Men's Short Program Figure Skating Astounds at 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics

Tuesday night's opener of the Men's Single Skating in the Short Program competition certainly had it all. There were the brilliant performances by some to the downright embarrassing by others. It never missed a beat with the array of music they skated to from rock, pop, experimental to skating's traditional classical music. Some of the costumes were hideous such as the one of a sequined skeleton. I'm not kidding. Men's figure skating features some of the most incredible spins to the highest jumps you won't find in the other Olympic skating events. That is one of the reasons I love the Men's skating competition. They oftentimes take risks with their routines on a technical and even an artistic level. The choices of music they use are more contemporary than that of the Ladies and Pairs competition. It is never a dull moment watching the men skate in any competition, let alone the Olympics. They delivered that in spades in the short program.

A Few of My Favorites

Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel featured great spins in their routine and a great selection of music. Even though he fell out of a quad jump he managed to place fifth in the Short Program standings going into the Free Skate Thursday night. Lambiel skated to the famous "William Tell Overture," or most people know it as the Long Ranger theme song. He ended his routine with what I like to call the "mop top" spin because the hair stands out while spinning at top speed. Speaking of music selections there were some rock instrumentals from Jimi Hendrix and J. Giles Band featured. One skater from France had a lot of great percussion in his skating music. All three of the Japanese skaters were superb. One of them is on the right track to becoming a rising star. However, the American skater, Evan Lysacek, skated the performance of his entire skating career. He made all the required jumps, spins, and other footwork needed. Not once did he cave into the pressure of being at the Olympics like so many of the others. Currently Evan is in second place behind the leader at only 0.55 of a point. It is anyone's game for the gold medal now.

Johnny Weir - The "Lady Gaga" of the Winter Olympics

Canada had their famous figure skater, Elvis Stojko, who was a heart throb and crowd favorite all over the world. He channeled his "inner Elvis," who was aptly named after the King of Rock. Now the U.S. has Johnny Weir channeling his icon, Lady Gaga, on the ice. Quite frankly, one of many reasons I watched this competition was specifically for Weir. Thankfully he did not come out wearing any real fur pieces on his costume. He did work his sole pink tassel that was on his shoulder during his performance. Weir did not disappoint the audience with this flawless performance, though his flamboyancy came through on a number of occasions. He ended with a kiss to the crowd that was perfectly in synch with the music. Weir has exceptional musicality while skating. You can't help but love his theatrics. His score was not as high as I would have expected and placed sixth at the end of the competition. However, since Johnny Weir is most likely out of the medal contention Thursday night we may get to see a real entertaining routine Lady Gaga would be proud of.

Men's Figure Skating Villain - Yevgeny Plushenko

The reigning Gold medalist from the 2006 Olympics is back with a vengeance. A biography film was featured on Plushenko before he came out on the ice. He talked about how a lot of people do not like him, and he wasn't bothered by that at all. I remember enjoying his incredible performance in Torino four years earlier. However, over time he has become arrogant and egotistical, which hasn't earned him a great deal of popularity. Yevgeny skated well, but his footwork and the constant flailing of his arms was atrocious to watch. Needless to say he is at the top of the leader board going into the Free Skate program on Thursday night. Only time will tell if the Russian, Yevgeny Plushenko, or the American, Evan Lysacek, will get the Gold medal. I love going for the underdog because anything can happen in figure skating when the competition is this close.

SOURCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_skating_at_the_2010_Winter_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_singles

http://www.nbcolympics.com/figure-skating/resultsandschedules/event=FSM010000/phase=FSM010201/index.html