Winter: A Love-Hate Thing

   French Ice Dance Winners Papadakis and Cizeron: Breathtakingly beautiful

 

Winter is very confusing for me. It is not good for me. I am one of those people who suffer from the darker months. Nearly every winter strikes me down with some nasty bug or other and I seem to take longer than most people to recover from them. Much as I try to stay bright and cheery, November, December and January get me down. I am worse going towards the winter solstice than going away from it because then, my head starts to tell me that it will get better, that when winter comes spring cannot be far behind. That is all very well but it seems like a double edged sword with me wishing my life away waiting for the next summer.  

A week or so in Switzerland gives me a lift because we stay in a high resort and because of that it is brighter due to there being less cloud cover. The mountain air is good for my asthma too; nice pure, clean air to breathe and I sleep more soundly as well. A break from traffic pollution is always a blessing even when only for a short period.

 

Sergei Voronov who is a big favourite of mine combining masculine strength with pure balletic body movements and supreme feeling for the music. Frequently robbed in my opinion yet still at the top at around twenty eight years old.

 

On the bright side, I enjoy watching winter sports more than the summer ones Eurosport does a marvellous job at covering all the sports I like to watch on TV. I am an absolute figure skating nut. Steve dutifully records every moment of the ISU Grand Prix series for me then we watch them in the order of my own person preferences: Men’s Free (long programme), Men’s Short (Or short men as Steve teases) then Pairs short and free, then Ice Dance Short and Free and sorry ladies but I admit that ladies events come last on my list although I do want to see them all, every moment and both rounds if there is time.

 

Yulia Lipnitskaya 

Then when the competitions are all over there is the Gala; where all the medallists from all the events perform and sometimes one or two upcoming skaters, juniors, from the host country. Steve has taken me on quick trips to see some of the top World or European events live where ever they are, as long as it is either a short haul flight or a drive. The event we buy tickets for is just the Men’s free programme. It’s a power thing I guess; Power and perfection, technical and artistic ability, musical interpretation, strength and stamina.

 

Young Nathan Chen of the USA

 

Steve has been suffering figure skating for so many years that he also knows all the rules and will shout at the judges as loudly as I do. They do have favourites much as they may deny it. They also seem to have an unwritten rule about young people who have only just graduated from Junior Championships. No matter how good they are in the first season, they cannot win, it won’t be allowed. They have to do a sort of senior apprenticeship or so it seems to me.

 

There is an abundance of young skaters arriving on the scene and it is a cruel sport where it is hard to break into the big time and then they are lucky to survive through to the end of their twenties because it is also a tremendously injurious sport. Young Shoma Uno shown here.

The young 2014 Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu has won three of the Grand prix’s and has broken ten world records for gaining the highest marks in major events. It looks to me as though the only way he could be beaten is for somebody to kidnap his mascot, that is a big yellow Winnie the Pooh that his coach world beater extraordinaire Brian Orser has charge of on rink side. Orser has to hold Pooh Bear at the barrier whilst Yuzuru skates, having tweaked his nose before he starts. I can see the ransom note in my minds eye; “Mess up your big 16 point combination or the bear gets it!”