A sigh of relief.

The Canada & US Nationals are over and the figure skaters destined for the Olympics have been chosen. Jeff Buttle won the men's title for Canada and Johnny Weir won his third title for the US. It's nice to see winners without a (successful) quad, because there has been far too much emphasis on it. Having said that, it's unlikely a skater will be at the very top on a worldwide scale because many men can do it. Pros keep saying that Emanuel Sandhu is one of the top skaters, and yet he only performs well half of the time. He seems to have improved on his ability to keep going after a mishap, but I still think he is unable to really bring it to the ice. Buttle on the other hand always is always positive and always fights his way spectacularly through every performance. The same can be said for Weir, especially after skating through the injuries he has had in the past. They are both beautiful skaters to watch, and that impresses me far more than who can land a quad. Baring disaster (or breakthrough performance by someone else), I think they'll both finish in the top four at the Olympics, as well as Stephane Lambiel(Switzerland) and Evgeni Plushenko(Russia) who will likely win the gold. But really, anything goes, and with the lack of televised events, I have seen little of the international skating scene.