February 12, 2010

Let me tell you where I will be.

Vancouver.

That's a small lie.

My television will magically transport me there. Where I will be watching the winter olympic games. Are you with me? Peterso has no choice. Because that is just the way it is. And because she is the fool who paid attention to me that fateful day when I pulled up youtube and began exploring the world of figure skating.

I will now pay you the same favor. But do not worry, I will do it little by little so as to neither bore you nor overwhelm you (two things Ashley will tell you she has experienced late into the evening... many evenings).

It is mainly so I have an excuse to re-watch each of these programs and, for once, not feel like an idiot for spending my time watching blurry old olympic routines. Thank you, every 2 of my readers, for this opportunity. Seriously, though, this is fun for me. Because I really don't know a whole lot about the gold medalists from years past (I know a lot about the couples I do know) or about the contenders for 2010, so it's an experience for me that I want to document. Because as a history major, documenting is how I roll.

First I will show a performance from years past, then introduce a pair likely to find themselves competing in February.

So here we go.

We'll start in 1980 at Lake Placid, New York (shout out to MB). Y'all, this woman was crazy. By crazy I mean the most successful pairs skater of all time. Technically speaking, at least. Let me define successful: 10 successive World Championship gold medals, 3 successive Olympic gold medals. With her partner, Aleksandr Zaitsev, Irina Rodnina won gold at every event she entered between 1973 and 1980.

I mean, if I were a pair up against them I would have stayed home (I wouldn't have been and that's probably the reason. The only one. Nothing to do with the coordination problem or the Early Onset Trudy Smith syndrome). These two married in 1975 and had a son, Sasha Jr., in 1979. Their coach was Stanislav Zhuk, who also trained Gordeeva and Grinkov (we'll be hearing from them soon).

p.s.-- I don't know the skating terms, but I feel like that commentator drank a little too much haterade before he took the mic. I'll be slightly more helpful and mention that the couple this guy brings up a few times during the performance is U.S. pair team Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, who were forced to withdraw from these games due to an injury of Gardner's. This commentator may not ever get over it, I feel like.

Okay, as for the olympic hopefuls. I couldn't decide whether to start with the best, or the Americans. Then I didn't know if I should do their best or most recent performance. I went with most promising (in the hopes that you might return) and most recent.

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy are the current and twice World Champions, three time European Champions and six time national champions (for Germany). They began skating together in 2004. This is their long program at this years World Championships, held in March, where they achieved their personal best score of 203.48 (someday I will research the scoring system and fill you in). I may not know the silly details like scoring rules, but I do have the important inside information-- they are an off ice couple.

What's poignant about this program is that they skate to John Williams' Schindler's List score while representing Germany.

This is fun, yes?

Well, for me, anyway. And now you know where I'll be should you need me on February 12.