Tuesday, February 16, 2010

THE PLUSHY SEX BOMB IS PREPARED TO DETONATE: ALOTT5MA Award-Winning Correspondent Gretchen** recaps last night's pairs figure skating action, and previews the men's competition which begins tonight:
Last night, pairs skaters Pang and Tong put together an impossible dream of a free skate at the Olympics -- an inspired, exuberant, and clean performance to music from Man of La Mancha. It was the highest-scoring free skate of the night, but it wasn't enough to move them into gold. Shen and Zhao, despite a freak stumble out of a lift, were just too dominant in the short program for Pang and Tong to catch up. Nevertheless, the evening felt really satisfying to me -- from the gold for sentimental favorites Shen and Zhao to the winning performance by Pang and Tong to the exclusion of the uninspiring Russians and inflated-score-Canadians from the podium. In a judged and subjective sport like figure skating, it's really great when the judges seem to get it right.

The commentators mentioned last night that Pang and Tong got a 1 point deduction for a music violation. (We theorized at home that their coach just got confused about which mp3 to cue up.) Actually, the music was of a perfectly fine length, but the skaters stopped two seconds after the music did. Really, shouldn't that be called a skater violation, rather than blaming the poor innocent music?

Finally, there's a reason why Russian skaters traditionally excel in international competition, and why China is surging far beyond what the Americans can pull together. And no, New York Times, the Chinese victory does not represent a democratizing moment. The USSR had the institutional infrastructure to put together pairs from an early age, move them away from their families to training centers, provide government support for their sports careers, and keep them focused on skating. While the collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in the collapse of this training system, China's incredible success at pairs skating is the result of a very similar, Soviet-style system (and, of course, one passionate coach, Yao Bin). Yao Bin picked Shen and Zhao to skate together; they moved into sports training dormitories; and they have remained paired for 18 years. By contrast, American skaters are basically left to their own devices to find their partners. Many pairs skaters don't begin skating in pairs until they are much older, often after hopes of a singles career have burned out. They just don't have the years of experience to develop the kind of consistency, trust, and unison skating that gold-medal-caliber skating requires. Many are also self-funded -- as NBC made clear last night, with references to Mark Ladwig's overdue mortgage payments and Jeremy Barrett's second career driving the Zamboni. I'm thrilled for the Chinese skaters and their coach, but I think it's pretty clear that elite pairs skating requires a more interventionist, less democratic approach.

And tonight, the men's short, featuring the Return of Sex Bomb Plushy, the always-entertaining, potentially-fur-wearing, Tanith-Belbin-roommate Johnny Weir, dark horse Jeremy Abbott, skating to bluesy music in a gorgeous short, and world champion Evan Lysacek. The US men have a real chance at the podium here, but it's a strong field.

One thing to look at is the number of quads. The skaters are really split between those who can quad and those who can't. In the former camp, Plushy, Jeremy Abbott, the Czech Republic's Tomas Verner, Brian Joubert, and Stephane Lambiel. In the latter, Evan Lysacek, Patrick Chan, Johnny Weir, and Nobunari Oda. Another thing to look at will be the transitions -- the little moves that skaters do before performing a jump or another required element. Abbott has beautiful transitions, which raise his scores. Plushy, by contrast, just jumps, and jumps, and jumps. (Note: waving your hands in the air does not usually count as a transition.) If Plushy is perfectly clean, he'll probably jump his way to victory. But if he stumbles, then another skater with fewer quads and a higher level of difficulty could sneak in.
** It's not in her contract that I have to call her that; I just like saying it.

13 comments:

  1. Heh:  (Note: waving your hands in the air does not usually count as a transition.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrew11:15 AM

    But what if you're waving them like you just don't care?

    ReplyDelete
  3. gretchen11:31 AM

    Then they definitely don't count.  If there's anything that figure skating reveres, it's earnestness.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What about waving your butt?  Doesn't that rack up the points in this new judging system?  I think it does.  Give him the gold already.  (cough, cough.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. calliekl11:51 AM

    Obviously, Pang and Tong are so good that the music should only stop when they stop.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Marsha1:14 PM

    Clearly, he needs to shake it like a polaroid picture.

    There was some trashtalking yesterday, apparently - Plushy doesn't like the new scoring system and thinks transitions are stupid. Someone else (forgot who) called him old fashioned and his coach retorted that triples are last century and quads are hip and cool and now and if you can't land one get the hell off the ice.

    I love when figure skaters trash talk.

    Did anyone else get the impression from the clip package last night that Shen and Zhao had to sleep in separate dorm rooms even AFTER they got married?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes! I think they came right out and said that they reside in separate dorm rooms even though they are married. That interesting tidbit, plus the package about their coach and how his devotion to figure skating has kept him apart from his family (unless I misunderstood, he said he saw his son infrequently), really had me wondering about some of these athletes and coaches. OK, really just about that coach. Is an Olympic medal worth sacrificing your family? He may be a great figure skating coach, but he doesn't seem like much of a father.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Marsha2:14 PM

    I imagine in China, where the state can drastically affect your standard of living, it might be a rational and selfless decision to leave your family behind to do something that the state will reward, knowing that this means your family will be exceedingly well treated.

    ReplyDelete
  9. <span>Well, if you're going to be all rational about it... 
     
    Yeah, I guess I didn't think about it like that but you make a really good point.</span>

    ReplyDelete
  10. scarpered in vancouver9:30 PM

    will someone please tell me the name of the music Plushy skated to in his short programme tonight.
    thks

    ReplyDelete
  11. Joan H9:21 AM

    Gretchen has a contract?!

    Love these posts -- I can fastforward through all the talking and just get to the skating, and still have an idea of what's going on.  Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Genevieve10:44 AM

    Oh, then I'm so bummed I missed it!  I tuned in just too late to catch him - love Concierto de Aranjuez, highly recommend the Christopher Parkening recording of it.

    ReplyDelete