<p>Yep. Go to the NBC Olympic site and it will be broadcast live. I watched the end of the US hockey game online today.</p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>I guess Elon will need to wait a few years… </p>
<p>"Peter Frenette is an “A” student ranked in the top 10 of his senior class, but will also be taking a break from the books in the near future.</p>
<p>“I’m going to take a couple years off (instead of heading straight to college)," Peter said. "I want to continue ski jumping. The top guys make more than a (good) living.”</p>
<p>Good luck Peter…</p>
<p>Short track 500 - demolition derby!!! Apolo DQ’d - RATS!!! Koreans, you have my blessings to go after those referees!!!</p>
<p>Katherine Reutter got the silver in short track - YAY!!! Congratulations and fantastic job! First US woman to win a short track Olympic medal - wooow!</p>
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Looks like Apollo finally used up all his 9 lives. Couldn’t believe his luck (and leaping/dodging abilities) the 2 qualifying rounds!!</p>
<p>The whole touchy thing in speed skating is a bit weird. I can’t quite see where the line is draw between ok and not ok. But I didn’t see that what the korean girls relay team did was any worse than what Apollo did. So having dqd the Koreans, I guess they really had to DQ Apollo as well.</p>
<p>Gold medal hockey tomorrow should be great. I can’t wait.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4, you are correct. I must have remembered Nancy Kerrigan from a different year where she was falling all over and still won a medal. I am certain I got the skater right.</p>
<p>Just to reassure you that there is no personal bias, I also feel that the American girl who came forth skated better than Jonnie Rochette, and is more deserving of a medal. Am I alone on this? The judges certainly took a long time to post the scores, make me suspect they were trying to get the results they wanted. I know I am a Canuck, but fair is fair.</p>
<p>Has anyone notice the performance of the Chinese short-track skater Wang Meng? She won her third gold of the games last night and could have swept if not for the DQ on the 1500. Talking about peaking at the right time.</p>
<p>BTW, I can not wait for the US-Canada hockey game.</p>
<p>Canuckguy,</p>
<p>I agree that the 4th place finisher skated better in her long program, but I think the medal to the Canadian was deserved. Her lead after her short program was enough to keep her there, but not by much. Overall I agree with others that this was by far the best figure skating in the Olympics, and a joy to watch.</p>
<p>Short track? Fun to watch, but I don’t think I’ll ever figure out the reffing.</p>
<p>I had to “watch” the hockey game on computer last night. The little screen did not do it justice. I will be rooting for the USA, but I’m sure Canada will be ready.</p>
<p>I give NBC an F for its coverage. I was in Spain during the Summer Olympics from Beijing, and there were three networks going live for the entire time, showing everything live. I was also there for two of the Bulls championships w/MJ. Games at 1:00 am local time, live, much better than here.</p>
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<p>The reason why it took so long to produce the scores for Mirai Nagasu (the American skater) was that she has had a history of underrotating her jumps and the technical consultant was probably checking them carefully (and by the way, all her jumps were judged as “clean” which I believe is the first time that has happened in an international competition). </p>
<p>The reason Nagasu was below Rochette in the free skate was because the judges thought that Rochette’s skating skills, interpretation, transitions and choreography were better. While you can disagree on that, there is no question that Rochette is an excellent skater, with good edges, speed, interpretation etc. and since Mirai was approximately 7 1/2 points below Rochette after the short program, it was highly highly unlikely she was going to pull up to third.</p>
<p>A long way of saying that the results were not fixed.</p>
<p>I wlll agree with you on NBC’s coverage – I was in Italy for the Athens games and they had three channels running full coverage as well. When Berlusconi does a better job then you, you know you’re in trouble.</p>
<p>Both Ohno and the NBC interviewer showed their true colors last night–completely classless. Even the NBC color commentator said that Ohno would probably by DQ’d. To explicitly accuse the referee of bias–not cool.</p>
<p>^^I agree. I was hoping Ohno would at most say something noncommittal like “Well, that’s the way it is with this sport. Sometimes the ref’s calls go with you and sometimes they go against you. Tonight was not my night. Congratulations to the winners.” But no, he had to go and whine about nationalistic bias, basically accusing the official of dishonesty.</p>
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<p>No, I agree. I felt kind of hard-hearted thinking it, but Rochette definitely got a sympathy boost, IMO. She stepped out of a couple of her jumps and was generally outskated by the 4th place girl.</p>
<p>Coureur</p>
<p>Figure skating results are based on the short and long program results and given that Rochette was so far ahead in the short, Nagasu had a very slim chance of medaling (it would have only happened if Rochette had skated badly in the long and she didn’t). </p>
<p>In terms of the long program, judges often view skaters through the prism of their previous results. Rochette was a world silver medalist who skated quite well, although not perfectly, and Nagasu is a relative newcomer, who has had problems with her jumps in the past. I don’t think there was a “sympathy” bump at all–I think what you are seeing is judges rewarding a skater with an excellent reputation who skated quite well over a relative newcomer. Moreover, to be honest, although I would have had the scores closer, I think that Rochette deserved high artistic marks. It was a beautifully constructed program (probably the best in the competition in many ways), that she skated with speed and elegance and good connection with the audience. Nagusu beat Rochette on the technical marks–jumps and spins–but was below her in skating skills etc. which seems fair.</p>
<p>Great explanation, midatlmom, you said what I said, but explained it in detail. </p>
<p>Re: Ohno, I think he should havebeen dq’d after seeing the replays, and his remark was not classy at all. Again, F for NBC for even asking.</p>
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<p>How is rewarding “reputation” or punishing someone for being a newcomer any better or more acceptable than a sympathy bump? Either way they are scoring on emotion and not on performance.</p>
<p>Plus, it’s very likely that that one reason Rochette had as big a lead over Nagasu as she did going into the long program is that she got a sympathy bump in the judging of the short program too, her mother having died just a couple of days earlier.</p>
<p>The skating commentators always talk about “good edges” and “deep edges.” What does that mean?</p>
<p>The short answer lies in the figure skating blade (as opposed to a hockey blade). The blade is sharpened with an outside edge and an inside edge, with a hollow in-between. A good (long and deep) edge is when the skater is skating well on one of the edges (almost looks like they are skating on the side of the blade) in a controlled and graceful manner. Think about when the ice dancers are flexing their knees, and carving long patterns without picking up their feet…those are long and deep edges. It comes into play when the skaters jump as well. There have been many explanations and graphics far superior to anything I can do that show how a skater must enter and land jumps from specific edges, and how a greater score will be obtained if the skater is able to land a jump both on the correct edge, after the complete required number of rotations, and then glide gracefully out of the landing on the same edge.</p>
<p>Have I gone crazy? Wasn’t there an Olympic sport where teams “whipped” the last person across the ice? Or am I thinking of my disco skating days …</p>
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<p>coureur, I don’t mean to belabor the point, but I simply don’t think that Rochette received any sort of sympathy bump here. The top three skaters, who are all previous world medalists, all skated clean, with good jumps and spins and artistry, in the short program and all three received significantly higher artistic marks than others in the competition. If you were to look closer at the marks, other skaters who received high artistic marks were also previous world or european medalists. Are the judges basing their marks on reputation or on what they believe? It’s hard to know, but Rochette was judged according to the same standards as others. In other words, no sympathy bump, but possibly a little nudge because she, as well as others, was a previous champion.</p>
<p>In addition, Mirai Nagasu, while adorable, doesn’t yet have the power and the flow of some of the other skaters (I have seen several of the top skaters in person, and Rochette really commands the ice). Also, because Nagasu’s jumps were slightly cheated (although not enough to get downgraded) and didn’t look as confident in the short program, the judges probably took away a little on the artistic mark as well (because the jumping affected the overall look of the program).</p>