Hi :-)

MEN
As for men, personally I doubt Alexei will win gold. So far I haven't heard
anything about him skating a clean FP all season (or did he in SC? I don't
remember how I heard he skated there) and my feeling is that the man who
wins will have skated a clean program.
Besides, I saw Alexei training in Lausanne and he doesn't look too good. He
lands most of his jumps, but when they're done from little speed and they're
not too high and don't cover that much length. Often the flow out of the
jumps was also pretty bad. Generally he does skate better during his actual
performances (he somehow gives more on those jumps, but as you've probably
seen, he's not super consisitent with them, when he tries to give them more
quality).
Sasha Abt makes an incredible impression in training it's like watching a
World Champion, he just soares past Yags and apart from the quad he's
extremely consistent. Sasha's quads are never landed at the first attempt,
it usually takes about 3-4 failures before he gets it, but once he lands the
first one you will not see him fall. Generally Sasha actually looked even
better in practice than during the competition (well, apart from the
qualification round which obviously put less pressure on him and btw, he
landed more jumps in qualification than Yags did too)
Then again Yags is really good at motivating himself, when it's the most
important (just looking at the difference between practice and performace
utterly convinces me of that), so I'm not really expecting him to make more
than 1-2 mistakes in the FP at Olys and since he'll probably be doing a more
difficult program than he did at Euros (I saw him land a 4toe/3toe/2loop in
practice), I feel that probably Sasha Abt will not be able to win with Yags.
Personally I think the gold will go to Plushy. I mean Plushy skated a clean
FP at the GPF even when he had 2 injuries! And that's what to me proves he
is the most secure skater on the jumps.
He's also changed his FP (most of you have probably already heard this).
Plushy will skate to Carmen at Olys. It's probably a much more safe approach
than whatever he did at GPF (I didn't see it), so I think he probably won't
be taken down for presentation (then again what do I know... I thought Sasha
Abt shouldn't have been taken down for presentation at Euros either).
So basically my guess is:
1 - Plushy
2 - Yags
3 - Sasha (or put it this way, looking a his progress - I mean it was no
once in a lifetime performance at Euros, he did very well in all 3 parts of
the competition, I think he will deserve to be in the medals, I'm not
entirely sure if the judges will give it to him - after all the Olys are in
the States and since Todd and Tim are definetely a possibility for the
medals, they may prefer to give it to one of them...)

However, of course anything could happen! And that's the joy of men's
skating :-)

LADIES
I'm surprised Sarah Hughes is not in your prediction. I mean looking at this
whole season, she seems to be the most consistent skater in the ladies.
Also, lots of people thought she should have won with Kwan on a number of
times.
I don't really have a prediction myself. Ladies are the discipline with the
most jumping up and down in the ranking.
I see it as a battle between the Russians and Americans. So basically, I
think the following have a shot at being in the medals: Irina, Maria,
Victoria, Michelle, Sarah, Sasha.

PAIRS
This is the discipline where I think a lot is fixed... Unless one of these 3
couples have a disaster than the order will probably be:
1. S&P
2. B&S
3. S&Z

I'll be extremely happy if I'm wrong. Personally, I would really like S&Z to
win. They've improved incredibly on presentation and their new program is
extremely difficult (there is absolutely no preparation for the elements).
They've also said they might go for a throw 4salchow! That could really
challenge B&S and S&P. Well, we'll see....
I'd also like someone else to actually have a fair shot at the podium. I
mean B&S have the most simple lifts in the top 10 and yet their technical
marks are always very high (I'm not going to moan about their presentation
marks because their presentation is fantastic, but they really do not have
the technique to match).
And btw, I heard T&M are also getting somekind of surprise ready... Looking
at their strong sides I'd say it will probably be something to do with side
by side jumps, but I have no idea - it could be some completely different
element.

DANCE
The nice thing is that this year it is not easily predictable :-)
my guess is A&P will be first. So far that's what it looks like (they did
loose to B&K at the GPF, but they made mistakes on the twizzles and only
lost by one judge anyway). Apart from that this is really hard to predict.
B&K definetely have a shot for the silver, so do FP&M and L&A. Sadly, I
don't think D&V do :-( although they are a couple on a similar level.

Take care everyone :-) And thanks Angie for starting this topic :-) It's
interesting to hear what all of you think :-)

Monika

----- Original Message -----
From: babybirdhitz <babybirdhitz@...>
To: <stephane_lambiel@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 9:44 PM
Subject: [stephane_lambiel] Olympics!


> Hi every1!
>
> here's my predictions for Olympics!
> Men: 1st Alexei Yagudin
> 2nd Plushenko, Abt or Todd Eldregde or Goeble
> 3rd Abt, or Todd Eldredge, or Plushenko, Maybe Elvis Stojko, or
> Goebel
>
> Ladies: 1st Michelle Kwan
> 2nd Irina Slutzkaya
> 3rd Maria Butyrskaya
>
> Pairs: 1st Elena& Anton
> 2nd Salé& Pelletier
> 3rd Shen&Zao
>
> Dance: 1st Anissian & Peizerat
> 2nd Bourne & Kraatz
> 3rd Lobacheva & Averbukh or Fusar-Poli & Margaglio
>
>
> What do u guys think will happen at Olympics??
>
> Okay, gotta go now,
> c ya soon,
> hugs,
> Angie.