8 years ago in Vancouver 2010, @tessavirtue and @ScottMoir ?? won Gold.
They just did it again! @ISU_Figure @teamcanada @tessavirtue @ScottMoir pic.twitter.com/u1KxiszoTh— Olympics (@Olympics) February 20, 2018
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As a devout animist, of course I was much interested in Yuzuru Hanyu’s Abe no Seimei themed performance. Found this Youtube fan short which might be enlightening for those of you who haven’t seen the movie he based it on…
(Theme is from Onmiyoji, which is entertaining in its own right.)
Czanne
I just want open doubles in both figure and dancing. There’s so much potential for interesting choreography with other than mixed doubles pairings. I want to see the art and the sport pushed creatively.
As an aside, I just realized there was a ball-jointed doll modeled after Yuzuru Hanyu. The company that made it went out of business a couple years ago. I got the doll just before they stopped production, but I never knew who inspired that sculpt. Now I must costume that doll in that white tunic (minus the bedazzling.)
Darkrose
1. I want Yuzuru’s free skate outfit for sale on the Final Fantasy XIV cash shop. My character would look great in it.
2. Virtue and Moir were simply amazing.
3. I would love to see same-gender pairs figure skating in competition, but I doubt it will ever happen. But I said that about a Black president, too.
patrick II
The french team had a costume problem in the short program which cost them two points. They lost the gold to the Canadians by one. The French free skate was beautiful and the lady was the most graceful person I have seen on ice in years. The canadian team that won was also great, and the American sibling duet was fun and free. If you like ice skating it was a good night.
J R in WV
I never really regarded ice dance as an athletic event, until seeing the clip AL posted, those two convinced me with their lifts and aggressive choreography the degree of difficulty of their program. simply amazing.
But if it’s an athletic event, you shouldn’t be losing points for a costume issue, that has nothing to do with the actual dance. Same for the figure skating, because your costume fails, unless it affects your ability to skate your intended program, that’s imposing fashion on the athletes, which is wrong to me.
I agree that if two women or two guys want to do a routine,more power to them… let everyone play the game…
We don’t have NBC broadcast right now, there’s something wrong with our set up, which is complex, involving the antenna up on the ridge, servers in our neighbors house who share our farm, and an ethernet network between their place and our house that’s barely within the specs for Ethernet distance.
So this is the first time I’ve been able to watch any events, even after the fact, on the internet posted by news sites and on NBCsports.com. My insomnia pays off.finally.
Nice to meet you night owl ice enthusiasts!
sukabi
@J R in WV: I don’t think they lost the points for the wardrobe malfunction itself, but for how it interfered with her sticking precisely to their choreography….she had to keep adjusting her top so it didn’t fall off. She did a good job of keeping it up, and she disguised her attempts pretty well, but you could tell her arm / hand movements were not part of their usual routine.
J R in WV
Anne Laurie:
I came to this post after watching my first 2018 Olympics footage, some of which was ice dancing at this level. The Japanese film you posted is amazing in the blend of (I assume) a Japanese traditional dance combined with drama and modern ice skating at the highest level.
The young man did an amazing job with choreography derived somewhat from the traditional dancing in the film. My insomnia pays off a little.
On the Proof of Life: Iowa Meet there is some great news about activists working to control gun violence, meetings with overflow SRO crowds. There is also the expected news about typical experienced Right Wing Nut Jobs attacking student activists for (get this!) getting coaching from teachers!
Cheaters, kids in high school getting coached by their teachers, some of whom gave their lives to save kids. There are kids in the hospital who nearly gave their lives to help other students, and they will next be attacked by fellow Americans for hating our Dear Leader President Trump and his associated Russo-Republicans.
Amazing lack of empathy and sensitivity on the part of Gateway Pundit who was the main actor named.
What a night… amazing athletic work in Korea, fearless women and men diving down the sled track at 90 mph, a Tie time for Gold Medal in bobsled, and here at home we have worms attacking kids with the grit to work to save other kids from terrorist gun violence.
Anyway, thanks for all you do here on Balloon Juice for we, the raving Jackals. Your nighttime posts are a balm for those of us with insomnia, or just on a different schedule from 8-5 working folks. I’m retired now, and have slid back to the second shift schedule my Dad worked all his life publishing an AM newspaper. His father-in-law – grandfather I never remember meeting, worked a rotating shift at the coal mine until lung disease put him down before my first birthday.
Anyway, so glad to have your posts when I’m up late, or just taking a break from sleeping at 3 or 4 am. Take care,
JR in wV
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning!?
danielx
@rikyrah:
Good morning!
Moar thread please.
Rich Webb
Ahh, Onmyōji. Thanks! I need to dig that out of the DVD stack. Recommended (in the subtitle, not the dub, of course).
Feathers
I was really rooting for the French team last night. How awful to become two time world champions and then have the two time Olympic medalists show up to work with your coaches and overtake you. Virtue and Moir were amazing, but didn’t have the same impact for me that they did in the team competition. That really is a problem for skaters who compete in both. I thought you could stop and restart if you had an equipment problem, i didn’t hear anyone talking about why the French didn’t, so maybe the rules changed. The malfunction happened right at the start of the program. Does anyone know?
Actually, they do permit same sex skaters competing together. It’s called similar pairs/couples. It’s mainly at the lower levels, where there are so many more girls than boys, so they form up pairs/couples of just girls so they can get competition experience, even if they don’t have a male partner. I remember reading a biography of Dorothy Hamill years back where she and a friend would enter the similar pairs event at the summer skating camp they went to, just to be sure to come home with a medal. Apparently, it was kind of embarrassing to do if you were an actual pairs skaters, because it meant you didn’t have a partner, so they were usually they only competitors. Yeah, looong time skating fan. I don’t know how high in the levels it goes for USFS.
The other sanctioning body in the US is the ISI, which handles recreational skating. They have similar pairs/couples through the adult levels. They are the sanctioning body for the skating competitions you see at they various Gay Games.
In show skating there is a tradition of hyper-acrobatic male pairs, especially in Russia. There was a Russian pair who did truly insane stuff who toured a lot in the 90s.
I agree it would be really cool, but I don’t think it will happen. Skating is insanely difficult and expensive, and you’d have to build up a whole infrastructure for it outside of the Olympics, which would then become an Olympic sport. Where it might happen is in synchronized skating, where largish groups compete in precision events. Right now, i believe it is technically gender neutral, but in reality all women. A pairs competition could be added fairly easily there, which would allow for lifts and holds. It’s a chicken and egg problem, you’d need lots of competitors to get into the Olympics, but the hope of a medal is what keeps highest level competitors going in the sport. Pairs/couples skate together for years before being competitive at the Olympic level. Adding doubles to synchronized skating would allow for competition, but not at the ruinous levels of expense that the Olympic path skating has. Synchronized skating keeps,trying to join the Olympics, but it would add too many competitors, so it never succeeds.
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Feathers
Sorry for the length above. Forgot to add the recommend for Yuri on Ice! a wonderful and delightful anime from two years ago. It’s a gay romance about a Russian skater who falls in love with a Japanese skater and retires from competition to become his coach. I found out about it from all the skaters gushing about it during last year’s broadcasts. It’s on Crunchyroll, and at 12 23 minute episodes, easily watchable during their free two week trial.
Blue mouser
@Feathers: I love Yuri on Ice! It brought me back to following ice skating which I really liked as a teen. I heard there was going to be a movie but have not heard recently about it. I know this is a dead thread but wanted to share my appreciation of ice skating and Yuri. Thank you for bringing up that wonderful show!