As the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada pass the torch to Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Games, the ever-popular figure skating competition provided some of the Games’ most memorable, record-breaking moments.
PAIRS
The pairs competition kicked off the figure skating events and the first round of competition did not disappoint, with Chinese gold medal favorites Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao posting a new record for Highest score for a short programme – pairs. Shen and Zhao scored a huge 76.66 points on 14 February 2010 to break their previous record of 75.36 points, set at the 2009/2010 Grand Prix Final on 3 December 2009. February 14 was also Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year…so it was fitting that a husband-and-wife team who train in Harbin, China placed first!
Two days later, Shen and Zhao turned in another fantastic performance to win the gold medal, which made them China’s first gold medal in Olympic figure skating history. With their win, Shen and Zhao ended another record – the Longest national winning streak in a single event in the Winter Olympics, which was held by Russia/the Soviet Union. Russian skaters had won every Olympic title in the pairs figure skating event since 1964. In Vancouver, the highest-scoring Russians were the team of Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, who placed fourth overall. Shen and Zhao’s teammates Qing Pang and Jian Tong won the silver medal, and Germans Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy rounded out the podium with the bronze.
MEN
The men’s event produced one of the most talked-about showdowns of the Games, between the USA’s reigning world champion Evan Lysacek and Russia’s defending Olympic champion Evgeny Plushenko. The event also produced one of the burning questions of Vancouver – “To quad or not to quad?”
After a fierce competition, the quad turned out to be unnecessary, as Evan Lysacek become the first American man to win the Olympic gold medal since Brian Boitano in 1988. This may not have come as a big surprise to figure skating history buffs, as every American man who has been the reigning world champion (Dick Button in 1952, Hayes Jenkins in 1956, David Jenkins in 1960 and Scott Hamilton in 1984) went on to win the Olympic title. On a side note, no reigning world champion since Hamilton had won the Olympic gold medal, until Lysacek.
Evgeny Plushenko went on record stating that he was trying to become the first man since American Dick Button to win back-to-back gold medals at the Olympics (Button won in 1948 and 1952). If Plushenko had succeeded, he would have had to compete again in 2014 if he wanted to tie the all-time record for Most Olympic figure skating gold medals – men, which belongs to Gillis Grafstrom (Sweden), after he won the title in 1920, 1924 and 1928.
Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi rounded out the podium with the bronze. By doing so, Takahashi became the first Japanese man to win an Olympic figure skating medal. Omedetou gozaimasu!
ICE DANCE
Ice dancing always provides some classic memories in every Winter Olympic Games. This year was no different, as viewers witnessed a Russian team skating to Aboriginal music dressed in body stockings and fake leaves, Hava Nagila on ice (as interpreted by the Israeli dance team), and several brother-and-sister teams skating a tango romantica compulsory dance that tried not to be too romantic.
The ice dancing competition also provided some of the most elegant, fluid and breathtaking skating in the entire Olympics. Canadian gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skated a stunning program set to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, and with their win they became the first North American team to win an Olympic gold medal in ice dance, the first ice dance team to win a gold medal on their first trip to the Olympics, and, at ages 20 and 22, the youngest ice dance team to win an Olympic gold medal.
Close behind Virtue and Moir were their friends and training mates Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who took the silver medal (marking the first time two North American dance teams have stood on the podium at the Olympics), followed by the Russian team of Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin with the bronze.
LADIES
(Yuna Kim is AUTOMATICALLY REGISTERED in Guinness world records For Highest score.)
The ladies event started out with a bang, as Yu-Na Kim from South Korea set a new record for Highest score for a short programme – ladies with a score of 78.50. Kim skated a sultry program to a medley of James Bond music, capping off her routine by pointing an imaginary smoking gun at the judges.
Kim continued her record-breaking streak in the long program, where she posted an astronomical score of 150.06, shattering her old record of 133.95 for the Highest score for a long programme – ladies. The combination of her two record scores also produced a new record for Highest total score – ladies, with a 228.56. Kim held the previous record in this category, with a total score of 210.03. With her gold medal performance, Kim became the first Korean figure skater to win an Olympic medal of any color.
Kim was not the only standout performance in the ladies field. The silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan made history by landing three triple Axels, and earning the record for Most triple Axels landed by a female in a single competition. Asada landed her first triple Axel in the short programme and followed that up by performing two in the long programme.
Bronze medalist Joannie Rochette from Canada delivered one of the most emotional performances of the Games, skating two near-flawless programmes after the untimely death of her mother earlier in the week. Rochette is the first Canadian woman to stand on an Olympics podium since Elizabeth Manley won the silver in Calgary in 1988.
The figure skating events of Vancouver were ones for the record books, but the season is not yet over. The World Figure Skating Championships are only three weeks away…so stay tuned for more record-breaking updates from the world of skating!
No comments:
Post a Comment