Maybe what I need to do is just switch myself to the Pyeongchang clock for the next couple of weeks, because only now am I getting to the Monday/Day 3 post and it's already just a couple, three hours from dawn on Tuesday/Day 4 in South Korea.
Previous reports:
-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924
-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928
-- VIII Olympic Winter Games, Squaw Valley 1960
-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976
-- XVII Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer 1994
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014
-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Preface)
-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Introduction/Day 0)
-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Day 1)
-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Day 2)
Comments flow ...
I'm pretty sure we have no Kentuckians competing in this Winter Olympics, but we do have good, old Tom Hammond of Lexington.
ReplyDeleteVelvety-voiced Lexington Tom was shuffled off NBC's prime-time figure-skating mike a few months after Sochi 2014. It appears Hammond was collateral damage in the network's handing the ball to Tara Lipinski/Johnny Weir from Sandra Bezic/Scott Hamilton on the color roles, but, whatever, as he reportedly texted the Chicago Tribune four years ago, "I think my figs days are over." And, in Pyeongchang, NBC's play-by-play point guard for figure skating is Terry Gannon, one of Jim Valvano's Wolfpack national champions of 1983, not Hammond, the voice of so many winter Saturday afternoons from Starkville, Tuscaloosa and other exotic SEC-hoops locales of the early 1980s.
ReplyDeleteThe selfish good news of this lineup juggling for me is that now I'm probably going to get to hear Hammond on a goodly amount of NBC Sports Network's afternoon dumps of tape-delayed speedskating qualification heats or finals in which Team USA fails to medal. To wit, at the moment--a little after 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in Pyeongchang/2:30 p.m. Monday in Athens (Georgia)--Hammond is calling the women's 1,500 meters.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment, we're watching Ireen Wüst, the most-decorated Dutch woman speedskater of all time, and, man, oh, man, that is saying something.
ReplyDeleteWüst won the silver in this event at Sochi 2014. With one lap to go, she was off the pace of the current race leader, Team USA's Brittany Bowe. But I knew not to get any too worked up for a miracle upset because, had it happened, I imagine NBC would've just kept right on tape-delaying Tom right on into tonight's prime-time show. Indeed, Wüst overtook Bowe's time at the end, and so now we'll have to hope the American holds on for the silver.
ReplyDeleteThat would be huge. Netherlands swept this event at Sochi 2014, and Bowe finished 14th. (Another member of Team USA, Heather Richardson, came in seventh, but I don't know if she's skating in Pyeongchang.)
ReplyDeleteAnother Dutch skater just had her heat, and now Bowe is in third place.
ReplyDeleteAnother skater from the Netherlands, and Bowe is off the podium.
ReplyDeleteYes, here's Heather (Richardson) Bergsma of High Point, North Carolina!
ReplyDeleteWith two laps to go, Bergsma was headed for second place, but she faded at the end. The Japanese skater she was on the ice with, however, zipped past her and did, in fact, take the silver. So that's a big get for Japan, breaking the Dutch sweep of the medals in this event from four years ago.
ReplyDeleteThirty-five years ago on Feb. 12, 1983, by the way, Melvin Turpin and Jim Master combined for 45 points as Joe B. Hall's Wildcats came from seven behind at halftime against Sonny Smith's Tigers to win, 71-69, at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum in Auburn, Alabama. I'll bet Tom Hammond's texts were plenty happy after that business trip.
ReplyDeletePROGRAMMING NOTE! Let's say you're hacked at NBC's dribbling of its Olympics coverage over its subsidiary pay-to-play cable networks, and let's say you hate watching all of the figure skating and Will & Grace-reboot promos in the prime-time show. Well, now might be the time to get yourself to, say, a university student union with a TV set, a vinyl couch and some vending machines. Take your quarters, and get yourself, say, a Peach Nehi and some barbecued pork rinds. And then point that antenna on top of the TV toward Paducah, Kentucky, and see if you can tune in a grainy signal of Channel 6. Big NBC's got some biathlon love in the afternoon happening right now!
ReplyDeleteIn the house Olympics tonight, Daughter took gold in the Wii Olympics Moonlight Circuit; Wife, silver. I was pleased to scratch out a bronze. Medal standings:
ReplyDelete1. Daughter 1 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze
2. Me 1, 0, 1
3. Wife 0, 1, 1
Two of Germany's Pyeongchang 2018-leading four gold medals through Day 3 action have been won by biathlete Laura Dahlmeier of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a ski town about 28,000 on Germany's southern border and host of the 1936 Winter Olympics. Super Wikipedia says, "During World War II Garmisch-Partenkirchen was a major hospital center for the German military. After the war, it was used by the U.S. military as a recreation center for U.S. military men stationed in Europe and their families."
ReplyDeleteWith her win in today's women's pursuit, Dahlmeier became the first-ever woman to win the sprint and pursuit in the same Olympics. After today's race, NBC Sports Network's solid Damon Hack asked her about how she mustered the energy and focus to come back from her win two days ago, and she said she didn't know--that she had felt tired and sluggish going into the race.
Dahlmeier's golds here are doubly huge for the Germans, who failed to medal in either the women's sprint or pursuit at Sochi 2014.
Very excited to get a "IV Olympic Winter Games, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936" post up at some point soon!
ReplyDelete