Happy 80th Birthday to Richard Dwyer!FYI I took this video less than 3 weeks ago :-)#foreveryoung
Posted by Florentine Houdiniere on Thursday, November 19, 2015
A Canadian figure skater—three-time Canadian bronze medalist Elizabeth Putnam—skated on a pristine frozen lake in the mountains of British Columbia, and some dudes filmed her from a helicopter. The resulting footage is amazing!
The second half of the competition, which was to take place on Saturday, was cancelled following the attacks in Paris Friday. Icenetwork has a nice piece on how it affected the skaters.
This is not the first time a major skating event has been cancelled following a tragic circumstance, and it probably will not be the last. In the skating world, we tend to forget the larger world outside of us - for many of us, that's why we skate in the first place, because it gives us an outlet to escape. And when the real world interferes with the skating world, it's all the more jarring.
What is interesting is how the ISU will deal with the results of the competition. Will it be counted toward the Grand Prix final? Is it fair to count only short program scores? We shall see.
My favorite skaters in the world went incognito to Bryant Park and pretended to be beginners learning to skate. Then they broke character and surprised the heck out of the people they were skating with and it all aired on Good Morning America. What I wouldn't have given to be there!
The former Olympian, World Champion and surgeon is going through some hard times these days. Broke and unemployed, she seems to have some emotional trouble as well, and can't get it together.
She is to be featured on the OWN show "Iyanla: Fix My Life" this week. You can watch a clip from the upcoming show here.
I hope that the show helps her, and that she finds a path to a better life. She had some serious talent out there on the ice back in the day. She used to choreograph her own competitive programs, unlike most skaters. I hope maybe she can find the motivation to re-choreograph her life in the present.
The show airs tomorrow night at 9 p.m. on OWN.
Here's one of my favorite performances of hers - the short program at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, which had her in 1st place going into the long.
