The world of sports had two major announcements this week: American Evan Lysacek took home the gold in the Olympic men's figure skating and Tiger Woods told us again--this time via closed caption--how sorry he was for being exposed as a cheater. Actually, what Woods said was he was sorry for thinking he was so special that he could do whatever he wanted --such as cheating and lying--and not be expected to have to answer for his heightened sense of bravado.
Likewise, to the surprise of Russian skater Yevgeny Plushenko, Olympic judges awarded Lysacek the gold. In the short program Lysacek scored only .55 points below Plushenko. But for Plushenko, .55 points must have seemed like such an insurmountable gap, that there would be no way Lysacek could possibly come back from behind.
Also, in the long program there was praise for Plushenko's performance--described as daring. Lysacek's performance was described as technically correct, although possibly too safe, some analysts believe.
I see the parallel between Woods and Plushenko as this: two men who took stardom too far. So full of themselves, they never saw loss coming.
