2018 Olympics live reports

[Sam L]

So, my “biased” impressions.

Men

There was Patrick and everybody else. I have never seen him live and frankly speaking have been less and less impressed especially recently. But now it was clear as the sky in Gangneung today – he is a genius. He really flies over the ice. And he nailed the quads. A deserved win.

I had had negativity towards Kolyada and a lot of “whatifs” – what if he had jumped a nice clean rippon 3 Lz instead of the quad where he has the same success rate as Adam last season (well, just a bit better)? He might have nailed the combo and 3A after that and get above 90. Russia would be still in contention for gold after the short. What if Aliev skated instead of him and T/M skated the long – D/R did that. Etc. But in the end of the day despite all the pressure he might have had he performed quite decently albeit with a planned 4Lz fall. And he was relieved and was the most enthusiastic of all the Russian team.

Adam was a pleasure to watch. The quality of execution was there. And I thought that he would go above Mikha despite the lack of quads. But neither Adam nor Mikha are Patrick.

Rizzo and Tanaka are the skaters from a different league, sorry.

Oh you are a Patrick convert. You'll have to tell me more when we meet. Hope you're having a nice time. It still feels like ages away until I arrive in Gangneung which is the night before the ladies short program.

 

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Dance,

The results were obvious even before they started. This is dance with abundant perfect score in the prediction game. I am not an expert at all and I rarely watch dance in the first place. Some impressions still.

The Japanese were OK before the freak fall. Then the guy looked as if he lost motivation.

C/L were much better. I did not like them before because I thought they were boring. They were not today.

B/S - I think that was their best performance: they were so in the emotions may be even a bit over the top. But this is who they are. The only visible thing which I could pick was the big distance between them during the twizzles.

When S/S started I thought: "it is dance - they will get more for that than B/S because their reputation is higher, although they are mechanical and not engaging." But the second part is outstanding. Their rotational speed on twizzles is mind-boggling. And then those lifts. I could see why they were a bit higher than B/S.

And V/M are outstanding technicians. Their class is clear even to non-experts as myself. Still (I became reserved about using "but"in "yes, but") when both are perfect they will lose to P/C who are as good technicians but who bring more soul and emotions.

 

[russianfan]

thx for your reports! i'm becoming so jealous(in a good way) that i'm thinking about going to some FS events in Russia next season (may be Rostelecom Cup? idk yet)

Alina is getting better and better with each competition and i want to see her live

 

[LadyB]

thx for your reports! i'm becoming so jealous(in a good way) that i'm thinking about going to some FS events in Russia next season (may be Rostelecom Cup? idk yet)

Alina is getting better and better with each competition and i want to see her live

Do it. Absolutely do it. It's a fantastic experience all around! :gclap:

 

[LadyB]

Yes, the "Russian power group" cheered loudly during the warm ups.

I was secretly hoping you'd become the leader of the pack and I'll see you on telly! :agree2:

Have a fantastic time!

 

[plushyfan]

Yes, you might be one of those people who tend to degenerate the whole nation based on some random encounters - I have no idea what personal experiences you had "many years ago". You might ask those people who were here quite recently about "Russian arrogance towards anyone and anything". LadyB, for example.

It can happen to any of us. I used to think that the French are arrogant after a couple of conversations in Paris hotels. Like I was asked: "your English is so good, why have not you learned to speak French?" It took me some years and some wisdom to understand that those cases are not what French people as a nation are about.

I agrre with you on French people.... That is so tipical with French language..

 

[LadyB]

You might ask those people who were here quite recently about "Russian arrogance towards anyone and anything". LadyB, for example.

Yes, indeed. One girl's nan baked me a pie. Girls from the S/K fan club organised a specially signed autograph from Fedor Klimov (and if you know me, you know what that means to me ), another one gave me the 2018 Calendar from the Russian Fed with wonderful pics every month 'from Russia with love' (her words).
I had a marvellous time meeting loads of wonderful people, including samkrut and his lovley wife and pretty much everyone had good to very good English. People in shops/pubs/restaurants were exactly the same. Welcoming, warmhearted and they definitely like it when someone expresses their emotions and shouts all out for their fave skaters. There were a whole row of French fans behind me in the arena, they were really, really loud. The Russians loved them and clapped for them!!! That's what I call friendly and welcoming and, above all, good sports.
At Rostelecom 2016, other Russian spectators around me, who noticed that I was foreign, said I was as passionate as a Russian. I think that was a compliment. So I can't complain, really. I think we can meet difficult people everywhere on the planet.

 

[OniBan]

samkrut, thank you for the live report!! Reading your very comprehensive experience (plus the off-competiton times in between)made me feel like I am there. How is the food situation and sight seeing in Gangneung is like? I'm only flying off to Pyeongchang this weekend and am having all the jitters because I'm going by myself and have no idea what it will be like there.

Also your experience with Patrick Chan is exactly what I had when I saw him live for the first time!! Those skating skills is guaranteed to melt even the coldest and most cynical heart XD

 

[rollerblade]

Finally Alina. I saw DQ several times live and dozens of times on video. Today was the best of them all. She has brought it to perfection. Exquisite preciseness, hitting all the notes – she had problems with that in Moscow..

I thought her jump timings were much more on point at Junior Worlds. That was what drawn me into the program to begin with. Even the 3 jump sequence were perfectly timed and that was on the slower portion of her music. I don't know if there were some transitional changes when DQ was tweaked into a Senior program. Are the requirements the same? Did she had to add/subtract things?

Last night, I think only her solo 3Flip toward the end was perfectly timed to the 'down punctuation note' (if that made any sense). The other jumps were a bit too early, though not as obviously ahead of her music like in Europeans. Nitpicking details though!

Thanks for the live recap, especially the parts that aren't visible or obvious on a TV screen.

 

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How is the food situation and sight seeing in Gangneung is like?

I can't tell you yet. We just saw some Gangneung from taxi windows never eating out so far. The first impression is that it is not exactly a place for tourists. As for the food situation I usually read trip advisor reviews - have not done it yet. There might be a challenge to find a lot of places for fine dining. When cosport offered me a "VIP package" for some hundreds thousands of dollars they pointed out that eating in good places on your own might be an issue due to overbooking.

As for Cosport. Some of their pricing practices like the above mentioned "VIP package" are out of this world. But when we went to their ticket collection center in Gangneung to pick-up the last tickets we met with several cosport people and all of them were very nice and friendly.

 

[pearly]

Medvedeva or Zagitova? – this is the question. After what the team event showed if neither of them wins that would be one big shocker.

Who do you hope wins?

 

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I thought her jump timings were much more on point at Junior Worlds. That was what drawn me into the program to begin with. Even the 3 jump sequence were perfectly timed and that was on the slower portion of her music. I don't know if there were some transitional changes when DQ was tweaked into a Senior program. Are the requirements the same? Did she had to add/subtract things?

Yes, she changed the program as in seniors it is 30 seconds longer with choreo sequence added. I saw it live at Europeans and was not 100% impressed just because of the wrong timing. Here it was good - may be very minor deviations from the means of the notes. Even the split jump which she rarely hits was spot on. Even the single lutz.

I rewatched the video and still think that her timing was almost perfect.

 

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Who do you hope wins?

Medvedeva. It is wild to imagine after all last seasons but she is the underdog now. Zagitova seems invincible if she stays on her feet. Well, I like Alina a lot. I rewatched DQ many more times than any of Zhenya's programs - may be because she has not offered anything else so far. And Black swan at the Europeans was marvelous. And I cannot say it will be unfair if the stronger performance wins. Just sentimentally I would like the Olympics to be the high point of the track Medvedeva followed since the fall of 2014.

 

[pearly]

I agree.

As for Zagitova's performances where her timing is off, I'm so surprised she doesn't drop a crossover to catch up.

 

[Wilwarin]

I left Korea yesterday, but my friend was not. She just missed her flight by minutes. Have to warn everyone about above ground travel in Seoul! Street looks narrow and full of traffic. Best to take subways to railway stations, it's cheap, fast and reliable.

 

[Sam L]

Seems like no one was throwing gifts to the skaters, is there a rule against it?

 

[kiches]

I left Korea yesterday, but my friend was not. She just missed her flight by minutes. Have to warn everyone about above ground travel in Seoul! Street looks narrow and full of traffic. Best to take subways to railway stations, it's cheap, fast and reliable.

Oh that sucks!

Yes folks, Seoul Station is a maze! Elevators are not easy to find. The metro, airport Express, and ktx are all in the station but can be far away. I got quite the workout my first day laughing 2 luggage’s and a backpack through Seoul Station.

I’d say triple pad your transit time for any of your trips, whether they be in Gangneung or Seoul or Pyeongchang.

 

[Wilwarin]

Seems like no one was throwing gifts to the skaters, is there a rule against it?

There isn't a rule, however I don't think the arena is full of skating fans. My friend was sitting in 104 and the people next to her has not heard of throwing things. We found some fellow fans but not many. There are sponsor's seats as well. Team China was not there on 12th but several people form Alibaba waving small flags occupied the second row in front of us...and there were Americans bringing a long list of names and checking where their seats were.

Besides, anyone sitting in B and C simply cannot throw anything onto the ice. It's way too far.

 

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Seems like no one was throwing gifts to the skaters, is there a rule against it?

The Japanese guy in team Russia sweater who was sitting in front of me was throwing a lot of things. Although he was at row A, most of the times those things hit the heads of the people standing where the skaters exited after the performances - I am sure it can be seen on the videos. Somehow the distance between the stands and the rink is too big for throwing things.

 

[rikaquegira]

The Japanese guy in team Russia sweater who was sitting in front of me was throwing a lot of things. Although he was at row A, most of the times those things hit the heads of the people standing where the skaters exited after the performances - I am sure it can be seen on the videos. Somehow the distance between the stands and the rink is too big for throwing things.

It happened after Adam's performance, a little girl got hit in the head and Adam gave her a kiss on the forehead, it was very cute. [emoji173]️ But also not cool to get hit in the head even if it's not a hard object.

One thing I wanted to ask... I watched some fancams and it looks like they have this one camera that it's like super big and it keeps moving all the time and it gets in the way depending where you're sitting. I wonder if that's the camera responsible for all the cool replays we've been seeing at the broadcasts. This is the first time I've seen figure skating fancams been "disturbed" by a huge camera.
Have you guys noticed this camera? And has it been an issue in your live experience?