2018 Winter Olympics Discussion Thread

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I am not sure how much more difficult it is to succeed on a quad versus a triple. 

I could see them rewarding how well they almost landed the quad. 

A tiny stumble is one thing. Putting your hand down on the ice? Booo.

[billchao]

27 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I am not sure how much more difficult it is to succeed on a quad versus a triple. 

As I understand it, it's significantly harder.

27 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I could see them rewarding how well they almost landed the quad. 

That's how it currently works.

This is what I'm talking about, BTW:

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2018/02/why-adam-rippon-scored-worse-than-skaters-who-fell-at-the-winter-olympics

Like I said, I understand it. I just don't like it.

[iacas]

Tonya was the second woman ever to land one… (ever, not at the Olympics). How many are there now?

[Vinsk]

Yeah...I don’t agree with the Russian girl scoring THAT much higher than Nagasu. I also thought Rippon should’ve been first place after his awesome performance. 

[billchao]

28 minutes ago, iacas said:

Tonya was the second woman ever to land one… (ever, not at the Olympics). How many are there now?

Seven, apparently. Nagasu is the 3rd to do it in the Olympics.

8 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Yeah...I don’t agree with the Russian girl scoring THAT much higher than Nagasu.

That I disagree with. Alina Zagitova had more difficult combinations and did all her jumps with her arms over her head, not to mentioned executed them all close to flawlessly. All Nagasu had on her was the triple axel, which she did at the very beginning of her program when her legs were fresh (not trying to take anything away from the accomplishment, but there's a reason they award bonus points for jumps in the second half of programs).

Johnny Weir even described Zagitova's program as "running a marathon followed by 50 sprints" because she had all her jumps in the second half of her program.

[nevets88]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Tonya was the second woman ever to land one… (ever, not at the Olympics). How many are there now?

I think  it's 8. Don't quote me on that. In that neighborhood. 

[boogielicious]

9 hours ago, billchao said:

Was watching the men's freeskate in the team event. Patrick Chan took 1st despite touching the ice on three separate occasions.

The way the current system is set up, it encourages people to attempt jumps that they may not complete successfully, but they earn more points from failing a more difficult jump than they would from successfully completing a technically easier one.

I get that they want to advance the sport and it encourages skaters to push the limits of what's possible, but at the same time, it's weird to watch someone skate a clean program lose to someone who fell.

I think they need to make deductions steeper. Maybe have a fall add a deduction for the component score as well because it affects the flow, look, and artistry of the program. Right now if a guy attempts a quad and falls on the landing, he scores more than a guy who hits a perfect triple. But I'm of the opinion that a jump shouldn't be considered completed unless it's landed, but that's not how they score.

Gold medals have been lost many times for this reason. I agree that a clean program needs more value. Otherwise they would just butt-scrape their way to winning by trying all hard jumps.

[nevets88]

 

[boogielicious]

2 hours ago, nevets88 said:

 

Peggy Fleming was asked once how she didn't get dizzy doing spins. She said she did get dizzy, she just didn't fall down!

[Missouri Swede]

My vocabulary expansion for the day: "Needed more curl on that one."

[nevets88]

Do most wear mouth guards for the half pipe?

[dennyjones]

On 2/12/2018 at 11:00 PM, nevets88 said:

Do most wear mouth guards for the half pipe?

After watching the Japanese guy fall, I'd sure wear a mouth guard!  

[Golfingdad]

On 2/12/2018 at 8:00 PM, nevets88 said:

Do most wear mouth guards for the half pipe?

I noticed a few wearing them and a few not ... one of the “nots” was a girl that fell and faceplanted and blood was coming out of her mouth, so I suspect she might start wearing one.

[nevets88]

TIL Slovokia defeated Bulgaria 82 - 0 in qualifying. That must have been one busy goaltender. At least give them one goal, don't bagel them.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/article/slovakia-routs-bulgaria-82-0-in-womens-hockey-olympic-qualifying

[billchao]

54 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

TIL Slovokia defeated Bulgaria 82 - 0 in qualifying. That must have been one busy goaltender. At least give them one goal, don't bagel them.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/article/slovakia-routs-bulgaria-82-0-in-womens-hockey-olympic-qualifying

[billchao]

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/winter-olympics/the-very-bad-american-skier-who-used-a-loophole-to-sneak-into-the-olympics/ar-BBJlFri

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this, but I'm leaning towards positively. I mean yea, she did make a mockery out of the whole thing, but she also legitimately qualified.

I need to see if there's some obscure sport I can be just good enough to qualify for that Taiwan will let me represent them at 

[nevets88]

On the flip side, there's Erin Jackson. NBC showed her barely walking on ice in late 2016 and boom, she's in the Winter Olympics 2018. Also the table where she went from 42 seconds to sub 40 in months whereas it takes years for some. That puts a hole in the 10,000 hours hypothesis, doesn't it. True, she was an inline skater, but anytime you go from nothing to world class in less than 2 years is something.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/2018/02/19/erin-jackson-could-next-face-u-s-speedskating/349243002/

 

[billchao]

1 minute ago, nevets88 said:

On the flip side, there's Erin Jackson. NBC showed her barely walking on ice in late 2016 and boom, she's in the Winter Olympics 2018. Also the table where she went from 42 seconds to sub 40 in months whereas it takes years for some. That puts a hole in the 10,000 hours hypothesis, doesn't it. True, she was an inline skater, but anytime you go from nothing to world class in less than 2 years is something.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/2018/02/19/erin-jackson-could-next-face-u-s-speedskating/349243002/

 

She didn't go from nothing to world class; she was already a world class inline speed skater. 

Inline skating and speed skating on ice is very similar because of the blade design on speed skates, to the point that many athletes without unlimited access to rinks in warmer seasons train by inline skating.

She still has some work to do to get fully acclimated to ice and she can get better, but that just shows how talented a skater she already is.