Jandy’s Meanderings

It’s probably not generally known here, but about ten years ago I was massively into figure skating. Not doing it, just watching it. Anyway, I don’t follow it closely anymore, but once in a while it’s on and I watch it. Since I don’t pay much attention to it these days, I didn’t realize the Nationals were last weekend, so I missed most of them; I did happen to catch the men’s, though, featuring the continuing rivalry between last year’s champion Evan Lysacek and the champion before him, Johnny Weir. I’ve seen Weir around for several years, and never cared for him much, but he seems to have matured a lot this year or something, and I liked him better. But that’s by the by.

I had friends over on Sunday night and taped the end of the competition and didn’t watch it until tonight. And discovered that Weir and Lysacek TIED their overall score. Dude. That doesn’t happen. They score these things to the hundredth of a point, and they TIED. Now, Lysacek was given the championship because he scored higher in the free skate (the second program; they did the short program earlier in the week). Now, I think there is sort of precedent for this, because didn’t Oksana Baiul win the 1994 Olympics over Nancy Kerrigan because her artistic mark was a tenth of a point higher than Nancy’s even though their overall score was the same? (Nancy had a tenth higher on technical marks, IIRC.) That was before the scoring system changed, though, so the scores weren’t calculated nearly so finely. In any case, I’m really glad I managed to catch this moment, even a week later, because wow.

I am sorry I missed the other portions of the competition, though. I love me some ice dancing these days. Exhibitions are on Saturday, so I made sure to set my timer for those.

Here are both programs, courtesy of the fine folks who upload stuff to YouTube. (Where I should probably look for the ladies’, pairs, and dancers, now that I think of it…)

Posted in random
Tagged:figure skating, sports