<p>I always enjoy the for-fun exhibition show the skaters put on at the end of the olympics. Talk about old, b&p, remember watching the show years ago and seeing Scott Hamilton do a back flip on skates?</p>
<p>Yes, if they go to that well too often, they’ll find out it leads to “Dancing with the Stars.”</p>
<p>Back to the women’s half pipe:It would have been nicer for the women to have gone before the men.</p>
<p>Our local news station did this huge on-air apology for their coverage of the night before last. There were lots of complaints that they gave so much attention to Vonn and White’s gold but then mentioned Shani Davis only in passing. The comments were of the nature that it was a racial issue but I think it was the popularity/hype of Vonn and White vs. long track speed skating not getting as much hype.</p>
<p>Last night was one of the “stay up until the end of the competition” nights for me. I didn’t see the skating medal ceremony, thought.</p>
<p>Like everyone here, I was glad to see Evan get gold. I also thought Johnny’s performance was wonderful, and don’t understand why he didn’t score higher than he did.</p>
<p>I’m interested in watching the speedskating on Saturday night, and then of course the ice dancing and women’s figure skating next week!</p>
<p>You know you’re addicted to cc when you hear something on the radio and can’t wait to get back home to post it!</p>
<p>Like I didn’t like Plushenko enough already, check out what he and his coach said:</p>
<p>[No</a> Quad Necessary, Lysacek Wins Skating Gold : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123879599]No”>No Quad Necessary, Lysacek Wins Skating Gold : NPR)</p>
<p>What sore losers!</p>
<p>The commentators were saying that Weir’s performance was beautiful, but not hard, and the judging rewards skaters with harder programs. Makes sense to me. I’m not at all capable of judging difficulty, but I thought the judges would have already determined, before he even skated, how hard the program was.</p>
<p>The Canadians, one of the favorites in the mens hockey tournament, barely squeaked by the Swiss in a shootout. The Russians, another favorite, lost to Slovakia (a better team than Switzerland) in a shootout. Meanwhile the plucky Americans beat both of their opponents. Go USA.</p>
<p>ELY I know I am old when I can say I had a Wedge haircut…if you don’t know what that was and are a woman, than you are too young to be on the Parents Cafe. :p</p>
<p>Must ask if I am the only one with this pet peeve. I hate the fact when I hear announcers say they are skating for X country, but train in the US. I think that we should make it truly about each country, you want to compete for your country, than train in your country! This has been a pet peeve going all the way back to Fratiano (think that was her name). She had dual citizenship and because Hamill got the top spot she skated for England. I heard it again just the other night for a skier (I think). Born, bred and raised in the US, but for competition purposes they took the loop hole!</p>
<p>I had one, too. It looked good on me.</p>
<p>You had that or took the Feathers look!</p>
<p>Yeah, I was a Farrah girl.</p>
<p>We have people competing for the US who became US citizens “just in time.” I guess the one that got the most press in the other direction was Becky Hammon, the American basketball player who became a Russian citizen to compete in Bejing.</p>
<p>[Becky</a> Hammon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becky_Hammon]Becky”>Becky Hammon - Wikipedia)</p>
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<p>Too bad we can’t post polls on this board - Who was Dorothy and who was Farrah?</p>
<p>2 Dorothy’s
1 Farrah</p>
<p>I would like to poll the percentage of Dorothy’s that were brunettes compared to blondes and the % of Farrahs that were blond compared to brunettes!</p>
<p>Back on topic regarding Olympics, Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hammill, Kristi Yamuguchi, Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan did more for skating than I can think of, unfortunately this yr like Torino we don’t have that darling.</p>
<p>Plushenko reminded me of Kerrigan when Oksana won. Kerrigan had the look of are you F ing kidding me, this little unknown teenager won?</p>
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<p>Totally. Another similarity was a broken lace. Remember whose?</p>
<p>(brunette Dorothy here)</p>
<p>Remember when the Olympics weren’t supposed to have professional athletes competing?</p>
<p>For the record, brunette Farrah.</p>
<p>Today I also heard a reporter talk about Evan’s mom and her defense of her son, before last night’s performance. Plushenko was playing mind games the day before the long program, saying that if a skater can’t do a quad then he doesn’t deserve the gold medal. Her retort: If a skater can only do a quad, he doesn’t deserve the gold medal! </p>
<p>The reporter said she reminded him of Michael Phelps’ mom and that he’s learned not to mess with Olympic mamas. :)</p>
<p>The quad has been around since 1988, and I think this competition made it clear that it is not all there is to figure skating. I don’t think Evan should retire at all, I would LOVE to watch him for four more years! Evan was smarter than Plushenko in his program. He stacked more jumps after the 2:15 mark, which brought his score up. Conditioning counts in this sport, too; not all the skaters are able to put that many jumps near the end of their programs. The triple axel is no piece of cake, either, not all of the top skaters can do it.</p>
<p>Plushenko and his coach were snots after the competition, there are some quotes in the NYT this morning that definitely lack class. Combine that with the hip swivel (a collective “eww” from all watchers, I suspect), and I’m glad he is old enough that he probably won’t be back.</p>
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<p>Yes, and all the cold war stuff. Were you watching that US v. USSR basketball game where they kept putting time on the clock until the USSR won? I think it was 1972.</p>
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<p>That may have won it for Evan. Plushenko could come out of retirement and still land the jumps, but building endurance is a whole nuther thing. 4 1/2 minutes is looonng.</p>
<p>int you are right regarding figuring skating. I recall back in the 90’s there was an AA skater from France. Her athletic ability was phenomenal, but artistically she was a gymnast on ice. It never translated to strong scores.</p>