Olympic Redemption

In case you didn’t hear (because you were at work or something), those of us in the U.S. without jobs were faced with an Olympic dilemma this afternoon. We had to choose between watching the US v Canada women’s ice hockey Gold Medal game OR the women’s figure skating long program finals. They occurred simultaneously. So, if you wanted to watch them live, you had to choose.

Truth be told, it was not a hard decision for me. There is no world in which I would choose to watch a hockey game over figure skating—even a women’s hockey game. I mean, go hockey girls, but I’ll take spins and jumps and rhinestone-covered costumes over slashing, bashing, and hitting the boards any day of the week.

Even so, I was reluctant to get too invested in the women’s figure skating finals after the gut punch of the men’s. I was able to watch the first group of skaters live at my daughter’s house and was heartened that my favorite American skater, Amber Glenn, redeemed herself after a bad short program. (Still, it was highly unlikely she’d get a medal.) After Amber, I had to drive home and was on the road during several of the top skaters performances, including Alysa Liu. But by the time I got home and turned on the TV, Alysa was in first place with only two Japanese skaters left to go. The Japanese skaters weren’t perfect and Alysa held on to the top spot and won the GOLD! The free spirit from Oakland with face piercings and crazy Zebra-striped hair came out on top. SO COOL.

I later watched her performance on the primetime version of the Games and it was awesome. She skates with such wild joy and abandon, crazy hair flying. She’s really the opposite of a traditional ice princess. (It almost made up for the Quad God fiasco.)

Definitely look up Alysa’s Gold Medal skate, if you didn’t see it yet. And her backstory is just as good as her skating. Check out the piece 60 Minutes did on her here.

Yay, I feel like I had a Good Olympics now.

EPIC sports fail

I have a confession to make. We didn’t have a lot going on yesterday. We met with our financial advisor in the morning. (He annoyed me by referring to Kamala Harris as Ka-MA-la—mispronouncing her name in that dismissive, racist, sexist way that Republican men do.) Once we got rid of his bald ass, I decided to settle in and watch TV for hours. I really wanted to enjoy my favorite Winter Olympics event—figure skating. Live.

The men’s finals long program was starting at 12:30 and I was psyched. My husband, who is still strapped to a chair with a polar ice machine on his knee a lot of the day, watched with me. We really got into it. Yes, there were a lot of falls, but there was a lot of gorgeous artistry and crazy athleticism too. I cried when Max Naumov, the skater from Massachusetts who lost both his parents in the DC plane crash last year, went out and skated poorly, but made it through. For him, just being there at all was Gold. It was so, so poignant.

The entire afternoon was leading up to the “Quad God” Ilia Malinin who was definitely, positively going to win the Gold Medal. There was no way he wouldn’t, especially since the other skaters had fallen so many times and he is a once-in-a-generation talent. Even my childhood idol Dorothy Hamill was there to watch.

It was approaching 5pm, so I went ahead and had a gummy, just to enhance the experience of watching this young man WOW us—LIVE. I even texted my son at work to let him know that Quad God was about to skate. Ilia looked great—so relaxed—as he skated out to win his gold.

Oh my GOD.

I have never seen such an epic sports FAIL on a bigger stage in my life. (Granted, I’m not much of a sports fan, but still.)

Just Google it.

The Olympics can break your heart, if you let them.

Figure skating and gymnastics

Daily writing prompt
What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?

I was not a jock. I played some competitive tennis and ran a bit of track, but I never played any true team sports. I was a good swimmer and eventually a lifeguard, but swim racing was of no interest.

I loved both of the dance-y sports—gymnastics and figure skating—until they got hard. At one point, I could do both front and back walkovers and a front handspring. (A back handspring was too hard.) In skating, I progressed to the point of doing one competition in a hand-sewn skating dress made by my mother. Figure skating to music was fantastic and freeing, but I did not enjoy being judged.

My Olympic heroes were Nadia Comaneci (the Romanian gymnast) and of course, Dorothy Hamill. Both made their marks at the 1976 Olympics when I was ten or eleven. Nadia with her perfect tens was a bit of a mystery because she was from a Soviet block country, but Dorothy was EVERYTHING. All-American and perfect in every way, she was the ideal. And yes of course, I got the haircut, but it never looked as good on me (or really anyone other than Dorothy). She was America’s best Olympic hero ever and I will never be convinced otherwise.

Dorothy Hamill in 1976

So yeah, give me the opening & closing ceremonies and figure skating in the winter, or gymnastics in the summer, and I’m good.