Saturday, February 20, 2010

Vladimir Putin is RIGHT!

Well if I had a million bucks (or bucksov as the Russians would say) for every time I said this I probably would have just made my first million. Then again if they gave out millions to agree with Putin there might be a lot more agreement in the International community. So what do I agree with Putin on? His opinion on the Olympic Figure Skating.
Why is a Prime Minister of a country jumping into a figure skating controversy? Because to Russia it matters, especially after Slutskaya lost in 2002.

Putin told Plushenko, "I would like to sincerely congratulate you on the wonderful Olympic performance -- your silver is worth gold. You were able to overcome all the obstacles in your brave comeback and performed the most accomplished programme on the Vancouver ice. All Russian figure skating fans admire your brilliance, true fighting spirit, courage and the will to win. Well done!"

Lysacek was terrific and skated a beautiful program. The question is a matter of what the judges and figure skating want to reward. The judges rewarded the skaters the same on the artistic potion, but gave the nod to Lysacek in technical difficulty. This seems a bit backwards. If this is how skating is scored why was Johnny Weir so far back? He skated a wonderfully artistic program and did so very clean. As Weir stated in a late night interview, “It is political.”

Some feel I am tainted by the fact I served a mission in Russia. This is true, I love Russia and the Russian people, but I have always cheered for my homeland first. However, Plushenko’s ability to do things others cannot, had me watching a sport I normally leave for my wife. Lysacek made me say that was beautiful and very graceful. Plushenko made me say, OH WOW, did he just do that!

The winter sports gaining popularity are things like snowboard halfpipe, because the tricks are progressive and pushing the envelope. If you want to win you have to do things that have never been done before. If figure skating wants to grow and increase popularity it should follow suit. In the sports world if you are not progressing you are dying.

American’s that follow this event have been outraged by Plushenko’s and Putin’s comments. However, let’s flip the script. An American just got silver despite doing things on skates the gold medal winner can only dream of doing. How outraged would we all be? VERY! We don’t handleb default that graciously and so we shouldn’t expect others to.

As for Lysacek he has been a gold medal person throughout the whole ordeal. He has tried to diffuse the situation by stating that the comments of Plushenko have been taken out of context etc. He has been a true champion in this regard. Normally you are not rewarded in life for being a great person in this case maybe Lysacek was.
As for you Mr. Prime Minister you are correct and so is your skater.

 

5 comments:

Brook said...

That is the most incorrect article i've ever seen get your facts right and don't let your bias get in the way of the truth! This article is so dead wrong you and your cocky russian can go back to russia and stop complaining! For goodness sakes it was a fair competition lysacek skated supurbably and only an idiot would say he didn't deserve the gold! He did his jumps is the second half which doubled his score and he knew would increase his score 10% if he did them flawlessly and he based his routine on how he knew the judges scored! Plushenko skated very well but his quad landing wasn't worth as much as lysaceks triples done flawlessly! If you have a problem with the judging do an article against the judges but don't you dare say that lysacek didn't deserve the gold! He skated flawlessly and was graceful thats what this sport is about really it's not all about the jumps its not like the half pipe with shaun white(who did wonderful if i do say so myself), no matter what you say! It's about if the competitors can move fluently with the music artistically and skillfully! If you like the jumps and think thats more deserving fine then but that's not how they're going to get judged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heather's Blog said...

I like your blog and am going to send Mark over!

Brook said...

You are so wrong get your facts right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! USA got gold there is nothing you can do about it so stop whining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

You have no idea what your talking about!

Anonymous said...

Who do you think you are saying that Lysacek didn't deserve the gold, he skated wonderfully!