Friends! We have returned to the rink after last week’s discussion of Olympian costumes of yore! And while this post will not have the many many many many Wiki Deep Dives of that one — no one here is, for example, an East German Stasi informant — it will have some ruffles. Once again, I must confess that I did not watch these because I was otherwise engaged, but that just means two things: (a) I’ll be going into the Olympics fresh, although aware thanks to last week’s post that the American ladies have less than no shot thanks to the current Russian dominance (although presumably someone could accidentally skate through a wall?) and (b) you all get to fill me in on any intriguing drama, scandale, points of interest, and just general Stuff Everyone Should Know Or Might Find Interesting. For example, I saw a lot of blah blah on Twitter about Gracie Gold, and some of the Blah Blah was contradictory! One of the Twitterers was very excited that she might make the team — she did not — and the other Twitterer was explaining why it was impossible for her to make the team regardless of her performance. But Twitterer One was a person who should have known the facts laid out by Twitterer Two. Is it possible we’re all just distracted now?
Speaking of Olympic teams, the folks on said teams do not necessarily line up with the results of nationals — which I know happens sometimes but which I personally think is occasionally kinda bullshit; if you nail Nationals, you should get to go to the Olympics, but US Figure-Skating has arranged it so that they, like the gymnastics folks, can basically do whatever they want — so we might need the skinny on that, too. I know that in at least one instance, some of the top skaters came down with Covid and couldn’t compete at the last minute. I assume this is also gonna happen in Beijing, actually, and is definitely more likely than someone skating through a wall.
Let’s do this! (As ever, I am only covering the folks who made the medal stand, more or less.)
