2/20/2006: Oops times five
Ice dancing isn't known for falls, and it isn't known for girl-throwing either.. until Sunday night, that is.
No less than five - count 'em, five!! - couples crashed during their original dance, the second of three rounds of competition for the event. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I love to see a beautiful, cleanly-skated routine full of grace and impressive moves.. but I can't help chuckling when they bounce.
Natalie Pechalat of France, above, went down first. Then it turned into a body count event as the medal contenders hit the ice. Pretty soon it didn't look so much like an elegant ice dance event so much as it looked like a hockey game.. with plumage.
Margarita Drobiazko of Lithuania opted to pull her partner & husband Povilas Vanagas down with her, which proved to be a popular falling style for the evening.
Italian team Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali had the crowd behind them, but it didn't help. She too did a pull-him-down-with-me maneuver when she went down.
Was it nerves? Pressure? The added tricky bits thrown in for the first time to appeal to the new points-based judging system? Maybe all of those, but I suspect it was as much bits of stray glitter, sequins and feathers as anything.. there were more of each of those than a Mardi Gras or Gay Pride parade.
Dick Button put it best: "What's going on?"
The other Italian team, Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, had the funniest spill because of what followed it. They were in the lead going into the event and were doing great until they went down. When the music stopped they had a staredown that was more chilling than the surface of the ice.
But the most spectacular and least funny crash came from Canada's Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon. She was wrapped around him as he was spinning when she lost her grip and went flying. She landed HARD on her hip.. the centrifugal force of the spin didn't help.
Dubreuil was in visible pain as Lauzon helped her off the ice, and she was taken out by stretcher to hospital. Nothing was broken, but they've withdrawn from tonight's finals.
On yesterday's "Push Dick's Button", the viewer mail portion of USA Network's "Olympic Ice" program, someone wrote in that her kid enjoyed watching the figure skaters fall. She sounded a little distressed by this and probably wasn't comforted by Button's answer that yea, it can be funny. He went on to say that there probably wouldn't be many falls in the evening's ice dance competition, as it just doesn't happen often like it does in the pairs and singles. I hope the kid wasn't discouraged by that answer and that he or she watched (and enjoyed) last night's many bounces.
