Jessie was in our youth ski league with my kids. :). So I’m biased in this one.
Fifth… but not her strongest event. More races to come. 
Thanks to those who gave insight on athletes competing for other countries.
And @ucbalumnus - I am familiar with dual citizenship and know several folks who have it. That was mentioned with some athletes I was wondering about others.
Wow, these ski jumpers are amazing. I can’t imagine ever doing this, probably more than any other event, so I really admire them.
Me, too. The jumpers are amazing. We went to a qualifying event one time and I could not believe the sound the skis make when they jump!
The freestyle skiers amaze me. People have been so creative in figuring out horribly difficult things to do on skis, and it’s awesome when somebody gets it right.
“What message was he trying to send? We all know Kim Jong Un is a bad actor, but South Korean speed skaters and North Korean hockey players are not bad actors, so why did he insult them? This doesn’t even make sense. Pence made Americans look petty and mean before the whole world, for no reason.”
Loved the opening ceremony. I’m on vacation, sort of (at my moms in Florida,) so I’ll be watching the games while I’m here mostly at night during the prime time show. Hoping I won’t miss too much of the action - especially the ice skating.
@marilyn at others. I guess it depends on the athletes that represent other nationalities. I know a few of them and they are connected to the countries they represent as they had immigrant parents or grandparents and part of their culture was kept as the “homeland.” Some visit the countries often, even speak the languages not bad as I have listen to interviews from “abroad athletes” that represent my country of origin. I am sure you can find the whole spectrum of engagement though.
Talking about athletes who compete for different countries, who here remembers 4 years ago when a CC member’s daughter was competing in ice dancing with a young man from (I think) one of the Eastern European countries? Is she still here? I wonder if she has finished competing.
^^ yes, I think that was Lady Lorna. I haven’t seen her around in probably a few years.
I think it’s neat that the U.S. men’s hockey team is coached by U.W.-Madison (my alma mater) head men’s hockey coach Tony Granato.
Tony had a somewhat good NHL career prior to sustaining a serious head injury then he was never the same again. He’s coached professionally for several teams and I think returned to his alma mater in Madison a couple of years ago.
His first season at Madison was pretty good. Keeping my fingers crossed for him and the team, especially because the team’s general manager died suddenly a few weeks ago and because for the first time in a long time, no NHL players. I think the latter is a good development.
He also played on the 1988 Olympic hockey team and his sister, Cammi, was one of (if not the) best US women’s hockey players. Always exciting to watch our hockey teams and the men’s team this year will be really interesting given they have the oldest member of the US Olympic team in Brian Gionta and several college players and retired NHL players are on the team since the NHL refused to interrupt the season so its players could attend.
Q: What do you think of the figure skating music with lyrics? I think it’s a bit distracting.
I’m a fan. Too many years of “tractor music”, as my mom used to call the typical Russian skater music choice. Although I was watching a competition a few weeks ago, and a pair from that part of the world was still using something that would have met that classification.
The “risk” of music with lyrics is that the audience will get caught up in the lyrics and not focus on the skating. But engaging the audience is usually a good thing, so if lyrics do it then OK.
Lyrics don’t bother me. Quite a bit of the music is still pretty lousy, IMO.
Virtue/Moir were great. And I loved the music.
I LOVE Scott & Tessa. So thrilled that they are back this year!
One of my favorite Olympic moments ever was in Vancouver when they won gold, and Scott was belting out the Canadian national anthem (and stomping his skates) on the podium.