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

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It's "Hair"! It's not on YouTube, but I remember he did it in the Grinkov tribute.

Try fsvids.net. You will have to register but you can download it from there. Look for the post by okbye on May 5. If you don't like that version and you know the version you want, you can request that someone post it.

[swanflake]

Skate America starts on Friday. Here's the link to where you can find who's entered to skate.[/color]

The ladies field doesn't look half bad. I think all of the ladies entered are skaters with potential for the future. I hope it's a really good competition there.

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Meh, no Nagasu and no Mao Asada. It will be interesting to see if Zhang finally fixed her funky entry or Ando her awful spiral positions.

Here's my contribution...
Hate:
Nancy Kerrigan
Troll Lipinski
Michael Weiss
Sasha Cohen (laughed every single time she fell during a big meet, I'm ashamed to admit)

Love:
Ekaterina Gordeeva w/ both Sergei and Ilia
Kristi Yamaguchi
Scott Hamilton
Kurt Browning
Michelle Kwan
Victor Petrenko
Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze
Torvill & Dean

Too painful to watch:
Crazy Oksana Baiul

Speaking of Kristi, I think her family special will air sometime next month. For some reason I love seeing all of the skaters' families and kids.

[carrier76]

Sasha Cohen (laughed every single time she fell during a big meet, I'm ashamed to admit)

You must laugh a lot!

[Daisy Pusher]

Ice dancers crack me up. Aside from the wonderful and unimpeachable Torvill and Dean, ice dancers seem to be a particularly whacky group.

What's the deal with Oksana Gritschuk? Didn't she and her former partner have some big blowout with another pair because they were all cheating with each other, and then they switched partners and then she got even MORE diva-like (how that's possible I don't know) and then insisted everyone call her "Pasha?" Whazzup with THAT?

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I remember that! She skated with Evgeny Platov, and had an affair with Alexander Zhulin (who was married to and skated with Maya Usova.) She even went so far as to wear Zhulin's wedding ring around her neck during a competition that both pairs were in, just to rub it in Usova's face. Eventually Zhalin and Usova divorced and switched partners. And supposedly Gritschuk insisted on being called Pasha so people wouldn't confuse her with Oksana Baiul. I remember the announcers kept calling Gritschuk and Zhulin Pasha and Sasha, so I suspect it had more to do with being able to have a cute pairs nickname.

[Deleted]

Just to add onto what Roisin54 said. After Zhulin and Usova divorced. Pasha and Zhulin then skated together for a short time. And at one particular event, Usova then partnered with Pasha's former partner Platov competed against Zhulin and Pasha. The story goes that word had gotten out what had transpired between the two couples and Zhulin and Pasha were met with boos, while Usova and Platov were greeted with cheers. Shortly thereafter Pasha and Zhulin broke up on and off the ice. Zhulin went on to marry Tatiana Navka with whom he had a child and coached to gold in the last Olympics. And Pasha just fell off the radar.

Last I heard Usova was coaching and according to Wiki, Platov is a coach.

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carrier76 said:

Sasha Cohen (laughed every single time she fell during a big meet, I'm ashamed to admit)

You must laugh a lot!

I really do.

I think I vaguely remember the event you're describing moonglow. It was a Pro competition, and they had every boo coming to them since they, stupidly, chose to skate to Smooth Operator. I just saw Usova and Platov the other day on one of those holiday skating programs, and she looked great. I wonder what Pasha looks like now. She strikes me as someone who would age terribly and go the way of Baiul and Jamie Sale as opposed to those who look forever preserved like Yamaguchi and Gordeeva.

I forgot, I also LOVE Midori Ito. She had more height on her jumps than any man I've seen.

[carrier76]

I remember the announcers trying to sell Pasha to us during the '98 Olympics. She kept saying she wanted to be in American movies and had this whole Marilyn Monroe image. Whatever. All it did was serve to irritate me and make people hate her.

Which, ha to that.

[Daisy Pusher]

carrier76 said:

I remember the announcers trying to sell Pasha to us during the '98 Olympics. She kept saying she wanted to be in American movies and had this whole Marilyn Monroe image. Whatever.

Yep, I remember that. Sounds like she has just disappeared, thankfully.

Who needs a soap opera or Coronation Street when you have ice dancing? Isn't that Italian woman, Barbara Fusar-Poli, the one who cries all the time? Or was that just during the last Olympics?