February 14, 2006
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Tell you what, for displays of sheer determination and gutsiness, nothing beats the Olympics. And for all they tend to be the butt of jokes, figure skaters are among some of the gutsiest, based upon a pair from China and a pair from Russia. Last night the female half of a duo, Zhang Dan, while attempting a quadruple-rotation jump, missed the landing and went crashing down hard on her knees:
In obvious, severe pain she was helped off the ice by her partner, Zhang Hao:
Surely all of us thought there was no way in the world she could possibly continue, but by jingo, she wiped away her tears, grimaced, and skated back out to pick up where they'd left off.
Did a bang-up job! How she possibly managed to land jumps, etc. on that damaged knee I cannot imagine, but she sure did it. They managed to snag the silver medal, in fact, having come into the free program in second place.
This was a great moment, when he picked her up after receiving their scores, and realizing they'd won the silver medal:
The second story of grit and determination had its seed back at the 2004 Skate America competition, when Tatiana Totmianina suffered a concussion when her partner, Maxim Marinin, fell while they were performing a lift. She lay unconscious on the ice until taken away to the hospital, where she was treated for severe concussion:
It was shown on video and was horrifying. Dmitry recoiled, begging not to have it shown again (I was watching it on TiVo, having fallen behind while fixing dinner) as it'd surely give him nightmares.
Maxim's confidance was understandably shaken, with Tatiana saying they were set back about ten years due to his hesitancy and caution. But last night they pulled it off, holding their lead and winning the gold.
You know, it's not just him being terrified of falling and injuring Tatiana, but don't you know it took nerve for her to trust him again? But she did, which doubtless explains the emotion behind one of my favorite moments thus far, i.e. Maxim kneeling and kissing Tatiana's hand:
It was a heck of a night on the ice, that's for sure.
Comments (6)
Terrifying, gripping, moving - all apply. I stopped breathing while the Chinese couple had their accident, sure it was over, wondering how bad her injury was, etc. When she went back out - wow!
Great job snagging the photos, Anne - you are somethin' else.
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Wow! Beautiful and amazing......notice that no American has done that so far in figure skating......remember the popped shoelaces?!aha aha....
Maybe not in figure skating (though the skater hammered due to Tanya Harding's hubby went on to skate, too), but think of several years ago in women's gymnastics (a misnomer if 'ere there were one, considering the ages of the "women"), when that little thing - oh, what WAS her name? - completed a fabulous jump with a bum leg? Made the landing then collapsed in pain?
Gutsy with a Capital G, by golly.
I'm sorry that I missed that! Ou family DID spend part of the evening fascinated by the Curling event! It was fun just trying to figure out the rules and scoring.
Zhang Dan is my heroine of the moment. I guess having recently acquired a Chinese relative, I have some of the same feelings toward the Chinese you have toward the Russians. I thought she was the most stylish skater of the three Chinese ladies before the fall, and afterward, I was cheering her sheer guts.
I was pretty taken by the Russian story as well, admiring their guts (and hers as well as his, as you noted.) However, it didn't take the commentators to tell me that they did their long program with an unattractive amount of caution. It's unfortunate, because it wasn't bad, but you could tell the fear was too great to allow them to pull off a really smashing performance.
When they showed Maxim and Tatiana's 2004 fall, I was struck by how, after she fell, Maxim turned and paused, waiting for her to get back up. And then she didn't. I can hardly imagine how horrified he must have felt when he realized she wasn't moving.
Kerri Strug blew out her ankle and completed the vault, that's who you were thinking of. That WAS incredible.
Kerri Strug! That's the one. And VAULT....I could not think of the correct term. Thanks ever so. ;^)
And you're also right about the caution that clearly hampered the Russia duo's performance last night. One had the feeling there was a truly magnificent something straining to be released, but their hands were firmly holding its leash.
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