Figure Skating: He's Here, He's Weir, Get Over It

[Deleted]

The Haaaate List:
The judges
Surya Bonaly
John Baldwin. I wish he would retire so Rena could get a decent partner.
Plushenko
Tara Lipinski
Pasha Grishuk who single-handedly ruined ice dancing for me for years

I love:
Mishkutenok and Dmitriev
Gordeeva and Grinkov as professionals. Didn't like their amateur skating.
Shen and Zhao
Yu Na Kim
Marai Nagasu
Torville and Dean
Stephen Lambiel
Daisuke Takahashi
Jeff Buttle
Ilia Kulik
John Zimmerman (just because I can look at him)
Annisina and Peizerat (sp?) who revived my love for ice dancing.
Berezhnaya and Sikharalidze (sp?)
Lu Chen
Michelle Kwan

[zwinter]

Hey, I was at the '96 Nationals when Rudy Galindo won. It's true the stadium exploded. He did an awesome routine, and he was the hometown boy.

[kathy1977]

Haaaaate:

Denise Bielmann (some of her routines always left me saying, "what the fuck"?)

Surya Bonaly

Evgeny Plushenko

Amber Corwin

Irina Slutskaya (I don't hate her but I hate her skating. I cheer when she falls or does a bad routine)

Michael Weiss (why did the judges ALWAYS find it neccessary to keep mentioning his wife and child?)

Sarah Hughes

Tonya Harding (no explanation needed)

Lloyd Eisler


I absolutely LOVE:

Michelle Kwan (The Queen, The Goddess, The Greatest. I don't care that she didn't win Olympic gold. Oh, how I love her. If I ever met her I would kiss her feet)

Oksana Baiul (the ultimate drama queen on the ice. Her routines to You'll See and Sadness are my 2 favorites from her ever)

Nicole Bobek (so much natural talent and potential. Why oh why could she never get her act together?)

Sasha Cohen ( I never know if I want to hug her or strangle her. How can sombody with so much talent not be able to pull it together to skate two CLEAN performances back to back?)

Bereznaya and Sikuralidze (my favorite pairs team)

[dwanollah]

I used to LOVE Lloyd Eissler. Used to.

Surya Bonaly -- I really liked her spunkiness and athleticism, but her mother is a freak and she's a bad sport.

When Surya had that stupid hissy fit and refused to take the stand or accept her medal that one time...? Brat.

Her mom, though...? Dudes, I met her once, and she's a freak, but a kinda bomb-diggity freak. I was waiting outside the arena (and I was the only one besides the security guard and my mommy!), panting for a glimpse of Sergie Grinkov, when her mom came striding over to me and demanded, "Why are you here? Don't you have tickets?" I was taken aback, and stammered something like, "Yes, but I was hoping to see everyone come in first." No, no, she meant did I have backstage tickets? The security guard interjected and said he was going to give me a pass. Her attitude was like, if this freaky girl waiting by herself out in the cold to meet the skaters didn't have a backstage pass, Momma Surya was gonna make DAMNED sure she had one by the time the evening was over!

I was beaming when the guard handed over the pass, and thanked Momma Surya as well, but she didn't even crack a smile. She just strode away, all "mission accomplished"!

It's gonna take me HOURS to come up with my Love/Hate list. That gives me an excuse to post again!

[crankie]

Ugh--don't get me started on the new scoring system. I mean, the old one was crap, but this isn't any better. All of the programs look alike, regardless of the music.

Exactly!! The last Olympics, I remember wondering why they don't just give up and give them all the same program to skate. It's very close to that, now, since everyone just strings the same moves together for the point values. Boring. I know the old scoring system had problems, but you didn't get cookie-cutter programs.

I like Sasha Cohen the skater. Sasha the little entitled pwecious pwincess irritates me to no end.

[dwanollah]

I don't dislike the idea of them all skating the same program, actually.... An original program and a compulsory program or something...?

[Deleted]

Swan, my daughter was a figure skater for years. I lived all this. Her coach was a top national competitor. She knew everybody, she knew all the gossip. I've been around many of the top skaters when they were kids. I have all sorts of interesting stories that I am sure I will get into one of these days.

Those Russian coaches are tough as hell. They skated and trained under horrible conditions and they don't take crap from anyone. It could be the kick in the ass Johnny Weir needs.

I like very fluid artistic skating. Weir is that sort of skater. He has tremendous talent and he wastes it.


To me Kimmie Messner is a nothing skater. No grace, beauty, boring program, zero artistry. I know dozens of kids who skate just like her. She's just a better jumper.

Emily Hughes is a lovely girl (as is her entire family), but she is a cow. But she stuck with Bonnie, her original coach who made her the skater she is. Every time I see her on tv, I am just so happy for Bonnie. Sarah on the other hand dumped her very long time coach the second she won junior nationals.

Sezme, John Zimmerman is absolutely gorgeous and nice too. he's not much of a skater though. Theres a good story about why he and Kyoko went pro.

I just want you all to know, that backfip that Surya does, its not considered a difficult move at all. Its just showy.

[dwanollah]

Scott Hamilton used to say that all the time about the backflip. Even landing it on one leg isn't as difficult as it seems.

p.s. I could TOTALLY do it if I felt like it. I just don't feel like it right now.

[carrier76]

Michael Weiss (why did the judges ALWAYS find it neccessary to keep mentioning his wife and child?)

Because that way we're all assured that he's straight, you see. Just like they always throw Evan Lysacek/Tanith Belbin in our face now. Guh.

Remember Maria Butryskaya (sp?). Man, she is on my hate list. Every time she took the ice the announcers had to mention that she considered herself a WOMAN among LITTLE GIRLS. Every. Time. And then she'd f up her program and Michelle would win. Ha ha ha.

I will spend some time today coming up with my Hate/Love list since our IT guy (aka Hall Monitor) isn't here today, waiting to FIREWALL all of my favorite sites. Somehow this one has been spared...so far.

[viridian]

My expertise in figure skating consists of "wow, that looked difficult" and "that was good/bad". But I still can't believe that Tara Lipinski beat out Michelle Kwan for the gold in Nagano. Tara looked like a little robot out on the ice - while her routine was more difficult technically, the performance looked so automated and soulless.