those readers who could care less about figure skating can stop reading right now. i promise to stop my figure skating mania when the olympics are over. but for now: yay for figure skating!
one of nbc's figure skating commentators is a guy named dick button, and they talk about him like he's the best thing since sliced bread. he (apparently) is the last man to win figure skating gold in two consecutive olympics - the 1948 and 1952 games. this entertains me greatly, because that was a LONG ASS TIME AGO. i spent some time thinking today: if a man can do a quadruple axel in competition now and couldn't ten years ago, what was competitive figure skating like 60 years ago? answer: silly. through the wonders of youtube, i bring you footage of dick button's gold medal winning performances in 1948 and 1952.
silly things:
1. 1948 - they skated outside!
2. the skaters look like waiters (rhymes!) - they are wearing ties and tuxedo-like outfits. johnny weir does not wear a tie.
3. dick button won a gold medal with THAT performance? and another gold medal with the THAT one? i would like to see the performance of someone who didn't place. i predict they just skated around in circles. (okay, okay, i can't even come close to dick button's performance. i'll give the man his due. he jumps really high and doesn't fall and some of the elements are identical to today's performances. but still. silliness.)
But the voice-over assures us that Mr. Button's(sound's like a cat's name when you say it that way) performance "electrified the audience." Since they were outside in Oslo in February, the audience probably needed some electrification. In any event, Mr. Button was a MUCH better skater than he is an announcer.
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