Olympic Figure Skating

Gosh I love the Olympics.

Right now it is the Winter Olympics. So much snow, and ice, and lycra. I love it for words like "twizzle." I love it for the speed, the beauty, the competition.

There is something kind of wonderful about watching countries who have been at war with each other competing peacefully in a global arena.

I don't usually have cable, so I am like a kid who doesn't get candy and then goes to my friend's house, and they have candy, so I eat it all. I've been sucked into a black hole of live entertainment. I watch the skaters diligently. The commentators, Tara Lapinski and Johnny Weir, are basically my best friends. We talk about what the ladies are putting down on the ice, and Johnny gives me style advice.

There are a lot of things I love about figure skating. I love that it is a miracle. 

Walking on water.

I've tried ice skating twice, and it is impossible. It is against physical laws to balance on those things they call shoes and then try to stay away from the cold, hard, cold ice below me. So the fact that people can jump, dance, spin, and lift their legs above their heads while balancing on razor blades is like watching astronauts walk on Mars. It just can't happen. But, it does.

I love how it is beautiful. The costumes, the beauty of the athletes, the gorgeous instrumental music, and the movement of dancing all appeals to me. 

And most of all, I love that the audience throws flowers into the arena for the skater at the end of the performance and those darling little ice-skating flower kids pick them up. It is the best tradition, and every country does it.

So today a 17 year old Russian girl won the gold medal in figure skating in front of her home crowd. She beat every other hopeful. The lady from Italy was fabulous. America's Gracie was pretty good. The South Korean skater was amazing.

I actually thought Kim Yu-na (aka The Queen) from South Korea was a little bit better, and Johnny with his sparkle shirts secretly agrees with me but it would be ungracious for him to say it out loud, so he didn't. It didn't lessen the moment for me, though. I was very happy for the teenage Russian girl. She hugged her mother, nearly falling down with emotion.Wow, what an amazing accomplishment.

The darling teenage Russian Adelina Sotnikova had a little bit of a stumble, but her performance was so compelling, and the judges say she had one more triple jump than Kim. The Russian crowd got behind her and  threw down a massive amount of flowers following her performance. 

So the best thing about The Olympics is hope. Hope for someone to try again next time. Hope that the country that hosts the games can improve the treatment of their people own.

 Hope that despite our past or future differences, we can cheer each other on right now.  

(All of the images are not mine. I wasn't at the Olympics to take pictures. They are property of the people who took them. Thanks for letting me borrow them, photographers at the Olympics. Much love to you).