I have been following figure skating closely since about the time of the Harding/Kerrigan scandal... which is also the first year that I watched Michelle Kwan skate at nationals. She took 2nd place behind Tonya Harding, who was later stripped of her title. I remember being enthralled with Michelle and annoyed that she was lost in the whole scandal. Anyway, at that point I was hooked and I have been a big fan ever since. At one time, my TiVo was so full of figure skating that all of our other shows were being deleted.
I have always wondered if it is any better to watch a competition in person. Watching on tv you get to see everything up close, and filming is so good now that it always looks so crisp. I just wondered what it would be like to actually be there. This year I got an answer to my question.
One of the huge annual events in the international skating world is the Grand Prix. It is a series of competitions that start with Skate America and then travel to Canada, Japan, China, France and Russia. Each country can send their top skaters to compete in up to two competitions individually. The skaters in each classification that earn the most points get to go to the Grand Prix Final. It is a great competition that usually gets me really excited for the rest of the season.
Skate America is usually somewhere on the East Coast, but this year it was in Everett - about 20 minutes away from us. Andy, knowing how much I love this sport and how much I have wanted to see it in person, bought us tickets and gave them to me for our anniversary. He bought tickets to the ladies short program and the mens long program. This was a perfect choice because the mens competition included Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir... two US skaters that have a bit of a rivalry. He got us great seats that put us right by about 50% of the jumps... if you happened to watch the competition on tv, you might have seen us in the crowd.
I did not think that we'd be able to use cameras, so I didn't bring mine... that was a mistake. I did manage to take a few pictures with my cell phone that weren't too horrible. I also took a couple of videos on my cell phone... sorry for the poor quality.
Was it better in person? Absolutely! When Evan Lysacek took the ice as the final skater of the evening, the feeling was electric. When he skated, you could tell in person just how strong of a skater he was. His skates did not make the noise that most of the others did. Although he was gliding just as fast as the rest, his technique made it seem like he was floating. He didn't bob up and down like the others either. The crowd, including me, was up on its feet from the middle of his footwork pass until the very end of his program. It was amazing.
Did he win? Nope. Neither did Johnny Weir... Takahiko Kozuka (Japan) did. Oh well! I will definitely take the next opportunity I have to see figure skating in person... and in 2010, US nationals are in Spokane!
Rachael Flatt (US)
Tugba Karademir (Turkey)
Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek warming up
Evan Lysacek
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