Less than a month until the opening ceremony! Anyone excited?! I am!
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Iām watching the US Figure Skating Championships on Peacock. What a nailbiter! The pairs champions still donāt know if they will be able to competeā¦ US citizenship still has not been granted for the woman who was born in Finland. I seriously doubt they will be able to compete because the deadline is this Sunday! 
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Excited to see an Olympic thread pop up again! 
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This is kinda not nice to our nice neighbors to the north but it made me laugh out loud. 
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Ready for the figure skating drama!
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I love the skating, all of it. My mom was a roller dancer in the 50s and 60s - my brother and I grew up on wheels, so ice skating/dancing/figures, etc. was our go to when the winter Olympics came around. The talent these days is out of this world. I want to visit one of the luge villages in Europe where you can do the run when thereās no snow!
I also love the gymnastics (summer Olympics) and even scored a job during the LA Olympics (84) as a āhospitality hostessā for PSA (regional airline) at the Riviera Country Club which granted me opportunities to go to some events and I got to meet and hang around with Nadia ComÄneci as her direct host - she spoke almost no English, Romanian is not a language I knew, but we seemed to be able to communicate. She was a smoker (which surprised me) so we were constantly looking for secret places for her to smoke so the press didnāt see her!
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I was poking around YouTube and stumbled upon videos of the Russian FS Nationals. Yikes! The men easily did 4-5 quads in their programs. But no one came even close to Ilia Malinin!! Quad God. IMO, he will be at the top of the podium! Just needs to avoid getting the flu or anything else that circulates around (some athletes were skating with pneumonia at the US Nationals- ).
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I think Iāve mentioned before that my daughter is a figure skater but, not only that, sheās from the same home rink and skating club as Alysa Liu. Weāve known her and her family since she was like 7? Her free skate was not great last night, unfortunately, and I think she was overscored. I imagine the decision was made about her being on the Olympic team long ago, so the scoring was a bit inflated to make her official selection less controversial later. Donāt get me wrong - she likely deserves that spot, but I do hope she gets that triple axel back in time to re-include it in her programā¦.and that she fully rotates her other triples which were problematic last night. I donāt think thereās much chance of a medal otherwise. Amber is looking fantastic, though.
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Agree! Her free skate was a bit underwhelming. Amber absolutely rocked her skate! The commentators said that the Olympic team would be actually selected based on overall performances over a series of events. Russia is sending 2 women, and Japan is sending 3, I believe. It will be a fierce competition for the podium!
I know one is Adelia who is also pretty underwhelming, at least relative to other Russian skaters weāve seen in the last few years. Who is the other? I honestly havenāt followed Russian skating much since theyāve largely been absent from international competitionsā¦.and I canāt stand Eteri. And the fact that several skaters are Putin supporters.
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Not sure who the other one is. I couldnāt figure (pun intended ) that out from the YouTube videos. I canāt stand Eteri either. Iām convinced she is a witch. Rooting for Amber all the way!
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Yes, thatās always been the case specifically because of situations like this where a lead skater doesnāt perform well at nationals. But it also tends to be controversial when they pass over someone who shined at nationals in favor of someone else who fell short. My memory is not great so maybe I am mistaken about this, but the last time around did Alysa even compete at Nationals prior to Olympic team selection? I think she might have been sick and missed it. Or maybe I am thinking of someone else. But I know this has come up before, I think a few times.
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Ah, and another connection to Nationals - my daughterās current teammate from Cal figure skating is competing tonight in the menās freeskate. He is not expected to be in the top half, but I think heās just happy to be there, especially as he is retiring from competitive skating after this season to focus on school. It will be fun to watch him.
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