Skating with Celebrities

[Deleted]

Nope, Clint Malarchuk - former NHL goalie who took a skate blade to the neck. Gruesome in the extreme (the link has a link to the video.) I'm a hockey fan, and that gave me greater respect for the sharp, sharp blades.

Palamarchuk sounded pretty scary too, though - I'm not a huge figure skating fan (but my mother is!), so it wouldn't pop into my head.

[proper stranger]

I am ashamed that I'm kind of looking forward to this. That's how much of a skating-on-TV dork I am.

What with the lack of lifts and sure-to-be dubious jumping abilities of the celebs, I wonder what the programs will consist of. More like ice dancing (but with a far lower quality of skating)?

swanflake said:

they're going to film a sequel to The Cutting Edge! But I haven't heard too much about it.

I was so excited about this when I heard about it last month...then I found out that neither D.B. Sweeney nor Moira Kelly are in it.

I hope Scott gets the boot from the Olympics over the conflict of interest. I would LOVE to hear the snarkalicious Uncle Dick Button call the Olympics!

OK, I'm going to go back to being bummed about Michelle Kwan and her new injury/not skating in Nationals. [/sorta OT, but skating-related]

[topher]

Spordelia, thank you for posting that link. I have been wanting to see that video for 16 years.

[swanflake]

spordelia said:

Nope, Clint Malarchuk - former NHL goalie who took a skate blade to the neck. Gruesome in the extreme (the link has a link to the video.) I'm a hockey fan, and that gave me greater respect for the sharp, sharp blades.

Palamarchuk sounded pretty scary too, though - I'm not a huge figure skating fan (but my mother is!), so it wouldn't pop into my head.

Ahh, I see. Yeah, Dmitri Palamarchuk was a pairs skater who had a bad fall that knocked him unconscious at the 2000 Worlds. And instead of carrying him off the ice on a stretcher like they should have, they just propped him up, tapped him on the cheek, and walked him off. He fainted again the moment he got off the ice. It was a real disgrace to our sport that people weren't prepared to handle such an injury.

And proper stranger, I'm totally bummed too.

[Deleted]

OT: Holy shit, Spordelia. I've never seen the video, only pictures. I hear he's a horse denist now.

[Deleted]

swanflake said:

spordelia said:

Nope, Clint Malarchuk - former NHL goalie who took a skate blade to the neck. Gruesome in the extreme (the link has a link to the video.) I'm a hockey fan, and that gave me greater respect for the sharp, sharp blades.

Palamarchuk sounded pretty scary too, though - I'm not a huge figure skating fan (but my mother is!), so it wouldn't pop into my head.

Ahh, I see. Yeah, Dmitri Palamarchuk was a pairs skater who had a bad fall that knocked him unconscious at the 2000 Worlds. And instead of carrying him off the ice on a stretcher like they should have, they just propped him up, tapped him on the cheek, and walked him off. He fainted again the moment he got off the ice. It was a real disgrace to our sport that people weren't prepared to handle such an injury.

And proper stranger, I'm totally bummed too.

Thats not necessarily the case. As ridiculous as it seems to you and me, these competitors are a different breed. When you spend the majority of your life training for a given moment, you are going to do whatever is in your power to perform at that given moment. This was Worlds, this may have been their only chance at worlds ever. If he didn't skate, he had to wait an entire year to try again. Remember the Olympic gymnast who vaulted with the broken (or badly sparained) ankle. I knew right away she was going to do that jump, no question. She was where she had worked her entire life to be and she wasn't going to let the opportunity pass because of a broken bone.

Skating is a funny sport. Things change. opportunities arise once in a lifetime. The competitive season is short and there isn't room for errors. There was a skater a few years ago, Naomi Nari Nam. Heaven on ice. She placed at nationals, but wasn't allowed to go to worlds because the USFSA changed the rules and she was too young. Instead, Sara Hughes got to go. A year later, she was injured. Then, she matured and her body changed. She never was able to skate at that level again. Really a shame.

[proper stranger]

I loved Naomi--I remember that her spins were amazing. I recently read[/color] that she is now skating pairs. She and her partner won Pacific Coast Sectionals in November, so maybe we haven't heard the last of her.

[Benni]

spordelia said:

Nope, Clint Malarchuk - former NHL goalie who took a skate blade to the neck. Gruesome in the extreme (the link has a link to the video.) I'm a hockey fan, and that gave me greater respect for the sharp, sharp blades.

Palamarchuk sounded pretty scary too, though - I'm not a huge figure skating fan (but my mother is!), so it wouldn't pop into my head.

I was shocked when I saw the mention of Clint Malarchuk because he is a friend of my husbands. I looked up that link and I had to laugh at the he was not a great goalie. He would argue with you claiming how many times he made the All Stars Team. He did not leave the ice at the time of the accident. I couldn't look at the video I saw it once on TV and that was enough.

Anyways when he told us what happened he said the only thing that saved his life was that there was a doctor in the stands that ran on to the ice and found his jugular vein and held it with both hands to stop the blood from spurting. He said every time he felt his heart beat he felt the blood spurt out of him.

The last time we talked to him he was living in Las Vegas with his wife and children and coaching there.

I wanted to mention Tai Babylonia. I used to love her. There was nothing sadder when her partner couldn't skate. Kurt Browning is from my neck of the woods and he used to skate pairs alot so I don't think he is going to have any problems.

Bruce Jenner looks like a ventriloquist's dummy in that picture on Fox's website and I notice they don't mention Brody and the other doofus son he had by Linda in his biography. I just had to snark on somebody.

[swanflake]

deaconblue said:

Thats not necessarily the case. As ridiculous as it seems to you and me, these competitors are a different breed. When you spend the majority of your life training for a given moment, you are going to do whatever is in your power to perform at that given moment. This was Worlds, this may have been their only chance at worlds ever. If he didn't skate, he had to wait an entire year to try again. Remember the Olympic gymnast who vaulted with the broken (or badly sparained) ankle. I knew right away she was going to do that jump, no question.

Kerri Strug vaulting on a freshly sprained ankle and Dmitri Palamarchuk lying on the ice barely conscious are not the same thing. After he took that fall, his competition was definitely over--he was definitely not going to get up and finish the skate. There have been skaters become severely brain damaged on falls like that (Paul Binnebose), and medical professionals should've been ready in the arena to tend to any skater who might have such an accident, because if an injury like that isn't handled properly right from the beginning, it can get drastically worse. Luckily, Dmitri ended up being okay.

Okay, I'm definitely getting off topic here with all my skating chit chat, so before an admin has to remind us, we should probably make sure we stick to talking about Skating with Celebrities, but I always welcome PMs from anyone who wants to chat about skating!

[topher]

OT

I have heard that Kerri Strug didn't have to make that jump because the US already won the gold, by that time.