FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, February 11th, 2018
2018 PYEONGCHANG OLYMPICS – FEB. 11 DAYTIME HIGHLIGHTS ON THE NETWORKS OF NBCUNIVERSAL
** UPDATE** – Tonight’s women’s giant slalom event has been postponed and will be rescheduled for later in the Games
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“Chris Mazdzer hasn’t been within a scream of a World Cup podium this year, and he medals at the Olympic Games.” – Leigh Diffey
“From crash to gold, an unlikely skiathlon story.” – Al Trautwig on Norway’s Simen Hegstad Kruger
“If falling down were an Olympic sport, I’d be a triple gold medalist.” – David Feherty
NBC’s Primetime Coverage, Live Across All Time Zones, Begins at 7 p.m. ET Tonight Featuring Team USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin, Chloe Kim & Jamie Anderson
All Events Live Streamed on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app
STAMFORD, Conn. – February 11, 2018 – Tonight’s primetime coverage of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games from PyeongChang, South Korea, is highlighted by:
- NBC’s primetime presentation, which begins at 7 p.m. ET live across all time zones, featuring Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin in the women’s giant slalom on NBC;
- Defending gold medalist Jamie Anderson headlining the U.S. contingent in the women’s slopestyle final in snowboarding, alongside teammates Julia Marino and Hailey Langland;
- Live coverage of 17-year-old sensation Chloe Kim and U.S. teammate Kelly Clark, the most decorated Olympic snowboarder of all-time, competing in qualifying round women’s halfpipe action in primetime plus on NBC;
Click here for a preview of tonight’s primetime action.
Following are highlights from today’s coverage of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on NBC and the networks of NBCUniversal:
NBC Olympics’ daytime host Rebecca Lowe interviewed 17-year-old snowboarder Red Gerard following his gold medal win in the men’s slopestyle event. Following are excerpts from their conversation.
Gerard on waiting out the final run by Canada’s Max Parrot: “I was so mellow, honestly. I was so excited, I already knew I was on the podium. I couldn’t believe that I had already made it onto the podium at the Olympics, so to get bumped from first to second wouldn’t have been that big of a deal to me.”
Lowe: “If I told you, let’s say three months ago, ‘Red, you’re going to win a gold medal at the Olympics in slopestyle,’ what would you have said to me?”
Gerard: “I probably would have stressing out to be honest. I would have been thinking about it the whole time, so I’m happy you didn’t.”
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Lowe interviewed Olympic correspondent David Feherty following his feature on Team USA biathlete Lowell Bailey. Following are excerpts from their conversation:
Feherty on the impressive accomplishments of biathletes: “I shoot targets at home in Texas, and to be with someone that is so expert at it – to hit the middle of a target, as often as he does, and to be able to do it with a 190 (beats per minute) heart rate? Biathletes say it’s like sprinting up 10 flights of stairs and then trying to thread a needle. It really is an extraordinary feat.”
Feherty on being in awe of events at the Winter Olympics: “So many of these activities seem insane to start off with. Cross country skiing must be the most exhausting physical activity that there is. Then you have the ski jump – how did that start? Fling myself off into the great white yonder and land like a yard sale. That’s how it had to start, and somebody did it again.”
Feherty on what Olympic sport he would compete in: “If falling down were an Olympic sport, I’d be a triple gold medalist. I fell up on the mountain today, and then fell down twice trying to get up. I’m not sure if that’s three falls, or perhaps it would be a ‘triple klutz.’”
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MEN’S LUGE – NBCSN
Analyst Duncan Kennedy on American Chris Mazdzer: “Chris has been ‘Mr. Consistency’…He knew that’s what he has to do and he’s doing it. So many of these top sliders cannot find that consistency, but he’s got it.”
Play-by-play Leigh Diffey on Mazdzer: “29-year-old American Chris Mazdzer is on the verge of making U.S. Olympic history. A male singles luge slider from the U.S. has never won a medal. Chris is aware of that and is embracing the moment. He has had the best Olympics of his life.”
Kennedy on Olympic Athletes from Russia’s Semen Pavlichenko: “He is known for just really putting it on the line and taking chances with his position. Sometimes it works out for him, and sometimes it doesn’t, and this week it did not.”
Diffey after the final run: “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.”
Diffey on Leslie Jones tweeting throughout the Olympics: “And if you’ve been following the hilarious tweets of Leslie Jones from ‘Saturday Night Live,’ I wonder what she’s going say now. She’s a big fan of Chris.”
Mazdzer to reporter Lewis Johnson on what his win means to him: “It’s sixteen years in the making. I’ve had a rough last two years and it just shows don’t ever give up. Whenever you’re at your lowest you can keep fighting.”
Watch Mazdzer win the first U.S. men’s singles luge medal here.
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WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY – NBCSN
Coach Robb Stauber on the team’s performance and opening win: “I’m very thankful for a very hard fought game. I’m very thankful that it was that tough, because it should be tough to win here. It’s good to get one of those out of the way right away. A nail biter in a sense. It was a great game for us and now we get to move forward to the next one.”
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WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY – USA
Analyst Erika Lawler on the Canadian women’s hockey 5-0 win over the Olympic Athletes from Russia: “They’re green, they’re growing and they’re going to peak on time.”
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MEN’S SPEED SKATING – NBCSN
Analyst Joey Cheek on three-time Olympic 5000m gold medalist Sven Kramer of the Netherlands: “He’s got this moment in the race, and it doesn’t always happen at the end, where he just cranks the speed up and goes into a whole other gear…Look how easy he makes it look. He is waiting, like some sort of cat that’s going to pounce…If you want to skate Olympic records, you’ve got to skate like this guy.”
Kramer to reporter Steve Sands on staying at the top of the sport: “Well everybody said getting to the top is much easier than staying there. To be honest, I think one of my secrets is that I really love what I’m doing. I really love the sport and am really enjoying every training every day. That’s what is keeping me up at this level.”
Watch Kramer win 5000m Olympic gold here.
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MEN’S SKIATHLON – NBCSN
Play-by-play commentator Al Trautwig on Norway’s Johannes Klaebo: “Bjorn Daehlie has looked at Klaebo and said, ‘He skis the way I have never seen anyone ski before.’ And this from a man who used to win races by so far that he could go across the finish line backwards…If Klaebo could somehow pull this off at 21 years old, he would be the youngest to ever win gold in this event. But since we have had a 17-year-old already win gold (in snowboarding) it seems easy peasy.”
Analyst Chad Salmela added: “It normally takes years to build the kind of aerobic capacity and strength it takes to win at this level. That is what is so uncanny about Klaebo at 21 years of age. He has won nearly every race he has started this year, and he just doesn’t have the backlog of training that most of the athletes in this field have.”
Trautwig on Norway’s Simen Hegstad Kruger’s improbable gold medal performance: “From crash to gold, an unlikely skiathlon story.”
Watch Kruger’s gold medal finish here.
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MEN’S BIATHLON – NBCSN
Play-by-play commentator Steve Schlanger on several competitors missing the 10th shot at the range: “It’s like having that putt for birdie on the 72nd hole at St Andrews to win The Open Championship. You’ve been playing so well but then there is so much on the line, so much at stake and you start to think about.”
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— PYEONGCHANG 2018 —
