Kwan Dive

Omg...Kwan withdrew from the Olypics, her injury flared up and she fell too much during practice. This is so sad, she was THE HOPE OF THE NATION. Well, T.V portrayed her that way anyhow. She claims that the long airplane ride and marching in the cold and very long opening ceremonies didn't help her stiffness. I agree. And I think those Opening Ceremonies were INTENTIONALLY long to make her freeze. I mean, how many more acrobats in the shapes of doves and singing Italian nine year olds and speeches and songs did we need? (Side note regarding the Opening Ceremonies...when they brought out the Olympic Flag they had one distinguished female from each continent carrying it. So, there were activists and former Olympians...and then from Italy...Sophia Loren. And then from North America....Susan Sarandon. Yeah, seriously...how random. I mean, I love Susan Sarandon, but is she realy the best we've got in out entire continent? Wow.) Anyway, Kwan tearfully resigned and now Emily Hughes will take her place as the alternate. Emily is Sarah Hughes's way younger sister. Sarah Hughes is the girl with the really bad haircut but the heart of gold who was 16 in Salt Lake City and amazingly took the gold though she was not seen as a contenter to even medal. She was also the one that had the female coach who really really really loved her and hugged her...A LOT. Kind of like that gym teacher you all had in high school who would come in to make important announcements while you were all changing. Anyway, Emily Hughes is cute and looks just like her sister but with better hair, although she could stand to be a little more gracious and learn her place. In an interview she was basically like, "OMG OMG OMG! I'm so excited!!"which doesn't really take Kwans stunned sadness into consideration. If I were her parents I might teach that child a little grace. But whatever, at least she's not Sasha...the enemy. Remember Sasha used to try and throw Kwan off her game a little by distracting her during warm ups in 2002. And then she skated to Carmen and the announcers were like, "Um, no...she's not Carmen yet...but nice try." Anyway, now she probably thinks she's all that because she was on Project Runway but whatever, cause the outfit she picked was designed by Zulema who was cut the very next week! Shows how good her taste is. I hope she wears it, and then falls. Anyway, we don't root for Sasha, and the other American is someone named Kimmie something (not Gibbler) and I don't know anything about her, But I have made it a general rule in my life to never root for anyone named Kimmie. So Emily is our only hope. I just hope Sarah will be there to cheer her on so I can see if she's fixed herself at all in the last four years.
In other figure skating news, I watched pairs last night. I thought Sale and Pelltier (The Canadians) were competing...but they arn't? That's weird. Anyway, the Americans made Olympic history by landing the first ever triple whoseitwhatchamajigger which was great, and everyone skated to the new scoring rules after the Canadian/Russian scandal of 2002. I still don't understand scoring, but I'm sure it's very "fair". Right now after the shorts it is Russia, China, Russia...I believe. Way to go Russia.
In watching pairs I was also forced to sit through some other sports that now I love, such as Womens Moguls (Canada, Norway, Sweden...Norway hung on for a long time and as soon as she felt assured that the gold was hers, Canada zipped in and stole it. Very dramatic. But we love Canada and always root for them, so it was cool.) Then I watched Men's speed skating long distance. Chad Hedrick who is competing in 5 events this Olympics won his first gold. Which was great since he seemed sort of rocked in his warm up because it was the anniversary of his grandmothers death thirteen years ago and he was REALLY upset. Which is sweet, but (this is a tar hearted thing to say) also a little weird? So, then he wrote her name on his skate and kicked some serious ass. Thanks Grandma. Chad Hedrick was the favorite because he only started skating three years ago. Sort of a slap in the face to all the people who'd been working at it their entire lives, but that's the American way.
That's it for Olympic blog coverage today. There will be much more as of Feb 21 when the women's figure skating begins, Sans Kwan, and we see Sasha fall and Emily make history. Man, imagine being Emily Hughes with Sarah Hughes as your older sister...she's got some big skates to fill.
(Betcha didn't think I was seriously this into the Olympics did you?)