We had avoided the Olympics for the most part, but in the end got curious and found ourselves watching pairs skating last Friday. I oddly found myself rooting for the Chinese pair of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong. It was not just because they were so beautiful to watch but because I didn't want the damn Russians to win, who were sitting in first through third places in the Kiss and Cry booth. I got a perverse pleasure knowing that one of them would soon be left to cry over a lost medal. It's not like I was fan of China either, but given the choice I took the Chinese pair.
This is my sad take from the Olympics. Russians very much became the bad guys, not just because of the the threat of war hanging over Ukraine, but the ongoing doping scandal that saw Kamila Valieva reduced to heaving sobs when she fell to fourth after a disastrous free skate. Meanwhile, her young Russian teammates bitterly contested who should have won the gold, as second place Alexandra Trusova felt she had done better quads than her teammates. Probably the happiest girl on ice that day was Sakamoto Kaori who took an unexpected bronze without having to land a single quad.
What I found most odd about the Russians this year is that their choreography was so bad. They seem to have forsaken their traditional musical strength in favor of athletics. Even in the ice dancing, the Russian pairs looked lead footed, opting for breathtaking holds rather than dances that carried them through on the strength of their choreography. Still, the couple of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov managed to edge out the American couple of Madison Hubbell of Zachary Donohue for silver, far behind the truly elegant French pair of Gabriella Papadakis and Gillaume Cizeron. Maybe its all the heart medication they are taking?
I had hoped the Americans had one more gold in them, but it was not to be. The ice hockey women fell to Canada for the gold medal, and Team USA was unable to medal in the Alpine mixed team, with Norway winning an incredible 16th gold medal! How a little country of 5.4 million people produces so many medalists also raises an eyebrow. Anyway, it's done and maybe next time around it will be less politically charged in Milan. Great city!
Unfortunately, we all now hold our collective breathe and see what happens in Ukraine. My wife was worried last night, asking what we would do if Russia chose to attack Lithuania as well. It would be a tough call. It wouldn't take much effort at all to close off the slender southern boundary with Poland, sandwiched between Belarus and Kaliningrad. We would most likely have to head North and seek a flight or ferry out of Ryga. But, then Russia could overwhelm the all of the Baltic states within a matter of hours. The only hope would be that there would be an advance warning to evacuate by air.
Our son dismissed such talk as nonsense. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Vilnius this weekend giving the Baltic states full assurance that the US would have their backs. That gave us some peace of mind. Still, we worry, as there is no telling how far Putin will go to reclaim what he perceives as his greater Russia, and it seems the US is prepared for that contingency.
For now, we clean up our old flat on Čiurlionio flat, and make it ready for the next renters. We had a trio of Turkish-German students who made a game effort of cleaning up after themselves, but didn't go very deep, especially in the kitchen and bathrooms. So, we spent the weekend making it tidy again, putting the finishing touches on the flat this afternoon. In the end, we just go on with our lives regardless of all the tensions swirling around, like the mix of rain and snow they call šlapdriba in Lithuania, hoping that clearer heads will prevail.
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