Pairs Short

Skatehearts

My hubby decided we should go skating on Valentine's Day. What a nice hubby, I'm glad he thought of that while NASCAR had pothole issues in Daytona. ;) I got some extra Junior MITF practice in - as much as one can when weaving in between public ice skaters.

Afterwards, I made my sweetheart dinner and then snuggled into the couch to watch the short program in the pairs event. NBC continued their Valentine's Day sugary coverage of the relationship between the US teams. Denney & Barrett had a nice debut although their side-by-side toe loops were downgraded to doubles after Barrett landed a triple and Denney landed a double. Evora & Ladwig had a gorgeous skate to music from Love, Actually. If only all US pairs skaters could give performances like that all the time.

Most of the medal contenders skated in the final groups and I was dozing off by then. However, I only really needed to see Shen & Zhao skate at the beginning. No one came close to the couple all evening long. As Phil Hersh put it, the event was over in 2 minutes and 40 seconds, the time of their skate. It will be a successful comeback for them if they capture gold tonight.

Sweet Triple Twist with Shen & Zhao 

Hope to stay up tonight for the free and the medals!

Other blogs and items:

• Kelli over at State of the Skate noted all of the performances, music and outfits on NBC last night. She stayed awake! Thanks Kelli!
• Bill Plaschke laments the lack of champion US pairs in the Los Angeles Times

Since skating debuted in the 1908 Summer Olympics, American women have won seven gold medals, American men have won six golds, and the two of them skating together have won squat. We're 0 for 102 years, going winless in 22 pairs competitions and nine ice dancing events.

 

Yeah, we're bad, but we really enjoy watching others who are great!