tutu explained

On another note, the weather was not the only outrageous anomaly that excited Tevan spectators:

There was a tutu worn in the World Cup!

Behind my acts of unexplained nonsense are pure motives - (I think.) - motives that undergo massive poking and prodding until, on a particularly unpredictable Saturday night, shivering outside Vendetta's, an inquisitive Canadian corners me to serve me the question: "Why did you do it?" I answered, without thinking:

"The urge to wear a tutu was sudden and inexplicable."

Really, though. Wearing a tutu was a great idea. It made photographers smile, the crowd laugh, and the uptight unwind - just a little - to see someone set aside competitive formalities and risk silliness. It added a good handful of grins to the intense chex-mix of anxiety and fear that, though unwanted, still always will litter the minds of athletes when they push their bodies to finish problems that may or may not break them. (There was a Russian competitor who fell from the top of the final men's problem and landed on his neck and back, upside-down, after a heinous superman fall from the last hold.)

There are more pictures, and I'll post them in a few days. (There's even one that was entered in the Teva Games Photo Contest!)


Photographer: Bruce Mitchell

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