Pairs Short Program

Figure skating competition begins today with the Pairs Short Program. Before I came to the Olympics there were favorites to win the pairs, either the Germans or the Chinese. I have attended all official pair practices in the PAC arena and can report, that there are at least 5 teams that could win this event. Watching all the practices you can tell who is skating well/poor, who is in the best physical condition, who has good timing, etc. Some teams would do complete run thrus on practice sessions, some teams only did sections (this is over a 5 day practice schedule). Both American teams did complete run thrus every practice session, while the Germans, Chinese and Russians only did program sections. One Olympic coach said to me, "We train at home like we are at a competition, and we train at the competition like we are home." I thought that was interesting. It is fun to talk with Olympic coaches and hear their different strategies on how to handle practice sessions. I should note that at the Olympics Games, figure skating practices are closed to the public. However here in Vancouver the IOC opened at least one practice session for each discipline to the public (needless to say the few practice sessions that were opened to the public sold out in less than 4 hours).
So the last pair practice was full and you could really feel the passion being displayed by both the skaters and audience. Time to head out to the arena for the competition, I'll blog the drama later...