Olympics Over, World Cup in 100 Days

[kssthesky]

I am having Olympic withdraws. I've liked watching the olympics since 1984 LA. I prefer the winter over the summer. Not sure why, but I do. It could be the skating, but I also like watching the other stuff too. I can't stress enough how much I hated NBC's broadcast. I saw what kind of coverage Canada and the UK got and was instantly jealous. They

Comments

[kssthesky]

Yes I heard that even with skating, they skipped a lot even though that draws a big audience. And then to keep flip flopping back and forth between different events...it's like, you already tape delayed it, just show it in one piece, will you? And I don't need to see a 10th interview of Lindsay Vonn. I already knew who she was because they whored her out enough.

I didn't think about it, but I should have given you the site of the place I went to. It's mainly a site that provides info on where you can see live sports and on the main section, it is updated with the live sports that are currently being shown at that very moment. Then on the forums, people will post the links to where they are streaming that particular event. As NBC (or IOC) constantly shut down these sites about an hour after they went up, there was one site that never did get shut down. I think it is because that person's link wasn't in the main post, but instead was in the comment section of that particular thread. Anyway, everyone watching had to rely on whatever the person streaming wanted to watch, so I didn't get to see all of the skating, but instead, but I did see quite a bit of it.

It was amusing because the former skater from the UK, Robin Cousins was one of the commentators. Typical British stuff at times...quite often, when someone fell, he would say, "Oh dear." And then he had nothing but harsh words for Carolina Kostner in the long program. I think he went on a 3 minute rant about how poor her performance was. Not sure if you saw her program, but she fell quite a bit and at some point, she started to do a bunch of jumps in a row. Robin said, "That's much too little and a lot too late. She saw a lot of the ice today." And when the other commentator said how she changed coaches, Robin said, "It's not about the coach change. It's all about whether or not you are going to listen to your coach and actually do what they tell you to do." It was sooo harsh, but I had to laugh.

Which skaters did you miss? If you go to NBC right now, you can select the skater's programs that you want to see. Don't have to have a cable or satellite account unless you want to watch the reply in full, but I just select that one particular program. It took me awhile to find it. I'll see if I can provide the exact links for you.

I also heard they didn't show Mao Asada's gala performance on NBC, the bastards.

BTW, what did you think of the results? I love this time of year because I get to talk to Cebby about it! :D

[cebastiankraine]

Carolina Kostner was a hot mess! From what I remember of the NBC announcers, she simply refuses to put in the work that it takes. They said she rarely will run through her entire programs before going to a competition.

The British announces sound much more amusing! ::L::

I missed a lot of the women and just a handful of the men, I believe. Then again, NBC didn't make it clear they were skipping a lot, so who knows how many I missed.

As far as results, I felt like everyone that medaled deserved it. Especially, Lysacek. I've never felt like a quad was worth putting in a program because it seems to mess up the flow. Even Plushenko, when he lands it, seems off. I don't know.

The Canadian ice dancing couple were fantastic! The women were okay. I'm still wanting a female skater to skate like Kwan, but I think I'm asking for too much. I didn't find much artistry in the female programs.

I thought Weir was going to melt the ice with the flames he was shooting off. Ummm, I forget the other American dude's name, but he was rather smug and I kind of enjoyed seeing im crash and burn. NBC had some comments he made re: Lysacek's insane workout schedule and he made it sound like he didn't have to put in that kind of work, because he's the superior skater and that whatever Lysacek felt he had to do to reach his level he could do. It was very...odd. The tone was off-putting. Jeremy Abbott? Is that his name? Anyway, he made a fool of himself ::L::

I wasn't shocked that American ladies didn't get a singles medal. They simply weren't that great, imo.

Yes, this is a great time of year! Oh, if only Kwan was still skating. RAWR ::L::

[kssthesky]

I was very happy with the skating results for all 4 events. Probably the first time that's ever happened for me (to be satisfied with all the standings).

Extremely happy to see Evan win gold. I have to admit, I didn't think that would happen. I partially understand why Plushenko was upset, but he won gold under the new scoring system, so he had to have known how it worked. Maybe he should have studied it more when developing his program. I see nothing wrong with Evan aiming for bonus points and trying to obtain the maximum amount of points he was able to put in his routine. Simply put, Plushenko, in both his routine and attitude completely failed.

You know I like Patrick Chan, but was surprised to see that his score was higher than Johnny Weir's because I thought Johnny did a good job and Patrick didn't do as well as I had hoped. However, I also think the reason why Patrick scored higher than Johnny is for the same reason why Evan won over Plushenko. Patrick concentrates on his strengths and aims for maximum points in elements other than jumps.

I loved the Canadian ice dance couple. great flamenco. The Americans that won silver are okay too and I liked their bollywood routine. I totally thought the Russians would have won, but I am glad they didn't. That original dance of theirs was horrible. I've always liked the original dance more than the free dance and I know it was usually the strongest program for the pairs I liked such as Torvil and Dean and Bourne and Kraatz. Sad to see Belbin and Agosto not make it on the podium, but they did well. I can see that their pace is slower and lifts aren't as good as the others.

I really like Yu-Na Kim and she definitely deserved gold, but thought her scores were somewhat overinflated. I like Mao Asada too and thought her program was more firey than Yu-Na's, but I was surprised to see her mess up the way she did. Her triple axels are excellent though and she can pull them off better than some of the men. The scores seemed rather low to me though and I wondered if they did that to make some room for Joannie to possibly get a silver if Joannie were to have skated cleanly. I am glad Joannie got a medal as I hoped since 4 years ago in Torino that she would get at least a bronze for Canada. I'm not surprised the Americans didn't medal, but glad they did well enough. I don't care much for Rachel Flatt, but I do like Mirai and she's getting better. I think she will improve over time. But I agree...there will never be another Michelle. :(

Oh, I was also so happy to see Shen and Zhao get a gold. I've been following them since Nagano and I was completely surprised to hear they were coming back out of retirement for the olympics. Thought their chances would be toast since it would be their 4th olympics and considered elderly at this point. The other Chinese pair had an excellent long program, but Shen and Zhao had high points from the short.

[cebastiankraine]

I didn't think Evan was going win, either. Plushenko's routine was very choppy and he front loaded all of his jumps. His comments about Evan just "shaking hit butt" and such on the ice were hypocritical, considering Plushenko pretty much filled the last half of his program with shitty choreography that had breaks for his own ass shaking. Plushenko is just a sore loser. If he cannot even update his haircut, why are we to expect him to update the way he does his programs?

Patrick... Totally adore him, but he definitely should not have been scored about Weir. I think Belbin and Agosto just got too comfy being the top US team and let their training slip. It just seemed completely off, imo.

Rachel Flatt...erf. Not a fan. Mirai rocks, though!

Shen and Zhao put in the work and skated so great... They definitely deserved to win. No doubt.