Over the last couple of days, after a tough back-and-forth battle for first place between Sasha Cohen (U.S.) and Irina Slutskaya (Russia), many were stunned when Shizuka Arakawa (Japan) quietly took the Gold away from the two.

Cohen, Arakawa, and Slutskaya performing their programs
(Source: NBC)

Well, perhpas nobody should be stunned considering the fact that both Cohen and Slutskaya fell in their recent programs. Arakawa, on the other hand, skated elegantly and flawlessly.

Emily Hughes, younger sister of the 2002 Figure Skating Gold Medalist, Sarah, managed a 7th place finish. This is impressive result for young Emily who has only limited experience at large scale competitions. Emily, we hope to watch you shine in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

This Winter Olympics seemed to be about Dark Horses. We have Enrico Fabris overtaking the heavy favorites Davis and Hedrick to win the Men’s 1,500m Speedskating event.

Over in Men’s Ice Hockey, U.S. and Canada, two powerhouses, were knocked out of Gold contention by Finland and Russia. Both Bode Miller (upset by his own poor performance) and Apolo Ohno (upset by skaters from South Korea) have yet to win a Gold.

Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won a total of 5 Gold Medals in the previous two Winter Olympics. He has yet to win one in Torino.

And Lindsey Jacobellis…

No…Lindsey lost because of bad luck. It has nothing to do with her Snowboarding abilities.

Post from: EveryJoe

Arakawa (JPN) Ahead!

I love Figure Skating, especially Women’s Figure Skating. I like Gymanstics too, exclusively Women’s Gymnastics. I also like Women’s Tennis, and only Women’s Tennis (but I never watch the Williams sisters play).

Michelle Kwan on ice (Source: MSN)

The difference among those three is that two of ‘em, according to Aaron, are not “Sports.”

So, in defense of the ladies who trained so hard to compete in events that they (and I) love, I am going to throw my 2-cents into the mix. Ladies, this one’s for you!

Aaron mentioned that:

“Any activity that winning or losing is based on the opinion of someone else does not qualify to me as a sport.”

Aaron is right, that is why cooking is not a sport (even if the cooking is done in what the Food Network calls ‘Kitchen Stadium’).

But Figure Skating today is unlike the Figure Skating events of yesteryears. Fans understand the difficulties involved in awarding scores according to artistic interpretation, that’s why many have clamored for changes in the Judging System. And those Judging System has gone through many modifications, some very drastic.

In the interest of objectivity, nowadays, Figure Skating is as OBJECTIVE as matching those PowerBall Ticket Numbers. Match them and you win, otherwise, you lose. My brother likes to say that there are 10 types of people, those who understand Binary, and those who don’t.

Quadruple Salchow (Source: NBC)

Anyway, I digressed. Land a ‘quad throw salchow’ and you get X number of points, you fall, you get Y number of points deducted. Simple as that. A person or couple performing a conservative program with no dramatic jumps, throws, loops, or lutz stand a better chance of winning than those who attempt those daring maneuvers but failed. On the flip side, those who successfully execute those technical elements required in a program will fare better than those with conservative routines.

Now. isn’t that objective enough and easy to understand?

You can learn more about Figure Skating, its Scoring System, and the associated Elements at the NBC Olympic Web Site.

I am sure that other artistic sporting events like Gymnastics, Diving, Synchronized Swimming, Ice Dancing, Ski Jumping, Snowboard Half-Pipe, and many more have (or are going to) significantly revamp(ed) their Judging Systems to allow for objective scoring.

I agree with my buddy, HART , that it is difficult to be objective when you need to process the scores in a compressed time scale (2 minutes).

You don’t want to get on Jon Grunden’s (Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coach) bad side (Source: New Orleans Pro Football)

By that argument, the NFL is not a sport either when we see questionable, gut-feeling calls being made by the Officiating Crew. And most of those questionable calls cannot be reversed after the whistle is blown. Would you say that the NFL is not a sport? I think several hundred million NFL fans plus one (me) would disagree.

Now, having said all that, Fat-assed Celebrities sitting around a table playing poker is not a sport (hear that, ESPN?)

Watching Fat-ass Celebrities playing poker on ESPN is not a sport either.

Incidentally, ‘complaining that Figure Skating is not a sport’ IS ALSO NOT A SPORT.

Post from: EveryJoe

Figure Skating IS A SPORT!

But it is not a sport! Any activity that winning or losing is based on the opinion of someone else does not qualify to me as a sport.

In freestyle skiing, style points are awarded but the tangible element is also speed. In bobsled or the luge, whoever gets to the bottom in the fastest amount of time is the winner. Speed skating is a sport too.

Figure skating is not a sport. It requires athletic ability, no doubt, but then again so does getting out of bed in the morning.

Post from: EveryJoe

Figure Skating is not a sport!

Canadian Jeff Buttle has won the bronze medal in men’s figure skating.

Russian Evgeny Plushenko won the gold medal while Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland won the silver.

Congratulations Jeff on winning a medal. This brings the total to 8 for Canada. 4 bronze, 3 silver and 1 gold (Jennifer Heil).

Post from: EveryJoe

Figure Skating Bronze For Canada

Yes! Vent your anger and frustration about (somewhat) STUPID comments by commentators! Before you do this .. keep in mind that I am not putting down any commentator out there .. they are doing a HECK of a job! (Especially CBC commentators!) :D but sometimes you just gotta ask yourself ..

Uh … What did they say? Did they just say that? Can they say that on TV?

SO! Feel free to write in the comment area things that sounded “funny”, “silly”, or “stupid” …. It’s up to you whether you want to include inaccuracies, but i.m.o. that’s not worthy to complain about them ..

Let me give you an example – I’ll start.

This is about Emanuel Sandhu and me watching the Figure Skating – Men’s Short Program live on the CBC. (Background: he injured his knee in practice at 2002 Salt Lake City games and withdrew at that time). I’m paraphrasing here, because when I first heard the first comment I wasn’t paying attention too much, and when I heard the second comment .. I was laughing my head off! So here is my first entry .. as I remember hearing it!

1st comment (before skate) “You can’t play it safe .. that’s not what this is all about .. Now’s the time where you have to give it everything you got!”

2nd comment (after skate) “What was he thinking? You can’t just come to the Olympics and expect to pull a rabbit out of the hat!”

Is it just me? I thought that Olympic time is the PERFECT time to pull a rabbit out of a hat, and give it everything you’ve got ..?

By The Way … Results of this event…

Rank – NOC – Name – Total Segment Score

1 – RUS – Evgeni Plushenko (90.66)
2 – USA – Johnny Weir (80.00)
3 – SUI – Stephane Lambiel (79.04)

6 – CAN – Jeffrey Buttle (73.29)
7 – CAN – Emanuel Sandhu (69.75)
12 – CAN – Shawn Sawyer (67.20)

The top 24 qualified for the Free Skating

Post from: EveryJoe

UNOFFICIAL – Excuse me? What did they say?

Most amazing.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Fighting Spirit

The scandal from 4 years ago resulted in two pairs of Gold Medalists (no Silver, 1 Bronze) at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics (2002) and a totally revamped Scoring System at this winter games. Everybody was watching the Pair Figure Skating events closely tonight, lest there be another judging impropriety.

Totmiyanina and Marinin triumphant (Source: NBC)

Barely two years ago, Totmiyanina was the victim of a near-fatal fall at the Skate America Competition. After a long rehabilitation, their triumphant return is a classic story of dogged-determination.

Totmiyanina and Marinin in less fortunate circumstances (Source: NBC)

The eerily similar situation occurred tonight to the Chinese pair, Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang, after the former slipped while trying to land a ‘throw quad Salchow.’

Dan Zhang shaken after the fall (Source: NBC)

The two Chinese pairs of Dan Zhang with Hao Zhang and Xue Shen with Hongbo Zhao skated nearly flawless programs but were not enough to overtake the Russian pair.

Post from: EveryJoe

Russian Couple wins Figure Skating Gold

25 Medals for Canada? Where are we going to get 25 medals?

I should say that in my general community of friends and online contacts, sure – we are proud of ALL our Canadian Athletes (maybe a little more with the 5 Winnipeggers in Torino) and we are quite happy if they just perform to the best of their abilities to what they can! But, yah ~ there’s a side of us that also want’s them to Kick Butt! ;-) …

I was looking around at the CBC olympic site to see what events Canada is predicted to bring in medals .. The medal predictions kind of stopped in the events starting with “S” .. so, I had to combine the mostly CBC predictions with a little Sports Illustrated predictions for Canada ..

Before trying to compare these predictions to how our athletes have been competing in the events, here follows a “rough” estimate of the medals predicted to be had by Canada .. Maybe at the end of the Olympics I will come back and compare these to “reality”!

Alpine Skiing – Women’s Giant Slalom – Bronze
Alpine Skiing – Men’s Super-G – Bronze

Biathlon – None

Bobsleigh – Men’s Two-Man – Gold
Bobsleigh – Women’s Two-Man – Bronze

Cross Country Skiing – Women’s 10km – Bronze
Cross Country Skiing – Women’s Pursuit – Silver
Cross Country Skiing – Women’s Team Spirit – Solver
Cross Country Skiing – Women’s Sprint – Gold

Curling – Men’s – Gold
Curling – Women’s – Gold

Figure Skating – Men’s – Bronze

Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Aerials – Gold
Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Aerials – Silver
Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Moguls – Bronze
Freeystyle Skiing – Women’s Moguls – Silver

Ice Hockey – Men’s – Gold
Ice Hockey – Women’s – Gold

Luge – nothing

Nordic Combined – nothing

Short Track – Women’s 3000m Relay – Gold
Short Track – Men’s 5000m Relay – Silver
Short Track – Men’s 500m – Silver

Skeleton – Men’s – Gold
Skeleton – Men’s – Bronze
Skeleton – Women’s – Silver

Ski Jumping – nothing

Snowboard – Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom – Silver
Snowboard – Men’s Snowboardcross – Silver
Snowboard – Women’s Snowboardcross – Bronze

Speedskating – Men’s 500m – Gold
Speedskating – Women’s 1500m – Silver
Speedskating – Women’s 3000m – Bronze
Speedskating – Women’s Team Pursuit – Silver

Okay then! According to the above, that looks like 30 medals to me … did I count correctly?
Gold – 10
Silver – 11
Bronze – 9

What do you think of these predictions?

Go Canada Go!

What are the predictions for your country?

Feel free to link them in the comments below!

Post from: EveryJoe

Canada’s Olympic Medal Quest

Post from: EveryJoe

We’ll Miss You, Michelle. Good Luck, Emily.

Michelle Kwan dropped out of the Olympics on Sunday morning, one day after she cut short a practice because of a recurring groin injury.

The U.S. figure skater said Saturday she didn’t want to drop out, but would have to “listen to my body.” She missed last month’s U.S. nationals with a groin injury, and needed a medical bye onto the Turin team…

…The U.S. Olympic Committee submitted a request to replace Kwan with Emily Hughes, the third-place finisher at last month’s nationals. An answer is expected later this week, and Hughes was expected to travel to Turin on Sunday.

Post from: EveryJoe

Kwan pulls out