Dances with Tara and Johnny

February 23, 2014

The penultimate night of the Sochi Games brought us the Figure Skating Gala, in which the top finishers in the various skating disciplines put on an exhibition that was more relaxed and playful than the competition. In that spirit, NBC invited free-wheeling NBCSN commentators Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir to sit at the big people’s table, as it were, and offer commentary on NBC in prime time. Both Tara and Johnny, who’ve earned raves for their repartee, sported gold sprigs in their hair that Tara said were Sochi flowers. Sidekick Terry Gannon – whom some in the press have dubbed the pair’s chaperone – wore his in his lapel. The hairpieces brought to mind Pauline Kael’s famously acidic review of “Dances With Wolves,” in which she said “Kevin Costner has feathers in his hair and feathers in his head.”

NBC actually showed little of the event in prime time. Among the highlights were Gracie Gold’s sassy salute to Fosse, her hometown of Chicago and “Chicago” with “All That Jazz”; gold medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White’s balletic skate to the Adagio from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2; and Yuna Kim’s simply stunning interpretation of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

The latest on Olympic figure skating: Send in the clowns

February 22, 2014

Where would the Olympics be without the drama and simultaneous comic relief that is figure skating?

Thursday night was the latest chapter in the farce as Russia’s Adelina Sotnikova beat the seamless defending champ, South Korea’s Yuna Kim, for the ladies’ gold medal by five whole points. The decisive margin of victory, Kim’s clearly superior artistic (and let’s face it, overall) performance and the revelation that the judges included the wife of the head of the Russian skating federation and a Ukrainian involved in a 1998 ice dance controversy has led 1.7 million to petition for reform on change.org.

Good luck with that. The current convoluted system, which would require an Einstein to parse, was put in place to counteract the kind of abuse being alleged now. In the frozen world of figure skating, the Cold War never ends.

Russian hockey disappoints; Yuna Kim does not

February 20, 2014

Olympic shockeroo. Shock-er-roo (well maybe not to hockey writers): Russia went down in the quarterfinals.

But it’s been that kind of winter, hasn’t it? The favorites, the big dogs, haven’t always succeeded. All the talk about Russia returning to hockey glory and tiny Finland – which nonetheless packs a hockey wallop – takes the host nation down, 3-1. (If I were Team USA, I would guard against any schadenfreude: The American team has to play the tough Canadians in the semifinals.)

Apparently, the Russian loss was the case of a good defense stopping a good offense. OMG, can you say “Seahawks and Broncos”?

Vladimir Putin mustn’t be too happy, although at present he’s busy facing off against Barack Obama over civil unrest in Ukraine, politics being the real game men play. There were more surprises for the Russians in the ladies’ figure skating short program as a Russian placed second, but not the one everyone expected.

More than semi-tough – the brutal ballet of the NFL

February 17, 2014

We take a break from the Olympics to reflect on a disturbing story that led many newspapers and programs Saturday – the report on the hazing of former Miami Dolphin Jonathan Martin, which paints an ugly portrait of homophobia, misogyny, racism and inappropriate touching.

The report concludes that teammate Richie Incognito and his acolytes John Jerry and Mike Pouncey harassed not only Martin but another young offensive lineman and an assistant trainer. Particularly revolting were the sexual comments about Martin’s sister, who has nothing to do with any of this. (Incognito’s lawyer, Mark Schamel, has said the report is replete with errors.) Whatever took place was so unnerving to Martin that he left the team and sought psychiatric help.

What is going on here? In an Op-Ed piece for the Feb. 15 edition of The New York Times, Nicholas Dawidoff, author of “Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent world of NFL Football,” suggests that homophobia is the sport’s shield against its inherent homoeroticism. Think about it – all those men bending over, passing the ball between their legs, piling on top of one another, often in the most violent ways. Then there’s the intensity of the locker room with its attendant nudity. Read more

Hanyu’s golden moment

February 15, 2014

Can I pick ’em or can I pick ’em?

Four years ago, I picked Evan Lysacek to win gold in men’s figure skating in Vancouver, and he did. The moment the new team competition began in Sochi, I knew that Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan would win the men’s gold. He just had the right combination of athleticism and artistry, focus and looseness – even if his free skate was less impressive than his short program.

Still, he was clutch while Patrick Chan of Canada, the three-time world champion, never seemed to lose his deer-caught-in-the-headlights quality. Just as some people seem to inspire confidence, others make you wonder why they can’t consistently come through when it’s all on the line. As NBC commentators Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic noted, Hanyu’s flawed free skate left the door open, and yet, Chan failed to walk through. Read more

Goodbye, Evgeni; Hello, Yuzuru

February 13, 2014

Is there any sport with more drama than figure skating? The men’s short program Thursday may not have been Tonya and Nancy – What is? – but it was emotion-packed. First, Evgeni Plushenko withdrew and then retired. You could see the pain etched on his face as he tried his jumps. I haven’t been his biggest fan, because of the arrogance and defiance he brought to his silver-medal finish at Vancouver, but you’ve got to give the guy credit for leading the Russians to gold in the team competition. He’s a gamer. Still, at 31 and with two back surgeries behind him, Evgeni represents the past.

Right after Plushenko withdrew, the unsteady American Jeremy Abbott crashed on a quadruple jump, but had the presence to get up and finish, the crowd supporting him all the way.

But then came a group of young men with charm, personality and the technical goods… Read more

Shaun, Bode, Peyton and the winter of their discontent

February 13, 2014

Not a great season for the favorites, huh? First Nole loses in the quarterfinal of the Australian Open and Rafa is injured in the final of the same event, then Peyton has a disastrous Super Bowl, Bode Miller flames out in the Olympic downhill and Shaun White goes down in his signature half-pike.

Time: Time is another country. We tend to think when someone wins that he’ll win forever. But over time, new people come along to challenge the status quo, the way iPod challenged Shaun, the way Matthias Mayer took on Bode and the rest of the field to win the downhill.

Afterward, Matthias thanked destiny: “My mother is very religious. She believes in this and of course I was brought up like that. It’s a little bit easier for me if I think that way: That everything turns out as it should.”

I would agree but boy, there’s a part of me that really doesn’t want to think that way. Is it destiny for some to suffer? Why? Read more