Well, I didn't get what I wanted. Hughes fell. Meissner bobbled. Cohen fell--twice. Slutskaya fell. There were many impressions of a curling stone throughout the evening. But Shizuka Arakawa put together a clean, elegant program that, though perhaps lacking in passion, earned her Japan's first-ever women's gold, and the country's first medal in Torino.
I'm very pleased for her. She was living in the shadow of Slutskaya and Cohen, both of which were favored by the media to win, while her name was seldom mentioned--even though she was less than a point behind either of the two leaders. Perhaps it was that lack of attention and pressure that made the difference. Both Slutskaya and Cohen succumbed to the pressure.
I'm also pleased with Sasha Cohen. After falling twice on her first two jumps, I expected her to fold. Instead she came back and nailed the rest of her routine, displaying all the grace and elegance she is famous for. Ultimately, it was her artistic flair that saved her--and earned her a silver. Her artistic marks were considerably higher than her technical marks.
Slutskaya I feel for. She is not an artistic skater. Enthusiasm, for which she has never lacked, does not always translate into artistry. And after she fell, her enthusiasm seemed to flag as well. With the strong showing by Arakawa, she needed to skate the technical performance of her life, and she just couldn't do it.
In the end, however, I'm not sure either Slutskaya or Cohen could have beaten Arakawa. Though falling twice as often, Cohen was only just over a point behind Slutskaya in the technical marks for jumps, so it's entirely possible that even landing both jumps wouldn't have made up the nine point deficit she ultimately lost by. Slutskaya would have had to achieved technical perfection, not just landed all her jumps.
It was Arakawa's night. While not the darling of the short program, she started last night only seven tenths of a point in the hole. Not much of a hole, but it was evidently deep enough to hide in while the pressure got to everyone else.
Incidentally, either NBC is going more international in their coverage, or Finland is starting to build its skating program. Two Finns, Kiira Korpi and Susanna Poykio, skated last night. They earned 14th and 15th place. It was nice to see.
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Two others I really enjoyed watching were Silvia Fontana and Elene Gedevanishvili, even though neither of them came anywhere near a medal. With the bloody stupid media overhyping everything, it's easy to forget that there's more than five or six skaters even in the finals, but Silvia grabbed my attention from the start. Not so much because of her technical ability, but because she was just so plainly delighted to be there. She was skating one last time in front of her country, and nothing could take away her joy.
Elene (don't ask me to type that last name again, please!) may not have excelled in the mastery or spirit categories, but somehow I just found myself liking her style. Interesting choice of music and costuming, and I can see her turning into a contender in a few years once she's gotten the experience under her belt.
And in other news, Sarah Hughes is a lot cuter with long hair.
Yes, I almost mentioned Silvia Fontana. It obviously meant a lot to her to be there, and she was fun to watch. I don't remember Elene Gedevanishvili specifically, though I remember noticing her.
Her name could be worse. There's a Finnish representative in curling named Markku Uusipaavalniemi. Everyone calls him "U-15" for short.
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