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.