PyeongChang 2018 - Winter Olympics

On figure skating: I wish these events were held before the Ice Dancing. When these events come after Ice Dancing, I always feel like they’re a little anti-climatic. The figure skating is supposedly more about athleticism, and that’s true. All those triple Lutzes and triple toe loops and such are hard. But at the same time, it’s not as if Ice Dancing is not super athletic as well. But Ice Dancing has that additional artistic element of being so well synced with the music, and it being a pair of skaters who are doing such amazing things together. It just really pleases the romantic in me. Pairs figure staking is really good too, that’s still coming up soon, right? Singles figure skating kind of feels empty to me in comparison.

With that said though, the drama last night with the two Russian figure skaters’ performances was very nice to watch. And I thought the 15 year old who actually won the gold was better on the whole.

Short Track from last night: I thought it was really perplexing that they put the South Korean skater who is a 2 time gold medalist in previous 2 Olympics into the final. She tried to make the power move in the semifinal but was unsuccessful, but they gave the Chinese skater a penalty and put her in the final anyway. But then that setup the dramatic moment in the final where she tries to make the desperate power move at the end again from the back and gets tangled up with fellow-South Korean Siam, and they both go down. South Korea gets no medal.

The Men’s 500 short track was much more lopsided. That Chinese skater is crazy fast. I believe he set a World Record in that final, and he was well ahead of the others.

Watched the men’s hockey semifinal games today, and they couldn’t have been much different. The OAR side beat the Czechs largely due to some great goaltending. Ended up 3-0 but it was much closer than that…2-0 most of the way, and there were a lot of chances for the Czechs to get on the board. The Canada-Germany game, on the other hand, was a penalty-fest. Seemed like someone was always on the power play, including a nasty major to Canada for a hit to the head that knocked a German player off the ice. It was an ugly game, and the Canadians got the worst of it.

So it’ll be Germany and Russia for the gold. If the Germans take anything like the same number of penalties as they did today, the Russians should just stomp 'em. And of course history is always on the side of the Russians when taking on Germany in the winter.

Curling has got to be the only sport where half the competitors wear glasses during the match. I can’t think of another sport like that, maybe archery, but even then you typically pull the string right up to your cheek.

I agree with you—I thought Zagitova’s routine was good in a precise, balletic sort of way, and as an outsider to the sport, I liked it more.

My wife, an ex-figure skater, preferred Medvedeva’s routine, on the grounds that it was more emotional and more artistic, and said she was disappointed in the judging this year, which seemed to her to penalize artistry compared to the jumping.

I know you guys are all going to be up tomorrow morning, or still up because we are night owls.

Saturday, Feb. 24

1:35 AM (EST) – Men’s Curling (gold medal final), NBCSN

I watched a little skating and some kinda of women’s skiing with a mix of jumps and downhill where 4 women were skiing at the same time.

Seeing how many different skiing/snowboarding events there are it’s no wonder the games are expensive. There is no way those venues will ever be fully utilized again. I saw that the flat area is a soccer field in the summer.

Medvedeva is wonderful to watch. I’d never seen the arm above the head jumps until that point, and was interested to read how the new generation will always be higher scored as the previous generations can’t do it because its only efficient to learn it when starting.

No. That took place days ago.

That’s ski cross! The cross events (they do snowboard too) moved way up on my priority list to watch when I discovered them. It’s clearly a technical challenge…you sometimes see some bad mistakes and crashes even when an athlete is all alone…and adding in up to four folks on the course at once makes for some really exciting races.

Things I try to catch every time that it’s on: Biathlon, Ski/Snowboard Cross, the various short track events, and the semifinal and final hockey games. I’ll go back and watch full replays on those if necessary. Most everything else isn’t nearly as fun (for me) to watch live, so highlights are fine. But that group of events are great to watch in full.

Aww, that’s a shame. They must have been victims of when my Plex server wasn’t recording all the NBC broadcasts.

Awwww, that’s too bad. After they showed part of the semi-final on NBC, it really made me want to watch the final. I’m still hoping they show highlights on NBC the next day.

Oh God. You’re right. I’m officially old now.

I had never seen the ski/snowboard cross before, but I’ll be sure to pay attention to it next time. It’s a lot more accessible to me than trying to watch everyone ski individually and tell who is doing better and why. Also it’s like something out of a cheesy action movie where they’re flying around, chasing each other on skis.

MiraCurl On Ice! USA wins it on an amazing Shuster shot in the 8th that netted 5 points.

She got the snowboarding gold (specifically parallel giant slalom), too! First woman to win gold in two different sports at a Winter Olympics.

Yeah, that was great. That’s the last thing I watched last night before going to bed. Her performance will probably the most memorable thing about the 2018 Olympics for me.

I hope NBC shows some highlights of the Men’s Curling final like they did with the semifinal the other day. Fingers crossed. I heard the U.S. won Gold.

I guess this is the last day of Olympic coverage. According to the schedule, aside from the Closing Ceremony that they will show Sunday night, NBC also has Women’s Cross Country scheduled for earlier Sunday afternoon. So I guess they’ll end with a long distance Cross Country race like they end the Summer Games with a marathon.

Was it from the post two above yours? :)

No, but now that I know your post is about curling, it makes more sense. :) I thought you were talking in some foreign language. You misspelled miracle btw. :P

I gave up on NBC’s coverage this year. VPN into Montreal and watch whatever I want on CBC…it’s just so much better than anything NBC chooses to provide. The only minor thing that I miss is the occasional spots with background on athletes, but I can look that sort of thing up online if I want.

As usual, I will defend NBC’s coverage. I think it’s been excellent. Even their bobsled coverage and their speed skating coverage this year has been better than prior years, because they actually explained all the nuances of the sport in little segments while we were waiting for the next group of racers to get ready.

Their commentators have been excellent. The cross-country events (there are soooo many of them, I love it) were all really well done in terms of explaining the various strengths and weaknesses of different athletes.

John Williams’ music is excellent as always.

The only thing lacking compared to previous Olympic coverage is that they keep showing the same mountain area around the Alpine events in their aerial coverage shots. Usually they go gorgeous fly-over shots of the surrounding area of the country. For example, when they were held in Vancouver, they showed some gorgeous shots of islands off the coast of Vancouver too, not just the mountain and city areas holding the events. Same with all the Olympics until this one.

NBC covered every single throw in the Curling Gold Medal match.