From last night—
- Well, Lindsey Vonn ended up with (as they call it on The Simpsons) “shameful bronze”. She teared up at her post-race interview—this is catnip for Kabletown’s cameras, and we got long extreme closeups of her crying. You could count her individual eyelashes.
- Back to Figure Skating. Johnnyisms—“She usually sells that short program like the rent's due tomorrow and she hasn’t gotten her paycheck yet!” “She rotates so fast—it’s like a hummingbird’s wings” “Her jumps were like fireworks"
- At sone point, Tara said that a skater should score better than another—then after the commercial, and that didn’t occur, she said she knew it wouldn’t happen. It’s all due to what they euphemistically call the “reputation” of a skater (Russians—sorry, “Olympic Athletes from Russia”) tend to get a pass more easily from the judges.
- Looks like my TiVo’s schedule was off tonight—or the Peacock made some last minute changes—so my “prime plus” recording is a bit fragmented.
- At QISE, all announcements are made in the local language, France, and English. This sometimes means different names or pronunciations for countries. I keep hearing “CAN-ada”, then “Can-A-da”. I reply with “Canad-A”.
Moving on to today—
- The time difference between Pyeongchang and the US left the The Today Show with a scoop—a surprise win in Women’s Cross-Country overnight, and the first medal in this sport since 1976. Kabletown finally has a story to tell.
- Watching the finale of that event online, all I can think of is—get that commentator a lozenge. He is absolutely screaming into the mike.
- We’re hearing more about Liz Swaney, the Hungarian Half-Pipe competitor whose runs included virtually no “tricks”. She previously ran for governor of California and tried the Skeleton as a sport. So it’s not clear if she’s delusional or looking for publicity—or both. She was in a very uncomfortable interview on the morning show.
- Primetime begins with Tirico’s voiceover, shooting us directly to Men’s Slalom. After a bit of that, we get the US cross-country win already discussed 12 hours earlier on the Today Show. I was worried the color commentator’s head was going to explode. Somebody get him a lozenge!
- We knew that event was taped hours earlier, but it was still impressive that Comcast re-edited a commercial featuring those athletes which showed immediately after the win on the broadcast.
- Over to Bobsled, starting with the “joke” teams—Nigeria and Jamaica. Kabletown—you can’t complain about Liz Swaney, and then swoon over these runs.
- Moving on to Women’s Super Combined, with the storylines of a) Lindsey Vonn’s last event and b) Mikaela Shiffrin’s run for redemption.
More tomorrow.