Our broadcaster said that too. I do agree it would be better if it was Opening Cermonies, then everything else, but if th ey don't start now? They'll NEVER finish everything in 2 weeks! :)

I love figure skating, speed skating and moguls, although I'll watch almost anything.

Aw, I know. I felt bad for Nathan Chen. It was a Quad Salchow or a Quad Toe Flip, but don't quote me! Honestly, an ABSURD amount of the men fell--8 out of 10 fell at least once!--which makes me think they needed to use the Zambonie. (The machine that fixes the ice, in case anyone doesn't know) But honestly--he's only JUST old enough for the Olympics, he's only 18. It's his first Olympics. He's only competed at regional / national competitions before, I believe. And while he may have competed at MANY of those, (like he even stated after the competition) stepping onto OLYMPIC ice is an exhilarating freling, and completely different, no matter how many competitions you've been to.

It's the same in Irish Dance. (Yes, you'd be amazed at how many paralells you can link between Irish and figure skating) There are three large tiers: Oireachtas, Nationals, and Worlds. No matter how many little local feisanna (competitions) you've done, stepping onto the Oireachtas stage is a huge difference. Same from Oireachtas to Nationals--no matter how high you placed at Oireachtas, you can totally bomb Nationals.

Anyway.

My CAPTCHA said yrtu. That's not even close to Olympics, bud. 

I don't wanna bottom it!

I'm a huge figure-skating fan. The Olympics are not Nathan Chen's first senior level international competition. He's been very successful at Grand Prix events. In order to show the competition live in U.S. primetime, the event began at 10 am, meaning the men had to get up at about 5 am to get ready, warm up, etc. Plus many of the are from very different time zones. They're used to competing much later in the day. These factors may be some of the reasons for all the errors last night. Plus nerves for being at the Olympics. Let's hope they'll get more adjusted and do better the next time we see them perform.

There are always surprised at the Olympics. You can't predict who will do his/her best and who may stumble.

Admin

Ha, looks like we had the same idea, Inktail! xD And yeah, @Admin, I remember the announcers saying something like that, too. How this one famous ice skater (don't know his name) preformed super well when practicing, then fell at several crucial jumps in the acutal judging. Then they talked about this other famous ice skater, who was doing horribly during practices, then preformed spectacularly during judging.

I think that one of the highlights of the Figure Skating last night for me was the American Pairs team of the husband and wife duo. Aside from the one itty bitty slip up, their routine was flawless! 

I'm actually watching the Opening Ceremony now, as I type! I think seeing all the different countries and teams is really interesting. I also love hearing all of the athletes stories and how they got where they are now. I'm pretty excited for this Olympics, because I love watching the Olympics, especially the Winter. My favorite to watch is definitely Figure Skating. I love seeing the routines and costumes, and it's such a beautiful, graceful sport. I'd love to learn it. I also enjoy watching skiing, speed skating, bobsled, and luge, although I like watching any of the events.  

Also, there was some Opening Ceremony confusion here, too. I didn't know that there were events last night, though. I wish I could have seen the Figure Skating, but ah well. There will be more.  

Haha, we sure did, Vyo!

What can I say? Great minds think alike! :)

Ah, ok. Thanks for the clearup, Admin!  

I LOVE the opening ceremony, Leeli! It was so cool! What was your favorite part? Mine was the animals that moved around with the people.

Medals are coming! Medal count at the end of the day! :D

Whose your teams? I'm USA, although I do have a special place in my heart for the Irish team. 

So far though, we're not doing the best..

XD  

I'm from the USA, too, but I must say that I like to see each person and team compete fairly and do its best and leave the rest up to the scoring system and the judges. There's so much emphasis on winning the gold medal, too much, I think. The competition is so tough. It's a great honor just to make the Olympic team. Just because you don't win gold doesn't mean you're not really good. I remember hearing Michell Kwan say at a past Olympics: "I didn't LOSE the gold medal. I won the sivler medal."

I do love to hear different national anthems at the award ceremonies!

Admin

For a project in ELA, my friend and I had to choose a participating country, and find out statistics. One fact that we had to research was: "What event is your country most likely to get a gold in?" We chose France. When we got to this fact, we did some research and found out that the our country is estimated to win a gold in the biathlon. Neither of us had heard of it, so we watched some videos. The biathlon is now the event that I am most looking forward to watching. It's actually a bit funny. There will be people skiing down a hill, and suddenly, BOOM, they pull out rifles and start shooting at targets.

France might also win gold in figure skating ice dance. (But it might be Canada. Or maybe USA? You can never say for sure till it happens!)

Admin

I love the Olympics, both Winter and Summer, but I'm a skiier so I really like the Winter ones. I love watching snowboarding because the jumps, flips, rails, etc. are so cool looking and fun ti watch. I also like downhill skiing or giant slalom or alpine skiing or something. I'm not really sure what it's called. I watched some figure skating today which was amazing. I can hardly skate at all so I don't know how they do it!

In band on Thursday and Friday we attempted to play The Olympic Spirit and Olympic Fanfare, by John Williams. We sightread them and failed horribly, but our band director played recordings of prefessional bands playing them and they were incredible! He told us to pay attention to the music that's played before every commercial break in the Olympics, so now I pay attention to it and recognize some of the parts that I tried to play! It might not sound exciting, but it is to me.