Skating Ladies

Russian skaters placed one and two in last night's figure skating competition. 

15-year-old Alina Zagitova won , edging her friend and training partner 18-year-old Evgenia Medvedeva.  While there were a few others who skated well, the Canadian girl who won the Bronze medal was the only one who was anywhere near as exciting to watch.

In addition to watching in awe as the two Russians skated near-perfect programs, I came away with several impressions worth noting.

• Commentators loved to say the names of the Russian girls, and almost seemed to be in a competition to see who could pronounce them the most and the fastest without stumbling.
• There were a HUGE number of skaters who were born in the USA, and competed here until they figured out that they were not good enough - then used some family connection to skate for another country.  Honey asked why they would do that when they knew they couldn't win. I really didn't have a good answer.
• Music choices can have a lot to do with the success of a program, and they can also generate a lot of comments.  I noticed that the skater from Kazakhstan chose The Prayer, and wondered about that.  I failed to notice that the girl from Germany skated to Shindler's List, but I must have been the only one, since the web is full of comments this morning.

Christine Brennan, a highly respected sports reporter, has a column today saying that the wrong Russian won - mostly because Zagitova did all of her jumps in the second half of the program where they get bonus points.  I disagree.  She was just better - not by much, but better.