The figure skating, ice dancing, etc. does suck up SO much airtime, but it's quite obviously what the majority of the viewers want to see. I doubt if those making these decisions at NBC are fools! I enjoy watching almost every sport, and in many, for me the commentary make a big difference. I didn't think it was great in the halfpipe. We could all tell the Chloe Kim story by now, but you get little insight as to why a rider makes changes to their plan, what the judges really value in the actual "ticks". Yeah we get "go big", good landings, etc. In both the men's pipe, we'd hear that these judges were the best in the world "I know them all....", but we also heard a lot of questioning the judging. Like Kelly Clark got jobbed. But no real dialog, I guess because the judges "are all friends of mine."
The combined was not great, but at least it was skiing. Hope the wind lets us watch SL tonight.
Would you rather have them just persevere though the wind, and what will result in some clear disadvantages depending on who gets what wind {likely affecting results}, or see it postponed?
I heard two years ago that it gets brutally cold with these winds blowing in form Siberia, and that they persist. The coaches words were "This could be a real cluster in February. It can be sunny and look great. Of course if the wind flips around out of the SE, it can be 50+ with driving rain......."
If the USST is measuring success based on Olympic medals, I hope that the events can all be fairly contested. Would be a shame if this is remembered as these Olympics are remembered for wind, and cancellations.
BTW, viewer numbers are WAY off. 10% down form Sochi, and 20% off Vancouver as of now. That's despite being able to watch live in USA prime time.
Hope the SL is great, and that people tune in to watch MS!