FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, February 11th, 2018

2018 PYEONGCHANG WINTER OLYMPICS – FEB. 11 PRIMETIME HIGHLIGHTS ON NBC AND NBCSN

“That triple axel will go down in the record books. That triple axel was better than some of the guys today.” – Tara Lipinski on Mirai Nagasu becoming first American woman to land the jump in Olympic competition

“He was absolutely spellbinding today…he had me quaking with emotion.” – Johnny Weir on Adam Rippon

“Jamie Anderson is golden once again.” – Todd Harris on Anderson’s second consecutive gold medal in women’s snowboard slopestyle

“There is enough wind up here to cancel a windsurfing competition.” – Steve Porino on conditions forcing alpine skiing postponements at Yongpyong Alpine Center

“The luge world will be speechless…and Chris Mazdzer gives Team USA something they thought they would never see.” – Leigh Diffey on Mazdzer winning first-ever American medal in men’s luge singles

STAMFORD, Conn. – February 11, 2018 – Monday’s coverage of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games from PyeongChang, South Korea, is highlighted by:

  • NBC’s primetime presentation, which begins at 8 p.m. ET live across all time zones, featuring 17-year-old snowboarding phenom Chloe Kim and 2002 Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark aiming for gold in the women’s halfpipe final;

 

  • Two-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White making his PyeongChang debut in men’s halfpipe qualifying live in primetime on NBC;

 

  • Two-time Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety leads the U.S. in the downhill portion of the men’s super combined live in primetime on NBC;

 

  • Nine Olympic sports showcased throughout the day on NBCSN, including coverage of gold medal finals in biathlon, ski jumping and speed skating.

 

Following are highlights from tonight’s evening and primetime coverage of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on the networks of NBCUniversal:

 

FIGURE SKATING – NBC

Analyst Tara Lipinski on Mirai Nagasu in the ladies’ free program of the team event: “That triple axel will go down in the record books. That triple axel was better than some of the guys today.”

Play-by-play commentator Terry Gannon on Nagasu: “That performance was everything she could have envisioned – including finding The Holy Grail. This was about a personal triumph.”

Analyst Johnny Weir on Nagasu: “That performance was all about shining, sparkling redemption. Today she was stellar, she was a diamond, she was everything she needed to be. Wow.”

Lipinski on 15-year-old Olympic Athlete from Russia Alina Zagitova: “Flawless. We may be looking at the next Olympic champion in the individual event…if I were Yevgenia Medvedeva, I’d be very worried.”

Weir on Zagitova: “They both made us believe that they could be the Olympic champion, and that’s what their performances here were all about. It was a preview of what’s to come in the ladies’ individual event. Brilliant.”

Analyst Tanith White on Maia and Alex Shibutani: “It wasn’t just solid, it was inspired. That’s something that has been missing from this program all season long. This was a bit of a revelation for me…they needed to use the adrenaline of this moment out on Olympic ice and they finally allowed themselves to let it in.”

White on Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, leading Canada to gold medal in team skate: “This is the kind of triumphant feeling that you hope for at an Olympic Games, center stage, and they’re only getting started here in PyeongChang.”

Weir on Adam Rippon in the men’s free program of the team skate: “He was absolutely spellbinding today. That was magnificent…I’m a little bit taken aback as to why he’s not ahead of Kolyada of Russia.”

Lipinski on Rippon’s performance: “I couldn’t have been more into that. I have chills…this is by far my favorite free skate he’s ever done, or any program he’s ever skated to…he picks up every nuance in the music. It’s this very haunting, quiet beauty.”

Lipinski on scoring of Rippon’s performance: “In the component score, in the artistic score, Adam was so much better (than Mikhail Kolyada). I don’t understand what performance the judges were watching.”

Weir on scoring of Rippon’s performance: “Adam had me quaking with emotion, whereas Kolyada was ‘meh’ – it was oatmeal. Adam had it all over Kolyada in the performance.”

NBC Olympics primetime host Mike Tirico interviewed Rippon on-site at the Gangneug Ice Arena following his performance. Following are excerpts from that interview:

Rippon on discussing missing the Sochi Games along with Nagasu: “Four years ago, we got In-n-Out, went back to (Mirai Nagasu’s) house, we climbed up to the roof, and we were eating up there because we were so upset because we weren’t at the Olympic Games. The Olympics are truly magical…we gave each other a hug and said, ‘We’re here. We did it.’ We both had great skates today. To do that for our team is so amazing.”

Rippon on the nerves he feels before hitting the Olympic ice: “It’s been different. I’ve been waiting 28 years to get out there…I want to throw up. I want to go over the judges and say, ‘Can I just have a Xanax, and a quick drink? I’ll be fine.’ I kept it together, and I just took it one element at a time…to see my friend go out there and skate like that, it feels even better.”

Tirico: “Your name has come up a lot. You came out as openly gay in October of 2015. There have been a lot of stories written about that, including the vice president’s involvement, but you have said that you are not going to let it be a distraction at the Olympics. That’s a lot to say. How about doing it in practice. Has it distracted you in any way?”

Rippon: “I have worked my entire life for this moment. But more than that, my mom always taught me to stand up for what I believe in, and that has given my skating a greater purpose. So I go out there, and I’m not only representing myself, I’m representing my coaches, my country, and my teammates. I remember that, and that is how I stay focused.”

***

ALPINE SKIING – NBC

Play-by-play commentator Dan Hicks on the weather conditions and updated schedule for alpine skiing at the Games: “Welcome to the frozen tundra at the Yongpyong Alpine Center, where the women’s GS has been postponed until Thursday because of high winds, and a wind chill factor of -30 at the start. So Mikaela Shiffrin’s debut at these games will not happen until Thursday – Wednesday night in the U.S. – and it will be surrounding the men’s downhill, which has been postponed to that day because of high winds. So what does this do for Shiffrin’s schedule? We know she has her specialty, the slalom, the day before that.”

Analyst Bode Miller: “I think it’s tough physically, and probably a little bit mentally, to have back-to-back races. The reality is that Mikaela is the best racer out here, and I think she would benefit from having a fair race. Today the weather and the wind would have made it an impossible race. I’m sure she’s happy that they’re not racing today.”

Reporter Steve Porino from atop the Yongpyong Alpine Center: “That Siberian wind tunnel we have been talking about is in full effect. There is enough wind up here to cancel a windsurfing competition. Up at the top, all of the athletes simply just got on the lift and came back down, but Mikaela Shiffrin skied down because she said she wanted to get a couple more touches on the snow. And then one of her competitors, Sofia Goggia from Italy, called me over and said, ‘I have got to tell you a story. We were training with Mikaela the past couple of days, and when she went out of the gate the first time, and we all watched her ski, we stared at each other and our jaws dropped.’ Then Goggia said to me, simply, ‘Mikaela has already won the gold medal.’”

***

SNOWBOARDING – NBCSN

Analyst Todd Richards on Jamie Anderson’s gold-medal run in women’s slopestyle: “Not the run that I think that she planned, but so much improvisation in the air. Wow. That double that she somehow stopped in her rotation and turned into an inverted 540 was crazy.”

Todd Harris on Anderson’s gold-medal finish: “It is official – Jamie Anderson is golden once again.”

Richards joined host Liam McHugh to discuss slopestyle snowboarding at the Games prior to the women’s slopestyle final. Following are excerpts from that conversation:

Richards on Red Gerard: “He is this new breed of snowboarder that is coming up, that really likes to utilize every obstacle. They take very unique lines. He is just very wily and nimble on the course. He had an unbelievable performance on the course yesterday.”

Richards on Jamie Anderson, prior to the final: “Yesterday, I saw Jamie right after they postponed the event, and she was like ‘Let’s get it on.’ She was one of the only competitors out here actually spinning in the wind, saying, ‘I can do this. No problem. This is a winter sport, these are winter conditions.’ I think the gold is Jamie’s to lose.”

***

LUGE – NBC

Play-by-play commentator Leigh Diffey on Team USA’s Chris Mazdzer: “The luge world will be speechless. An Olympic debutante wins gold and the favorite, Germany’s Felix Loch fails to get on the podium. America has a medal! – Chris Mazdzer hasn’t been within a scream of a World Cup podium this year, and he medals at the Olympic Games…Chris Mazdzer gives Team USA something they thought they would never see.”

***

OLYMPIC ICE PRESENTED BY TOYOTA – NBCSN

Olympic Ice Presented by Toyota is NBCSN’s live, daily figure skating studio show.

Analyst Scott Hamilton on Bradie Tennell: “She is unflappable. She is technically pure, solid. She doesn’t seem to get emotional around things. When she gets on the ice, it’s all business.”

Analyst Tanith White on Russia’s Yevgenia Medvedeva’s injury ahead of the Games: “Once in a while, having a little injury to sort of refocus – focus on that, focus on recovery, focus on your health as opposed to focusing on the Olympic Games looming, it can almost prepare you better mentally.”

***

ABOUT NBC OLYMPICS

A division of NBC Sports Group, NBC Olympics is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal’s Olympic Games coverage. It is renowned for its unsurpassed Olympic heritage, award-winning production, and ability to aggregate the largest audiences in U.S. television history. NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights on all platforms to all Olympic Games through 2032.

— PYEONGCHANG 2018 —