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Beth's Report

Results!

Reports!

I arrived on Friday afternoon. Men's practice was at the Pacific Coliseum at about 11pm, so I decided to skip that one. PNE as they call it here, is quite a drive from downtown Vancouver and I was a bit afraid to ride the bus in a strange city that late at night. I don't think any of the men showed up for that practice anyway, so I'm not disappointed with myself for wimping out.

Saturday, I went to the men's practice. Yags and Plushy were doing the one-up-manship thing bigtime. Plushy did a 4-3-2, so of course Alexei did two 4-3-2s. Yags' second 4-3-2 had much better runout. Plushy was at at dead stop at the end of his. (I'm not really biased at all. ) Both men practiced really well. Good jumps. Alexei ran through Revolution without the jumps. As Alexei took his bows and prepared to leave the ice, a horde (dare I say "barbarian horde") of skating fans ran down to the front to try and get autographs. Alexei signed and signed and signed, and hugged all the girls (I'm sure that this is a terrible duty for him, poor baby. ) He let anyone who would like have their picture taken with him. In short, he was extremely gracious and charming. There were so many autograph seekers that Alexei ended up staying out on the ice signing well into the next group's warmup time. Finally the announcer came over the PA and said "Alexei you really do have to leave the ice now....You're going to get me fired." (This was said in a really funny way too.) Alexei hopped up on the boards, thereby clearing the ice and continued to sign. He's such a clown!

At Sunday's practice, Plushy and Yags again engaged in some friendly rivalry. Both jumped well. Plushy ran through his lp from last year. He used that for qualifying. Yags ran through Gladiator without the jumps. That program takes my breath away, even without any jumps. Actually the purist in me might like it better without the jumps. It's simply amazing live! Again, the autograph seekers mobbed Alexei at the end of his session. He remained again until the announcer finally had to say "All skaters must clear the ice before the zamboni can come out. I know it's your birthday Alexei, but you really have to get off the ice now." The zamboni came out. Alexei caught the back of it and let it pull him along with his free leg stretched out behind him. The audience just loved it.

Monday and the qualifying rounds. Ugh! It was a really long day, starting before 8:30 for me and ending well after 8:30 pm. Alexei was in group A, which just to keep me confused skated last. (I just don't understand the way they order these things around here. In NC, A comes before B. ) Alexei's skate was very bad. He missed most of his jumps. His footwork was still beautiful, but it was obvious that he wasn't feeling well. He ended up in 5th. Plushy missed his first combo, but otherwise skated well, and placed 1st. Laurie called me later that night to tell me that Alexei had gone to the hospital to have his foot x-rayed and might have to withdraw. I was in total shock.

Tuesday we heard that Alexei had decided to skate with the help of a painkilling injection to his foot every few hours. His doctor said that if Alexei were his son he wouldn't let him anywhere near the ice with that foot. The decision to skate seemed particularly stupid to me, considering the risk of permanent injury, but it's not my call and I'll support my fave skater, even when he's being bullheaded. Being so low in the standings, Alexei skated before the other big names. He was absolutely brilliant! His short program was one of the best I've ever seen. His quud combo was flawless. His footwork was dazzling. He started a bit conservatively, but he really attacked latter half of the program. There were fist pumps galore after his performance. The audience was clearly dazzled. He got the biggest response for the evening and of course it was a standing ovation. Eldredge's short was great and he got a standing ovation, too. Plushy skated well, but I have to say that his Bolero program is much more gross in person than it is on tv. The hip circle in the middle is simply disgusting. I think that maybe he should take up bellydancing and give up skating. I'm not sure how much more of him my queasy stomach can take. He also spends way to much time posing in the middle of the program instead of skating.

The practice on Thursday was so-so. Alexei landed a 4-3-2, but he didn't seem to be doing well to me. He didn't do a complete run through of Gladiator at all. I had a bad feeling after watching it.

Thursday night was very exciting. Alexei started well, landing his quad combo and his lutz. Then he started to falter, stepping out of a jump. He looked very tired, but he put in the crowd-pleasing slide at the end of the program and seemed happy with his performance. The crowd loved him. To have tried so hard with such a serious injury deserves anybody's respect and the audience gave Alexei another standing ovation. Abt skated next. His Gladiator is not even close to Alexei's, but he is always fun to watch. Plushy's program was well skated. He landed a bit forward on one jump, I think it was the axel, but I'm not sure. He spent tons of time standing still in the middle of the ice wiggling his but. YUCK!!!! (I still think there should be a deduction for that.) Todd Eldredge had a perfect skate. In my opinion it was the best one of the night. His jumps were perfect and his artistry was amazing (not Alexei amazing, but then I'm biased). I was hoping that he would take gold, but the judges want the quad. IMHO judges have very little taste and absolutely no sense. At any rate, Plushy got gold, Alexei got silver and Todd got bronze. I would have to rank Todd above Alexei, but I'm no judge, I have too much common sense for that. The crowd reactions at the medal ceremony in the rink were interesting. Plushy got a good ovation, but it didn't come anywhere close to Alexei's or Todd's. Plushy seemed totally stone-faced to me during the looong Russian anthem. (Have they added whole sections to that thing or what?) I couldn't figure out if he were trying not to cry or if he just had an emotion-lobotomy at birth. (Okay, I'm being mean. I'll stop now.) There was a second medal presentation later that night at Skatefest. I didn't go, but my roommate told me that Alexei was cracking everybody up by looking down at his watch during that ever so long anthem. He even got a smile out of Plushy. My friend said that Alexei was a total clown and stole the show. (Hmmm, our Alexei a clown? Never. ) Hopefully, Laurie or Julie can give us some more details on the Skatefest ceremony.

I was both disappointed and relieved that Alexei didn't make the gala. I've already talked about the horror that was Plushy's gala routine, but on the positive side, Goebel did a really nice routine to American Pie and Drobiazko and Vanagas had a gorgeous number set to music with the sound of ocean waves in it.

I guess that's my perspective on Worlds 2001.

Beth