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[jaina]

Oh, my beautiful beautiful Tanith and Ben. I could not possibly love you any more than I do right now. Well, maybe if you eventually win gold. At the 2010 Olympics. But still. You are marvelous, you are wonderful, and it's a crying shame that we'll finally have three ice dancing couples in the Olympics, and none of them will be you. Hell, none of the three will finish any higher than 10th, most likely. *sobbity*

It's funny, I remember when I used to hate ice dance. I never bothered to watch it when it was on. But I *love* it now. Ice dancers have such a marvelous smoothness and control about them...and because they don't do jumps, there are rarely any falls.

My Michelle...*sigh* As julietvalcouer said, her long program music this year really just doesn't suit her. For one, it's too strongly tied to Torvill and Dean, and for another, she just never really *connected* to it. It felt like they were two separate things-- the music was playing and Michelle was skating along-- rather than one single, harmonious entity as they always are with her. I can only hope she picks two excellent pieces of music for next year, and that they try hard to maximize the points in her programs. It's pretty clear that under the new system, her programs as they stand are no longer enough to win.

Comments

[julietvalcouer.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't even care that Christopher Dean is choreographing it for her. She needs to drop it. It's not working, it looks awkward and uncomfortable, it needs to go away.

Sasha Cohen I actually enjoyed watching for a change. I don't know what she did differently, but she's stopping having a nervous breakdown every time she makes a mistake. And she really is far too flexible. (Never, ever, combine her in some weird genetic experiment with Johnny Weir. They'd have Gumby-children.)

Not to take anything away from Irina Slutskaya. Talk about peaking at exactly the right moment. I'm sure the hometown crowd helped, and having the motivation of skating for her mom's surgery, but wow, she was ON.

Talking of ice dance, did you hear who'll have to go since we get three teams? From Nationals, the 2nd, 8th, and 9th-place teams. Apparently 3-7 are all either inelligble because of citizenship problems or have broken up. We're going to get our butts kicked. Big time.

Tanith and Ben...*sigh*. They were good. I have to be honest and say Navka and Kostomarov were better--they're just more complete ice dancers. They have better in-between blade work. (And they did one lift, the one where she reaches between his legs to grab her blades--why does ice-dancing always sound a bit dirty when you try to describe it--that I'd love to try, even if it does have her head inches from the ice.) But if Tanith and Ben were going to Turino, we would probably have a US medal. As you say--tenth is the best we'll probably do.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

I still didn't watch Sasha Cohen. I just...I can't stand her. She never looks happy, even when she does well, her smiles are always forced-- it's just unpleasant. And I think she's *too* bendy. I don't like her legs-completely-open spiral; I think a high spiral is actually a lot prettier.

Irina definitely peaked at the right time, and I was thrilled for her. I cried when she won. She really deserved this win. However, I'm not sure she'll be able to carry that momentum into next year. I mean, she's no spring chicken at 26, and with her illness problems...well, we'll see. I'd certainly rather see her as Olympic champion than Sasha or *shudder* li'l Kimmie. (No more teenie gold medalists, dammit!)

I think I remember hearing that part of the problem with the ice dance couples is that a lot of boys are being brought over from Russia and other countries to partner with American girls, because there aren't enough guys over here. So they haven't got their citizenship, either.

Oh, I definitely agree that the Russians were superior to Tanith and Ben. They just had more polish, overall. But T&B definitely deserved that silver, and I think if they're still healthy and skating together in 2010, we'll almost certainly see an Olympic medal from them.