Maybe the big boss of the NHL will consider another position in 4 years ...
I hope so. It's so much better when the best athletes in the world compete, regardless of sport. Hopefully the Russians behave themselves now.
Some closing thoughts, before this thread goes the way of the Games, and ceases for another couple years until Tokyo:
I'm really going to miss Lindsey Vonn, if this is indeed her last Olympics. I've admired her for years, as both an athlete, and a person. Her teammates seem to have only kind things to say about her, and it shows when she speaks in front of the camera, on her social media, etc. She's done a lot for women's alpine skiing in the US, and had a big hand in advancing alpine skiing in general here. It went from being thought of as a fun activity on weekends, to being taken more seriously as a sport. Though I suppose she COULD decide to come back, she sounded very sincere that this was her last. Luckily she's not planning to retire for another year or two, so I'm excited to follow those next seasons.
My future wife, Mikaela Shiffrin, look out, she's only going to get better in four years. She'll probably win a bunch more medals. I can't wait to follow her as well during the next "off years," should be fun to watch her progression.
Although I'm excited about a few medals that show some improvement in certain sports, as a whole, I think team USA could have done better. This was our worst showing, overall since 1998. Although we did medal in 11 different sports, which is the most overall.
We did very well in snowboarding and freestyle skiing, as was expected. I don't believe that's in any danger of changing anytime soon. If anything, I think we do better next games.
As a curling fan, it was very nice to see that gold, that was a huge improvement and should give the sport a nice boost, perhaps we can continue to be a contender in years to come. The sport is gaining popularity here, in fact I even saw it televised a bit between 2014 and now. It was a hit in Vancouver 2010, but that didn't seem to carry over past the Olympics. After Sochi it kept enough of it's popularity to be televised, at least a bit, during the off years.
That cross-country skiing medal was great for cross-country skiing as a whole, regardless of gender. Maybe the start of something? We'll see.
We won a bronze in speed skating, women's team pursuit, which is a small improvement for a program that has gone down the drain quickly, having won no medals in 2014. Hopefully that's a kick in the right direction to getting back on track.
Short track has also gone down hill. Apollo Ohno was the life blood of that program, and he's proven difficult to replace. I don't see anything that looks like something we can build around, so sadly I think it might be the same in Beijing, unless someone pops up between now and then that could be that person.
Sadly, it seems the bobsleigh program was(rightfully so) hit extremely hard by the sudden passing of Steve Holcomb. I think we may recover, but it will be difficult. Bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton are at a massive disadvantage. It's hard to get involved the danger and expense not withstanding, there's a grand total of two tracks in the entire country, precluding most of the population due to geographics. I see us being what we always are, also rans who sometimes medal.
Figure skating? I don't think it'll get better, unless that program rebuilds. A lot of these countries seem to take it beyond seriously, whereas we just take it seriously. I'm not advocating churning out little figure skaters in "factories" like the Russians and others are, but perhaps we could do something? I don't know, but it'll only get worse if something doesn't change. Perhaps they should look to the USA Gymnastics program for inspiration.
I'm honestly amazed we suck at biathlon. There's guns, we love guns here. Seems like it would be a match made in heaven, as far as winter sports go, but apparently not. Weird isn't it? I'd expect rednecks to see that on TV and go "Oh, they shoot rifles in biathlon! I love this, I'mma go buy me some skis and one of them there rifles and try to make the Olympics!!!!"
It's nice to be on top again in women's hockey! Twenty years of playing second fiddle to Canada was disappointing. The program didn't suffer, and it might get a boost now, though I'd argue it doesn't really NEED it, but more girls playing sports and more people(period) playing hockey is a good thing. As far as the men go, no one expected us to go anywhere, after all our best weren't allowed to come. The program won't suffer. Most boys aren't really dreaming of playing hockey in the Olympics, they dream of being NHL players with the Olympics a nice bonus.
That brings me to alpine skiing....sigh. I'm mixed here. Very proud of Mikaela Shiffrin, she did well. Lindsey Vonn too. She's older and not quite the skier she once was, but still one of the best in her disciplines. Beyond those two, what the hell happened? A lot. Part of it is growing pains, as we go through this transitional phase. Bode Miller is retired to the announce booth, Ted Liggity and Vonn are bowing out now as well, Julia Mancuso is also retired now. That leaves Mikaela alone at the top, for now. But we do have some promising skiers of both genders waiting to step up. I think Beijing will be better, I don't expect USA Skiing to go the way of the speed skating program. They'll be just fine in four years. I'm disappointed in the showing, but as a fan I look forward to the future.
NBC's coverage as a whole was a bit disappointing. Some of these announcers truly know nothing about the sports they're commenting on, and it shows. And some know a lot, but aren't great at commentary. Bode Miller is knowledgeable and really knows what he's talking about, but his speech skills need some work, I was practically put to sleep by his commentary at times. Johnny Weir needs to just disappear. I'm fairly certain most of my inability to truly get into figure skating is due to his grating on my nerves. Tara Lipinski is only marginally less annoying. Those two together...ugh.
NBC at least committed to focusing on airing as much live coverage as possible this time, despite the 14 hour time difference meaning events were often shown at wee hours of the morning. It seems like they're learning slowly how to compete with things like event results getting out on social media, and spoilers in general. Though there's still a very American bias. I understand the Americans being the focus of the American media coverage, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the event itself. For instance, the alpine skiing coverage often consisted of "show Shiffrin and Vonn, and whoever is on the podium, then cut to something else." I hated the constant jumping back and forth between events. One night was literally "show Lindsey Vonn and maybe a couple other runs, cut to snowboarding, back to alpine quickly, then show an hour of figure skating until they break for local news, then come back with some more snowboarding, alpine, and even more figure skating. Showing whole events, but only if you're willing to flip channels three times to see the next part. And I get that figure skating is popular, but why am I getting notifications of all these great events, while figure skating is on both channels? I don't really need to see some Hungarian guy, whose name I, nor the announcers can pronounce and has no chance of medalling, prancing around in a sparkly, see-thru, sequined top with a routine that even I, as a non fan who knows nothing, can tell is terrible. Especially not when there's snowboarding going on. I understand this is a big event, there's a lot going on, and it's hard to cover everything. However NBC has a multitude of channels, that I don't feel they properly used to their full potential. Like the scenario above, figure skating on 2 of 6 channels showing Olympic coverage, meanwhile other events are getting cut, but those two are the only ones currently showing Olympic programming? Really NBC? I hope they do better next time, but then I don't hold up hope. It just seems to be getting a bit worse every time.
The opening and closing ceremonies are always very beautiful, visually. I love the opening because it fills me with anticipation of the events to come, as I take in the beauty of the visuals, I also get the beauty of that feeling.
The closing ceremony is always bitter sweet. I'm an Olympics junkie, especially Winter Olympics, so I watch literally everything I can. Two plus weeks of being glued to the TV, computer, etc. as I watch the events unfold, suddenly comes to an end. It's funny, the past couple days, I was feeling a bit burned out, ready for it to end and anticipating having more options for my free time. The late nights, early mornings, and sleep deprivation caused by a 14 hour time difference took it's toll. "Olympics fatigue" I've heard it called, but then it ends and I immediately want it back. Then today came and there wasn't much going on. The skiathon and men's hockey final in the morning were the only events on tap, then some documentaries from NBC, all leading up to the closing ceremony in prime time. This is when it starts setting in, that it's coming to an end. Then I watch the closing ceremony, and it really hits me, this is it. Tomorrow I will wake up, and there will be no Olympics. No flipping through the same few channels, seeing what's on and deciding what's more important to me. It's back to life as normal. It's always weird for the first day or two, not knowing what to do with myself, what to watch. You know that feeling you get when you finish a show on Netflix, and after a few days or weeks or months you watch the last episode, then you kinda don't know what to do with yourself? That's the feeling I get after the Olympics. Ah well, it's good to have time to do things I've put off until the games were over, like start working out again. Which I was motivated to do even more so by seeing these athletes in their prime and great shape.
PS: Really sorry for the long wall of text, I didn't intend to write a novel.
