The vast differences between the Winter and Summer Olympics were on full display this weekend. In the Summer Olympics, it's impossible to try and see everything. There are simply too many events. But with fewer sports to worry about, as well as a cable channel that has pretty much no other programming and can show stuff live all morning, NBC has done a pretty good job of showing fairly comprehensive coverage of the important stuff. Which is good, since the current design of NBCOlympics.com is terrible. In fact, I doubt I'll watch the live streaming (which I relied on pretty heavily in London) that much at all.
A lot of that coverage has been focused on the new figure skating team event. It is, after all, the reason an extra day of primetime coverage was added this year. For its part, NBC is televising every skater in every figure skating event live, in addition to its regular taped primetime coverage. The analysts for the cable coverage are Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski, who are actually really good. But I digress...
I have to admit, I was skeptical about this team event at first, but I've come around. It's actually pretty cool. One of the things that they've mentioned throughout the coverage is that figure skating is an individual sport, so this is a unique opportunity for them. Track and swimming are individual sports, too, but they've got relays. Now figure skating has that team element, as well. Seeing the skaters' reactions when their teammates finish their programs is really cool. It also ends that "Who's the strongest skating nation?" debate. (The extra chances to see Tessa Virtue and Gracie Gold weren't a bad thing, either.)
One of the reasons I was skeptical at first was because I didn't quite understand the scoring. I thought it was going to be all of the scores for each separate event simply added up. I like the way they actually do it better. Score each event separately, then give 10 points to the winner, nine for second, and down the line. The only change I might make would be in long program. They cut the field from 10 to five after the short program, but scoring for the free skates are still 10-9-8-7-6. That makes it really hard to close a gap. Maybe separate the places by two points (10-8-6-4-2) in the free skate instead.
But figure skating hasn't been the only thing going on in Sochi. The U.S. won both gold medals in the new snowboarding event. And the guy who won, Sage Kotsenburg, lives up to basically every stereotype of snowboarders there is. Meanwhile, defending champion Hannah Kearney won the bronze in women's moguls, then immediately gave us the "McKayla is not impressed" moment of the Sochi Games.
There have been plenty of non-American stories, too. In fact, some of those have been better. Because we've had Olympic history made not once, but twice. Ole Einar Bjoerndahlen won the men's sprint in biathlon. It was his 12th career Olympic medal, tying Bjoerndahlen with Bjorn Daehlie for the all-time Winter record. And Bjoerndahlen's still got plenty more opportunities to break the record. Bjoerndahlen is 40 years old. Italy's Armin Zoeggler is 41. He made some Olympic history of his own in men's luge. Zoeggler won the bronze, becoming the first Olympian in any sport--Winter or Summer--to win a medal in SIX consecutive Olympics. And lest we forget Yevgeny Plushenko, whose gold in team figure skating gives him medals in four straight Olympics, the record for a figure skater.
Some other international stars whose names may be somewhat vaguely familiar have also set themselves up for big Games. Norway's Marit Bjoergen, who won five medals in Vancouver, took gold in the first women's cross country event. Can she medal in all six this time? When we last saw Sven Kramer, he was getting disqualified in Vancouver for changing lanes when he wasn't supposed to, costing him a gold in the 10,000 meters in speed skating. Well, all he's done so far in Sochi is set an Olympic record while leading a Dutch sweep in the 5000.
And I'd be remiss not to mention some of the cooler moments of the Opening Ceremony. Like Zdeno Chara carrying Slovakia's flag. The Bruins let him miss their last two games before the Olympic break so that he could. Or that girl who got hurt in warmups for moguls qualifying on Thursday "walking" out with her teammates on crutches with a wheelchair close behind. Then there's that couple from Staten Island who are the first Winter Olympians ever from the country of Dominica. They aren't from there, but were given citizenship because of the charity work they've done on the Caribbean island.
We've still got plenty of Olympics ahead of us, and there are bound to be a ton more stories coming out (not in that way, which is illegal in Russia) of these Sochi Games. Hey, the Jamaican bobsled team is back after all. And the men's hockey tournament doesn't even start until the middle of the week. Sochi's been great so far. I can't wait to see what the Russians have in store for us next.
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