The New York Timesが荒川静香の金メダルを僻んでますよ
アメリカという国はフィギアスケートによっぽどプライドがあるのかどうか知りませんが、The New York Timesが日本の選手に負けたことをひがんでるので晒しておきます。
Although Arakawa skated an elegant program, one filled with spectacular spirals, to Puccini's "Violin Fantasy of Turandot," it was not the transcendent gold medal performance the Olympics often produces. So, ultimately, this competition will be remembered as much for who did not grab the gold medal as for who did.
アラカワはプッチーニの"Violin Fantasy of Turandot"に合わせ素晴らしいスパイラルを含むエレガントな演技を披露したが、従来のオリンピックでしょっちゅう見られるような「超越した演技」というわけではなかった。結局のところ、今回のフィギアスケート競技は「誰がメダルを金メダルをとったか」ではなく「誰が取れなかったか」ということで記憶されることになるだろう。
「金メダルを取れなかった選手」として記憶に残るコーエン
「金メダルを取れなかった選手」として記憶に残るスルツカヤ
記憶に関係なく金メダルを取った荒川静香
<オマケ>
(左) 記憶には残るが残念ながら銀メダルのコーエン
February 24, 2006
A Night of Nerves Is Settled on a Turn of Elegance
By LYNN ZINSER
TURIN, Italy, Feb. 23 ― The biggest prize of the Olympics went to the figure skater who carried her burden lightest of all. The American Sasha Cohen could not manage her demons, fell on her first jump and ended up stunned to take home even a silver medal. Irina Slutskaya of Russia, crushed to have fallen and ruined her opportunity, threw her bronze medal in a locker.
It was only Japan's Shizuka Arakawa who did not struggle, despite being counted on to win her country's first medal at these Olympics, and she gently plucked the gold from their grasp Thursday night.
Although Arakawa skated an elegant program, one filled with spectacular spirals, to Puccini's "Violin Fantasy of Turandot," it was not the transcendent gold medal performance the Olympics often produces. So, ultimately, this competition will be remembered as much for who did not grab the gold medal as for who did.
Cohen, the 21-year-old top American hope, had her confidence escape her at the moment she needed it most. Having fallen twice in her warm-up, she took the ice slowly and with a petrified look. She fell on her first jump, the gold medal slipping away as her skates sailed out from under her.
"I was kind of in shock," she said. "It was difficult. I was in a good place and I didn't feel nervous, but physically I just couldn't execute when I needed to."
Cohen, who had skated magnificently to win the short program by three-hundredths of a point over Slutskaya on Tuesday night, smiled bravely at the end. When she left the ice, she took off her red velvet skating dress, not expecting to be summoned back for a medal ceremony. But as the skaters following her faltered, Cohen was told she had salvaged a silver.
"I'm really excited," Cohen said after she found out. "I think it was a gift."
Slutskaya did not take her fate quite so well. The Russians had already won the first three figure skating gold medals at these games ― the pairs, men's and dance ― and Slutskaya could have completed the sweep.
Slutskaya had lost narrowly to the American Sarah Hughes at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, a contentious result that was protested by the Russian federation, which cited "unobjective judging." On Thursday, Slutskaya had the added burden of skating last and was breathing hard as she took the ice.
At 27, she knew this was her last Olympic chance. She started cautiously, wobbled on some moves and then fell on a triple loop, a jump she said she can do almost automatically.
"Of course I am disappointed," she said. "That jump, it is exhibition. It is no problem for me. But it is competition. It is life."
But while Slutskaya said at her news conference that she was happy with a bronze, she was not wearing it. After the medal ceremony, she stalked into the dressing room and threw her medal aside. Mikhail Kusnirovich, a close friend, said she was sobbing. Kusnirovich, the deputy chef de mission of the Russian Olympic delegation, put the medal in his pocket.
Later, Slutskaya left the Palavela arena crying, surrounded by family and friends.
The only uncomplicated happiness found here was from Arakawa, a 24-year-old former world champion who had retired from the sport after her world title in 2004.
"I can't find the words for this," she said through an interpreter.
As each skater after Arakawa failed to top her score, cameras showed her smiling and laughing with her coaches backstage.
"There was no unbelievable performance," said Hughes, who was here watching her sister Emily. "No one skated the performance of their life. It was a more subdued final. But every Olympics can't have that one amazing night."
But that is what figure skating fans have come to expect. Sarah Hughes's spectacular, seven-triple-jump performance lifted her from fourth to first. In 1998, Tara Lipinski dazzled the crowd with a near-perfect skate that snatched a gold from the favorite Michelle Kwan.
Arakawa did skate cleanly but downgraded two planned triple-triple jump combinations to triple-doubles. She also doubled another solo triple later in her program. But she did not fall ― which nearly all of her pursuers did ― and she won over the judges with seemingly effortless spins and spirals that were clearly ahead of the field.
And she did not seem nervous, which may have been her biggest accomplishment. "She expected to win the first medal for Japan," Arakawa's interpreter said, paraphrasing her answer. "She didn't feel any pressure."
Arakawa also did not have to battle perhaps her toughest competitor, Mao Asada, who is Japan's top skater but, at 15, was a few months too young to compete in the Olympics.
Cohen, however, has battled the pressure of the big moment her whole career, and her nerves have had a terrible habit of failing her. In her first Olympics, in 2002, she had also skated beautifully in the short program but was visibly nervous to start the long and fell early. She fought through her disappointment to finish fourth.
This time, with Kwan having withdrawn from what would have been her final Olympics, Cohen had a chance to skate out from her shadow and grab the spotlight for herself. Still, she seemed relatively at peace with what had happened.
"I have learned it's not about the medal," Cohen said, holding up her silver. "All my other medals, I don't even know where they are. They are in shoeboxes somewhere. This is very nice. I'm sure my friends and family will want to see it back home, but to me, it's just another medal."
Cohen said she savors the performance, enjoys enchanting a crowd, and her feelings about these Olympics will always be bittersweet. She fought through her disappointment and performed as best as she could. But she also fell, just like at the last Olympics.
Slutskaya could also be having flashbacks to Salt Lake City, when she also skated last and had a chance to upstage Sarah Hughes. Instead, she lost her nerve, bobbled her jumps and rushed through her program.
"I am happy I got a medal," Slutskaya insisted. "Other girls, they come here and finish 18th or 20th and they have nothing."
But those skaters also do not face the pressure of a gold medal that dangles just out of reach.
Juliet Macur contributed reporting for this article.
この記事は別として、スルツカヤは確かに「金メダルを取れなかった選手」として記憶に残りますよね。トリノ前の時点で「シルバー・コレクター」という代名詞が付いてるくらいですから。
実は私、密かにスルツカヤを応援してたんです。彼女は心臓に難病を抱えているらしく、スケートを辞めれば薬を飲まなくて済むのに、スケートが好きだから、そしておそらくオリンピックでの金メダルのために、大量の薬を摂取しながらスケートを続けてきたそうなんです。
もともと結構スルツカヤファンだったので、金メダルとってほしかったんですが。。。
もちろん、宮城県ゆかりの荒川も好きなんですが。
ところで、前回の金メダリストのサラ・ヒューズってどこにいったんだろう?と疑問だったんですが、この記事によると妹が出てたんですね。でも本人は出てないんですね