ombelico

Hey NBC, any regrets about that hagiographic "KAROLYI" (the capitalization is verbatim) documentary shown during the Rio Olympics? These athletes are literally doing death-defying maneuvers over and over, all day long, and they think the best place for them to train is a ranch out in the middle of nowhere, without real medical care provided by a team of doctors (not just one dude)? And most of the athletes are minors? (By the way - read Aly Raisman's book. She gives a vivid description of the ranch environment and just how subpar it was as a "National Team Training Facility.") I've always admired gymnasts and I love watching their beautiful performances, and it pisses me off so much that the "adults" in charge had so little regard for the amazing athletes in their care. It's just disgusting.

Gabrielle Carteris' dress looks so uncomfortable. It makes it hard to focus on what she's saying.

I rewatched a portion of the re-airing this afternoon and when they are discussing Albertville, she complains that the blades weren't mounted on her boots correctly, which is why she fell so much, "so from then on we always had a second pair of skates." Ok then, what about Lillehammer and the broken lace? A second pair of skates would have solved the problem! She really can't keep her stories straight.

I don't think Sam was defending the anonymous accusations, but saying that, although the Aziz Ansari case could be categorized as "just a bad date" as Banfield was saying, it's too simplistic to say "grow up, you should have just left."

Confirmed - the guy from Tonga will be there! http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2018/01/20/tonga-flag-bearer-pita-taufatofua-winter-olympics-cross-country-skiing/

Is anyone else as annoyed by Ryan Bradley's commentary as I am? His voice has this plodding, deliberative cadence that is just so grating. Really though, all the commentators need to learn to shut up during the performance! We know it's a mistake if they fall or pop a jump.

USAG has since announced that the World Team Trials will be moved, but acrobatic gymnastics literally only needs a floor mat. Every single decent gymnastics facility in the country has a floor that they could use. There was absolutely no reason they should have even been considering keeping the Trials at the Ranch.

Nancy and Tonya were clearly the top two skaters in the US in the '93-'94 season, and the US had two spots on the Olympic team, so there was really no competitive "need" to have Nancy eliminated from the competition. That's why the whole thing was so stupid. When Tonya landed the triple Axel and performed well, she was rewarded by the judges. Last night I watched her '91 Skate America performance for the first time - she executed a GORGEOUS triple Axel, and the rest of the performance was really strong, and she won the event. And of course she also won 1991 Nationals. When she landed that Axel, and her technical merit was clearly superior to the other skaters, the judges recognized it. However, after that year the triple Axel became very inconsistent for her, and she didn't do herself any favors by always going for it in the short program, which would always incur a mandatory deduction when she fell on it and ruined her chances of medaling, no matter how well she skated in the long program (when she would inevitably fall on the triple Axel again). Part of playing any sport is learning how to play the game. Under the scoring system of that era, the smarter strategy was to do an easier triple in the short program that she knew she could land. Nancy had her share of falls, too, and the poor performance at '93 Worlds, but she also had many strong performances as well, and deserved the role of frontrunner for the Olympic team.

I'm happy to see a one-off independent movie about Tonya Harding get made (and planning to go see it later today) rather than the Nth redundant installment of whatever CGI robot-explosion-car-extravaganza. The weariness with the Tonya story, though, is that she just does not get that America likely would forgive her, if she were just clearly honest about what happened regarding the plan to attack Kerrigan and contrite about what her role in it was. Her constantly changing stories and neverending excuses (nothing is ever her fault) just prevent the general public from saying, "Ok, yeah, what you did was really wrong, but let's move forward since it's been over 20 years." Regarding this particular show, it easily could have just been a rerun of "The Price of Gold" with a 15 min Tonya interview tacked on at the end. I think the only new information gleaned from it was that Tonya still has some strong skating skills. Which also shows how sad the whole thing is. Many, many people grow up in poor, unstable, and/or abusive homes. But they don't have this amazing talent for something like skating that they can use to improve their lot in life. She threw that away, and now wants to find whatever excuse she can to blame everyone else but herself. I agree there was something weird about her speech patterns, that wasn't there in the videos from the '90s.

"And here are the all-male nominees." Go Natalie!

3 Ice Dance teams can go to the Olympics, and they will certainly be the top 3 from nationals, barring injury or other unforeseen circumstance.

Are the committees that select the teams made up of the same or different people for men's vs. women's events? If they're composed of different people, I could see the women's committee weighing things differently than the men's. For example, no US women made the Grand Prix Final, and so came into Nationals more evenly matched (despite what people were saying about Ashley being a lock for the team) compared to the men's event, where Nathan was clearly ahead of everyone else, and Adam had made the Grand Prix Final with two GP silver medals.

Placing Rippon on the Olympic team over Miner makes sense to me based on the criteria as set out and the fact that he did well on the GP circuit, but naming Jason Brown as first alternate over Miner is ridiculous. At this point, Jason is an engaging show skater who is simply never, ever going to be competitive. Forget the lack of a quad, he couldn't even land a clean triple Axel at nationals. They have the same team list (and alternates order) for Worlds, too, which is also ridiculous. At least name Miner to that team, or make him first alternate so he gets to go if, say, Chen decides not to go to Worlds after the Olympics.

With Shelagh and Dr. Turner, it's also worth remembering that they are a nurse and a doctor, who are probably used to talking about medical terms, bodily functions, etc. all the time at work. I think Shelagh was speaking more from the perspective of a medical professional interested in these sorts of things than as a typical new mom. Poor Timothy just got caught in the middle of the breastfeeding discussion!

It's one thing to be photographed wearing a strapless dress that leaves the shoulders bare, but the dress is obviously there. The way that the photo of Margaret was framed, you couldn't see that she did have clothes on, so with only the shoulders showing, it looked like she could have been naked.

It will be interesting to see whether Charles chooses a different regnal name or not since Elizabeth chose to continue using her primary given name, and so the memory in the general public of someone choosing a different name as a regnal name may be fading. Plus, Charles is already so widely known to the public as Charles (more so than Edward VIII or George VI were known to the public as David or Albert/Bertie). For heaven's sake, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge is still regularly referred to as Kate Middleton. Even if Charles chose a different name, he'd often still be called Charles anyway, at least in the media.

Regarding Ashley's PCS scores, I think the judges have really just gotten tired of seeing the same programs over and over from her. You could almost feel the whole arena groan at Skate America when she started that Moulin Rouge program AGAIN (also when she started her short program to Hip Hip Chin Chin at Nationals). Then with La La Land, yes the music was different, but her opening sequence was so similar to Moulin Rouge that it was "same old, same old." Unfortunately, Ashley has said that due to multiple concussions in the past, she has trouble remembering choreography, which explains why she uses the same tried and true sequences. At this point, though, the judges have just seen the same stuff (including the same facial expressions, shoulder shimmies, etc.) over and over and over again, that it's just not exciting or interesting, and comes off as over rehearsed, no matter how much she herself may be feeling excited about the new music. Also, choosing La La Land is a gamble since a lot of people thought the movie was overrated, and using the Emma Stone song as the bulk of the program wasn't a great choice since Emma's not a strong singer (it fits in the movie, but not exactly inspiring for a figure skating program). Then you add in her consistent two-footing and underrotations, and she's just been given so many chances that there was no more benefit of the doubt left to give. (BTW, I say all this as someone who has been rooting for Ashley - I'm just now exhausted from the effort.)