Winter olympic 2010 Vancouver

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Flag bearer Tomomi Okazaki of Japan leads the Japanese Olympic team

 

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Ammann takes 1st gold medal of Vancouver Olympics by winning normal hill ski jump

WHISTLER, B.C. - Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann won the first gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics with victory in the normal hill event Saturday.

Polish veteran Adam Malysz took silver and 20-year-old Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria recovered from a disappointing first jump to earn bronze on his Olympic debut.

Ammann showed his mastery of the smaller hill at Whistler's Olympic Park with the longest jumps in both rounds — he took a commanding lead with a 105-meter effort and then soared 108 metres with his second jump for a total score of 276.5 points.

He knew right away he was the winner, pumping his arm in celebration before raising two clenched fists into the air. He then ran onto the podium at the flower ceremony, his index and middle fingers forming a V-sign as he shot his arm forward, like a ski jumper taking off in flight.

No Canadians qualified for the ski jump competition.
"I have no words to describe the situation," the 28-year-old Ammann said. "It's crazy, I tried so hard and I focused so much on my competitions here. But everyone here is at their best."

Ammann also swept both individual events at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, where Malysz was second in the large hill. He became the first ski jumper since Finnish great Matti Nykanen to win three individual golds.

Malysz, a four-time individual world champion who is still looking for his first Olympic gold medal, had been third after the first round and finished with 269.5 points. Schlierenzauer seemed to mistime his takeoff in the first round and squandered his chance for a gold with a mediocre 101.5-meter jump, but climbed from seventh to third after soaring 106.5 metres in the second for 268 points.

The Austrian defending overall World Cup champion had set the longest jump in the qualifying round and entered his first Olympics with a legitimate shot at sweeping all three events. A bronze, however, didn't seem like too much of a disappointment.

"Dreams are coming true," Schlierenzauer said. "Hopefully more as the games go on."

Michael Uhrmann of Germany was a surprising second after the first round, but only managed 102 metres in the second to miss the podium.

 

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Switzerland's gold medal winner Simon Ammann is flanked by Poland's silver medal winner Adam Malysz, left, and Austria's bronze medal winner Gregor Schlierenzauer during the flower ceremony for the ski jumping normal hill qualification at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010.

 

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Protesters attempt to block the street in downtown Vancouver during the second day of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Protesters vandalize a store window.

 

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Winter Olympics - No plum draw for 'apple' Plushenko

Yevgeny Plushenko may be at a disadvantage after being drawn to skate before all his main Olympic rivals because judges have a preconceived idea that better skaters perform later, according to his coach.

Coach Alexei Mishin said the Russian was skating better than when he won gold in 2006 but could come unstuck by the short programme draw, which related to a seeding system and picked him to skate 10th out of 30 competitors.

Plushenko is ranked 38th in the world as he has not taken part in many events since returning from a three-and-a-half-year break.

Higher ranked athletes earn the right to skate later with other medal contenders such as Canadian Patrick Chan and American Evan Lysacek skating towards the end of the field.

"I prefer the system which was in Turin when everybody can get any number," Mishin said, referring to an open draw system that used to be the norm.

"If you've got the right to be a participant everybody should be equal.

"Sometimes to skate earlier is easier than too late but the manner of the judging creates a feeling that if you are in a later group, you are a better skater."

Mishin, who trained other Olympic champions like Alexei Urmanov and Alexei Yagudin, said Plushenko's skating had matured since the 2006 Turin Games.

"He is like an apple which stayed on the apple tree longer," he said.

"I think that right now he is skating better than in Turin because the steps are 100 percent better, spins 200 per cent better and jumps are clean.

"In previous years Yevgeny sometimes did not have completely measured movements, now every movement is a completely rich movement. Sometimes he did movements which were not that mature, now he is more cooked."

The men's competition starts on Tuesday with the short programme.

 

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All or nothing, good man

Winter Olympics - Swiss spin-master set to gamble on quad

Sore knees and a chronic thigh injury will not stop Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel from flying through the air when he attempts the high-risk quadruple jump in the men's figure skating event at the Vancouver Games this week
"I'm planning to do two quads in the long programme and combo (combination jump) in the short programme," said the2006 Turin silver medallist Lambiel, who came out of retirement to compete at the Olympics.

"Two years ago...I lost the belief that I could stay healthy.

"But then I decided to come back as a challenge to myself. I wanted to be healthy but I wanted more here," the spin-master added, tapping his heart.

Despite the aches and pains all over his body, Lambiel is ready to gamble his gold medal prospects on the quad - a jump that has caused a raging debate between top competitors from Europe (who perform the quads) and North America (who do not).

Olympic champion Yevgeny Plushenko and former world champion Brian Joubert of France have been critical of the fact that the last two world titles were won by North Americans who did not attempt the dizzying jump in which at least four rotations must be completed through the air.

While Plushenko's coach Alexei Mishin said winning the Olympic gold without performing a quad is like going back to the dark ages, Joubert blamed a new scoring system - introduced after the Salt Lake City judging scandal - for discouraging skaters from attempting the high-risk manoeuvres.

"I think the quad is the future of figure skating. I remember (Canadian figure skater) Elvis Stojko doing the quad-triple and it was extraordinary," Joubert said.

"In 2002, 15 skaters were doing the quad, now there are about six. This is because of the new (judging) system."

American world champion Evan Lysacek is among those who have exploited the new accumulative points scoring system, in which each element has a pre-determined score, by putting in complex spins and fast-paced step sequences to compensate for the lack of a quad in their routines.

But with quad specialists Plushenko, Lambiel and Joubert in the Vancouver field, the Frenchman was confident the jump would play a major factor in deciding who will win the Olympic title.

"I think the quad will make the difference for an Olympic title. I did the quad-triple (toeloop combination) in practice and if it works in practice, then it works in competition," said Joubert.

 

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pairs short, too little between them to predict results

Veteran Chinese duo takes pairs figure skating lead

Of course, Valentine's Day belonged to the pairs. It belonged to the Chinese married couple, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who finished first, as well as to the American couples who spent the day competing against each other Sunday in the first figure skating event of the Vancouver Olympics.
And in the end, it almost belonged to Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, who skated last, a beautifully expressive and refined short program to Send in the Clowns, but finished second, .7 behind Shen and Zhao. Russia's Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov placed third, setting up what promises to be a hotly contested finish in today's long program.

"Everything is close so everything can change," said the legendary Tamara Moskvina, who coaches Kavaguti and Smirnov. The Russian pair said they would have dinner and decide whether to include a rare throw quadruple salchow in their long program.

Less than three minutes into the short program, the competition seemed to be over just as it started. The best pair in the world this year, Shen and Zhao, skated first and finished first with a score of 76.66, breaking their world record.

The two-time Olympic bronze medalists could win their first gold with another brilliant performance tonight. If so, they will end the streak that has seen a Russian or Soviet couple win every Olympic pairs title dating to 1964. (At the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, the gold medal was shared by a Russian pair and a Canadian pair in the wake of a judging scandal.) Three Chinese pairs finished in the top five after the short program.

""I think I speak for all of the Chinese competitors," Zhao said. "We're really going for the one dream … Our goal is to go for gold, and we don't really fear about the dominance of anyone or any particular country."

Skating together for the past 18 years — two years longer than U.S. pairs skater Caydee Denney has been alive — and married three years ago after winning the 2007 world title, Shen and Zhao may find a storybook end to their illustrious career at this Olympics. "We are happy with our performance today," Zhao said. "It was a nice Valentine's Day present."

After they completed a death spiral to the final notes of the Queen ballad, Who Wants to Live Forever, Zhao leaned back and Shen fell into his chest. As the crowd erupted, Zhao pumped his fist. It's been quite a comeback for the couple who resumed skating only this season after a two-year layoff.

The Chinese pair are the oldest skaters here — Shen is 31, Zhao 36. But the first day of Chinese New Year, the year of the tiger, belonged to the old lions.

"It was a brand-new start for a brand-new year," Zhao said

 

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Plushenko's coach not happy with criticism at Olympics

By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY
VANCOUVER — Russia's Evgeni Plushenko, the defending Olympic champion, is not speaking to reporters until after Tuesday's short program, but his coach, Alexei Mishin, weighed in on the sport's latest controversy.
"Skating should be decided on the ice, not the internet," Mishin said after Saturday's afternoon practice at Pacific Coliseum.

Earlier this month Joe Inman, a top international judge, sent an e-mail to friends, including some judges, about comments made by Plushenko.

"If the judges want someone to place high, they can arrange it," Plushenko was quoted as saying last month. "Like (at the European championships) in Tallinn, (France's) Brian Joubert got more points for his transitions than me, although we did exactly the same transitions on the ice. In fact, we don't have any transitions because we focus on our jumps."

Inman forwarded that quote to friends, writing: "I find this an interesting observation of his own skating and the judges' marking of his transitions."

The intent of his e-mail has been misconstrued, Inman said in an interview on Thursday. However, the kerfuffle has "set off an international firestorm of accusations that there is a North American bias against European figure skaters in the men's event," according to Toronto's Globe and Mail.

Clearly the topic has been on Mishin's mind. He raised the issue Saturday before being asked about it. "I don't like what some are trying to do, criticizing Evgeni," Mishin said.

Figure skating begins on Sunday with the pairs short program. The U.S.'s teams — Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett, and Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig — are making their Olympic debut, competing against veteran Chinese, German and Russian teams.

Since there's no controversy — yet — in the pairs event, the anticipation for the men's competition has continued to grow.

Last summer, Plushenko's artistry was criticized in a series of judges' educational videos which critiqued his 2006 Olympic performance. The Russian skating federation demanded the International Skating Union remove Plushenko from the videos, three people with knowledge of the videos told USA TODAY. Plushenko had retired from the sport when the experts selected examples of skaters' work to show on the DVDs.

With this backdrop, the men's event begins. Presumably, it will be decided on the ice.

Back to class:

Being in the Olympics doesn't mean you have to be at the Olympics the whole time.

Women's figure skating doesn't start until Feb. 23. After enjoying the thrill of the opening ceremony, the USA's Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu both plan to return home for a while.

"I'm going back home just to train and calm down from all the hype," said Flatt, 17, of Colorado Springs, who plans to leave here Monday and return Friday.

She is a senior at Cheyenne Mountain High School. She has a load of AP courses and expects to be in class Tuesday through Thursday. "I would like to get into a good college, so I'm taking all the opportunities I can to take the AP classes," said Flatt, who has applied to schools such as Princeton and Stanford.

Nagasu, 16, of Arcadia, Calif., is being home schooled this year. She said she planned to go home Sunday and also return Friday.

Both were delighted to have experienced the opening ceremony.

"For me I think the most special moment was probably when they raised the Olympic flag," said Flatt. "I just got chills and I couldn't believe I was actually here. … The whole experience was incredible."

While Flatt got chills, Nagasu recalled sweating.

"The thing I remember most about the opening ceremony was standing at the bottom of a pit (assembly area) for like four hours in white pants so we couldn't sit down," she said. "So it was basically a fight between all of the athletes because we all wanted to be at the front. … We were pushing and shoving, and it was really hot, so we were all sweating. When we finally got out there, it was like, 'Finally, I'm out there to the world!' I was just so happy to be waving to everyone, even though I was sweating like I was in a sauna."

No quad:

The USA's Evan Lysacek, who won a world figure skating title last year without attempting a quadruple jump, said Saturday he does not intend to try one at the Olympics. But he did leave the door open slightly.

Lysacek competed at last year's world despite a stress fracture in his left foot. That injury prevented him from practicing the quad. He fell on a quad attempt at U.S. nationals last month. He said he has stopped working on it as a precaution because of "some problems" with his left foot again.

"I did start practicing it to test it out, and it did not prove to be a worthwhile risk," he said. "Right now, I'm not planning on it. I'm doing just a couple of triple toes (triple toe loop jumps) every day."

But there is still a chance.

"If I really feel it in the heat of the moment, I have been doing them (quads) every once in a while in practice," he said. "I know that I can do it. … But my plan right now is to do what I can do well."

On a quadruple toe loop, the skater stabs the toe of the left skate into the ice and uses it as a launching point. The jumper makes four rotations in the air in a tight spin.

 

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Artistry at Root of Latest Controversy

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Figure skating has yet to begin at the Winter Olympics, and already strange things are happening. O.K., not as strange as Lindsey Vonn wrapping her ailing shin with Austrian cheese curd, but strange nonetheless.

The cold war ended two decades ago, except somebody forgot to tell the people involved in figure skating. The East German judges are long gone, the Soviet bloc has been dismantled, but obsession, paranoia and conspiracy still rule. If skating didn’t exist, Robert Ludlum would have invented it.

“This sport is so political, nobody trusts anybody,” said George Rossano, an American expert on the arcane and controversial points-based scoring system.

The latest controversy centers on Yevgeny Plushenko, the defending Olympic men’s champion from Russia. He retired, then made a comeback for Vancouver, where he is favored to win a second gold medal. There is no better leaper in the world. Plushenko jumps like a teenager at a horror movie.

He is also fast and calm under pressure. And in the words of Dick Button, the 1948 and 1952 Olympic champion, “He has enough chutzpah to fill the Grand Canyon.”

Still, there are drawbacks to Plushenko’s skating: footwork and artistry. This is a guy who could use a few lessons at Arthur Murray. It was the same problem that Tom DeLay had on “Dancing With the Stars.” Both men have terrific charisma, but would be well advised in the future to avoid rhinestones, bolero jackets and the cha-cha.

Plushenko freely admits this flaw in the transitional moves — footwork, choreography and musicality — that link his soaring triple axels and quadruple toe loops. At a news conference last month, referring to himself and Brian Joubert of France, Plushenko said, “We don’t have any transitions, because we focus on our jumps.”

He also suggested that judges could prop up skaters under the new scoring system, just as in the old 6-point system, by inflating their “component” scores, the equivalent of the old artistic marks. This added to the suspicion by some that exaggerated artistic marks were given to Plushenko at the recent Russian and European championships.

Joe Inman, an influential American judge who helped write the rules for component scores, passed along Plushenko’s remarks in an e-mail message to friends, including some fellow judges. The e-mails were detailed in The Globe and Mail of Toronto. In them, Inman wrote that despite Plushenko’s admission of weakness in transitions, “The judges seem to miss what he is saying.”

Inman also wrote, “We as judges should think about what we saw before putting that mark down.”

In a telephone interview Thursday, Inman, who is not a judge at these Games, said he was not trying to influence the outcome of the men’s competition at the Vancouver Olympics.

“It was innocuous,” he said. “I wasn’t telling people how to judge.”

Except that is not how his remarks were interpreted by the Russians and the French, who detected a full-blown North American conspiracy against European skaters.

Perhaps Inman should have known better. If there is a chance to twist words in this sport, they will be contorted like a skater’s body during a Biellmann spin.

Didier Gailhaguet, the president of the French figure skating federation, told the sports newspaper L’Equipe, “This proves the North American lobby is under way.”

The Russians were also not happy that DVDs, used this season to train judges about proper and improper skating techniques, included video of Plushenko from the 2006 Winter Olympics and harsh comments about his artistry.

It did nothing to calm the fear of conspiracy that American and Canadian officials helped make the DVDs. At the Russians’ behest, USA Today reported, Plushenko was removed from the video, like an out-of-favor Politburo member airbrushed from viewing-stand photos at a May Day parade.

The men’s short program begins Tuesday, but what is happening off the ice might be more engaging than whatever will happen on the ice. Plushenko is not talking; he did not even bother to show up for practice Friday. But everybody else is speaking his mind, often dyspeptically and hilariously.

Button called The New York Times to say that Gailhaguet of France had a lot of nerve to complain about a supposed North American conspiracy. After all, Gailhaguet was barred from skating for three years, accused of conspiring to manipulate the pairs and ice dancing competitions at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

“He’s an international manipulator himself,” Button said. “I wouldn’t believe a word he said if you removed all his blood and replaced it with truth serum.”

Gailhaguet did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for an interview.

Geopolitical lines have blurred. Some Americans are criticizing other Americans. Johnny Weir, competing in his second Olympic Games for the United States, has a Russian coach and is enamored of all things Russian. He said Friday that Inman “put egg on my face” and “tarnished my reputation” by seeming to try to influence the judging.

And, oh yeah, he wants Inman barred for life as a judge.

“As much as we make about the judging scandal in Salt Lake City, that it’s not American, that we don’t do things like that, this shows we are just like anybody else,” Weir said.

Odd things are happening all around. A wild lynx has been spotted on the downhill course and near the luge track in recent days. Perhaps it was on the run, desperate to avoid becoming part of Weir’s costume for the free skate.

 

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Four of those pointy things were supposed to come out of the floor during the opening ceremony Friday to light the Olympic flame. One didn’t. “It’s a live performance. All those things happen,” executive producer David Atkins says.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP)—The Olympic cauldron has been lit to open the XXI Winter Games.

One of the cauldron lights didn’t work, however, so only three of the final torchbearers actually lit the flame.

The final torchbearers were hockey great Wayne Gretzky, NBA All-Star Steve Nash, skier Nancy Greene and speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan, who was stuck posing and holding her torch.

Gretzky is en route to light a second Olympic cauldron in Vancouver’s downtown waterfront area


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WORSE fxxking lighting of olympic cauldron i ever seen in my life. So gay to get 4 person to do one person job. And worse, to light a dummy cauldron indoor and real one outdoor later.

 

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scoring system figure skating after salt lake city, blame the morman

The figure skating decoding guide

Figure skating begins tonight with the pairs short program, and casual fans once more can long for the time when they understood the scoring system.

It has been eight years since scandals at the Salt Lake City Games prompted the international skating union to scrap the 6.0-is-perfect scale and revamp how the sport is judged. And it has been almost that long that fans have wondered why they now need someone with a Ph.D. from MIT to explain the changes to them.

We couldn't even get admitted to MIT, but we'll do our best to explain the system, in which technical and artistic scores are given and totaled to get a final score.

Technical score

Each element in a routine has an assigned value. A triple Lutz, for example, has a base value of 6.0. Judges then decide how well each element was done, giving it a "grade of execution" ranging from plus-3 (9.0) to negative-3 (3.0). Add the values for each element.

Artistic (now called "component") scores

There are five — skating skills, transitions, performance, composition and interpretation. Each is graded on a scale of 1 to 10, and these are totaled for the overall score.

Put the technical and the component scores together, and that's the total score. A short program score in the mid 60s is good for women and pairs; a score in the 80s is good for men. For the overall score that determines the winner, look for the best women and pairs to be in the 190s or above, ice dancers around 200 and men above 240.

 

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The skates of referee Michel Verrault, decorated with the Olympic logo, are seen before the start of a short track speed skating event.

 

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Olympic Speed Skater’s G-String Suit
15-year-old Japanese speed skater Miho Takagi wore a very fancy gold racing uniform for a practice round in Vancouver. (Un)Fortunately, it was a little see-through.

 

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Spectators pose for a picture with the Olympic cauldron from behind a chain link fence during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics February 14, 2010. For tens of thousands pouring into downtown Vancouver on Sunday the Olympic cauldron, the most important symbol of the Winter Games, was locked behind a ring of steel. Organisers have said the fence in front of the cauldron is a necessary accessory to a Games which have been marked by occasionally violent protests.