Did you or did you not gasp as loudly as NBC commentator Sandra Bezic when China's Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao bobbled on that lift? They finally got their gold medal, China's first in figure skating, and ended the Russian domination of the pairs discipline that lasted for 12 straight Games. (Yuko Kavaguti and Aleksandr Smirnov finished fourth, but he gets the gold in men's thighs, if it's any consolation.) Almost as long a wait, the time it took for Shen and Zhao to realize they'd won. If they hadn't screamed like they did, I would have felt like such a...
- 2/16/2010
- by Mandi Bierly
- EW.com - PopWatch
Presumably not just so the world's figure skating commentators could keep discussing how poetic it was for the pairs to take the ice on Valentine's Day, competition got underway Sunday at the Vancouver Games. China's married two-time Olympic bronze medalists Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao (pictured, far left), who came out of retirement in their thirties (!) to go for gold, performed first and set a new short program record. NBC's package on their 18-year partnership and dorm-room marriage made me emotionally vulnerable, so yes, I got chills when they hit their perfect side-by-side triple toe loops. They were skating to...
- 2/15/2010
- by Mandi Bierly
- EW.com - PopWatch
Truth: All it takes to get us psyched for the Olympics is hearing Scott Hamilton's voice for five seconds. The man is still pure joy. In preparation for our PopWatch on Ice coverage of the Vancouver Games, we tuned in for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships over the weekend to see which men and pairs will be representing us. (The ladies and ice dancing competitions are next weekend.) Jeremy Abbott, who delivered what Hamilton referred to as a "beat down" to defend his title, was the talk of Sunday's men's free skate. Except for in my apartment, where...
- 1/18/2010
- by Mandi Bierly
- EW.com - PopWatch
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