What a day in store today, it’s the Team Pursuit in the speed skating and the Men’s free (my favorite) (sorry about the spelling its an American Computer! This is Bush’s English!)
I got up mid morning and had breakfast in the village canteen. I am starting to look like scrambled egg, bacon and yogurt! Some variation would be welcomed by all of the journalists, still shouldn’t complain, we are not paying for it!
I got to the IBC early so I could prepare for the Team pursuit commentary. I am scheduled to be on air for two hours. Now think of this, there are only 10 races of 4 minutes or so, that is 40 minutes of action, what the heck am I going to talk about for the other 80 minutes? The thought of this made me very nervous, I went to the rink yesterday to watch the preliminary rounds, which in all honesty was like watching paint dry! So some creativity was what was needed today and plenty of information on all the skaters!
I spent from 12 until 4:50 writing down all I could think of to give me bits of trivia to talk about if I was stuck on air with no action! Thankfully we had some inserts and plenty of commercial breaks so it went well. I was nervous when we started but once I had worked out what the computer was telling me and how to read it I felt much more at ease.
The German Ladies won and to be honest they were in a class of their own. The team consisted of Claudia Pechstien, Annie Freisinger and Daniela Anshultz, these three ladies are at the top of the world of speed skating and were fantastic to watch. I love the technique of the long track speed skaters, they have an amazing technique which is incredibly difficult to master. If you fancy a laugh you should take a trip to a speed track at least once in your life and don a pair of speed skates. They have no support and unless you get right over on an edge feel completely blunt! I tried it once and felt like a fish out of water, I think I looked like Bambi in that brilliant scene when he is trying to stand on the ice – not a pretty sight!
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In the men’s it was the Italians who won, now imagine the commotion when they crossed the line! The favorites (there it goes again, it should be favourites!) were the Dutch but they had a fall in the Semis and had to settle for the bronze. The Italians looked absolutely dead with two laps to go and some how hung on. If there was ever a display of Italian courage this was it!
Here are some picture that I took yesterday during the preliminary rounds:
 
(l)Team China, (r)Team Germany (Olympic Champs)
After the Speed Skating a mad dash to the Palavela for the Men’s free, what a spectacle that is going to be! I packed my bags, slapped the rucksack on my back and off I went. Oh I forgot to mention I have lost one of the lenses to my camera, I think I left it at the speed track yesterday – What a plonker!
I arrived at the commentary position completely out of breath and only missed three skaters. When I got there I looked across at the massive NBC booth and thought to myself can you imagine Dick Button or Scott Hamilton doing this? They would have had chauffer driven limousines or perhaps a helicopter to make the 15 minute journey!
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I was going through the security the other day and following me were two women with a clothes rail and on the rail were all the clothes neatly pressed for Dick, Scott, Peggy, Sandra etc. I had to laugh, I did the first three days in the same clothes (poor Simon, by the third day he was sitting a couple of feet away from me, no prizes for guessing why)
Anyway back to the free. I am sure that you all watched it, at least I hope you did. I would summaries the event by saying that it wasn’t vintage but it was very exciting.
I was so pleased to see Evan skate like that, my comment at the end of his program was “Not to take anything away from Evan, but there are good coaches and great coaches and Frank Carol is a great coach! He has been round the block a bit but to pull Evan back from the disappointment of Tuesday was a masterful piece of coaching”
I hope you agree with me, Evan skated a blinder so well done to both of them! Such a pitty because if he had done just a little better in the short he would have had a medal.
I think that Stephan must think himself very lucky. After he skated I am pretty sure he thought that he had not done enough to be on the podium! Would you have imagined the silver medalist wouldn’t have to do a triple axel? I know he still did the quad toe but even so! Apparently on Tuesday the Swiss fans were not allowed to bring their cow bells into the arena – has the world gone mad? They made such a fuss about it by the time Thursday came the officials gave up the fight and the bells rang with pride.
Mr. Plushenko, or should it be Sir Plushenko was unbelievably relaxed all evening. During the first half of the event he was stood just behind us with Sir Michin and his choreographer watching the event. He seemed not to have a nerve in his body.
Well he skated very well indeed, not the best I have seen him skate but on an evening of mediocre performances he stood out. I thought he skated within himself which was the right thing to do I suppose. The quad combination at the beginning was fantastic followed by a sublime triple axel, for me he won the event in the first minute and a half. He won by a country mile and yes over the two programs, it was out of the top draw! (If you haven’t heard me commentate you will not know that this is a phrase that has stuck with me and I always get stick for it – but I like it!)
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So the final results looked like this:
Men's Free Skating Final Rankings
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I forgot to mention Jeffrey who skated really well. The Canadian fans always travel to support their skaters and this year was no different, a good effort by the fans and Jeffry.
We got a taxi home, none of us felt like an hour on the bus as you can imagine. I had been commentating (with a short sprint in between) for nearly six and a half hours and needed some pasta and red wine.
An easier day tomorrow, just the compulsory dance – HELP 30 Ravensburg Waltzes! …………………
I have just been handed a piece of paper which says that Plushenko was involved in a car crash on his way to Milan airport today. He apparently is not hurt, it was just a small crash and he got on the plane fine. He is planning to return to Turin, (Turino what ever it is called) for the gala next week.
More from me tomorrow………………..
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