Minneapple

Well, I didn't necessarily mean that the US would automatically start winning if stuff is cleaned up. Definitely the Korean and Japanese skaters would benefit first. The point is that nobody should throw their hands up and say, well the Russians are cheaters but our girls look happy and well-fed out there! It's a sport so the goal should be to win.

I disagree with Gracie to an extent. What the Americans really need to do is make a push to clean up the sport. I mean if the alternative is just sitting back and smiling pretty while the Russians cheat their way to championships — fuck that. I would like to see American women win medals again. I would like to see the Japanese and Korean skaters rewarded for their beautiful, artistic and technically pleasing programs. But that won’t happen until the doping and judging issues end.

I sincerely doubt she has much of a "support system." Her parents shipped her off to Eteri so presumably they are okay with whatever Eteri did to her, especially considering they had Grandpa make up the story about his heart medication. She's from Russia, not the US. They don't see what Eteri does as abuse. They don't see doping as wrong. They see themselves as the victims and the West as the big bad bullies. They'll be spinning Kamila losing as her not being able to withstand the pressure of the Western media being SUPER SUPER MEAN to her. And if Eteri is pushed out of skating, it won't be without one hell of a fight from Russia.

Those pics are cute. And it appears Sasha's meltdown is over. Teenagers, man.

My theory is that Sasha was pissed off because she didn’t skate in the team competition so she won’t get a gold medal (that will eventually be stripped anyway) from that. Thus her screaming “everyone gets a gold medal except me.” (If an American woman had a meltdown like that…yeesh. I don’t even want to think about the reaction.) All of this could have been avoided if the stupid Court of Arbitration had just done the right thing and not allowed Kamila to skate. Well. It could have been avoided if the Russians weren’t doping, I suppose. Thomas Bach can say whatever he wants, but until the IOC actually does anything, his words are empty. I’m not sure which organization would have to ban Eteri — whether it’s the international figure skating governing body, or WADA or the IOC — but someone has to step up and tell the Russians to fuck off. The sport of figure skating has lost credibility, the IOC has lost credibility, WADA and CAS and everyone is losing credibility. But hey, as long as we keep the Russians happy.

She apparently was saying stuff like, “I hate this sport! I won’t go back on the ice! Everyone has a gold medal except me!” Those are translations from twitter.

No, they said it this morning. Everything is exactly as it was live except they’ve cut it down. I agree about the Korean and Japanese skaters. Such gorgeous programs. Definitely the Korean skaters look to have been influenced by Yuna Kim, I love it.

Kim Yelim with a beautiful skate, I missed it this morning. Why can’t we get more of that and less stumbling through quads with arms waving about in between?

Ooh I can’t wait. Who do we cast as Eteri? Saoirse Ronan maybe? The Russian girls would be new fresh-faced Hollywood unknowns, we’d have to have a casting call. The miniseries will be on Netflix or HBO Max. “On the Edge” or “Colder Than Ice” I’m thinking for the title.

Whoops, I forgot Oksana was from Ukraine.

That always cracks me up. Nancy should have won gold that year. Oksana and her like, one, shaky double-double combination and her pink poufy thing were way way overscored for Skating While Russian.

The main difference between then and now is that back then the American women were actually good at skating, which was great for an American television audience. And Tonya and Nancy were household names. Most Americans couldn't begin to tell you who the American skaters in today's competition are. They maybe know who Nathan Chen is and that's about it.

Meanwhile, over at NBC: How can we milk this ladies' drama even MORE?

Women finish growing, height-wise, at about the age of 13-14. But then you become curvy. You get breasts and hips. And I suppose that's the major drawback to quads and why the men have an easier time landing the jumps. They don't have hips like women do, they don't have as much body fat as women do in general. I think Kamila should shoulder some of the blame, and no way should she have been skating. I do not believe she is innocent in all of this, and even if she was at one point, she must now know how much lying and covering up has been going on around her. She'd have to be living in a black hole to not know. However, the adults around her should definitely be held accountable, and Russian athletic federations including the Russian doping agency should be held most accountable of all, for creating a culture that values winning and image over everything else, especially over the health of young people.

More from twitter: Can't tell if she's just being a drama queen or if she's really ready to burn it all down. Yeah, this is a total trainwreck. NBC must be thrilled.

Yes, Sveltana was exactly who she reminded me of. Or Aliya Mustafina. It's entertaining if nothing else.

Some quick Twitter research.

Not only did she do nothing to protect Kamila, she actively harmed her by (probably) giving her drugs.

Kaori! So cute as she does a little hop on the podium. Anna looks happy but Sasha still looks miserable. This is one of the most bizarre athletic competitions I've ever seen.

I'm not sure, this whole thing is super bizarre. Meanwhile there's Anna just sitting there with nobody around her. It reminds me of 2018 when Alina won but Eteri was too busy consoling Evgenia to pay attention to her. Johnny translates as Sasha is crying, saying that she doesn't want to go to the podium.

No way. The Russians are convinced they haven't done anything wrong. Their history of doping shows they don't care. However they are all acting like a loved one died. Sasha was losing it, can't tell if she's crying out of happiness or what? Anna is just sitting there with a blank look on her face, nobody is paying attention to her. Yay you won a gold medal? Anyway, I have been amiss. Yay for Kaori! I can't wait to see her get her bronze medal.

Looks like the Russians will go 1-2-3. Probably Eteri will have Kamila sent to Siberia before her medal gets stripped so. Tara is blaming the adults. Johnny didn't say anything. Kamila is crying. Oh darn. HAH NO MEDAL FOR KAMILA. LOL Johnny just said "thank God."

Mariah had s very nice skate, good to see after her showing in the short program. Eta nice skate from Alisa too.

Well, I heard his quad lutz is coming along pretty well!

Do you — do you think the Russians might have been (gasp) lying? They wouldn’t do that, would they?