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Post by Admin on Feb 18, 2014 0:14:52 GMT
Meryl Davis and Charlie White made history in Sochi today by becoming the first American pair to win an ice dancing gold medal. The Michigan duo sported beaming smiles and embraced each other after their gold-medal winning score was announced. Davis and White bested their Canadian rivals and training partners, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who earned silver, by 4.5 points. "I was a little annoyed I had to go back a few dances that were lower level," White said. "But it was pretty obvious she was going to hold her own no matter what we did. We were sticking together like glue." The glue stuck. They never broke up through it all, the way brothers and sisters can never really break up. They didn't quit, even, when they finished second in Vancouver four years ago to Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who won silver this time in Sochi. "Charlie and I are very different in a lot of ways, but we've used those differences to our advantage," Davis said. "In terms of our partnership, there hasn't been a moment of doubt." Meryl Davis and Charlie White see the hard work from a partnership that was born in 1997 pay off with Olympic gold Monday while skating to ‘Sheherazade.’ "We learned a lot about ourselves as people that maybe you don't get chance to learn if you're not in the situations that we've been put into," White said. "The struggles, the rivalry, knowing that if you're not perfect you can forget about your dreams and that constant striving for perfection. "You have to look in the mirror and figure out every day what it takes to get there. There's a lot of soul searching when you're at the top of the game, as the four of us have been. You mature a lot quicker under that pressure, and I think we did that."
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Post by Admin on Feb 19, 2014 0:20:42 GMT
Slovenia's gold medalist Tina Maze celebrates during the giant slalom award ceremony during the Sochi Winter Olympics Slovenia's Tina Maze bagged her second alpine skiing gold of the Sochi Olympics on Tuesday when she won a thrilling women's giant slalom from Austrian arch-rival Anna Fenninger. In tricky weather conditions that included heavy snow, torrential rain and fog, the 30-year-old Slovenian clocked a combined total of 2min 36.87sec over the two runs in Rosa Khutor. Maze, who'd had to share downhill gold with Switzerland's Dominique Gisin last week after a first-ever Winter Olympic alpine dead heat, had it all to do on her second run. Starting with an 0.85sec lead over the Austrian, Maze's deficit was slowly eroded away in the increasingly slushy conditions, but she hung on through to the finish line to sneak home by just seven-hundredths of a second. "I can live with that!" Maze said. "This season I'd focused on the Olympics. I was ready for this, it's what I came here to do. It was tough for me to keep the same rhythm as last year in the World Cup. but I knew I was going to show my best here, it's great. The rest of the season doesn't matter."
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Post by Admin on Feb 19, 2014 14:43:19 GMT
Ice dancing is a spectacle — not only for the awesome technique, cheeky expressions and fun music, but of course, for the fashion. Much of figure skating, especially ice dancing, is about creating interesting characters, and sometimes, that leads to some pretty kooky ensembles. @tara_Lipinski Show us & @nbcolympics @nbcsports pics of how u r sneaking in #TaraandJohnny at work today. Coverage starts at 10 am! No one knows the fashion of the sport better than former Team USA figure skaters Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. The duo have been critiquing figure skating fashion for TODAY.com during the Games, and stopped by the Orange Room to weigh in on Monday's ice dancing wardrobes. “I started pulling clothes from different designers and jewelry from different designers about a month before we came over,” said Weir. He and Lipinski have been the talk of the town during the Sochi Games, not only for their witty figure skating commentary for NBC Sports, but for their chic — and sometimes wild — ensembles. We’re (in Russia) for almost a month and we’re on air almost every day, so we had to put together outfits ahead of time so we weren’t just bringing our whole closet,” added Lipinski.
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Post by Admin on Feb 20, 2014 2:26:53 GMT
When Polina Edmunds left the ice after making a dazzling debut at the Winter Olympics, the 15-year-old American held two stuffed animals she said are good luck charms as she waited for her score. It turns out lady luck was on Edmunds’ side. After a routine showcasing speed and incredible spins, the San Jose, Calif., teen earned a score of 61.04, a personal best. "In my bag I have a lot of things, but most importantly I have two good luck toys – one of them is a little lion from my high school, Archbishop Mitty High School," Edmunds said. "They gave that to me for good luck. The other toy in my bag is a little elephant, which is from my skating rink's synchronized team. Their mascot is an elephant. They always say 'trunks up' for good luck." “I was a bit nervous when I stepped out, just because I wanted to skate well,” said Edmunds, who started skating at age 2. “Everyone is nervous. Yeah, I was mostly just excited and telling myself to stay calm and really enjoy it because no matter what happens, I’m still at the Olympics.”
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Post by Admin on Feb 21, 2014 4:58:01 GMT
"I have come from a bawling, scared, 22-year-old girl to a tough, proud, happy woman coming home to the U.S. with a bronze medal (in the team event) and three clean performances," the first-time Olympian from Alexandria, Va., said after a solid free skate that earned her seventh place at the Olympics. She now has her sights set on the 2018 Olympics in South Korea. Ashley Wagner came off a disappointing U.S. Nationals to skate three clean programs in Sochi. "As soon as I landed in Sochi, I knew I was signed on for the next four years," said Wagner. "I think working with (coach Rafael Arutyunyan), he's been able to do so much with me in six months. … I can't even begin to imagine what a year with him would be like technically and what four years could be like. … It's a changing of the guards now. And I'm ready to be there." After getting 127.99 points in the free skate Thursday night and 198.22 overall, Wagner still wasn't happy with the scoring. "This competition has been full of surprises. … I was a little bit surprised with the short (score) as well as the long," she said. "I knew that I would not be able to predict where I would be scored in this competition," she said. "So thinking about what I was up against wasn't going to help at all. This was for me and proving to myself that I belonged here." After saying she felt cheated, Wagner said: "People don't want to watch a sport where you see people fall down and somehow score above someone who goes clean. It is confusing and we need to make it clear for you. "To be completely honest. This sport needs fans and needs people who want to watch it. People do not want to watch a sport where they see someone skate lights out and they can't depend on that person to be the one who pulls through. People need to be held accountable. They need to get rid of the anonymous judging. There are many changes that need to come to this sport if we want a fan base because you can't depend on this sport to always be there when you need it. The sport in general needs to become more dependable." Ashley Wagner performs in the women's figure skating free program Thursday at the Iceberg Skating Palace. "The crowd was very supportive of the Russians so to be a Russian figure skater must have been absolutely incredible to get out there … period," Wagner said. She added: "I came into this event knowing pretty well that that was how it was going to go. It is not fair to the skaters who work so hard to become noticed if they are not going to have a sport that backs up what they are doing."
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