To many of us – the word ‘Sport’
refers to : Test Cricket; One Day International Limited Overs Cricket; T20I and
some other lesser interesting sports like Hockey, Football, Tennis, Table
Tennis, Badminton, Baseball, Volleyball, Athletics and .. ..
I read about
this Sport only now, because of a shocking death news read just now in
MailOnline. Figure skating is a sport in
which individuals, duos, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the
first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the
1908 Olympics in London. The four Olympic disciplines are men's singles,
ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dance; the non-Olympic disciplines
include synchronized skating, Theater on Ice, and four skating. From
intermediate through senior-level competition, skaters generally perform two
programs (the short program and the free skate), which, depending on the
discipline, may include spins, jumps, moves in the field, lifts, throw jumps,
death spirals, and other elements or moves.
The blade of
a figure skate has a groove on the bottom creating two distinct edges: inside
and outside. Judges prefer that skaters glide on one edge of the blade and not
on both at the same time, which is referred to as a "flat edge".
Skates used in singles and pair skating have a set of large, jagged teeth
called a "toe pick" on the front of each blade. The toe picks are
mainly used to help launch the skater into the air for the take-off when
performing jumps. Ice dance blades have smaller toe picks than blades used for
the other disciplines. During a spin, skaters use the "sweet spot" of
the blade, formally called a rocker, which is the roundest portion of the
blade, just behind the toe pick and near the middle of the blade.
The 2018 Winter Olympics was held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in
Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea. This was the second time that South Korea had
hosted the Olympic Games, having previously hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics in
Seoul, but it was the first Winter Olympics to be held in the country. These
were the first of three consecutive Olympic Games to be held in East Asia, the
following two set to be the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (delayed until 2021)
and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. It was the third time that an East Asian
country had hosted the Winter Games, after Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998),
both of these cities in Japan. It was also the first Winter Olympics to be held
in mainland Asia.
The Games featured 102
events over 15 disciplines, a record number of events for the Winter Games.
Four events made their Olympic debut in 2018: "big air" snowboarding,
mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling, and mixed team alpine skiing.
A total of 2,914 athletes from 92 NOCs competed, including the national debuts
of Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore.
After a state-sponsored
doping program was exposed following the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Russian
Olympic Committee was suspended, but selected athletes were allowed to compete
neutrally under the special IOC designation of "Olympic Athletes from
Russia" (OAR). North Korea agreed to participate in the Games despite
tense relations with South Korea; the two nations paraded together at the
opening ceremony as a unified Korea, and fielded a unified team (COR) in the
women's ice hockey. Norway led the total medal
tally with 39, followed by Germany's 31 and Canada's 29. Germany and Norway were tied for the highest
number of gold medals, both winning 14. Host nation South Korea won 17 medals,
their highest medal haul at a Winter Olympics, five of which were gold.
Australian
Olympic figure skater Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya, 20, 'jumps' to her death from
Moscow apartment building after retiring from competiton over 'health concerns'
is the news read in MailOnline. It is reported that Australian figure skating
champion Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya has died at the age of 20 after reportedly
jumping from a window. The cause of the former Olympic skater's death on Friday
in Moscow has not yet been disclosed.
Reports in Russia claim
the former skater may have committed suicide but 'the circumstances of the
incident are being clarified', according to Izvestiu. Miss Alexandroovskaya was
born in Moscow, Russia, but obtained Australian citizenship in 2016. She competed for her adopted country at the
2018 Pyeongchang Olympics with skating partner Harley Windsor. The pair won the
2017 world junior title. Miss Alexandrovskaya retired
from the sport in February after sustaining several injuries. Russian
news agency TASS claim a note saying 'love' was found in her apartment after
her death and an official source said: 'The preliminary cause of death is
suicide.'
Mr Windsor, Australia's
first Indigenous athlete to compete at a Winter Olympics, said he was
'devastated' by the news of her death. He wrote on Instagram: 'The amount we
had achieved during our partnership is something I can never forget and will
always hold close to my heart.' Ian Chesterman, chef de mission for the
Australian team in Pyeongchang, said the news was a terrible blow for all those
who knew the skater. Mr Chesterman said: 'It is enormously sad to lose Katia,
who was a vibrant and talented person and an incredible athlete. 'Life since the Games has not been easy for
her and this is another timely reminder of just how fragile life is.'
It is the second death of
an Australian Winter OIympian in 10 days. Alex Pullin, a two-time world champion
snowboarder and three-time Olympian, drowned while spearfishing on July 8 on
the Gold Coast north of Brisbane. One may not know ‘Figure Skating’ or Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya yet to read of a death of a 20 year old, who had achieved
in life makes a sad reading !
With regards –
S. Sampathkumar
18.7.2020.
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