Figure Skating: Best and worst of 2010 Olympics

February 27, 2010

Watch and listen to the news video clip at the provided link, and then check
the English given here to see how well you were able to understand.

I’m Charissa Thompson along side Sasha Cowen and Elvis Stoiko.
Well, we have seen the last of skating in the 2010 Olympics. So when welook back, you guys, lets say in five or ten years, I want you to pick out acertain memory, a high and a low that we will remember this Olympics for.
We’ll start with you Sasha.
“I think something that everyone’s gonna remember is, uh, Joannie’s
triumph here, and winning a medal for Canada, and skating well throughsuch adversity. And um, the way that I think the whole world, especially
Canada, got behind her, and that energy in the building was incredible. Andum, you know I think everyone will be talking about the controversy in theMens for awhile, as well. The little feud between, uh, Evgeni Plushenko andEvan Lysacek, um, really created a quite a stir.”
What about you Elvis?
“Well, I guess we think the high point is Joannie Rochette after the passingof her mom, and her courageousness to go out there and really showcase her
ability and take that energy and pour it into her skating. And everybody wassupporting her and she did awesome winning a Bronze medal for Canada.
It was amazing, I think also too, with the pairs event, it was great with thetwo Chinese teams skating so well. And it was just, it was exciting! Our, um,
Canadian dance team, and the US dance team was fantastic, creating theenergy for the Dance. Um, and then again the low point in the Men’s eventwith just the bad marking, which I didn’t agree with, totally. I mean, that’s
gonna be a discussion that could go on, but that was a low point andsomething that will be looked at, but there’s some great highpoints with theskating, which was awesome."
Well, and you get into it as far as scoring goes. I know that was a little bit ofa controversy even on the Women’s side. We saw the short program on thatfirst night. Now that it’s all over with, do you agree with the scoring, and isthere a discussion there? Should we be talking a little bit more about the waythat these events were scored?

“I think that there might want to be some, um, difference in values in how
they decide to put a base mark for a quad, a triple axle, um, versus a triple
lutz or another triple, um, so that they’re valued, um, to represent theirdifficulty. Um, but other than that, um, you know everything, it’s figureskating, and there’s so many differences of opinion, and there’s the spins, theartistry, the speed, so many different things that go into factoring a wholeprogram, [said Cowen.]"Was there any big surprise for you guys? Was there a moment where you’relike, wow, what, you, just completely took you by surprise, maybe somethingthat you hadn’t even seen in competition, or as now a fan sitting on theoutside and watching the sport?
“I think I was really proud of watching Daisuke [Takahashi] as he struggled
a lot for the past few years with knee injuries, and had a lot, a lot of work to
do to get back, uh, on the top, and to see him come out and skate well, win
the first medal for Japan in the Men’s, I think, was a really special moment,[according to Cowen.]
What about you, Elvis?
“Yeah, I have to agree with that. I think the Japanese boy Daisuke didawesome. I had him placed higher. He, he just went out and exemplified the,the um, the Olympic spirit, tried the quad, great skating, all the in betweens,great spins, great attitude, great personality, and I think it showcases that. I
think it’s great for Japan because a lotta young kids can look up to him andgo that direction with the whole package, which was awesome. You know, I
have to say, even too, I don’t know if people got to watch the one Finnish girlI like, Laura Lepisto. She jumped from tenth to fifth. It was awesome! Sheskated great. Uh, also, the other skater, the other Japanese boy, Takahiko[Kozuka], he was great too. So, a lot of the other skaters that might not be in
the A group all the time, just sitting in that B group are still pushing the topgroup, and it’s so awesome to see, [said Stoiko.]
Great for the sport!
“Absolutely, [said Stoiko.]
A lot of memorable moments for the 2010 Olympics. You guys, we love seeing
you out on the ice, but it has been a pleasure having you here on Yahoo
Sports. Sasha, Elvis, I’m Charissa. Thank-you, as always, for watching us
here on Yahoo Sports. Until 2014! We will see you next time. Thanks guys.