Figure Skating Thread (Olympic Spoilers/Discussion starting at post #16)

[Hatsumomo]

I wonder if current affairs will kill Russia’s political power that had the IOC letting Russia’s athletes compete and medal in both Tokyo and Beijing under the Not Russia But It Totally Is umbrella as opposed to banning the federation.

 

[Doug1233]

I really really hope that this move from Putin spectacularly backfires.

 

[MaryClare]

Sports politics operates in a different sphere to world politics. The UK for instance has very little influence in sports politics but for the size of population, has a great deal of international influence.

 

[MaryClare]

It’s Russia. We don’t do gracefully accepting democratic will or retiring to write your memoirs. It’s murder, coup or pickling one’s liver to the point of verifiable insanity.

To quote from Disney’s Aladdin, “it’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home”.

 

[Hatsumomo]

Well, hopefully that doesn’t involve nukes. The world already spent four years concerned about a malevolent madman with access to the nuclear codes.

 

[Doug1233]

It’s ironic, because the West does not even want Ukraine to join NATO (precisely because of what we have seen in the last few weeks). But the West cannot say it because to do so would undermine Ukraine’s autonomy.

 

[JaJa]

Never mind that the Soviet Union ceased to be 30 years ago.

Not in Putin’s mind it didn’t. And even in reality many holdovers continue to this day.

 

[RedBirdie]

Putin’s been bitter ever since he was hiding out in the KGB office in Dresden in 1989 when East Germans were marching to overthrow the communist regime. He can deny the reality all he wants, but the Soviet Union doesn’t exist any more, and the last 3 days have shown us just how weak Putin and Russian power actually is.

The only question is does this end with a coup, murder, or Putin going fully unhinged and taking all of us down with him.

 

[JaJa]

When he first invaded I figured it would be over within 1 day. But the combination of Zelensky’s leadership, the Ukrainians peoples’ resolve and the seeming lack of spirit in the Russian army has kept this thing going. Look, Putin has lots of influence throughout that region and has had puppet pro Russian governments in various of the states including Ukraine off and on since 1991 but is clearly obsessed actually rebuilding the Soviet Empire. This was, however, a huge strategic error on his part. He may still win the war, but he has lost in so many other ways.

 

[JaJa]

I wonder if we need a Russia Things thread…?

probably so we do not interfere with the flow of other conversations

 

[rlayt]

Doug’s post was moved to the current “Ukraine and gymnastics” thread. Thank you for trying to keep topics sorted!

 

[Denn]

I actually agree: the press, particularly NBC, was disgusting in the way they hounded these youngsters. NBC not only showed clips of children falling apart emotionally under extremely difficult circumstances they are not old enough to take ownership for, but showed them over and over again.

NBC even published a reel of all the drama with dramatic music added for effect.

I reported that video, as I feel that it’s borderline child abuse to post that sort of thing. What a disgusting industry.

 

[dweiss324]

They even advertised the event during prime time by saying there was plenty of drama afterwards and they would be sure to show us all of it! I thought it was weird at the time, but in retrospect, it’s super gross.

 

[RedBirdie]

NBC seems to take glee in making people cry, regardless of age. Remember in 2018 when they hounded Bode Miller to talk about his dead kid?

 

[rue_des_plantes]

NBC seems to take glee in making people cry, regardless of age. Remember in 2018 when they hounded Bode Miller to talk about his dead kid?

One of my friends asked who Andrea Joyce was when Terry Gannon introduced her down on the rink, and I just texted back, “lol, good luck.”

 

[KristyJ]

Makes me really glad that I watched the morning USA broadcast. I don’t know if they had control of the live feed, but the commentary on that portion was more appropriate. I have not watched the primetime broadcast.
I was disgusted a day later when they tried at first to celebrate Alyssa Liu skating well, but then interviewed her in a way that seemed to be very disapproving, asking her if she could compete with the Russians without her quad right after she said she’d stopped training it because it kept causing her injury.

 

[makam]

Makes me really glad that I watched the morning USA broadcast. I don’t know if they had control of the live feed, but the commentary on that portion was more appropriate. I have not watched the primetime broadcast.

The primetime coverage was pretty similar–no additional commentary from Terry, Tara, or Johnny. I don’t think NBC had their own camera crew at the Olympics this time other than with the reporters so if they were working off the international feed, that’s what they had. That said, it made sense to show it on the morning broadcast because that was the live, full show part while primetime is usually the “best of” bits. Them showing it again on primetime was probably gratuitous but at the same time, it is what happened and it did emphasize how these are frickin’ kids. They make the skiers and snowboarders wait around at the finish line when they are in podium position with the cameras on them to catch any drama or emotion, I guess the kiss and cry isn’t much different except that usually the skiers and snowboarders are a little to a lot older.

 

[JDB]

The ISU banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing indefinitely. This conveniently allows the ISU to ignore its facilitation of unsafe and abusive coaching practices.

 

[ucrgirl]

This conveniently allows the ISU to ignore its facilitation of unsafe and abusive coaching practices.

And it allows them to not address the positive test. It makes them look like a responsible governing body.

 

[Rich]

What do you think FIG would do