Sochi Women Single Figure Skating Short Program Olympics 2014
Reviewed by Teresita Blanco
Last night, I watched the Women's Single Figure Skating event with my family. There where a lot of ups and downs and some pretty bizarre events, here and there. Overall, the short program was awesome. In the long one, about 80% of all the skaters fell. I think it had something to do with the ice. The Russian ice has been terrible these past few weeks. In all the events, there has been at least 5 people who suffered terrible falls. And, these people had a history of never failing. I suppose I should start in a chronological fashion.
The short program was started by Polina Edmunds. She was an American figure skater. She had been taking ballet since she was 4 years old. This gave her a sleek, gentle body. In addition to the mannerism that pertain to the art of ballet. In this respect, she was trained in a traditional Russian fashion. Performance wise, she did pretty amassing in her short program.
She did a lot of jumps here and there. She did managed to land triple jumps. Around the middle of the performance, the beat of her music picked up. She did managed the transition well, from serene to happy. I forget what song she danced to. By now, it slipped from my mind. In any case, the ended up with a pretty decent score.
The next cutie was Yuna Kim. She was the final boss for all the ladies in this competition. Based on her name, one would believe that her parents where final fantasy fans. Methinks, it was just a coincidence... The maiden was dancing for South Korea. However, based on her name, Yuna might have Japanese ancestry. At least someone in her family is Japanese.
Anyhow...the song she chose was rather intimate and full of emotion. She seemed to vibrate over the ice. The cold Russian crowd responded well to her motions. She did a wonderful triple lux and triple toe move. Frankly, I can never tell the difference between a lux and a toe move. To me, they are all twirly jumps.
Dress wise, the yellow did her well. When she finished her performance, she was surprised she did so well. Apparently, during her practice she kept falling and having a hard time. Overall, her performance was both strong and tender. For her short program she got a pretty high score.
The next cutie worth mentioning is Gracie Gold. The Americans did a lot of commercials for her. They imagined that just because her last name was Gold, that she would get a gold medal. Indeed, making such a parallel was a foolish thing. Performance wise, she was a bit mundane. It did not inspire me much confidence.
The next performer worth mentioning was Yulia Lipnitskaya. She had helped the Russians win the gold in the team competition. Like Plushenko, she had a hard time the second time around. The song that she chose to dance to was called "Don't Give up on love". As usual, it started with her playing in the ice, and then a lightning fell.
The lightning had a symbolical significance because in that performance, she fell. Everything was going peachy and then she fell. She tried really hard not to. That was a terrible fall, and it seemed as if she struck her leg badly. Yulia Lipnitskaya was crying when she finished her performance. Indeed, she moved my poor mother to tears.
It was so depressing. I think her coach was no help at all. Instead of comforting the poor girl, she said something like "Did the nerves get to you?" Had she had a gringo coach, she would have said, "Don't worry baby, you can make up the points in the Free Style" or "Its not the end of the world" or "Don't give up on love". Sometimes instead of critiquing, you need to give comforting words to someone.
I mean, poor Yulia is still just a little kid. So small, so fragile. Like you may have guessed, this performance got to me. I found it very depressing that Yulia fell. I guess her young boy or her mind could not handle the pressure of such a prolonged performance. If you ask me, it was either the ice or the evil eye that caused her to fail.
The next cutie was Carolina Kostner, of the Italian team. Taking what she learned from the team event helped her step up her game. Like in the team event, she did her short program with the Ave Maria song. She did her dance gracefully. She also added a few more jumps for point purposes. Her gamble helped her better the last score she got for that dance. What I liked best was one of her weird little turns. She does make some interesting shapes on the snow.
Following came, Ashley Wagner, from the American team. There is a meme going around of her expression when she saw Yulia doing her fancy little spin. Even she could not stomach the flexibility of that Russian little girl. Performance wise, she was anything but ordinary. Her mediocre performance helped my family see something that no one had yet noticed.
Ashley is a vampire. We kept commenting on that as she performed. This was further reinforced by her statement that she was best when she had her claws out. Overall, she has the perfect face for an evil vampire chick. Movie vampire people should keep that in mind for the next vampire movie to be produced.
The next cutie on the list was Mae Meite, for the French team. She was the only black chick in the entire to perform in this event. For her dance, she chose an amassing song by Prince. The electric guitar really suited her performance. Something about her dancing reminded me of a chocolate fountain. It was funny cause, my brother was thinking the same thing. Our thoughts tend to synchronize a lot.
I thought she deserved a higher score than the one she got. I think the Russia Judges where a bit racist in their scoring of her performance. Heck, even the TV people did not bother to show an overview of her performance. I suppose some things cannot be helped. Racist jerks will be jerks, as the saying goes. Which is a pity...
The next artist to perform was Sotnikova Adelina. According to the TV people, Adelina went berserk when she did not get elected to skate in the Team event. She was annoyed that a young upstart was taking away her shine. She had a gleeful face when she performed that day, because of Yulia's epic fail. Now the Russians where paying attention to her and not little Yulia.
For her dance, she chose La Boheme by Carmen. She did her dance wonderfully. She almost fell, but not quite. I think there was something fishy about the ice back then. Those who saw the trap, did not fall. Those who did not, fell. Like Yulia, Adelina had some signature turn poses. She could do a move with one hand and form a perfect circle in another turn. She almost got first place, however, Kim Yuna got ahead of her.
The last performer was Mao Asada. Mao had a lot ridding in that performance. That was going to be her last Short program. For her music, she chose a Nocturne by Chopin. It was a very beautiful performance. Somewhere along the middle she fell. By now, things where getting ridiculous. By the end of her performance, the grief of her mistake had made her age like 50 years.
She was just that depressed. Still, not all hope was lost since she scored enough to make it to the free skating program. Overall, these ice skaters where peachy. They all deserve 5 stars rating. What was horrible was the Russian Iceberg. They really need to do something about the cooling system there. Later, I will review the long programs of these cuties.
