Say what you will about figure skating judges, at least this year they were consistent in the ice dance. Israel’s Olympic duo of Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky placed 10th in all three ice dance events: compulsory, original and free skate.
In my books, that makes them a perfect 10th.
They skated wonderfully, had lots of drama and solid moves. Skating first in the 4th group with Brits, Russians and two French couples. And like many others before them, they got to bask in the glory of first place in the free skate for a few minutes until the other couples took to the ice.
Tenth place in the world in this highly competitive sport is pretty darn good and bodes well for the future. My prediction is they’ll go much higher in four years time at the next winter games in Sochi, Russia. As well, the Zaretskys are not like skaters for other countries who parachute in by virtue of a passport. There’s no shortage of Canadians, Americans and others who are great skaters, but skate for a different country because they didn’t make the top position at home to qualify for the Olympics.
The sister and brother duo were aged 3 and 7 when they moved to Israel from Belarus. They grew up in Israel, speak Hebrew like Israelis, and are patriotic and devoted to Israel unlike no others. For them, skating to music from an Italian opera is out of the question – it has to be a Jewish theme. In this final event of the 3-part ice dance, they chose music from the movie Schindler’s List.
For those of you who missed their skating, my buddy Daniel Sass has their original and free dances on his website, as well as the slalom run by downhill skier Mikail Renzhin.
In the mens giant slalom, Renzhin finished in 62nd place. However, Daniel pointed out that even though 62nd sounds like it’s far, far, far away from a medal, Renzhin finished way ahead of American downhill superstar, Bode Miller, who wiped out, and higher than any other country from our side of the world including Tajikistan (63rd), Iran (65th), Lebanon (67th), Iran (81st), Morocco (83rd), Pakistan (87th), and Turkey (didn’t finish).
Renzhin improved in the mens slalom, which was postponed by bad weather to the second last day of the Olympics. The weather was still miserable conditions with falling snow and thick fog, but the Olympics ran out of time and the race couldn’t be delayed any longer. Renzhin skied to 39th place, a full five seconds behind winner Giuliano Razzoli of Italy. Don’t be fooled by that 5 second gap – the course was so difficult that 4 dozen racers failed to finish including Miller (again), one of the favorites.
And while I’m here, a short update for fans of Israeli figure skater Tamar Katz. She’s the singles skater who was barred from Vancouver by a bizarre Israel Olympic Committee decision that Katz needed to do better than the Olympic standard. The woman who replaced her in Vancouver, Australian Cheltzie Lee, skated wonderfully and finished 20th gaining much experience for her own next attempt at Olympic gold.
I know Katz should have been in Vancouver and Israel’s Olympic Committee collection of old boys should resign in shame for putting the brakes on this talented athlete. I’m hoping she’ll continue to skate and improve, and that we’ll see her in Sochi in 2014.
Vancouver was another winter sports success for Israel. We were there, we did well, and our athletes did what athletes are supposed to do: they were outstanding emissaries of goodwill for their country.
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