Recent content by barbk

It's a country and I'd definitely count it as a Nationals.

They can't manufacture money out of thin air. I've read of other tour agencies that are struggling to provide refunds because suppliers they used haven't yet given them refunds and they've also spent money they will never get refunded on staff and other expenses. The cruiselines, which have...

Really lovely story on Chusovitina https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/11/world/oksana-chusovitina-olympic-gymnast-profile/index.html

Butryskaya Lipinski Weiss Wagner Sokolova Bradley Petrenko Jen Robinson

Did you keep a list of who was who by all the different names in the book? That's what took me down.

Sadness. I saw Kurt Thomas (and Bart Connor) at practice at UCLA before a competition in the late 70's. He was an amazing gymnast. RIP.

I love Willa Cather. If you haven't already read Death Comes for the Archbishop, you might like that too. I read it during a nice week visiting a friend who lived in Santa Fe. I used to get up really early and walk from her adobe on Canyon Road through downtown and the Plaza area before the...

Mark Ladwig, U.S. Figure Skating’s top athlete leader who last year made controversial comments defending a pairs skater suspended for alleged sexual abuse, no longer holds athlete leadership roles within the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee or U.S. Figure Skating. Ladwig has been replaced...

Thanks for all these comments. I really enjoyed reading them -- and trying to think back to being in Minneapolis for that event. My memories include being thrilled for Kwan that she skated well, impressed as heck with Rechnio, and wondering why Canadian ladies skaters were so bad compared to the...

Nice story on Suni Lee: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/sports/olympics/sunisa-lee-gymnast-********.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Sports Some sad info about her dad's paralysis right before nationals. She's got a lot of mental toughness to have made it through the...

I saw him skate live eight or ten times. He could be electric or just a jumping machine. This choreography was fantastic. Many times his choreography was not. However, his skating always had attack and speed. The international competitions where both he and Yagudin skated were usually terrific...

I totally enjoyed that and I don't think I have ever seen that particular performance before. Probably the best skating I've ever seen of his.

Boginskaya has more elegance, but at least two little wobbles. Boginskaya's landing looked prettier, but Bo was smooth and crisp all the way through and totally secure. Thoughts on why the judging gave them the same mark?

Soon, I hope. Sleazy scumbags.

This makes me laugh at how we all see distance in a very relative fashion. Around here, an hour is really close. People would probably say that any college within a four-hour drive is close. Heck, even when I lived all of 3 miles from UCLA, driving there often took 30 minutes. It was still close.