…we watched the pairs short and the men’s short. We are strongly suspicious on the pairs judging…that the judges were going through mathematical gymnastics to keep one pair in the running. At one point there was an audience mutiny, on which I wish I had heard the commentary. Some interesting up and comers in the men’s ranks—one of whom might yet get a place. I’m not going to spoil things for those of you watching belated broadcast. But say that there was a mishap: not an accident, and nobody got hurt, but it was startling to say the least…
We got in at 11 pm, to cats wondering what we were up to. We’re interspersing our sitting with circuits of the arena concourse during Zamboni breaks, to prevent stiffness.
And you’ll note Lynn has worked a miracle and the missing pages are back.
None of what you saw was shown. The winners were
so vibrant and I was glad that they won. It was so good to hear our old friend Scott Hamilton as
a commentator. I think that he really is the face
of figure skating for me and has been for more
years than I care to claim.
“Mishap” that wasn’t an accident??? Huh??? I was there but didn’t notice anything “startling” other than true accidents. *sidles closer*
Extra details for those who weren’t there: this Saturday evening accident almost certainly wasn’t caught on film but may well find its way into TV commentary. During the Junior Pairs Short Program official 20″ warm-up approx. an hour prior to the actual competition, Felicia Zhang was in a full overhead lift by Taylor Toth, with his arms fully extended — when Gretchen Donlan/Andrew Speroff collided full-speed into them.
I was sitting on-ice approx. 50 feet away but because my neighbor’s head was in the way, missed the actual moment of impact. I certainly heard it though, & saw the seconds before & after, including 4 bodies tumbling & skidding across the ice.
It was awful. Taylor saved Felicia from terrible, terrible injuries because he did what any well-trained partner will do: saved her, even at the expense of injury to himself. Truly, the ladies are defenseless in Pairs.
I’ll not give any further details to avoid spoilers — other than to say: 1) we were all very moved by how Felicia very tenderly cradled Taylor’s head on the ice; 2) Taylor was (eventually) OK, and 3) this team has my utmost respect.
BTW, Gretchen Donlan looked especially shaken. We were impressed by how well she competed an hour later — you would never have known.
Also — I couldn’t believe Erika Smith didn’t break anything, including her neck, with the awful fall during the competition, with a failed throw. I suspect that, even though your seats were closer, the angle was such that you may not have been able to see exactly what occurred:
Erika basically bounced off her chin, hyperextending her neck at an odd angle. I think she was able to break some of the impact with her arm & shoulder — but how she avoiding fracturing a clavicle — or her neck — is a mystery to me. We were laying bets on how sore her neck will be today.
Pairs scare the hell out of me. The potential for serious injury or worse is there, no question. Missed that incident…thank goodness. No, I was refering to Adam Rippon running out of rink. Poor fellow. I think that strip of non-Zambonied ice they’re leaving at the edge might fool a skater who thinks there’s 6 inches more ice than he has…you plan to skim the wall, and boomf!
Certainly glad I missed the collision! Warm-ups are wild enough with singles.