GRAND PRIX FINAL - JAPAN

True to my predictions, Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao won the pairs final at the Grand Prix competition in Japan over the weekend. They are platinum in a field of lead! They command the ice with joy and passion in a way that no other contemporaneous skaters are able to do! In short, they are mind-boggling and remarkable in every way. Total champions of the heart and the technique which is impeccable. Even the current world champions from Germany were pale by comparison and they are magnificent skaters themselves! I'm not all that impressed with the other Chinese pairs teams as they strike me as still being somewhat sloppy in their presentation - but Shen and Zhao are brilliant by anyone's measure.

In the ladies free, Yu Na Kim halted her brief and totally expectable slide from perfection at 2 performances and won the final handily. All she did with those 2 losses is prove she is human! Evan Lysacek skated extremely well to win the Men's title while Charlie White and Meryl Davis gave the United States an unprecedented win in Ice Dancing. Johnny Weir skated well in the men's final. I will withhold my rants until after I'm done with Mr. Lysacek.

Okay, Evan, what's with the freaking five o'clock shadow and the greasy hair? I realize you need to show that you're using your upper body in the step sequences, but is the endless arm waving and flapping really necessary? You look ridiculous. That asinine snake on your costume isn't well taken either.

Now on to Mr. Weir. He is frail - both emotionally and intellectually. Having barely managed to win third place in the final, he was predicting that he will beat Mr. Lysacek (who won the competition) at the U.S. Nationals - in other words he expects (or says he does) to defeat the reigning World Champion and the reigning Grand Prix champion in just 8 weeks' time. Mr. Weir, it's called Mens skating - you are a boy and an immature one at that. You are so busy taking yourself oh-so seriously and paying assiduous attention to your sequins and feathers and other fripperies that you cannot even begin to realize that Evan Lysacek is a MAN and a powerful one at that on the ice. Don't kid yourself. You aren't up to defeating either Evan Lysacek or Yvgeni Plushenko in a direct competition which is what the Olympics will be. So quit running your mouth. You've finally managed to skate two relatively clean programs for the first time in 18 months and now you think you're ready to defeat the world? Talk about hubris! And get a haircut instead of going out on the ice with that scrambled and untidy mop on top of your head!

I must give a kudo to the ice dancers and the other women skaters who had clean skate laces and roots that matched their ends this time! It's about time that they started showing respect for themselves as world class athletes and for their sport and the occasion!