I’ve always loved the figure skating. Mesmerizing!

You can watch the replays of everything on Peacock if you miss the live coverage.

Very little so far. Looking forward to the USA vs Latvia men's hockey game today though.

I enjoyed watching ice dancing last night on nbc. Too bad the USA team ended up short of the gold. Figure skating and ice dancing are my favorites in a winter Olympic. I was aware of controversial scoring points from the French judge from a news outlet this morning. But figure skating and ice dancing are judged sports, subjectivity is built into the system.

To add: I’m also enjoying the commentary from Tara and Johnny. I think they are excellent. They have been describing the extremely precise geometry of the sport. I find it fascinating.

I’m following the skiing via Youtube. Amazing triple gold in all the men’s speed events for the Swiss phenom, Allender. Not been done since Killy in the ’60s. Gold and silver for the US women in moguls, the gold run was so smooth. Breezy Johnson uncorks lightning for the women’s downhill gold and did great in the downhill leg of the combined. RCS shone with silver in men’s Super G.

I’m watching some, but I miss plenty. I am watching speed skating mainly because Joey Cheek is an amazing commentator! And short-track is super exciting to watch.

I liked seeing the new Skiathlon, boy does that look challenging. And we love snowcross, very exciting.

The addition of drones is pretty cool, you really get a feel for what the skier or skater sees, and just how fast they are going. I wonder if it bothers them, that buzzing/humming following them?

The ice dancing was beautiful, the Canadians were my favorites. The French were my second. But how about that Canadian’s Starry Starry Night costume? It has to win for prettiest costume! (She was born in my state, but her mom is Canadian and it sounds like they traveled around a bit, including to Canada, and she is now a Canadian citizen)

Johnny and Sandra and Tara are good commentators.

Most of the sliding sports are not exciting for me, because most of it is in a tube. Skeleton sliders though must have a death wish! I mean, it’s how most of us went sledding as kids, head first, but not at a million miles an hour!

I like Mike Tirico, too. I often like Snoop but I’m not sure about the couple of times I’ve seen him this week.

It's on all day then replay of the best prime time so I've had no trouble seeing they contests I hoped to. The agility of these atheletes is amazing.

Nicole, I saw a picture of Vonn in a hospital bed, all braced up - poor girl. I’m glad she’s in good spirits, even though that incident ended her career. She might become a commentator for her sport.

Yes, Ivebeen watching a lot of it. Thecurling was interesting although I still dont get it entirely. The snowboarder from USA who missed a medal and had tears in his eyes really got me. He competed with a broken arm. Hes only in high school, so I hope he makesthe team again.

I love the skating, especially dancing but I dont like the way skating has turned into gymnastics on ice. Too bad they dont still have to perform figures.

It is such a wonderful distraction from all the worries in the rest of the world. I love the camaraderie aming the players from all the different countries.

Ded, ditto. Many of the athletes train together, and compete against each other, outside of the Olympics, most of them in a given sport know one another. A coach might mave a few competitors from different countries competing against each other! Hockey players who play together during the season, compete agains each other at the Olympics. I’d love to know more about that dynamic.

I’ve watched off and on. Sometimes during the day if I’m home and interested (like now with some of the speedskating and the 10k women’s cross-country). Jessie Diggins was a beast with rib injuries! And some at night if i’m interested. I was totally shocked that the US couple didn’t finish first. They seem to be the current gold standard (pun intended), and for the relatively young and inexperienced French team to win was unexpected. They were good but not above the level of the US team. I had no idea there was a judge controversy until today. Makes sense tho as to why the outcome is what it is.

My heart broke a bit for Lindsey Vonn. She is such an incredible skier and to be racing at the level she is at 41 (or is it 42?) with a knee replacement is something. I also liked the young man who won Gold in speed skating and the pipeline snowboarders.

I agree Mike Tirico is a great choice for Olympic commentary. I liked Snoop in his coverage of the summer olympics, but he doesn’t seem as lively this time. He still brings some fun to his segments.

“Hockey players who play together during the season, compete agains each other at the Olympics. I’d love to know more about that dynamic.”

I’m not sure about professional hockey players, but I remember as a kid, boys setting up nets on the street or on the ice rink for a game of shinny. Nobody seemed to care who was on what side, it was always different. It was a good game of hockey!

You played with friends, you played against friends.

Just to correct something above. The French ice-dance team aren't young or inexperienced. They've been skating for years with different partners until recently. This particular partnership is new at I think 10 months old.

I didn't know about an issue with the marking until just now. The entire marking system for skating was changed a number of years ago because of a marking scandal.

@Olychick - you can stream any of the sports on Peacock. You don't have to watch it "live" - all the sports are there, on demand!

I don't watch. I like sports (as a broad comment) and don't consider most of the events to be sporting competitions. Events like hockey, ski racing and speed skating most certainly are but I don't like them enough to watch. Much of the rest are subjectively judged competitions I don't see as being sports or interesting to watch.

I think some of what sushipup said may be similar to what I find boring - TV coverage has so many hours they want to broadcast that they have significant chunks of time devoted to People Magazine/National Enquirer voyeuristic-type coverage that's monotonous and not of interest to me.

“Hockey players who play together during the season, compete agains each other at the Olympics. I’d love to know more about that dynamic.”

With soccer (called football most elsewhere) at the higher levels, club teammates competing against one another when representing their countries happens regularly. Every few months for some.

So-called "national teams" play 10-15 matches each year, usually two during 10 day breaks in league schedules that happen every other month. Teams in the top leagues have players from all over, the better teams have higher quality players who for that reason tend to be chosen for their national teams, and so such "encounters" happen all the time.

The judged events are problematic for me, but I still like to watch. Most of the time, regardless of the sport, I don’t really care who wins, just watching is entertainment.

One thing I wonder about is, as Tara and Johnny remind us over and over again, is how with the competition so unbelievably tight, every tiny, itsy bitsy thing is an issue. Everything. Down to the smallest detail, things that may elude the masses.

I dare say that the USA couple, to my eye, just didn't look as good together, aesthically, as the french couple. The french pair simply were more harmonious, all other things being equal. They were closer to the same height, They looked similar, their costumes blended wonderfully well. I know this is a subjective thing in a sport that has been trying to discount that area. I get that. But in a presentation that focuses on such incredible details to determine a winner, every little thing can make a difference. My 2 cents.

Tara and Johnny described all three dances as emotional and evokative. I guess we just are that into this. In the end the winning team is the only one of the three that had an error during their routine. Tara and Johnny were quick to explain why it didn't take away from their score....

I can't get on the Lindsey Vonn wagon. She should not have gone. When she tore her ALC the olympic team should have scrapped her and given the next skier waiting in the wings their chance. It was 100% selfish of her to have tried after that fall. This was all about money, likes, whatever it was not about the spirit of competition. It was another's time and she stole it.

It is not unheard of for top ski racers to *not* have ACLs.

Ligaments stabilize the joint. Top racers have such powerful muscles that the knee joint can be stable without an ACL. For example, it is generally believed that Bode Miller raced without ACLs (though he’s cagey about it). More here:

https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2026/02/07/how_is_lindsey_vonn_skiing_with_a_torn_acl_1163482.html

She was clearly able to ski at a top level, see her #11 time in the downhill training run.

Her crash wasn’t due to her knee joint. Vonn was being very aggressive at the start of the course, took a very direct line, was probably trying to gain a bunch of time up top and hold it to the bottom. Don’t know why - maybe the course was getting slower down below. Vonn was skiing near the end of the day vs Breezy Johnson who skied early. She knew the course well, had won here several (seven?) times in her career.

Or maybe Vonn was just being Vonn. She’s always been aggressive and on the edge, which is part of why she’s the most dominant speed event skiier in World Cup history, male or female. No-one comes close.

Anyway, she cut the gate too tightly, hooked it in the air, was spun and crashed.

She might not have won. Breezy was on fire, also placed #1 in the downhill combined. But Vonn would probably have posted a very competitive time, likely medaled.

I've been tuning in to some of the downhill skiing. Incredible. Especially the Super-G. Breezy's marriage proposal topped it off :0)

What a shock. My heart breaks for him, but he will be back. He is a good guy and was very gracious about his skate and losing. The only bright spot is that the kid from Kazakhstan took the gold which is nice for him.

Ded, I am with you on the school figures. For a while I went to practice those before school in the morning.

I am enjoying the Olympics. Always do actually.Watching the Men's final now. I was in tears when Max Naumov skated simply because of what it took for him to get on there. Loved the program skated to Bolero from the Frenchman Kévin Aymoz. And here comes Ilia Malinin, a local boy for us. Yay.

Very self-reflective, Elmer.

I'm watching bits of curling, when I'm in the mood. Not much of the other sports. OK....none of the other sports.

" but I remember as a kid, boys setting up nets on the street or on the ice rink for a game of shinny. Nobody seemed to care who was on what side, it was always different. It was a good game of hockey! "

Totally different when there's millions of dollars (in government funding) on the line.

Thanks, bpath. I changed it so that the meaning was clear.

Husband is watching. I am not. Lindsey Vonn might in later life regret this try because guaranteed she will have lifelong problems with the leg she broke. It was a serious break with more operations needed.

Oh man. So many crashes in the women’s Super G.

The course has many of the same challenges as the downhill course. There are humps that the skiiers hit at high speed, they go airborne, and when they land they need to immediately be turning to make the next gate. If they don’t absorb the hump enough, they fly a little too far, get late in the turn, get in more trouble and even later on the next turn, and a couple gates later they crash or ski off the course. Visibility is bad, the light is flat, they are struggling to see the humps.

Breezy Johnson crashed out in a way a little like Vonn’s crash in the downhill. She went too far airborne, hit a gate in the air, and crashed out, ending up in the fencing.

Brignione of Italy won with a perfect run. She is coming back from a bad crash and multiple fractures of her leg, reportedly during the training runs she was crying in pain, but she’s incredibly tough and took gold.

The racers in the speed events (downhill and SuperG), they do beat up their bodies during their ski racing careers. By the time they retire, in their thirties maybe, most have suffered and come back from serious injuries to knees and legs. I imagine some have more than the average aches and pains later in life.

Downhill ski racing is not the most dangerous sport in terms of deaths - that might be bicycle road racing - but probably is in terms of injuries.

It's so heartbreaking to have what should have been Ilia's best performance turn out to be his worst. He has to put this in perspective, which I'm sure is far from easy. I'm sure he has a loving and supporting cocoon to embrace him during this tough time.

Nerves are amazing things aren't they. Amazing that all the skill and training, determination in the world can all come crashing down due to nerves. It didn't matter what tools he had in place to deal with them, when it counted, they won (lost) the day.

He's only human after all.

John, thanks for the informative summary. I don't get a chance to watch much but I have seen some of the figure skating and was sad for Ilia. Hopefully he will be back. He's young so he should be. I'm sure it's hard to experience that bad of a loss. But I agree about the guy from Kazakhstan. That was great to see. I find it interesting that many of them have trainers in common and that they often know one another. Hoping to get to see more today.

Watching Dual Moguls this morning. It’s very exciting to see the head-to-head.

With new ski events and tricks the last 15 years or so, I wonder when new events or tricks will be added to figure skating? Now that they allow a flip, will that start becoming enhanced?

And what is with the team thing in figure skating? Doesn’t it favor countries with a lot of skaters, and greater depth of talent? Seems like figure skating is such an individual (or paired) sport, ”team” should be about working together. What am I missing?

Back to slope sports, why do freestyle and board skiers still dress like teens in bulky-looking snowpants and parkas, instead of sleek like racers? Moguls, too. Is there extra padding in the layers? I would think it gets in the way of the body movement essential to the tricks?

@bpath...They have a "team" award for summer gymnastics as well. Another award to win. It's all good. I believe that the snow boarding attire is based on what the first snow boarders wore when it became popular in the 90's maybe. (Young, male, attractive, alternative music, scruffy, outside the box, cooler than cool sort of stuff.) It sort of goes with the baggy jeans worn low from rap music, but from a "white, wealthy" connotation vs "black, poor" Don't forget the extremely expensive Burton boards, and the extremely expensive Oakley head gear. I know, my son was in it all the way. (I got to pay for the stuff. Boo.) My DH and I would dutifully drive the lad to Mount Hood, every weekend for this. Once over the first berm, he was out of sight for the rest of the day. I would elect to sit by the fire place in the lodge and drink Spanish coffees and watch the snow flakes fall. Good times.

@Offie Myffy thank you for pointing out the Peacock streaming option. I was unfamilar with their site and didn't see that. I've been able to watch what I want now.

I had heard about Ilia's skate and I dreaded watching it...I am such a fan that I knew it would make me feel so bad for him - and it did. I noticed as he was getting ready to skate how stressed he looked, not how he usually looks. But listening to the announcers and the crowd, I cannot imagine the pressure he was feeling - it showed; the expectations were unreal. Broke my heart for him, but am happy for the other skaters who got the medals.

I thought all of the men's routines were wonderful and I especially liked the costuming this year.

I saw some of the reporting build-up about Malinin (sitting in the same room where my wife was watching the coverage). I don't follow skating and had no exposure to him beforehand. He seemed to be quite cocky and perhaps needing an injection of reality and humility. At least in his public persona.

Maybe after having choked in his performance, he'll learn how to be a bit more humble. He could start down the road to presenting a more normal and personally modest vibe by getting a haircut.

I didn't know anything about Ilia but it seems he wasn't in Korea last time around and that experience probably would have helped him. Olychick, I agree he was under tremendous pressure and is only 21 years old so I think his haircut befits his youth and should garner more grace than criticism, in my opinion.

I got to see the women's cross country ski relay. Very exciting and the Americans coming in 5th seemed to be good for them. Conditions were terrible. Falls and a lost ski made it an exciting watch.

murraysmom, I know Ilia from Olychick’s thread from a few months ago.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6519617/any-figure-skating-fans-here#n=39

He really is impressive.

eta I just read this on AP

“Malinin was nothing if not noble in defeat.

He gave Shaidorov a hug as he walked out of the arena, whispering in his ear, “You deserve it.” Then he answered the same question, over and over, for dozens of TV crews and reporters from all over the world: What just happened?”

@roxsolid I agree, he was very gracious, considering how devastating his performance was. Gotta love comments on humility from one of our humble members, lol. At least Ilia deserves his pride in his accomplishments and will certainly learn something from this experience. I love his haircut and how it adds a dimension to his silhouette when spinning and flipping. He's adorable!

edited to add that I updated the link in my original post about him that @roxsolid posted above in this thread. I think the new one is from the Olympics instead.

Predictable needless and juvenile Peanut Gallery personal insult, as mentioned in the lars thread.

Olychick, I was impressed with Ilia’s emotional maturity. It will serve him well.

Lol, now the Canadian Men’s Curling team 😳, that’s another story.

SO and I were sitting in a bar.yesterday evening watching these performances. I couldn't hear the coverage, and only watched. I don't follow figure skating, but the body language of these young men were telling. Shaidorov seemed so... young. My goodness--or am I just old? (Yes, I know, it's both.) My heart went out to Malinin after his falls. But his facial expressions and eye contact afterward suggested humility and graciousness. I can only imagine the barrage of questions thrown at him. I just wanted to give him a big hug and remind him he was at the Olympics!

Still don't understand curling...

Feathers, I still have my curling broom from many, many years ago. I’m not sure about curling being in the Olympics. From what I remember, it involved a lot of drinking beer.

Always, fun though.

The Canadian Men’s Team did a bit of cheating. Shame on them.

I don’t know what Ilia’s general mindset is. But there were tremendoous expectations for him, and he has had interviews and photos for quite a while that can really set one up. He works hard for his sport. Imagine now, when he would have been getting calls and letters and attention and more deals, and the only sound is ”what happened?”. And that might sound like ”you failed us, why did you fail us?”

My wife told me she was a bit turned off (rather than impressed) by some of the pre-event coverage. Interviews and profiles that were broadcast. She said something like "it's a bit premature for him to act like he's a gift to skating from a divine creator." (I substituted the last two words in the preceding sentence for the one more common word she used. I didn't want to use it, lest it offend anyone or the rules of the forum)

It's just another reaction, a different point of view.

Ilia discovered what nerves were. He had the added pressure of becoming a "media darling". The post interviews whether win or loss are so painful to watch. I do not comprehend how these reporters think their questions are interesting or worth the trouble! Ilia's post interview was too soon and rude to make him go through that. He just had the worst moment of his life thus far. Give him some space!

I watched one of the downhill women's skiing events today (not sure what it was called, as I tuned in mid-event) but I could barely watch them skiing over the moguls, now that I have such bad knees....they're gonna be sorry someday!

I agree the moguls are brutal to watch!! I feel similarly about the watching the hurdles in track and field. Just the thought they could not make it over them, freaks me out.

I watched the moguls too, yesterday. I am amazed at how they can crash and then come back and do it again. They must have nerves of steel. Not to mention being at the mercy of the weather!

I think the loose clothing worn in freestyle skiing (moguls, big air) and freestyle snowboarding (halfpipe, big air) is partly style (derived from skateboard roots) and partly function (aerodynamics isn’t a priority).

You certainly could fit a back protector or other body armor under that clothing, but I haven’t read of most competitors using those. The bright knee patches are visual (to help the judges see the leg motion) although I guess pads could fit under there.

The Australian gold in men’s moguls was a massive upset. He beat the greatest mogul skiier ever and the reigning #1. But Kingsbury gold medaled in the head to head moguls, giving Canada its first gold in three games and cementing his GOAT status.

Even more than downhill skiing, (competitive) moguls are a young person’s sport. It isn’t as traumatically dangerous in the sense of broken legs and torn ligaments, but the beating on backs and knees is huge.

I took a week mogul camp from a Canadian who was a former World Champion. He was amazing to watch in the bumps. His style was much smoother than current comp bump style, partly she but also the prevailing style has changed.