Dots And Stripes

He used to have at least one quad though. I think Scott Hamilton said that Adam was the first he saw to land a quad using one of the six take offs (I can't remember which one). As much as I've joked about Patrick getting four rotations before falling, that truly does seem to be a skill under the current points system. So is learning to all on a quad and then keep going without letting that mess up your next elements. I've heard Adam say he removed his quad because it wasn't consistent enough. I wonder if that meant he couldn't land it or if he was under rotating or if he kept messing up his other elements once he fell on a quad.

U.S women are top 4 in the long track team pursuit! It sounds like gold or silver are very unlikely (it would require beating the Dutch head to head), but bronze remains a possibility.

Yulia and Gracie were two of the most hyped figure skaters going into Sochi. If their absence from these Olympics didn't wake up the figure skating world (and I don't think it did), Adam's quotes sadly won't either. The problem runs deep. I was really disappointed that Tara and Johnny were both aware that the desire to be thin was a problem in the sport, yet when they heard Gracie make some troubling statements about her weight, they both dismissed it as her needing to get over her loss from Worlds. Clearly her problems were deeper than disappointment over a competition and a lot of people dismissed the signs. There is a lot of work to be done. Yeah I don't fault skaters for having human reactions. It must be hard to keep your composure when emotions are running high. As long as they don't throw a fit or try to make others feel bad, I personally don't have a problem with showing disappointment.

I think the concern comes from H/D out scoring the Shibs on the free dance all season. The Shibs beat H/D in the Grand Prix Final because they had a heathy enough lead in the short that made up for losing the free dance.

I don’t read that much into facial expressions or instagram pages.

Tanith White did the commentary for the U.S. and she caught it at the very beginning of the performance. Thanks. It looked very similar to what I had seen in past pictures. It's definitely a lesson for her coach moving forward: do not try a new costume at the Olympics.

I cut her a little more slack. I think it's reasonable to trust coaches and your costume designer to not give her anything that won't hold up. I think this is the costume she's been wearing all season. It's hard to know if anyone has had concerns about the costume in the past and what they did about it. Unless someone has more info, it's not clear to me if Gabriella was living dangerously as far as the costume goes or if she had raised concerns. Either way, I'm sure no costume choice is made without several people signing off. Even though there's a team behind them who may share blame, it's Gabriella who gets to deal with the embarrassment of her body being exposed when she didn't want it to be. I feel bad for her.

NBC just showed the press conference and included a slow mo replay of the costume becoming undone. It didn't look to me like the sleeve was a problem. So during the press conference P/C were holding hands and she didn't seem as devastated as USA Today said she was on the press line.

From USA Today and I'm sure whoever put up the replay didn't realize exactly what happened, but that is still a bad mistake.

I wonder if whatever rule Tonya Harding took advantage of (I mean when she went over the judges with a lace issue) would have helped them. I don't know what anyone could have done since they kept going. It would have been one thing if they stopped, but to stop them or to give them a re-do at the end don't seem like good options. If the idea is to adjust a score to make sure P/C win, it wouldn't matter who went first. If that's the game, they could lower V/M or raise P/C to engineer the result. As long as V/M can control their nerves, going last should be an advantage.

H/D beat the Shibs! ETA: Only .02 points difference!

For anyone who is wants the scores ASAP, www.olympic.org has been anywhere from a few seconds to a minute ahead of the NBC feed for most of the competitions.

They are really close on that technical number with the bobbles and wardrobe problem.

As an aside, Adam turned NBC down after they officially announced he would be working for him. This looks very messy.

Chock and Bates were all green right away where as the Shibs had 2 yellows to start.

Tanith says they were a little low.

Timing the twizzles to the counting was gutsy. They make that look easy, especially following Weaver/Poje.

I liked the sleeves for the previous guy. It was tacky but that was the fun of it. I liked the self-awareness of it.

I think citizenship of the country you represent is a requirement to compete at the Olympics.

I remember they've done medal ceremonies for the Winter Olympics at night for a while. I read something that they can do that in winter because there are fewer events and its easier to coordinate.

I'm watching slopestyle and I cannot believe the injuries Gus Kenworthy is coping with. It hurts just to hear it described. I hope he does well.

I found this article, Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Olympic Figure-Skating Costumes, on skating costumes somewhat informative.

Leslie Jones watching short track with Maame Biney makes me happy.

Don’t Nathan and Adam train together? I think Adam has said Nathan is like his younger brother. I don’t read much into how they interact at competitions. Nathan is not particularly emotive off the ice and they all have a lot going at competitions. Small talk is not a priority.

I wasn’t aware he left. I don’t know why he left. There’s a key difference though between Nathan leaving the short and the pairs being gracious after the free. Nathan still had work to do. Maybe it was coping with his emotions, maybe it was reviewing the tape, maybe he could get some practice in somewhere, or maybe he needed to rest. Football players don’t shake hands at halftime. ETA: I only addressed last night. As someone else pointed out, he left the area designated for the top 3 after getting knocked out of the top 3. Totally out of his control.