Catching up with the Vancouver Olympics online (no commercials, no Costas) and the skating events. Great rivalry between Evan Lysacek (US) and Evgeni Plushenko (Russia) and the later making important points about the point merits of the quad in an athletic competion. But Lysacek making an equally strong argument about the whole technical skate.

It was scratch spin close. Maybe a draw. Lysacek technical difficulty to make up for the quad was impressive, but often at the sacrifice of polished lines. In the short program was, to quote Madame in Waterloo Bridge (1940, Vivien Leigh) “your port de bra was positively epileptic!”

Much better in the long program, but Plushenko was often much cleaner in the air (perfect vertical, speed and outflow). Plushenko’s technical merits are probably the best, but his cold efficiency of execution often does not fuse with his artistic expression. New scoring system or not, the difference comes down to judging tastes.

Completely underscored was gay skater Johnny Weir, criticized that his program lacked difficult elements. The fact that he didn’t crowd his choreography and carved out clean, consistent lines, is a technical plus. His port de bra was fab, completely undervalued in the scoring. He would have been 4th not 6th if I were placing.

Actually I think Daisuke Takahashi of Japan was also underscored, even without the quad. He not only had great carriage, but had diamond centered spins, terrific extension and his aerials were lyrical and huge, more than makes up for it.