Ice Dancing! Death-stares! Glorious!

The Olympics are always a big hit in our house, and Sunday provided excitement, indeed. I love human drama. The ice dancing competition has provided one of my favorite Olympic moments so far:

Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, the Italian ice dancers, on day two of the competition, had the lead, but then they and several other competitors tumbled like dominos. I felt bad for all of them, especially the Canadians, whose fall was terrifying. But the Italians blew me away with how they conducted themselves after the mishap.


Compared to last week's heroic performance by Zhang Dan and her partner Zhang Hao, the pairs skaters from China (right), in which Zhang Dan recovered after a horrific fall and the two won silver, the Italian drama unfolded at the end of the competition.















First, here's the Italian ice dancing fall:

The commentators had been remarking how Fusar Poli was the strength of the team and that she was carrying Maragaglio through the performance. Then he goofed, and then the moment at the end of the performance, when most dancers curtsy and wave to the crowd:

Ten, twenty, almost thirty seconds of the two, facing one another, glaring at each other. Um, hello guys, there are a few million people watching. Where's the grace in defeat? The fall I believed, the staredown was priceless. Note, this pose above was after the music was over, and the home crowd was showering them with adulation.

And if that's not bad enough, I mean, my insides are withering under the scrutiny of her death-glare, one of the coaches shot daggers in the "Kiss and Cry" area:


Obviously, Maragaglio took little comfort in the knowledge that the men's 4 x 10K cross country team crushed arch-rival Norway to win the coveted gold medal in that amazing event.

I could go on and on about the Olympics, and may do so later this week, but the death-glare continues to haunt me, even in tape delay.