Mirai Nagasu landed her triple-axel and it was amazing! [Buzzfeed]
I’m obsessed with the scorn critics have for Fifty Shades Freed. [Pajiba]
Even though the reviews were terrible, Fifty Shades Freed is still a hit. [Jezebel]
Omarosa already left the Celebrity Big Brother house, good God. [Dlisted]
Is Justin Timberlake an “artist in decline”? Yes? [LaineyGossip]
Photos from the Olympics Opening Ceremony. [Go Fug Yourself]
I am obsessed with this police-sketch story. [The Blemish]
Kim Kardashian makes sushi hot dogs for her kids, yikes. [Wonderwall]
Amy Schumer officially has a new boyfriend. [Starcasm]
Preview of the Real Housewives of Atlanta. [Reality Tea]
"HOLY COW!" You just witnessed a historic triple axel from Mirai Nagasu. #WinterOlympics https://t.co/NsNuy9F46h pic.twitter.com/jCMTb4LtXv
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 12, 2018
Kim Kardashian got all that money and that’s the most creative use of hot dogs and sushi she could come up with?
Well, this is Kim. More likely either the nanny or some internet source came up with the idea. We don’t really know even if the kids like it, since, well, this is Kim. Not exactly a reliable source.
This seems completely plausible. I doubt a nanny came up with It since this dish is not uncommon in the least.
It’s called Musubi and it’s a really yummy & popular food in Hawaii among other places. Swap out spam for hotdogs and it’s the same. And those 2 processes meat are very similar.because it’s Kim the worst is assumed without truth or context.
And I’ll easily believe her kids like eating these. Fun to eat and tasty.
Marai is a badass, but you’ve got to give it to those corrupted judges who gave the 15-year-old Russian skater, aka Putin’s girlfriend (remember Sochi?), a phenomenal score to seal the the silver medal deal to the Russians.
Winners: purchased IOC judges
Losers: the athletes
To each her/his own opinion. I thought the Russian girl was amazing.
Eric, I don’t understand why Russian athletes are allowed to compete. I thought they were banned for their doping. Or is the Russian skater one of those self proclaimed OARs?
Not sure what you mean by “self proclaimed”?
@ Indianasomething-or-other,
I’m a Russian born American. I’m pretty sure talent is not a geography thing.
Amazing comment. 😕
LOL. Alina from Russia was beyond phenomenal. She deserved first place. No need to bribe the judges. Mirai was amazing and made history to be the first American to land triple axel in the Olympics which she got a high points for that but Alina’s program was challenging since she did most of her jumps in the second half part of the program which earned her bonus points.
Alina’s program, to me was boring.She saved all her energy for the last part of her program.Mirai came out like a bull out of a shoot.Loved her.
Alina saved her energy for the last part of her program so she could get the difficulty bonus. Certain jumps are worth more done in the second half of the program.
(replying to Petee and now see the OP said the same thing)
@Eric, calling a 15 year old athlete Putin’s girlfriend is a big NO.
You clearly don’t know anything about figure skating if you don’t know who Alina Zagitova is, or think that a triple axel should be an automatic win. Alina Zagitova has many things going for her.
Some reasons:
More difficult combinations (Mirai ends combinations only with toe loops, Alina also with loops),
Adding difficulty to jumps by going into them with more difficult movements (which adds points to grade of execution)
Alina does two triple lutzes to Mirai’s one
Alina does all her jumps at the end which gives her extra points, as it is harder.
Please make sure you know at least something about a sport before you start calling a 15 year old the girlfriend of a much older man.
Alina has been to hell and back to get where she is, (like Mirai) and all her hard work and talent shouldn’t be discounted just because you’re angry your favourite didn’t win.
Thanks Flan for saying that so thoroughly
What eric said is absolutely cringeworthy. I really cannot stand it when people yell that the system is rigged everytime an American athlete is outperformed.
Mirai was great, but Alina was also an absolute delight to watch.
No problem, Sisi.
I love Mirai. She is my favourite American skater of all disciplines.
I think it’s great that more people get to see figure skating during the Olympics.
But when they start saying things like that about an athlete as hardworking, friendly and talented as Alina, I hope they would have first learned a bit more about the sport than what they’ve seen on “I, Tonya”.
Alina is always nice and humble, and wants to help out her family with her skating. Perhaps people can learn a bit more about her and the other skaters from all around the world, and see how hard they work.
People, at least in this thread, have lost all sense of humor.
Ffs, ease up a little. It’s a dang figure skating competition. No one really cares. Take a Xanax.
@Eric. You should say something similar about a fifteen year old in another thread on this website and see what happens.
You made a disrespectful comment about a hardworking athlete and a minor. Claiming someone doesn’t have a sense of humor about that is not going to make that right.
Agree Eric. It’s one person, but we won’t name names will we….lol. People care, but not to the point where they’re scolding other commenters bc they don’t agree with them. The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming…..wasn’t that a movie?! Anyway, I’ll take a xanny! It’s all good!
@Nancy, you won’t name names, but I will since I’m not a coward.
It’s me.
If you care so much about the USA not winning gold or silver that it makes you think it’s okay to disrespect a 15 year old athlete, I think you care a bit too much yourself.
I thought this thread would be about how great Mirai’s comeback was and how well deserved her Olympic medal, after not making it to the 2014 Olympics.
I’m just happy that Mirai and the rest of the American skaters did so well and can all take home an Olympic medal. Let’s hope they’ll add to it in the individual competition. There’s a big chance Nathan Chen will do well (he really underperformed in the team event), so there might be a gold medal waiting in the wings.
All of what Flan said up top. I do love me some Mirai, but Alina’s moves were just breathtaking. We also need to point out that half of Alina’s jumps were done with both hands above her head which takes an incredible amount of strength, as you’re moving your center of gravity from your chest to above your head – extremely difficult. I’ll find plenty of other reasons to hate on the Russians, but Alina is not one of them. Congrats to Mirai!
@InVain, thank you. I agree with what you said about putting your hands above the head when you skate. I can’t even do the simplest jump, let alone do things like that.
As for American female skaters; apart from Mirai, I’m also looking forward to seeing Karen Chen in action in the individual competition. She isn’t very consistent, but can be great when she is on. She was 4th at the last World Championships, so you never know what might happen if she’s as on fire as Mirai is. She also wrote a book and seems like a very intelligent young lady.
I also like that Bradie Tennell came seemingly out of nowhere. Something similar happened with the Japanese ladies, where Kaori Sakamoto beat more established skaters to get a spot at the Olympics.
They are both stunning. I just rewatched Alina on youtube – good God, phenomenal.
But am I the only one who thinks 15 is too young? Shouldn’t they be at least 18 to be allowed to participate?
@Flan, thank you. Couldn’t have said it better, frankly.
The descrimantion I’m seeing here *only with certain posters* is stunning. And saddens me. As if Trump is making it okay to hate the Russian population who, overall, detest Putin. In my experience, that is. I don’t think people should pick and choose who it’s okay to discriminate against as I’ve always found this to be an extremely open minded place.
I needed to vent. Sorry. I’m known for not always saying the right thing, believe me, but I try.
@Raina. Exactly. Why not focus on the figure skaters who are doing such amazing jobs? Even if you only want to support your own country, there are lots of American skaters that deserve more attention. You can give that to them without insulting an athlete just because she beat yours.
It would be the same if foreigners called a 15 year old American athlete ‘Trump’s girlfriend’. Perhaps by imagining that, it will be more easier to understand the disrespect.
Another term could have been used: ‘friend’, ‘pal’, ‘athlete’, ‘compatriot’. Yet it had to be ‘girlfriend’. Jugh.
Exactly, Flan. Mirai was awesome, but I’ll join you in the corner with the rest of the humorless automatons who don’t find the implication that a 15-year-old athlete owes her success to sex hilarious.
I’m still unsure how Russia was able to compete as a team for figure skating.
The individual events I totally get. But the country was banned from competing in the Olympics, so that small group athletes that were allowed to compete from Russia but not officially representing country got to compete as reps for the country is… hmmm
They are not competing as the Russian team. Their silver medal won’t count towards Russia’s total medal score over all the Olympics.
If they had won, their national anthem would not have been sung.
So, no. They were not allowed to compete as reps for their country.
Except the crowd showed up in Russia gear. What the IOC did here was dumb. Everyone knows they are Russian skaters. While the figure skaters themselves weren’t caught doping, the IOC should have been serious about punishing the mass doping that was government sponsored and ban all forms of teams.
And let’s not pretend there still isn’t some sketchiness with the new figure skating system especially with the artistic mark. Sure doing the jumps after the two minute mark gets more technical bonus points, but the program isn’t balanced anymore and should be penalized on artistic merit in that case. But the ISU remains pretty biased and many Russian skaters get benefits that other countries wouldn’t. The sins of Salt Lake City have not been fully rectified.
@Nic919, we were talking about the athletes and if they were officially representing their country. They could not do all the things I mentioned. You try to change the subject to the crowd, but there is no ‘except’ about what I said.
Nobody is forbidding other skaters from putting all their jumps in the end. They just can’t. Even the current (Russian) World Champion can’t do that.
Equating Alina being the only one to be able to do this to giving benefits to Russians, sounds a lot like sour grapes.
Kim Yuna was robbed of gold by Russian corruption at the last olympics. I wouldn’t say Marai was robbed here, although she was amazing.
I hope this makes Ashley Wagner stop complaining about not taking Mirai’s spot again this olympics.
This will also stop the complaining that the US would’ve had a better chance with Wagner. This first performance under all that pressure was a personal triumph/comeback for her. She fought for 4 years to make that team again after being left out in 2014, most people would have been devastated and probably quit.
She was amazing and should have scored higher. Happens to US all.the.time. in gymnastics and skating. I digress, but watched I, Tonya over the weekend and was surprised how much I didn’t hate it! Margot Robbie is the real deal. Wonder how much truth lies in the portrayal of Tonya’s mother. If anything close, it’s no wonder Tonya is the queen of trailer trash, the mother was a beast. Good acting.
She received 1.57 extra points (grade of execution) above the base value of her triple axel, which meant the judges marked it as very good.
What other component should have been scored higher, do you think?
I root for my own. I watch the other athletes and recognize theirs skills, but will always root for my country. You said @Eric didn’t know anything about figure skating if he didn’t know who Alina is…..add me to the list. You know a lot about her. GO TEAM USA!
@Nancy. Rooting for your own is fine. I thought you had a specific reason why Mirai should have been scored higher, that’s all.
Making statements about things you don’t know much about, whilst insulting an athlete in the process (like Eric did) is quite another thing from ‘rooting for your own’. What makes that even more tacky is that Alina is a minor. I hope people can at least respect athletes from other countries, even if they beat one from their own.
Bot!
Eric
Troll? Bot? Both? You’ve insulted a minor and a professional olympic athlete because they won with a fantastic routine to watch. And also technical brilliance for the routines to score maximum points. The victory was earned. But yours didn’t win so let’s call shenanigans on this. It’s not that we don’t lack a sense of humor for opposing your comments here. It’s that your chosen words illustrate how a low class loser behaves. Poor sportsmanship.
@Eric, I called you out because you made a disgusting comment about a fifteen year old athlete. You don’t have a good rebuttal against what I’ve said, so you’ve resorted to accusing me of not having a sense of humor, ‘caring too much’ or now calling me a bot.
One thing is true; I do care a lot and it’s about the figure skaters, particularly the female ones, who get a lot shit heaped on them from people getting annoyed when their country loses (sounds familiar?). They don’t get much attention apart from the Olympics in most countries, so it’s great to see more people enjoying their performances once every four years. I was delighted to see an article about them here, but disappointed the first comment about it was from you calling a fifteen year old ‘Putin’s girlfriend’, as well as immediately assuming she must have been cheating without knowing the rules and scoring system of the sport.
I love this website for sticking up for women. Luckily, most people here don’t feel the sudden need to disrespect hardworking female athletes when they beat their countrywomen. You were an unfortunate exception.
Eric, your comments are ridiculous. Only thing left is you crying about fake news.
Mirai is a powerful and beautiful skater! Loved her!
Russian athletes should not be competing at all. The fact they are being allowed into this Olympics is more sad evidence of corruption. Seems like Russia is the one country who keeps getting away with avoiding sanction of any kind.
The International Olympic Committee decided not to punish athletes that were not involved in the doping scandal.
But even they were not allowed to compete as ‘Russia’. They couldn’t display their flag. The national anthem would not have been sung if they had won. Their medals don’t count towards the total Russian medal score.
So, saying there are no sanctions even for these athletes is incorrect.
Except Bobrova was allowed to compete and she had been previously caught doping.
@Merritt. Bobrova used something that was made illegal at the start of 2016. It was found in her test soon after. Her ban was lifted since it contained a minor amount and it wasn’t clear if that might still have been there from when it was still legal.
@adastraperaspera: 100. They should be out of there. Watching Mirai was like poetry. Just beautiful!!
I agree, Russia shouldn’t be competing at all. It doesn’t matter if it wasn’t these specific athletes. Russia totally corrupted previous games, and they are getting a weak little slap on the wrist.
“But even they were not allowed to compete as ‘Russia’.”
Yes, yes, they were titled “Olympic Athletes from Russia”…which is just semantics.
Their medals don’t count as Russian. In the tally of how many medals each country has won over all the years, therefore, none of the medals won at these games will be counted.
They are also not allowed to have their anthem played, wear their colours or show their flag. So I see where you’re coming from, but it does go beyond ‘semantics’.
Doping has killed my enjoyment of some sports (notably cycling, which I used to love), so I hope that having so many athletes out completely, and those still being allowed to compete not have their medals counted etc, will be a good incentive to stop that nonsense in Russia and a good warning for everybody else.
I don’t see the flag and the historical medal count as mattering that much. If they don’t play a song, do we suddenly not know that the athlete is from Russia? By participating in competition at all, they still get the honor and bragging rights. It is a change without much of a difference.
It matters a lot to the Russian athletes, Russian spectators and, I imagine, the Russian government. I’ve followed this in the months leading up to the Olympics as I like winter sports. From what I gathered, it is seen as a huge humiliation. I hope that this will be a large incentive to stop the doping entirely, as it ruins sports and athletes that are clean.
So, it’s not without much difference to them, even if we all know they are from Russia and it doesn’t matter so much to us.
Would they really admit that it didn’t matter? If you are getting away with something, it isn’t typical to broadcast that you are getting away with it.
That the Russians have athletes competing at all is a victory for them. The spectators still have people from their own country to root for, they aren’t losing anything. It is a privilege to compete in the games and they didn’t have that privilege revoked, even after the Russian GOVERNMENT organized doping for their athletes.
You interfere with US elections, sanctions get passed but not implemented. You dope your athletes in Olympic games, you still get to send athletes to the Olympic games. It’s quite the pattern that is being set.
It’s a huge deal to the Russians. In a country that state sponsors their athletes, it’s for national pride.
Not letting them compete would have been an even bigger deal, but more importantly, it would be the appropriate response to state-sponsored doping.
While I realize that we’re discussing state sponsored doping, we also can’t solely blame the Russians for corrupting the games. The blame is spread around SO MUCH right now when it comes to doping. And we may not have a state sponsored program (because we don’t state sponsor athletics at all) but one of our biggest Olympic sponsors (Nike) has been fingered in some shady dealings as well. There are an awful lot of glass houses behind those Olympic dreams, crossing a lot of borders.
Figure skating would be boring without the Russian skaters, though.
Mind you, I’m not saying the other skaters from other countries aren’t good. I just think Russian athletes in figure skating add to the competition and make it more suspenseful. If it’s just Team USA vs. Team Canada or whoever else in figure skating, the suspense goes down from the point of view of drama.
Mirai Nagasu is the first American woman who landed a triple axel at the Olympics. She’s an amazing athlete and seems very friendly to her fans and fellow-competitors alike.
I hope you will all check out some of her programs from before.
The skating was incredible last night. So many great stories to follow. I’m not from a country involved so I was just cheering for anyone who did something cool. I knew Mirai’s story so I was rooting for her so hard. Was so thrilled when she landed the triple axel, her face lighting up with delight just made it all the better. Adam Rippon was amazing too, and Patrick Chan might’ve fallen but just the way he skates around the rink is so beautiful I forgive him.
Couldn’t stop thinking about the ice dance team of Virtue/Moir and their Moulin Rouge program. That music is so overused and yet they made it feel totally new. Those twizzles choreographed exactly on the Rooooooooxanne beat! The lifts! The gorgeous step sequences! I felt it.
Um, isn’t a triple axle standard fare for elite figure skaters, even required in programs? I don’t get why this is news at all. Someone educate me.
Not at all for women. Mirai was the first American woman to land one at the Olympics.
For men, not for women. Only a handful of women have ever been able to pull it off. The double axel is a required jump for the women and the triple axel is required for the men at the senior level.
Russians shouldn’t even be competing in this Olympics even if they don’t carry their flag or their anthem doesn’t get played. It’s such a farce. Some people might refer to them as ics Olympic athletes from Russia for semantics but let’s be fair most will just say Russian athlete so and so. Such a slap in the face for all the other athletes competing in this winter olympics.
Agree, Gingersnaps. They are doping cheaters. But they still were allowed to compete during the last summer Olympics and now this Olympics. And the commenters here were extremely defensive, rude and pretended not to understand that aspect of the discussion. Very bot-like, as Eric pointed out.
@Indiana Joanna, I’m pretty sure it was me Eric referred to as a bot. I’ve been on this website for years, however, always standing up against Trump, Mitt Romney (yes, I was here already then) and the republicans in general, so your bot-accusations don’t ring very true now, do they?
The athletes that were allowed to compete all had to prove they were not doping. Guilty until proven innocent. Yet, I don’t see you being sympathetic towards them for being dragged down by the others. People here don’t like it when foreigners think all Americans are pro-Trump and are being blamed for him, but it’s suddenly okay to call young athletes ‘Putin’s girlfriend’ just because they’re Russian.
And the reason why some commenters are so ‘defensive’? Perhaps because some of you are being so offensive and are making wild statements about figure skating while not knowing the first thing about that. Yet, the best you can do is calling people a bot when they point it out when nonsense is being spouted.
I’m a figure skating fan and have talked about Mirai Nagasu and her triple axel on this website before. Too bad, you and Eric didn’t care about her then. Finally, it’s disappointing that you’re repeating a bot-accusation from someone who claims to be supporting Mirai Nagasu, but couldn’t even spell her name right.
Figure skating was also already shady with favouring Russian skaters and the judges from former Soviet republics making deals to favour them. The new scoring system hasn’t fixed all the issues from Salt Lake City. Where again the Canadians should have been the sole winners of the gold and not a tie.
Mirai skated so beautifully, but I have to admit both of the Russian girls were so amazing that it was like they were in a whole other class of their own (same thing with Virtue and Moir). I am really looking forward to the ladies’ finals!
The hot dog sushi just looks like a more simple (and less delicious) version of spam musubi, or spam sushi.
The triple axel was wonderful but in all other aspects Alina was superior. What upset me was the Russian male skater being ranked higher than Adam Rippon despite falling, then stumbling and a boring presentation. I can understand a slightly higher technical score but not for presentation.