Olympics Thread

No, I know he came in second in the 2014 Olympics, too. But, he's only 19! Scottie James is 23 and just won a bronze medal. Shaun White is 31. This guy, Ayumu Hirano, looked great! His skills are so impressive. He could easily have won the gold medal here. He did his absolute best. As long as he doesn't get seriously injured, I see no reason why he couldn't contend for the gold medal in 2022.

I'm sure it wasn't much. I think I had the live coverage on at that time? The last few days they have been showing other sections of events they cut out of the primetime coverage. They may have shown more of the earlier Pair's Skating programs (the non-top teams). Sometimes they show some curling. I think I saw some speed skating one night? Basically it's either non-top competitors from events they cut in and out of during Primetime, or early runs/heats of stuff that is going on live at the time.

**Actually, after thinking about it, during that EST/CST local news break, NBC may have aired some of the Men's Combined slalom runs?**

Tonight I have the coverage on during the Eastern/Central local news break. They are airing the early runs of Run 2 of the Women's Giant Slalom. So, basically, the women who don't have a chance to medal. This is stuff that Primetime NBC would never air. They'll probably just let the Women's GS run until it's complete. Our local news likely won't air until around 1am.

**Actually, they just confirmed this live. Yep, in the Mountain time zone tonight NBC is just airing the entire second run of the Women's GS in complete order. They said the rest of the country would be coming back in after the next break, after about 15 skiers have already gone. So, we got to see the entire competition! Woo!*

This is actually better scheduling than NBC has had over the last few Olympics. I am mildly impressed by how much live coverage we're getting. I think it may actually be a benefit to be in the Mountain/Pacific time zones this time.

Although, I did hear from the figure skating coverage that NBC pressured the IOC and Korean Olympic Committee into scheduling the figure skating competition in the morning so that NBC could air it in Primetime. Reminiscent of the Beijing Olympics when NBC pressured the committees into holding all the Swimming finals in the morning, producing a weird situation where the qualifying events were at night and the Finals were the next morning.

My boss's now-retired boss insisted that the TV in the break room be permanently on CNBC because he had a lot of investments. 4 years ago, CNBC was the channel where NBC put most of its curling coverage, and I got to explain to my co-workers exactly what was going on.

I'm glad that it's finally time for Real Curling, not that weird 2-person variation. It is possible to have two men and two women on the same team.

SQUEEEE!  Aksel won the downhill!  It's like it's 2010 all over again!  

My take on NBC's presentation of the alpine skiing events is that Bode Miller is a terrible color guy.  I mean, yes, he's got the baggage of being a loathable dick, but on top of that he's got a flat, reedy voice that isn't pleasant to listen to, and seems not to have much analysis to offer.  I loved when, in the intro to the men's downhill, he informed us that Svindal was his pick to win the race, but that Beat Feuz was his favorite to win.  So... they're both your favorites, Bode?  It was quite satisfying, from the standpoint of hating him and wanting him to fail, when he droned on and on in an increasingly wet-splat of a joke attempt during the women's giant slalom about how being married makes it impossible to win, and then his broadcast partner was so silent for so long that you could almost hear the "seriously, why are you still talking?" look on his face.  And then Miller had to apologize for it during the later race.  Surely there are other retired American skiers NBC could have hired for this job.

Anyway, the figure skating!  We didn't get to see any of the shittier pairs in primetime, but that's okay with me.  (I was impressed by NBC's restraint when they didn't even bother showing us the adorable but lousy American pair.)  The medal contenders brought the drama, so that was satisfying enough for the evening's programming, in equal measure with a lot of live skiing.  Man, that German routine was astonishing in its perfection.  And then it was stunning -- STUNNING! -- when the Chinese pair made so many mistakes, because I've been watching these athletes in competition for a grand total of about seven minutes, which makes me an expert.  I was stunned!  It was a little disappointing to see the space-android Russian pair show up in black-and-yellow polka dots, though.  Based on my 150 seconds of previous exposure to them, I could tell that a polka-dot routine was not going to play to their really cool "alien mechanical life-force" vibe, and I was hoping to see one more routine upping the ante in the final group.  Alas, it was not to be, and there was no stopping the annoying Canadians from medaling.  Anyway, I loved when NBC showed us a little collage of shots of the German lady's previous Olympic appearances, giving us all a trip down memory lane.  "Oh right!  She's THAT woman!"  (I'm sorry she ditched the Pink Panther routine.)

And wow, I'm not a huge fan of the Canadian Women's team that won our curling trials (Canada of course could send like 15 teams in women's or men's that can challenge for gold) but I sure wasn't expecting her to choke this badly. That first game was just awful.

Oh I was going to be mad but then I realized you're not talking about Tessa and Scott. TESSA AND SCOTT ARE LOVE. TESSA AND SCOTT ARE LIFE.

The Americans are just mad because they're trying to make Adam Rippon being out the biggest story of figure skating when Radford's been out for a while AND wins a bunch of stuff.*

*Just Kidding I'm actually not a huge Radford fan because he always looks like he's clenching lemons in his butt and his mouth

I know absolutely nothing about this Radford guy, but this is what I found myself ragefully spluttering when he and what'sherface took the ice last night:

"Ugh, these two!  I mean... I mean... look at his HAY." 

I had meant to say either "head" or "face", not sure which, but now I'm apparently disgusted by the product coming out of his hay farm?  THIS IS WHAT CANADA'S FIGURE SKATERS REDUCE ME TO. 

(As for Adam Rippon, I find him extremely attractive and charming, but man.  We are definitely starting to reach Maximum Rippon.)

I love when the TV replays downhill ski events by compositing together two runs. Just like OG Mario Kart.

The Canadian Women's Curling team is a full on gong show at the moment. Literally anyone else from the Canadian trials would be 3-0 right now. I (an admittedly mega-amateur curler who skips) would have made that last shot at least 17 times out of 20, what a squandered gift.

Welcome to what it was like watching the US teams during the last two Olympics.

I absolutely love that too.  When competitors are alone on the course, it can be awfully abstract to understand why this or that move cost the skier (or luger) time, even with the split times they put up at various points during a run.  The overlapping video showing were the two skiers were at the exact same time in their runs makes it much clearer about what mistakes can do, and show how much of a gap being even a quarter of a second behind can open up.

I mean, is this kind of irrational overreaction all that different from like that time when Bruins fans all lost their shit calling Joel Ward racial slurs because he scored a goal against their team, or whenever Donald Cherry says something like "I miss the good old days in hockey when you could beat a Russian or European player to death with your stick"?  And Boston's an original six hockey team and Donald Cherry is like the Patron Saint of Canada and ultimate hockey expert, and nobody claims that they don't understand how hockey is played.  So is this really a matter of "lol these dumb Koreans don't even understand the sport," or more a matter of a sport that people briefly become very invested in every four years leading to some really ugly overreactions when things don't go their way?

Or it's been happening since they were 13 and it's CANADA"S BIGGEST SECRET.