3 months til the Winter Olympics: Part deux/2

I already updated my status on facebook regarding the fact that Sasha Cohen will not be competing this weekend in Lake Placid due to tendinitis. :-( I was so excited at the thought of her comeback in competitive figure skating. Plus she would've posed as a glimmering beam of hope for our Olympic ladies' team. Though she is still planning on competing in January at Nationals. I am just having the hardest time finding any other American female who could medal in February. And it's not that they aren't good, because they are! But the consistency in performances just is not there. What happened to our Kristy Yamaguchis and Tara Lipinskis? It's not even only our country with the problem, it's a universal issue. When the silver and bronze medalists both make like 4 or 5 major mistakes in their programs, but still wind up on the podium, this is not a good sign. Is it just me or has ladies' figure skating gone downhill through the years? Even during the last Olympics, I wasn't impressed with the standings. Arakawa was amazing and truly deserved gold. But neither Cohen or Slutskaya did very well. Sasha fell twice near the beginning of her program and still managed to snag the silver. Granted, she did come back with a vengeance, but don't even get me started on the fact that with this new judging system you can throw in a bunch of extra jumps after the halfway point for bonus points. Extra credit in skating? Blargh... :-P Whatever happened to being judged on your overall performance?

Nevertheless, we will be sending two skaters to Vancouver in February. Even though I don't think that she did well at the last Olympics, Sasha is still one of my favorite skaters and I would love to see her given another chance. Which will depend upon the speed of her recovery, so I'm not gonna get my hops up too much in an effort to keep them from being dashed. Alissa Czisny is a favorite for the team. I honestly don't think she can pull it off. She's had some shining moments in the past and really skates beautifully, but has choked more often than she's succeeded. The 2008 Nationals brought 3 wonderful young skaters: Mirai Nagasu, Rachael Flatt and Ashley Wagner. Since then, their biggest issue has been consistency. For Mirai, her struggle has been her sense of rebellion and the fact that she has grown several inches in the last year. I can't imagine being her, having performed so spectacularly almost two years ago and then having to adjust to a longer body. She will be at Skate Canada and I'm looking forward to seeing if she brings it there. The other potential for the team is Caroline Zhang, though again, same issue as the rest. Alexe Gilles is an up-and-comer who I don't think is in the running for these Olympics, but is someone to look out for in the years to come. I really enjoyed her skating the other night! If Sasha does not end up being one of the two, I would love to see any combination of Mirai, Rachael and Ashley. If I HAD to pick two, it would be Sasha Cohen and Mirai Nagasu.

Now if we're talking who's gonna win the gold, hands down, Kim Yu-Na from South Korea. She is beyond amazing. First female to get more than 200 on the new system and I don't think she's scored any less since then. Kim is in a league of her own right now. When she won gold, she was 36 points ahead of silver medalist, Miki Ando. Normally there is roughly only a 15 point span between the 1st and 5th place, but not when Kim competes. She slams the door shut. So basically, there will be no real competition for the gold. The silver and bronze medal winners will probably have more of a fight. I'm expecting an Asian persuasion invasion and for the standings to potentially just echo Nagano: Kim Yu-Na, Miki Ando and Mao Asada. But that may change. In actuality, Miki and Mao's performances this past weekend were not all that great even though they made it onto the podium. There were several major flubs made by both. This being said, that may leave room for someone else to creep into the running. Elena Leonova from Russia has been doing pretty well and I'm already a fan of Canada's Joannie Rochette. Unfortunately, I do not foresee any of our U.S. ladies medaling. :-( Except for maybe Sasha... *keeping fingers crossed and praying*

3 months until the Winter Olympics, yeah baby!

Alrighty now, it's that time. I am officially in full-blown figure skating obsession mode! Aside from looking for a job, what else is there to do? I've spent these last few days getting caught up on this year's Grand Prix events that have been re-airing on the Universal Sports network as a part of their "Countdown to Vancouver".

So, I decided to devote this blog entry to my picks for the U.S. Olympic team and to share my thoughts on the figure skating universe, in general. First up, the men. I don't know how in the world they are going to narrow it down to just three! In my mind, the top contenders are Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, Brandon Mroz, Adam Rippon, Ryan Bradley and Jeremy Abbott. Provided he places at Nationals in January, Evan is a shoo-in and he's who I would want on the team anyway. Johnny, I'm not so sure about. Despite the fact that I just plain don't like him, he is a really good skater. But he's recovering from various illnesses which has hindered his performance. Though he did manage a silver this past weekend at the Grand Prix in Japan. I still think that he's the Novak Djokovic of the skating world. Djokovic the Djoke, as I like to refer to him, is a great tennis player, but he always has some excuse to whine about when he plays poorly. A couple of U.S. Opens ago, Roddick took a dig at this fact when asked how he felt about an upcoming match against him. He, totally jokingly, listed silly things such like saars, anthrax and bird flu as being some of Novak's "ailments". Unfortunately, Novak didn't take it that way and was upset about the comment. And sadly enough, he went on to beat Roddick. :-(

But tennis is not my focus here. It's funny how I can, so easily, switch from dwelling on one obsession to the other. Okay, the 18 year old Brandon Mroz. Love him! He got silver earlier this year at Nationals and when he's on, he's on! Like with most skaters, consistency is his biggest issue. Though I was just watching his long program performance today from the re-airing of the Grand Prix in Moscow and despite falling on a triple axel, he was amazing! That shows a lot if you can finish strongly after a disaster like that. Adam Rippon is another one that has awesome potential. He is a very strong skater and, I think, could be a real attribute to our team. Thinking about Ryan Bradley makes me sad. He really could be amazing, he has all the right stuff. Too bad he reminds me of myself and my past Solo/Ensemble experiences. We just choke when it comes down to the competition aspect. Who knows, he may prove himself this weekend in Lake Placid. *keeping my fingers crossed*

Jeremy Abbott started strong in Nagano, but wasn't able to keep it going for his free skate. I can't truly formulate my opinion of his current status since it was only his first event of the season. He did win Nationals this year though, so he is really good. I think, for me, it just seems that he shows more personality off ice than on. So, onto the Olympic team. The common consensus is that it will be Lysacek, Weir and Abbott. Depending on how the season goes, I would personally prefer to have a team of Lysacek, Mroz and Rippon. I believe that I stated that I would love to marry Ryan Bradley in a previous blog entry, so it really hurts to not include him in my picks :-( As far as medaling goes, I have a feeling that Yevgeney Plushenko of Russia is gonna take gold, France's Brian Joubert may have a shot at silver if he plays his cards right and possibly Lysacek for bronze. Though one of those Czech guys, Brezina or Vernor, might edge in to claim a silver or bronze. I love what the commenter said about Brezina's Nagano free skate, "A Czech in Japan skating to Gershwin's An American in Paris, whaddaya think of that?".

I didn't realize that I would ramble on this much, so I'm gonna break things up a bit. I'll start a new entry for my opinion on the ladies' end of the figure skating spectrum.