FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 23rd, 2018
2018 PYEONGCHANG WINTER OLYMPICS – FEB. 22 PRIMETIME HIGHLIGHTS ON NBC AND NBCSN
“She is like the Elon Musk of figure skating.” – Tara Lipinski on 15-year-old Olympic figure skating gold medalist Alina Zagitova
“It was the most heartbreakingly beautiful ladies’ competition that I’ve ever seen.” – Johnny Weir
“They are chiseled out of granite.” – Scott Hamilton on Yevgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova
Red Gerard in Snowboarding Big Air and Alpine Skiing Team Event Final Highlight Friday’s Primetime Coverage on NBC at 8 p.m. ET
STAMFORD, Conn. – February 22, 2018 – Friday’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 the Olympic debut of men’s big air in snowboarding, as Team USA’s Red Gerard looks to follow up his gold medal from earlier in the Games*;
- The Olympic debut of the alpine skiing team event live on NBC in primetime, as nations compete in a bracket-style format featuring head-to-head slalom races*;
- The men’s 1000m in speed skating, as two-time Olympic gold medalist Shani Davis and U.S. teammate Joey Mantia take on the dominant Dutch team;
- Live coverage of the men’s curling gold medal game late Friday night at 1:35 a.m. ET/10:35 p.m. PT on NBCSN, as John Shuster and Team USA battle Sweden in search of the first Olympic gold medal in curling in U.S. history.
Following are highlights from tonight’s evening and primetime coverage of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on the networks of NBCUniversal:
FIGURE SKATING – NBC
Following are comments from play-by-play commentator Terry Gannon and analysts Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir on the three medal winners following tonight’s ladies’ free skate – Alina Zagitova (gold), Yevgenia Medvedeva (silver), and Kaetlyn Osmond (bronze).
Weir on Zagitova: “When she moved to Moscow at age 12 to train with her coaches, she had to learn to push herself. Now she’s pushing the entire world.”
Lipinski on Zagitova: “Her time is now. It was incredible from start to finish. For someone who just came on the senior team just this season, she skates like she’s been doing it for 10 years.”
Gannon on Zagitova: “It was absolute brilliance, even if it wasn’t how she drew it up.”
Lipinski on Zagitova: “She is like the Elon Musk of figure skating. She can see the things that have never been done before, and then she gets there and does them better and faster than anyone else.”
Lipinski on Medvedeva: “She delivered. She is so mentally tough. Alina Zagitova may have been stealing her thunder, but she’s not going down without a fight…no matter what, she skated as if to say ‘This is my time, not yours.’”
Gannon on Medvedeva: “I don’t know if we just watched gold, but I know we just watched greatness.”
Weir on Medvedeva and Zagitova: “Both of them are worthy champions of this Olympic Games. I felt the warmth and splendor of Medvedeva, I felt the calculated coolness of Zagitova. It’s an understatement to say they both deserved it.”
Weir on Medvedeva prior to the ladies’ free skate: “To quote Elizabeth Taylor, ‘Now is the time for guts and guile.’ Yevgenia Medvedeva has been the gold standard of figure skating for two whole years, which is pretty much unheard of. The only person she had to one-up was herself. A fire burns deep in her soul to be the Olympic ladies’ champion.”
Gannon on Osmond: “Kaetlyn Osmond brought her ‘A-game’ to the Olympics.”
Lipinski on Osmond: “That is how you fight for an Olympic podium. She brought that out.”
Weir on Osmond: “A swan has gotten her wings. Wow that was pleasing. The technique was beautiful and her style was excellent. It was all about putting it all together. That was the best I have ever seen her deliver a free skate.”
Weir on this year’s competition: “It was the most heartbreakingly beautiful ladies’ competition that I’ve ever seen.”
In addition, following are comments from Lipinski and Weir on Team USA’s Bradie Tennell, Karen Chen, and Mirai Nagasu.
Lipinski on Tennell: “Three and a half months ago, no one knew who Bradie Tennell was. Since then, she’s become a national champion and has skated in an Olympic team event. The pressure on Olympic ice is so intense, of course you might see her crack just a little bit.”
Weir on Chen: “There is a wonderful integrity to the performances Karen Chen gives…there were just too many technical mistakes.”
Lipinski on Nagasu: “That was definitely not the free skate she was hoping for…it’s just disappointing.”
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SHORT TRACK – NBC
Play-by-play commentator Ted Robinson on Chinese short track speed skater Wu Dajing in the men’s 500m: “A world record for the second time tonight and China’s historic first men’s short track gold.”
Analyst Apolo Ohno on Dajing: “Unbelievable how fast that man just skated…It was absolutely perfect in every single way. It was a symphony of short track 500m specialty.”
Ohno on Dutch short track speed skater Suzanne Schulting’s win in the women’s 1000m: “An unbelievable upset!”
Robinson: “Schulting has won the first gold medal in short track history for the Netherlands.”
Robinson on Hungary winning its first ever short track gold medal in men’s 5000m relay: “Hungary has done it! What a capper to this night. Incredible history…they seemed stunned themselves.”
***
WOMEN’S HOCKEY – NBCSN
American ice hockey players Kendall Coyne, Gigi Marvin and Dani Cameranesi joined host Liam McHugh to discuss their gold medal win. Following are excerpts from that conversation:
Gigi Marvin on her sentiment going into the shootout: “I just had so much peace in my heart.”
Dani Cameranesi added: “You especially want to win for your teammates. It is something you have been dreaming about all year, and all your life. I had no nerves on the bench. We had all the confidence in the world in our teammates.”
Kendall Coyne on being a role model for future generations: “For all of us, it is the biggest honor to represent the United States and to accomplish something that hasn’t happened in 20 years. A lot of us talk about the impact the 1998 team had on us as players. So to be able to be a role model for a bunch of young girls who will pick up hockey for the first time after watching this game is unbelievable.”
***
BIATHLON – NBCSN
Analyst Chad Salmela on Olympians battling the conditions during the fourth shooting performance of the women’s 4x6km relay: “Everybody is waiting out the wind. This is going to set up so much of the rest of the relay as the wind has picked up. Everybody is frozen still, trying to keep oxygen pumping to their eyeballs.”
Salmela on consecutive misses by several Olympians at the fifth shooting performance: “We call this a splat fest based on the sound of bullet not hitting the target.”
Salmela on the impact of the weather: “I think we can let people into our pre-race discussions — just yours and mine — about how we thought this was just going to be a dance for Germany, to take it wire to wire. And it’s been nothing but that. It just proves in biathlon that no matter how much of an expert you think you are, you’re never an expert especially when the wind comes out.”
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OLYMPIC ICE PRESENTED BY TOYOTA – NBCSN
Olympic Ice Presented by Toyota is NBCSN’s live, daily figure skating studio show.
Olympic Ice analyst Scott Hamilton on the competition between Zagitova and Medvedeva: “They are chiseled out of granite. I think the way these young women are prepared, trained and nurtured for battle is so unique to any other rink training center in the world.”
Olympic Ice analyst Tanith White: “Even though you are aware of the competition, when it comes time to do your job, you are up there by yourself. It is not like you are cutting through the tape, or neck-and-neck with your competitor. When you get on the ice you can only control what you can do. There is calmness with that.”
White on Zagitova: “When you are younger it is pretty typical to see skaters a little anxious to get through the moment…But she is 15-years-old. It is incredible to have this amount of poise on the ice already.”
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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 —
