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Canadian women are awesome
Feb. 26th, 2010 01:06 amTonight I did manage to hold it together watching Joannie Rochette skate, but I'm glad Scott Hamilton let loose with his emotions. I love them both.
I'm so amazed by Joannie this week. Really, my god, what an incredible young woman, to go on and do what she came to the Olympics to do - and to perform so well, so beautifully, after such an immense tragedy. Her focus and composure while she skated showed so much incredible strength. To be able to go out there are hold it together and be amazing - by any standard - the thought of doing that after facing such a loss, of doing it without one of your primary supporters, and of doing so completely alone and having to be emotionally vulnerable in front of so many people who know what she's been though (harder to me, at least, than pulling yourself together in front of people who don't know that you're struggling). . . it's so truly astonishing. I think she's really helped put the Olympics in perspective for everyone, to realize that it's about strength and greatness and inspirational moments and not about medal counts. The whole country has really come together in support and love for her regardless of her chances at a medal. I am truly in awe of Joannie and am sending all my love and good thoughts her way.
It was an intense day of Olympics - Canadian women continue to bring home the medals with a hockey victory! One of Canada's four potential team golds in the Canadian sports! I'm very happy for them. And the crowd chanting "USA! USA!" as the American team got their medals was such an great Olympic moment. Truly, truly classy. So tough getting hockey silver, because you've just lost one of the biggest games of your life.
Tessa and Scott were at the hockey game, btw. They met Michael J. Fox. If that's not a butt-load of positive Canadian energy and good luck, I don't know what is. I hope they were able to head on over to the skating after the game, it ended an hour and a half or so before the last flight of skaters.
I'm so happy for Yu-Na, too, by the way. She was truly able to meet the incredibly high expectations that the world had for her. So relieved! The stakes were really high for her, she has so much pressure on her at home. And hey, Orser got his gold in Canada! XDDD ORSERRRR.
All of the figure skating competition results were incredibly satisfying for me, and also quite close to what I'd predicted. I actually didn't realize how good Joannie's chances were for bronze until I saw Miki Ando's short program score, and I didn't realize how shallow the women's field was, but I did think she had a chance. I didn't quite see Pang & Tong coming either, although I knew they were one of the top teams and am so happy for them!
But yeah. So, so happy that Shen & Zhao got their gold, I love them dearly and really wanted them among the Olympic gold medalists, because they deserve to be there. So happy that Plushenko did not get gold, as negative and horrible as that is. Really happy for Daisuke Takahashi, who I think had the two best programs in the competition, minus the fall - and he's so happy to have bronze, and it's so great for him. He was amazing. You all know how I feel about the ice dance results (watched their press conference today, god damn is Scott good at talking to the press). And today I really wanted it to be Yu-Na, Mao, and Joannie. Truly fantastic. And they all did it with great skating. They were really the only part of the ladies' competition that I watched, as I'm not a particular fan, but they were awesome.
And there were so many firsts, so much mixing up the results, which I also adore. Lysacek less so, because American men have quite the medal tradition, but there was definitely a hardcore Russian streak going on with the men. But nothing compared to the pairs and ice dance streaks! So fantastic to see teams from other countries take those. This way skaters from every country can feel equally inspired, equally able to reach the top. Shen & Zhao got the first gold medals for China, Yu-Na the first for South Korea, Takahashi got the first men's medal for Japan. And Tessa and Scott got the first ice dance gold for North America, Canada's fourth figure skating gold. I like seeing streaks broken. (OK, I was happy to see the Canadian women's hockey streak stay alive, at least for this one more time in their home country.)
What an Olympics!
edit the next morning: I completely forgot to say, last night after Mary Carillo did her awesome little getting to know Canada fluff piece (this time it was on LOGGERS! Oh, Vancouver Olympics, I love you so) my mom called me to ask me who the woman who did the piece was. Because she thought she was awesome and hilarious. This the funniest, best thing, because Katie and I ADORE Mary Carillo and also think she is awesome and hilarious! Now we know - it is genetic. We are genetically predisposed to love Mary Carillo.
I'm so amazed by Joannie this week. Really, my god, what an incredible young woman, to go on and do what she came to the Olympics to do - and to perform so well, so beautifully, after such an immense tragedy. Her focus and composure while she skated showed so much incredible strength. To be able to go out there are hold it together and be amazing - by any standard - the thought of doing that after facing such a loss, of doing it without one of your primary supporters, and of doing so completely alone and having to be emotionally vulnerable in front of so many people who know what she's been though (harder to me, at least, than pulling yourself together in front of people who don't know that you're struggling). . . it's so truly astonishing. I think she's really helped put the Olympics in perspective for everyone, to realize that it's about strength and greatness and inspirational moments and not about medal counts. The whole country has really come together in support and love for her regardless of her chances at a medal. I am truly in awe of Joannie and am sending all my love and good thoughts her way.
It was an intense day of Olympics - Canadian women continue to bring home the medals with a hockey victory! One of Canada's four potential team golds in the Canadian sports! I'm very happy for them. And the crowd chanting "USA! USA!" as the American team got their medals was such an great Olympic moment. Truly, truly classy. So tough getting hockey silver, because you've just lost one of the biggest games of your life.
Tessa and Scott were at the hockey game, btw. They met Michael J. Fox. If that's not a butt-load of positive Canadian energy and good luck, I don't know what is. I hope they were able to head on over to the skating after the game, it ended an hour and a half or so before the last flight of skaters.
I'm so happy for Yu-Na, too, by the way. She was truly able to meet the incredibly high expectations that the world had for her. So relieved! The stakes were really high for her, she has so much pressure on her at home. And hey, Orser got his gold in Canada! XDDD ORSERRRR.
All of the figure skating competition results were incredibly satisfying for me, and also quite close to what I'd predicted. I actually didn't realize how good Joannie's chances were for bronze until I saw Miki Ando's short program score, and I didn't realize how shallow the women's field was, but I did think she had a chance. I didn't quite see Pang & Tong coming either, although I knew they were one of the top teams and am so happy for them!
But yeah. So, so happy that Shen & Zhao got their gold, I love them dearly and really wanted them among the Olympic gold medalists, because they deserve to be there. So happy that Plushenko did not get gold, as negative and horrible as that is. Really happy for Daisuke Takahashi, who I think had the two best programs in the competition, minus the fall - and he's so happy to have bronze, and it's so great for him. He was amazing. You all know how I feel about the ice dance results (watched their press conference today, god damn is Scott good at talking to the press). And today I really wanted it to be Yu-Na, Mao, and Joannie. Truly fantastic. And they all did it with great skating. They were really the only part of the ladies' competition that I watched, as I'm not a particular fan, but they were awesome.
And there were so many firsts, so much mixing up the results, which I also adore. Lysacek less so, because American men have quite the medal tradition, but there was definitely a hardcore Russian streak going on with the men. But nothing compared to the pairs and ice dance streaks! So fantastic to see teams from other countries take those. This way skaters from every country can feel equally inspired, equally able to reach the top. Shen & Zhao got the first gold medals for China, Yu-Na the first for South Korea, Takahashi got the first men's medal for Japan. And Tessa and Scott got the first ice dance gold for North America, Canada's fourth figure skating gold. I like seeing streaks broken. (OK, I was happy to see the Canadian women's hockey streak stay alive, at least for this one more time in their home country.)
What an Olympics!
edit the next morning: I completely forgot to say, last night after Mary Carillo did her awesome little getting to know Canada fluff piece (this time it was on LOGGERS! Oh, Vancouver Olympics, I love you so) my mom called me to ask me who the woman who did the piece was. Because she thought she was awesome and hilarious. This the funniest, best thing, because Katie and I ADORE Mary Carillo and also think she is awesome and hilarious! Now we know - it is genetic. We are genetically predisposed to love Mary Carillo.
