Photo from Google Images
With a late surge in Pyeongchang, Team USA is fighting for the Olympic podium. Earlier this week, Team USA was on track to have one of the lowest total medal counts in the last 20 years. On Wednesday morning, Norway was still dominating the medal count with a total 30 combined medals. Team USA only had 13 combined medals and was tied with France for 5th place. Fifth place for a country that is used to being first or second in overall medal count is not good. By Wednesday night, Team USA started to get back on the podium. By Friday, Team USA had moved up to 4th place with a total of 22 combined medals.
Snowboarding was star spangled awesome! Shaun White showed why he is a legend in the sport and one of the most popular athletes in sports. Rookies, Chloe Kim and Red Gerard showed the world that the future of Team USA is going to be golden for years to come. All three athletes are bringing home the gold!
Women’s Hockey was epic! On the 38th anniversary of The Miracle on Ice, Team USA beat Canada in a shootout to bring home the gold. It had been 20 long years since Team USA won gold in women’s hockey. This game was redemption for losing the gold to Canada three out of the last four Olympics.
Curling is one sport that may never make sense to me. Almost a decade ago, I randomly met a guy in the Dominican Republic who told me he was on the Canadian Curling team. (I may or may not have been drinking at the time, but sorry, dude! Everything about that conversation was hilarious. Mostly because I swore he was making up the sport as he tried to explain it to me.) I just remember laughing at him. (Back then, I didn’t have a smart phone to google it.) I only understood it was like the shuffle board game I used to play with my dad at the beach during family vacations while we were waiting on my mom and twin brother to get ready. Again, life before cell phones.
Maybe I should have listened to the Canadian and actually tried to learn something about curling, but instead I was a laughing asshole and he did not want to be my friend. But even now when I try to watch it, I just say what the bleeeep! The hardest part looks like not falling on the ice. I know it has to be much harder than it looks. Based on my Myrtle Beach shuffleboard skills, I wouldn’t be very good. Fast forward to Pyeongchang and I actually want to watch the American team in the gold/silver medal match against Sweden. Mostly because I love rooting for Team USA no matter the sport, but also because of American curler, Matt Hamilton. He was asked how he was going to celebrate knocking off the highly favored Canadian team. Hamilton said “I think it’s healthy to celebrate a little bit of a win. I’m going to go back to the (Olympic) village and have a McFlurry”. Now, McFlurries, I understand. And if they are associated with curling, then my twin brother could dominate this Olympic sport for decades! Team USA curling has never played in a gold medal game until now.
It wasn’t our year in Figure skating. Team USA took home bronze in the team event and in Ice Dancing but no American made the podium in the individual events. This was the first time an American woman failed to place in the final top six in any Olympics since WWII! Team USA was once the Olympic standard, but now we are not even considered a threat. Bradie Tennell finished 9th, Mirari Nagasu finished 10th (and made history in the team event by becoming the first American woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics) and Karen Chen finished 11th overall. For the Men’s team, the favorite for the gold and quad king, Nathan Chen finished 5th, Vincent Zhou finished 6th and Adam Rippon finished 10th overall. Rippon’s personality finished gold.
Former Olympic figure skating stars Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir owned the ice. Their commentary was spot on! There was no sugar coding. Their honesty and chemistry were more entertaining than some of the skaters. Oh, and those Johnny quotes are pure GOLD!
Johnny explaining points by saying “Tom Brady doesn’t get points for almost throwing to Gronk” and then he called Tara Cersei while the skater was preforming to Game of Thrones music.
He also called out the Russian couple by saying “they are a little square to be giving us Candyman realness” as the pair skated to Christina Aguilera’s song.
When a skater is preforming to Barbra Streisand and Johnny is silent. “I didn’t want to talk over Barbra”.
NBC announced that Tara and Johnny would be doing the commentary for the closing ceremonies on Sunday. Now, if only NBC would replace Megyn Kelly’s show for the Tara and Johnny show…