Johnny wuz robbed

[gwyn]

Aw, man. Seriously, sixth effing place? That just wasn't right at all. And how gracious was he in accepting it, and asking the audience to calm down? I was incredibly impressed with him as a skater tonight, and as a person. Well, I mean, he's fabulous, but tonight he was fabulous. He skated better than he ever has, and I think his artistry in the routine was far and above the others.

That said, I was impressed by everyone's skating tonight, especially the ones who completed their routines so well after falls. And awww, the poor kid from Japan whose lace broke! How horrible. My heart just broke for him. And Plushenko actually cracked a smile. Alert the media! I was astonished that he landed some of those jumps considering how he should have fallen. Cat-like reflexes no kidding.

Most of all, I was impressed by Evan. Wow, I didn't think he had it in him. I really truly expected Plushenko to wipe the ice with all of them, because it just seemed like it had been written that way already. Which makes Evan's win even more wonderful, I think, because he kind of flew in under the radar and wowed the pants off everyone. It was a marvelous routine, and skated with a lot of joy, which sometimes seems in short supply at the grim business of winning medals at the Olympics. I've been away from skating for a long time, but I'm glad I'm back to it, because I would have hated to miss Evan's performance. It has nothing to do with nationalism or anything like that, I'm usually hooked on skaters from other countries, but tonight I thought belonged to two Yanks, when it came right down to it. (I saw someone on my flist refer to him as Snape on ice, and I love that.)

Is it wrong of me that one of the things I loved most in Evan's skate was that one chunk of hair kept standing up from the slicked down coiff, like some kind of wacky Tin Tin thing? So endearing. I also loved Lambiel's Prince Charming outfit. (Although, I couldn't figure out what Takahashi's was supposed to represent.) And that was definitely one of the most elegant of Johnny Weir's outfits, for certain. Lovely evening of skating, though it's made me hate the judging of the Olympics even more than I did before. It makes me murderously angry.

Comments

[adair]

Yeah, I love watching Johnny Weir. I don't know enough about skating technique to get whatever the judges see, but I do know expressive dance quality when I see it. Johnny and Sasha Cohen have that quality as skaters; you can't take your eyes off them. And his jumps were clean, and expressive - flowed in and out as part of the performance, not elements.

Evan has never excited me; he usually seems just too controlled and calculated. Partly, I think, it's that long body, those arms and legs seem to flail. Last night's performance was really a breakout for him; he got in about as much expression as he's got - I think the music helped.

Bill liked Takahito Kuzuka because in both programs he skated to guitar music. He thought the long program music sounded like Mark Knopfler's music for Local Hero. I looked it up; it was Guitar Concerto by Michael Kamen and Tomoyasu Hotei. We all have our trigger points for what makes us like a performance

[klia]

I watched most of the routines with my hand over my eyes, peeking between my fingers. I just wanted everyone to do really well, and it's just so hard to watch them mess up.

I can't believe Weir finished behind Chan (how such a lackluster performance moved him up from 7th to 4th is beyond me) and even Lambiel (I adore him, but he wasn't stellar). The commentators kept saying his program wasn't nearly as difficult, and I realize I'm no experts on all the elements and the skaters' execution, but it sure didn't look easier to me, except that he seemed to stop/pause a little more than the others, and he didn't make any huge mistakes, so it came across as the judges scoring on things other than his performance.

Lysacek did his best at exactly the right time, and was amazing! I got all teary eyed. *sniff*

I said earlier yesterday I hoped Takahashi didn't go for a quad, because if he missed he'd be out of a medal, and sure enough... *sigh* He's definitely someone to watch in the future, as is Kozuka. They're both powerhouse athletes but have lovely artistry, as well. Oda didn't impress me as much, and I felt terrible when his lace broke. Poor guy.

I have to say, I was relieved Plushenko didn't win with that underwhelming and weirdly cheesy (what was up with the bizarre hamminess/blowing kisses at the judges? *shudder*) performance. Knowing the ridiculous biases in judging, I was bracing myself for it, but thankfully, it didn't happen. \o/

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I *totally* agree with you, every word.

(A random girl surfing her f-of-f list.)

[unovis.livejournal.com]

Yes, to all this, and extra love for Lambiel. I was pleased that Evan won over Plushenko, but--completely outside technical and artistic ability--I think Evan's legs look spindly when he jumps. His choreography was gorgeous. And yes again, Weir deserved far better than he received.

[omphale]

Yes, this. I loved Lysacek's performance, but I was completely shocked at how they scored Johnny Weir. They'd been handing out high scores all night! WTF.

I'm a little disappointed that the ice was so warm last night--everyone looked like they were really fighting to get speed and I think it was part of the reason that so many people fell on jumps. Still, it was a great show, even if for the costumes alone. *g*

[carbonel]

I think I've got to disagree, though emotionally I'm right there with you. I've been watching skating pretty regularly for the past several years, and it looks to me as if, based on what Johnny did, he was fairly judged. The problem is that the level of difficulty just wasn't comparable to some of the higher-placing routines. He did what he did very well, but the levels weren't there to get the points.

That said, I'm thrilled that he pulled off two good skates, because I've seen so many competitions where he blew either the short or long program. This time he put it all together.

(The one time I saw Johnny and Evan live was when the U.S. Nationals were in St. Paul, and the point score was a tie. I was really annoyed that they used a tiebreaker -- I thought it should have been kept as a tie. And I would have thought that even if the win had gone to Johnny instead of Evan.)