guingel | Seriously, a lot of talk about pairs skating. Lots of repeats of adjectives.

This entry is a lot of really detailed gushing about figure skating, largely pairs skating. If you are not interested in skating, this will be very boring for you. Feel free not to read.

So, you've probably noticed that I love skating. Figure skating, that is. I'm no skater. XD Anyway, I'm actually not that into women's events, I just don't find it that interesting, even though it's the most popular and the one where the skaters get the most attention. I prefer men's skating--I find it much more interesting and entertaining, and the same goes for the skaters. But even more than that, I love pair's skating. I adore pairs skating! I know, I'm in order of least media attention. But I actually do not like ice dancing best, I like ice dancing least. Pairs skating is one of my favorite things to watch. It's just so great. So great! You have the great skating. And i like watching figure skating. The grace, the beauty, the athleticism--the smoothness and speed and skill. That was some unintentional alliteration, there. But pairs skating has more. All three events have exciting moves--the jumps, the spins. But in pairs they're so much more exciting and interesting. Jumps are always exciting and amazing to watch. But in pairs, the jumps are either side by side, which is so difficult and impressive (I don't skate, but I can say difficult because this is what people who know stuff about skating, like the commentators and stuff say about it), or they're throws, which are just absolutely amazing to watch. Even ordinary skating looks better because it's usually in unison with the other person, or involves interaction and storytelling of some sort (i'm not good at seeing storytelling in skating routines unless it's really obvious). And then there are the pairs moves--the lifts! The twists! (which are when the girl is tossed in the air and spins around and is caught) The death spirals! So amazing. The lifts are so amazing to watch. One-handed lifts. . . I was watching skating for a while, and I just sort of took it for granted. Then it hit me. "Shit. He is lifting about 110 pounds with one arm. Over his head. For an extended period of time." It's so amazing. And there are other moves, like, the specialty sort of moves--like all of Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler's crazy moves. Because Lloyd is SO. DAMN. STRONG. Oh my god. And Isabelle has to be one of the bravest girls ever. But Lloyd always takes such good care of her--it's not only incredibly entertaining but also super-hot.

Which is the other thing about pairs skating! It's so much more emotionally interesting. In addition to all the different moves, you have the added interest of the interaction between the two people, on and off the ice. You get to see personalities more, and you get to see how the two personalities relate. Because they have to have such a close relationship. It's so intense. I just adore it when pairs teams marry. Todd Sand and Jenni Meno? The cutest thing ever! And of course, I adore Jamie Salé and David Pelletier. My second favorite pairs team! I love them. I love watching them, I love their skating, I love them in interviews. They are AWESOME. I think that their Olympic gold medal winning long program, Love Story, that was one of the best performances ever. That performance. . . it's amazing. It actually moves me. I'm rarely moved by art alone, you know? One of hte best things about their skating, that makes them so unfailingly entertaining and keeps me watching video after video of them is the absolutely charming and fun way in which they interact with each other on the ice. It's very flirty and adorable.

And pairs skating is just. . . so hot. Which I mentioned before. Oh my god, the huge men, the diminuitive women--I love it! The guys are all so sexy. I just get so turned on by how strong they are. Ahhh! It's amazing. (By the way, John Zimmerman? Ouch! And Kyoko is the cutest, tiniest thing.) And of course, the girls are all gorgeous! I am in love with Elena Berezhnaya. And Anton! Both of them, I love them. (I know, I love almost every pairs team I've come across. The ones i've mentioned so far are pretty much my favorites, though. Salé & Pelletier, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze (lest you think I didn't say his last name before because I couldn't spell it--I've memorized the spellings of both their names. XD), Brasseur & Eisler, Meno & Sand, Ina & Zimmerman.

But there is one more pair which is my absolute favorite. I have to say, I obviously have no qualifications as a figure skating analyst, but I am convinced that they are the greatest pairs team that ever was, and probably ever will be. I simply cannot imagine anyone being better than this team.

If you know anything about pairs skating, you've probably already guessed that I'm referring to Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov. My god. I cannot even believe how amazing they were. And so likeable. Their skating is just so charming and entertaining and crowd-pleasing, while also being technically, I believe as close to perfect as you can get. I don't even want to say that every movement is perfect, because the movements are so perfect you don't even notice them. It's not an individual arm movement that looks graceful and perfect and amazing. It really barely looks like it's choreographed. It really seems to come from within. And many people, including themselves, have said that the tenderness and loving emotion that they showed on the ice was genuine, and not acting. And of course, they were married, three years after winning their first Olympic Gold.

If you're unfamiliar with their story and are still reading, Katia and Sergei first became a team when she was 10 and he was 14. When she was 17, they won their first Olympic gold medal at the '88 games. They became romantically involved in '89 and were married when Katia was 20, had a daughter a year later. In 1994, they won their second Olympic gold medal. Then, in 1995 Sergei had a massive heart attack and died at age 28. Everyone makes a big deal about how strong and amazing Katia's been since then, and it's true. It's really quite awe-inspiring. She went on as a singles skater, which is incredible. In 2001 she had another daughter with the 1998 men's singles Olympic champion, Ilia Kulik, also born in Moscow, who she married in 2002 and with whom she now occasionally skates doubles.

I think Katia is wonderful. I just love her. She is so beautiful and has this amazing smile that people always talk about, and she's such a great skater. Really lovely to watch, pairs or singles. She's just incredibly pretty. And she's so sweet and likeable. And even though it's been said before, I just think it's so awesome that she went on with her career and made it on her own. She is enchanting to watch. She's so tiny--according to Wikipedia, her adult height is 5'2", and when they started she was even smaller. She's so dainty and. . . enchanting. And I keep talking about her physical appearance, because she's so beautiful. I'm trying to find a good picture, and there are good ones, but none of them measure up to how beautiful she looks when you see her in a video--so I can only imagine how much more beautiful she is in real life. She's just more stunning when animated. She glows. And I've seen her from age 14 to age 34, and she only gets more beautiful. At 34, she is starting to look as though she's aging, and it makes her look even more beautiful. But! Even though I can't stop talking about it, her looks are certainly an emanation of her personality (this is a theory of mine--not quite that your personality affects your looks, actually--more that knowing someone's personality affects how you see them physically). Sergei never learned English, so she was always their spokesperson and she always comes across as sweet and warm and loving, as well as intelligent. And I've already illustrated her strength of character. In case you couldn't tell, I am just absolutely infatuated with her.

But even though I obviously have an enormous crush on Katia, and I love watching her skate, there is nothing like watching them together. It's entrancing. I have to admit, in general I do have a tendency to favor perkier, faster numbers with more footwork--and that trend holds for Gordeeva and Grinkov. . . but they do them so well! There's a couple of their numbers that I just watch over and over. But I watch even their slow numbers repeatedly. And of course, moving fast over the ice is one of the things that people note on about their performances. I mean, apart from just saying "This is amazing," it's something specific that they comment on, that they have such amazing speed, even when going in and out of moves. It's one of the things that makes them so enjoyable and breathtaking to watch. They're so fast, and yet so flawless and perfectly in unison. Amazing. My god. He's so tall and she's so tiny and it's so sweet to watch them. And they are just perfection. So perfect you don't even think about it, as I said before. It's a cliché, but my god, they make it look so easy!! And it's so enjoyable to watch. So amazing. I don't know enough about skating to talk about it anymore, so I'll just say I love it. I can't imagine anyone ever being as good.

In their competing career, they participated in 31 events and received first place at 24 of them. After 1986, they never got under 2nd place. Which is. . . amazing. I mean, unbelievable. But it's not because they worked the system or anything. They were astounding creaters and exceptional performers. They truly just. . . were that good. It makes me so happy. I don't know. I love extraordinary human beings. I love perfection.

What I also find cool is that, you know how people always lavish someone with praise after they've died? Well, people are certainly lavish in praising Sergei, as well as Katia and their pairs skating. But it's not only since his death. If you watch performances of theirs, the commentators are always saying what unmatched, amazingly good skaters they are, and also talk about what a great pair they were--how in love they were and what a great couple they were. It's actually quite heartbreaking. Like, sometimes it seems like they must have known what would happen--there's one where someone is talking about Katia and they say, like "She has a new daughter, a loving husband and a great career--who could ask for anything more?" And stuff like how it was too good to be true. Even while it was happening. It's somewhat astonishing. Like, in the video I'm watching, Scott Hamilton (I'm pretty sure) said, "A friend of mine once said, 'You see them together, on or off the ice, and all you want is for them to live happily ever after.'" It's like. . . the sort of thing someone would say as foreshadowing in a movie. And it's also demonstrative of the type of people they were.

Like, I really love perfection. When I don't know much about something, I latch on to that which people say is perfect and idealize it. So, like, I love Nadia Comaneci, and I love watching videos of her. It's nice to be able to watch something and know that they're doing it well. I'm like that with Stephane Lambiel's spins, Alexei's footwork (and, well, everything), Johnny Weir and Ilia Kulik's jumps. But I tend to put too much faith in their perfection. Or rather, I exaggerate it. It's hard to explain. But with Gordeeva and Grinkov, whatever praise I can lavish upon them, the experts of the skating world have already done the same. It's a relief. It's a little like with Joe Strummer, I expected to get disillusioned about him. But he really was just as principled as he seemed. And G&G are just as perfect as I think they are. It's a relief.

It actually took me a long time to sort of notice Sergei. Like, I'd look at him, but it took me a while to notice how awesome he was. It wasn't like I found out he died young and then all of a sudden thought he was amazing. I knew that from very soon after I started watching videos of them. It's just that he did such an amazing job showing Katia off, and they were such great partners, that I almost took him for granted. I was like "He's a tall guy, quite good-looking, if not as exquisite as Katia (or Alexei Yagudin), sort of very 90s hair there." And of course, I thought how amazing they were as a pair. But then the other day it just sort of hit me how awesome Sergei was. Someone used to word pillar to describe him, in a video I watched shortly after my realization. But the word that came to my mind was "solid." He was so sexy and attractive. So strong and tall and always there supporting Katia. You know, no matter what, he was holding her up, or sending her sailing into space, he was solid and dependable. And the way she spoke for them, he was so the strong, silent type. But with such a sweet, sweet smile. Oh man. I'm in love. Of course, it doesn't hurt that he has an absolutely gorgeous body. I have a crush on most of the male halves of figure skating teams. They are just naturally sexy. In one of my most unusually normal sexual behaviors, I find tall men terribbly sexy, and strong men terribly sexy. And the male pairs skaters are just such a delightful combination of the two. (Not that I mind the shorter male singles, like the aforementioned Alexei Yagudin, who is short but so beautiful, and beautifully muscled.) As I mentioned, I just adore the dynamic between the two partners. And in Sergei and Katia it seems intensified, because of their skill and genuine emotion. And Sergei is so skilled and graceful as a skater, it seems even more astounding that he should be so strong. He's. . . incredible. It's fun now, watching Sergei. Cos the eye naturally goes to Katia, and then I remember Sergei and it's like a pleasant surprise.

But Katia. . . she's just. . . sparkly. I don't know. They're fantastic. I'm just so glad that they skated together and that I have access to videos of them skating. Each performance that they did is like a gift to the world. They are that exceptional and amazing.

on another note, speaking of awesome pairs, my mom is watching the Avengers. Oh Diana Rigg. I want to have her children.