I *heart* the Winter Olympics

I've always been a winter olympics kinda girl, and this year was no exception. I think perhaps it's my own preference for sports in which I like to participate such as skiing, skating, etc coming through in my bias for what I watch. Anyway, I've been watching as much as I can afford to, paying particular attention to the snowboarding, ice dancing, and ice skating. I was really rooting for the US team in ice dancing and we got silver to break a 30 year streak in which the US team hadn't gotten a medal in this event. There was plenty of drama this year in ice dancing. Lots of teams fell during the original program, and some of them had been medal contenders. The Italian couple was among them, and when he dropped her toward the end, you could just see the daggers coming out of her eyes. On night 3, the atmosphere backstage was cold (and not just because it's near the ice) and they didnt even make eye contact until they were out on the ice. Pure Drama.
In ice skating news, the ladies short program was tonight. As you probably know, Michelle Kwan had to withdraw, and Hughes' little sister was her replacement. Hughes did a pretty great job, especially in light of her inexperience. But the favorite coming in was Russian Irina Slutskaya and her short program was awesome. She took advantage of the rule-change that allows female skaters to wear pants, and I must say, it seemed to suit her. She's a powerful skater, in the same way Tanya Harding was. However, Sasha Cohen was the show-stopper of the evening. Her performance was technically flawless and artistically beautiful. Sasha is in first after the first night, but the difference between her and Irinia is 0.03. I simply can't wait for Thursday night to see what happens next.

Perhaps I'm still hanging onto the time when I used to skate. I took ice skating lessons in the Twin Cities and I was starting to learn jumps when I was informed that I'd be moving to South Dakota...to a place with no indoor rink. :( So, perhaps in some way, the winter Olympics are my way of hanging onto something I really enjoyed. However, if you ask me about my skating costumes, I'll disavow all knowledge of all things relating to ice. ;)