Olympic stress

It can be hard watching some of these competitions. The quickness of speed skating has me tensing every race - the false starts, the tight corners, photo finishes - it can be too much! But I enjoy it, and even find myself moving side to side, mimicking their motions as I watch it on the couch.

Then you have the skiing, in which I think I've seen as many crashes as amazing finishes. My heart breaks for those who've trained and trained and travelled all this way, only to not finish a race after a fall or an out of bounds error.

Last night's Canada vs Switzerland men's hockey game? I almost couldn't watch. I was texting my fears back and forth with Gwen - trying to comfort each other. When we won the game in the shootout, I wasn't cheering for the win, but simply breathing a sigh of relief - it was just too close!

Fortunately, I had my men's figure skating to turn to. My newly-discovered favourite skater, US's Evan Lysacek, was in second place after Tuesday's short program. He is a tall fellow - 6'4" I believe, and he moves with such strength and grace on the ice. He skated first in the last group of 6, and what a skate it was. If there was a perfect program last night, he had it. Not only are his jumps strong and fast, but inbetween them he moves with such emotion and artistry. It's a performance, not just an athletic feat. And he was recognized for that by the judges and he took home gold - so well deserved!

One of the last of the night was another favourite of mine - US's Johnny Reid. It's his personality and outgoing style that won me over. While his performance was technically clean, he doesn't seem to have the same footwork inbetween the jumps. Something abundantly clear after having seen Evan perform. He didn't get high enough points to make the podium, and the crown in Vancouver weren't happy about that. They began to boo, and Evan stood up and began to make a motion for them to quite. He seemed happy with how he'd done, and didn't want to hear the boos.

Last night had some great skating, but was dissapointing from the costume angle. No over the top ones like the short program. But Johnny made me laugh out loud when I saw him waiting for his results wearing a fan made (tossed down to the ice for him) rose head piece and holding a bouquet marked with a J. You go Johnny!

Canada's Patrick Chan finished in a respectable 5th position. He didn't do as well as he could have on his jumps, but he's only 19 and has many more years of this ahead of him. It was a learning experience and I'm sure we'll see great things from him in the years to come.