What a night!

[heavenly_pearl]

To be honest, I wasn't all that invested in the outcome of the ladies' competition since it was really Yu-na Kim's medal to lose (and I prefer the mens' and ice dance competition, anyway), but man, there was some great skating tonight. Kim, of course, skated perfectedly. Like there was ever any doubt. :P Not only did she win the gold, she set another world record score. Then there was silver medalist Mao Asada, who did two triple axels, one in combination. That's just insane. She could fairly compete with the men with those kinds of jumps. Too bad she had a couple of mistakes. She did a free turn in the middle of a three-jump-combo and completely popped...something. I don't know if she could have overtaken Kim for the gold if she had landed them, but I think it might have been really close. (Tell you a secret: I actually liked Asada's program a little more than Kim's. I know the judges tend to prefer the women to skate to pretty music, like Kim's, but I thought the dramatic piece really worked for Asada.) Well, on the plus side, since she definitely did make obvious mistakes, I doubt we'll see a repeat of Evgeny Plushenko's arrogant, delusional, unsportsmanlike claim that he deserved to win the gold over Evan Lysacek because he landed a quad and Evan didn't. *rolls eyes* Platinum medal indeed!

And how wonderful was it to see Joannie Rochette win the bronze after the recent tragic death of her mother? I was concerned that she might not be able to pull through, but she skated beautifully. It wasn't totally perfect -- a couple of her jumps were landed a little wonky -- but still wonderful to see. Best I've seen her skate this season, so I'm happy for her.

My favorite performance of the night just might be Mirai Nagasu's, though. She skated last, and there was little expectation of her being able to move up from sixth to the podium after the scores Kim, Asada, and Rochette put down, but, boy, did she put down her best effort, ending up fourth! Makes you kinda wonder if maybe she might have made the podium had she landed the triple/triple combination in the short program like she originally planned to do instead of a triple/double. Granted, Rochette had too much of a lead on her and still beat her in the free skate, but who knows? Mirai could be a big threat come next Olympics.

The other American, Rachael Flatt did really well, too, yet fell from fifth to seventh. That was kind of surprising to me, because she skated cleanly, but those darn downgrades were her downfall, just like with Mirai at the Nationals. Too bad, but she could be a contender in 2014 as well.  

Argh, it's over! I can't believe it! Well, there's still the exhibition to look forward to, but I'll miss the excitement of competition -- at least until Worlds. What a great, great Olympics it has been in the skating events!