2018 Olympics live reports

[icekiwi]

Thank you [email protected] for all your 'live' reports. I have so enjoyed reading all of them. Please keep them coming.

And thank you for your honest opinion on the 'ladies'. I am a fan of Alina Zagitova even though I am not Russian. Simply based on my over 20+ years of following figure skating, my personal opinion is, if she skates 'clean' she has both the technic and the artistry to win. I totally agree with you on Alina's performance level, her transitions, her posture, balletic choreographed movements across the ice look easy but in fact very hard to achieve, to get them looking effortless and elegant. Some fans on the forum have criticised her PC marks but I have disagreed for sometime now but didn't voice my opinion and simply waited for some like yourself who has actually seen her 'live' preformance and give a very honest opinion. So, thank you.

I am now waiting eagerly for your upcoming reports.

 

[anyanka]

So, my “biased” impressions.

Men

There was Patrick and everybody else. I have never seen him live and frankly speaking have been less and less impressed especially recently. But now it was clear as the sky in Gangneung today – he is a genius. He really flies over the ice. And he nailed the quads. A deserved win.

I had had negativity towards Kolyada and a lot of “whatifs” – what if he had jumped a nice clean rippon 3 Lz instead of the quad where he has the same success rate as Adam last season (well, just a bit better)? He might have nailed the combo and 3A after that and get above 90. Russia would be still in contention for gold after the short. What if Aliev skated instead of him and T/M skated the long – D/R did that. Etc. But in the end of the day despite all the pressure he might have had he performed quite decently albeit with a planned 4Lz fall. And he was relieved and was the most enthusiastic of all the Russian team.

Adam was a pleasure to watch. The quality of execution was there. And I thought that he would go above Mikha despite the lack of quads. But neither Adam nor Mikha are Patrick.

Rizzo and Tanaka are the skaters from a different league, sorry.

Very glad to hear that you enjoyed Chan live! I admit I thought that he was a little bit overrated (yes I'm Canadian LOL) but when I saw him live in Stars on Ice and in nationals I finally understood what it was to see him in person.

I'm a fan of Kolyada's and I think now that he's gotten that one terrible SP out of the way, and has a team medal and the support of his team and fans, that he'll do much better in the men's singles event. Medal or not, he'll take this away as a learning experience, and hopefully be rock-solid for 2022.

Adam, I would love to see live. He's so exquisite.

We are looking forward to your next updates! And also, I hope you found some better restaurants and dining options. Stay healthy!!

 

[anyanka]

Finally Alina. I saw DQ several times live and dozens of times on video. Today was the best of them all. She has brought it to perfection. Exquisite preciseness, hitting all the notes – she had problems with that in Moscow. With all due respect to Caro Alina’s performance was on a different level. And 20+ point margin the judges gave her to the next competitor is fully justifiable – she was that good! Sad that the audience did not appreciate that. I would even call “nasty” this lazy applause and gluing their bottoms to the chairs.

Medvedeva or Zagitova? – this is the question. After what the team event showed if neither of them wins that would be one big shocker.

Not to contradict you, but presenting another point of view: the commentators on CBC and NBC said that in Korea, audiences are very reserved even when presented with something truly wonderful, so to not expect more than polite applause. There was an anecdote about an American director who presented one of his most well-received films in Japan, and there is a cultural overlap where the audience at the very end was stone-cold silent and didn't move. He thought they hated the film and left the room. It was explained to him afterward that culturally, the greatest reverence you could give to a great work or a masterpiece was to savour it in silence. So it was a sign of respect, but within that context. I wonder if perhaps that was just what you see here in action. Side note: it's certainly better than what I heard from a friend who attended the Beijing 2008 games and was shocked that Chinese fans were booing every single non-Chinese competitor when they watched the diving finals. (Yikes.)

Mind you, I'm sure everyone would have gone nuts if it were Yuna, but she's the one exception (being a national hero) and I think that audience would have sat down for everyone else no matter how well they did.

So good to see the Russian fans sit in that whole block and support their team, that was great coordination on the tour group's part.

 

[anyanka]

Dance,

And V/M are outstanding technicians. Their class is clear even to non-experts as myself. Still (I became reserved about using "but"in "yes, but") when both are perfect they will lose to P/C who are as good technicians but who bring more soul and emotions.

I thought about this too. I think they'll be sated (but not overly thrilled) with finishing 2nd in dance, but they already have a team gold, which makes them the most decorated dance team out there. They won't be too unhappy. Hoping for the best for them and for P/C (whose Moonlight Sonata is a master class).

- - - Updated - - -

Alina is getting better and better with each competition and i want to see her live

I hope she doesn't just win OGM and then vanish. I have tickets to the GPF in Canada in December and really want to see her live, too!

 

[[email protected]]

One thing I wanted to ask... I watched some fancams and it looks like they have this one camera that it's like super big and it keeps moving all the time and it gets in the way depending where you're sitting. I wonder if that's the camera responsible for all the cool replays we've been seeing at the broadcasts. This is the first time I've seen figure skating fancams been "disturbed" by a huge camera.
Have you guys noticed this camera? And has it been an issue in your live experience?

Yes, I could remember this camera. It did not obstruct our view may be because we were sitting at row B.

 

[[email protected]]

Not to contradict you, but presenting another point of view: the commentators on CBC and NBC said that in Korea, audiences are very reserved even when presented with something truly wonderful, so to not expect more than polite applause.

May be you are right. I just compare with the recent Europeans in Moscow where the applause volume was much higher (although some people here kept lamenting about "the terrible Russian crowd").

My impression is that outside the Russian support group the level and the duration of cheer was:

USA - 100%
Canada - 70%
Russia, Italy, Japan - 50%

For example, Mirai was cheered much louder than Caro and Alina.

The Italian team was the most loud and enthusiastic of all.

 

[icekiwi]

I thought about this too. I think they'll be sated (but not overly thrilled) with finishing 2nd in dance, but they already have a team gold, which makes them the most decorated dance team out there. They won't be too unhappy. Hoping for the best for them and for P/C (whose Moonlight Sonata is a master class).

I agree with you on this, Anyanka. I am neither Canadian nor French. I am a Ballroom and Latin dancer so I am looking for the basic requirements of the Rhumba/ChaCha/Samba dances in terms of actual dance content, timing, hip/shoulder movements, abdominal Samba roll, etc etc. Hence, when comes to the SD, V/M really should be leading by a lot of points. I have just watched their Team SD (thanks to those who loaded it in the videos section), I was totally blown away, it was simply 'out of this world'. They could literally exchange their skates for a pair of heels and probably win on hard floor at the World Latin Championships, with a bit of coaching. The timing, precision, eyes locking on each other, matching shoulders and hips, the actual dance content, lines and sharpness of the moves, I could go on and on. I am happy for the FD to go either way.

If V/M come second in the SD, I know in my heart they have been slated, and the Gold has been predetermined unfortunately. Like you said, at least they got the Team Gold and their many fans from all over the world know that they are indeed the BEST Ice Dancers!!

 

[peepsquick]

I thought about this too. I think they'll be sated (but not overly thrilled) with finishing 2nd in dance, but they already have a team gold, which makes them the most decorated dance team out there. They won't be too unhappy. Hoping for the best for them and for P/C (whose Moonlight Sonata is a master class).

I agree with you on this, Anyanka. I am neither Canadian nor French. I am a Ballroom and Latin dancer so I am looking for the basic requirements of the Rhumba/ChaCha/Samba dances in terms of actual dance content, timing, hip/shoulder movements, abdominal Samba roll, etc etc. Hence, when comes to the SD, V/M really should be leading by a lot of points. I have just watched their Team SD (thanks to those who loaded it in the videos section), I was totally blown away, it was simply 'out of this world'. They could literally exchange their skates for a pair of heels and probably win on hard floor at the World Latin Championships, with a bit of coaching. The timing, precision, eyes locking on each other, matching shoulders and hips, the actual dance content, lines and sharpness of the moves, I could go on and on. I am happy for the FD to go either way.

If V/M come second in the SD, I know in my heart they have been slated, and the Gold has been predetermined unfortunately. Like you said, at least they got the Team Gold and their many fans from all over the world know that they are indeed the BEST Ice Dancers!!

I am really getting fed up with that kind of discourse! It just ensures that fans of V/M keep feeling slighted and cheated when their team doesn't finish on top. V/M are very good but they are not unbeatable. There is quite an effort to enshrine them as living gods of figure skating, comes what may. Get a grip, folks!

 

[[email protected]]

So, we toured Korea for 2 days: visited shrines and parks in Seoul, climbed 555m Lotte tower,
http://uploads.ru/v6qhs.jpg
tried the so-called “the third tunnel” built by the North Koreans to infiltrate the South Korea (at least that what they say),
http://uploads.ru/OUdPh.jpg
walked in the demilitarized zone and for $0.5 watched the territory of North Korea.

Today was our second competition day: pairs FS.

This time we were sitting in the corner of the long section right next to K&C area. Well, still not really the view we have spoiled ourselves with. At the same time, the most precious whatever multiple thousand dollar seats were almost half-empty.
http://uploads.ru/1Kbnt.jpg
Russian support group this time were sitting right a top of us. The guys have lost the steam – they were much less noisy than during the team event. Of course, the main feature of the crowd was the North Korean section.
http://uploads.ru/sxcaR.jpg
Poor people – I just don’t want to dig into it. They were on the mission just to show the organized support to their pair and after the second group they were gone. As their seats were somehow occupied my neighbor brought a theory that they just changed the clothes to normal. If it were the case, may be, it’s not as bad as if they were immediately put into the trucks and driven back to North Korea.

The crowd was in general as lazy as during the team event. North Americans were supported louder. The others did not get any particular attention outside the cheer groups by country. With one big exception: S/M.

Some impressions from the competition.

North Koreans were the highlight of the earlier groups especially the men partner. They showed emotion, they showed connection. Their jumps (especially hers) were not that impressive but the rest looked OK. The score seemed a bit low.

The second Italian pair in what some named as “divers suits” once again showed IMO the most boring program ever. And she fell. Their getting higher score than Koreans seemed unfair.

M/H on the other hand looked spot on. Clean program, good speed. May be if they had some tricky quad throws or twists they could have stormed the top. But they were quite happy about the score anyway. Ondrej twice hugged the coach hitting his back with fists.

Z/E’s performance was beautiful and classical. They have very nice lines, very good connection. Whoever says that they are boring just do not get it. But with their content they just don’t have the right for mistakes. They can’t pretend to be among the top pairs not jumping a single triple. About 5 points TES + 2 points pcs markup for a clean program were lost. So 138 instead of 145. Gosh, I think Mozer should start paying big money to Eteri so that she could teach her students consistency in jumping. Alternatively, the Fed may require whoever is supported by state financing to reach first some success in junior singles. It is so stupid: virtually dozens of girls easily do 3-3s now and top Russian pair skaters have issues jumping a single triple, all of them – Astakhova (that was a disaster), Zabiyako, and Tarasova as well. If Marchei could switch from singles to pairs almost at 30 it would be nothing for juniors. Just a stupidity or politics or both.

J/C had their moment for some minutes. But I would not name it revenge for the Europeans: they skated much better this time.

Finally, in the last group S/M were sublime. Yes, they were that good. They showed that V/T strategy – not to bother with quads just to bring to perfection what you are doing – this strategy can pay off even now. That could have been one epic stand-off: V/T in their Sochi shape vs. S/M now.

S/H were lost a bit at the beginning, seems like the crowd’s reaction to S/M and their score stunned them a bit. The second half was more convincing than the first one. And had they made just one mistake instead of two in SBS jumps they would have won anyway because of the SP cushion. But the result is fair. The crowd’s silent response to this still marvelous skating with 153 score was borderline to nasty.

D/R jumped above their heads – I never saw them skate with such passion and connection. Finally T/M. Sigh. I was never big supporter of their FS. But who cares – they just had to deliver. They did not. D/R could teach them a lesson in pair skating – what a joke. Looked like they just wanted it all to end. I don’t know what their excuse is – injury, Olympic pressure – come on, what pressure we are talking about? Mozer has a big crew around her, they have Robin – pressure is a bad excuse. Yes, as Gary Oldman said in Fifth Element, I am very disappointed.

Tomorrow we have another day of touring and then back for more.

 

[lauravvv]

Not to contradict you, but presenting another point of view: the commentators on CBC and NBC said that in Korea, audiences are very reserved even when presented with something truly wonderful, so to not expect more than polite applause.

Mind you, I'm sure everyone would have gone nuts if it were Yuna, but she's the one exception (being a national hero) and I think that audience would have sat down for everyone else no matter how well they did.

But, at the same time, I have watched a lot of show skating from different countries, and when Yuna's 'All That Skate' shows were taking place in Seoul, the screaming and cheering in those shows was always louder than anywhere else - and not just for Yuna. There were also quite a few standing ovations. But, unless if it was Yuna, the cheering and screaming was mostly the loudest for energetic, fun and/or "sexy" programs, not so much for slow, lyrical programs or programs skated to classical or "half" classical music (although, to be truthful, apart from Yuna, only Stephane Lambiel dared to skate programs to real classical music in those shows which were mostly about entertainment and having a good time). But there were a few exceptions (and I don't mean the Ukrainian two-men pair of ice acrobats and comics doing their famous Swan Lake parody ☺).

As for Japanese, they are quieter than South koreans in shows, but they often give much more than just polite applause, and standing ovations are pretty frequent. The Japanese public usually receives skaters very well also in competitions, as we have often seen - their reactions are definitely not limited to just polite applause.

But, in any case, it is very likely that the public in shows is not quite the same as in competitions.

 

[IndependentObserver]

While I appreciate the on site reports from samkrut, I have a slightly different impression from the Pairs FS. I was sitting close by a few sections away based on the description.

I noticed from the start the crowd was very polite and clapped for the elements of MT/M. However the applause (in my opinion) for the US team was much more muted - granted their performance was at a lower level. Not all North American teams were treated equally. I felt the crowd was subdued throughout. M/H broke the spell and had a great reaction. Same for D/R and S/H. Of course S/M had the biggest of the event. I think it was more than just the country's spectators cheering for their home team.

I was surprised Mozer didn't join either of her teams in the KnC.

Again. Not saying samkrut's reporting is inaccurate, just that our observations of the event are different.

I felt like Russia's cheerleaders were very loud and supportive during their performance.

The crowd seemed to really support the NK team and loved their cheerleaders.

 

[seabm7]

I went to Men's short Today. I thought something unexpected would happen, but what happened was beyond my imagination.

Anyway... It was not easy to find a restaurant in Gangneung, since most place were closed due to the New Year Holiday. I hope more would open tomorrow. I heard that in Gangneung

* there are fish restaurants where you can find crabs at a good price, and

* if you are looking for a cozy Korean restaurant whose style is similar to Japanese Kaiseki, there is 초당한식 (pronounced Cho Dang Han Sick). + 82 33 653 7272 or 033-653-7272 as the local telephone number. I heard one of the staffs speaks English. Reservation only. If I remember correctly, the price range is 30,000 Korean Won (= 30 USD) and up per person. Up depends on what you request.

 

[s_parks]

Yep, can confirm that Korean audiences are reserved in general, be it concerts, etc.

 

[rollerblade]

samkrut, did you attend the SP? Need deets!

 

[evasorange]

Hey guys! I was at the men’s short yesterday and it was amazing!! I’ll give you some details starting with the best
Yuzuru-this was who everyone came to see. On the commute there, I talked to an American, a Korean and a Polish person and they were most exited for one skater YUZU! And boy did he ever deliver! It was beautiful!! I think all of us hoped we would get peak Yuzu but just didn’t know what to expect. He did his combo on the side I was sitting by and omggggg it was just STUNNING. “An absolute cracker” as the bbc Eurosport commentators would say hahah. And soooo many Pooh’s hahah on the way to the arena we weren’t sure where to go and then we saw a group of girls all wearing and carrying Pooh stuff so we knew we were on the right track
Javi-WONDERFUL!! So charming, so smooth and those spins I’ll admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of Charlie Chaplin but seeing it person performed that well it now seems a perfect fit for Javi. He knows how to work a crowd like nobody else!
Nathan-heartbreaking. To go from the incredible high of Yuzu to his performance was an emotional roller coaster. To me this program was sooo good at the start of the season but it seems lately each time it loses a bit more
Steam. Once the jumps were out of the way he did still keep performing but it was kind of tough to watch at that point. Hoping he’ll come back fighting.
Ok this will have to be part one haha I have to get ready to get on the train to get to the men’s free!

 

[[email protected]]

I went to Men's short Today. I thought something unexpected would happen, but what happened was beyond my imagination.

Anyway... It was not easy to find a restaurant in Gangneung, since most place were closed due to the New Year Holiday. I hope more would open tomorrow. I heard that in Gangneung

* there are fish restaurants where you can find crabs at a good price, and

Between the lake and the sea there are virtually dozens of seafood restaurants with fresh fish and crabs. We tried this one: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaur...ws-Yeongdeok_Daegae-Gangneung_Gangwon_do.html

It was delicious! The price is quite good. Our set menu for 2 with a full king crab, sashimi, soup, and some appetizers cost 250,000. I checked prices at the fish market: 1 kilo of king crab costs 80,000. It means that their mark-up for making food and keeping the staff and facility is very small. I would also note that a 200 ml sake bottle cost just 2,000 (a big contrast to our nearby Tulip where a bottle of Heineken goes for 16,000).

There is also European style restaurant in Lakai Sandpine resort near the Tulip. The beef tenderloin was outstanding. Other food was not bad as well. The wine list is awfull, though. The best French wine was Connetable Talbot 2012 which they offer for ridiculous 160,000. Robert Mondavi Cabernet Savignon 2014 for 140,000 is another big joke. We ordered a bottle of Chilean wine which was a little bit better than plain tolerable. No wine culture in Korea, that's my conclusion after being in 7 different restaurants so far.

samkrut, did you attend the SP? Need deets!

Nope, just heading to free in 10 minutes. We have B seats this time - let's see what it is.

 

[OniBan]

I went to Men's short Today. I thought something unexpected would happen, but what happened was beyond my imagination.

Anyway... It was not easy to find a restaurant in Gangneung, since most place were closed due to the New Year Holiday. I hope more would open tomorrow. I heard that in Gangneung

* there are fish restaurants where you can find crabs at a good price, and

* if you are looking for a cozy Korean restaurant whose style is similar to Japanese Kaiseki, there is 초당한식 (pronounced Cho Dang Han Sick). + 82 33 653 7272 or 033-653-7272 as the local telephone number. I heard one of the staffs speaks English. Reservation only. If I remember correctly, the price range is 30,000 Korean Won (= 30 USD) and up per person. Up depends on what you request.

Aaaah so exciting!! I am still here watching the live telecast at home for the men while packing to fly tomorrow!!
I can't imagine how it must be for all of you watching live because I can hardly handle the jitters even just watching thru the tv XD
Sad my homeboy Julian Yee didnt make the cut for FS but standards have gone so high since Sochi!!

Also am looking forward to having some good ol' Korean streetfood while I'm there, stuff like hotteok and tteokbokki hahaha. Any chance of finding those in Gangneung?

 

[seabm7]

Also am looking forward to having some good ol' Korean streetfood while I'm there, stuff like hotteok and tteokbokki hahaha. Any chance of finding those in Gangneung?

I haven't been there yet, but I heard 강릉중앙시장 (Gangneung JungAng Market or Gangneung Central Market) has a good reputation. Maybe their street food section would be good, too. It's in the downtown of Gangneung.

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=2507421

 

[[email protected]]

Yesterday we had another day of touring. We visited a park in the mountains, a monastery on the cliff, a fish market, a traditional Korean restaurant with dozens types of herbs and mushrooms. Korea is a beautiful country and people are nice and open. One of them took my wife for an athlete: she wore Russia winter jacket which implied she was exactly not an athlete from Russia. But for ordinary people this train of thoughts is too complicated. So he came up to me and asked if he could take a picture with her. The other guy was interested to talk to a foreigner. So he just asked me where I was from and we started a weird chat as he spoke only Korean and we used a voice recognition device.

And today we visited the most sought-after event of these Olympics: men’s free skate. Class A tickets were not offered in Russia at all. We got what we got:
http://uploads.ru/KCl85.jpg
Those were the only seats available to us. Even C seats were in shortage as the usual Russian support group was not present. The impression one can get sitting where I sat may be very different from that given by TV with all the details or when sitting lower at the longer side. Hence, my remarks are based on what I saw and if someone does not agree with that I can fully understand it.

I cannot say much about the first group – it was not especially memorable. Han Yan is Han Yan – he started strong with his signature 3A right in front of us and then went along a downward spiral. One thing that stood out was the epic meltdown of Moris. It is hard to say why – he could jump earlier this year. During the warm-up he did a 4S. I am sad about him and unsure about his prospects.

The second group was much more interesting. The two Israeli guys did their best and I am glad for them. Especially Bychenko looked confident and secure. I think his score could be higher for the skating he showed. Then came Nathan Chen. What can I say? It was a show of a genius jumper. With not much happening in between. Later on another American skater did almost the same. And finally Boyang. It is possible that this is the way the men’s figure skating will be going during the next quad now that Patrick and may be Yuzuru and Javi may retire. Misha Ge will retire as well. Watching his lovely program with a beautiful choreography but no quads and some fighting for landings right after Nathan I felt that the old generation says goodbye to the new one. And the judges do the same – they just cannot not link TES and pcs. That’s why Nathan’s second mark was higher than Misha’s. I read in SP thread that Cha was a highlight yesterday. So it was interesting. Well, his opening lutz in a combo was monstrous. But then it was an OK skating but not spectacular in anything. And if the people who now for years keep talking about Medvedeva’s “muscled axel” mean how she sits down before the take-off Cha’s axels are very muscled as he tries really hard to make that jump.

In the third group I enjoyed Messing’s performance as Charlie Chaplin. Sorry he could deliver his jump content. Kolyada and Adam basically replicated their team event performances. One with a planned 4Lz fall – it is the same joke now as Adam’s planned 4Lz fall was the last season. The other with an interesting program packed with transitions with high quality elements but no quads. Adam is likely going to retire as well – another representative of the old “beautiful skating” school which will be supressed by “jumping machines”. Whoever goes nuts about Kolyada’s pcs do not understand that he tries to skate beautifully while attempting multiple quads – once again, I think we will see less and less of that at the top in the coming years.

And the final group. Aliev looked nervous during the warm-up and he looked also unwell blowing his nose several times. I don’t know what happened to him but he skated worse than during the Europeans. After he hit the boards I understood – no miracle today. Although he has the potential to be a powerful jumper and the skater at the same time. Will he realize it when so many people keep saying how inconsistent he is?

Patrick once again showed that he skates like no one else in this world. I don’t know why his score was lower than during the team event but it does not matter. In the coming world of Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Boyang Jin and other jumping gurus who will appear soon there won’t be much space left for Patrick.

I can understand why Yuzuru is so popular. He is the embodiment of bringing together the worlds of beautiful skating and powerful jumping. But he reached his peak. He jumped only quad sal and toeloop. I saw him live for the first time and, frankly speaking, I thought I would be impressed more. May be sitting far up is reason. He was good with the music but he was kind of slow and he did not fly over ice like Patrick. The crowd reaction to his performance was overwhelming. Unfortunately, I could not share their emotions.

I am a big Javi’s fan. But I think this FS does not correspond to his explosive character. May be I am wrong but his jump layout looks similar to what he usually does including a traditional mistake on the second 4S. Finally Shoma. This is purely location issue: from the place where I was sitting he looked so tiny that it was difficult to appreciate the details and assess the quality of his skating. Although I remember that on TV when he is on (and he was on after the fall) he skates Nessun Dorma very convincing.

So, these are my impressions from one of the most (if not the most) essential competitions in men’s singles in history. The key lesson – where you sit, matters.

In dance we go only for short. And then the signature event at least for me – ladies where we shall see both short and long with kind of good seats.

 

[OniBan]

I haven't been there yet, but I heard 강릉중앙시장 (Gangneung JungAng Market or Gangneung Central Market) has a good reputation. Maybe their street food section would be good, too. It's in the downtown of Gangneung.

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=2507421

And I shall make it a point to stop by the market!! Thanks so much seabm7. This is most helpful and I am a local streetfood fiend XD