I have become a fan of the young Julia Lipnitskaia, the 15 year old Russian figure skater. My emotional reaction to her reminds me of how I felt watching Michelle Kwan when she was justing out. I think that it is always magical when the sports world introduces its newest young talent. We, the audience, get to spend years following their successes and progression into the mature and amazing sports star.
This video is of Julia’s short program, granted she had a small wobble on one of her landings, but the rest of the program was just so lovely and graceful. I couldn’t help but think as I was watching Julia skate; she is so tiny, yet a tiny powerhouse of strength, jumping into the air and twisting her body two or three times and then landing on a thin piece of steel, the skate’s blade. That got my focus on her feet with the heavy skates at the end of her thin legs, those legs bely the power necessary to throw those feet up and around with such command and precision.
I heard one of the commentators talk about the Winter Olympics of 2016 as being her Olympics for sure and I am sure that we are definitely going to be following her even beyond that, she is only 15 and already setting the world a buzz with her raw talent, imagine what it is going to be like with a little maturity added in to the already precious talent.
I love figure skating even though it is so stressful because I never want anyone to fall and they do, I always feel so badly when they fall. I hate falling, it stinks but it happens, why can’t falling only happen during practice?
laurieanichols 