Olympics-day 6

So this was awhile ago so I'll write what I remember. The first thing I watched this night was the women's combined. They do the downhill and the slalom and add the two times together. All the hype about Lindsey Vonn was continuing (some say the media are faking the injury to add more hype). She did really well in the downhill but wiped out in the slalom and lost her ski, and did not get a good time. Maria Reichs won gold, but the American Julia Mancuso won silver yet again. Good for her.

Julia Mancuso

Next up was the women's half pipe in snowboarding. We had four Americans in the event and a really good chance to sweep all the medals. To me, it wasn't as impressive after the men's event because they can't quite pull off the tricks or get the air the men can. I also felt bad because it seemed like everyone was falling. It was heartbreaking. In the end, an Australian woman claimed gold, Torah something. Hannah Teter (who won gold at 16 in 2006) got silver and Kelly Clark got the bronze. Good job USA.

Hannah Teter

The main event of the night was the men's free skate for figure skating. Going into the night there were three men within a point of each other, it was going to be an interesting night. Jeremy Abbott did well besides a fall in the beginning, but it seemed like he couldn't shake it off. He's young so he'll do well in the future. There was also a kid from Khazakstan who did really well, and I was proud because he learned to skate at rinks at malls. Another kid, from Japan I think, his shoelace broke in the middle of the performance and he had to stop. He had to tie it together the best he could and continue on. The Canadian, Patrick Chan, fell early in his performance and couldn't get it back. But he has excellent form and great strength. He skated to a medley from Phantom of the Opera. I really enjoyed his performance even though he fell. I think he will also do well in the future. Johnny Weir gave a dramatic and excellent performance but not well enough to get a medal.

The other Japanese guy-Takahashi-fell, but gave an excellent performance besides that. I really enjoyed watching him and felt that he deserved his bronze medal. I think he was pleased with the outcome.

Evan Lysacek skated earlier on. He was yet again in a bold black costume. His choreography was great and artistry near perfect. Evan can't get his tucks quite as close because he is a tall guy but he didn't mess up on anything. He was so happy with his performance that he started pumping the air before the music even stopped.

Evan Lysacek

Yevgeni (this is the correct spelling I think) Plushenko was the last to skate of the night. He did a quadruple jump in his performance. It was amazing. He also did this hip body roll thing that was kind of creepy and we were all grossed out buy it. The rest of his performance was really good but there were a few bobbles here and there. At the end of the night I wasn't sure who was going to win. But the scores came out and Evan Lysacek held his first place standing. He was so happy to do so well in his sport. The first gold in men's figure skating since 1988? I guess Plushenko was really pissed about his second place finish. The Russians are looking into the scoring to see if anyone cheated. Plushenko also said that the gold medalist in the Olympics should be able to do a quadruple jump, if they can't they don't deserve to be there. Lysacek countered back with something like, if the skating were solely about jumping they would only get 30 seconds to do the best jumps they could. (Someone is bitter). I think that the situation is purely the result you get when the sport you compete in is judged. It's purely objective and people can have different opinions. It's really hard to compare people in this sport. However, I do think it's interesting how a few years ago, all the men were trying to do quadruple jumps, now only a few can even do them let alone try.

Anyway, good job Evan Lysacek! Way to beat the Russian.