The Winter Olympiad comes to a Close
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... and overall, I was underwhelmed. I can't quite put my finger on the reason. Maybe there isn't just one reason, but many reasons. The low tv ratings of these winter Olympics also reflect what I'm saying. Here are some of my thoughts and impressions.
1. Talent in general seemed to be lacking in these Olympics, especially in the U.S. athletes. I've been watching figure skating for 50 years and I don't remember ever seeing so many falls from US skaters during competition. It wasn't just US athletes falling and making big goofs, but figure skaters from other countries as well. I just thought it was really bad this year. Why? I don't know.
2. So much emphasis has been put on triple jumps and quads in figure skating that I have to agree with Peggy Fleming that the artistry and beauty in figure skating is almost not there. There are some skaters who manage to do both exceptionally well (those Russian girls who won gold & silver, for example) but it seems they're becoming fewer and fewer with every Olympics.
3. Very few of the U.S. athlete "hopefuls" expected to medal lived up to the hype and most walked away with nothing: Nathan Chan, Maame Biney, Bradie Tennell, Mirai Nagasu. There were more but those I named came immediately to mind.
4. The schedule of events was hard to follow and I think NBC did a lousy job of making some of the events even watchable. It was annoying to have to start watching figure skating on NBCSN and then halfway through it it would switch to ice hockye and you'd have to flip to another channel to finish watching the event you started out watching on a different channel.
5. There seemed to be something missing in these Olympics for me. What it was exactly, I haven't been able to identify. But it was different and not in a good way.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2018 04:34PM by MamaRAMa.
1. Talent in general seemed to be lacking in these Olympics, especially in the U.S. athletes. I've been watching figure skating for 50 years and I don't remember ever seeing so many falls from US skaters during competition. It wasn't just US athletes falling and making big goofs, but figure skaters from other countries as well. I just thought it was really bad this year. Why? I don't know.
2. So much emphasis has been put on triple jumps and quads in figure skating that I have to agree with Peggy Fleming that the artistry and beauty in figure skating is almost not there. There are some skaters who manage to do both exceptionally well (those Russian girls who won gold & silver, for example) but it seems they're becoming fewer and fewer with every Olympics.
3. Very few of the U.S. athlete "hopefuls" expected to medal lived up to the hype and most walked away with nothing: Nathan Chan, Maame Biney, Bradie Tennell, Mirai Nagasu. There were more but those I named came immediately to mind.
4. The schedule of events was hard to follow and I think NBC did a lousy job of making some of the events even watchable. It was annoying to have to start watching figure skating on NBCSN and then halfway through it it would switch to ice hockye and you'd have to flip to another channel to finish watching the event you started out watching on a different channel.
5. There seemed to be something missing in these Olympics for me. What it was exactly, I haven't been able to identify. But it was different and not in a good way.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2018 04:34PM by MamaRAMa.
