Reporter's Notebook: Musings From a Figure Skating Novice

(ATR) I must confess that I haven’t attended an Olympic figure skating event since the ladies free skate at the 1992 Albertville Games. I was with CBS Sports working my first Games and I’ll never forget Kristi Yamaguchi’s captivating performance in the French Alps.

Kristi stole my heart and is still my favorite skater to this day.

I’ve meant to attend more high caliber skating competitions over the years – do the Brisbane and Lake Placid Goodwill Games count? However, for some reason either an important ski race, bobsled event or some festive team house celebration has been in the way.

So when I perused the PyeongChang schedule for Friday morning and realized that it was a rest day for the alpine skiers, semifinal hockey games were hours away and I could forego doing laundry for yet one more day here in South Korea, visions of triple axels and toe loops started running through my mind.

I suddenly heard the soothing voice of Dick Button calling my name. Tossing my Gortex ski pants and hard-core outerwear aside for khakis and a long black coat, I bolted off to the Gangneung Ice Arena – ladies free skate here I come!

Suddenly my euphoria turned to fright faster than a Dorothy Hamill sit-spin. I began sweating. It dawned upon me that I would need to ask intelligent, probing questions about ordinals, compulsories and artistic impression. Wait, do they or don’t they still exist? This was going to be much more stressful than I anticipated.

I must say that I was among the very first "figure skating" journalists to arrive in the media tribune. Time for a crash course and who better to seek out than renowned Russian television analyst Alexander Grisham and the incomparable Tatiana Tarasova.

Not wanting to disturb the legendary Tarasova – who has coached more Olympic and world champions than anyone else in the business – I figured Grisham would be my man.

I simply asked Grisham what I need to know to make my mark as a figure skating journalist.

"You need to know that figure skating is the number one sport at the Winter Games and 28 different nations have won medals, more than any other sport," Grisham advised. "Figure skating is like an art and sport all in one."

In fear of looking stupid or worse being asked to leave for the nearby Gangneung Hockey Center, I asked him ‘what should I avoid asking?’

"Ask about everything – figure skaters are very clever, much more clever than hockey players and especially football players," he advised with passion and grace. "They know music, they know choreography and how to dance with each other. But you shouldn’t ask anything to the coach of Medvedeva because she is a…," he said, proceeding to use an unflattering word.

Grisham said if I was lucky I might even witness a wardrobe malfunction and wished me good luck.

Swiss skater Alexia Paganini was the first to take the ice. The 16-year-old glided, twisted and leaped to the music of Phantom Fantastia from Phantom of the Opera. Her passion and zeal on the ice, choreographed to my favorite Broadway tune was a telltale sign that I was in for a winter treat, minus the gusty mountain winds.

The friendly journalist from the winter sports mecca of Lebanon sitting beside me explained the green, yellow and red lights on the feed, which I had failed to notice. Green for a successful technical requirement completed, red for those that were botched and yellow for somewhere in between. The lights flickered and changed colors faster than a Broadway traffic light during rush hour in Manhattan.

Tears began flowing among skaters and journalists alike, myself included, when Hanul Kim, the first of two South Korean skaters completed her long program. The young skater received rapturous applause after performing a season’s best score of 121.38 to take the lead. It was a touching moment.

With Kazakhstan’s Elizabet Tursnybaeva in the lead after two groups, my fear began to set in. It was getting closer to the time that I would have to venture to the mixed zone, ask a legitimate question and prove my mettle to the hardcore journalists of the sport.

Querying gargantuan 230-pound German bobsledders – no problem. Austrian skiers who just DNF’d – no worries. Bloodied and bruised hockey players – not a problem. Eighteen-year-old female figure skaters with intense stares and snarls after one too many falls on the ice – I’m scared. Big time!

As we drew near to the two Russian – I mean OAR – favorites Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva, I told myself the time is now. Citius, Altius, Fortius. I could do this.

The tension was palpable as I approached the mixed zone as a few colorfully attired skaters were having very serious exchanges with solemn journalists. I noticed American skater Bradie Tennell walking in and luckily overheard her whisper to her coach that she lost her voice cheering the U.S. women’s ice hockey team to gold yesterday.

This was my big break! My first question could be about ice hockey, and perhaps my second and even third.

"It was amazing to see them fight to the bitter end," Tennell told me about her ice hockey experience, showing great approval to my question. "It went to a shoot-out and was a nail-biter. It was incredible to be there and I’m so happy for them to pull it off."

Responding to my second question ‘are figure skaters just as athletic as all other winter sport athletes here?,’ Tennell answered with conviction: "Oh definitely, figure skaters are very athletic, it is so important to eat right, stay in shape and our season is very long too."

Feeling relieved as if I had passed the toughest test of my day, I sprinted back upstairs just in time to catch the final three performances of the Russian skaters Alina Zagitova, Evgenia Medvedeva and Canadian Kaetlyn Osmond.

All three young ladies dazzled and delighted with their artistry and athleticism. I was highly impressed. The 15-year-old Zagitova narrowly edged her fellow Russian Medvedeva to win the Olympic Athletes from Russia’s first gold medal of the PyeongChang Games.

I was there to witness this monumental morning that will go down as one of the most compelling ladies finals in Olympic figure skating history.

As far as a future encounter with Tarasova over black tea to discuss the evolution of the triple toe loop from the Golden era of Soviet skating until now, well, we’ll have to wait and see.

Written by Brian Pineill in Gangneung

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