Word: axel
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...Russians did not skate their best. Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze had as many as six flaws in their program, notably Sikharulidze's stumble on the side-by-side double Axel. Berezhnaya's landings on the throw jumps were also not as smooth as Sale's. Though the Russians peppered their program with innovative moves--at one point Berezhnaya opened into a spread eagle with Sikharulidze clinging to her in a spiral--Sale and Pelletier were a miracle of unity...
...happened? Skating judges are as close-mouthed as Secret Service agents about their decisions, so we many never know what they saw in the Russian pair that they didn't in the Canadian duo. Five of them ranked the Russsians for gold, despite Sikharulidze's slip on the double axel jump and Berezhnaya's skittery landings on the throw jumps. Sikharulidze, for his part, defended their performance and their finish. "I try hard, I try my best," he said. "We don't make big mistakes. No falls, no big mistakes. The something with my jump, not a big thing...
...mimic that power. After soliciting feedback from judges last season, Wagner and Hughes devoted the summer to addressing two criticisms of Hughes' skating--her still nascent expressiveness and her faulty technique on the triple Lutz jump, one of the most challenging leaps a female skater makes (only the triple Axel is more difficult). Hughes was slipping badly onto the wrong blade edge before taking off. Most women skaters make the error, as they lack the upper-body strength to hold the edge and counter the rotation of the hips. But the fault was more glaring in Hughes because she jumps...
Last week Axel Springer said it would exercise its $662 million "put" option to sell to Kirch an 11.5% stake in broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media. (A "put" option is a risk-averse instrument that gives the holder the right to sell an asset at a predetermined price.) It demanded that the payment be settled by April. Kirch challenged the move?s legality, since the deal?s structure was reportedly left open to accommodate changes in German tax law. But as with so many of Kirch?s corporate dealings, there are subplots within subplots...
...Kirch empire?s main arms, KirchMedia already holds a 53.5% stake in ProSiebenSat.1, and is expected to merge with that company should a planned stockmarket float go ahead later this year. But another subgroup, KirchBeteiligungs, holds a 40% interest in Axel Springer. Why would Kirch permit a company in which it has such a sizable stake to cause it so much potential inconvenience? One theory is that the Springer family wants to reacquire shares in their company that Kirch bought in the late 1980s during a failed takeover attempt, and are exercising the "put" option as an arm-twisting tactic...