WHAT a skate he had! I just LOVE that he beat the Russian.........admit it, didn't you? :-)America's way up there in Olympic medals this year and it's so great to see the winners carrying the flags and yelling "USA USA!"
I LOVE THAT.
UPDATE: Some are saying he doesn't deserve the medal. Plushenko says "If the Olympic champion doesn't know how to jump a quad, I don't know," Plushenko said. "Now it's not men's figure skating, now it's dancing."
You think he's right?
44 comments:
I absolutely LOVE this guy!!
Bravo. Bravo. Braaaavvvoooo!!!!
He won fair and square. Nothing but THE best skating. Bravo Evan!!
You have made your country proud.
America shares your smile.
Matisse
I stayed up last night to watch and SOOOOO GLAD I did! What an AWESOME performance! Kudos to Evan!!!
Did you see that Stepahne (?) from Switzerland who came in 6th (I think...sorry. I am hurrying off to work this morning!) Anyway, I have NEVER seen anyone spin as fast as this guy does at the very end of his performances. It is mindblowing!
USA vs. Canada hockey this weekend. Finally some real sports.
Cat Fight
We are TiVo'ing the games and have not gotten to him yet. I think the American's are carrying themselves well this year. Doing well in the competition and staying respectful.
Chuck, I was sorry to see the American who won the Gold in, I think, speed skating not put his hand on his heart for the National Anthem....I'm hoping it was just that he didn't know. Most of them do it...
Ducky, try to carry on a performance as long as the skaters and do triples in the air, I think that's pretty sporting, they're amazingly fit. it does seem more like dancing, but the physical preparation and what it takes to do those fetes is athletic as it gets, I think.
I'm holding out for the summer olympics and the return of this.
Z-I notice those who do put their hand over their hearts and those who do not---when I watch---which is not often!!
I do try to catch the HOCKEY!! ---
half of my team --RED WINGS-- are playing for their native countries so- until the USA team plays-I have a 'dog in every fight!' (game)...(-:
Thanks for the heads up-as to the USA v.Canada game -Ducky...
Didn't see that, like I said I'm behind.
I think putting your hand on your heart is not done as often as it once was. I go to a lot of sporting events and I don't see this as much anymore. I'm not sure it's a lack of respect as much as a changing of accepted protocol among people. I believe the people I see not doing it genuinely are showing respect to the flag and the Anthem, maybe just a little differently.
BTW - Pleshanko (sp) is a sore looser and - thus - is a small minded person...
and Evan Lyhsacek and all of the winning athletes are very fit...
they cannot do what they do and not be fit!!!
C-CS
I also saw him win last night, I was up on my feet cheering for him
I thought his performance was UNBEATABLE he was GREAT.
Also I must admit I was very happy to see the Russian get beat.
If there is one Olympic sport in which Canada is expected to live up to the slogan of "own the podium" it would be hockey. So last night I thought I would flip to the channel to see by how much they had defeated Switzerland, hardly an Olympic powerhouse. I was stunned to see the game in an overtime period which Canada eventually won in a shoot out. Now that's hardly healthy for the primal and tribal Canadian psyche. What's going to happen when they play against better teams such as USA, Russia and Sweden?
It's too early to predict the winner, but this much we do know: As far as players salaries the Canadian team has the biggest NHL payroll of $125 million with the next being the USA team, I believe at about $78 million. We've come a long way, baby, from the days of amateur sports players only in the Olympic games. So about now if a team of these over-priced prima donnas loses to some more amateurish team — I think I'd cheer that!
Waylon
Ducky, a hockey fan? Who Knew? I thought baseball was his game — which itself can be a dangerous sport as this video shows (not sure why it was banned from being aired during the Super Bowl...wrong sport, I guess).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-u8yzLywFU
Waylon
Chuck, I agree..I'm not QUITE so sure it's a sign of disrespect to not put one's hand on one's heart, but when you're in a situation like that, with millions watching and the opportunity to have competed given to you BY the country you're representing, I'd have thought you might...
Waylon, good luck with Canadian hockey!
Lysacek's performance was great, and he deserved the gold. Hooray!
As for Plushenko, sour grapes is always ugly! He thought he could rely on his reputation as a past winner. What a prima donna he is!
These skaters are athletes. The endurance required to skate that long program and succeed at it, should be obvious to anyone.
They have to work out with weights, run, and generally dedicate every day to their fitness, in order to compete at this level.
What spoils the Olympics for me is allowing professional athletes to participate. The team sports like Hockey, are made up of professionals.
Never again will we see a group of kids like the ones on the American hockey team who beat the Soviets in 1980. That was the most thrilling Olympic event for me and still is.
Pris
Pris, you're right; we'll never have that again, it seems........that was SO EXCITING!
Plushenko has a quadruple and that's that....Scott Hamilton and the other commenters all thought Lysacek outdid Plushenko and they're pros who recognize CONSISTENCY and WELL ACCOMPLISHED CHOREOGRAPHY....
everyone saw Plushenko's tiny wobbles on his spins.......Evan had ZERO.......
Plushenko is obviously extremely prideful and conceited..."well, I have a gold and two silvers now, you can't say that's bad...." No, but we can say your attitude STINKS, pal. He also said something about how a skater with no quadruple's just dancing...imagine, when HE KNOWS how hard Evan had to work!?
Plushenko's so talented, no doubt about it, but took from that rather like an attractive person becomes less physically attractive when their character is bad, you know?
Not sure what it's worth but nobody's saying Lysacek didn't avoid the quad because he can't do it, but that because of a stress fracture in the past he didn't want to risk it again. Seems like the decision paid off. (I'm watching some video highlights online)
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=411208.htmln
Faith, I hadn't heard that, thanks for the info....Plushenko's one who's sure inferring Evan couldn't do it...
this even more shows Plushenko's character; how sad that is, but I guess you have to have a big ego to even get involved in this level of ANYTHING let alone athletics.
Address had an extra n on it. Hope this one works.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=411208.html
uh oh drama!.lol
Why does he have to have a snake around his neck, by the way? What's the message? Spiders on Olympics gear have also bothered me. Hate that stuff.
Do Russians raise sour grapes?
Did you see Shawn White do his version of Jimi Hendrix during the playing of the anthem...
Last I checked jumps are 50% of the score, so yes you can win without the quad...
And I loved hearing that the Russian lost...
Vegas GUy..where've you been? Glad to see you..and I agree!
Joe, THE GRAPES OF WRATH was what Pushenko seemed to be drinking!
Sue, was it reverent or doofus? he seemed so excited to win for USA USA!! I'd like to have seen the Hendrix chops!
Faith, I don't know but it was creepy
I've been trying to get my students to understand the difference between nonfiction text and biographies...
sigh
Z,
It's good to hear from Vegas, right? Olympics? I don't have a lot of love for something that isn't objective and not subjective. Dancing, skating, not so much. Hockey, oh yeah! Go USA.
I really can't say, but i gotta say, they look gay!
Plushenko is suffering from sour-grapes syndrome.
Evan's performance was stellar as far as I'm concerned.
I watched an interview with a Canadian athlete, Melissa Hollingsworth, who was expected to win another medal in the quest to "own the podium". It didn't happen and she won no medal. The interview showed he extreme disappointment — tears and all. I can understand her disappointment after years of preparation but ending the interview she said she thought she "had let down the entire country". Now that thinking I have a problem with ... the primal tribal groupthink.
I think that would be a logical explanation for losing focus on the time and effort any individual spends to prepare for these games. All it takes is to have that collectivist idiocy rolling around inside your skull while performing to bring about the loss and disappointment, at least in my humble opinion.
Can a collectivist thinker explain the error of my thinking? Thank you, Ducky...
Waylon
Here's the story if anybody's interested ...
http://www.canada.com/sports/2010wintergames/bounce+Hollingsworth+slide+gold+vanishes/2588348/story.html
Waylon
Waylon, I think I'd have felt the same way...I'm not sure that's "primal tribal groupthink" or just someone who really loves her country and had so badly wanted to win that medal for it?
They showed American Olympians packing for the Olympics days ago, during little biographies on them, and one said as she opened her apartment door to leave.." Let's go....this one's for AMERICA!" I have to admit I was very touched.
Maybe I'm missing your point?
I don't think she's less concerned that SHE didn't win, for her own hours and hours of work, etc, but she would so badly have liked to have had that Canadian flag rise and hear "O Canada" with her on the highest podium.
I think we can use MORE of that kind of patriotism from every country!
If I had to make a bet, though, I'd say they're not thinking of their country when they're actually competing, they're thinking I WANT TO WIN THIS ONE!..
.
Boy, I hope that doesn't lump ME together with Ducky in your mind!?
I think the athletes are over-scrutinized and that adds to all the pressure when it's combined with the expectations that the armchair experts opinions. My point was that once the individual athlete decides that competing in the Olympics becomes a focus of that person's life, you add to the pressure of the training and mental preparation by thinking that to be seen by the tribe as a winner or loser depending on how you perform.
I'm sure the woman in this story was showing honest disappointment with her performance but "disappointing the country" — if that enters the athlete's mind before the event, I'm thinking it would increase the possibility of a poor performance at the critical moment. She did say she thought her performance was below her own expectations.
I'm not criticizing her or her performance, just pointing out that I think she let the voices and the admiration of the tribe undermine her focus, and IMO, that could well have led to her result.
Waylon
Yes, Sue, I saw Shawn White do his bit, playing Jimi Hendrix, while getting his gold and our anthem
playing......and it DISGUSTED me!
What? He cannot stand for 2 minutes, with his hand over his heart, in respect for our country??
Hope someone set his ego straight.
Not everything is about him.
What's with him??? Goof off Jerk !!!
Matisse
Waylon, I see what you mean but I think any athlete has some of that terrible stress in any competition they go into.
Yes, it probably does add to the emotional state of the competitor, you're so right.
Maybe it depends on the psyche of an individual...like some mothers literally can't and don't watch their kids compete (Evan Lysaeck's mother doesn't, and I've heard of others...and I"D be one of THOSE)...
you might have a point but I know I'd be MIGHTY PROUD about winning something for my country and that would be all of my OWN pressure on myself!
Matisse...tell us how you REALLY FEEL :-)
by the way, did White EVER put his hand over his heart at ALL?
Why's that kid who won the ice racing thing and didn't AT ALL ever get a mention in the media for not? Well, I guess if our president won't, he doesn't have to...come to think of it. How many photos do we all have now at different evens where Obama's got his hands down? 3?
ALSO, 'by the way', White was the most excited about screaming USA USA USA and carrying the flag after he won...so maybe he didn't mean it as a slight.
But, it sure must have looked WEIRD and VERy disrespectful!
Did you know that training for classical ballet is SO rigorous that the routines dancers use have been adopted by FOOTBALL and BASKETBALL COACHES?
Strength is a great thing, so is good coordination, but when both are used with GRACE and STYLE you have HIGH ART.
Ain't nuttin' wrong wif DAT! And anyone who thinks that way is a CLOD -- or a jealous fool.
~ FreeThinke
FT..and boxing! They study ballet for footwork. Plus, a friend of mine who's teaching me Pilates now is a martial arts expert who studied under Balanchine in NYC for posture and strength...FOR his martial arts!
hockey schedule:
http://proicehockey.about.com/od/olympichockey/a/2010-olympic-sk.htm
I've enjoyed the snowboarding and the speedskating this year.
I haven't caught any ice skating for some reason.
Shaun White rockin' the air guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AY67fmqQoA
Jen! Thanks for posting that.
I've got to say that didn't seem the slightest bit disrespectful now that I've seen it...he only did it for 2 seconds, and out of sheer joy, and "playing WITH the song", you know? And then right back to his hand on heart again.
I loved it! And you all know how stuff I can tend to get about respect and patriotism :-)
He knew he was pushin' it, but it's just his exuberant personality. He's not exactly "squared away"! ;-)
He's a cutie.
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