2018 Olympic Figure Skating Team Event Day 1

[Feline Feeder]

You know, I thought Nathan Chen was one of a few people with a chance of a medal. Nathan, Shoma, Yuzuru, Javier, maybe one of the Chinese skaters, Kolyada or Patrick (if he had a good day) would be in the mix equally. I never thought the gold would be his to lose. He's not super-duper consistent and he's still very young and fairly new to the scene.

All of a sudden, he's the overwhelming gold medal favorite? He's not. I have no doubt the hype shook his nerves, along with whatever ice problem or time problem caused most of them to skate so terribly.

I wish they would cover this competition more realistically. If he doesn't medal--quite possible if the others I listed have good days--he will become known as an infamous disappointment. He deserves better than that.

 

[binky]

totally agree that putting chen as the frontrunner puts undeserved pressure on him. we havnt seen hanyu and javier is currently the most well rounded (but we saw what happened recently when he totally blew it.) that said, patrick chan still has what it takes and cant be ruled out. the blowing in the wind program was a mistake! yikes but too late now!

 

[Seruleane]

You know, I thought Nathan Chen was one of a few people with a chance of a medal. Nathan, Shoma, Yuzuru, Javier, maybe one of the Chinese skaters, Kolyada or Patrick (if he had a good day) would be in the mix equally. I never thought the gold would be his to lose. He's not super-duper consistent and he's still very young and fairly new to the scene.

All of a sudden, he's the overwhelming gold medal favorite? He's not. I have no doubt the hype shook his nerves, along with whatever ice problem or time problem caused most of them to skate so terribly.

I wish they would cover this competition more realistically. If he doesn't medal--quite possible if the others I listed have good days--he will become known as an infamous disappointment. He deserves better than that.

Yep, totally agree with all this. I also wish NBC would cover the other athletes. It's nice to see the US athletes and I get why we cover them, but I'd love to learn about the other top athletes around the world. I don't know if coverage in the other countries is like this, but it's always annoyed me how American-centric TV coverage in the US is.

 

[Anyasnake]

Yep, totally agree with all this. I also wish NBC would cover the other athletes. It's nice to see the US athletes and I get why we cover them, but I'd love to learn about the other top athletes around the world. I don't know if coverage in the other countries is like this, but it's always annoyed me how American-centric TV coverage in the US is.

I totally agree with you, yet they are not making it US-centric enough when it comes to Ice Dance. They don't talk about it enough, which is unbelievable cosidering its their best discipline and that the current OGM are American (and were defeated twice in a whole quad). If it were Ladies or Men... Ice Dance does not seem relevant enough in the US, does it ?
These days I see a bit more coverage about Shibs though, it's nice to see, but I feel like they had to do the job themselves to be recognized - thanks to their YouTube channel.

 

[Barb]

I totally agree with you, yet they are not making it US-centric enough when it comes to Ice Dance. They don't talk about it enough, which is unbelievable cosidering its their best discipline and that the current OGM are American (and were defeated twice in a whole quad). If it were Ladies or Men... Ice Dance does not seem relevant enough in the US, does it ?
These days I see a bit more coverage about Shibs though, it's nice to see, but I feel like they had to do the job themselves to be recognized - thanks to their YouTube channel.

yes, I think ice dance never will top singles at USA, but ice dancers are getting a lot of promotion in my opinion, Maybe it is because I don´t pay much attention to singles but I think ice dancers are getting more attention than Vincent and maybe more than Bradie. It helps that the 3 couples are super gorgeous. W/P and G/P are getting enough promotion in Canada?

 

[Anyasnake]

yes, I think ice dance never will top singles at USA, but ice dancers are getting a lot of promotion in my opinion, Maybe it is because I don´t pay much attention to singles but I think ice dancers are getting more attention than Vincent and maybe more than Bradie. It helps that the 3 couples are super gorgeous. W/P and G/P are getting enough promotion in Canada?

More than Bradie, I don't know. Vincent well, definitely, Nathan and Adam are getting all the media time. But ID still doesn't get enough time IMO.
And for WeaPo and G/P, well, WeaPo could have maybe, but it's not just the Ice Dance/Figure Skating media time that is devoted to V/M, more like the Olympic media time in Canada I guess... they are flagbearers, it's levels above. And it's not "not fair" for WeaPo or G/P because V/M deserve it after all.

 

[satine]

You know, I thought Nathan Chen was one of a few people with a chance of a medal. Nathan, Shoma, Yuzuru, Javier, maybe one of the Chinese skaters, Kolyada or Patrick (if he had a good day) would be in the mix equally. I never thought the gold would be his to lose. He's not super-duper consistent and he's still very young and fairly new to the scene.

All of a sudden, he's the overwhelming gold medal favorite? He's not. I have no doubt the hype shook his nerves, along with whatever ice problem or time problem caused most of them to skate so terribly.

I wish they would cover this competition more realistically. If he doesn't medal--quite possible if the others I listed have good days--he will become known as an infamous disappointment. He deserves better than that.

The problem with US coverage of any sport, is they tend to only focus on the Americans & ignore teams/athletes from other countries. The "GO USA!" mentality is strong in America, especially strong where I live. I recall this being particularly bad during the Rio Olympics. They hype American athletes up (because they're American & therefore the best without question ), act shocked when an athlete from another country takes gold, then instead of interviewing the champion for a news piece, they tend to only dwell on the loss from the pseudo American champ. That's overly patriotic, imo..

 

[icybear]

The problem with US coverage of any sport, is they tend to only focus on the Americans & ignore teams/athletes from other countries. The "GO USA!" mentality is strong in America, especially strong where I live. I recall this being particularly bad during the Rio Olympics. They hype American athletes up (because they're American & therefore the best without question ), act shocked when an athlete from another country takes gold, then instead of interviewing the champion for a news piece, they tend to only dwell on the loss from the pseudo American champ. That's overly patriotic, imo..

Didn't they miss out the French skater in the team sp the other day. I cant think of another TV media being so disrespectful of other competitors

 

[dorispulaski]

Skipping Chafik was bad enough, but chacking Bychenko was unforgiveable.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

The problem with US coverage of any sport, is they tend to only focus on the Americans & ignore teams/athletes from other countries. The "GO USA!" mentality is strong in America, especially strong where I live. I recall this being particularly bad during the Rio Olympics. They hype American athletes up (because they're American & therefore the best without question ), act shocked when an athlete from another country takes gold, then instead of interviewing the champion for a news piece, they tend to only dwell on the loss from the pseudo American champ. That's overly patriotic, imo..

ITA! I find it not only irritating but even a little bit disrespectful. Not only to the athletes but to me. Like do they think I’m such a homer that I’d rather see fluff pieces on someone who placed fifth just because they are American instead of learning about someone who made the podium who has an equally interesting story from a part of the world I very likley know much less?

 

[silverfoxes]

This American has not watched a single minute of NBC coverage and it's going to stay that way. I'm always amazed by all the internet savvy people here who still watch that drivel.

 

[GGFan]

This American has not watched a single minute of NBC coverage and it's going to stay that way. I'm always amazed by all the internet savvy people here who still watch that drivel.

That's the thing. They were disrespectful when you legitimately had no options. I was living on the West Coast in 2010 and I remember being furious that despite the Olympics being in my time zone I would have to watch everything on tape delay. They'll completely curate a competition into something palatable for TV, which is anathema to sports fans.

Now that NBC actually has streams and that app I think they feel even more justified in just switching to other sports and treating prime time like a scripted show. Their way of thinking is "if you were more than a casual fan you would find a way to watch live." Please try to save yourselves the aggravation and find another way to watch. It will not get better. :hopelessness:

 

[NanaPat]

Skipping Chafik was bad enough, but chacking Bychenko was unforgiveable.

If it was live, they didn't know in advance how well Bychenko was going to do. Though if they'd been paying attention to the Grand Prix, they should have know a stellar performance was possible. In fact, a stellar performance (or a meltdown) seems to be possible from anyone these days. Maybe not winning, but stellar.

 

[markovai]

Didn't they miss out the French skater in the team sp the other day. I cant think of another TV media being so disrespectful of other competitors

They missed the skater from Israel, too, and he came in second place at the end.
And yes, since I am in the USA (since 1999) it has always been the case with the big competitions' and Olympics' TV coverage. Only US competitors (no matter how strong they are), commercials and short presentations of the top contenders according to their initial predictions (most of them Americans, of course).

 

[icybear]

The worst thing about NBC isnt missing out skaters but attacking rival skaters to their home skaters. Be sure if Nathan Chen does a decent fs in the mens event next week, they will rip into the rest of the last group of men skaters like crazy.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

If you think Tarasova and Morosov look calculated what do you have to say about Duhamel and Radford? I do think there is an argument that S/M should have higher PCS, but compared to D/R, T/M's PCS was fine.

IMO, D/R were more expressive and connected with the music and each other. T/M were not... this program is just cold, and a stark contrast to the fun personality in their FS.

 

[travelbug]

I totally agree with you, yet they are not making it US-centric enough when it comes to Ice Dance. They don't talk about it enough, which is unbelievable cosidering its their best discipline and that the current OGM are American (and were defeated twice in a whole quad). If it were Ladies or Men... Ice Dance does not seem relevant enough in the US, does it ?
These days I see a bit more coverage about Shibs though, it's nice to see, but I feel like they had to do the job themselves to be recognized - thanks to their YouTube channel.

I'm wondering if that, in part, may be because unlike 4 years ago when D/W were able to be the main focus, NBC was sort of expecting to hype Shib-Sibs and then after Nats with them not coming out first (and having been the team hyped really post the D/W reign leading up to this) now they're feeling sort of "stuck" with 3 teams to split coverage of and so there's not as much "focus" in the ID coverage?

 

[Blades of Passion]

Tech panel is bought by Canada?
https://cdn.tribuna.com/fetch/?url=http://images.vfl.ru/ii/1518254999/21f0a67f/20525185.gif

How this obvious 3A<< can be missed? He should got zero point for this and Canada should be lower in standings.

It wasn't more than 1/4 short, much less <<. The spin GOE's and especially PCS are where he got overscored (aside from jump mistakes deserving a bigger deduction than they currently get in the rules).

 

[anonymoose_au]

Didn't they miss out the French skater in the team sp the other day. I cant think of another TV media being so disrespectful of other competitors

Well, Aussie TV hasn't done much better in that department, for some reason they skipped Chafik and Mikhail among others! They did at least show the Korean lad, who skated really well!

They also skipped Vanessa and Morgan along with a few other pairs! Although they had no trouble showing all 40 prequalifiying snowboard slope style runs!

I haven't got around to watching the second day of competition yet so I'm not sure how that'll turn out...they better not skip the Shibs!

 

[fireovertheice]

These days I don't know where to post things like this:

Here you are a video from the Figure Skating Comparison Team focused on the steps/movements before the solo jumps in top 7 men's SP, including performances of the later comps and of Oly TE --> https://youtu.be/P0472ZAo5Bchttp://

I am looking forward to look what they will be able to do in the single event.