tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32432082011-04-21T21:43:19.636-04:00Mad SeasonFigure skating, the Olympics and whatever elseJulianoreply@blogger.comBlogger491100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-835363602002-10-25T22:30:00.000-04:002002-10-26T10:59:24.000-04:00The Court of Arbitration of Sport ruled on Kyoko Ina's case, handing the least severe penalty of a four year suspension with no additional fine. FoxSports provides quite a different picture of the Ina incident, making her appear more the inconvenienced athlete. I'm still a bit confused about the boyfriend issue, since reports provide conflicting testimony.
Ina, who has paired with John Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-833687942002-10-22T16:58:00.000-04:002002-10-22T16:58:17.890-04:00
U.S. Anti Doping Agency has "caught" another athlete in their spiderweb of regulations. Pairs champion Kyoko Ina faces a potential lifetime ban and a $1 million dollar fine for "refusing" to take an unannounced drug test. Ina has posted a statement on her official website, including her account of what happened. pointing out that as a three time Olympian and world team member for the last 8 Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-833556082002-10-22T11:49:00.000-04:002002-10-22T11:49:13.500-04:00
Sarah Hughes won the individual “Sportswoman of the Year” achievement award given by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Sue Bird, NCAA basketball star, won the team “Sportswoman of the Year” achievement award for leading the University of Connecticut Huskies to an unbeaten season and a national title. Jayne Torvill, 1984 Olympic gold medallist in ice dancing with Christopher Dean for Great Britain, Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-831960562002-10-18T21:55:00.000-04:002002-10-18T21:55:00.110-04:00The new skating season started at the Campbells Classic two weeks ago in Daytona Beach. Michelle Kwan debuted a new long program to "Concerto D'Aranjuez", beating a surprising Ann Patrice McDonough. Sarah Hughes admitted that she only started back into skating in last few weeks with a new long program. Sasha Cohen debuted her new Rachmaninoff long program, but still stumbled on some jumps. AlexeiJulianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-822460892002-09-28T16:48:00.000-04:002002-09-28T16:48:57.106-04:00FBI continues its investigation into Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov and his involvement in the Olympic judging scandal. They have interviewed several of the judges who came forward during the scandal with an eye to interviewing more as the international judges arrive for Skate America and World Championships. According to the USA Today, the USFSA is becoming increasingly disgruntled with the ISU approachJulianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-813339562002-09-08T21:02:00.000-04:002002-09-08T21:02:35.673-04:00The summer season continues to provide some surprising news for skating fans.
Stars on Ice continues to finalize its cast for their new season, adding three new pairs teams, Sale & Pelletier, Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze and Ina & Zimmerman. Todd Eldredge and Aleksei Yagudin will headline the singles skaters, providing some technical firepower. Yagudin claims he still wants to compete in the Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-808905782002-08-29T18:42:00.000-04:002002-08-30T10:21:53.000-04:00When is it time to leave? When should a legend retire? When should the old guard by replaced by the young guns?
Figure skating recently faced this age old sports question at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, watching as Todd Eldredge and Elvis Stojko skated in their final Olympics. At 30, they had both outlasted and outskated their younger rivals for far longer than expected in the sport. Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-804941632002-08-20T18:10:00.000-04:002002-08-20T18:10:52.983-04:00Imagine being an Olympic level athlete trying to afford your training... without the typical scholarships available to most team sports athletes, you find corporate sponsors and endorsements. You do well enough to compete at the Olympics with intentions of competing in the next games. But you also want to go to college and play football for your school. Sounds like a great dream, right?
Except Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-801372012002-08-12T09:56:00.000-04:002002-08-12T09:56:43.843-04:00I've been out of town for the last week, so I haven't been able to comment on the continuing controversy involving figure skating and the Russian mafia. The ISU continues to shoot itself in the foot with Ottavio Cinquanta reportedly saying the new allegations are simply "gossip".
A couple of articles and clips stood out from the week:
The Associated Press had an article including more Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-797097032002-08-01T19:48:00.000-04:002002-08-01T19:48:19.496-04:00Revelations abound in today's newspapers about the Russian mob connection to skating. The most telling quote attributed to Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov bragging on February 12th about the French vote: "our Sikharulidze fell, the Canadians were 10 times better, and in spite of that, the French with their vote gave us first place."
Marina Annissina, one of the French ice dancing gold medalists, is also Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-796637892002-07-31T20:14:00.000-04:002002-07-31T20:23:39.000-04:00Just when I thought skating couldn't get any weirder... the Italian police have arrested a suspected member of the Russian mob on charges that he openly bragged about fixing the Olympic ice dancing and pairs events at Salt Lake City. While the arrest surprised the heck out of me, the Russian mob connections didn't really. Of the ones that moved to the United States, the Russian skaters usually Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-760671142002-05-02T00:18:00.000-04:002002-05-02T00:18:16.660-04:00Julia ! Mil gracias, for your joining my new Blog... and for posting to it. Isn't all of that about the Ghosts in the Museum fascinating ??
There was an article in our paper today... about Marie-Reine La Gougne. She's been suspended from judging for three years, and both she and the person who appearently convinced her to vote for the Russian team are banned from the 2006 Olympics. That other Fugazinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-754016662002-04-14T19:16:00.000-04:002002-04-14T19:16:16.820-04:00I'm just updating my sidebar template. The offseason means I'm watching a lot less skating. It's touring season. Champions on Ice is winding its way around the United States for a zillion cities. Stars on Ice is almost finished with the American leg of its tour, but will do a similar one of Canada.
In an piece of skating news, Michelle Kwan won the AAU's Sullivan award for her accomplishments inJulianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-750914962002-04-05T19:43:00.000-05:002002-04-05T19:43:27.980-05:00Hi Maria. As you've probably noticed, I haven't posted on my blog in awhile. I just haven't felt the urge to write. Predominantly it's the post-Olympic letdown. I've watched the Olympics for so many years, you'd think I'd stop being surprised by the results. And the judging scandals haven't helped to my gloomy mood about my favorite sport.
To answer your question, while I am glad that Sale and Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-104693752002-03-06T19:57:00.000-05:002002-03-06T19:57:47.756-05:00Julia !! Thanks for posting so many insightful comments on the Olympics and the whole Skating situation. I watched..... every minute of it that I could. And what I didn't get to see we got taped. By now, of course, you know that Jamie and David were awarded joint Gold Medals with the Russian team. Now... I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
And... what about the Silver Medal ? Soemone whouldFugazinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-96799432002-02-13T08:52:00.000-05:002002-02-13T08:52:03.953-05:00I think the Skategods have come to a consensus. They're determined to keep me in tears the entire Olympics. Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-96483522002-02-12T12:47:00.000-05:002002-02-12T12:48:08.000-05:00I've never cried after a skating competition. Usually I'll sit there in shock and disbelief. Or more commonly I'll have that look of resignation when the judges simply have other ideas. I might wail a plaintive "No!" at the results. Last night there nothing plaintive about my cry. I felt angry and hurt, like a child who has had something near and dear taken away from them.
I had just sat and Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-96483402002-02-12T12:46:00.000-05:002002-02-12T12:46:58.080-05:00Yesterday Americans managed a sweep of the medals in men's snowboarding half-pipe competition, lead by the amazing gold medalist Ross Powers. Yagudin and Plushenko's quadruple airtime have nothing on the snowboarders' amplitude over the half-pipe, just hanging up there. Okay, it's a little on the weird extreme side for me, but it's not dull. To watch the medal ceremony and see *three* American Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-96277462002-02-11T20:57:00.000-05:002002-02-11T20:57:27.633-05:00
The only problem with watching the Olympics is avoiding the day's results. Invariably I'll pull up a website and the headline will scream at me on the front page. If the time delay is enough, I might see the headline on someone's newspaper on the Metro. Or worse yet, someone might innocently say "Oh did you hear about so-and-so?"
To be kind, most people, including the media, consider the Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-96276762002-02-11T20:55:00.000-05:002002-02-11T20:55:29.973-05:00To recapitulate, the Russians lead the pairs short program over the Canadians and Chinese teams. The Americans are in fifth place, just out of the final warmup group to go for the medals. The top teams all skated clean, but I have different reactions on those teams. Anton & Elena skated technically clean, but no passion or fire. Jamie & David just *lived* the music. Do they even know it's a shortJulianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-96276382002-02-11T20:53:00.000-05:002002-02-11T20:53:53.863-05:00
I was watching the weekend's afternoon coverage on NBC. I wasn't expecting anything interesting or surprising. The first event was cross-country skiing, easily my least favorite Winter olympic sport. Who would have thought they could make it interesting? Admittedly the race itself helps a lot. If you have a favorite blowing away the field, it's not that interesting, no matter who is calling the Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-96274852002-02-11T20:49:00.000-05:002002-02-11T20:49:04.046-05:00Let the Games begin. The Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City officially opened Friday, ending my long agonizing wait. Full of pomp and splendor, the ceremony was marked also by other goosebump moments. When the Ground Zero flag came into the stadium led by Olympians and rescue workers, there was an unearthly silence as if the world stopped, broken only by a Blackhawk helicopter flying in the Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-96265332002-02-11T20:19:00.000-05:002002-02-11T20:19:21.980-05:00Julia ! I love your last post ! The one below, about the opening of the Olympics. I watched the opening ceremonies and was totally blown away, but thanks to my crazy schedule, I haven't been able to see any of my favorite events.
But.... what a beautiful post. You've really got a gift for capturing emotions, and turning them into words that inturn unleash emotions from their beauty and poignancyFugazinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-95041982002-02-07T23:40:00.000-05:002002-02-07T23:40:21.793-05:00
The Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics is filled with pageantry and patriotism, especially an American one. Some of the highest honors bestowed on Olympic athletes, though, are not won by seconds or points. They're won through heart and awarded with respect by their fellow athletes.
Each country's delegation is lead into the Olympic arena by a flagbearer, usually selected by their peers. Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-94187072002-02-05T19:50:00.000-05:002002-02-05T21:46:28.000-05:00Baby it's cold outside! Winter returned with a vengeance to our corner of the world. Our temperatures had been in the 70s, almost spring-like, and then over the weekend, the temperature plummeted about forty degrees, plus wind chill for our amusement. We haven't had a major snowstorm yet, just the one brief storm that disappeared in about two days. Obviously Mother Nature knows we can't Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-90551412002-01-25T21:44:00.000-05:002002-01-25T21:44:27.680-05:00
The more I start thinking about Salt Lake City, the more I'm reminded of the last time the United States hosted the Winter Olympics.
The year was 1980. The place was Lake Placid, New York, a small town nestled in the Adirondack mountains, which had previously hosted the 1932 Olympics.
That year was a perilous one. The Cold War seemed frigid between the United States and the USSR. The USSR had Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-90549622002-01-25T21:37:00.000-05:002002-01-25T21:42:38.000-05:00
My fascination with the Olympics started when I was quite young. Now you have to understand I have one of those trick memories that remembers things. This memory is very useful for names, dates, places and even skating programs. I have an associative memory. I'm not sure how it works, but it's scary as heck when it works. Something will trigger the memory and all the details will flood the Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-89895362002-01-23T22:16:00.000-05:002002-01-24T08:38:06.000-05:00Age is served.
In a sport of baby ballerinas and skywalkers, figure skating is finally discovering its age. Or rather skaters are refusing to follow traditional notions of what it means to be "too old" in a sport. Age is just a number, after all, like those scores they've watched a lifetime popping up on the scoreboards, a placeholder in their lives.
Todd Eldredge won his sixth U.S. senior Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-89833862002-01-23T18:59:00.000-05:002002-01-23T18:59:56.136-05:00Biography magazine's February 2002 issue has the typical pre-Olympic roundup on the Tonya-Nancy scandal. The issue also contains a short column on Olympic websites with a small picture of Michelle Kwan performing a layback spin during her LP.
The most interesting of these websites is the Olympic Television Archive Bureau which collects, maintains and restores all those old official films of theJulianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-89527732002-01-22T21:38:00.000-05:002002-01-23T20:35:55.000-05:00Taking a slight detour from figure skating: I'm reading the other Olympic news. Jack Shea was killed by a drunk driver over the weekend in Lake Placid, New York. At 91, he was the oldest living American Winter Olympic gold medalist, winning gold medals in 500M and 1500M in the speedskating events at the 1932 Olympics. He was also the patriarch of an Olympic family. His son Jim Sr. competed in Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-89521482002-01-22T21:19:00.000-05:002002-01-22T22:15:28.000-05:00Skating loves the "big story". There's always one central story that seems to hold the skating world in thrall and curiosity. The story could be a comeback, but usually it's a scandal. Skating loves scandal. For a year, that petty little incident overshadows the skating itself, because "everyone wants to know". Did she? Or didn't she? And did she really mean it?
This year, the story appears to Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-88577842002-01-19T21:25:00.000-05:002002-01-19T21:25:55.410-05:00I've made one other cosmetic change on "Mad Season", namely the archive. I dug around until I found Phil Ringnalda's Javascripts for Blogger Archive files which create some nice alternatives. With some trepidation, I combined the dropdown format with the "Week of" archive. Otherwise, I'd have three or four links for each month and no way of telling which page was which. I mention trepidation Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-88502922002-01-19T15:32:00.000-05:002002-01-19T15:32:08.006-05:00Biz! Thanks for the tip on YACCS and the help on installing the commenting system. So far it seems to be working like a charm. I do need to change the background of the comment form. I can barely read anything with that blue background.Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-86280692002-01-12T11:36:00.000-05:002002-01-12T11:36:59.086-05:00Thanks for inviting me to join your blog, Julia! :-) You asked about commenting systems... check out YACCS It's baby simple to set up and is free! :-) It works much better than the one I was using, so I ditched it in favor of this. Enjoy!bizarranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-85886292002-01-10T23:29:00.000-05:002002-01-10T23:29:04.873-05:00For the eagle has landed, tell your children when...
Time won't drag us down to dust again.Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-85817992002-01-10T19:25:00.000-05:002002-01-10T19:25:32.280-05:00Focus. It's one of those qualities that a skater needs. There's no "walking through" a short program. Everything counts.
All the US guys learned this the hard way. Tim Goebel landed all his jumps, including his quad salchow-triple toe loop combination, only to splat on his serpentine footwork. Todd Eldredge landed a *gorgeous* triple axel-triple toe loop combination and then barely squeaked outJulianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-85812662002-01-10T19:05:00.000-05:002002-01-10T19:05:47.140-05:00A major skating competition means skating is news again and Nationals week is no exception to this rule. In fact, maybe even more so, because, this may be the only chance to cover Suzy Slush from Somewhere FSC for their local newspapers. Reporters from everywhere show up and newspapers suddenly are filled with skating articles. Some are good, some are bad, and a lot fall in between.
The skating Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-85316382002-01-09T00:44:00.000-05:002002-01-10T09:15:52.000-05:00Nerves are the bane of any skater's existence. Skaters have to combat them at every competition. There's always this nagging feeling that they're really not that good, that they were just lucky to get past regionals and sectionals. They eat at the skater until a mistake happens and again and again.
Think this only affects the younger skaters? Think again. Paul Wylie and Nancy Kerrigan called it Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-83117262002-01-01T00:06:00.000-05:002002-01-01T00:07:56.000-05:00In September, just after my 30th birthday, I remember marveling at how quickly the year had passed. And then in a heartbreaking Tuesday morning, I wanted the year to end. I just wanted the pain, anger and tears to go away. I remember how we waited for milennium and the naysayers predicted the end of the world. Every clock would stop and every computer would crash.
Now, over a year later, I'm Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-82875992001-12-30T22:31:00.000-05:002001-12-30T22:35:39.000-05:00I went to see "Fellowship of the Ring" this afternoon at the local Multiplex. I have been trying rather unsuccessfully to plow through the books, but Tolkein's prose reads like my old Western Civ textbooks, complete with linguistic studies. So I was curious to see how easy it would be to follow the storyline.
Warning: Some of these comments may constitute spoilers. You've been appropriately Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-82681782001-12-30T00:30:00.000-05:002001-12-30T10:33:14.000-05:00Everything old can be redone and everything has just begun. Those seemed to be two of the overwhelming themes of this year's "Stars on Ice" show.
That seemed born out by the fact that we were returning to the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, for the performance. No, not the "USAirways Arena", the tickets and signs said very clearly Capital Centre. I don't know when they changed back, but itJulianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-81566592001-12-23T23:30:00.000-05:002001-12-23T23:30:56.556-05:00Julia !! I just now got my invitation to join your Blog. Mil gracias, amiga-mia, Y feliz navidad. Oye !! And I loved your posts to GDSN tonight !!! Mi encanta !!!! mil abrazos....... Maria :o)Fugazinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-81125782001-12-21T19:29:00.000-05:002001-12-23T16:33:37.000-05:00Every four years, the Olympics continues to stir my imagination. There's just something about the pagentry and spectacle that fills me with wonder and amazement. The torch relay has become an integral part of those preparations, lit in Greece and carried on its way to the Olympic stadium for the opening ceremonies. To experience just a small part of that journey makes me feel more connected to Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-80325232001-12-18T20:44:00.000-05:002001-12-18T20:46:34.000-05:00Some call it progress. Figure skating has evolved over the years from simple tracing on the ice into powerful jumps and spins. Before the wars, the focus was on figures. If you could trace the different circles, you could win the Olympics. Freestyle was much less complicated. Sonja Henie turned into an artform, creating programs to music.
Then the North American athleticism appeared after WWII.Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-80324812001-12-18T20:43:00.000-05:002001-12-18T20:43:19.260-05:00
I mentioned the magic of experiencing Sale & Pelletier's long program at Worlds. That program had one small flaw, a singled jump. Their second long program at Grand Prix Final had none, their performance effortless both technically and artistically. That combination is rare in skating. Usually skaters are either technicians or artists, growing into the other as they acquire more experience. To Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-80324302001-12-18T20:41:00.000-05:002001-12-18T20:41:38.460-05:00The other night I found myself watching part of the documentary on the making of the animated "Charlie Brown Christmas" special. They introduced some of the child actors who voiced the famous roles and the trouble they had even convincing the networks that an animated Charlie Brown was a good idea! In one scene, the "Charlie Brown" actor admitted having a hard time understanding Charlie Brown's Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-80323982001-12-18T20:40:00.000-05:002001-12-18T20:40:27.493-05:00Normally I don't do this. I travel using the Metro every day in D.C. And invariably I have to stand for part of my trip. That's fine. I've accepted it as a fact of life. But why do people insist on leaning against the pole so no one can hold onto it? I am fairly short so there's no way I can comfortably reach the bars above me. I actually envy the New York subway riders, because they have Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-79393352001-12-14T20:01:00.000-05:002001-12-14T23:25:26.000-05:00Isn't technology wonderful? Technology allows me to keep in contact with my friends and family all over the world, in good times and bad. Technology allows me to follow my interests with several clicks of the keyboard and mouse.
However, technology always has a drawback. What's the old expression? "There's no such thing as a free lunch." Skating fans learned that from Iskater, a decent skating Julianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3243208.post-79140712001-12-13T21:56:00.000-05:002001-12-13T22:02:27.000-05:00You're probably wondering why I called this blog "Mad Season". No, I'm not crazy, though there's some doubt amongst my friends. I am a fan of Matchbox 20. Their second album's title track is one of my favorites.
I'm also a big figure skating fan. And this is the "mad season", namely the Olympic season. The last four years will culminate in the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City, followed byJulianoreply@blogger.com