Every Winter Olympics on the last day (in this case, Sunday), they hold a “gala” where all the medal winners in figure skating -- in each discipline -- perform exhibitions just for fun.
I just checked, and maybe I was wrong about the day, or perhaps it's different this year. In any case, the gala is tomorrow (Saturday) at 9:30 AM (Los Angeles time). It will be covered on NBC Sports Network.
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Earlier today, I made note that I was surprised how little NBC had referenced the fighting in the Ukraine, and in particular how much it had been ignored on the primetime broadcasts. I was surprised about primetime not just because this was a reflection of NBC News, but also since it was the kind of thing that Bob Costas doesn't shy away from.
Happily, to Bob Costas's full credit, he did address it tonight, for 2-3 minutes, and in a thoughtful, graceful but blunt manner. It's still a small amount for NBC, but happily Costas was back in the anchor seat, because otherwise we might not have even got that. We watch the Olympics round-the-clock so that we can get in shape for the Summer Games in two years.
Ukraine won the women's 4x6K biathlon. As I've said, I enjoy the unlikelihood of this offbeat sport -- but enough already. It seems like biathlon won't end, and I'm not quite sure how each event is different. It's length and whether a relay or not, I guess, but it's hard to tell the different. So, it all looks like one big, non-stop, unending biathlon race. I'm a bit surprised how little the uprising in Ukraine has been mentioned on the Olympics coverage. I know there's a whole lot of coverage I haven't seen, so maybe it's been mentioned during then, in the middle of the night. And I know that the games are in Russia, not the Ukraine. But they're next door, and also the Ukraine used to be part of the Soviet Union until 1991. After the race, in mentioning the biathlon winner, studio host Al Michaels did reference the country's relation to Russia and add, "I"m sure you know about all the troubles in the Ukraine right now,," but that's it. Hardly in-depth analysis. And I don't recall anything said during the primetme coverage. I don't expect a lot of coverage, but I really didn't think it would be so little The U.S. hockey team again lost to Canada, this time the men's, knocking them out of the Gold Medal game. That makes two big losses to Canada in two days. Happily, Canada is made up of such nice people, because otherwise we'd probably be hearing a lot of "nyah, nyah, nyah's." The game was great, blistering fast, and close, with Canada winning 1-0 with a tip-in goal in the second period. A disappointing loss, but it's never a total loss when you get to listen to Doc Emrick call a game. The Gold Medal game is set for Sunday. Probably my favorite speedskating event was held today, the team pursuit. (Today, it was the women's.) I like this for two reasons. One is that it's very similar to one of my favorite bicycling races in the Summer Games, so there's a certain familiarity. And second, the way it's done makes it the most watchable of the speedskating racees. Two teams line up on opposite sides of the ice, so a) there's no chance of crashing, and b) you can always see clearly who's ahead and by how much. Fun, too, is that the team that wins isn't the one who's leading skater finishes first, but whose last skater finishes before the last skater of the other team. I've noted previously that the "freestyle" skiing/snowboarding events are not among my favorites, but I've learned to accept-ish them and watch a bit. But after a while, I've officially grown weary of them. I still watch a bit, but some things are best in small doses so as not to expose the emptiness. That's the biggest problem: for all the many freestyle events, there are only two kinds, as far as I can discern -- runs that have little hills that flip you up in the air and generally you do some sort of twisting, and slides that flip you up in the air and you do some sort of twisting. Some use snowboards, and some use skis, which are supposedly totally different, but which strike me as like using a teaspoon and a soupspoon and explaining that they're separate culinary experiences. The people are very talented, impressively so, But it's clear they're here not because these are Great Olympics Events, but because organizers wanted more events for the Winter.Games and to bring in an audience that wasn't watching in winter before. Otherwise, we'd see just as many skateboarding events in the Summer Olympics -- and not only don't we see just as many, we don't see even one. That's because they have plenty of events in the Summer, and a big enough audience, so there's no need to dumb things down. (It's bad enough that the Summer Games have rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming.) To be clear, there are other winter events that I find questionable -- and some, like ice dancing, that are for me unwatchable. But the problem with freestyle events is that there are So Many , and no matter how much they try to make each discipline seem different, in the end they're flipping in the air and twisting with boards on your feet. That's why they created the X-Games and the circus. And Canada and Great Britain are playing for the finals in men's curling. Yes, they're still playing curling, the sport that won't end. But it better end soon, because if they do anymore sweeping of the ice, it'll be gone. At the moment Canada is leading 6-1 after the sixth end. There are three more to go -- I think?. Canada won the women's Gold Medal, and the announcer just said that "Canada is on their way to 'sweeping' the Gold medals in curling." I think he's been praying all day that the Canadian men would win so that he could use that line. No word if the Canadian team is preparing to go "Nyah, nyah, nyah..." The guest today is Sherry Mills from Austin, Texas. I found this quiz happily easy to get, both for the hidden song and composer-style. I was surprised that the contestant had as much difficulty as she did, though I do understand it's trickier when you're playing on-the-air, rather than in the comfort of your home.
I have two new entries in the Worst Commercial category, thanks to multiple airings I've had to endure during my Olympic Watching.
The first is for Chevrolet that has an ad with a babysitter being driving home by the mom, who pulls into the driveway and double-checks that it's $40 she owes. The young girl has been admiring the elegance of the (actually) reasonably-priced car so much on the ride home that she is sure the family must be loaded, so she says instead that, no, it's $60. What I'd like to see is the ad continue and have the mother respond: "Say, what?? We agreed on $40. I know we agreed on $40. It's what we've always paid you. I was being polite. Do you take me to be stupid? And now you're lying to me? We entrust you with the care and protection of our children. If you can't be trusted with telling us the truth about what you're owed, and you're willing to lie and cheat to get an extra greedy 20 bucks from us, then we can't even remotely trust you with our children. Here's the $40 we, in fact, owe you, and this is the last time your services will be needed." The other ad is one for a shoe company -- I'm pretty sure it's Reebok -- that has two "teams" running around in a tag-team sort of event for some reason, I think, and it's all to the theme for the old Underdog cartoon show, also for some reason.. What I haven't been able to figure out is why in the world they are singing about "Underdog." It makes no sense to me. What does Underdog have to do with shoes? Or with running around on a tag-team race? The disconnect between song and product is so distracting to the sales-point of the ad, that for the first half-dozen times I saw the ad I couldn't even remember that it was Reebok (I think) that the commercial was for. We watch the Olympics at all hours of the night and day so's that you can sleep.
On the late night broadcast, Bob Costas had Nancy Kerrigan in the studio. She's a bit uncomfortable talking on camera, but offered some terrific, detailed analysis of the remaining figure skaters. The Parallel Snowboard Slalom, something I suspect few people watched -- especially since it was on overnight -- had an interesting storyline. In the men's and women's finals was a married couple, Vic Wild and Alena Zavarina. Her career was on the rise, his not and he was losing U.S. funding. They got married and now skate for Russia. She won the Bronze medal. He just won the Gold. So much for his career not on the rise. You'll be happy to know that Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who I wrote about yesterday, won a Gold medal in the team combined mixed relay for the biathlon. That gave him the most medals of any athlete in Olympic history. What's also interesting is that, other than pairs figure skating, this is the only Olympic event I know where men and women compete together. After all the Olympic Watching I've done, I have now determined the two differences between men and men Olympic athletes, at least in the Winter Games. After a race, women competitors rush up to one another, throw their arms around one another and embrace in warm hugs. Men do not. And women put their fingers together for the cameras and make those little "heart" signs. Men do not -- well, most men. No value judgment is made on this, just an observation. Actually, I love seeing the warm hugs. It's very endearing. I've been yammering since the start about women's hockey, and I hope people got a chance to watch. NBC broadcast the Gold Medal game live on the main network, and it was just a terrific hockey match. The U.S. was leading 2-0 with only 3 minutes to go. But Canada scored, and then pulled its goalie to get a one-person advantage, and scored the tying goal with only 55 seconds left. (The U.S. almost put the game away, except for the length of a post -- with an empty net, the slid a puck the length of the ice, but it bounced off the post. Ack.) And in overtime, Canada scored to win the game and Gold medal. As you might imagine, the U.S. team was distraught. But a great game. Today is the free skate finals of the women's figure skating, which NBC Sports Network carried live. I won't give any results, just some comments: The event was broken into three groups, with the lower-standing skaters going first. I don't think NBC will be showing the first group. If they do, feel free to go to the kitchen and make sandwiches or do some channel hopping. It's pronounced how the quality is prominently lower than those in the last two groups. The main reason for watching is that, as I said yesterday, it puts how wonderful the last skaters are in perspective. Many of the skaters were very young, not much past being "Juniors," and it shows. Even the second group, while extremely good and there are some very good performances, seem to the untrained eye notably behind the top skaters, often a bit slower, a touch less fluid, somewhat less confident in their jumps -- with the exception of Mao Asada, who was a favorite but screwed up in the short program. She gives a very emotional skate here. Terry Gannon, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir remained terrific in their commentary. (Except for not saying much during several of the final skaters.) My favorite exchange came when Gannon noted a skater who hadn't done well was nonetheless all in smiles, and he wondered how that could be. Lipisnki replied, "Terry, all you do is cry. You go to wait, and you cry. You got backstage after, and you cry." Weir chimed in, "It's all theatuh. At the Olympics they give you free McDonalds. So, you drown your sorrows in milkshakes." (From Sandra Bezik, you get things like last night's, "Oh, she's just like a lovely figurine in a china box." Well, that, or silence.) I'll just say that the final group of six skaters are wonderful, with several interesting tweaks, and it will be great TV-watching during primetime. And considering that Russia has two wonderful skaters aged 17 and 15, and the U.S. has two wonderful skaters aged 18 and 15 -- not to mention anyone else -- the next Olympics in four years is already shaping up to be a tremendous competition with only those three medal slots open. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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