I was looking all over the web for a good summary of last night's men's short program, and finally found this one. Great job and fun to read!

I do have to say that I didn't completely enjoy Plushenko's performance, however, I find it funny that you said "Even Dick Button said after the fact that he found Plushenko's skating last night sloppy and uninspired, specifically calling out his plodding footwork.". Dick Button is a smug jerk! He can't EVER say anything nice about a skater's performance. I was not at all surprised that he would be the same mean person when referring to someone who emulates him.

I disagree with what you said about Johnny Weir. I think he is a great skater. But you are correct in that the Japanese were totally awesome.

Danielle: It's true that Button can be, shall we say, prickly. However, he can be quite effusive with his praise when it's earned. Did you happen to catch him talking about Sasha Cohen during the most recent nationals? He was falling all over himself saying how amazing she was. I started to wonder if he had a Sasha Cohen shrine back in his house...

It was a delight to read your comments. It was exactly my thought. Jumps done gracefully are exciting, but the footwork and spins of Lambiel were just breathtaking. They really should count for more. I agree that the new scoring does not reward adequately the most graceful skaters. Figure skating should not become an "extreme" sport.

I think this article is the opinion of one ordinary person who probably never goes to skate himself and now decided to judge these skaters along with Dick Button. I completely disagree about Johnny Weir. His performance was awesome! And about Plushenko's skating. You say "But I don't think he's a particularly graceful skater, I don't think he's particularly artistic, and I have always found him to be beyond smug". What is your meaning of grace and artistism?

Liz: Um, yes. This is the opinion of an ordinary person who never goes skating. That's why it's on the Entertainment Blog. I never passed myself off as a skating expert, nor would I. I'm just writing my impressions of what I watched.

For what it's worth, I have been watching skating competitions for as far back as I can remember. I've had my eyes glued on Olympics after Olympics, national championship after national championship. I feel that, at this point, I know what good skating is, and what good skating isn't -- at least, to me. It's all relative. It's all opinion. And that's what this is: opinion. It was never passed off as anything else.

Plushenko used to win in the old system as well is in the current. it's not the system to blame, this is the performance. why all the bias? Plusenko was the best in the short . but this is only the beginning - who is the first to fall down? a year ago nobody believed Plushenko might be back - he had injuries, no training, etc. The fact thatyou never cared for Plushenko doesn't mean one can forget about all the medals he already has. but you are right - he is the legend.

I think the last skater from the Czech Republic was flawless last night. However, his score was an atrocity for the sport of figure skating!

I agree with the writer. The Russian is smug and boring. I hope Evan wins Thusday night. A great read by the writer.

Where can I find video of 4th place Nobunari Oda? I wish I knew more about figure skating, then perhaps I would understand why more was not made of that incredible
performance.

The difference between artistry and non-artistic is really simplistic. Plushenko went through all the motions of being a skater, with the E-motion. His skating is mechanical and contrived. He can jump, he is a tall athletic figure, but there is no soul in his skating - its all about execution and negotiating the elements. Evan and Johnny put their heart into it - and it shows. Unfortunately, the judges see just what they need to see and nothing more. Plushenko will will because he can dazzle with technique - thats the bottom line!!

As a Canadian watching the coverage on CTV, there was so much media pressure on Patrick Chan and it's too bad he had some mistakes and a -1 deduction for a music violation. I am hoping with the pressure reduced back in 7th he can have an amazing lomng program and perhaps reach the podium. I was really impressed with Evan and all the Japanese skaters. They all seemed so inspired. Also found the youngest guy from KAZ at 16 to be a wow! Talk about the Olympic spirit. He grew up idolizing Evan L and now is competing against him. I am not for the field being cut at 24 from 30 after the short program. Afterall, these atheletes have all trained hard and deserve to be able to compete in the long program. What is an extra 30 minutes of watching 6 more athletes compete? Anyone notice some of the costumes being a little odd? From framers to Halloween skeletons, some seemed a bit out of place but individuality is important! I am cheering on Evan, Patrick and the Japanese contingent.

I think the judging, except for the last CZE skater was fair. It's a virtual tie from 1st to 3rd! How exciting!

Maria: You can find footage of Nobunari Oda's short performance at nbcolympics.com. Just search his name.

Well, I completely disagree....in my opinion, Plushenko's right. The sport's stagnating. As figure skating is still classified as a sport I think the technical side is extremely important. If the artistry becomes more important which is a very relative thing and very easily an object of manipulation, we can exclude figure skating from olympics. I don't see any difference between the quality of lysacek's skating and let's say elvis stojko 15 years ago. Although it's nice, there's nothing breathtaking, nothing that I haven't seen before. As I say, very nice performance that would be exceptional 15 years ago. As for me, I wanna see the quads in men's competition. I wanna see a difference between women and men. I wanna see an advance in the technic, I wanna see something new. A challenge. Taking some risk, showing something that we haven't seen before. I agree with Plushenko and Jobert that a quad jump is a must for an olympic winner these days. For god's sake, it's 2010, let's move. For me this is an artistry. I think Plushenko is by far the most charismatic and talented skater and if his Godfather's performance in Torino wasn't artistic, then I really don't know what is. The truth is that even an average skater can handle transitions well, but there's few that can handle quands well....I'm sorry, but considering what happened lately, I strongly believe that all this is closely related to the fact that in US and Canada there's nobody who could match Plushenko these days, so let's focus on artistry this time. When a jumping star arises than the jumps will be important. Inman's email sent to 60 judges with some of his 'recommendations' is something unbelievable. Incredibly filthy. I believe european skaters really are entitled to mock at these olympic games. The czech guy did the short program perfectly, i guess it wasn't only him who was surprised by low marks. If the olympic winner will be a guy who cannot jump a quad without falling down on his ass and needs a support of US lobby to win the competition, figure skating's done. Yes, let's move, quads are useless, let's focus more on music, costumes and facial expression. It's impossible to put both, great footwork and perfect jumps into 2 minutes time. You have to choose. Plushenko goes for the risk and challenge, Lysacek is undoubtly a great skater, but will never be a legend because he just does what is required but nothing over the top. For me, this is a competition, you can show your emotions in the final exhibition. In the competition, technical marks must be more important, because this is the only fairly measurable thing. Everything else is just a matter of subjective opinion, which as we can see, is very easy to change simply by sending a short email.

Eve, I totally agree with you. First of all, figure skating is a sport on the first place,and only then it is an artistic performance. In sport in order to be a winner one have to be an exceptional sportsman, not an exceptional artist. There are a lot of graceful figure skaters, but they are not winners in the end of day. Plushenko in competition is just doing rational choice. And with the new system, everyone needs to do that.
But in order to be called "king" as Plushenko(and not by figure skating comitees, but by public, who usually cares more about performance), one has to be an exceptional sportsmen and artist.