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Am I the only person watching the Olympics??
Figure skating pairs was a triumph of story-telling, as the Chinese couple that everyone was rooting for finally nailed their longed for Olympic gold, the other Chinese pair (Pang and Tong) came up from behind to nab the silver with an absolutely exquisite performance in the long program, and the quirky German couple finished the job of toppling the Russians from their ill-deserved 46-year domination of the sport. Yay!
Lots of drama and surprise tonight in the men's short program, with the snooty Russian skating early and setting an impossibly high bar of 90.85 with his perfect quad combo, only to have (American) Evan Lysacek come in at the end of the evening with an electrifying performance that left him in almost a dead heat with the Russian going into Thursday's long program. There are also a couple of very interesting young Japanese skaters still in the running for medals, along with the ineffable Johnny Weir(d) and some guy from Switzerland who dressed like Hamlet and did a brilliant program to the William Tell Overture. Unfortunately he muffed one of his jumps, so he's only in 5th place, but we're kinda rooting for him to pull a surprise upset somehow and make it to the podium. I wouldn't mind seeing Lysacek win, though, even though Alex says he's kind of an arrogant jerk. If that's what it takes to skate like he did in that performance, I guess I can live with it. Go, Evan!
The snowboard cross races (SnoBoCross) provided periodic diversion. I prefer the snowboard events with the aerial tricks, but you gotta love a sport where it's a rare event for all 4 of the competitors to make it to the finish line. Coverage was a little inconsistent, though. The announcers were so intent on covering only the competitors that they thought we should care about (Americans and Canadians) that they never got around to telling us who got the bronze in the women's SnoBoCross. It wasn't exactly obvious, since two of the four competitors in the finals wiped out before they got to the finish line. So... nobody gets the bronze? Or does it go to whoever won the B-Final? Wouldn't it have been polite to at least MENTION it?
It's even worse with the coverage of the men's speed skating, where the coverage tended to go something like this: "Apollo Ohno is in fourth place! No, he's moving up! Here they come into their final lap with Apollo Ohno moving up on the Korean and those other two guys behind them! And Apollo Ohno has the silver, for his sixth medal!" Okay, I got that. Who exactly WON?
Lots of drama and surprise tonight in the men's short program, with the snooty Russian skating early and setting an impossibly high bar of 90.85 with his perfect quad combo, only to have (American) Evan Lysacek come in at the end of the evening with an electrifying performance that left him in almost a dead heat with the Russian going into Thursday's long program. There are also a couple of very interesting young Japanese skaters still in the running for medals, along with the ineffable Johnny Weir(d) and some guy from Switzerland who dressed like Hamlet and did a brilliant program to the William Tell Overture. Unfortunately he muffed one of his jumps, so he's only in 5th place, but we're kinda rooting for him to pull a surprise upset somehow and make it to the podium. I wouldn't mind seeing Lysacek win, though, even though Alex says he's kind of an arrogant jerk. If that's what it takes to skate like he did in that performance, I guess I can live with it. Go, Evan!
The snowboard cross races (SnoBoCross) provided periodic diversion. I prefer the snowboard events with the aerial tricks, but you gotta love a sport where it's a rare event for all 4 of the competitors to make it to the finish line. Coverage was a little inconsistent, though. The announcers were so intent on covering only the competitors that they thought we should care about (Americans and Canadians) that they never got around to telling us who got the bronze in the women's SnoBoCross. It wasn't exactly obvious, since two of the four competitors in the finals wiped out before they got to the finish line. So... nobody gets the bronze? Or does it go to whoever won the B-Final? Wouldn't it have been polite to at least MENTION it?
It's even worse with the coverage of the men's speed skating, where the coverage tended to go something like this: "Apollo Ohno is in fourth place! No, he's moving up! Here they come into their final lap with Apollo Ohno moving up on the Korean and those other two guys behind them! And Apollo Ohno has the silver, for his sixth medal!" Okay, I got that. Who exactly WON?