Of all the sliminess coming out of Russian athletics, some kid being emotional after a narrow defeat is really nothing to be especially concerned about. These people are competitors and it was the biggest moment of her life. She got a little upset, it’s really no big deal. She was probably fine in no time.
Well, at least that wasn’t always the case…
Right. In some ways, the USA is getting better, not worse. Wow.
I thought that until I watched the event. No, I’m pretty sure she didn’t throw it. I suppose it’s possible her coach withheld whatever drugs she usually takes before skating, though. Yes, I think they are still doping, and if they haven’t something the tests don’t pick up, they are using it.
Holy crap. You know who I feel sorry for in this whole mess? Shcherbakova, who turned in the free skate of the year and won the gold medal completely fair and square, and everyone’s so busy yammering endlessly about tainted and controversy and somber moment and tears and blah blah blah that she bears jumping jack squat fault for to even acknowledge this. I don’t care what network policy is, there should be a rule that no matter what’s going on in the background, when someone reaches the top of the mountain, you talk about that! Has there even been any attempt at analysis of Shcherbakova and Trusova’s routines, particularly how Trusova had more difficult jumps but less elegant artistry overall, and that almost certainly made the difference? All I could find was this context-free video.
Once the games are over, we have all the time in the world to debate what the IOC should do but won’t and all manner of punishments Russia will not be hit with in a million years. For now, hail to the champ. Yeesh.
As for Trusova’s “I’m not going!” and “Everyone has a gold but me!”: WAG, she’s under a ton of pressure to succeed and still has some growing up to do. Once she realizes that Putin’s not going to send her to a firing squad, she’ll calm down, appreciate what she’s accomplished, take a nice long rest, and gradually start down the road to '26.
I see that the Paralympics will also receive full playback and coverage on Peacock. I might shell out another month of money to see it this year.
This is an honest question:
Are the banned substances lists the same for the Paralympics?
I would assume that there are athletes in those games that have legitimate medical needs to take substances that have the side-effect of potentially enhancing performance. Is there a mechanism for dealing with that?
For that matter, what if Valieva really did have a heart condition? (I know they aren’t even claiming she did)
Yes, as far as I can tell.
Yes, and it applies to all other sports as well. There is something called a Therapeutic Use Exemption. One of the conditions for receiving one is (taken from WADA’s International Standard for Therapeutic Use Exemptions), “The Therapeutic Use of the Prohibited Substance or Prohibited Method will not, on the balance of probabilities, produce any additional enhancement of performance beyond what might be anticipated by a return to the Athlete’s normal state of health following the treatment of the medical condition.”
Eh, she’s 16. By then she’ll be 20 and over the hill for Tuberdize (sp?)'s skating factory, which chews them up, spits them out and tosses them on the scrap heap by the time they’re out of their teens.
Finnish Cross Country Skier suffers a frozen penis in race.
Not enough Costanza Shrinkage I guess
If you did not watch the Skiing Team Event, it was amazing. Check it out.
Watching the Figure Skating Gala, which is cheesy as can be, but a cute and fun thing they do.
How the heck is it determined who gets to skate at these exhibition gala events? I’ve always wondered.
I don’t follow figure skating and especially the gala very close, but aren’t those usually the medal winners? I think that because of the event happening always on the last day of the Olympics, many skaters may already have left for home, which reduces the choice of participants.
Nope, though there are medalists. My wife actually did suggest it was “anyone who was willing to stay around”. We saw some 7th place finishers and so forth.
It’s so cute and cheesy. The whole thing is ridiculous, really.
Ironically, the previous day he enjoyed an ice cream cone at Wang’s Frozen Treats.
But we got to see Nathan Chen do a backflip on skates. I didn’t know you could actually do that, though I’ve always wanted them to introduce flips into skaking routines,.
Oh, it’s been a long running controversy. They said it wasn’t allowed because it can’t be landed one one foot, but Surya Bonaly showed them you can land on one foot over 20 years ago.
They just don’t like them.
In fact, here she is landing it on one foot…in a combination…in 1998.
Wow. ey
Scott Hamilton was doing this in exhibitions in the mid 80s. These people are, basically, gymnasts; I would imagine almost ALL of them could do this if they wanted to.
Watched the entire Gala replay on the website feed last night. The cheesiness was the best part! The Aladdin genie, the 80s aerobics workout, the Rocky spoof, and the nerd-girl with the crush on the rocker were all much more entertaining than the actual competition events. And of course, NBC didn’t show any of those in their broadcast, cutting the 2 1/2 hour gala down to 30 minutes and showing mostly just Americans. Best part of the web feed: No commentary!
The Canadian guy also did a back-flip to his drinking song.
Question: Did that version of Ave Maria (Russian woman with light-up angel wings) sample Bonham’s drum part from When The Levee Breaks? I think I need to listen to it again.
If I am not mistaken, that drum line is the one of the most sampled things in popular music.