The American men made more history yesterday in the Nordic Combined by winning the silver medal in the team event. This is the first team medal for the Americans and the second medal in the Nordic Combined - Johnny Spillane won the silver a few days ago in the individual event and was part of the team event as well.
Poor Sven Kramer. The Dutchman was way ahead of all the other skaters' times in the 25 lap race, and all set to win the gold, when he was disqualified for not changing lanes correctly. What's more, Kramer was in the correct lane, but his coach started yelling for him to move into the other lane, which turned out to be the wrong lane. Needless to say, Kramer was furious and could not be consoled. Speed skating is so huge in the Netherlands, that coach is never going to be allowed back into the country. At least Kramer already won a gold medal a few days ago.
Did you see the little clip they did about how famous Korean figure skater Yu-Na Kim has become in her home country? I can totally vouch for the fact that there is no exaggeration in any of that. When I was at Skate America in Lake Placid last November, fans had come from all over the world to see her and they went nuts for her. In all my years of skater stalking, I have never seen anything like it. She and Japan's Mao Asada certainly did not disappoint. Both of them have been having trouble with their jumps this season, so it was great to see Asada complete a triple axel-double toe and then Kim to follow that performance with a triple-triple combination. And what an emotional moment to watch Canada's Joannie Rochette skate a beautiful performance just days after her mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Even Scott Hamilton got all choked up. (Note, the man in the audience who NBC kept showing as Rochette's father was not actually her father, but a family friend.) The top 6 ladies are pretty much standing as expected with Yu-Na and Mao at the top and the Americans in the mix as well.
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i feel like a horrible friend! i fell asleep b/4 watching the end of the ladies' short program. but i DID see kim and asada. they were gorgeous. can't wait for tomorrow nite. ---MNB
ReplyDeletep.s i posted a comment b/4 ZK!!!
Haha. Not all that much on the top of my mind today about skating besides for this which I already emailed to Sara earlier, but I will post here for posterity. Comments, anyone?
ReplyDeleteThough I still do not understand the hierarchy or scoring. It seems like everything is a done deal coming in, like unless the front-runners make a huge mistake they are guaranteed to win. Why is that? Is it just that their programs are so much more difficult and my eye can't tell the difference? (For example, to me Rachael Flatt had a gorgeous great performance filled with personality and did her triple jumps and yet she scored so much lower than the 1,2,3 people and I don't get why.)