So first, the results of my recent Quick Poll. Which U.S. Men's Champion do you prefer? Well, by an overwhelming margin the answer would apparently be Johnny Weir. Over 600 votes later and Johnny was the clear winner nabbing 60% of the vote. Jeremy Abbott pulled in second with 27% and Evan Lysacek managed only 12% of the vote (where's the love for the reigning World Champ?). Johnny and Jeremy were helped by links to my site and news of the poll going up on multiple fan pages and message boards but even still that's a wide margin of victory for Johnny. Here's a chance to sound off...why is Johnny the most appealing? Is it his three national titles? His snippy wit and very quotable soundbites? His style? You tell me...I received an e-mail from a blog reader asking me to define what I mean't about Savchenko and Szolkowy losing the 'expectations race' in my European Championships Pairs preview. What I mean by this is the expectation by spectators, fellow competitors, and even judges that you're the ones to beat. If you're winning those expectations and you skate flawlessly against competitors that also skate clean , you're more likely to take the title if you've won the expectations race. For example, let's say Savchenko and Szolkowy lose Europeans...even finish 3rd. They go to the Olympics and skate a clean short and a clean long...but so does Shen and Zhao. Because of Shen and Zhao's wins, they are winning the expectations race, and are awarded the Gold. Seems like this shouldn't happen and points should just be points but expectations absolutely factor into judging.
Two Google searches have been landing people on this blog over-and-over recently (and they are oddly connected). Don't know what it is about always wondering rather male skaters are gay or not but the most recent skater people are curious about is reigning U.S. Ice Dance Champion Charlie White. The answer, I believe (although I'm not at all sure why it's important), is no. To go further into the intrigue, I've heard that Charlie White and Tanith Belbin are an item (Keep thy friends close and thine enemies closer! Hehe.). Going further, the other blog search that keeps landing people on my blog is about Tanith's old fling Evan Lysacek and if he and Olympic Champion gymnast Nastia Liukin are dating. There's nothing official out there but I have it on good authority (sorry, my sources must remain confidential) that they were in fact dating...but then it was off...but now, maybe, it's back on. Love is in the air?Finally, just a cute interesting find. I first saw this on Blazing Blades and it's just so darn cute! Take a look at Irina Slutskaya making her singing debut. I love her face at the end as she is frozen under the ice!
