Blades of Glory

I enjoy watching the Olympics for the reasons of global unity, witnessing the talented athletes in awe, and specifically, men's figure skating.

Now that's a Chad Michael Michael move.

Now, don't get me wrong. I can appreciate the talent these guys have as you will not find me attempting double sow cows and triple lutzes or even spinning for days. However, there was a time of my life where I applied rhinestones to anything I could get my hands on, but that's about all we have in common.

The famous Candadian Pleshenko, or Plinko as I like to think, from The Price is Right. (source)

The figure skating competitions are pure comedy to watch. Scott and I (much to his chagrin) gather 'round the telly and watch these serious guys mentally prepare walking down the arena halls with their ear muff-like head phones, visualizing the routine. You see them stretching out in their J-Lo v-neck costumes that connect to their skates (how do they do that??) and emblazoned in rhinestones. It's an awesomely hot mess.

He is really in the moment. (source)

Now if you happen to be a men's figure skater/dating one/married to one, please don't think I am criticizing, I mean come on, we haven't touched on curling. The routines that are performed truly seem like the same components interspersed with freestyle ice dancing. They start with a triple lutz or some other fancy move (and Scott Hamilton will generally exclaim how amazing it is executed), followed by some wide arm fly-skating past the judges into a second trauma-inducing jump, more skating around freestyle, and ending with a 5 minutes of spinning in the center of rink. It's such a formula-doesn't anyone else (hello, looking at you judges) notice that?

The sheer seriousness and rhinestones are what mostly get me though. I know these men train as much if not more as everyone else at the Olympics. They just get the comedy gold from me.