Top U.S. Skaters Now Bound for Boston

TV sports coverage brought some exciting moments this weekend.

In addition to learning the Super Bowl 50 teams (Denver and Charlotte), the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships took place in St. Paul, Minn., bringing back memories of skating in the Land of 10,000 Lakes and a trek to the Nationals in Greenville, S.C., a year ago.

Though I was not in the building for the 2016 event, the U.S. Figure Skating P.R. team on site helped answer some emailed questions for the top women on skates: Gracie Gold, Polina Edmunds and Ashley Wagner, who finished Saturday with scores of 210.46, 207.51 and 197.88, respectively. 

Gold's gold medal score set a new record in domestic figure skating scoring at a U.S. Figure Skating qualifying competition, according to this press release. 

All three women, as well as men's medalists Max Aaron, Nathan Chen and Adam Rippon will soon head to the 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships from March 28 to April 3 in Boston. 

Pairs skaters and ice dance teams from Team USA will also head to Beantown. 

A slightly different field of Team USA athletes will also compete in Chinese Taipei next month. 

I wanted to know the skaters' preparations for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics in relation to the National Championship results. Knowing it was a long shot my questions would reach the women's competitors, I kept things brief and looked to the future, asking "With focus turning to Boston prep, how are you and your coaching team keeping the Korea 2018 Olympic in mind?" and "Is your trek to the next Olympics on schedule, behind schedule or ahead of schedule and how/why?" 

With thanks again to the P.R. team from U.S. Figure Skating for facilitating the questions, Wagner spoke to the Olympic topic.

"My training this year has been so astronomically different than in years past and I have shown up to every single competition so physically prepared for what I need to do," said Wagner. "I think that now we need to reassess a little bit to work on the mental training.

"This year I have committed myself to really attacking everything and so this Nationals -- while it might not be, you know, a gold in the books, at the same time everything that happened was not because I was holding back; I really was attacking everything -- so going into Worlds, hopefully leading up to Korea, it's more about continuing this mindset."

When asked about the pace of her "schedule" for PyeongChang prep, Wagner said, "I think I'm right where I want to be. I would love to be on the top leaving this Nationals but [being] three-time National champion stills holds some weight and goes to show I have staying power."

One surprise from the 2016 event in St. Paul: last year's men's champion, Jason Brown, unfortunately withdrew due to a back injury. It is my understanding the petitioned for a spot on the ISU Worlds and other international competitions, but he was not listed -- even as an alternate -- when the official selections were announced today. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery for Brown. 

Event logos via U.S. Figure Skating; Gold photo via Associated Press; Wagner photo via St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Blast In Boston

Sad to learn yesterday's news of explosions on the home stretch to the Boston Marathon finish line.

As tragic it is that so many were injured (with three reported deaths as of this post), from my view things might have been a lot worse (thank goodness not) had the explosions detonated near grandstands filled with fans for the first-to-finish celebrity/international runners.

Not long after the Boston blasts, I noted many news outlets quickly drew comparisons to the Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Olympics, and NBC Nightly News pointed out how a lot of counter-terrorism measures kicked in after the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Associated Press compiled a list of U.S. bombings since the 1800s, with many bomb blasts with which I was not familiar.

Of course, sitting today in the Oklahoma City suburb Edmond, memories of April 19, 1995, are on the brain. So pleased it was not worse in Boston (those days/weeks just after the OKC bombing were rough).

Comparing notes with an Olympic friend last night, I shared my hunch is that the Boston attacks are the work of a domestic attacker, perhaps someone trying to copy the Centennial Olympic Park bomber in some way. The same friend suspects the attack is politically motivated given the international field of runners in the prestigious race. North Korea comes to mind but only as a result of recent headlines (seems highly unlikely they could pull off something in Boston and then sit on it without taking credit).

It's frustrating that only time and hard work by investigators will reveal the culprits. Here's hoping this one can get solved quickly with a lucky break (like investigators enjoyed in Oklahoma, leading to a quick arrest).

One has to wonder how the Boston Marathon attacks may guide the potential beantown Olympid bid for 2024, the city's third consideration of an Olympic bid. Security updates are already announced for the 2016 Games and the 2020 Olympic bid candidate cities in response to yesterday's events.

It's interesting to note Boston's many nicknames include The Athens of America. Be safe. Keep running!

Photos via this link

The Social Network and the Olympics

Just got home from a matinee screening of "The Social Network" at Midtown Art Cinema.

"The Social Network" is about the best film I've seen in months, including a thoughtful, compelling and dry humor-packed script, an outstanding soundtrack (thrilled to see Trent Reznor in the opening credits), excellent acting, interesting photography (would love to know how they filmed the rowing competition to make it look like a miniature landscape), a bit of recent history and, of course, an Olympic connection.

Actually, two Olympic connections (or three, if you count each involved Olympian twin once).

Before getting to these five-ringed ties, a bit about the "The Social Network" overall:

I've only been in Boston twice, and on the Harvard campus once, during October in 2003, when and where this film opens. Through some of the opening sequences of Mark Zuckerberg trekking to his dorm after a breakup, the filmmakers really nailed it capturing the Harvard experience of an autumn evening. There's a curious energy -- perhaps from the convergence of intellectuals, money, society, history and creativity -- on the campus and somehow they caught it. Brilliant!

Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed by "Zombieland" and "Adventureland" co-star Jesse Eisenberg, and this role is likely going to go Oscar (I predict a nomination at least). He does a fine job delivering Zuckerberg douche bag one-liners as cool as George Carlin and his matter-of-fact style and timing.

I highly recommend seeing this film.

Much has been made in press and reviews for "The Social Network" regarding the film's dramedy versus factual portrayal of Facebook's early days. In my book, mincing the facts for the sake of a more entertaining story is OK in the movies (provided the mincing is acknowledged). But I did take issue with one of the mini-fictions portrayed in "The Social Network," and this is where the Olympic connections come into the picture.

Two of the main characters in both the true, and faux-non-fiction, stories of Facebook are the twin Olympic rowers for Team USA: Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss.

I must admit, unfortunately, in spite of Olympic writing and travels, today was the first time either of their names came into my world. Apparently they both competed in rowing at the Beijing Olympics (and I even went to the rowing venue in 2008!). One must take for granted that the filmmakers for"The Social Network" took liberties with their portrayal of with Winklevoss twins.

But where the filmmakers crossed the line, or brought even more fiction into the mix, is during a scene of "The Social Network" where the Winklevi (a clever nickname from Zuckerberg) allegedly met Prince Albert of Monaco at a British rowing event.

They got this scene downright wrong on three details (here comes the Nick-nitpicking).

First off, Prince Albert of Monaco does not have a British accent (duh!).

Next, Prince Albert, though articulate, thoughtful and genuine in conversations and public events, could not have stated the script as shown in the film, for Mr. Grimaldi has a very slight stutter (10/3: correction speech impediment*), which is apparent in an interview with the Monégasque IOC member for this blog (here's a link to that interview filmed in Vancouver earlier this year).

Third, I doubt that such an introduction of the Winklevoss brothers would have taken place without some Olympic discussion during the conversation, seeing as the Winklevoss Twins aspired to compete in Beijing and Prince Albert is a five time Olympian.

Did the screenwriters or the actor portraying Prince Albert, James Shanklin, do ANY research of Prince Albert (other than his haircut and suits ... oh, wait, the makeup and costume crews did that research)? It came as no surprise to discover that Shanklin's background includes acting in soap operas and the occasional TV episode. Bravo!

OK, that's all the nitpicking for this post.

Like I wrote, "The Social Network" is excellent and worth the time and ticket price -- and (bonus!) not a single car chase, firearm or 34B breast on screen (though Zuckerberg does reference at least one of these three topics in one of his blog posts at the opening of the film.

Enjoy!

*10/3: Upon reflection since original post, determined he does not really have a stutter, but rather a regular pause during speech.