Nathan Chen

[+ MysticMenace]

 

[+ MysticMenace]

 

[+ MysticMenace]

rough short program for Nathan last night...but he'll bounce back.

 

[+ MysticMenace]

 

[+ MysticMenace]

oooh, new exhibition program...

 

[+ MysticMenace]

Fantastic start to #WinterBeijingOlympics, Nathan!

 

[BSR]

48 minutes ago, JoeMendoza said:

Fantastic start to #WinterBeijingOlympics, Nathan!

 

Wow, that was one heckuva short program!  I get so insanely nervous during figure skating.  I'll be defecating a brick during his short & long for men's gold.

[+ MysticMenace]

33 minutes ago, BSR said:

Wow, that was one heckuva short program!  I get so insanely nervous during figure skating.  I'll be defecating a brick during his short & long for men's gold.

good thing you're loose enough down there that it won't be so bad. lol.

but yea, I feel like I was more nervous than Nathan was and all I did was sitting my ass down and watching anxiously through the performance. but what a way to start his Beijing olympics though.

[+ Lucky]

I was surprised that the NBC commentators were not in Beijing. They were in Connecticut!

[+ Charlie]

45 minutes ago, Lucky said:

I was surprised that the NBC commentators were not in Beijing. They were in Connecticut!

The commentators for the Australian Open were also in a studio in Bristol, CT, though the backdrop looked like they were in Melbourne. Working remotely from home is the new thing everywhere.

[mike carey]

13 hours ago, Charlie said:

The commentators for the Australian Open were also in a studio in Bristol, CT, though the backdrop looked like they were in Melbourne. Working remotely from home is the new thing everywhere.

Same thing's been happening here for the summer of cricket. The commercial and pay-tv commentary teams were often in a central studio but with some members of their teams at the various grounds. The radio commentators for the most part were at the grounds but for the first test against England, the Queensland border was closed (quarantine required, to be precise) so the whole ABC and BBC commentary teams were in a studio in Sydney. In Adelaide, several of both commentary teams contracted or were close contacts with Covid cases so had to isolate in their hotel rooms (as did the Australian captain, incidentally, ruling him out of the game), so there was a single combined ABC/BBC commentary on both networks (they were used to working with each other as they normally do stints in each other's commentary).

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

On 2/4/2022 at 10:18 AM, Lucky said:

I was surprised that the NBC commentators were not in Beijing. They were in Connecticut!

My understanding is that only a limited number of press people are allowed by China to be on-site, and those that are, must have be quarantined and live in a bubble that restricts where they can be.  Since they had Andrea Joyce on site to do the interviews, I'm guessing that would have been NBC's limitation of staff.

[+ Lucky]

Chen apparently gave a great performance yesterday. I kept tuned to the NBC channel so I could see it, but they never gave a clue as to when he would skate. I still don't know what time he was on the air. It's the only part of the Olympics that interests me.

[+ Lucky]

26 minutes ago, Lucky said:

Chen apparently gave a great performance yesterday. I kept tuned to the NBC channel so I could see it, but they never gave a clue as to when he would skate. I still don't know what time he was on the air. It's the only part of the Olympics that interests me.

Update: I found the clip. It's the best skate performance I have ever seen:

https://youtu.be/MXrOQTwX5CA

[BSR]

On 2/8/2022 at 9:32 AM, Lucky said:

Update: I found the clip. It's the best skate performance I have ever seen:

https://youtu.be/MXrOQTwX5CA

Nathan set a world record for highest score in a short program, 113.97!  18yo Kagiyama also had a perfect skate, 108.12.  I'm super-impressed with Kagiyama's speed on the ice (don't underestimate how much speed matters to the judges) and flawless air positions.  His father, also a figure skater, taught his son well.  Uno had just a small error, a slight hand down on his combo for 105.90.  The sad news was Hanyu hit a divot on his quad salchow, causing him to pop a single instead and putting him out of medal contention at 95.15.  With nothing to lose, I wonder if Hanyu will try the quad axel in his free skate, a jump never completed in competition.

I'm sorry for Hanyu, but he can console himself with his two gold medals.  If he pulls off the quad axel, it will be a Midori Ito-esque moment of redemption.  I'm crossing my fingers for Nathan so hard I hear bones cracking.

[BSR]

He did it!  Nathan Chen wins the gold!!  He landed an eensy bit wonky on a quad salchow and he singled the triple flip in his jump series -- two minor blemishes on a brilliant free skate.  Kagiyama took silver and Uno bronze.  Had Hanyu landed his quad axel, I think he would have edged out Uno for bronze.  I've only watched Nathan's free skate so far; I'll watch the other guys later.  Phew, what a relief!  So happy for Nathan!

[+ sync]

I often fantasize about Nathan Chen's quads.  😛

[+ Lucky]

https://youtu.be/8zVL9WY3dUw