2006 Turin Winter Olympics Blog

Michelle Kwan says she’s not completely ready to close the door on competitive skating. I don’t know what the means exactly. Would she try for another Olympics? Next year’s World Championships? I’d love to see her continue to compete, but I hope she continues to show the restraint she showed in Turin and not compete unless she can be competitive.

16 year old Kimmie Meissner may have finished 6th at the Olympics, but she did considerably better than that at Worlds, outskating Fumie Suguri and Sasha Cohen to win the gold and $45,000. Meissner was the only skater in the contest to land two triple-triple jump combos.

Sasha Cohen was considered the favorite but had to settle for a third place finish.

In other skating news, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto captured gold, and Evan Lysacek captured bronze.

Read more about skaters and other Olympic athletes at our new winter Olympic site.

You can catch up with what your favorite Olympic skaters, including Sasha Cohen, are doing by reading my recent post on the World Figure Skating Championships.

Russians are disappointed that their golden boy, Evgeny Plushenko, is leaving amateur skating at the tender age of 23. They had hoped he would continue to compete through at least the 2012 Vancouver Olympics. Plushenko was very upfront about why he is going pro, saying, “I’m tired of skating for the benefit of the state… I have a family to support.”

If you just can’t ever get enough of figure skating, you’ll have a chance to tune into ESPN March 20-26 to see the World Figure Skating Championships. There will be several familiar faces from the Olympics, including medal winners Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, along with Sasha Cohen.

Shaun White met the Olympian he most wanted to meet— Sasha Cohen— at a victory party for him last week. They hung out again at a post-Oscar party. But they’re just friends, so no one get any funny ideas.

Maybe Sasha Cohen and Chad Hedrick can make a movie together. Remember that movie “The Cutting Edge” about a hockey player and a figure skater who pair up for the Olympics? Maybe Sasha and Chad could do a remake? Except this time it would be a speed skater and a figure skater.

Sasha served as a special correspondent for “Inside Edition” at the Academy Awards and the after parties. At one of the parties Ben Stiller approached her about a cameo role in an upcoming film. So, maybe my dream of a Hedrick/Cohen film isn’t so far off.

I don’t know all that Emily Hughes has planned, other than more training. But she will also be taking some time to give back, by serving as one of the guest judges for Entenmann’s mini-hero essay contest. Hughes will join her sister and other noteable sports figures to judge the essays about children who do charity work in their communities.

Well, it looks like 96% of us were wrong. I wonder how many of the 4% voted BEFORE tonight. Hmmm?

Who do you think will win the gold in ladies figure skating?
Sasha Cohen: 50% (332)
Kimmie Meissner: 5% (36)
Emily Hughes: 9% (60)
Irina Slutskaya: 23% (153)
Carolina Kostner: 0% (3)
Joannie Rochette: 3% (17)
Shizuka Arakawa: 4% (27)
Fumie Suguri: 2% (10)
other: 3% (21)
Total Votes : 659

Forever doomed to be second. Will she be back for another Olympics? I wish she would just have skated a clean program. Rats. I do have great respect for the fact that she didn’t try to blame it on her wrapped leg.

Here are the results, in case you missed them:

Gold Shizuka Arakawa Japan
Silver Sasha Cohen United States
Bronze Irina Slutskaya Russia

Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes finished 6th and 7th. They could really be formidable in 4 years.

Yesterday, Sasha Cohen made the somewhat unusual decision to skip her practice sessions yesterday, but she was back on the ice today. Her coach said she didn’t get much sleep Tuesday night. She isn’t suffering any injuries. Hopefully, the extra rest will pay off tonight, and she can stick those landings and bring home a gold. The competition is really close right now. This will not be a “sure thing” like the men’s gold. It’s really anyone’s competition to win or lose for the top skaters.

I was so pleased to see Sasha Cohen skate a clean program. In the past I always enjoyed figure skating. Now, with the emphasis on bigger jumps, a lot of times it just makes me nervous. I remember when it was really rare to see someone fall. Now, it’s increasingly rare to see someone skate a program without a fall. Maybe that’s more exciting, but it definitely makes me more nervous. All of the Americans are in the top seven, which is just great. Hopefully, Sasha will be able to hold it together in the long program and hold off Irina Slutskaya, currently in second, and Shizuka Arakawa, in third. Of course, this is the Olympics, so there’s no guarantee that the short program reflects who will be the overall winners, especially under the new system.

Emily Hughes has a new title— delivery person. Hughes and Irina Slutskaya share the same Manhattan-based designer Tania Bass, so it seemed only natural for Bass to ask Emily to make a special delivery to Turin— Slutskaya’s Olympic outfit. Emily hand-delivered the outfit to Slutskaya upon arriving in Turin. What a nice gesture!

Right after winning the gold medal, Yevgeny Plushenko’s luck ran out when the car he was riding in was involved in a multi-car accident. Fortunately, Plushenko was not injured. He was on his way to the airport to fly back to St. Petersburg. He will return to Turin next week. I’m glad he’s safe and sound.

So, I already know who wins tonight. I bet you, too, can guess who wins the gold. Yevgney Plushenko. After watching Tuesday night’s performance in the short program, it was obvious to everyone, including the other competitors, that they were skating for silver and bronze. Johnny Weir, never one to mince words, said that Plushenko would have to fall down three times for anyone else to even have a chance.

Unfortunately, Weir ended his Olympics without any medal after skating an uneven long program. The U.S. wasn’t expected to win any medals in men’s skating, and they lived up to that hype— or lack thereof. Fortunately, men’s skaters skate a lot longer than the women, so it’s very possible that at least some of the American skaters could be back in 2010. For now, World champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland took home the silver and Jeffrey Buttle of Canada got the bronze. Now, America will have to look forward to the women and possiblr medal hopes there.