Some thoughts:
1) Johnny Weir was fun to watch. He may have gotten 6th, which was disappointing, but he's a character.
2) The women's figure skating had some amazing routines, particularly in the long program free skate.
3) It seems like Lindsey Vonn fell a lot. I'm not too broken up about it. I don't like her very much.
4) J.R. Celski and Apolo Ohno are awesome. 'Nuff said.
5) The US Men's Hockey Team will play in the Gold medal game on Sunday. I highly suggest watching.
5) Plushenko is a bit of a sore loser, but I kind of love him MORE for it. I love athletes who are vain and arrogant. He renamed his Silver medal as Platinum, which is fine by me. You go Plushenko.
What did ya think?
11 comments:
Lol, that vid was amusing. I didn't watch the men's figure skating at all. I did watch (some? most?) the women's long program though.
For some reason, the women's skating seems . . . slower, at least when they do their jumps. Maybe they don't build up enough velocity?
I'm just impressed at their ridiculous flexibility and balance on the ice. Also, their vesibulocochlear systems seem to defy physiology.
I guess he can always say that Johnny made him do it.
I strongly disagree with your approval of arrogance. Plushenko's behavior was vulgar, graceless, and proof positive of the truth of Oscar Levant's observation that a lot of talented people are contemptible.
Maybe I just like my athletes to have a human side.
Plus, I can respect someone who acknowledges his character flaws more than someone who pretends to be an innocent, virtuous role-model.
Well, it's a "cute" video.
But if you "love athletes who are vain and arrogant" then you must be head over heals for Tiger! Vain is vain. Arrogant is arrogant. Neither of these character flaws are worthy of our favor or appreciation.
Really. There's just way too much vanity and arrogance in our society these days. I'd much rather see the athlete who can accept his or her victory with humility, and those who can accept their losses with grace.
Which is fine by me.
Tiger's vanity directly harms others, as in his wife or the countless women he used. Plushenko's is just a silly man puffing up his chest (which he does several times in the video). I like people who aren't afraid to show that they are affected by loss. That's not to say I dislike those who lose with grace. I just think that everyone deserves my respect and admiration. If Plushenko was upset about his Silver/Platinum, then at least he's open enough to share that sentiment. More power to him! I'm tired of seeing the general public condemning someone who is disappointed by his score. We have no right to do so, and it's hypocritical to do so.
I agree that we shouldn't condemn someone for being disappointed at a score or failure, and you're correct that we'd be hypocritical to do so because we all experience disappointments in life.
My point is that pouting and behaving like a spoiled brat does not warrant our giving respect or admiration. Being bratty and catty diminishes his stature as a professional.
Lysacek won the gold, yet displayed class and humility despite Plushenko's childish rants. Sure Plushenko can be open and share his sentiments and disappointment. But he shouldn't do it by tearing down his competition: He should look at his own performance and at least acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, he could have done something better.
Sorry. Lysacek showed that he was the bigger man, so to speak. For that, HE deserves our respect and admiration.
Plushenko should stop pouting before he slices off his lower lip with his skate blades!
Jason--Don't ever underestimate the the salutory benefits of a few white lies and soothing hypocrisy, so long as it helps rather than hurts others. In polite society it's called having good manners. The most unvarnished character in figure skating is Weir, and even he has been gracious in defeat.
1. Johnny Weir: He just annoys me on so many levels, but he lost graciously, so I'll give him that.
2. Figure skating (/Ice Dancing): I'm glad I have a DVR so I can skip all of it.
3. Lindsey Vonn: She won two more medals than any of us, and competed with a painful injury. That I can respect.
4. J.R. Celski and Apollo Ohno. Agreed.
5. US vs. Canada V2.0: The Canadians are out for blood!
6. Vanity and arrogance and poor behavior. Unacceptable in any league, and the overriding reason why I hate the NBA.
In any case, I still think Plushenko is hilarious.
Plushenko lost my respect this Olympics for 2 reasons. First, arrogant jocks do it for me too, except they have to have a reason to be arrogant. I can give a guy a lot of slack for being cocky if he has the skills to back it up. Which brings me to the second reason. Quad aside, Plushenko landed his jumps, sure, but they mostly had bad form. The rest of his program was dull and he seemed quite stiff and very uninspired, like technical merit is all that counts. He could learn a lot from the ice dancers.
@Jason
I don't think it was necessarily vanity which caused Tiger to act the way he did. (That said I don't think what he did was right by any stretch of the imagination)
and good on Canada for winning gold in men's and women's hockey... both were good games!
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