Rachael Flatt was a victim of the scoring system, receiving about eight points in downgrades, in spite of performing a routine that looked simply marvelous. That put her in only second after skate. But she didn’t stay there long as Japan’s Miki Ando passed her for first.

And then it was Kim Yu-Na’s turn. So much pressure on this young lady. A whole nation’s hopes riding on her. I don’t think we, here in America, fully appreciate how other nations view their Olympic athletes. Sure, we love it when Apolo Ohno wins. And we hate it when Lindsey Vonn crashes. But they do not come home to feel like the whole nation is disappointed in them. But Kim Yu-Na has stated that is her fear. Not just that the entire nation would be disappointed but that they would turn their backs on her. I can’t even imagine what kind of pressure that would place on a young person. Fortunately, she rose to the challenge beautifully.

Mao Asada didn’t seem in the least intimidated, coming out to perform the first three triple axels by a woman in a program. However, she had a few little bobbles that made it almost impossible for her to pass Kim Yu-Na. Not to say that the program wasn’t beautiful. It seemed almost certain that she would take the silver.

I always want the Americans to win, but in this particular case, I’d be perfectly happy to let Joannie Rochette have a medal, instead. She skated beautifully, under any circumstances. But especially given the emotional weight she’s skating under. And after she skated, she was in third.

While I like Mirai Nagasu, I just couldn’t really hope for her to overtake any of the top three. She’s 16. She should certainly be back for future Olympics. She skated a great program. It was enough for fourth but not enough to take over third.

It was a beautiful not of skating. There was artistry, athleticism and sweetness. Congratulations to all of the ladies.

I would like to state, for the record, that there are two spins being performed in ladies figure skating that I just don’t enjoy. One, the spin that looks like doing the splits standing up holding onto your skate. It’s not attractive. And, two, the one where they sit and put their nose to their toes. Again, not attractive. I have no doubt these are difficult spins. But NOT pretty.

Other than those, I still really enjoy figure skating. And I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with skating over the next four years.

I had the pleasure of talking with Kristi Yamaguchi on the phone today. Yes, she really is as nice as she seems. I asked her some questions about the current Olympics and the newish scoring system, but I also wanted to talk to her about advice for young athletes and their families.

I first talked with her about the quad controversy from these Olympics, which is not so very different from the athlete/artist/triple axel controversy of the 1992 Olympics. I asked whether a single element should be allowed to dominate a program and how the current system affects that. She said that the current system is trying to make the scoring more objective, but that there’s a danger to taking the human element out of skating.

“Skating is always going to be subjective. No matter what system you put in place, there is an element to the sport that is so human, so emotional that if you take that out of it it becomes any other just athletic competition only, and that’s not what skating has always been about. I’m just hoping our sport doesn’t go in that direction.”

When asked about the pros and cons of the scoring system, Kristi said it does acknowledge difficult moves but that in an effort to raise the level of difficulty, every move has become calculated to rack up points, leading to performances that are sometimes technically great but not beautiful, that it can create a “connect the dots” form of skating.

After switching gears to talk about advice to young athletes, I asked for the best advice she had for aspiring athletes. She stressed the importance of setting goals, not just the big “I want to go to the Olympics” goals, but intermittent, attainable goals in the meantime. Goals that a young athlete can accomplish and feel good about now, on the road to greatness.

When it comes to encouraging the dream without sacrificing the family, she said that it’s about organization and the parents taking on perhaps separate roles. Her Mom traveled with her, while her Dad stayed home and helped keep her siblings’ lives on track. But she admitted that having a world class athlete is going to require some sacrifices by the family.

Should your athlete even make the sacrifice? Kristi said that they should be encouraged to look inward and evaluate that. She said that all athletes come to a crossroads where they have to decide whether this is really the path for them.

“I think you really have to let the athlete look inside him or herself and really ask the question ‘why am I doing this’ and ‘can I imagine my life without this sport?’.”

Her moment came around Junior High, as she made the transition from local to state events and then on to competitions at the national level. As that required more and more time, she had to make the conscious decision that this was something she wanted to do.

As we saw this week, being a great athlete doesn’t necessarily always result in someone who is such a nice person. When asked what her parents did to encourage being a good sport, she indicated they stressed sportsmanship from a very young age and always reassured her that they just wanted her to try her best and that they would love her regardless of the outcome. They also stressed respect for fellow competitors:

“Even though you’re competing against other people, you need to respect their talents and what they do and be happy with your own performance.”

She said she would certainly encourage her daughters if either of them wanted to pursue competitive athletics, as both she and her husband (who was a hockey player) feel that they got so much out of sports. Plus, it kept them out of trouble in life, which was something I hadn’t really thought of. I guess if all of your time is taken up skating, there’s little time left over for shenanigans.

Finally, when asked how parents could help their kids prepare for life beyond sports, Kristy said her parents had always stressed school and her education. Even as she became more competitive, that was a priority and if her grades slipped, then ice skating time had to be dialed back. They always encouraged a balanced life.

I finished up by asking her a couple of lighter questions. I asked her about her favorite Winter Olympics events to watch, other than figure skating. While she did single out ice hockey and short track skating, she said she really enjoys all the sports.

And when asked about the most memorable figure skating of these Olympics? She thought Evan Lysacek was great. But she was particularly impressed by the ice skating battle between the top teams.

“It took ice dancing to another level… I haven’t enjoyed ice dancing like that in years and years.”

It was really a lovely chat that I thoroughly enjoyed. I hope there are some nuggets for those of you who are raising athletes. And for the rest of you, I hope you enjoyed reading this interview half as much as I enjoyed the experience of speaking with Kristi Yamaguchi.

Kristi was speaking to me from the Proctor and Gamble Family Home. You can learn more about their program supporting Olympic athletes’ families on their Thank You, Mom website. They also have some cool videos of athletes’ Moms (or Dads).

Men’s Giant Slalom, even though I already know something that I didn’t want to know. Ugh. It’s really difficult to avoid spoilers. Anyway, men’s giant slalom provides another golden opportunity for Ted Ligety and Bode Miller.

Ladies figure skating short program. American women are kind of a long shot here, but they’ve defied that label before in the Olympics. Of course, this year there are only two women representing the United States in figure skating in Vancouver: Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu. Dominant skaters World Champion Kim Yu-Na, of South Korea, and 2008 World title-holder Mao Asada, of Japan, should provide an exciting show.

I’m torn on women’s ski cross. I find it to be a theoretically exciting sport, but I have a hard time not having an American to cheer for. We’ll see whether it holds my attention.

I’m going to have to see if Nordic Combined Team Large Hill is on television, since it looks like the United States has a shot at a medal. Really. Two medals in Nordic Combined in one Olympics. Wow.

I will probably skip the women’s biathlon relay. Again, exciting in theory. Hard to see the Americans get trounced.

I may also skip men’s speedskating 10,000m. That’s a lot of skating in circles. Maybe if I were from the Netherlands and cheering for national hero Sven Kramer. The power company in the Netherlands is even offering a discount for every medal he wins. I’d definitely watch with more enthusiasm if it was going to save me about $70 per year. On the other hand, Americans Jonathan Kuck and Ryan Bedford are not expected to medal.

The ever present hockey and curling will probably also be skipped, even though I do generally enjoy curling. There are only so many hours in the day.

Women’s bobsled has two runs today, but I’ll probably wait until the medal rounds tomorrow to take a look at that.

Bob Costas sat down with Lysacek to find out what his reaction was and asked some very leading questions.  It seems to me that Costas really wanted Lysacek to make ugly comments about Plushenko.  Maybe the comments were sour grapes on Plushenko’s part, but you’d never know it from Evan’s comments.  He was incredibly gracious and well spoken. He had nothing but good things to say about his Russian counterpart and lauded him for coming out of retirement and getting silver after so much time off.

Later in the evening, Scott Hamilton and Dick Button joined in the interview and expressed their opinion that Evan truly earned the gold.  Hamilton said Evan was the best conditioned athlete, and Button said the program was the “total package” and “spiffy to see.” 

Generally, I like Bob Costas.  He’s smart, he has great interview skills, and he researches the sports he comments on.  But I thought he was trying to unnecessarily stir the pot on this one.  I’m not sorry  the interview didn’t create a story for him. It’s nice to see that Evan is not only a great skater, but a classy gentleman.

He was certainly not the only one to fall. The next couple of skaters did well but struggled with at least one jump in their programs.

But the big news of the night was Evan Lysacek. He didn’t have a great warm up and then he skated first after the warm up. The good news was that he left all the mistakes on the warm up ice. He skated a technically and an artistically beautiful program. When it was over, win or lose, you just knew that he knew that he’d done everything that he could to become the first American man since Brian Boitano to win the gold. And he did.

That left Evgeni Plushenko, who came out of retirement to pursue an unprecedented back to back gold, with the silver.

The bronze was given to Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi, the first Japanese man to win an individual figure skating medal.

Johnny Weir ended up in 6th, but I think undeservedly so. He skated a really good program with one little tiny bobble on a spin. More than one skater who finished in front of him made much more major errors. And, yet, Johnny was not rewarded with the scores. Maybe it’s that his program is not quite as demanding, more simple. But this is what really drives me crazy about this new system. I understand and appreciate that a higher level of difficulty should be rewarded, but only IF it is successfully completed. And if you perform a great performance without a major mistake, you should not receive lower scores than someone who makes a major mistake.

But the night belonged to Evan Lysacek. It was so great to see his reaction to finding out the final results. Relief, joy, maybe a tiny bit of disbelief. Congratulations to him. He’s worked hard and really deserves the gold.

Women’s Super Combined— potentially more medals for Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn.

Biathlon— Could there be a medal for American Tim Burke? Will Norway be happier with their results today?

Men’s Figure Skating—Who’s getting the gold? Evan Lysacek, Evgeni Plushenko, or someone else entirely?

Snowboarding— More halfpipe today. It’s the women’s turn. Will the American women exceed the American men’s medal count from last night?

Hockey— The men and the women compete today. The men take on Norway. The women take on Finland.

Speed skating— The women take on the 1000m. Don’t expect the same medal count for the American women as the American men.

Skeleton— Competition starts today for the men and women. Americans stand a much better chance at medaling here than in the luge.

Curling— both the men and women take on Denmark today. You can catch this live if you have CNBC. No, really, live coverage of an event.

That’s it. Check back throughout the afternoon and evening for coverage of events.

Less than a point separated Plushenko and Lysacek, setting up quite a showdown tomorrow night. In third and fourth were Japanese skaters Daisuke Takahashi and Nobunari Oda. Johnny Weir ended up in 6th. My favorite non-American skater, Switzerland’s Stephane Lambiel, ended up in fifth. He really is a beautiful skater— not necessarily the most athletic, but his footwork and spinning were the best of the night.

Jeremy Abbott completely fell apart and ended the night in 15th. An incredibly disappointing night for the U.S. champion.

Today was supposed to be Super Combined in men’s downhill, but due to poor weather conditions (blowing now and low visibility), that event has been pushed to Friday. At this rate, Alpine skiing will finish up sometime in March or April.

Presumably, the snow won’t stop biathlon (it’s still on the schedule, as of this writing). For today’s women’s 10 km pursuit and men’s 12.5 km pursuit, the athletes qualify by placing in the top 60 in a sprint competition. No American women are expected to qualify. For the men, Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey stand a decent chance of qualifying, even though this is not the best event for either of them.

CURLING Curling, a favorite in the Manty household, starts today. The American men are scheduled for two matches vs. Germany and Norway, and the American women are scheduled for one match vs. Japan. The American men won bronze in Torino. Will they be able to match or better that in Vancouver?

Men’s figure skating starts tonight with the short program. All three of the American men are strong contenders for a medal. Evan Lysacek is the reigning world champion and finished fourth in Torino after battling the flu. Jeremy Abbott is a relative newcomer but has won two U.S. titles. And then there’s Johnny Weir. Hopefully, the only drama surrounding his performances will be the performances, themselves. American men haven’t won gold since Brian Boitano in 1988. They’re hoping to change that this year.

Both the men’s and women’s hockey teams will be competing today. The men will be taking on Switzerland. The women will be playing Russia.

Women’s luge will be awarding a medal today. Americans Erin Hamlin and Julia Clukey are currently in 15th and 16th place after two runs—long shots for a medal but not out of contention. American Megan Sweeney is currently in 27th.

More snowboard cross today, as Lindsey Jacobellis tries to win the gold that eluded her in Turin, when she fell practically at the finish line. She is joined on the team by Olympic newcomers Callan Chythlook-Sifsof and Faye Gulini.

Finally, women’s speed skating races the 500m— hopefully with fewer problems with the ice than the men experienced yesterday. Elli Ochowicz, Jennifer Rodriguez, Heather Richardson and Lauren Cholewinski represent the United States. None are favorites to medal.

Anyway, Johnny is always irreverent and always outrageous. Recently he’s been in trouble with anti-fur activists after he added some fox fur to one shoulder of the costume he wore at Nationals. Now, he’s apparently been receiving threats.

It has always seemed a little “off” to me to threaten human lives in order to protect animal lives, but maybe that’s just me. In any case, it does seem like the Olympics is the proper venue for airing those kinds of grievances. He’s changed the costume he’s wearing, so I don’t know what else people want from him.

What do you think?

Here’s a clip of Johnny skating at the 2010 U.S. Championships where he finished third and earned another trip to the Olympics:

The women’s team, which has only two members this year for only the second time since the 1920s, consists of Rachael Flatt, 17, and Mirai Nagasu, 16. There’s a lot of weight on those two young shoulders. If either medals, it will be considered a major upset. If neither of them medals, it will be the first time in 46 years that the women’s U.S. figure skating team has not gotten at least one medal. Oh, and case you were wondering, Sasha Cohen DID show up to Nationals, and she’s a second alternate.

Skating for the men are Jeremy Abbott, Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir (who’s in trouble with animal rights people for adding fur to his costume— more on that in another post). Jeremy Abbott was absolutely fantastic at the U.S. Championships last weekend. Evan Lysacek is the reigning men’s world champion. Johnny Weir is, well, Johnny Weir. Any of the three could medal in Vancouver. Of course, there is reigning Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko to contend with.

Two pairs were named for the pairs competition: Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett; and Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig. Denney and Barrett are a bit of a May/December couple. She’s 16; he’s 25. They’ve only been skating together a little over 18 months, but placed second at last year’s Nationals and won this year. Oh, and did I mention that Barrett is dating Amanda Evora from the other pairs team going to Vancouver? Neither team was a particular favorite to win going into Nationals.

Ice dancing will send three pairs to represent the United States: Meryl Davis and Charlie White, winners of the 2010 nationals; Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, who were silver medalists four years ago; and Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates. The Davis/White team and the Belbin/Agosto team could both do very well at the Olympics, but the Russian team Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin enters the Olympics with the highest hopes.

So, that’s the team. Hopefully, many of them will come home with medals. What do you think of their chances?

You can watch the following interview to see what she had to say about her Olympic hopes:

1. The opening ceremonies

No matter who you are, or where the Olympics are located, deep in your heart you know there’s nothing more stirring than the opening ceremonies.  China’s summer extravaganza set the bar pretty high for Canada, but you can bet your back bacon they’re going to put their all into it.

2. Women’s hockey

1998 saw the debut of women’s hockey at the Olympics.  Since then, there hasn’t been much excitement about it in the US.  But this year, Team USA is a frontrunner for gold.  Canada has been dominating this season, but coach Mark Johnson has high hopes for his team.  Can Olympic gold do for women’s hockey what it did for women’s soccer?  It’s doubtful there will be a “Brandy Chastain moment” with all that gear, but perhaps the men out there will take notice anyway.

 3. Biathlon

Hugely popular in Europe but largely ignored in the US, biathletes have struggled to get funding and training until this year.  When the sport was finally noticed by a prosperous contributor money was finally available to get things going.  The big standout for the US will be Tim Burke, who won both silver and bronze medals at the World Cup in Ostersund.  This could be a great beginning for an under appreciated sport.

4. Stephen Colbert

When Deutsche Bank went belly-up and their $300,000 pledge for the US speed skating team went with it, Colbert stepped up to the plate.  It took less than a month for the “Colbert Nation” to replace the funds.  There’s sure to be a lot of Colbert’s scathing satire surrounding the games.  Like him or not, the comedian has the audience and the pull to make things happen.
 
5. Team USA-1 four-man bobsled

Steve Holcomb has been piloting the “Night Train” with his teammates Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz with incredible results.  Three gold medals in World Cup events this season puts them at the top of their game.  It’s even more amazing when you consider Holcomb nearly quit bobsledding because of eye problems.  Surgery in 2008 restored his vision and renewed his love of the sport.

6. Skier/snowboarder antics

Though Bode Miller recently sprained his ankle, he’ll probably still make the games.  And you can be sure he and the other downhill skiers will be as crazy as ever. Add in the new addition of extreme sports inspired skicross to the mix and you’ve got a recipe for a speed-induced adrenaline rush madness that only the boys and girls who haunt the slopes can produce.  If only we could all be there for the after-party.

7. Shani Davis and Apolo Ohno

On December 11^th, Davis broke his own world record for the 1500m by coming in at 1:41.04, besting his previous record of 1:41.80.  In long track, Davis is hands-down the man to beat.  Ohno, who at 27 is the elder statesman of the short track, is competing in his third Olympics in 2010.  He’ll be pushing to beat Eric Heiden’s record of seven medals won in winter Olympics.  But he’d better watch out, JR Celski is a young man moving up in the ranks, and one of the few who could give Ohno a run for his money.

8. Kim Yu-Na

The South Korean figure skater is the undeniable favorite for gold in 2010.  Her signature triple-triple exhibits an intense athleticism coupled with a grace that brings audiences to their feet.  At Skate America in Lake Placid, NY she broke the scoring record for short program, earning a 76.28.  While the Olympics brings out the patriot in most of us, sometimes you just need to sit back and appreciate poetry in motion.

9. Ice Dancing

The possibilities are wide open for ice dancing this year.  While US couple Meryl Davis and Charlie White won gold at the Grand Prix Final, it by no means places them above the rest of the competitors.  Two favored teams missed this season making it difficult to judge who will come out on top in 2010.  Everyone is sure to be giving it their all in Vancouver.  It will be exciting to watch the heavy competition among the couples.

10. Skeleton

After a 54-year absence, skeleton returned to the winter Olympics in 2002 and included both men and women.  Named because the new metal sled used in 1892 looked like a skeleton; it’s tough to deny the thrills caused by people sliding head first down a track at 80 mph.  Look for the return of Noelle Pikus-Pace, the first US woman to win the World Cup in 2005.  She’s back from taking the 2007-2008 seasons off to have a child, but is shaping up to be a big threat in Vancouver.

Canada is putting its best foot forward to make this a great winter Olympics.  Take the time to watch a variety of sports.  You never know, you could become the newest curling fanatic, or find out you really enjoy moguls over downhill.  Bundle up, grab a hot toddy, and enjoy the best athletes the world has to offer in winter sports.