<p>Loved the Russian (the first of the two Russian pairs to skate) and Canadian ice dancing pairs. Hope White and Davis do well!</p>
<p>I thought the Canadian pair was amazing.</p>
<p>Did NBC show the story about Torvill and Dean recreating their gold medal performance in Sarajevo last night? They were there performing to raise money to build a rink in the city. I saw it on CBC. A great story!</p>
<p>And Canada meets the U.S. for the gold medal in womens’ hockey. Big surprise! </p>
<p>But Canada can’t meet the US in the men’s hockey final. Most likely one of them will play for gold and the other for bronze.</p>
<p>So glad the 2 man bobsled won a medal. Really like their determination.</p>
<p>I read a ridiculous opinion piece in the Toronto Star about ice dancing judging being rigged against Virtue/Moir. AFAIK, the assigning of levels to technical elements isn’t even done by the judges; it’s done by the technical specialist assigned for each element. That is then checked by the technical coordinator. There are slow motion reviews. The judges assign points but not levels. Then 7 judge scores are chosen at random out of the 9 judges. So one can argue about whether an element was assigned to the right level, but that’s not even up to the judges. Nor does anyone know whose scoring was even counted. So “rigged” is pretty much untrue and reflects ignorance about how the system works.</p>
<p>The Russian dancers that took bronze look like the next champions. She has the absolute star quality of a ballerina.</p>
<p>Does anyone remember when Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the gold in Vancouver? The medal ceremony was so great – the whole stadium was singing the Canadian anthem, and Scott in particular was belting it out on the podium. He was stamping his skates while he sang. It was one of my favorite Olympic moments ever. Too bad we aren’t seeing the medal ceremonies this time… (I know we discussed it earlier…). :(</p>
<p>Ah… they just replayed a bit of that moment! :D</p>
<p>Yes, lergnom, I’m a little huh? at the rigged judging when all judges (including the Canadian judge) gave Davis/White perfect marks in two of the score categories. </p>
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<p>Is that because they’re likely to meet in the semis, CF? That would be unfortunate.</p>
<p>Take a look at the brackets, alwaysamom. It’s not like the Cup, where they re-seed each time. If Canada and the US beat whichever cupcakes they next face, their next game will be against each other. But that’s all right, alwaysamom. I’m sure Crosby will be satisfied with a bronze medal. ;
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<p>In the other bracket, Sweden will probably face the winner of Finland/Russia (presuming Russia gets past Norway).</p>
<p><a href=“What you need to know about the Olympic hockey playoff bracket | For The Win”>http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/02/sochi-olympics-hockey-playoff-bracket/</a></p>
<p>What a great ice-dance final. All three medalist pairs were spectacular and skated wonderfully. </p>
<p>I hadn’t seen the brackets, CF,(been travelling all day today) which is why I asked if it was because they’d meet in the semis. It’s too bad with the set up that the gold medal game isn’t a possibility for both teams but they need to concentrate on each game and not think that far ahead. Many divided loyalties for me, and for my family members who are over there having a ball! </p>
<p>Lucky family members! Hope they get to see the women play too.</p>
<p>I just loved the Black Swan number. I have a feeling 2018 is going to feature that young Russian couple versus the Shibutanis. What a treat that’ll be!</p>
<p>Davis and White…Incredible!!!</p>
<p>Well deserved. </p>
<p>I never thought ice dancing would be my favorite event.</p>
<p>When Meryl walked out in her purple dress, I thought that she looked like Princess Jasmine. 
Sureley enough, their music choice… Lol. What an awesome, awesome dance! All three pairs on the podium were incredible!</p>
<p>We dont watch the skating, but we watched Darya Domracheva win her third gold medal in the biathlon for Belarus.
Susan Dunklee placed 12th, best finish for US women in Olympic history.
<a href=“Belarus’ Domracheva Wins 3rd Straight Olympic Biathlon Gold – NBC Bay Area”>Belarus’ Domracheva Wins 3rd Straight Olympic Biathlon Gold – NBC Bay Area;
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<p>And then the maximum and the minimum scores are discarded. In the end only 5 scores of 9 are used. </p>
<p>In order for any conspiracy to work, most of the judges have to be in on a scheme. Very hard to achieve.</p>
<p>I agree that the ice dancing was spectacular! Not just those on the podium, but every single dance I watched last night. Wonderful expression and artistry! My new favorite also!</p>
<p>The Canadian Moira has come out NOW and says they feel their coach favored the Americans. Sour grapes if you ask me. The girl, Tessa, has messed up on her twizzles right up to the final two skates. She did it at the team skate. Yes, they were very good, but simply not as good as white/Davis. This rigging stuff is always discussed in skating. As lerhnom has explained, not possible. Wish they could be gracious for their training partners. Truly, if they were concerned they could have made a coaching change a long time ago. </p>