CeeBeeGee

It's not New Yorker, it's New York Magazine. They even kept the title font.

Same. Aw, I actually loved that dress. Kamila's SP dress had a similar underskirt kind of thing going on. It's hard to tell. She sure looked like she was clean during warmups. OTOH, the closeup on her face just as she started her program--she looked terrified. It's fucking horrible. I feel so bad for her. Thank you, CAS, for "protecting her from irreparable harm." YES. She's clearly an extraordinary athlete but FFS, must you show such contempt for the PCS? Skaters who are just jumpers almost never win--look at Tonya, Suraya, Midori. I mean, at least Tonya tried (awkwardly) for artistry. Fully agree. She skated her heart out. One of my favorite ever free skates. Oh God, thank you. She has such naturally beautiful hair and I get that teenagers want to play with their appearance but can you please color it a plausible color? That shade looks so cheap. Shades of Shirley Babashoff at Montreal in '76. She was the top American swimmer who was widely expected to take home multiple golds--until the newly transformed East German swimmers showed up. She said when she and her teammates first heard the EGs speak, they thought some men must've wandered into the women's locker room. And the media hounded Shirley for her doubts, called her a sore loser and Surly Shirley. And. She. Was. Right. She was absolutely right and the IOC should rescind those medals and award them to the runners up. I promise I'm not trying to minimize the shit all three of them are experiencing--but there's something so Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! about "everyone has a gold medal but me." Okay, adding a new word to my Russian vocabulary...

Good for her. So sick of this bullshit. We can't see who the judges are or which country they're from because of the "reform" after the 2002 scandal (fuck you, Russia, for cheating again), correct? The judging panel is anonymous? THIS. Step it up, Japan! You're losing the most from this garbage!

I turned off the TV while The Doper was skating. She fell on her 3A?

I really hope C/B stick around. I loved their alien program. There really should be some kind of social price, beyond just being denied a medal ceremony. Interesting--I was always fascinated with Russia as a child, but I knew almost nothing about the Cold War. But I had read (memorized, really) A Little Princess which has a slight exchange where Russia is quite romanticized, and I'd read Eloise in Moscow (again, the Cold War references went over my head) and the two books definitely piqued my interest. She is such a ray of sunshine. I wouldn't have a program with that, as long as they're not doping. Hell, for Dominique's dad, that was a feature, not a bug.

The other skaters should just concentrate on doing their best. However, the audience....hopefully they'll maintain a stony silence--or maybe just polite, skeptical applause, contrasted with wild cheering for everyone else. Call it the Sochi Treatment 😉

Okay, please tell me that this is your mental therapist and that you spend sessions on the couch bemoaning the state of US figure skating and its toll on your mental health. "How is Mariah ever going to medal when she's so inconsistent? And don't even get me started on Sasha Cohen back in the day. [heavy sigh] I shouldn't come here the day after Worlds."

I love how "not alien" is now an official judging standard. What about the irreparable harm to her in forcing her to undergo the media gauntlet every day? What about the irreparable harm to the clean athletes? Send her home to her parents because her reputation is now officially toast. Kamila, get away from that abusive circus and come to the US, or Canada. Or any country that doesn't have Eteri. This is one of my biggest frustrations with Russian sports culture. I am fascinated with Russia, I am studying the language, I have read a fair amount of the literature, history and drama. But Russian sports culture pisses me the hell off. So many (not all) Russian athletes act so entitled and superior--when they are defeated it's always because of favoritism, steroids (I'll never forget Viktorya Komova, after Russia finished off the podium at 2015 Worlds, accusing the American gymnasts of using steroids. YOU FELL OFF THE BEAM, DUMBASS. And pouting because she took AA silver instead of gold in 2011), or something. The Russia media machine came hard for SImone Biles and Serena Williams--they simply couldn't conceive that either of those women were that good. No, no, it was because they were Black--the judges sympathized. Or something. Or because Simone supposedly doped--she took fucking ritalin for her ADHD and her coaches cleared it with WADA! I peeked at Twitter last night and poster after Russian poster was just hammering out SImone Simone SImone. How can one country have been a major post-World War II player and still have such a deep and unfounded sense of persecution? YOU GUYS invaded Afghanistan. YOU GUYS enforced the Iron Curtain. Despite Russia's behavior the past eight years, the entire skating world was excited for Kamila's prowess--we were all happy to cheer for her. Then this shitshow happened. YOU GUYS did this. No one's out to get you--you fucked up. As someone said, you can't even dope right. YES. Ban their asses completely. The non-dopers can move to another country. There's a Russian saying "Russia loves the knout" (a kind of whip). The only response Russia will respect is a total ban. They have clearly learned nothing from the past 8 years. Honestly the only thing that surprises me is that they've resorted to doping the figure skaters. I guess they figured they couldn't outright hand it to Valieva like they did in Sochi. (UGH. What an utter joke.) But Tara was competing for a country that didn't tolerate doping, so all the responsibility was on her. Russia herself is sponsoring the doping, like East Germany did in the early '70s. I doubt the athletes themselves were told what was happening. I will say, as much as I'm defending Valieva rn, she needs to shut the hell up with excuses. But she's 15. What a fucking SHITSHOW. Trust Russia to fuck it all up. I'll watch tomorrow--I want to support Mariah, Alysa and Karen--but damned if I'm watching the three Russians. I really like Scherbakova too. But it's all gone wrong.

Not sure what cable company you have but same here (I have Verizon). I have to turn off closed captioning during any kind of sports event, so I can see the graphics. It's so cute! So clever and original and fun! Love seeing someone think outside the box.

Well, there's Skating While Russian and then there's Skating While Being Eteri's daughter. I can't imagine it hurt her chances.

I think so.

Was not a fan of P/C's costumes. That top she wore four years ago--even with the wardrobe malfunction--was absolutely gorgeous, all those vivid tropical colors. The dull maroon outfits look like they're trying to invoke V/M--whose costumes I also didn't like.\ I did love Maddie Chock's dress. A shame about that mistake. In general I prefer the free dance to the rhythm dance--everyone always seems like they're desperately trying to convince you about something, whereas the free dance is just more chill, like they're doing it for themselves. There was a great rhythm dance at US Nationals that I thought was very cool, very angular and on the beat, but I think they weren't selected for the team.

As long as those two fucking IDIOTS aren't involved, I will give it a shot. It's not HBO's fault those two fucking IDIOTS threw away multiple seasons of goodwill.

Why am I not surprised that Russian "journalists" are a bunch of thugs?

I'm having fun translating the comments. Она--ракета русская!

Thank you! I am seeing a fair amount of "well, she should've known what she was putting into her body" and "she's old enough to compete so she's responsible." This is fucking RUSSIA! No, she is not responsible! She has almost no agency in that system! No, I don't think she should be able to compete; yes, I think the team scores (and Euros, etc.) should be voided. But leave her the hell alone! She is not the problem. It's fucking Russia--as always. They ruin everything. And they need to be kicked out in a meaningful way. They obviously haven't learned anything.

Yes, he was a hockey player in his youth.

Oh my God--there is no question. I can't even watch Plushenko. His artistry is non-existent, which is how he got his ass handed to him in 2010. This is a really sweet comment. Plenty of people are also outraged by practices in US sports--and frankly this reads as a whataboutism. This thread is specifically for figure skating in the 2022 Olympics. FWIW when I posted about the latest scandal on my FB page, a friend of mine said he had stopped following the Olympics because of all the scandals, and another friend of mine said she felt the same way about the NFL, because it was just problem after problem.

Me too--I'm all, wait, what? Usain Bolt doped? Seriously?

Right??! I posted on Facebook "Did Bolero go on sale or something?" My friend and I were texting back and forth and I told him about the crazy Fanyus and how he's actually scared of them. I said "And you can imagine how much they hate Nathan Chen."

YAAAAAAAAYYYYYY NATHAN!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVED seeing him bend down to trace his fingers on the Olympic rings afterward! Such an endearing gesture. Terrible health problems. I've watched a couple of documentaries about it. What a fucking tragedy. YES to retiring Bolero. T&D have that on lockdown.

I listened to a podcast last summer about the vault debacle in Sidney and they went out of their way to contrast the IOC's heavy handed, brutal punishment of Raducan (for the crime of...following her doctor's orders and not weighing as much as her teammates, thereby triggering a positive result for a substance which didn't help her) with FIG's utter rejection of anything more than the barest minimum of accountability WRT the vault being set at the wrong height. So the girl who took a cold tablet is stripped of her gold medal and humiliated in the world press, but the team that mis-set the vault (which ruined the AA contest and endangered the gymnasts) isn't punished? And you don't start the AA over, you just make the lamest gesture of "well, you can do your vault over." Khorkina was right to refuse--she is interviewed on the podcast and she said she didn't want to give such an inadequate gesture respectability by accepting their offer. Yes, it is. I was thinking the same thing earlier. Just do what you do best out there, Jason. You give us such joy. I don't want to see you fall.

All kidding aside, I am heartbroken for her. This is 1000% not her fault. Hey--Russian media? Those guys who have been shitty about Simone Biles for years because she takes approved medication? (See also: Maria Paseka and Viktoria Komova.) Those guys who never miss a chance to shit all over Simone and also Serena Williams, accusing them of using PEDs? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Of course she's not. Of course they will (see how China treated Dong Fangxiao. They blamed the whole age falsification thing on her--a 14 year old child). Kamila will be summarily dismissed. Fuck Eteri. BAN THEIR ASSES. I am so sick of this "Russian Olympic Committee." BAN THEIR ASSES. Give them the North Korea treatment (they were banned from ALL international gymnastics competition for years because of cartoonishly obvious age falsifications). BAN THEIR ASSES. I feel bad for the ones who aren't doping but it's clear Russia does not respect the system and thinks they can game it. BAN THEIR ASSES.

What???!!! So the US could upgrade to gold??!