Everybody Loves Scott Hamilton: the Gala & the Best

[tweetmeme style=”compact” source=”JohannaAP25″]

It is a fact: Scott Hamilton is the ultimate commentator. If you are not a fan, there is something wrong with you, you might even be dead inside. According to an extremely scientific Access Hollywood viewers poll, 66% of the nation think that Hamilton is the greatest male figure skater ever, the runner-up being Brian Boitano with 22%. Ponder that.

And just why do we love Scott Hamilton? Well he’s an amazing figure skater of the ages, his commentary is the stuff of legends and he is always willing to have fun with it. When Stephen Colbert had him on the show via-fireplace and asked whether there was a new Cold War in the making vis-à-vis men’s figure skating, Scott laughed, “Why not?” And regarding that trademark backflip? Colbert pointed out that none of the competitors had bothered with that feat and wondered, “Shouldn’t you get the gold medal?” I know I wish backflipping was still involved. Scott settled with a snarky, “Well– I did.” Which circles back to why we love the man.

I’ve been planning this post since the first night of figure skating. Last night we got our last taste of Olympian comments from Scott during the gala skate exhibition, one of the happiest events of the winter games. The first Olympics of which I have memory were the 1992 Albertville games and I still clearly remember Kristi Yamaguchi’s gala skate, which only made my child-self love her more.

Sigh.

vancouversun.com

So Scott came back to us for a few magical moments of the 2010 gala skate which featured Joannie Rochette in a great little purple velvet sequined number skating to the French version of Celine Dion’s “Fly,” which incidentally also reminded me of my child-self, albeit sometime post-Kristi. Rochette chose the piece because it was one of her mother’s favorites. She received the Terry Fox Award (along with Petra Madjic, the fierce cross-country skier who took home a bronze despite multiple broken ribs and a punctured lung) as an Olympian who best embodied the best of the human spirit, who brought the Olympics beyond sport. Raise your hand if you cried? Chris Collinsworth judges you if you didn’t: “I know men don’t like to cry, but if you didn’t cry watching this young lady then what kind of man are you?” He named it is his number one moment of the 2010 games.

Back to Scott. Evgeny Plushenko came out on the ice being his usual fabulous/awful self, skating to “Je Suis Malade.” What are you trying to say Evgeny? Scott announced the song and provided the translation, “I Am Sick,” and proceeded with, “He’s sick? He’s sick with talent. He’s sick with ability.”

Plushenko, “the one and only”  goes on to toss out handfuls of triple axels like Halloween candy, which Scott simply cannot get over, “Oh why not just keep throwing triple axels, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhaahaha, oh man– this guy is great!” Wait, does Scott voice Tony the Tiger?!?!

The wonderful thing about Scott Hamilton is his never-ending positivity, he loves to watch great athletes skate and he’s not afraid to let us know his feelings. Davis & White came out to a slow swooning cover of “Billie Jean,” and all Scott had to say was, “I love everything they do!.. GAH! I love them.”

Kim Yu-Na came on and there was more love fest in the air. According to Sandra, Kim has said that “the purpose of this program is to say thank you to everyone who has been supportive so far in my career.” Scott remained enamored throughout the program as Kim glided over the ice in a surprising long-sleeved and fairly long-skirted princess waist costume. It was different. I liked it. Scott summed up her skating with the succinct statement that “it’s truly a gift.”

nbcolympics.com

Another favorite pair of Scott’s, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir came out with a hugely entertaining performance. They started out to music from The Nutcracker Suite, Virtue wearing a full-on crinoline tutu; however, as the music suddenly transitioned into, yes, a jock jam situation Moir’s chosen Canadian hockey jersey-wth-jeans look began to make sense. It was just fun, total fun and the crowd loved it. Somehow, Scott still managed to wax poetic about how graceful they are: “Hard to believe they’re so good so young!” Sandra called theirs “a fairy tale story.” I just giggled.

For the crescendo of Scott’s praise, tuxedoed Evan Lysacek performed a competitive program choreographed to “Rhapsody in Blue.” According to Scott, they had run into each other a few days earlier– what I wouldn’t give to just run into my friend Scott Hamilton at the breakfast bar– and that Lysacek had been unable to pick his gala program. Scott said, “well, what do you want to say?” and Lysacek came up with  “I want to do ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ because I feel like it’s the date that brought me to the dance.'” Someday, Mr. Lysacek is going to make a great commentator.

At any rate, Scott could not effuse enough praise, gushing “Every time he had a setback, he worked through it and he earned it! He earned it the best way possible. He worked harder than anybody else”… Evgeny Plushenko. Yeah.

In a previous interview with Bob Costas, Scott has made it clear that although Plushenko is a great, Lysacek was without a doubt better and more deserving and that the Russian skater needs to get over himself and deal with his silver medal, quad or no quad: “It’s figure skating. It’s about the whole performance,” not just whether or not an athlete can successfully throw a quad on the ice.

Scott Hamilton blends the emotional, the entertaining and the technical seamlessly into his figure skating commentary– and that is why we love him.

A few favorite bites from these games, linked to the original posts:

“[Rachael Flatt] didn’t get any slack from the collar tonight!“

“My heard just started beating a little faster.” As Kim Yu-Na comes onto the ice.

“[Kim Yu-Na’s] nemesis, the triple flip!”

“You’re never a former gold medalist… You’re always an Olympic medalist!” Regarding his own esteemed status.

“When you talk the talk, you have to walk the walk ,and he just skated that skate!” Regarding Johnny Weir’s free skate.

“A little scary! This guy’s a cat, I don’t know how he landed that!” Regarding Plushenki’s free skate.

“I’m here to selllll myself!” Regarding Weir’s short program.

“A nightmare covered in molasses.” Regarding the year that Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy have had.

So what are you favorite Scott Hamilton moments?

One Last Speed Skating Song: The Pursuits

[tweetmeme style=”compact” source=”JohannaAP25″]

Sniff sniff. Last. Speed. Sk-skating. Events-s. Good thing they are fun team pursuits for both the men’s and women’s teams, both of which put forth an exceptional performance. Way to sew up the games kids. Way.

Saturday saw the finals for both long track team pursuits. The pursuit event made its début at the 2006 games and let’s just say that the commentators are totally stoked that “it has proven to be vastly entertaining.” You have to imagine Dan Jansen being super excited.

nbcolympics.com

Ladies first.

The quarterfinals went down Friday afternoon and the US team pulled a real shocker by beating out the heavily favored Canadian women. The pursuit is all about being completely and utterly in sync with your teammates. Previously, commentators were really impressed by the caterpillar-like start of the Japanese team. Yes, “caterpillar-like.” A single being, many legs. Oh sigh. Olympic commentators, please don’t leave me. I just want to hang out with you all the time, is that so much to ask?

But seriously, the pursuit is a very cool thing to watch. The ideal team is able to skate not only in perfect unison but as closely together as possible. For instance, the Russian team who were favored to beat Poland in their pairing fell away from each other (we later find out due to one of their skaters having inadvertently kicked another and injuring her) and since the finish time is measured by the last skater to cross the line… you see what I’m getting at. If the commentators said it once, they said it a million times, “you’re only as strong as your weakest skater.”

Thanks for clearing that up. Over and over and over again. Hence,”team” “pursuit”.

So the Canadians are an incredible powerhouse of speed, yet Jennifer Rodriguez, Jilleane Rookard & Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. knocked them out of the finals 3:02.19 to 3:02.24– yikes. Cue shocked commentators throwing around phrases like “a perfect race.” Take that with the knowledge of Jansen’s earlier assertion that one of the most unique things he has ever heard from an athlete was Ohno calling his Torino 500 meter race “the perfect race”… and now look at you Dan, just throwing the same phrase around!

Later on the lades talked about their race saying, “under pressure you can do great things, and I think that’s what we did here today.” Rodriguez elaborated on teamwork strategy and the nature of pursuit, referring to a moment towards the end of the race when she gave a teammate a little push from behind: “whatever we can do to help the person in front of us… a tap here… [It was] definitely one of the most fun pursuits.”

The women paired into a semifinal versus the gold-defending German team. It was a close one and it ended as a pretty ridiculous one. The American team lost some of that key ‘tightness,’ the ‘accordion’ movement if you will, but they fought quite the battle forcing the German to fight all the way to the line.

nbcolympics.com

The element of ridiculousity went down a few meters before the finish on the German side: Anni Friesinger-Postma “ran out of steam” after the last turn, fell behind her teammates and pretty much collapsed, belly flop style and proceeded to slide swimmingly on her stomach down the lane. Gathering her wits as she approached the line she swung a leg forward to cross the finish. I guess the rules really are that simple: just get your entire team across the line. Friesinger-Postma clearly thought she had ruined her team’s chance to defend the gold, she was seen face down, pounding her fists on the ice until someone had the decency to inform her that she had still beat the last American across the line. I still find it totally bizarre that slip ‘n’ sliding to the finish qualifies, but hey.

The American team changed their line up for the bronze medal race against Poland, in which Catherine Raney Norman replaced Swider-Peltz Jr. Unfortunately Norman ended up being the skater who fell out of the pack, by over one and a half seconds, costing her team the bronze.

On the other hand, the whole experience can be considered wildly successful for US Speed Skating: fourth place at the Olympics is perhaps the most frustrating of finishes, but it’s also not too shabby. The Americans knocked the Canadian team out of medal contention, fought a tight race again gold medal Germany and an excruciatingly close race for the bronze, forcing Poland to fight every step of the way. All this from a team unexpected to play a great role in the pursuit. Well done.

nbcolympics.com

The men’s team also advanced over a dominant favorite, the Svenergetic Dutch team helmed by Sven Kramer in their semifinal race. Kramer is not having the games that he was promised. Chad Hedrick, Jonathan Kuck and Brian Hansen on the other hand– they had a pretty awesome race after getting through their quarterfinal race against Japan with Trevor Marsicano on the ice (later replaced by Hansen). After the semi, Hedrick reflected on their victory over the Netherlands: “We [had] a chance to slay the monster today with Sven Kramer.” Well that’s one poetic way to put it.

nbcolympics.com

The men met team Canada in the gold medal race which they only lost by two tenths of a second: “a solid race skated by both teams, they both stayed together… Canada just never relented.”

Let’s a take a moment to reflect on how one’s sense of time gets totally warped by watching Olympian racing. It’s insane.

This was Hedrick’s last race in his last Olympic games. He’s retiring to get on with his life, which includes a daughter who will turn one year old next month. He called the silver medal “a great start to a good life.”

Great Olympics for American speed skating.

In related news, short tracker Alyson Dudek’s tweet recently brought this illumination into my life, which I had not previously processed:

@alydudek Congrats to our guys team on their bronze medal! Every USA short tracker goes home with a medal. First time in history!

Very cool.

And that’s it for Olympian speed skating recaps folks! But don’t worry, there will still be a few Olympic entries to help wean us off the excitement over the course of the new week, so don’t forget to check back!