2018 Olympics live reports

OniBan said:

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

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[email protected] said:

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.

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[email protected] said:

We had row F

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[email protected] said:

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.

Click to expand...

seabm7 said:

You're welcome. I found a couple of blogs where they posted photos. You can skip the Korean texts.

http://trip98.tistory.com/532

https://m.blog.naver.com/thdtlqdl/220622187335

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[email protected] said:

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.

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OniBan said:

The men fs was epic even thru tv so I envy u so much for being there! Thanks for the comprehensive report as always. Keep emailing coming! I wish I was there to see Shoma - I love his nessum dorma program ( though the first one he did before.. the one W the green suit) was better choreographically imho but with less tech content.
My first event when I arrive in gangneung will be the free dance so hopefully I can add to this thread soon.

My seats at the ladies event are C seats because I am ...poor XD Am looking forward to the whole experience nevertheless!

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Sam L said:

I’m in B but I might as well have gotten C as they’re just three rows in front. But at least they’re decent for the short program. Which section are you in?

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OniBan said:

I'm at block 218 row I at the short; block 204 row K at fs! Where are U guys at?

Just arrived at Incheon getting my korail card at the moment. It's so early everyone still seems sleepy XD

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Sam L said:

219,220. Near you for the short program.

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Sam L said:

Any recommendations for restaurants? Not too expensive. I’m just on my way to Gangneung now lol

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Sam L said:

Any recommendations for restaurants? Not too expensive. I’m just on my way to Gangneung now lol

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seabm7 said:

I went to 송미옥가로 (pronounced Song Mi Ock Ga Ro) neat the KTX station and liked this place. It' a no frill place with a few selected menu.

https://store.naver.com/restaurants/detail?id=41926990

닭개장 (Spicy chicken soup)
닭곰탕 (Chicken soup)

I cannot handle spicy food well, so I had 닭곰탕. The price was less than 10,000 Korean won. I don't think they speak English though.

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[email protected] said:

We were today in an outstanding beef restaurant near Pyeongchang. I might look up the name. The beef was just delicious - I remember that famous Kobe beef in Tokyo was not better. The cost for 2 was about $180 with a bottle of wine.

In Gangneung seafront restaurants you don't have to go for a king crab. The snow crab is about half the price. You can stay just with the fish. It is as fresh as it can be. A dinner for two can be well under $100.

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Sam L said:

Thanks, do they have seafood? It’s ok if they don’t speak English as I have Korean sentences written on the phone by my friend. Thanks that’s a nice suggestion.

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