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Julie's Review
I am back from the Palace! Alexei not
only didn't look tired, he looked relaxed, he skated emotionally and powerfully,
(he did step out of his loop again, though
Kim is very happy for more reasons than rolling, I am happy because he smiled and waved directly at me when he saw me with the banner, and Nicole is happy because.........well, I will let Kim and Nicole tell their own stories. Because it is late and I am pretty
tired, my story will have to wait until tomorrow morning, when I can do a very
fine job of telling you all the details, which include a shirtless Alexei!!!!!
I also will post the music, the costumes, the jumps and the scores, plus some of the other things I happened to observe.
Kim and I sat at opposite ends of the rink from each other, but I was in the 4th row from the ice, so I was pretty satisfied with that. I have been in the Palace before for concerts, and have not had such good seating there before. I was also on the end of my row, which made it really convenient to wave the banner, I didn't have to block anyone's view! Kim and I got into the arena about an hour early. We went to her section so she could see where it was in relation to everything. It happened to be very close to the K&C area, and so we spent about 1/2 hour looking down into the activity there, spotting first the broadcasters, Peter, Terry, Rosalynn, etc. (Also Paul Martini, doing his iskater thing) Then we started to see skaters coming out to check things over....Irina, Maria, Sarah.....finally, Alexei! He was wearing a roomy grey and white warm-up jacket, lined with a purple collar and on the back, the Olympic rings in darker grey. Very nice! He chatted with Maria for a while, mingled with coaches, etc, drinking lots of water. He was pretty much out there for most of the afternoon! At about 20 minutes to 3, Kim went down to her seat, I went to find Nicole. I wanted to ask her to wave our second banner! She had a fabulous seat too! And bless her heart, she was willing to wave that banner. Her friends were loaded down with banners and toys, but she was a trouper! I took my seat, and immediately told the lady sitting next to me about the banner, etc. She asked me who Alexei was! So I gave the background, and lots more. At about 3:10 the music for ABC sports started, and the announcer came on to
give us the match-ups while the skaters came out to wave, and parade down the
ice. He announced them two by two. First, Kristi and Surya. Then Kurt and
Michael. (the announcer called these two Yuka Sato and Sasha Cohen LOL!) Then
came the real Yuka and Sasha, Brian and Todd, (BTW, Fran, Mary and Co were right
across from me, a bit higher up) Sarah and Maria, and at last Alexei and
Timothy. Alexei was on my side of the ice, yaayyy! I held up the banner, and he
waved. Last out were Michelle and Irina. Michelle and Todd got the loudest
applause. During Maria's skate, Alexei practiced his program lightly, at one point playing with a cameraman, he seemed to be making faces, but his back was to me then and I wasn't sure, just highly amused. Then it was time for Alexei to go out for his warm up, and his jumps were:
3T, 2L, 3T, 1A, 4T(?) Drink more water, 1A, 3A, and some footwork. Then he
re-tied his laces. I waved the banner while he took his bows, and got another wave back, plus a big smile as he looked directly at me. My seat-mate pointed this out too! I was very happy! Now, Alexei took his place in the K&C, and smiled, shook hands with everyone, sucked water, etc. I watched Tim (he was announced as the King of the Quad, which apparently threw him off immediately) as he struggled through his jumps, but his expression was nice. At some point in Tim's program the lady in front of me turned around and said, "Alexei is having ice put on his elbow." He was standing in the very back of the assembly area, WITH HIS COSTUME OFF! Someone was looking at something on his left arm. I have no idea what it was, he hadn't fallen! He moved back so he was partially hidden by a curtain, but before that I had got a really good look at that perfectly muscled chest and those arms, lightly glistening with sweat. OMG, poor Tim, he could have given the performance of his life, and I was not paying attention any more. Then Alexei finally got his costume back on and resumed his seat in the
K&C area with all the others, still on the water bottle. He sat next to
Sasha, who spent a lot of time petting his left arm, and touching the spikes or
something like that LOL. Todd and
Alexei chatted together as well. |
), and he was visible to us just about the whole time! Yes, there were the
prerequisite number of rolls or writhings on the ice! (three or four, depending
on how you count them
)