GO PATRICK!!!!

[Rick]

That bloody nose suggests he could have been a hockey player instead!

Well since she gave it to him maybe she should be in hockey...

[Rick]

It can get dangerous. There was a skater who got her face slashed by her partner's skate blade when she fell while executing an element during practice.

Yeah, there's that one story about a loose baseball bat...

[Scooter]

Actually, baseball players are more likely to sustain an injury requiring a trip to the ER than hockey players (link). And figure skaters are more likely to be injured than hockey players because (a) they wear absolutely no protective equipment, and (b) they are contorting the bodies and coming down HARD on the ice every few seconds while training and competing, not just gliding around stick handling a puck.

[Rick]

I was trying to be funny Scoot.

Think Tanya Harding...

[Scooter]

Oh fuck yes, that 747 zoomed right over.

If there was any incident that made a sport turn into a soap opera...

[Gob]

[loCAtek]

Rudy Galindo (hometown San Jose) partnered with Kristi Yamaguchi, and is honored by a photo-tribute, outside of;



HP Pavilion AKA 'The Shark Tank' or 'The Tank' or 'The Sharkatorium'

... in San Jose.


Wield the Blade!

[Scooter]

So after a perfect win record all season, Patrick Chan goes to Canadian nationals this weekend and scores a record 101.33 points in his short program. It was fucking flawless, including a quad and a quad-triple combination. Absolutely mesmerizing footwork sequences. Free skate tomorrow. I'm thinking he's almost certainly going to successfully defend his world title in a few months if he keeps skating like that.

ETA - I mistook a triple axel for a second quad, but because he got a grade of execution of 2.50 for it, he scored as much as base value quad.

[BoSoxGal]

You're so gay, Scooter. I love that about you!


PS, no offense intended - just in my 41 years on the planet, have never known a straight guy to admit to liking figure skating. Only my gay guy friends will talk quads with me!

[Scooter]

LOL

I did watch it when I was younger...but it was really when I became friends and sometimes roommates with figure skaters (yes, who were gay) in university and beyond that I began to follow it more closely.

Although, it needs be said, most of the Canadian male skaters who are really legendary - Browning, Stojko, and (as far as anyone can tell yet) Chan - are straight.

But for some reason this building has, at various times, had a few of the really good gay ones (Brian Orser, Jeff Buttle among them) as residents. As well as Mark Tewksbury (a swimmer, not a figure skater, but also gay).

[Andrew D]

I like figure skating. I've always liked figure skating. Watching it, not doing it; maybe if someone invents warm ice ....

Ages ago, when I was waiting for my mother in the hallway outside the subterranean medical records office at the hospital where she worked, a passerby suggested that I should consider taking up figure skating. At the time, I was standing on one leg with the rest of my body parallel to the floor. I was doing that just because I was bored, and it was something quiet (unlike some of my other pastimes) that I could do while waiting for our weekly trip to the Japanese Tea Garden (strangely staffed by people with distinctly Cantonese accents).

The whole "figure skating is gay" (if the skater is a man) thing is far from universal: Why Male Figure Skaters Are Heartthrobs In Russia:

The default assumption about the American male figure skater is that he is gay. No matter that he probably exhibits none of skater Johnny Weir’s famous flamboyance, which will be displayed prominently this evening at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, or that he may still wear a ring given to him by his ex-girlfriend, as reigning world champion Evan Lysacek admitted to doing in New York magazine. The assumption persists.

Compare that with the image of Russian heartthrob Ilia Kulik, who won the gold medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano. Tall, blond, and boyishly good looking, soon after his win he was named to People’s annual list of the 50 most beautiful people. He dated a Russian actress. He welcomed frequent comparisons to Leonardo DiCaprio. Numerous fansites emerged featuring breathless comments from female admirers. Kulik went on to court and marry the glamorous skater Ekaterina Gordeeva, whose figure skating partner and husband had died suddenly and tragically in 1995. He did all this after proudly donning a bright yellow and black giraffe print shirt under a white and black tuxedo vest for his moment of Olympic glory.

Kulik isn’t the only Russian skater to set hearts thumping. 2002 champion Alexei Yagudin and Vancouver contender Evgeni Plushenko are thought of as similarly dreamy. "Figure skating in Russia is not considered a feminine sport whatsoever," says Mauro Bruni, a former U.S. national competitor who has performed in Russia. "Actually, it is revered, and Russian figure skating champions, men and women alike, become sports heroes."

[Guinevere]

Scooter, is the competition going to be webcast anywhere? It sounds worth catching.

As to the gayness of male skaters, I know precisely one professional skater (an old family friend). He is male and gay, and teaches ice dancing for a living. But of course my sample is statistically insignificant.

[Scooter]

I haven't been able to find anywhere that it will be webcast live, but if you go here, and look to the right, you can see videos from the whole competition. If you click on "Watch more in our video player" (will give you a better resolution view than the tiny ones on the main page) then click on the "Video Library" tab and find "Figure Skating" in the list. Chan's performance is in Canadian Figure Skating Championships: Men's Short Program - 3rd Flight (if you want to get right to Chan's performance, it starts at about 26:15). On my computer viewng in full screen adds just enough jerkiness to ruin it for me, but judge for yourself. I imagine the free skate performances will be added in due course. (TV broadcast is this afternoon).

[Scooter]

I like figure skating. I've always liked figure skating. Watching it, not doing it; maybe if someone invents warm ice ....

It is harder on the body in some ways than contact sports. Think of the force with which skaters come down onto the ice jump after jump, and it's not surprising how many have needed knee surgery and get all manner of stress fractures. And at least when hockey players get slammed into the boards they are wearing padding, when Chan did the same during his Grand Prix Final short program this season, you knew it had to fucking hurt like hell, and yet he just got up and continued on:

[BoSoxGal]

I don't think my post was confusing, but a re-reading will clearly show that I never suggested all male figure skaters are gay.

Since one of my first male skating favorites was fellow Masshole Peter Carruthers, I've always known such was not the case.

Again, in 41 years on the planet I've never had a straight male admit to me a fondness for figure skating. Though I agree, it's a more difficult sport than ice hockey by far.

[Guinevere]

Thanks Scooter --- I found it, but it won't play -- keeps on saying error.

I might try the web-cast of the long program, but I may also be too wrapped up in the AFC Championship game, so I will try again later.

[Scooter]

The men's free skate final flight won't be broadcast for another hour, but the results have been posted online. Chan scores 200.81 for a total of 302.14. I'm eager to watch his skate but even I have to wonder if there isn't a little bit of mark inflation going on. Unless he did three quads, or something.

[Econoline]

You're so gay, Scooter. I love that about you!


PS, no offense intended - just in my 41 years on the planet, have never known a straight guy to admit to liking MEN'S* figure skating. Only my gay guy friends will talk quads with me!

*Fixed that for you.

[Lord Jim]

I'm going to be watching the NFC Championship game this afternoon, so I'm afraid I'll have to skip the men's figure skating....

[Scooter]

Well, given that it's Canadian men's figure skating, that's completely understandable.

I'm sure that you'll be glued to your set next weekeend for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

In fact, given that it's being held in San Jose, I'm sure you already have tickets to see it in person.