The Olympic Games 2010 - Krail & Peter about the ODs

By Leonie Krail and Oscar Peter
Photos © Absolute Skating

 

We already saw great performances in figure skating from the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. First we had the pairs with their amazing finish. Then there was the mens’ event which was very strong. And after one day off after the compulsory dance the teams took the ice again to perform their original dance. We even had some friends come over to cheer for our mutual friends. The original dance event exceeded our expectations and we had a great evening watching each couple. This year the theme for the original dance was folk dance and it was really fun to watch all the couples skating in different traditional costumes. Each of the programs had their own highlights which made this event so attractive.

We thought the couple from Great Britain, Penny Coomes/Nicholas Buckland, had an interesting program. They skated to Irish folk music and captured their characters pretty well. They were both wearing traditional Irish costumes; Penny wore a red dress and Nicholas had dark green pants and an elegant white shirt.
We liked their interpretation of this program. The crowd liked this performance as well but when the points came up (46.33) they started to boo. We knew why the score was low though, they just didn’t have enough deep edges in their step sequences and the elements weren’t clean enough. But we really liked the first lift were Nicholas turns her while she is upside down.

In first place after the original dance are Virtue/Moir (CAN). Theirs was an admirable performance! Tessa and Scott had chosen a flamenco which they skated clean and with a lot of expression. Their lifts and moves are very innovative and they really deserve this lead. They used the new judging system for the best and earned 68.41 points for their original dance.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White (USA) skated to Indian folk music and they have one of the best original dances this season. The choreography is really exclusive and the music and moves matched perfectly.

The most popular OD this year comes from Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin skating to aboriginal music. As many of you already know the Australian aborigines were not happy about this program. But we also know that Oksana and Maxim and coach/choreographer Natalya Linichuk never intended to make fun of these people. They even changed the music and the costumes a week before this event. Maybe you noticed that Oksana removed the skull from the back and Maxim wore a whiter shade instead of the dark brown. This program was worked out to the last detail and this was their best performance so far this season. They earned a total of 62.84 points in the OD and are currently in 3rd place. They still have a chance to improve this position.

Belbin/Agosto (USA) are in 4th place. They were the last couple out and skated to Moldavian folk music and obviously enjoyed skating in front of this friendly crowd. We thought that maybe people didn’t understand their program though. Tanith and Ben still have a chance to fight for a higher position.

Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, the Italian couple, performed an Italian folk dance. They had lots of temperament in this program and showed, in our opinion, the strongest edges in the steps and they skated clean. They only questionable element was the twizzle, because they didn’t get the highest level. They are currently in 5th place.

The French couple Delobel/Schoenfelder skated to French folk music. We really liked the idea of this program, but they just weren’t completely ready for this event. It didn’t look effortless for her, and Olivier was noticeably pulling her a lot. They are in 6th place and a little far away from the medals now. But we still look forward to their free dance!