Figure Skating Gold: Where Elegance Prevailed

I didn't think I'd be able to watch the 2010 Vancouver Olympics following the tragic death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. I didn't think I could.

But slowly I've been drawn in by the stories of the other athletes, the quality of the production, the vast whiteness of Vancouver, and, of course, the figure skating. Two of the loveliest-seeming pair skaters ever—Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo—took the gold last night, eighteen years after they began to skate together under the direction of a coach who has given his life, truly his life, to building a program that saw three Chinese couples place in this Olympics' top four.

In both the short and the long program, across a wide variety of teams, elegance dominated. The gorgeous costuming (the longer, etherial skirts, the use of buttons and tucks, the pale pink of fabric roses sewn discretely into a seam, the underpower of color). The quiet orchestrations of meaningful songs ("The Impossible Dream," Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever"). The one-handed lifts. It was as if skating had (for the most part) stopped shouting and starting being.

I watch beauty like that through tears. I'll never forget this short program by the winners of pair skating gold.