skating Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Three Reasons 15-Year-Old Yulia Lipnitskaya Could Shock The World
If you'd asked the figure skating hivemind before the Olympics to bet on the results of the ladies competition, 90 percent of the money would have gone on defending Olympic champion Yuna Kim. Kim, the South Korean superstar who cleaned up in Vancouver with a record-high score, has long been consider...

Why Does Every Olympian Skate To <em>Les Misérables</em>?
There are still two days left of Olympic figure skating, and I have officially maxed out my lifetime tolerance for the Les Misérables soundtrack, something not even Russell Crowe could do to me. Same goes for the score from the 1968 movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet: I have never seen this film, ...

Fixed Or Not, The World's Best Ice Dancers Won Gold
After four years of buildup, and at least a week of talk about possibly corrupt judges, U.S. ice dancing stars Meryl Davis and Charlie White–America's only real hope for a figure skating gold in Sochi–delivered the goods on Monday, beating Canadian rivals Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir by a healthy spr...

Is Time For Cat Falling Through Olympic Arena Ceiling
Lots of space has been spent on the (admittedly adorable) dogs of Sochi. But where is the cat coverage? Why are we not awwwing over the stray felines in and around the Olympics? Mostly because they're just fucking shit up....

Canadian Columnist Says Ice Dancing Is Rigged
Before you get the impression that an entire nation is drowning in sour grapes, know that Rosie DiManno is Canada's worst columnist (non Sue-Ann Levy division). But even for her, this is something:...

How A Century-Old Skate Design Completely Changed Modern Speed Skating
Equipment can be a funny thing in sports, as we've seen with the ongoing Under Armor race suit debacle. But that's nothing compared to what happened in 1996, when the International Skating Union allowed skaters to begin using clap skates (or slap skates, depending on who you ask) in competitions. ...

Ditching The New Under Armour Suit Didn't Help Speedskater Shani Davis
Under Armour's latest speedskating suits weren't working well with the U.S. team, so some skaters switched, including Shani Davis. The change didn't do much for him in the individual 1,500-meter race....

Men's Figure Skating Was A Disaster
From start to finish, from Evgeny Plushenko bowing out moments before his short program to the eventual gold medalist falling twice in his free skate, the entire men's individual competition seemed more than a little cursed. ...

What Olympic Sport Is Your Country Most Excited About?
The data people over at Facebook have put together the map above—based on Facebook mentions—showing which Olympic sports different countries are talking about the most. Data are through the 13th; click here for a much larger version. There are tons of interesting tidbits in here, with usual caveats ...

Has Figure Skating Maxed Out In Difficulty?
At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, American Evan Lysacek won the men's singles figure skating gold medal without a single quadruple jump, while Russia's Evgeni Plushenko, who did have a quad in his program, took home silver. Four years later, this sort of scenario never materialized: Every top ...

U.S. Speedskating Moves To Drop Under Armour Race Suits
U.S. Speedskating has officially requested permission to switch race suits, with a number of skaters convinced the new Under Armour suits are responsible for their underwhelming performances so far....

Figure Skater Yan Han Makes Weird Faces In Slow Motion
Every figure skater makes weird faces while performing. This much is true due to torque and physics, but we were especially taken by Chinese skater Yan Han during his performance today in Sochi, one that helped him land an seventh place overall position in men's figure skating. We thought we'd highl...

Is A Crappy Under Armour Race Suit Slowing Down U.S. Speed Skating?
The U.S. has sucked something fierce in speed skating so far at Sochi. Through more than half of its races, Team USA still hasn't medaled. This is astonishing, because speed skating is traditionally one of the U.S.'s strongest winter sports. One explanation for the dip? As the Wall Street Journal fi...


Your Guide To Jason Brown, The Skater You Can't Help But Cheer For
American figure skater Jason Brown probably won't win an individual medal at these Olympics, but he might end up becoming a household name anyway. If that seems odd to you, don't worry, we can explain....

Watch Russian TV React Live To The End Of Evgeni Plushenko's Career
Evgeni Plushenko is the closest thing Russia has to royalty anymore, and the celebrated Olympic figure skater's withdrawal today is a shock to the Winter Games host nation. Here's the live coverage from Россия-1, with commentators slowly realizing Plushenko's Olympic career was ending before their e...

Injured Evgeni Plushenko Withdraws From Men's Individual Event
Legendary Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko will not be competing for a medal in the men's individual figure skating event after all. When Plushenko took the ice to begin his short program today, he skated over to the judges' table and told them that he was withdrawing from the competition. ...

Nobody In Sochi Is Having More Fun Than Johnny Weir
Johnny Weir came to Sochi with the potential to be controversial. The openly gay, openly Russophile former skater was a lightning rod for Russia's LGBT critics, but now that the games are underway, he's been nothing but fabulous....

Speed Skater Wins Gold After Everyone Else Crashes
China's Li Jianrou found the perfect place to be in today's women's 500-meter short track final: the back of the pack....

Olympic Figure Skating Pairs: Are They Humping?
The pairs figure skaters performed their final Olympic programs today in Sochi and, as pretty much everyone expected, Russian superstars Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov took home the gold. Their teammates, Russia's Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, won silver in a surprise upset over Germany's ...