk about the lack of “drama” here this year, but that’s fine with me. The skating is dramatic enough. I like that we have no distractions and tire irons this year, because we can focus on the exceptional skating.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Day Three
Still having frustrations with our hotel—still no wireless in any rooms. Plus, we got back late last night (due to transportation frustrations), so I decided to blog this morning and went right to bed. The skating’s been great, though!
We decided to start things a bit later, since things didn’t really get started until 10am, so we slept in and hung out in the hotel most of the morning. Yesterday was all about ice dancing.
10am: Watched the junior original dance at the Convention Center. We weren’t sitting in a place where I could see the scores well, so I wasn’t able to look into my theory about the judges cracking down on point deductions. It didn’t seem to be the case, but I’ll research it when I have more time and internet. (There wasn’t the kind of deductions we saw with the novices with the seniors, however.)
12:30pm: Ditched out on the junior men’s pairs short program to go have lunch. Also, we figured that if we wanted to eat lunch and go see the senior compulsory dance at 3pm, we’d miss some of the men, anyway. Ate at Chili’s, a sentimental favorite of mine because I used to eat there with my buddies in college. We got to the Spokane Arena way early and hung out, watching the junior girls’ warm-up.
3pm: Seniors compulsory dance. My favorite ice dancers, Belbin and Agosto, kicked butt! My mother-in-law, who isn’t as familiar with Ben and Tanith as I am, but who has watched figure skating for forty years, could tell they were far and above much better than anyone else. I can’t really say much more than that, since I haven’t had much experience watching the compulsories. They’re fun to watch, though—so pretty and elegant. I wish that I had more opportunities to watch them.
4:30pm: Early dinner at the Ticket.
5:40pm: Got back to watch the junior women’s long program. One of the things about this competition is my assumption that the lower level skaters perform at, well, a lower level. That’s only somewhat true—these girls do triples and the intricate spins and footwork as the seniors, but much better than I assumed coming here. And the drama’s just as exciting. It’s my intention to write a more extensive article about the juniors at a later time.
8:30pm: Senior original dance. Again, we were treated to excellent skating. Ben and Tanith blew everyone else out of the water. They’re almost a full ten points ahead of the next-best couple, Gregory and Petukhov (who did a great skate anyway). I want to compare these scores with previous ones; I believe that Ben and Tanith might have made their personal best; if not, pretty close.
At the end of Ben and Tanith’s program, Ben did this uncharacteristic little slip. While they were sitting at the kiss and cry, Tanith was gesturing—probably explaining to someone what had happened. It was very cute. Man, I love those guys.
I don’t want to describe the struggle we had getting back to the hotel last night. We’re driving in and paying for parking this morning.
We decided to start things a bit later, since things didn’t really get started until 10am, so we slept in and hung out in the hotel most of the morning. Yesterday was all about ice dancing.
10am: Watched the junior original dance at the Convention Center. We weren’t sitting in a place where I could see the scores well, so I wasn’t able to look into my theory about the judges cracking down on point deductions. It didn’t seem to be the case, but I’ll research it when I have more time and internet. (There wasn’t the kind of deductions we saw with the novices with the seniors, however.)
12:30pm: Ditched out on the junior men’s pairs short program to go have lunch. Also, we figured that if we wanted to eat lunch and go see the senior compulsory dance at 3pm, we’d miss some of the men, anyway. Ate at Chili’s, a sentimental favorite of mine because I used to eat there with my buddies in college. We got to the Spokane Arena way early and hung out, watching the junior girls’ warm-up.
3pm: Seniors compulsory dance. My favorite ice dancers, Belbin and Agosto, kicked butt! My mother-in-law, who isn’t as familiar with Ben and Tanith as I am, but who has watched figure skating for forty years, could tell they were far and above much better than anyone else. I can’t really say much more than that, since I haven’t had much experience watching the compulsories. They’re fun to watch, though—so pretty and elegant. I wish that I had more opportunities to watch them.
4:30pm: Early dinner at the Ticket.
5:40pm: Got back to watch the junior women’s long program. One of the things about this competition is my assumption that the lower level skaters perform at, well, a lower level. That’s only somewhat true—these girls do triples and the intricate spins and footwork as the seniors, but much better than I assumed coming here. And the drama’s just as exciting. It’s my intention to write a more extensive article about the juniors at a later time.
8:30pm: Senior original dance. Again, we were treated to excellent skating. Ben and Tanith blew everyone else out of the water. They’re almost a full ten points ahead of the next-best couple, Gregory and Petukhov (who did a great skate anyway). I want to compare these scores with previous ones; I believe that Ben and Tanith might have made their personal best; if not, pretty close.
At the end of Ben and Tanith’s program, Ben did this uncharacteristic little slip. While they were sitting at the kiss and cry, Tanith was gesturing—probably explaining to someone what had happened. It was very cute. Man, I love those guys.
I don’t want to describe the struggle we had getting back to the hotel last night. We’re driving in and paying for parking this morning.
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