Back to Prime Time last night--Torico intros the evening with the Women's Hockey victory, then it's off to Men's Slalom. Almost half of the competitors went off the course. There’s a point just before a competitor begins their run where his coach yells at him to get going, and based on the noises they made, I’m convinced at least one of them is Klingon (petaQ!)
After a promo for tomorrow's (today's?) Women's Short Program, we begin the rerun of Pairs Free Skate aka the “Event of the Night”. Before we get to the final pairs, Colin Jost gives us a first person view of Bobsled to take us into the Women's MonoBob rerun. Elana Meyers Taylor gets a video package about her two deaf kids just before winning the gold.
Tucci checks out Cortina cuisine (a mix of Italian and Austrian), a check around the games including the US/Canada Women’s Hockey matchup (NBC is letting the game go to USA Network???), then back to Figure Skating. The network is already looking forward to the Women’s marquee event--with a video package narrated (and accompanied) by Taylor Swift. We then see the gals in their practice session. Pairs champion Riku Miura was in total shock--she didn’t crack a smile for minutes.
Over to the Women’s 1000m Short Track final--the Netherlands take it. Snoop drops by the Duomo for some QISE highlights, and Elana Meyers Taylor takes a victory lap with Tirico via FaceTime.
Off to Late Night--Taylor at the Duomo sends us to Women’s Ski Big Air finals. A big storm generated a delay before they finally got going. Eileen Gu gets another video package and the silver. Over to Day 1 of the Two-Men Bobsled, then skater Erin Jackson and her family drops by for an interview--she gets in an ad for her Big Pharma contract.
The Today Show--on a busy news day, it’s 40 minutes into the show before Gosk and Tara previews Women’s Skating. Later, Ilia Malinin drops by the Duomo for an interview. There’s a lot of references to “class” and “grace”. Simone Biles is also interviewed (and gets a plug in several times).
Over to Daytime coverage--Lowe at the Duomo sends us off to Men’s 4x7.5 Cross-Country Relay (possibly due to the fact that snow is delaying other more interesting events). QISE legend Dan Jansen drops by to talk Speed Skating, and we go to Men’s Two-Man Bobsled.
This reminded me that someone online suggested QISE is leaving sliding options on the table. Skeleton involves lying on your stomach with your head leading, and Luge involves lying on your back with your head following. Why not the other two options--lie on your back with your head leading, or on your stomach with your head following? Of course, those would both involve sliding blind, but it seems like you have to mostly go with your memory and knowledge of the course anyway. Maybe a helmet camera sending a signal to your goggles? Just a thought.
Elana Meyers Taylor drops by for a Lowe interview--I assume she will eventually visit all dayparts. After a Curling drop-in, we go to Men’s Ski Big Air Final. Guess the weather has calmed down. We’re getting a lot of commentary digitally broken up--I’m guessing they are reporting from NJ. The competitors are pulling out all the stops after they realized the new snow sped things up.
Tirico steps in, then hands us off to Women’s Figure Skating--Short Program, in the middle of a performance. Malinin stops by the Ski Lodge to talk to Tirico--we’ll see him again at the “Champions Gala”. There’s a lot of ads--NBC is front-loading them so they can show the big guns later sans commercials (it will be the “Event of the Night with limited commercial interruptions” in Prime Time). Here’s Scott Hamilton again, getting his preview in.
They work thru the ladies, and platitudes fly from Tara and Johnny. They keep saying “you can’t win in the Short Program, but you can lose it”. Go for the clean program. The US’s Alyssa Liu does just that, and Isabeau Levito mostly does the same. Amber Glenn dropped out of one of her jumps and landed in 13th place. We still have the Free Program to go.
More tomorrow.
#Its_a_me_QISE