Figure Skaters, Grace, and the Gold

One of the most beautiful artistic pieces you can ever experience is watching a figure skater gracefully gliding across the ice interpreting music, not letting a gold medal interfere with their joy of skating. For me, Peggy Flemming, Dorothy Hamill, Katarina Witt and Nancy Kerrigan were the epitome of grace on ice. Wednesday I was drawn into another skater that I will now call strength on ice. Joannie Rochette, the young lady that bridled her emotions and took to the Olympic ice in the midst of struggling with the deepest pain a child could experience. She had not crossed my radar until now. Watching her I felt compelled to research her past performances. With each presentation I was drawn into her every move and amazed at how she blended the required jumps into her routine with ease. She definitely joins the ranks of my grace skaters.

From the beginning to the end of her short program you could see she had a mission. With graceful strength she took her stance upon the ice; as the music started so did her interpretation of that mission. She had to finish what she and her mother started as a young child—to podium in the Olympics. Never did Joannie think that when she left her hometown with her mother and father by her side to compete she would end her long program looking toward heaven blowing a kiss to her mother’s spirit.

How could a young woman muster the courage she did to stay in the game after the champion of her life suddenly leaves this world never to return and skate with the grace of the aforementioned skaters? It had to be something bigger than her. Perhaps we have a glimpse with the direction of her kiss.

No doubt their dream was the gold—that was not to be. She did however make the podium; with that steeled grace and strength exhibited early on, she lowered her head during the ceremony and received the bronze medal fulfilling the mission she knew she must complete.

Even sadder than the passing of her mother is the reaction of some people (I am happy to say are in the minority) that feel she didn’t deserve the medal and it was a sympathy awarding. Like music and beauty, skating is in "the eye of the beholder". This is apparent with the rules of scoring changing so many times over the years. Some, like me, watch for the artistry, others watch for the athleticism and some, a combination of both. I don’t know much about nor do care about the technical side of figure skating, I love to watch the artistic interpretation of the music, and if they never make a jump it wouldn’t matter to me. With the insurgence of triple lutzes and triple axels most skaters have left out the grace. Joannie brought it back for me, that coupled with her strength in a dark moment made it all the better. For that I give her the gold.

In the quest for Olympic gold the male figure skaters were not without their drama. The favored was Evgeni Plushenko. He skated to a silver end and the gold went to Evan Lysacek. Plushenko, along with many critics and fans feel he was cheated because he jumped a quad and Evan didn’t. There it is again—jumping vs. grace. In this case however, I think it went deeper than that; there was a pride vs. humility at play and the humble one walked away with the gold--after skating gracefully on the ice.