Staying up late on the West Coast tonight – women’s Nordic relay tonight at 1:30 am Pacific time!
Ledecka with the surprise women’s Super G win!!! The 2017 parallel snowboard giant slalom winner takes the gold from bib 26!!! The disbelief on her face was priceless!!! Ester Ledecka is what Olympic dreams are made of 
Watching the Chinese skater and can’t figure out what his skating is supposed to mean… lots of randon hand waving and jumping. Technically - nice, artistically - meh.
Patrick Chen from Canada, OTOH, had a beautiful program. Too bad about his falls…
Does anyone know where we can find out what music the skaters are skating to? Hanyu is skating to some Japanese music that is simply beautiful.
And he did it!!!
For each competitor who has finished, click on the + next to the total score to see the music name and the score breakdown. The music name is also listed with the current competitor.
Hanyu’s music in the Free Skating is listed as “SEIMEI (soundtrack) by S. Umebayashi”.
Fernandez - left 10 points out by doubling one of his quads per our favorite commentators, but if I were giving the medals, I would put him on the top of the pedestal together with Hanyu.
Thanks for the music link. 
And Japan goes 1-2!!! Well deserved.
I love Shoma Uno. If Nathen Chen couldn’t hold onto to the podium, I’m thrilled to see Uno get silver.
I thought Hanyu’s music and his Japanese samurai anime choreography was very interesting. Nathan Chen could’ve pulled it off onto the podium if he had been able to skate his short program cleanly
Googling reveals some blogs (unlinkable) that “Seimei” was some astronomer (?) and that Hanyu picked that music because he wanted to be proud of his Japanese roots. Great choice, no matter what.
Can’t link to Wordpress, so you will have to look up the link.
" 'Ihave a typical Japanese face. I’d like to cherish my identity as a Japanese. I’m training abroad but I’m very proud to be a Japanese. I’m always conscious of our politeness when I compete in the world. I wanted to bring traditions of authentic Japan to my new program. I’ve finally found it.
This “SEIMEI” is a shortened version for ice shows (one and a half minutes shorter than the final version). There will be some “wow” moments with an upbeat tempo added in the completed version. I’d like to leave it for pleasures afterwards. If Yuzuru Hanyu as a Japanese and Yuzuru Hanyu as a figure skater fuse together well in the program, I can maximize the originality of the “SEIMEI”. As well as jumps, I’d like to express the world of this music, my thoughts and feelings and Japanese identity.’ "
“Who need medical school when you can ski like that?!”
Pox on you, NBC commentator.
Well… all those bio majors have to do something!
I guess we know where US Women’s Nordic ranks in this Olympics. Yet another 5th place finish tonight in the 5k relay. Sigh… That is 3 5th place finishes and 1 sixth place finish in this Olympics. Which is great considering that US women are never within sight of the podium until the last few years. The best finish by a US woman before this Olympics was an 8th place finish (Jessie Diggins in Sochi). The Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns are just so hard to beat. And the athletes from Russia – they took third tonight, but it sure wouldn’t surprise me if the fourth place Finns eventually get that bronze medal. On to the 2 person freestyle sprints on Wednesday!
It was fun to see that Norway had guys in the crowd wearing horned helmets and with their faces painted like the Norwegian flag. Much like an American football crowd.
5th or 6th place doesn’t get you an Olympic medal BUT it’s certainly something to be very proud of! VERY proud. I mean really…it’s not like a little local competition in some small town!
Nathan Chen was fabulous in his long program both artistically and technically. No one even came close in that long program. He should be very proud. And yes…too bad his his short program went the way it did…or he could,have gotten gold. But to come from 17 to 5? Wow!
Nathan was fabulous and I’m glad he was able to show what he’s capable of. But let’s not anoint him as a medalist if only he’d done better in the short. By his own admission, nerves and expectations got the better of him in the short, so he was able to skate without pressure in the long. Had he been in medal contention after the short, who knows how the pressure would’ve gotten to him in the long. Having said all that, what he did last night was incredible and hopfully bodes well for his future.
Did you see Hanyu turn to Nathan when he was moved off the podium sitting area? A very gracious and kind thing for him to care about another competitor and his emotions at that time.
I was so intrigued by Hanyu’s program, I did a bit of looking.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_no_Seimei
Apparently, this is the character in Hanyu’s program. The music comes from a movie:
I miss the days when US figure skaters dominated. I’ve read the explanations of why they’ve fallen so far, and it seems nothing is likely to change for a long time. I enjoy watching all the skaters, but having no one to root for and no Star Spangled Banner to listen to at the awards ceremony does take a lot of the fun out the experience.
I actually think parity has been good to watch. I definitely have some favorites now from the other countries. In fact, I’m rooting for the Canadians in the ice dancing this week because I’ve followed them for years and really like them. There is no real reason the US should be dominant. Plus, it hasn’t really been true that the US has always dominated. For years, the US was no where in pairs or ice dancing, for example, which were mostly dominated by the Russians. It was a big deal if we had even a respectable team in those disciplines. And the Russian men dominated from 1992 through 2006.
I think it has actually been embarrassing how much coverage Nathan Chen has gotten in the last 24 hours when he didn’t medal. Love him, but he laid an egg in the short program. There are so many interesting athletes at this game. It feels like the network gets invested in a few of them (commercials and hype), then they milk it for all it is worth even when the athlete doesn’t end up on the podium. I’d rather see them move on.