In the Olympic Games held in Pyeongchang (South Korea) earlier this year, we couldn’t help but notice an amazing phenomenon.
Due to an IOC rule change, figure skaters from all over the world started picking popular rock songs – with vocals and lyrics – to set the mood and tone of their ice dancing. And many went right to their Classic Rock playlists.
Our blog post back then focused on Canadian skaters, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who used a combination of the Stones, the Eagles, and Santana for one of their routines.
Australia’s Brendan Kerry chose Pink Floyd, while Hungary’s hope, Ivett Tóth went with an AC/DC medley, complete with a matching leather jacket.
“Going for the gold” by using older rock has only intensified in the ensuring months, as more iconic Classic Rock songs make their presence known at all sorts of sporting events.
Including yo-yo tournaments.
That’s right – this year’s winner of the 2018 U.S. National Yo-Yo Championship is Evan Nagao. He won all the marbles, so to speak, by coming out with a blistering routine set to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird.”
If there’s such a thing as “shredding” on a yo-yo, that’s exactly what Nagao did in Chicago to best the entire field with his inspiring, spirited, and exciting yo-yoing prowess.
Here’s his blistering winning routine, and I encourage you to watch all three minutes so you can see this pro’s amazing moves and the way he whips the audience into a frenzy using just a molded plastic toy connected to a string.
Now it’s onto Shanghai, China, next month for the world championship. It’s hard to imagine he won’t walk away with the gold, yo-yoing his butt off to one of the greatest Classic Rock songs of all time.
And in case you’re wondering, it still tests through the roof with hardly any burn.
Good luck, Evan Nagao. You rock.
Thanks again, Mike Stern.
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Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Wow! What a great video to send us off into the weekend on! So fun! So amazing! Hard to imagine a more perfect song for the routine, though I couldn’t help think of another classic hits song from back in the day by a wildly popular boy band called the Osmonds! (That’s for the three percent of us who actually remember the song I’m referencing!)
Great stuff! Thanks, Fred!
Bravo.
On the EDITS!
They successfully mixed the studio & live versions without missing a beat, And kept it UNDER 4:00!
Can we play this version too? Lol.