Nightshift Sports:
Of course, there are no ropes at the Olympics–not the type found on PGA golf courses, at least–but the idea of being inside the ropes conveys some type of “inside” information, even if that information mostly turns out to be gossip. But….there were some interesting small stories coming out of PyeongChang.
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Well, so much for fraternite´. Mathieu Faivre, a member of the French Olympic Ski team and–maybe his great claim to fame–Mikaela Shiffrin’s boyfriend, was dismissed from the French team and sent home after saying in an interview that he “didn’t care about his teammates” and was at the Olympics “only to ski for myself”. That attitude didn’t cut it with the powers that be and so French Ski Team Director David Chastan sent the huffy skier (he finished 7th in the Giant Slalom) back to France for “disciplinary reasons”. Will Mikaela ski better or worse with the BF gone?
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Schiffrin Slides Out of The Downhill. The schedule was against her: women’s Downhill on Wednesday, women’s Combined moved up to Thursday (due to those pesky winds), so Shiffrin made the smart move and decided to concentrate on the Combined, which includes both slalom and downhill events. She’s generally considered the world’s best female slalom skier but she is scheduled to meet Lindsey Vonn–whose speciality is the downhill–in the Combined. It’s “your best against my best” time at the Winter Olympics.
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Coming Apart at the Seams. For the second time in these Olympics, an ice skating couple has suffered a “wardrobe malfunction”, as Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France, two-time world champions who are appearing in their first Winter Olympics, had the clasp on Gabriella’s outfit totally come apart, leaving her breast exposed and forcing her to skate in a state of perpetual possible nudity. But–if you want to know what concentration is all about–it did not bother the duo, who took the Silver Medal. Very, very impressive. Might be a good time to have all of those skimpy ice skating dresses checked for possible malfunctions.
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Stand Up Guy. Adam Rippon, who made the most of his Olympic moments of fame and emerged as a charming, enthusiastic spokesman for his sport, thanked NBC for it’s offer of a position as a commentator for the rest of the Olympics but said that he “wanted to support my team because they have supported me”. Refreshing and, actually, the totally correct thing to do. He’ll be back–either on the ice or on the air.
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What, Precisely, Did You Learn at Harvard. How to bend the rules, obviously, Modestly competent as a skier, Elizabethe Swaney, a U.S. born Harvard graduate, used her grandparents nationality (Hungary) to rule-play her way into the Olympics as a contestant in the skiing half-pipe. The event, typically full of spectacular tricks and high altitude, laid bare her athletic skills–there were none–and she approached the half-pipe competition with the sole goal of surviving it. Swaney previously competed for Venezuela in the Winter Olympics–it is assumed her results there were similar to this year’s contest, where she finished 24th out of 24 competitors. Swaney is the perfect test case for dumping “country shopping” by marginally talented athletes–or just plain publicity hounds–who bend the rules to get into the game and then embarrass themselves and the country that sent them. Do we admire the pluck that drove her to somehow, anyhow, make it to the Olympics or condemn the performance level as degrading for any Olympic athlete?