An Olympic Effort

[liralen]

kathrynt wrote: "I love watching people push themselves literally to the edge of human capacity, whether they succeed or fail. Sometimes most of all when they KNOW they're going to fail but they get out there and push themselves to the limit anyway, because that's the distilled essence of the liquor of Awesome on which the Olympics is drunk."

Tonight, I saw Sasha Cohen do that in the free skate of women's figure skating.  Yeah, I know, I know, there are many who don't think figure skating is a 'real sport' and there are others who are put off by the completely obnoxious and incomprehensible commentators (I can't believe the number of times I heard them GASP and then NOT SAY WHY); but when there are some competitors in the 4 minute free that end up unable to do things, obviously because they've used everything their legs could give them and they put themselves, on blades, on ice, in positions I'll never reach even on plain ground, I'll give 'em the benefit of that doubt, at least.  A man can run a mile in under four minutes, to go full bore for that whole time has got to be hard.

Thing is that I'd just watched three or four women before and after Sasha just be technically crisp and clear in function, but not *beautiful* in form.  When Sasha started, she had a really bad warmup from the comments Scott made.  She had a leg bandaged from an earlier injury and she seemed to be favoring it somehow.  Then, nearly as soon as she started her program, she fell on both of her first two Big Jumps, the ones that were supposed to set up the basis of all her scoring for the rest of the program.  As far as the commentators were concerned and as far as anyone could see, she was pretty much completely out of the medals race.  Period.  No way to get gold, and unlikely to even mount the podium.

The fascinating and marvelous thing was to see her, after those two falls, visibly just shrug.  To know that she was going to 'fail' so far as medals, but she was going to give it her all anyway.  To skate as perfectly, expressively, and purposefully as possible, just to do it right.  And she did.  Beautifully.  Gorgeous, each extension to the full, each sway and timed motion exact, each position held solid and complete, and each of the following jumps not only executed, but finished with grace and a smile.  I cried at that brave display.  Of going and still doing the best she could possibly do when there seemed no chance of success.

That I'll remember for a very long time.

Yeah, yeah.  Tomorrow's paper will have the fact that she won silver with her brave display.  There were other 'clean' performances, one technically perfect.  There was one other who had a fall, and even I could see that she skated more sloppily and with less care after her 'failure'.  So Sasha's courage was rewarded, but even if it had not, I would have remembered being able to witness her efforts.

Comments

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

She was inspiring, for that.

Re the commentators: earlier last night, Dick Button invented the grand-champion worst sports metaphor of all time: "It was like watching this beautiful souffle just... un-souffle" (he pronounced it 'un-soofull'). We both giggled about it a lot.

I always like Scott Hamilton's commentary, though -- he really loves all the skaters, really wants them to do well, and is so happy for them when they do and disappointed for them when they don't.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*giggles* about Button

And... yeah. I'll agree about Scott Hamilton, he does care, and not just for the US skaters, either, which I do admire about him. And he isn't at all catty the way the lady is. The disappointment, though, sometimes comes across badly for me, but it may well be my sensativity to criticism of most kinds and nothing to do with im. :-) I'll readily admit a difference in taste.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

I dated a girl in highschool once or twice who was a competitive skater.

The bitchiness runs like a vein of purest smarm through the entire sport, from top to bottom. The sabotage incident of some years back where Ms. Harding (how dare that white-trash harlot put her lower-class feet in skates, much less touch the same ice as MY DAUGHTER?!) was apparently involved in a kneecap attack on Ms. Kerrigan (daughter of privelege, by the way) came off completely different to me because I knew about this.

The conversation about the attack? Not uncommon at all, apparently. Fantasizing about wanting to get rid of an inconveniently good competing skater is apparently de rigeur. Actually doing it, however, must be much more subtle. Which is why the rules about not throwing roses onto the ice were made a while back, and why certain skaters were SO paranoid about making sure the ice was groomed and cleaned before they skated - because it was too common that some people would throw roses with hairpins, straight pins, and other bits of hard-to-see metal detritus out to a skater who performed just ahead of some other skater who Must Not Be Allowed To Win.
The stuff gets onto the ice, it catches skates. Gosh what a sad accident.

I heard stories about judging at the local and national level ... at that time, apparently, it didn't matter how objectively good you were, if you hadn't gone through the proper 'career path', you were always judged worse than other people who had done.

And at the time the whole gossip network about gay vs. straight vs. who really knew what... scary.

It's neat, though, to see the people who have held themselves apart from the pettiness, snarkiness and venom.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds really bad.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's horrible that a sport which is so beautiful and so demanding should be haunted by the equivalent of good-old-boy networking. I believe it's not so bad elsewhere in the world.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

I got very annoyed with my coworker who was going on about how "injury wasn't an excuse" concerning Sasha's problems with the jumps. I had to pull back from being very nasty. Sylvia was never a figure skater. I was, if only for a couple years in my teens, and I KNOW how hard some of that stuff was, especially with even minor injuries. (Heck, I know how hard it was for me to come back from a knee injury in kung fu, too.) I've got to hand it to her, Sasha is a heck of a trooper. She was an incredible inspiration to see her just pull herself together and give it her all, anyway. That's what the Olympics is about.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Cool to know about your experiences, too. That seems so incredibly difficult.

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

I was commenting over on somebody else's journal... I have found, this Olympics, that I can't watch figure skating any more.

It's the thing about fifteen-year-old girls in sparkly tights, who have trained for years for this moment, and it all comes down to whether they can stick the landing from a triple axel or whatever... because, inevitably, some of them don't.

The whole system of competition that puts that much pressure on people so young just seems cruel to me now. My heart can't take watching it.

I don't think I'll be able to watch gymnastics during the next summer Olympics either.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

That makes a boatload of sense. Yeah about gymnastics. Sounds like it would be very hard with that kind of realization.

Epoch tonight

[(Anonymous)]

african american black woman greek school sex video english to latin animal names bloody discharge from my rectum monster jam urban assault cheats wii zoofila fucked by a monster xxx blue ridge cable orgasm masturbation clip
http://sexdating.erolove.in/?BRIDGETT
video hentai dog craven community college ebony eyes site foro sexmaster dragon ball cartoon porn the black dahlia murder discography torrent old grannys cumshot facial compilation fucking tamil honeymoon couple aau sports
http://adultgalls.com/?girl-ANNIE
do you really shrink when you get old had cor porn sites angelina jolie havng sex