100% agreed!
You can’t. Well, you can, but it’s a two-point penalty if you do, plus whatever reduction in the second score each judge wants to give; this isn’t specified, and, technically, a judge can actually increase a score of somebody doing a flip.
It is by invitation of the International Skating Union, although the announcement for the upcoming World Championships says that all medalists must participate; failure to do so without a medical excuse results in a 60-day suspension.
It’s over. Of course it’s going to be some time before my family sees the rest of the broadcasts (we just got past the freaking endless Super Bowl stuff, because the one thing you want to be constantly reminded of when watching the Winter Olympics is one of the few sports leagues even more corrupt and greedy than the IOC 
), but I’ve had my fill.
Just a general postscript on some of what I’ve seen:
Halfpipe: The problem with the whole notion of “snowboard tricks” is that there’s a single object which both feet are affixed to, and therefore there just isn’t a whole lot they can do. I’m with Gatopescado on this, there’s just too much sameness to the routines. I’m fine with straight races like snowboard cross, but this one should’ve stayed in the X Games.
Snowboard cross: Fun! What more could you ask. On a very positive note, Lindsey Jacobellis finally got that 900-megaton gorilla off her back, which presumably means that we can finally start talking about her failing to medal at all in 3 straight Olympiads. 
Figure skating: I cannot overstate how much the fall of the USSR contributed to this becoming much more like a real sport. This is at least the fourth Winter Olympiad in a row I remember where there wasn’t some horrific judging scandal. We didn’t need to get rid of “subjective” events (or even give a different award for them like I suggested a couple times), we needed judges who did their damn jobs. It was a beautiful spectacle all around, with a few close calls but no serious injuries, and I’m glad for it. I do think the team competition needs some tweaking (there wasn’t any real medal drama going into the ladies’ free skate), but I don’t mind it being here. Mistreated Russian girls, alas, is something that people far more capable than me will have to sort out on their own.
Curling: Eh…still don’t quite dig this. Slide, brusha brusha brusha, clickety clack, thoughtful gazing…not my thing. Glad our side did well, though.
Monobob: Reportedly some female bobsledders were clamoring for the 4-person event to be added, but they got this instead because there weren’t enough competitors. IMO that was a good move, giving a chance to pioneer a new discipline. What’s especially challenging (other than the lighter sled is apparently easier to wipe out in) is that other than the other sled events, one person has to steer and brake. Saw a few runs, and the level of control required was impressive. Salute to these brave ladies, and here’s hoping this gains plenty of traction.
Short track speed skating: If Homestar Runner made a sport. It’s weird, it’s wild, it’s nerve-warcking, it’s chaotic, it’s vicious, it’s heartbreaking, and that’s what makes it so awesome. Or terrible, depending. One of those sports you either accept for what it is or shake your head at in disgust and put hockey back on. I’m in the former camp. Mostly.
30K mass start: Phew.
Parting question: NBC? Humble request? Could you please stop giving a damn about the Jamaican bobsled team? Look, I was there. I was just like all of you, finding it completely preposterous that a tropical island nation was competing a cold-weather sport. They were a bizarre curiosity at the time. And now they’re not. Jamaica in the bobsled has been done. There is no novelty anymore, no curiosity, nothing the slightest bit unusual about what they’re doing. Now they’re just another team that’s shows up and never accomplishes anything. Unless that’s your story, stop talking about this completely unremarkable team. Please. And also stop trying to get us to give a damn about mediocre three decade old comedies. Thank you.
Yeah, I was glad she won, but then in the team event, she did another “cool move” at the end. It was minor, but what if she had cost her entire team a medal that time?
Did you see Ski Cross event? It was great, too.
Ski Team event was also a TON of fun. My kids were thrilled.
Is the website feed still available? Like an idiot, I assumed that the two hour NBC broadcast was going to be the entire thing, and set my DVR to record it. When I watched it just now, it was an hour of skiing, and less than an hour of the Gala (at one point interrupted by a five or ten minute skiing “update”). The last thing I saw was Nathan Chen’s performance. None of the “cheesiness”.
I don’t see it right now. It was at nbcolympics.com/replays A lot of stuff is still up, but it looks like they took down all the figure skating, other than a few highlights clips.
Good for her. Sounds like she was having fun. In the words of Joe Posnanski:
“But then, something occurred to me — something that will seem obvious now but in the moment felt like a small revelation: Her whole sport was about showing off. That’s why it exists. That’s why she had fallen in love with it in the first place. All of these snowboard sports — snowboardcross and big air and halfpipe and slopestyle, basically everything involving a snowboard — are about showing off, doing a trick that blows minds and drops jaws, flying high above the snow, a little higher than anyone else, a little faster than anyone else, and leaving everyone a bit awed.”
sigh I haven’t been able to find anything more than highlight clips anywhere online. I suppose this means I’ll need to sign up for Peacock to watch it.
Mahaloth - If it’s something really basic that anyone should be able to nail, whatevs. My take on the “showing off” method wasn’t some highfalutin bluster about respect or sportsmanship or whatever, it was (and still is) “How the hell do you mess up something that easy?”
If the US Olympic committee has a problem, they can deal with it.