OT: Olympic Men's skating - Adam Rippon and why he didn't score higher
February 12th, 2018 at 9:44 AM ^
The defending gold medalist winning again, in dominating fashion nonetheless, was totally a fluke of the weather and showed no skill on her part whatsoever to effectively manage the conditions. Right.
February 12th, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^
She was smart. Took a safe, conservative run in horrible conditions. The event itself didn't reflect where the sport is right now. It was a horrible decision not to postpone the event and they're very lucky none of the athletes suffered a serious injury.
February 12th, 2018 at 10:41 AM ^
Ah yes, competitions should always only be held in ideal conditions. I don't even know why we play football outside anymore...
February 12th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
No, but they shouldn't be held in conditions that are dangerous to the competitors. Golf tournaments get canceled in lightning storms. This was the equivalent of that.
Freestyle aerials are already dangerous. Athletes are spinning 30 feet in the air. They need particular conditions to do it safely and show their ability. That's why they postpone competitions when there are high winds. Except, of course, when the GS has already been canceled and the Olympics TV partners are panicking that they won't have anything to show live in primetime.
And all the athletes seem to agree, including the gold medalist:
https://deadspin.com/snowboarders-blast-olympic-organizers-for-forcing-…
February 12th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
"Super unfortunate," "I'm not extremely proud of my run. Back 5, cab 5, front 7 is pretty mellow, that would barely get into finals in some events...." that's the Gold Medalist.
Other athletes:
"I think everyone's just really happy that no one got seriously hurt."
"A shitshow."
"I don't know why it was ran, to be honest, because no one wanted to go."
"It's a little funny that they can move the downhill five days and they pressure us into riding in these conditions."
"Before my first run I was just up there crying."
February 11th, 2018 at 11:01 PM ^
Maia and Alex Shibutani- Ann Arbor natives, AKA ‘Shib Sibs’ are such a fascinating duo. Their affinity for each other as siblings is very endearing, and their skating together is a beautiful thing. The team competition is great for the sport and makes for fantastic TV.
February 11th, 2018 at 10:59 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:28 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 1:57 AM ^
Tv Teddy judging an ice skating competition
February 12th, 2018 at 7:55 AM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:18 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 7:42 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:11 AM ^
Even when she tries an American accent?
February 12th, 2018 at 8:11 AM ^
The one thing I give NBC's coverage is that they have the classic Olympic theme music. The CBC theme just sounds like generic sports music.
February 11th, 2018 at 11:29 PM ^
A Zanax and a drink during his interview with Mike Tirico.
February 11th, 2018 at 11:30 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:33 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:37 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:36 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:39 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:54 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 12:33 AM ^
His commentary is very serious and insightful though. He's not just going for entertainment.
February 11th, 2018 at 11:53 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 3:26 AM ^
Your opinion is interesting but you're a few years behind on the issue. There was a significant controversy over the weighting of quadruple jumps in 2010 (link). The scoring system allowed Evan Lysacek to win the gold medal despite attempting no quads over Evgeni Plushenko, who completed quad-triple combinations in both his short and long programs. The system was later re-weighted to make this sort of strategy less successful.
It's worth noting that flubbed jump landings are the mistake most visible to casual viewers, but the deduction for them is relatively minor in comparison to their visibility. It's real, but so are a lot of other mistakes (ie, taking off or landing from the wrong edge) that are more difficult to see.
February 12th, 2018 at 4:53 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 6:54 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:34 AM ^
If there's ice on your can, you don't take the stand.
If there's snow on your kettle, you don't get no medal.
February 12th, 2018 at 6:14 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 7:54 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:44 AM ^
There was an "openly straight" men's figure skater in the '90s, Elvis Stojko I believe.
When you are a straight male in the world of figure skating, you never go home alone.
He had to play Don Brown-level defense against women just to get into the ice rink.
February 12th, 2018 at 7:00 AM ^
of the whole evening was this...
In more mainstream sports, you don't earn more points for degree of difficulty. A shoestring catch in the endzone doesn't earn more than 6 points. A Jordan-esque dunk doesn't earn more than 2 points, Most importantly, you don't earn any points if you attempt one of those things and fail to complete the play successfully.
I understand and encourage rewarding innovation and technical prowess in a competition such as figure skating, but when falls are worth more points than successful completion of jumps, your "sport" will continue to be something only watched once every four years by the masses.
February 12th, 2018 at 7:29 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:20 AM ^
Change the judging system in figure skating and it will compete with football for popularity.
Falls aren't worth more than successful jumps. Falls aren't worth anything. But completing difficult jumps is worth more than easier ones and those can add up.
It's like hitting 80% of 3 point shots is worth more than hitting 100% of the same number of dunks. Or hitting a lot of home runs can be worth more than having a higher batting average even if you strike out a lot and plod around the basepaths. Someone had the crazy idea of rewarding those things because they are harder to do.
February 12th, 2018 at 8:15 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:00 AM ^
your sexuality, race, gender is as long as you are competing and winnig Medals for team USA!
February 12th, 2018 at 8:19 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:52 AM ^
To be fair a lot of people SAY these things and do actually mean it.
Not everybody needs a stern lecture every time.
February 12th, 2018 at 8:43 AM ^
So . . . "figure skating is not a real sport" seems to this sport's answer to "soccer is un-American and full of diving" and "the NBA doesn't play defense."
I don't know why some people have this need to proclaim how much they don't like a sport. I couldn't tell you the last time I watched figure skating, but I know it's incredibly difficult and have a lot of respect for the people who make it this far.
February 12th, 2018 at 8:56 AM ^
Agreed.
Even Michael Jordan looked like a fool trying to play professional baseball.
Any sport that is played at the highest level is extremely demanding and worthy of respect.
"Oh, I could do that."
No, you couldn't.
February 12th, 2018 at 1:55 PM ^
With enough beer, I could totally curl.
February 12th, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^
I think some of those curling teams can throw back the brew. There was a great tweet showing American Matt Hamilton and Canadian Johnny Morris enjoying can's of Molson after the matches on Saturday.
February 12th, 2018 at 2:48 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:54 AM ^
Im just kind of sick of every night during prime time its skating. There are a lot of other events but they always get knocked behind ice dancing. Give me something else dernit!
February 12th, 2018 at 9:45 AM ^
The NBC Sports app is your friend. I frankly don't understand why most people watch what's spoonfed on the primetime broadcasts anymore, to be really honest...
February 12th, 2018 at 1:54 PM ^
Biathlon is the greatest sport ever. Ski - shoot - ski -shoot - collapse of fatigue. Closest sport to a wargame there is.
February 12th, 2018 at 8:57 AM ^
I stopped watching after watching the performance after his because of how ridiculous the scoring seemed. I am all for encouraging difficult performances, but you still have to be able to perform the difficult performances. The guy after him fell many times yet still somehow got a better score than Rippon who's performance was damn good. If you are falling many times, I don't care if it is a hard performance, because you didn't actually successfully perform the hard performance.
February 12th, 2018 at 8:59 AM ^
It's absolute trash. I know absolutely nothing but heard that just trying a quad is worth pretty much the same as landing a triple. Such BS. The harder tricks should be worth more and should be the difference that makes you win -- if you actually, you know, perform them...