Thanks, mom2and! It is more like Disney would have a huuuuge fit if Pooh was displayed at the Olympics. Disney controls that character very tightly.
If you Google “China bans Winnie the Pooh,” you can see some of the back story related to the character. This is not actually a case of “Big Mouse.”
The BBC information is especially good.
@kelsmom You can view the stream of the event later at the nbcolympics.com site. The site did want me to validate with my tv service provider, but I don’t have cable, just streaming from Directv now, and that was fine. Added advantage of the stream is more informative, less annoying commentary. I learned a few things about technical aspects of skating watching it.
I’m a night owl so I don’t have your problem catching the last skating group. But in my case I wanted to see the earlier skaters, particularly Vincent Zhou, and I’m glad I figured out how to do that. He is definitely a young man who rose to the occasion even though not a medal contender; he skated well above the level of the first group and was in #1 position for pretty much the first half of the overall program. I think in #12 position at the end. Local kid for me here in the SF bay area, so of course everyone in this region is rooting for him.
He also made history by being the first person in history to land a quad Lutz in Olympic competition, though he was soon followed by others. Probably someone we might be seeing again in 2022.
In this case, the athlete having a Winnie the Pooh would violate the Olympic rules on sponsorship and branding. Sponsors pay big bucks and Disney is not a sponsor.
Skaters hold stuff they picked up off the ice all the time in the Kiss & Cry. Unless they’ve changed the rules recently. I’d assume if the skater doesn’t have a sponsorship deal with a company related to the object, it would be fine.
@calmom, I don’t have cable TV either, but do have streaming with Spectrum. When I tried to log in, it gave me the message that my subscription didn’t include NBCOlympics, so unfortunately I can’t stream anything.
To be more explicit about Winnie the Pooh and why South Korea might be sensitive about his appearance at the Games, please Google “Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh”
Olympic snowboarder breaks his neck during a race. Luckily he is not paralyzed.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/2018/02/15/586233245/austrian-snowboarder-breaks-neck-in-olympics-quarterfinals-race
Austrian snowboarder Markus Schairer broke his neck during the men’s cross quarterfinals at the Pyeongchang Olympics on Thursday.
Schairer fractured his fifth cervical vertebra during the fall, according to a statement from the Austrian Olympic Committee shortly after the accident…
I am so disappointed in my local NBC programming. On Wednesday, they cut the telecast after the first (lower 8) set of pairs finished and switched to hockey. I checked the TV menu and it said they would show the final pairs figure skating 5 hours later on a different NBC channel, in prime time. Okeydoke. The rest of the time, all the NBC channels with olympic coverage said that they were showing curling or biathlon or some such. I turned off the TV then tuned in at the appropriate time and all I got was 30 seconds of - Wow, wasn’t that a great skate by the Germans to win gold. Grrr. Same thing happened with the mens short program yesterday. Maybe it’s a plot by NBC to make sure I don’t turn off the TV during these 2 weeks.
My tv service is streaming only (with a Roku tv)-- and I have Directvnow which seems to deliver all local channels except PBS. For Olympics I am getting 4 network stations streaming – NBC, NBCSN, CNBC and USA. NBCSN ice skating coverage comes in earlier, but then they stop broadcasting the skating in prime time when the NBC comes on.
But the NBCOlympics.com web site has all events livestreamed, and the “live” stream is archived so it can be played back any time. Takes a little bit of effort to navigate to the right spot on the web site. Also has the advantage of a different set of commentators - and way fewer commercials. (The stream is interrupted every once in awhile for ads, but it seems like maybe once an hour – there is a 4.5 hours from the mens short program) But I need to watch the livestream from my computer instead of my tv. (I probably could screen cast it to the t.v. but it doesn’t make much sense to do that if I’m the only person watching).
Also I just downloaded the NBC Sports App to my smart phone and at the moment I can see a livestream of the skaters practicing & warming up.
OK, it turns out that I also have NBC Sports on my Roku and I just needed to activate the channel. Same thing as the Android app. Currently livestreaming the skating practice.
Maybe the most surprising thing I have seen on the Olympics is the commercial for 23&Me with Warren Buffet narrating. I guess Berkshire Hathaway must have a financial interest to get Warren involved in the ads and I think it’s a neat spot, but I’m really surprised he did it.
I’ve also enjoyed the Comcast commercial that uses the music that was so prominent at the end of the final episode of The Wonder Years. D texted me about that one the first time she saw it because she knows that is one of the video moments that is guaranteed to bring tears for me and the music can almost do it for me without the visual!
Darn. Now I’m craving a binge-session of “Game of Thrones” and the new season won’t be released until 2019.
I thought the sporting events might be tamer tonight. Wrong. Slopestyle skiing. Yikes.
Lots of falls so far in slope style skiing.
@rosered55 hold on to your hat-- women’s super G is in one hour.
The Nathan Chen long program…beyond fabulous!
Loved Adam Rippon. He should be so proud!
Adam Rippon is beautiful.
Adam Rippon was beautiful. What a great Olympics for him!