Mao Asada's golden moment of pure courage

a nice little article i found

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/simon_barnes/article3606532.ece

Quote :

Anyone who thinks that figure skating is not a sport is invited to walk across an ice-rink and jump up and down. I tell you, it's slippery out there. The more extreme your manoeuvre, the more likely you are to fall over. Nijinsky performed the miraculous entrechat-dix, but at least he landed on firm ground. But a triple axel has to be perfect. If it isn't, you are on your bum.

Figure skating is one of sport's high-wire acts; and perhaps the most regularly humiliating. I watched Mao Asada, of Japan, going into her first jump, a triple axel - the big one in women's competition, it requires 3 revolutions - and she fell on take-off. It was as if she was attached to the ice by bungee straps. I expected her to move on from error to error, murdering Chopin with a rictus of a smile, too much make-up and ice in her knickers.

But no. She got up and skated perfection: six triples, four doubles, wonderful elevation on every jump and all the flow and lyricism you could want in between. It was enough to give her the gold medal at the World Championships in Gothenburg and it was as wonderful and as pure a piece of sport as you could wish for.

Hemingway defined courage as “grace under pressure”; you could hardly find a better example.

Asada is 17.

Nice article, indeed. Thanks for the link, Helen!