Winter Olympic Games 2018 Daily Reviews

[heywoodu 15,135]

Epic Nuis vs Verweij battle in the 1500m was a huge disappointment, although Roest and Kim were nice surprises on the podium. Nice to see Klaebo won, but yeah, not that exciting at all. I really liked the luge, or at least part of it: the fight for the medals behind Geisenberger, where Gough was going through hell for throwing away a medal, then two minutes later had the moment of her life when Hüfner failed and she won a medal after all! Snowboarding halfpipe qualifying was just amazing, that was one of my highlights. 

[dcro 10,210]

It was another average day.

 

Women's halfpipe was pretty much one woman show, but deservadly so. Combined was unfair, but at least it was held... Women's luge was again less exciting than the men's, while the curling final was too one sided. Speed skating was somewhat dull today, I didn't even notice that Mantia/Pedersen was the last pair until after the race basically... Cross-country sprints were boring, but they always are to me, so can't really say it's a disappointment.

 

Short track final was pretty good though.

 

Solid results for our alpine skiers in the combined, cross-country team disappointed (except Skender), while Obratov successfully completed our luge debut.

 

Once again I give it 6/10...

[OlympicsFan 858]

Why are there only reviews but no previews:

I think tomorrow will be a great day:

2:00 Pair skating short program

2:15/5:45 Alpine skiing women's slalom

2:30/3:00/3:30 Snowboard men's halfpipe

7:00/9:45 Nordic combined normal hill

12:20/13:30 Luge doubles

11:00 Speed skating women's 1000 m

12:05 Biathlon women's individual

Super packed and not too much holes (except maybe for the time between the end of snowboard halfpipe and the start of the second run of alpine skiing).

I am very excited, for me this will be by far the best day so far, if everything takes place.

Edited February 13, 2018 by OlympicsFan

[VolleyRuller96 264]

I don't know, is it because of how late in the night ( in Poland ) most competitions take place, is it because of the awful sheduling, is it because our National Broadcaster's coverage of the games is very small and I do not have Eurosport, maybe it's even because Polish athletes (outside of ski jumping) haven't really been succesfull here, but... I do not feel like the Olympic Games currently take place at all.

 

 Usually, when the olympic games come, no matter if winter or summer, or any other multisport competition like European or World Games, my excitment spikes before they even start. I try to follow multiple disciplines at the same time, I search for foreign streams to watch at least a bit of every discipline. Now it's not the case.

 

To be honest, all I watched today was the women's luge  and curling matches. I did not even bother with other events, I just checked the results later. 

 

To me, these are the most disappointing olympics, in all aspects, since I can remember

 

[heywoodu 15,135]

Alpine skiing

Happy with the women's giant slalom, clearly deserved winner (although I would have preferred someone else, more athletes winning medals = better), and a medal for Mowinckel, my birthday-sharing top athlete, was awesome. On the other hand, sad to see Mölgg give it away once again. 

The men's downhill gave three very much deserved medalists, clearly the best downhill skiers in the world at the moment. I would have loved Feuz to take the gold though, but Svindal capping off his legendary career with an Olympic downhill gold...yeah, that'll do.

 

Biathlon

Hanna Öberg's gold medal...I'm not sure how many things are going to be higher than that on my list of favourite moments after these Olympics, that was awesome, just awesome. Dahlmeier getting bronze was alright, but I so badly wanted Preuss to medal and she came up 4th, which is both fantastic and sad. A medal would have been a perfect redemption story after the horrors of Sochi (training mate who killed herself with her biathlon rifle, Sachenbacher's doping, Preuss' own drama in the relay to top it off).

Good to see after Fourcade also JTB got a gold medal, now the men's biathlon at least has a gold for both dominating forces. Fak and Landertinger on the podium, more than alright.

 

Cross-country skiing

Haga! The expected Kalla - Bjoergen battle resulted in a third one getting away with the spoils, nice scenario. Krista getting bronze again, nice, nice. Just a shame Jess Diggins missed the medals by a couple of seconds, only one real chance to go for her.

 

Figure skating

Enough said about that I think, beautifully heartwarming to finally see gold for someone who's been fighting and been close to that for so long. 

 

Luge

Really exciting competition, even though the battle for gold in the end was as expected: kinda non-existent unless a German would fail massively. The rest was cool though.

 

Snowboarding

Craziness all around, love it. Big-time favourite getting in trouble and still going home with the gold, that's a true champion!

 

Speed skating

Lee's race was great, Bergsma's race to follow it was awesome, Bloemen's race following that was....epic. Too bad Kramer, the world's best 10k rider in the last 10 years, 'failed' again after 2006, 2010 and 2014. That's painful for him. Then again, three nations on the 10k podium, I'm not complaining at all. 

 

All in all: my favourite day of these Games so far  

 

[phelps 7,669]

not exactly the day I expected and above all not the day I'd have liked...

 

Alpine Skiing: the definition "disappointing" doesn't give the idea well enough...

among the women, Brignone lost the silver rather than won the bronze medal...and once again Moelgg and Bassino proved to be big time losers...

among the boys, Paris' 4th place (and Fill's 6th) are well in order with the season's goings, but still it's a very, very bitter outcome...and it's also a wasted chance, imho...

moreover, the race in general was really boring and the course is just not good for an Olympic event (shame on the organizers and on the track designer for that)...

 

Biathlon: the men were just a disaster (expected, by the way)...

the girls, instead, were once again really disapponiting...they just can't stand the pressure of the Games and can't match the expectations...

the men's race, at least, was quite exciting till the end, the women's race was frankly almost unwatchable, of a very low level overall (the only good and somehow exciting thing it's been Oeberg's surprising success)...

 

CC Skiing: beautiful race with an unexpected winner...

I'd have really liked to see Diggins on the podium, but unfortunately it didn't happen...

 

Luge: what a wasted chance for a medal by Italy...and once again it was D-Fisch the traitor of the Country...after Robatscher wonderful run (second only to Gough and the untouchable Geisenberger), he made so many and remarkable mistakes that cost our team at least the bronze, probably also the silver medal...

overall, never in doubt the German success, theres been a good fight for the other top placings...and this was quite entertaining (even if the men's singles final run was something that will remain unmatched for a long time)...

 

Snowboard: the worst upset of the day for Italy...shameful performance by our 3 outsiders, I don't even want to spend a word of Visintin's second unlucky and undeserved early exit in a row at the Games...

after having seen how lucky and not in his best shape was the eventual back-to-back champion Pierre Vaultier, our regrets are as big as nopbody can imagine...Omar today was surely better than all the field of the starters, but thanks to Eguibar's senseless move he won't be able to enjoy a more than deserved success...

overall, it was not a good and entertaining competition...the track has too few parabolic curves and to many dangerous straight jumps, it's not so technical and moreover there were too many falls and very few fights in the various heats (thanks to this track and also to the sh*tty format with 6 riders per run)...

 

Speedskating: the only flash of light in the Italian day...

personally I'm really sorry for Kramer (one of the greatest athletes in the world "pound for pound"), but at the same time I'm so happy for our small movement and especially for Nicola Tumulero, a young talent improving day after day, who absorbed really well the not-so-good performance over the 5000m and today made a small miracle (he improved his PB by about 8 secs) and gave us a really unexpected (and therefore particularly pleasant) medal...

overall, I liked Hoon's crescendo and the Bloeman vs Bergsma battle on the edge of 29. secs lappings...imho, the most exciting event of the day...

 

Curling: I never thought I'd have felt so happy for a curling match...but today it happened for the second day in a row...our guys are makin' us proud...

we didn't expect them to be able to fight at the same level of powerhouses like CAN, SUI and USA..but they did it...and they also won 2 of those 3 matches (vs SUI and USA)...

very, very well done, guys!

 

Hockey: the best from today's action came from the women's tournament, with the classic clash between CAN and USA...

and I said it all...

 

and if I can't enjoy these Games even watching Hockey, it really means that more than something's not working as it should be...

I hope in 2 years time in Tokyo my feeling would be a lot different...otherwise it would mean that I'm really losing my interest in the Olympic sports and in the Olympic Games...

[ChandlerMne 1,037]

1. Alpine skiing - shock. Utter shock. I actually turned TV off just after Miradoli. And when i saw the news today... Likely one of the biggest surprises at the olympics ever. Great run,i saw the race later. Pitty for Soffia and Lara. Downhill will be very exciting.

2. Biathlon - my favorite Kaisa will finish career without olympic medal.  With all due respect to the winners,i was following mainly Kaisa during race. As always,shooting ruined her chances. Kuzmina and Domracheva were consistent,Eckoff was also great.

3. Cross country - expected gold. So glad for Marit. She still can beat sprinters like Stina. Grear race for her. I also saw how good was Lampic. Pitty that 5 km isnt olympic discipline since she was great. In her,Slovenia got promissing skier for Beijing,in 10 km she will be medal contender.

4. Short track - havoc as always. Pitty for Ariana. Girard was very lucky but he was good in every race so deserved medal. And Hamelin...

5. Skeleton - i watched rerun,Flock was so unlucky. Deas with medal,way to go.

6. Figure skating - great show and deserved medals. Hanyu was league on his own.

7. Ski jumping - so glad for Robert. Wellinger was terrific,i hoped for gold. And congrats to Kamil,undoubtedly one of the best jumpers of all time. First 4 hills then this. 2018 started great for him

8. Freestyle - quality wasnt as in men competiton but Sarah was really great.

9. Ice hockey - strange tournament. Really. So many wiered scores. So far i enjoyed tournament but its evidently lacking in many things. Must mention Slovenia. They are fantastic. I remember how good were they in Sochi but this iz new level. They have beaten 2 of best teams in the world. Cant say that i would be surprised to see them in the semis. Also,to repeat myself,USA deserves to be last here because what NHL did to this tournament.

Good day it was overall.

Edited February 17, 2018 by ChandlerMne

[heywoodu 15,135]

22 February

 

Alpine skiing

Mixed feelings about favourites crashing out, but then again, that's part of being good when it counts and they didn't deliver. Myhrer did, and the veteran winning Olympic gold (right when the Swedish king was sitting there!) was awesome. So was Zenhäusern on the podium.

Not much feels about the women's combined. Nice that Gisin won, nothing against Shiffrin and Holdener neither, but it wasn't very dramatic or anything, just another race.

 

Biathlon

This women's relay was one of the highlights of the Games without a doubt. Most favourites in trouble, a billion underdogs fighting for the medals and one going home with the gold. It'd have been perfect if Poland and Slovakia made it to the podium, but looking back at this race, my thoughts are mostly this:

Spoiler

 

 

Freestyle skiing

Cool final in the halfpipe, never watched it before but this is a lot of fun and some of the runs were just awesome. Second NZL medal of the day made it perfect.

 

Ice hockey

Just, insane. That final, those million shots on goal, constant attacking, twenty minutes of crazy overtime, beautiful shootouts...loved it. Another highlight of the Games.

 

Nordic combined

Most boring competition of the entire Olympics so far. Even the women's snowboard slopestyle had more excitement, albeit because of the conditions.

 

Short track

Incredible world record for Wu Dajing, Schulting stunning everyone and letting the Koreans be too busy with themselves, Hungary winning their first ever Winter Olympics gold....

Spoiler

 

 

Snowboard

Big air in general, in my opinion, is rather mediocre, to say the least. But Gasser showed some fun stuff, so that's good, and of course we as Olympic fans surely all loved to be there live for New Zealand's first Winter Olympic medal in 26 years....by a girl who was born ten years after the last one! 

 

All in all, this has been my favourite day of the entire Olympics so far, and the only way to summarize it is this:

Spoiler

 

 

The only thing bringing me down of today: Franziska Preuss' performance and her interview right after that on German TV, that just broke my heart. Poor girl. 

Edited February 22, 2018 by heywoodu

[dcro 10,210]

It was one of the best days for me.

 

Cross-country skiing's 50km classic was most definitely the highlight for me. Not just of today, but probably of the whole Games too. I'm sooo happy for Niskanen. Have been a supporter of the Finnish team for a long time, and it gets hard when they often underperform at the Olympics. This was a perfect redemption in an absolutely thrilling race (didn't expect to ever say that for 50km mass start, however this one really looked like an interval start race for the most part!). It was a nail biter that kept me at the edge of the seat for 2 hours, which flew by very quickly.

 

Alpine skiing team event went above my expectations. There were some thrilling races and I grew to like the winning team. Speed skating mass starts provided the first medal for Belgium in ages, however I hoped to see more interesting finishes (and more new nations on the podium). Some good performances for the smaller teams were heart warming, even though those 4th-5th places may have been far away from the medals. Men's curling gold medal match turned out to be pretty entertaining with the underdog taking the title. 3rd period of ice hockey bronze medal match was equally exciting.

 

Didn't catch too much of bobsleigh today. Still I'm pleased with improved performance from our team, which has been struggling with injuries though.

 

Snowboarding competitions were the disappointments of the day. Big air had few too many falls, while PGS had an unfair course. Also women's curling bronze medal match was rather dull with barely any offence or interesting shots being played.