Women’s Cross-Country 10k Classic
I continue to marvel at the way Cross-Country events are bringing out the best of the Olympic spirit – complete with competitors displaying unbridled grit during races, as well as the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat after them.
Again, if you have yet to watch any of the Cross-Country events, you owe it to yourself to do so before the end of these Games, even if that means foregoing more popular events in Figure Skating and Slopestyle skiing.
Apropos of marveling, I did a lot of that watching this race today as Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland bested or outlasted the competition to win gold; Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won silver; and Theresa Johaug of Norway, bronze.
Women’s Speedskating 1000 (long track)
Besides hot weather melting the snow and spectators failing to show, a running meme of these Games is the way upsets continue to grow.
Therefore, Heather Richardson of the United States, the reigning world champion in this event, could be forgiven fears about being upset too. She apparently tried to increase her odds by getting engaged to a Dutch speedskater last year, hoping perhaps to acquire some of whatever is running through the veins of athletes from the Netherlands that is making them skate so fast. Hell, they’ve already won 12 of the 18 medals awarded in Speedskating in Sochi. (I hope it’s not some special juice they imported from Jamaica….)
In any event, it didn’t work for Richardson. She was upset too. But it might’ve been some “ancient Chinese secret” that helped Zhang Hong overcome the Dutch hegemony at the skating venue. She won gold, becoming the first Chinese to win Olympic gold Speedskating (long track). But, sure enough, two Dutch skaters were on her heels – with Irene Wuest of the Netherlands winning silver and her teammate Margot Boer, bronze. Richardson finished 7th – behind two other Dutch skaters who finished 5th and 6th, respectively. Amazing!
Men’s Figure Skating
Given all of the pre-Games furor about Russia’s anti-gay laws, some might be shocked by the thriving, openly gay spirit in Sochi. Nothing demonstrated this quite like President Vladimir Putin warmly embracing openly gay speedskater Ireen Wuest as he congratulated her on her gold medal win in the Women’s 3000.
Granted, macho-man Putin might’ve been thinking that just one hug from him would be enough to turn her straight. Whatever the case, I’ll be really impressed if he’s caught warmly embracing an openly gay male athlete.
Westerners are criticizing Putin for endorsing laws banning the promotion of ‘non-traditional lifestyles.’ But they are overlooking the inconvenient truth that he’s doing so for the same politically expedient reason Barack Obama endorsed laws defining marriage as strictly between a man and a woman, which he did during his first presidential campaign in 2008.
After all, if Putin were really concerned about the gay lifestyle influencing Russian culture, he would’ve banned Men’s Figure Skating from his Sochi Games, no? Because what could be more gay than men skating around in sequins and tights looking like fairy queens on ice? Oh right, the comically homoerotic Men’s Double Luge. Things that make you go, hmmm.
That said, much is being made of how Russian figure skater and national hero Evgeni Plushenko showed up on the ice today only to withdraw from the competition. I watched him hobble, in very dramatic fashion, over to the judges’ table, where he reportedly informed them that his aging body was still aching too much from the team event four days ago. To be fair, he is 31-years old, and the likely gold medalist in this event is a 19-year-old Japanese boy; on the women’s side, it’s a 15-year-old Russian girl.
Still, the visceral reaction among Western commentators was that his move smacked of a planned stunt. Recall that Shaun White withdrew from Slopestyle instead of risking humiliation. Plushenko was probably similarly motivated. Whatever the case, I side with his critics – not because of what they’re saying, but because I’m on record calling out another national hero for pulling this same cowardly stunt:
Easily the most dramatic moment of the day came when Liu Xiang, China’s only hope for a gold medal in Track and Field, pulled up lame in his first qualifying race of the Men’s 110 Hurdles. He then hobbled out of the stadium without saying a word…
Call me cynical but I believe Xiang decided it was better to claim injury, which might inspire sympathy, than to lose this race, which would incite national shame. Frankly, the fact that Dayron Robles of Cuba recently broke Xiang’s world record might have inspired his dramatic passion play on this world stage.
(“Beijing Games: Chines Hero Liu Xiang, Comes Up Lame,” The iPINIONS Journal, August 19, 2008)
This was no way for Plushenko to end his career. He is, after all, the first figure skater in the modern era to win medals in four Olympics: gold in 2006 and 2014, silver in 2002 and 2010.
Incidentally, it appears many jingoistic Russians believe that, even if he were in pain, he should have competed through it for the honor of Mother Russia. Some reporters are even insinuating that this is a classic case of the triumph of personal ego over national pride; not least because his move left Russia with nobody competing in one of the signature events of these Games.
Here, according to The Associated Press, is how Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, the figure skating correspondent for Russia’s Sport-Express newspaper, damned his stunt and bade him good riddance:
All of this was reminiscent of an incompetently directed stage show… It became harder and harder to sympathize with the athlete. The one-man show in Sochi has concluded; real sport has begun.
But frankly, I cannot bring myself to comment any further on him or this two-day event, which concludes tomorrow. My preference is to reserve what little additional commentary I care to make on this sport to the Women’s Figure Skating event, which shall play out next week.
MEDAL COUNT
Norway: 13; Netherlands: 12; United States: 12
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