The Inside Edge with Sarah and Drew - Jan. 18 (01/18/2010)

The Inside Edge with Sarah and Drew - Jan. 18

Laughs abound in Olympic press conference

Music
We got on the bus at the arena last night and found it occupied by one person: Paul Wylie. We hadn't seen each other for a while so it was nice to have a bus ride to chat! Paul is here mentoring Jeremy, so needless to say, he was beaming. Paul skated to the same piece of music as Jeremy when he won the silver medal in Albertville, "Saint-Saens' Symphony No. 3." Paul used the end of the last movement, where the organ comes in with a triumphant flourish, and he wanted Jeremy to use the same cut. Jeremy was steadfast in using the earlier movement though, and Paul thinks it may be that he didn't want to duplicate Paul's music choice.

(Before you start thinking that Paul's program was to Henry V, it was... the Saint-Saens came in at the end. Sarah remembers this quite vividly because she was actually the person who gave the music to Paul).

If we talk about Jonathan Cassar any more, he's going to get scared, so let's just say that Paul mentioned that the men's event was bracketed by two really wonderful programs, the first, and Jeremy's, the last. Paul is going skiing with his father tomorrow, so he declined to go out with us last night. Bummer.

Before the bus left, Nathan Chen got on, fresh from winning the novice men's short program. It's very hard to talk about Nathan without cooing about how cute and tiny he is. Paul asked him a lot of questions, and 10-year-old Nathan answered cheerfully. He told Paul he'll turn 11 on May 5.