Kondratiuk is great! He has an unpolished quality (the jump landings are always anxiety provoking) but he has a lot of speed and attack and he really commits to the performance. I'm really glad he's going home with an Olympic gold medal.
@Nunya B was Sarah Hughes' gold in 2002 the result of a Faustian bargain that said the US would never be good in women's individual again? Is there someone coming up who I can count on to someday try to sell me everything from Coca-Cola to diapers? Coming of age in the Michelle/Tara era (with the Tonya and Nancy aftershocks continuing to reverberate!) really spoiled me and the fact that the US hasn't medaled since 2006...
Congrats to: - Ireen Wust winning her 6th gold (and 12th Olympic medal) in speed skating. - France's Johan Clarey claiming silver at the skiing downhill at age 41. - Canada's Max Parrott and Mark McMorris winning gold and bronze at snowboard slopestyle after surviving respectively a cancer and a near fatal crash. - The Australian curling mixed pairs team beating Canada.
I think skating has just changed too much! It's an expensive sport with a very low return on investment. And the demands of the sport are much higher than they used to be: it takes more to get to the top and skaters stay at the top for much much much less time (1 or 2 years at most nowadays). There are better extracurriculars to make your kids do if you just want them to go to Harvard or whatever.
Not Canada winning bronze in the mixed team ski jumping event due to very shady suit violation disqualifications.
Congrats to Petra Vlhová becoming the first Slovak to win gold in alpine skiing and to Lindsey Jacobellis finally winning gold in snowboard cross, 16 years after she famously fell trying to do a trick at the homestretch when she was comfortably on the lead, letting the gold medal slip away. Plus, a big hug to Mikaela Shiffrin. People haven't learned zilch with what happened to Simone Biles.
I found the Hulu doc Meddling more interesting than I thought I would. Pretty well done. It’s about the Salt Lake City figure skating judge scandal.
Congrats to: - Johannes Strolz winning alpined combined, the same event his dad won in 1988. - Chloe Kim getting her second halfpipe Olympic gold. - Queralt Castellet getting Spain's fifth ever Winter Olympics medal, (and the first silver).
Nathan Chen is the living proof that perfection is boring. I saw jumps, amazing jumps, more than 30 I think. That's it. The Japanese triad were the highlight of the night along with Brown's beautiful routine.
I was surprised to see an Irish guy doing well in cross-country skiing until I learned that he's actually Norwegian and is representing his mother's birth country.
