2014 Winter Olympics Thread

[Ann_SS]

Tara and Johnny were just on NBC's Olympics show. They stated again that Adelina won because of the technical difficulty of her jumps. She was so ahead by doing the more difficult jumps so much better than Yuna that she was able to beat Yuna even though she had lower artistic scores. I went "ha!" when they echoed my earlier post and Costas asked if was similar to Oskana beating Nancy Kerrigan. Tara said that it was the exact same thing.

Tara and Johnny looked stunning as usual. They are really stars. I agree with Costas that they deserve their own talk show.

[juppiter]

I am fine with Oksana beating Nancy, but that one was questionable as well because several judges had Oksana ranked above Nancy for Technical Difficulty. And just going by technique, Oksana two-footed her triple flip while Nancy doubled her triple flip. Under the rules at the time, two-footing was a bigger no-no (now it is the opposite.) But I am way more wishy-washy on Oksana/Nancy. Two of the most amazing performances of all time and I could truly see it going either away. But the result undeniably came down to old cold war rivalries as the former communist country judged gave the win to Oksana, and the western country judges gave it to Nancy. The western countries were outnumbered 5-4.

[Ann_SS]

I have been reading the vicious online attacks on Adelina. It brings back memories of similarly nasty attacks on Tara Lipinski when she beat Michelle Kwan. I will never forget the one person who wrote to the effect that they never "accept that teen jumping trailer trash beating their elegant Michelle." Some people... No wonder this world is so f'ked up.

In the cases of Oksana, Tara, and now Adelina upsetting the expected champion, there really seems to be this entitlement of the losers' fans that the gold is "theirs" and how dare the judges actually score the performances in the Olympics any other way.

[BetterForgotten]

I don't understand why people were surprised when Lipiski beat Kwan in '98. Kwan skated clean, yes, but she skated safe and conservatively. Lipinski had a more difficult long program and her jumps were far superior to Kwan's.

[Ann_SS]

I just read this article in the Times. First one that I think touches on some the reasons behind of the "controversy" of Adelina's win; the difference in the quality and depth of the announcing of Tara/Johnny who do the live broadcast and the Browning crew who do the prime time show. One of the reasons is that in the live broadcast, there is so much time between the end of the performance and the scores that Tara and Johnny who are far more honest and insightful have more time to review the jumps carefully as the judges are doing. So they are see the flaws in the performances and give more realistic assessments that are more in line with the judges actually score.

I have to say that I love Johnny's snarkiness and Tara's frankness. They make a wonderful team.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/22/sports/olympics/from-johnny-weirs-team-a-fresh-voice-for-nbc.html

Katarina Witt should be embarrassed by how she has treated Adelina.

In contrast, Scott Hamilton acknowledged that Adelina deserved to win.

[Cat]

Well, Sochi 2014 is finished! Sniff. I always enjoy the Winter Olympics.

Another very impressive closing ceremony with amazing classical music and performances. Loved the battling ballet houses, the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky, battling it out ballet-style to Rimsky- Korsakov's Scheherazade.

Russians also have a sense of humor, judging by that human formation of Olympic rings and the last one that doesn't open.

As cheesy as it may have been, I loved the giant cuddly skating bear and skiing rabbit and snowboarding tiger, lol. When the bear lifted his paw and blew out the Olympic flame and then a single tear rolled down his eye, I got rather moved and teary myself!

Congrats to all the participants because they really were terrific competitors.

[Toups]

So happy that the Mens and Women's hockey teams repeated with Gold Medal wins!! What a crazy comeback in the women's game. And let's face it, hockey is truly the only sport that matters in Canada. LOL

There was so much pressure on young Yulia. I think if there was no team competition, Yulia would've done better. I also don't like that the the skaters perform the same program. I'd rather just see it once. If they're going to repeat the programs, I say do the team competition last. And i think they should show the scores from each judge and the country they're from, like how they did before. Other competitions are still doing that.