My take on the Australian Open and U.S. Figure Skating Championship
So, since I've been bumming around the house, a.k.a. job hunting, I have become majorly obsessed w/ watching tennis and figure skating. I absolutely love watching Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova and Justin Henin play. So, I watched their matches during this year's Australian Open on ESPN 2. Roddick's match in the third round was phenomenal, even though he lost :( The match lasted nearly 4 and a half hours and he hit 42 aces! Sharapova was at the top of her game and had no mercy for any of her opponents, leading her to win the title. Though, I found another favorite female player in Ana Ivanovic who put up a valiant fight in the final against Sharapova. I was so disappointed when Federer lost to Djokovic in the semi-finals, but am now realizing that I really like Djokovic too and am officially adding him to my list of faves. Congrats to Sharapova and Djokovic!
I have always been a big fan of figure skating and was glad to be able to catch the tail end of the U.S. Figure Skating Championship this past weekend. There were some new, amazingly talented skaters in the women's category and they are all so young! I'm talking like 14, 15 and 16 year olds. The winner of the gold was this little firecracker named Mirai Nagasu who is all of 14. She skated an amazing short, then fell on a double in her long, but came back w/ a vengence and nailed everything else. Rachel Flatt and Ashley Wagner(silver and bronze) gave nearly flawless long programs. Out of the top four females, only Ashley Wagner is old enough to go to the world competition. You have to be at least 16 and Rachel Flatt was 20 days away from her 16th birthday :( The national figure skating board just added Kimmie Meisner to the U.S. team for world's and I really don't think that she deserves it. She fell three times in her long and finished 7th overall. But I guess they may be taking her past experience into consideration. Hopefully she pulls herself together and skates better.
The Men's Single division was where all the drama was this year. Ryan Bradley (who I happen to be in love w/ and want to marry) skated a practically flawless short, but the judges gave him a surprisingly, low score. I bet that this was what threw him a bit in his long and he ended up as 5th. He's still a great skater and such an awesome guy. He kind of reminds me of Kurt Browning(another one of my faves) when he skates :D. Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek have this stupid ongoing public rivalry. Weir stated that he just doesn't like Lysacek as a person and that if they both skated clean programs that he should win over Lysacek. What a pompous jerk. I gotta give props to Evan for being the bigger person and not stooping down to insulting him back. Before the long, Weir was in first and Lysacek was in second. Then, both skated awesomely in their longs. When the scoring came in, they were dead even. But since Lysacek had won the preskate, he won.
I will be honest, I thought that Weir had done slightly better in his long and probably should've won(despite my personal feelings about him) the gold. But this stupid new(I guess it's not so new anymore) judging system focuses on the elements separately instead of on the performance as a whole. I have always thought that if you did the required elements and skated a clean program, then you should be rewarded accordingly and the old system leaned this way. Now, you can get extra credit from the judges for throwing some jumps in after the halfway point or throwing your hands up in the air during a jump. So, someone who does everything they're supposed to and does a good job, could now lose to someone who doesn't skate as clean and has a fanicier program. In the 2002 Winter Olympics, there was a controversial situation in the couple's skating competition. There was a German couple that came in w/ a super difficult, show-offy program that they made quite a few mistakes on. Then a Canadian couple skated, had all the required elements and gave an almost perfect performance. Scores came in and the German couple received the gold over the Canadians. People, myself included, were livid and due to the overwhelming response of anger, they awarded a second gold medal to the Canadian couple. Supposedly, this new judging system is supposed to do away w/ problems like that, but I think that it has been just as, if not moreso, problematic. So, once again, I'm annoyed w/ the results of a figure skating competition. Surprise, surprise!
I have always been a big fan of figure skating and was glad to be able to catch the tail end of the U.S. Figure Skating Championship this past weekend. There were some new, amazingly talented skaters in the women's category and they are all so young! I'm talking like 14, 15 and 16 year olds. The winner of the gold was this little firecracker named Mirai Nagasu who is all of 14. She skated an amazing short, then fell on a double in her long, but came back w/ a vengence and nailed everything else. Rachel Flatt and Ashley Wagner(silver and bronze) gave nearly flawless long programs. Out of the top four females, only Ashley Wagner is old enough to go to the world competition. You have to be at least 16 and Rachel Flatt was 20 days away from her 16th birthday :( The national figure skating board just added Kimmie Meisner to the U.S. team for world's and I really don't think that she deserves it. She fell three times in her long and finished 7th overall. But I guess they may be taking her past experience into consideration. Hopefully she pulls herself together and skates better.
The Men's Single division was where all the drama was this year. Ryan Bradley (who I happen to be in love w/ and want to marry) skated a practically flawless short, but the judges gave him a surprisingly, low score. I bet that this was what threw him a bit in his long and he ended up as 5th. He's still a great skater and such an awesome guy. He kind of reminds me of Kurt Browning(another one of my faves) when he skates :D. Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek have this stupid ongoing public rivalry. Weir stated that he just doesn't like Lysacek as a person and that if they both skated clean programs that he should win over Lysacek. What a pompous jerk. I gotta give props to Evan for being the bigger person and not stooping down to insulting him back. Before the long, Weir was in first and Lysacek was in second. Then, both skated awesomely in their longs. When the scoring came in, they were dead even. But since Lysacek had won the preskate, he won.
I will be honest, I thought that Weir had done slightly better in his long and probably should've won(despite my personal feelings about him) the gold. But this stupid new(I guess it's not so new anymore) judging system focuses on the elements separately instead of on the performance as a whole. I have always thought that if you did the required elements and skated a clean program, then you should be rewarded accordingly and the old system leaned this way. Now, you can get extra credit from the judges for throwing some jumps in after the halfway point or throwing your hands up in the air during a jump. So, someone who does everything they're supposed to and does a good job, could now lose to someone who doesn't skate as clean and has a fanicier program. In the 2002 Winter Olympics, there was a controversial situation in the couple's skating competition. There was a German couple that came in w/ a super difficult, show-offy program that they made quite a few mistakes on. Then a Canadian couple skated, had all the required elements and gave an almost perfect performance. Scores came in and the German couple received the gold over the Canadians. People, myself included, were livid and due to the overwhelming response of anger, they awarded a second gold medal to the Canadian couple. Supposedly, this new judging system is supposed to do away w/ problems like that, but I think that it has been just as, if not moreso, problematic. So, once again, I'm annoyed w/ the results of a figure skating competition. Surprise, surprise!
posted by LaDonna @ 4:58 PM
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