After Skating, a Unique Olympic Event: Crying

From left, Russia's Yevgeny Plushenko, Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay of Canada and Evan Lysacek of the U.S. at the Games.

By JULIET MACUR
NYT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — For sheer spectacle, the Olympics offer the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony and dozens of medal ceremonies in between. For sheer awkwardness, they offer the kiss-and-cry area.

After performing, figure skaters retreat with their coaches to a spot just off the rink to wait for their scores, sometimes for several minutes. With cameras in their faces and microphones picking up every sound, a scene unfolds unlike any other in sports, often filled with anxiety, tears or exultation — or all three.

The raw emotion of the kiss-and-cry scene has become so compelling that it commands a level of stagecraft rarely seen off the field of play. Last week, viewers had a front seat for Evan Lysacek’s sob session after the men’s short program, in which he skated cleanly to set up his gold medal performance two days later.

“I kept wanting to say, ‘Stop it, just stop it,’ ” his coach, Frank Carroll, said. “I’m very stoic in a way, very disciplined, and I think, when the ski jumpers, when they win, they don’t start to cry. Let’s put it this way: I don’t like figure skaters to cry.”

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