by Maia & Carol
Hello all, Carol and I were fortunate to be able to attend the men's LP's on Thursday night. Yes, I realize it's now Saturday but we needed some down time and we were trying get as much of the Olympic experience in as possible. Anyway, here are some quick notes on Todd:
Todd looked tight coming out for the warm ups. He wasn't able to warm up any of his triple/triple combinations. He did a very tilting triple loop, so could not tack on a triple toe at the end. He attempted a triple axel and fell hard on his hip. He kept rubbing it as he circled the ice a few times. We think Richard tried to get him to loosen up after that. Todd tried another triple axel and landed it, but again did not tack on a triple toe. He then missed a quad attempt only to land a beautiful, very EASY one right after. He warmed up his lutz (he was pretty slow going into it, but it was a beauty), but not his flip or sal. Then he just skated around for the rest of the warm up. You guys saw his skate so I won't rehash about that. His last spin, though, was uncharacteristerically not centered when he started it. It only took him a second to recenter it, but I don't think you would have noticed unless you were there (the spin was right in front of us). My favorite part was the look on his face after he looked up at the audience and saw everyone standing up for him. Dick Button was sitting one row behind us and Carol saw that he was one of the first to stand up for Todd. He looked overwhelmed by the response and blew a kiss to everyone. The overall feeling was just a real and complete appreciate for Todd and everything he has given to the sport.
If anyone has any question about any of the guys, please ask.
Carol and Maia
