Beijing Olympics

[misplaced validity]

(02-08-2022 03:55 AM)NUguy514 Wrote:  Valieva is a lovely skater, although she has that weird delay when she reaches back for the triple toe in her combinations that Medvedeva had. It looks hinky. Using "Bolero" was a total mistake (no skater should ever use it, sorry), and her costume is terrible. I kept staring at the thing on the back of her dress wondering what the hell it was until she finished and I saw it was a snake. Awful. The worst thing, though, is that she falls on her third quad and looks like she's the worst failure ever. Fuck Eteri, seriously. And fuck Johnny Weir, while I'm at it, for his worship of all things Russian and for talking incessantly (Tara, too) during every skate.

Yikes, I'm in a mood, y'all!

I'm sure you watch skating more than I do, but who said she was a failure? Tara even framed it is, "Only 1 mistake in the entire program" and she and Weir raved at the end. I also just watched that LP, and neither Weir or Tara said anything for the last couple of minutes?

[NUguy514]

(02-08-2022 04:36 AM)misplaced validity Wrote:  

(02-08-2022 03:55 AM)NUguy514 Wrote:  Valieva is a lovely skater, although she has that weird delay when she reaches back for the triple toe in her combinations that Medvedeva had. It looks hinky. Using "Bolero" was a total mistake (no skater should ever use it, sorry), and her costume is terrible. I kept staring at the thing on the back of her dress wondering what the hell it was until she finished and I saw it was a snake. Awful. The worst thing, though, is that she falls on her third quad and looks like she's the worst failure ever. Fuck Eteri, seriously. And fuck Johnny Weir, while I'm at it, for his worship of all things Russian and for talking incessantly (Tara, too) during every skate.

Yikes, I'm in a mood, y'all!

I'm sure you watch skating more than I do, but who said she was a failure? Tara even framed it is, "Only 1 mistake in the entire program" and she and Weir raved at the end. I also just watched that LP, and neither Weir or Tara said anything for the last couple of minutes?

Oh no, I don't think she's a failure at all, nor do most sane viewers, I imagine; outside of the one fall, her program was incredible from a technical standpoint. Her body language and facial expressions indicated that she felt she had failed (that's what I meant by "she...looks [at herself] like she's the worst failure ever"; I didn't express that as specifically as I meant to), and I think that's a direct result of Eteri's abusive coaching style. I just think she's a monster.

[misplaced validity]

^ Understood, thanks.

[NUguy514]

Daaaaaaaaamn, Nathan! Way to throw down! I'm not surprised Hanyu had a mistake; I just sensed things weren't going to go well for him, although I can't point to why. Kagiyama was wonderful. Shoma only was penalized .14 points for the hand down on his combination, which is obviously bullshit – way overscored. I was thrilled that Jason Brown did so well – such a beautiful skater.

I wish NBC would just ignore Eileen Gu; I fast-forwarded right through that event and everything involving her.

Thrilled for Ryan Cochran-Siegle! He could get it. I wish NBC would stop harping on Mikaela Shiffrin's DNF in the giant slalom; it's so stupid. It's alpine skiing; shit happens. Honestly, every Olympics there is talk of which skiers are the heavy favorites for gold (with the men's downhill and super-G, it was supposed to be Kilde, who "only" won bronze in the latter), and I just think how silly that seems since every course is different and subject to variations in weather, snowpack, etc. I don't know, maybe I just don't enough about alpine skiing, but it seems more subject to randomness than, say, long-track speedskating.

[Sanny]

I haven't been watching any of these games (not really interested now but I might watch some of it eventually) but what's this I hear about China cheating in speed skating? I saw a small clip on Reddit but I wasn't really sure what happened.

[misplaced validity]

(02-08-2022 05:50 PM)NUguy514 Wrote:  Daaaaaaaaamn, Nathan! Way to throw down! I'm not surprised Hanyu had a mistake; I just sensed things weren't going to go well for him, although I can't point to why. Kagiyama was wonderful. Shoma only was penalized .14 points for the hand down on his combination, which is obviously bullshit – way overscored. I was thrilled that Jason Brown did so well – such a beautiful skater.

I wish NBC would just ignore Eileen Gu; I fast-forwarded right through that event and everything involving her.

Thrilled for Ryan Cochran-Siegle! He could get it. I wish NBC would stop harping on Mikaela Shiffrin's DNF in the giant slalom; it's so stupid. It's alpine skiing; shit happens. Honestly, every Olympics there is talk of which skiers are the heavy favorites for gold (with the men's downhill and super-G, it was supposed to be Kilde, who "only" won bronze in the latter), and I just think how silly that seems since every course is different and subject to variations in weather, snowpack, etc. I don't know, maybe I just don't enough about alpine skiing, but it seems more subject to randomness than, say, long-track speedskating.

So happy for Chen and RCS.

What’s the story with Eileen Gu? I know nothing about her.

Doesn’t Shiffrin have a bit of history kind of choking in Olympics? She’s won two Golds so that seems crazy to say, but she’s a dominant skier outside of the Olympics. I could be wrong for sure.

[Above the Title]

Eileen Gu is an American competing for China. She won't answer as to whether she's renounced her American citizenship to become a Chinese citizen, which is usually a requirement.

In speed skating, the Chinese skater interfered I think but the other skater got DSQ'ed instead? I think that's what happened.

Hanyu said his blade got caught in a hole in the ice on the botched quad sal. Heartbreaking to see especially since the quality of the short program round was actually superb - but also I think Hanyu is basically just skating on one leg now and is hiding how injured he really is. It needs to be dire for him to pull out of an entire Olympic season until Nationals.

Nathan didn't disappoint. I was screaming, I was so so so happy. And JASON. Bringing Sinnerman to it's absolute peak at the right moment. Somebody without a quad made the final flight - remarkable. I. love him so much and I know he won't medal but he can go out having given it his all and so many amazing moments to US skating over the past decade. Knowing Hanyu's error, even more heartbreaking knowing Vincent isn't here with a medal door potentially open. (But Hanyu is still in the running for a medal....if he doesn't try the 4A. But I think he will try to get it ratified and also ruin any podium chances.)

Guys my brain is so on a psychosis level right now between Olympic skating and Oscar noms at once.

[NUguy514]

MV, as AtT said, Gu is an American who chose to represent China. She was born here, educated here, and trained here and chose to represent her mother's home country of China. All that's well and good and happens often, but it usually happens when an athlete thinks he/she won't make the American (or whatever home country's) team (that's actually the case for Gus Kenworthy who was at least born in the UK and who wouldn't have made the US team this year); that's not the case with Gu, who would've made the American team without question and been the gold-medal favorite regardless of which country she represented. She said she made the switch to inspire even one girl to pursue skiing/sports, and that's utter bullshit: she switched so that she could make a shit-ton of money in endorsements, and she has indeed made a shit-ton of money in endorsements and is the face of the Olympics in China. This young woman was raised in the Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco (one of the richest neighborhoods in that city), learned to ski at Lake Tahoe, went to one of the most prestigious private schools in SF, and will go to Stanford next year; she is already incredibly privileged. If she were honest about the fact that she (and I'm sure her mom was hugely influential in this decision, too) is going after the money, I'd be less bothered, but she isn't being honest about that. Moreover, she has made public statements about BLM and anti-Asian violence here, which she can do since we still have freedom of speech in this country and is all well and good, but has said absolutely nothing about the Uyghur genocide in China or the crackdown on Hong Kong, which she can't unless she wants the Peng Shuai treatment; the hypocrisy makes my blood boil. She sold out for the money, and I find the prevaricating about it gross.

And yeah, how completely not suspicious that every DQ in the men's 1,000m short-track benefited a Chinese skater. Wouldn't you know, a good old DQ in the final eliminated the Hungarian skater who won and secured a gold for China! Not suspicious at all. In one of the women's 500m quarterfinals, Fan Kexin threw a lane marker at the Canadian skater in front of her, causing that skater, herself, and the Canadian skater behind her to crash; of course, the Canadian who was behind Fan was DQ'd for tripping Fan and her Canadian teammate.

Have I mentioned how much I hate the IOC?

I will end on a positive note, though: I forgot to mention after the team event how much I loved C/B's free dance; it's so unique and fun! Also, I think it would be a loss for the world if Evan Bates and I don't get to make out at least once in our lives.

[misplaced validity]

(02-08-2022 05:50 PM)NUguy514 Wrote:  I wish NBC would stop harping on Mikaela Shiffrin's DNF in the giant slalom; it's so stupid. It's alpine skiing; shit happens. Honestly, every Olympics there is talk of which skiers are the heavy favorites for gold (with the men's downhill and super-G, it was supposed to be Kilde, who "only" won bronze in the latter), and I just think how silly that seems since every course is different and subject to variations in weather, snowpack, etc. I don't know, maybe I just don't enough about alpine skiing, but it seems more subject to randomness than, say, long-track speedskating.

Well, and now she's out of her best event, the slalom. I am of mixed mind here; I think she clearly choked in these Olympics, but I also think it was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy since the media hypes her so much. It's too much.

[NUguy514]

(02-09-2022 12:55 PM)misplaced validity Wrote:  

(02-08-2022 05:50 PM)NUguy514 Wrote:  I wish NBC would stop harping on Mikaela Shiffrin's DNF in the giant slalom; it's so stupid. It's alpine skiing; shit happens. Honestly, every Olympics there is talk of which skiers are the heavy favorites for gold (with the men's downhill and super-G, it was supposed to be Kilde, who "only" won bronze in the latter), and I just think how silly that seems since every course is different and subject to variations in weather, snowpack, etc. I don't know, maybe I just don't enough about alpine skiing, but it seems more subject to randomness than, say, long-track speedskating.

Well, and now she's out of her best event, the slalom. I am of mixed mind here; I think she clearly choked in these Olympics, but I also think it was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy since the media hypes her so much. It's too much.

Well, she's also obviously still grieving the death of her father, so I can't imagine she's as focused as she needs to be.