What the Heck is a Twizzle?

Jeffrey Buttle Rehearsing at the Toyota Sports Center

I usually consider myself a discerning individual. So I feel kinda silly when I’m surprised at how cold the Toyota Sports Center ice rink is. Granted I am in a short sleeve shirt and sandals. I guess ice isn’t any warmer in L.A. compared to say Colorado. Frozen water is frozen water wherever you go. Well played Matt. All those years of education and countless loans are truly paying off.

But I digress. I have to make a confession...

I don't know anything about figure skating. I take that back. I'm learning. Growing up I had a mom that loved figure skating so I know a Triple Salchow is a skating maneuver and not a blended latte from Starbucks. As I'm typing, all five-foot-nothing of 2008 U.S. Champion Miria Nagasu is prancing and frolicking around the concession area of the Toyota Sports Center Cafe after finishing an interview with the L.A. Times and a random thought hits me; the Winter Olympics are soon upon us! Just over 2 years away. That may seem like a long ways off, but when you think that ticket sign-ups begin tomorrow (Friday, October 3^rd) and that my fair city of Denver is already working on being a contender to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, two years and some change isn’t so far off. It’s aboot time to crack open the maple syrup and let the Olympic-related controversies roll…Eh?

You thought Beijing was scandalous with Tibet-related protests, pollution scares, Olympians wearing oxygen masks and contention around the true age of mysteriously young-looking Chinese gymnasts. Well, Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. are wasting no time. New ticket surcharges are causing a slight uproar. Well, maybe not an uproar; more like passive aggressive commiserating over a $4-$18 ticket hike. Protest groups like the Olympics Resistance Network have already begun disrupting the Olympic kickoff with the use of true guerrilla weaponry like pots, pans, megaphones and obnoxious jeering chanting "F*%# The Olympics...Eh!?" (I added the eh…but they are Canadian, so I’m sure it was implied.) Another scandal is the claim that the 2010 Olympics are being help on stolen indigenous land (if you use that for a reason not to host the Olympics, we can’t have the games anywhere). But the biggest scandal by far is the Olympic Committee in their clandestine nature covertly trying to trademark two lines of the Canadian National Anthem for the 2010 Winter Olympics: “with glowing hearts" from the English version of the anthem and "des plus brilliants exploits," which makes an appearance in the French version. What the heck is that all aboot?! (You may be wondering…Lord knows I am.) Part of me feels sorry for the cast members of the McDonald’s Family Tribute on Ice that are Olympic contenders. There’s a good chance they will have to put up with a lot of unnecessary hassle associated with Olympic drama. But these skaters are tough.

I've never been one to think that ice skating has much of an extreme edge to it… I’m watching in one rink as the cast of McDonald's Family Tribute on Ice rehearse and in the other rink the L.A. Kings are practicing. If I were a betting man I’d say that the L.A. Kings practice would be far more extreme and exciting to watch than figure skaters rehearsing. Thankfully I’m not one to bet. I watch the graceful spins of these sinewy and mobile skaters; fluid yet powerful and athletic. Then they kicked it up a notch. Watching ice skating up close is a lot more intense than being twice removed from the action by a T.V. screen. Things go a lot faster as skaters whiz by and then in an instant fly through the air, landing on a single blade the thickness of a single pain of glass. If that’s not extreme sports, I don’t know what is.

The show consists of some of the top skaters like 2x U.S. Champion and 2010 Olympic contender Evan Lysacek, 2006 Olympic Silver Medalists and 5x U.S. Champions, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto as well as a slew of other formidable athletes. The event is hosted by Kristi Yamaguchi, the Olympic hall-of-famer and winner of last season’s “Dancing With the Stars.” The McDonald's Family Tribute on Ice show will be honoring the skater’s loved ones through performances done to live music by artists including Nick Lachey, Almost Amy, and Grammy nominated artist Mario, Friday at the Galen Center on the USC campus. The show will be aired by NBC on Nov. 16 and is designed to promote World Children's Day on Nov. 20 and raise awareness and money for children's charities like the Ronald McDonald House. The cast of the McDonald's Family Tribute on Ice visited the L.A. Ronald McDonald House yesterday and participated in arts and crafts activities with the families and gave a pair of autographed ice skates to the house that each cast member signed.

As I wind down this blog, sipping on a café Americano (my coffee drink of choice) I realize how weird and random life is. Just today I found myself driving through downtown L.A. traffic with four champion figure skaters discussing the preferable consistency of oatmeal- runny vs. thick (I prefer thick w/ banana and peanut butter) and that some of them have a penchant for mixing different types of cereal together (Hey, sometimes mixing can be fun.) I had the 2007 World Champion, Jeffrey Buttle, acting as my human Garmin. I don’t have a GPS system in my rental car, so he offered to read the hand-written directions. And I realize in that moment I’m glad life is unpredictable. It’s like a twizzle, which in the world of figure skating is “a quick multi-rotational turn on one foot while moving forwards or backwards.” See, I'm learning about skating. One can argue that a twizzle is life in a nutshell. A series of quick turns that have you at one moment going forwards, then backwards, but it’s a ride truly worth savoring.