2022 Winter Olympics

[filly]

Man NBC is slamming China. At length and in great detail. I’m surprised they are still broadcasting. We will see what happens tomorrow.

[p0rtia]

I am watching curling. Switching over to figure skating shortly.

Heaven.

[Foggy]

Curling is why we need PatGund.

[Mrich]

The figure skating result details page:
https://results.isu.org/results/season2122/owg2022/

The team event scores are at the bottom half. Nathen Chen looked outstanding in his short program and got a personal best score. After short skates in the men's, pairs, and dance, USA is in first place, but lots of skating to go.

Alexa Knierim / Brandon Frazier had a great pairs skate as well - probably the best I've seen them do, NO glaring errors. (I'm not an expert, but I know when someone falls!)

[MN-Skeptic]

I'm watching the opening ceremony right now and my sister-in-law nailed it. She saw it earlier and posted on Facebook that the music playing during the Parade of Nations - where all the Olympians march in - reminds her of all the old K-Tel Record commercials on TV where they play a few seconds of each of the songs available on their compilation albums.

[Lani]

Figure skating is my favorite. Thank gawd I work from home! I hope the women figure skaters do well, but they've been lacking the skills that several other teams have had for years. Same with pair skaters.

[poplove]

I'm watching the opening ceremony right now and my sister-in-law nailed it. She saw it earlier and posted on Facebook that the music playing during the Parade of Nations - where all the Olympians march in - reminds her of all the old K-Tel Record commercials on TV where they play a few seconds of each of the songs available on their compilation albums.

It reminds me of the Hooked On Classics album I still have stored in my garage. I used to do aerobics to it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooked_on_Classics

[MN-Skeptic]

I'm watching the opening ceremony right now and my sister-in-law nailed it. She saw it earlier and posted on Facebook that the music playing during the Parade of Nations - where all the Olympians march in - reminds her of all the old K-Tel Record commercials on TV where they play a few seconds of each of the songs available on their compilation albums.

It reminds me of the Hooked On Classics album I still have stored in my garage. I used to do aerobics to it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooked_on_Classics

I have you beat. I have the four album collection of Hooked on Classics. In the hallway with my other CDs. Yet I never remember listening to the CDs and, while I ripped the majority of my CDs to my computer, I somehow skipped those Hooked On CDs.

[Mrich]

Every four years I get hooked on Olympic curling, and I'm seeing plenty of it so far! They did a short segment about the shoes, the stone, and the brushes which was pretty interesting.

We were watching the luge today; they are insane! I'm looking forward to the bobsleds; the Jamaican 4-man team is back!

[p0rtia]

What is with the Italian mixed pairs team? They are AWESOME! They've taken the competition by storm.

Sorry to see my Canadians and USA team struggling. But mixed pairs curling is so much a crap shoot. Love it though.

Happy also to see the Norwegians rock it in the mixed relay biathlon. Damn, those Boe brothers came through!

More please, and the Swedish women!

[scirreeve]

I like the Winter Olympics more than the Summer Olympics. I guess it is because I still do the winter sport thingy. Met 2 gold medalists before - Bill Johnson who was a total asshole (RIP anyway) and Picabo. Picabo and I had a coffee together once and then did a run together. She was a better skier than me but I could keep up with her.

[poplove]

I'm enjoying the women's hockey games and I'm not a hockey fan. Love the snowboarders! (Women's soccer is my favorite sport to watch because I was a soccer mom for my youngest daughter. She played goalie.)

[scirreeve]

Dude from my home mountain just killed it on a snowboard. I have watched this dude while riding a chairlift and he was below doing crazy shit. Incredible skills.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Ah, the biathlon. Also known as the Swedish drive-by.

[Frater I*I]

Ah, the biathlon. Also known as the Swedish drive-by.

Shouldn't that be ski-by....???



I'll see myself out....

[Lani]

15 years old, landed two quads. I guess she'll take all the medals all the time.

[Volkonski]

'I cry every day': Olympic athletes slam food, COVID tests and conditions in Beijing quarantine hotels

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/o ... 687367001/

"My heart can't take it," emotionally crushed Polish speedskater Natalia Maliszewska wrote in an Instagram post.

"I'm very pale and I have huge black circles around my eyes. I want all this to end. I cry every day," said Russian biathlete Valeria Vasnetsova on the same platform. "Unreasonable," complained Dirk Schimmelpfennig, the head of the German delegation in an interview with his nation's media.

All three were speaking out about the conditions they faced or observed in quarantine hotels in China used by athletes who test positive while at the 2022 Winter Olympic s. They described "inedible meals," little or no access to training equipment and a confusing and at times seemingly illogical COVID-19 testing regime.

Short track speedskater Maliszewska tested positive for coronavirus on Jan. 30, when she was ruled out of Saturday's qualifying race for the 500 meters, her strongest event. But Maliszewska was unexpectedly released from isolation on the eve of the race, only to test positive a few hours before it started and was immediately ushered back into quarantine. The next day – Sunday, the day after the qualifying event – she was released after again testing negative.

[sad-cafe]

what is the medal count so far?

[p0rtia]

This is tragic. I follow figure skating pretty closely, and Kamila is considered the greatest ever, ever. She's been let down, big time, it appears. Her coach (known by her first name, Eteri) is the subject of much loathing on the figure skating boards I frequent.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/winter ... id=DELLDHP

Russia at center of another Olympic doping controversy

Russia ran such a widespread, sophisticated and successful performance-enhancing drug operation at the 2014 Winter Olympics that the country was technically “banned” from the past three Olympic Games, including the current one in Beijing.

Now it appears their masked “replacement” — the Russian Olympic Committee — may be trying to follow the same old script.

Tuesday's medal ceremony for the figure skating team event — won by six Russian skaters competing for the ROC — was delayed due to a legal fight over a positive drug test in the group, the International Olympic Committee said.

The crux of the dispute centers on Kamila Valieva, according to InsideTheGames.biz. The Guardian newspaper reported that “the substance is not a drug that would aid performance” although elite figure skating has been awash in accusations over the use of puberty blockers, weight loss drugs or other tactics that can stunt growth or weight gain and aid in leaping.

“This cannot be true,” legendary Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova said to the Guardian. “We can be pointed fingers at, but we are all clean.”

The 15-year-old sensation is the biggest star in skating despite not making her senior level debut until Oct. 7, 2021, just four months ago. She’s won every event she's entered and has already set nine world records, including recording the three highest scores ever tallied in the sport. Her current record of 272.71 is nearly 10 percent higher than any other woman has ever scored.

Valieva made her Olympic debut Monday by leading Russia to gold in the team event.

While, due to her age, she’s neither entered nor won a World or Olympic title (yet), many consider her the greatest skater of all time because of her ability to flawlessly land three or more quad jumps in a single free skate.

Only a few female skaters can hit a single quad, let alone rattle them off like Valieva. As recently as the 2018 Winter Games, no female could, and in 2010 American Evan Lysacek won the men’s individual title without attempting a quad.

Yet Valieva makes them look easy. At age 13 — despite still competing in juniors — she was just the second woman of any age to ever land a quad in competition.

Most of the other skaters who have mastered the quad are also Russians. Teammate Alexandra Trusova, 17, has landed five in a single routine and should attempt four during her free skate next week. Anna Shcherbakova, also 17, will either attempt multiple quads or a quad flip and seven triples. All of this is astounding.

Russians are favored to sweep the ladies’ competition, win gold in the pairs and potentially in the ice dance. This after taking both the gold and silver in the 2018 women's event and gold in 2014.

“[They] are doing things that I can only dream of doing,” American Karen Chen said of the Russians. Chen is a two-time Olympian who finished fourth at the 2021 World Championships but does not attempt a quad in her routines

“I am not capable of doing what they are doing,” Chen said.

All of this is why international skating has greeted Valieva with excitement over her performances but also suspicion of just how someone so young can be so good.

Here’s the issue. Due to being under the age of 16, Valieva is considered by the World Anti-Doping Agency to be a “Protected Person.”

The WADA code treats Protected Persons “differently than other Athletes in certain circumstances based on the understanding that, below a certain age or intellectual capacity [they] may not possess the mental capacity to understand and appreciate the prohibitions against conduct contained in the Code.”

In other words, the code protects young athletes who may have been too naive or unaware that they took a banned substance.

As such, the penalty could be lower than disqualification. There is much that is subjective about that decision — hence the legal battle — but it is possible that even if Valieva tested positive for a banned substance she could maintain her eligibility and just be reprimanded.

That would mean that not only would the Russians keep the gold medal won in the team event (the United States took silver) but Valieva could even remain eligible to compete next week in the individual competition.

We'll see. A ruling should come soon. However, anything that merely reprimands any Russian would be an insult to logic.

Any country throwing PED-charges around is doing it from a glass house, but Russia has taken things to entirely different levels.

[Volkonski]

The New York Times
@nytimes
·
6m
“My failure changed everyone’s life.” The ski jumper Sara Takanashi Flag of Japan apologized after her uniform was deemed noncompliant, knocking her team out of a medal opportunity. Her suit was reportedly two centimeters wider than allowed around her thighs.

[Mrich]

About the Russian skater - lots of discussion (ie, wild speculation) on it at the Primetimer Olympic Figure Skating thread, starting around here:
https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/125 ... nt=7282396

Lots of shock at the ROC team having drug issues
/sarcasm

(the "Eteri" mentioned is Eteri Tutberidze, the coach for the Russian women's team. Everyone hates her.)

[Kriselda Gray]

15 years old, landed two quads. I guess she'll take all the medals all the time.

Do you know what kind of jumps the quads were - i.e. Lutz, Salchow, Axel, etc.?

[Mrich]

Do you know what kind of jumps the quads were - i.e. Lutz, Salchow, Axel, etc.?

Quad Salchow; Quad Toe in combination with a Triple Toe

The ladies' score for the long program is here - Valieva's results are first in the document.
https://results.isu.org/results/season2 ... Skater.pdf

The results for all the skates are here - the team scores are in the bottom half:
https://results.isu.org/results/season2122/owg2022/

BTW - Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan, got last 2 Olympic gold medals) is currently in 8th after singling one of his jumps and getting no score for that jump. (Typically he would expect about 10 points for that jump.) Rumor is he's going to try a quad Axel which he has never landed successfully, even in practice. A couple years ago a quad axel was valued at 12.5 compared to a 8.0 for a triple. NO ONE has ever completed a quad axel.

[Kriselda Gray]

Thanks much!!

[filly]

About the Russian skater - lots of discussion (ie, wild speculation) on it at the Primetimer Olympic Figure Skating thread, starting around here:
https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/125 ... nt=7282396

Lots of shock at the ROC team having drug issues
/sarcasm

(the "Eteri" mentioned is Eteri Tutberidze, the coach for the Russian women's team. Everyone hates her.)

Lead story on the Daily Beast right now.