2018 Winter Olympics

[ValiantArcher]

Here's the thread to discuss the 2018 Winter Olympics! This year's games will be hosted in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and will run from Friday, February 9, until Sunday, February 25.

What events are you most looking forward to? Have you been following any of the team selections?

I managed to catch a few routines for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships last week, which allowed me to see some routines by those who made the US Figure Skating teams. One of them was the final routine by husband and wife pair skaters Chris Knierim and Alexa Scimeca-Knierim; they wobbled some and I think fell once (but in-sync!), but their routine was still pretty impressive, especially considering that Alexa was seriously ill for months a year-and-a-half ago.

I also just saw an article about these being the first Olympic games to allow vocals for skating routines. Could allow for some interesting routines!

[Varnafinde]

until Sunday, February 29.

Do you mean Sunday, February 25? I haven't followed this very much this time, but it usually ends on a Sunday, which would be 25.

Norwegian participants have been most active in various skiing competitions, not so much skating lately. We had a great figure skater back in the 1930s - Sonja Henie.

But that's a long time ago.

[Grandmama]

I greatly enjoy the Winter Olympics! Particularly figure skating, but also downhill skiing and bobsledding.
I don't really think of South Korea as a "Wintery" country. It will be interesting to see what kind of footage they allow of their country.

[stargazer]

There appears to be plenty of snow in the mountains for the alpine venues, and early reports are that the weather is going to be cold, even by local standards, with lows possibly sinking to -20F/-29C in the mountains.

Some events begin February 8 even though the opening ceremonies are the next day. Those ceremonies will be available online and streamed (beginning at 6am EST in the US) with a "fully produced" version broadcast that evening during US prime time.

[fantasia]

I'm planning on getting up at 5am Central to watch the opening ceremony. I don't know if I'll be able to watch it tomorrow night or not due to real life thingies going on.

Has anyone found a legal source of watching all of the events? Last time around NBC provided an app that would let you watch, even if you didn't own cable. (I owned the AT&T UVerse internet, so that worked) That's not going to cut it this time around, so I may be limited to what's on Broadcast TV.

[Grandmama]

Watching the coverage without Bob Costas will take some getting used to. The new guy is just fine, he's just not Bob Costas.

[waggawerewolf27]

I'm planning on getting up at 5am Central to watch the opening ceremony. I don't know if I'll be able to watch it tomorrow night or not due to real life thingies going on. ./

I do hope you got to see it or get to see a replay later on. Two interesting highlights: The bloke from Tonga in full Tonga regalia, that is to say, an oiled upper torso and a nice, suitably voluminous, mid-length grass skirt. And nothing else, not even a hot-water bottle tucked under it. Parading around in below freezing temperatures as low as -15C as if it was part of a sauna system. The other highlight was the lighting of the cauldron, which featured a North Korean and a South Korean athlete on their way up to the cauldron.

Has anyone found a legal source of watching all of the events? Last time around NBC provided an app that would hyou watch, even if you didn't own cable. (I owned the AT&T UVerse internet, so that worked) That's not going to cut it this time around, so I may be limited to what's on Broadcast TV.

Which of your normal TV channels has the broadcasting rights? It is Channel 7 (Yahoo 7) here. The only trouble is it has an Australian bias. So far we have wall-to-wall coverage on that channel to February 25th. They filmed the opening ceremony from 10pm last night then again at 10.00 am this morning, and perhaps you might be able to pick up something on Internet, as such programs remain available for a few weeks afterwards. There is something really nice about watching, er, um, ogling winter sports on a rather too warmish day. Did anyone say anything about ice-cream? There is an Australian presence at Pyeongchang and there were also entrants from other decidedly non-freezing countries such as Togo, Singapore, Malaysia, Eritrea etc.

[fantasia]

I did watch the rerun this evening in the USA. There was no getting up this morning, my infant wouldn't allow it.
My favorite part was the use of the drones. That was something new and impressive (to me at least).
I watched the men's and couple's skating programs yesterday. That was seriously disappointing. Everyone was falling or putting a hand down. I hope everyone does better after this. Get those Olympic jitters out of your system!

[Grandmama]

Fantasia Kitty, the use of the drones was my favorite part as well, especially when they made the Olympic rings suspended in the air. Most impressive.
I also hope the skating gets better. I don't like to see any of the skaters fall, no matter what country they represent. I just like to see great skating.

[stargazer]

The drones really were impressive.

I also liked the projection of the ancient Korean star chart (and would have liked a chance to look at it a little longer), though apparently that was something only visible on television and not at the stadium itself.

[fantasia]

I haven't been able to watch the Olympics all.the.time. this year as I've been out of town and traveling a lot, but I finally pulled it up late last night and watched Chloe Kim kill it on the half on the halfpipe. And of course I had to watch Shawn White. I was laughing at how competitive the qualification runs were. I hope they didn't use up all of their insanity and do just as well tonight when it counts.

[ValiantArcher]

I've been watching part of the halfpipe tonight and, boy, is it more stressful than I thought it would be.

Sadly, I have missed most of the figure skating - and I can't watch live online. I haven't tried to see if I can watch clips or previous programs, but I'm not hopeful. I was happy to hear the Knierims did well in their team event short program, and was so glad to hear that Mirai Nagasu landed her triple axel in the team event! I was hoping to watch the pairs tonight but they're showing all the halfpipe instead - and I will need to go to bed before they get to the pairs. :/

Edit: Never mind! They finished halfpipe and switched to pairs just in time for the Knierims' skate. Not their best program, but oh well... (And it sounds like that's the only thing they're showing us in the skating program right now. )

And the halfpipe finish was intense.

[Grandmama]

I had finally gotten to the point where I wasn't holding my breath every time a competitor went up over the edge of the halfpipe and then the Japanese guy crashes. Back to holding my breath.

[fantasia]

I know. I sure that guy is ok! But seriously, I was on the edge of my seat the whole halfpipe competition. Way to go Shawn White!

I guess the USA men's hockey team lost today though. I don't follow hockey at all, but a lot of my friends do, so I bet they're all unhappy.

[stargazer]

I enjoyed the snowboard competitions, especially the slopestyle. The halfpipe was pretty suspenseful to watch.

This past evening the German pairs figure skaters put on a spectacular show in the free skating portion of their program to wrap up a gold medal.

[Grandmama]

I always enjoy seeing the figure skaters costumes. Some are so lovely and some leave me thinking "what were they thinking?"!