Watched the Men’s Free Skate finals earlier…and Jeffrey Buttle of Canada won the bronze! *yay*! Evgeny Plushenko won the gold easily, but…maybe it was because it was so evident from the start that somehow this year, it wasn’t exciting to watch him skate. He had flawless routines for both short and long programs, but…ah well, I miss Alexei Yagudin and the way he feels the music and always pours his heart out into his routines. He was always exciting to watch :)
I turned a little reflective and philosophical after watching Emmanuel Sandhu. I’ve never been a great fan of his, although I have no trouble acknowledging his talent as a skater. In major competitions, he is so inconsistent, it is painful. But it isn’t his inconsistency per se that bugs me…it’s his attitude. More than once, I’ve seen him give up during a routine (tonight was another classic example). He starts off fine, falls…then you can see that he’s going through the motions. It’s almost as if once he makes an error, he decides it’s not worth giving his best shot for the rest of the routine. He may be a talented skater, but I don’t feel that he is much of an athlete (presupposing certain things about athletic sportsmanship).
I respected Buttle, on the other hand, for giving his all despite not landing the quad. He deserved his comeback, and the bronze :) But Sandhu’s disappointing lack of spirit made me think not of Buttle as his anthithesis, but of last week’s Chinese skating pair, Zhang Dan & Zhang Hao. After a terribly painful crash early on in their program…one which nobody expected them to recover from, they went on to finish their routine and win the silver. Their resilience, determination and sportsmanship won them a standing ovation from the fans at Torino, and my profound admiration. That day, I felt that they personified the spirit of the Olympic Games, and the epitome of determination and will-power. :)
Journey of the Heart 