The most "romantic" three minutes in Winter Olympics history...and Ayn would have loved it!

Posted by ShrugInArgentina 10 years, 10 months ago to Entertainment
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I hope it's still possible for some members of the Gulch to see this perfomance on delayed brodcasts of Sunday's competetion.

Perhaps it will surface on youtube soon.

SOURCE URL: http://www.cleveland.com/olympics/index.ssf/2014/02/winter_olympics_2014_ice_danci.html


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  • Posted by ShruginArgentina 10 years, 10 months ago
    I used to intensely dislike ice dancing, especially the short progam when all pairs had to skate to the same music and peform virtually the same routine.

    Times have changed, but Meryl Davis and Charlie White's peformance in the short program was actually "old school" compared to all of the other contestants...and they achieved a new world record score for the short program. It looked more like ballroom dancing than any of the others...and the peformance was as close to pefection as any I've ever seen.

    I remember reading that Ayn loved ballroom dancing and apparently enjoyed ice skating as well (if we can draw that conclusion from a scene in the film "The Passion of Ayn Rand").
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  • Posted by superfluities 10 years, 10 months ago
    Just watched it-threw up in my mouth a little bit. I think Ayn's sport would be the biathlon, winning based on timed speed and shooting score and not a panel of judges made up of people from the countries that are competing.
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    • Posted by ShruginArgentina 10 years, 10 months ago
      For decades I found Olympic ice dancing somewhat disdainful, but I thoroughly enjoy what it has become today, and, keeping in mind that Ayn was into ice skating and ballroom dancing as well as anything that projected a joyous sense of life, I think she would have enjoyed Davis and White's perfomance in the short pogram...and may have even embraced the song lyics "I only know when he began to dance with me I could have danced, danced, danced all night."

      That sounds like hero worship (her idea of the essence of femininity) to me.

      Nothing I ever read that was written by or about Ayn Rand gave me the impression that she was into cross country skiing or shooting.





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  • Posted by Bobhummel 10 years, 10 months ago
    It is great to celebrate the achievements of the Olympic athletes and enjoy their superb performances. It is amazing that these athletes can survive the gauntlet that the various sport "associations" (e.g. USFSA or USSA) make them go through for funding and training. It can be very subjective. A lot of dreams are crushed along the way, but it was fun to watch those that had the tenacity to persevere achieve their there personal goals. Anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
    Cheers!
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  • Posted by aogilmore 10 years, 10 months ago
    I have to say I don't know how any libertarian could support the Olympics. Listen to Stef Molyneaux's YouTube video or podcast on the truth about the Olympics.

    The whole thing is a huge government shakedown not Just in Russia but China and the US as well .

    It's fine to enjoy ice skating or any sport sports are great and very healthy .

    Just don't force us to pay for them.

    Same goes for the NBA and NFL. Colleges are basically state-funded farm systems for those two leagues and most stadiums are financed by tax dollars.


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  • Posted by jimjamesjames 10 years, 10 months ago
    Most romantic? Not close. Outstanding skating, yes; romantic, barely IMHO.

    Davis and White got the "highest" score. Torville and Dean got a PERFECT score from all NINE of the judges.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zbbN4OL...

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    • Posted by ShruginArgentina 10 years, 10 months ago
      Given the nature of this website, I was using the word "romantic" in the same sense Ayn Rand used it.

      Last night's short program was a three minute image of the happiness and joy that is possible in life and the pefomance, in that sense was romantic.

      It think it would be terribly unfair to compare a 30 year old peformance to what you will see tonight...if you watch. Torville and Dean may indeed have deserved perfect scores 30 years ago. The same performance today might not even get them on an Olympic team. The bar is so much higher today.

      I saw no joy or happiness Torvill and Dean's performnace in the 1984 ice dance long program. It would be impossible to skate in a way to meet today's standards with such a droll piece of music.

      As I watched the youtube recording of Torvill and Dean earlier this afternoon I found myself hoping that Davis and White will skate tonight to Rimski-Korzakov's Scheherazade.






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    • Posted by montanarose 10 years, 10 months ago
      As much as I hate to be pedantic, I will proceed to be so, w/apologies in advance.
      Under the new, post-SLC IJS (international judging system), there is no longer such a thing as a "perfect" score (the old 6.0 that so many remember w/varying degrees of fondness). The new system is -- for better or worse -- highly mathematical: skaters learn to stack their programs w/the stuff that gets the highest point count from the judges. The better skaters also manage to elevate their performances to get a high GOE (grade of execution), which is intended to take the place of the old "second mark" for artistic impression. And the very best skaters manage to throw down enough solid technical content, done w/a high enough GOE, that they have the time to do some of the lovely older skating moves that don't garner a lot of points under the new system but that make the rest of us go "Ooooooh!"
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      • Posted by jimjamesjames 10 years, 10 months ago
        No apology needed. But, not to be obtuse, I will be. The current system of encouraging what you call stacking with the stuff that gets the highest points is what makes me cringe when a beautiful, "romantic" 10-15 second phase turns into a set up for a throw which, for me , degrades the romance, erases the romance and turns the performance from romantic artistry to technical expertise. Torville and Dean were, compared to today, clean, romantic and the entire performance was romantic and beautiful. And they got a perfect score. So, there!!
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