Helene

The NBC Olympics website has streaming video for some of the skating performances. First there is a 10-sec commercial, and then the site searches for a license from NBC, at least the first time you use the site on that computer. This didn't work on my Mac, but I don't know if operating system was the issue. It works on my PC. To see the video, click the little camera icon to the right of the skater's name. Pairs Short Program: Totmianina/Marinin, Zhang/Zhang, Petrova/Tikhonov, Pang/Tong, Shen/Zhao, Inoue/Baldwin. Pairs Free Skate: Totmianina/Marinin, Zhang/Zhang, Shen/Zhao, Pang/Tong, Inoue/Baldwin, Hinzmann/Parchem Men's Short Program: Plushenko, Weir, Lambiel, Joubert, Savoie, Lysacek Men's Free Skate: Plushenko, Buttle, Lysacek, Lambiel, Savoie, Weir, Joubert. The videos appear on the results pages. Nothing's posted so far on Compulsory Dance, and I suspect there never will be, but here is the link, just in case: Compulsory Dance

In one of her two books, Christine Brennan quoted Wylie, whose reaction was that it was the press who wanted the bigger Cinderella story with the gold medal, and he was happy with silver. His skate wasn't flawless, either. Petrenko started out with a very strong skate, but his perennial lack of conditioning -- typically, Soviet/Russian coaches do not make their skaters go through full-run throughs at practices -- kicked in, and the second half of his program was extremely weak. In my opinion Petrenko's was a stronger skate than the messy skate that Scott Hamilton had in Sarajevo. Hamilton won neither the short or long programs in those Olympics; it was only his lead in the school figures that won him a gold medal. Kulik's mother made him his "giraffe" costume, which is why he wore it. He became such a great skater as a professional, and when, apart from Yagudin, I see the way Stars on Ice has been cast, I think it was shameful that they dropped his contract. Buttle, who I think is a more developed skater than Wylie was an eligible skater, is the muse of David Wilson, one of the most creative choreographers for competitive programs. He came in second in the free skate, but his two mistakes in the short program, a fall on the 3Axel and a faulty 3Lutz, put Lambiel out of reach, especially with Buttle's fall on the quad.

Buttle's program was far more difficult than Weir's: the differential in base difficulty was almost twice the lead that Plushenko had over Weir after the short program, and even if the 5 points Buttle received for the fall on the 4Toe was removed, his technical execution would have been 12 points higher than Weir's. Weir had one jump combination, a 3Axel+3Toe, the very first element of his program. His second 3Axel was double-footed and under-rotated; he received credit for a 2Axel only, less a deduction for the faulty landing. His spins were less difficult, although wonderful, and he left out one element, his last jumping pass. His choreography was simpler than Buttle's, and the music is fairly one-note and muzaky, until the straightline footwork music, where it breaks out a bit. Buttle's choreography was full of transitions and moves like the Ina Bauer, which highlighted the various changes in the music. Although smooth, I thought Weir was rather listless. Buttle had the highest energy I've seen from him since last year's Canadian championships. He was one of the few who came out and seized the moment, even if his program was flawed. Lambiel was cautious, but that's not surprising since he strained knee ligaments two weeks ago and was off ice for a week. He had a hard time executing his spins because of knee pain, and his jump landings were weaker than usual, but his opening 4Toe/3Toe/2Loop was a thing of beauty. I wish CBC had shown Lysacek and Savoie. Lysacek beat Lambiel in the free skate, and Savoie came in 5th, a great showing for a skater who is chronically underscored. Had Buttle not been competing under CoP, he most likely would not have attempted the 4Toe, but would have substituted another jump. For all of the criticism of CoP that it doesn't give the quad enough credit, so that skaters are downgrading their programs to be safe, it gives incentive to try the quad, if it can be rotated. Buttle made a valiant attempt to land the quad. Weir didn't try, and his diluted program ranked sixth, after Plushenko, Buttle, Lysacek, Lambiel, and Savoie.