The European Ice-skating championship was held in Sheffield, UK this year, not that TV coverage is exactly extensive these days. Long gone are the days of live coverage of each of the competitive events. As a sport ice-skating has lost some of its credibility, partially from blatantly biassed judging in the past. Nor is the sport quite so dominated by Russia any more as it once was. Anyway, here's a couple of pictures which covey some of the excitement and grace of the sport.
Above - Siobhan Heekin-Canedy and Dmitri Dun of the Ukraine
Below - Kiira Korpi of Finland.
Results include - Gold for Carolina Kostner of Italy who won the Ladies event for the 4th time and Gold for Evgeni Plushenko of Russia who won the Men's event for an unprecedented 7th time. Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat won Gold in the Ice-Dance for France for a 2nd time.
Thanks for sharing! It's so refreshing to find a man who really appreciates ice skating. I almost never get to watch the sport anymore, but I've always loved it for its beauty and athleticism. I could never understand why anyone wouldn't love it, or why it is generally mocked by American males.
ReplyDeleteThanks Laurie, dare I mention that I also enjoy Ballet ! I suppose the film 'Blades of Glory' went some way to breaking-down sexism about this sport, but ice-skating has been its own worst enemy over the years with various scandals covered by the media. I've seen the sport go from high to low-key profile in public appreciation over the past 25 years.
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ReplyDeleteIt is too bad, isn't it. Perhaps it can make another comeback....I'm not sure how, though, in these days of 10,000 TV channels anything gets significant notice anymore.
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