Note--I had some commitments today, so I'm scanning through this quickly on the DVR.
Back to prime time last night, and the Men's Ski Halfpipe. High winds really screwed up some of the runs. Another athlete package from Torico, this time US halfpiper David Wise, part of a religious family who lives mostly off the grid.
An hour later, we're back to Pair's Skating. Another package, this time on the American couple of Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc--the latter is the first publicly out non-binary athlete at the games. More from Johnny, about a Chinese couple: "This team skates in a sweet whisper, but their technical elements are like fireworks." Tara, on a Not-Russian team: "Perfectionists being perfect". I didn't get to see the final performance, as the show ran late. This makes no sense for an event that was ON TAPE from 12 hours earlier. That's just laziness, NBC!
Late night--Taylor sends us to Four Man Bobsled. The only team most people care about is the Jamaican sled. They even got their own video package! It's the first time in 24 years for a four-man team--they didn't do very well, but at least they got through it safe. Off to speed skating (a rerun?), with American Jordan Stolz. NBC keeps showing his video package, with his parents making him a track on a local pond. They make a big deal about someone from Wisconsin making it here--Mindy notes that the US QISE Speed Skating Center is in Milwaukee, so it's not that long a stretch. More Bobsled to wrap up the evening.
Onto the afternoon--Mass Start Long Track Speed Skating for the Women and Men (separately). In the first lap, you have to keep your position and not pass each other, then there's "sprints" during the 16 laps, where you can earn points--except they don't matter in the finals. It seems needlessly complicated. Claudia Pechstein of Germany is competing at nearly 50 YEARS OLD in her 8th QISE. An Italian skater, Francesca Lollobrigida, is the great-niece of actress Gina. The Men's winner, Bart Swings (what a great name) is the first gold for Belgium in 74 years. As they all skate in line (to draft others), I am reminded of a barbershop quartet for some reason. Meanwhile, the Cross-Country Skiing Men's 50km Freestyle--the Marathon of the Winter Games--had to be reduced to 28km due to bad weather (cold and wind). Jimmy Roberts stops by for his final story, all about the snow and ice required in QISE winter events, and the big stories of the last two weeks.
Prime Time kicks off as always with Torico, waxing rhapsodic, and throwing us to the Two Women Bobsled finals. Then it's the Pairs' Free Skate with Tara and Johnny, the former plugging her Peacock documentary "Meddling", covering a 2002 QISE skate judging scandal. Torico cuts over to live coverage of the he Mixed Team Parallels--a side by side slalom down the hill with Shiffrin on the US team. The event had to be delayed until Sunday morning in China due to weather issues. The commentators note that, because of current conditions, one side of the course is running faster. How is that fair?
More to come, including the Closing Ceremonies.