Back to Prime Time last night-- It's been 46 years since the “Miracle on Ice”, and now that the US Hockey team has gamed the system by packing it with NHL players, they're doing pretty well--big surprise.
Torico sends us to a rerun of women's 10K cross country. The end of the race, with competitors splayed on the ground, reminds me of the post-battle scene in “Gone with the Wind”. This is followed by a review of the Ukrainian skeleton competitor with the controversial helmet--still a terrible call by QISEOC.
Then it's a rerun of men's Moguls, along with a drone promo--with one attacking Tirico at the ski lodge. I’ve read up on the drones, each of which requires a team of pilots and technicians to keep them going (with a lot of battery swaps). They also use multiple protocols and frequencies to send the video live back to home base--they only get one shot at it. The drones can go 70+ miles an hour to keep up with the athletes. Tirico makes a joke about the buzzing, but tests have apparently proven that the athletes don’t hear or notice it during competition.
Off to Men’s Snowboardcross (from the branding people who brought you menu items at Taco Bell). Four competitors fly down the course simultaneously--lots of crashes. There’s two strategies--get in front fast to avoid collisions, or stay in back and hope the others collide.
“Event of the Night”--Women’s Half Pipe, with legend Shaun White doing a victory lap as a lead in. As we already knew, Chloe Kim took the silver. Shawn keeps dropping in with commentary, and later, Chloe and Snoop have a heart-to-heart.
Over to Women’s Super-G. Breezy had a day of extremes--a crash on the course, and a marriage proposal (she said yes). Back to Half Pipe, and a video package for the US’s Maddie Mastro. No three-peat for Kim.
Finally--Snoop and Tucci meet, swapping stories and gifts.
Over to Late Night--Taylor takes us to Lollabrigida’s 5000m Speed Skating (re)run. Then it’s Short Track, with a video package on Kristen Santos-Griswold, who had a bad previous games. She was told to “make little Kristen proud”. Well, she only made it to the “B” final. Back to Breezy and the proposal. We then get Chock and Bates (and their moms) in a Taylor interview. One more interview and they get a free sub. NBC seems to be avoiding the potential French judge scandal.
On the Today Show, Alexander (out on the Duomo plaza, where it’s 60 degrees) provides the daily update. Tara and Gosk preview the Quad God’s Free Skate. Chloe Kim is interviewed, and Giada takes Alexander on a Milan drinking tour.
Daytime--Lowe and Rippon, from the Duomo, preview the Quad God coming up. But it’s off to the Men’s 10K Freestyle Cross-Country. It’s Klaeboing time! He’s now tied for the most Winter QISE golds at 8. Two more, and he ties Michael Phelps.
Off to Women’s Snowboardcross Final--Australia takes the gold. Then it’s Men’s Half Pipe Final--once my DVD catches up. I’m watching early performances of Men’s Free Skate on Peacock until then.
…and I’m back. The Half Pipe commentator keeps talking about “NBD”--Never Been Done--when there’s a brand new trick for a competitor. Japan takes the gold.
Tirico steps in to set the table for the Men’s Free Skate with Hamilton. Will the Quad God go for 7 of them? Well, a bunch of QISE legends are in the audience (Hamill! Boitano! Biles!), and I’m sure they expect it. After a number of competitors made mistakes, it seemed like a clear path for Malinin. Instead, he fell twice and dropped out of multiple quads. He wound up in 8th place. Almost as shocking--Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan wins the gold. Never worship false idols, NBC.
That’ll do it for today.
#Its_a_me_QISE