Olympics: in which I am weirdly grateful for my sleep schedule for once

[jennaria]

...because last night they were pushing the RIVALRY OF THE RUSSIANS so hard on NBC, and I just did not care. They're both coached, and choreographed, by the same person! I'm not going to hate on Alina because her program is crap (which her short program definitely is - all jumps in the second half leads to a 'skate skate skate jump' format which isn't even a little artistic, and also makes it super obvious when she's raising her arms to get more presentation points): I'm going to hate on her coach/choreographer for playing the system against itself, and setting up a 15-year-old for early onset arthritis.

But! Rather than stay up until all hours to watch bullshit rivalry that I do not care about, Wife and I sat and watched the earlier skaters. Sometimes, this was a little painful - one skater fell, like, twice trying for her jump, and was So Visibly Relieved when she finally landed one - but sometimes it was, like, here is the only skater from Country You Never Realized Did Figure Skating! Mostly, it was just the people who don't get shown during prime-time: the people who aren't a US skater and not part of The Storyline. It's the people who are there for the love of it, who are trying for nothing more than saying they skated at the Olympics, and maybe a season's best. It's what I love about the Olympics, more than The Storyline.

Comments

[hitokage]

I honestly don't agree with how they scored the Russians' long form programs, either. Having watched them both, I think Yevgenia skated a better program and their long programs should *not* have been tied. I also don't think Alina deserved her higher score in the short program, so, yeah, I'm kinda bitchy at that, too. And bitchy at the commentators for, instead of pointing out that hey, maybe the Russian system that has a 15 yo at what may be her only Olympics (?!?!?!!!!) because it's pushing pushing pushing its girls so fucking hard, instead used that to explain why the Americans "Aren't As Good" and aigyearyvljgftu. Of course I'm also cranky about the scoring system over all that rewards a skater who falls on his/her ass while trying a harder jump that's beyond them with more points than a skater who sticks a perfect landing of an "easier" jump. Like gee, why should we protect our athletes when we can push them into severely injuring themselves (possibly for life) for the chance of maybe doing something a little bit more Artistic and Challenging.

... for someone who only watches skating here and there, I have A Lot Of Feelings about it. XD