Helene

Or perhaps to paraphrase the review in today's Links of NBoC's Jewels:

I think figure skating differs from most other sports. It does have the World Championships every year, but while the US press makes a very big deal out of the Olympics for things like "the Worlds fastest human," 100-meter race, they really aren't as important to followers of many other sports. For skiing, ski-jumping, cross-country skiing, and biathlon, for example, the World Cup, the athletes' cumulative results over a season, is more important than the Olympics, and the biannual World Championships are equally important. No one thinks that Marit Bjoergen is any less of a legend in cross-country skiing for not winning gold medals in any one Olympics. The season that Simon Ammann won both individual Olympic ski-jumping medals, Sven Hannevald was just as lauded for being the first man to sweep the Four Hills tournament, and Adam Malysz was reigning World Cup champion and went on to win both hills at the World Championships the following year. In Europe, where track and field stars are the equivalent of rock stars and have great endorsement deals, the Olympic gold medal is important, but not overwhelmingly important as the year-in/year-out circuit and the World Championships. The same is true in swimming and diving, and the World Cup in soccer is way more important worldwide than the Olympics. Just as the rest of the world doesn't pay much attention to the World Series, which is required viewing for US sports fans, or to the Tournament of Hearts and the Brier, which are required viewing for Canadian sports fans, the reason Olympic gold medals are so important in North America is that we don't pay much attention to many of these sports except during the Olympics. Sadly, that includes figure skating, where a true Grand Prix circuit is unaffordable, not only given the facilities needed, which is as expensive for ski-jumpers, but the nature of individual vs. group/team training.

The links to the Ladies Free Skate videos are posted to the NBC site for the following skaters: Arakawa, Cohen, Slutskaya, Suguri, Rochette, Meissner, and Hughes.

Given the number of articles in the general sports press about how Cohen should have been off the podium altogether, I'm afraid Cohen's silver, Slutskaya's bronze, and Suguri's 4th place finish wasn't an obvious outcome to everyone, particularly those with the most exposure.

I credit Cohen's work with David Wilson for giving Cohen a structure to work with between jumps, and for Cohen with sticking with the "score" of the program, even when her early jumps failed her. The little arm movements and arm positions that stilled her upper body, the short baby Ina, and the tiny transitions added to her program, collectively made programs by Suguri, for example, to appear empty. (Which is usually the criticism of Cohen's non-Tarasova programs.) After the hands down on the 3Flip, I thought Cohen skated exquisitely, and for the only time in her career, ended the free skate stronger than she started. (She was uniformly stellar in her 2004 Worlds qualification skate, the best I've ever seen her.) The difference in component scores (PCS) was marginal between Arakawa, Cohen, and Slutskaya. I never thought I'd be typing this, but Cohen beat Slutskaya on the basis of her technical score. Cohen planned and rotated seven triples. Slutskaya, Suguri, and Rochette planned six triples, and rotated five. Suguri and Rochette landed their triples. Slutskaya fell on one of them, thus landing one fewer than Cohen. Tracy Wilson did an analysis for NBC, comparing the performance scores for Cohen vs. Slutskaya. Even with the errors both Slutskaya and Cohen had on jumps -- Cohen lost 7 points to Slutskaya's 3.29 -- and Cohen's additional landed triple, Slutskaya was still ahead on jumps. It was a virtual draw on spins, and Cohen made her winning margin on spirals and footwork. Ultimately, having a harder program to start gave Cohen second in the free skate: Cohen: planned ~ 57 points, skated a 57-point program, and received ~55 points for her effort. Slutskaya, Suguri, Rochette: planned ~ 57 points, skated ~53-point programs, and received 53-54 points for their efforts. Arakawa: planned ~60 points, skated a 57-point program, and received ~62 points for her effort. I think that Arakawa was more Caballe than Sutherland, but that's my preference.

I'm going to turn into a complete gushing fan here, but I am in Kvell Land for Arakawa and am floating on air: my alltime favorite Ladies skater from the triples era is Olympic Champion!!!!!

VAI released a VHS version of Gaite Parisienne with Massine and Danilova. Unfortunately, it's not available (currently) on amazon.com, and it's no longer on VAI's website. Does anyone know of a source for this tape?