Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Figure Skating: The Thrill of Victory Part One

This past weekend, for me, was spent watching figure skating. Saturday was an especially full day, as both the European Championships and the U.S. National Championships were occurring at the same time.

I will begin with the Ladies Free Skate at Europeans. This year, the Europeans were held in Bern Switzerland, and I wish to highlight one skater, Switzerland's Sarah Meier. If you watched the 2002 Olympics and the 2006 Olympics, you likely have watched her before. She did not compete in Vancouver, due to injury. This was to be her last competition. The was the final skater to take the ice, and delivered a very emotional performance. Since I'm posting a link, I'm sure you can figure out what happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfWrARyEOOw

The video is from Finnish TV, and there are English subtitles. Just click the cc at the bottom to bring them up.

Saturday night was the Ladies Free Skate at the U.S. Nationals. No skater has one more than one championship since Michelle Kwan. On Saturday night, there were three ladies with the chance to break that, Alissa Cziny, Rachael Flatt, and Mirai Nagasu.

I will post links to all three short programs.

Rachael Flatt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Ib6INSEzY
Alissa Czisny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McGIK4AlG2o
Mirai Nagasu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3ODzdB4_6E


Free skates:
Alissa Czisny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfBkr9ioSCE
Rachael Flatt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b53RWYRUvg8&feature=related
Mirai Nagasu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulektq3x-WI&feature=related

I plan to post more on the men's , etc. later.

4 comments:

Renee (BlacknGoldGirlsBookSpot) said...

Wow I haven't watched figure skating in very long time, come to think of it I haven't actually skated in a while either? Do you skate? It's fun...on the rare occassion I don't come home with a bruised backside LOL!

XOXO~ Renee

Michelle said...

No, I'm afraid I don't skate. There were no skating rinks where I grew up, and by the time I was anywhere that had a rink I'd already broken my ankle.

I love to watch skating though, just about as much as you love the Steelers, I'd say.

Kav said...

Oh, wow, thanks for posting this!!! I haven't seen any European Championship. Love Sarah's lines in her spins! And such emotion. I love when the 'underdog' wins!

I managed to watch the ladies' free skate -- and that was exciting! This year I think your US coverage was better then our Canadian coverage. CBC is miserly with it's air time for skating. I loved the days when CTV covered it. We got everything!

Looking forward to when you post the men's.

Michelle said...

Oh, Sarah was wonderful, wasn't she? I didn't mention it in the original post, but I was following the scores on the ISU website that morning, and when her scores came in I actually screamed. It was definitely so emotional.

Glad you enjoyed NBC's coverage. Scott Hamilton doesn't bother me as a commentator at all, but I can't stand Tom Hammond. Although I have to admit he didn't seem as bad this year, lol. I miss ABC covering skating here. But I'm staring to get used to NBC.

Just posted the men. ;)