FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, February 7th, 2022

2022 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES – FEB. 6 PRIMETIME HIGHLIGHTS ON NBC & PEACOCK

“That’s just a really heartbreaking experience for Mikaela, but she has a lot more chances in these Olympics.” – Ted Ligety on Mikaela Shiffrin skiing out in giant slalom

“It was like haute couture. There was something just so special and unique about that performance.” – Johnny Weir on Madison Chock and Evan Bates’ ice dancing performance

U.S. Women’s Hockey Team Faces Rival Canada in 2018 Gold Medal Game Rematch Live Tomorrow, Monday, Feb. 7 at 11:10 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock

Three-Time World Champion and 2018 Olympian Nathan Chen Highlights Men’s Figure Skating Short Program Tomorrow Live in Primetime at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock

STAMFORD, Conn. – Feb. 6, 2022 – NBC Olympics continued its primetime coverage of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, China, tonight on NBC, USA Network and Peacock. Mike Tirico serves as NBC Olympics primetime host and opened coverage.

In tonight’s show, Tirico narrated a feature on two-time Olympic gold medalist and the winningest slalom skier in World Cup history Mikaela Shiffrin, who recalls the loss of her father after he passed away in February 2020.

Also as part of tonight’s primetime show, Tirico discussed the statement from IOC President Thomas Bach regarding Chinese tennis star and three-time Olympian Peng Shuai.

Monday marks Tirico’s final night hosting Olympic primetime coverage from Beijing. Maria Taylor and NBC News’ Craig Melvin will co-host Tuesday night’s coverage, with Taylor at NBC Sports’ International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn., and Melvin in Beijing. Tirico will host primetime coverage from Stamford on Wednesday and Thursday before traveling to Los Angeles for Super Bowl LVI. He will anchor Friday and Saturday night primetime Olympic coverage from a set outside SoFi Stadium. Tirico will host Super Bowl LVI pre-game coverage and primetime coverage on NBC’s “Super Gold Sunday,” before returning to Stamford on Monday where he will anchor the remainder of the Games.

Highlights of upcoming coverage include:

    • One of the fiercest rivalries in sports and a rematch of the 2018 women’s hockey gold medal game will be presented when the U.S. plays Canada in pool play tomorrow, Monday, Feb. 7 live at 11:10 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock. Pre-game coverage begins at 10:45 p.m. ET;
    • Three-time world champion and 2018 Olympian Nathan Chen highlights the men’s figure skating short program tomorrow live in primetime at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock (also presented live at 8:15 p.m. ET on USA Network);
    • Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Travis Ganong are expected to lead the U.S. alpine skiing team in the men’s Super-G tomorrow live in primetime on NBC and Peacock;
    • The women’s freestyle skiing big air final will air tomorrow live in primetime at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock as 2018 Olympian Maggie Voisin is expected to vie for a spot on the podium, while Eileen Gu (China) is also expected to be a medal contender.

 

Following are highlights from tonight’s primetime coverage of the Winter Olympics on the platforms of NBCUniversal:

ALPINE SKIING – NBC & PEACOCK

Dan Hicks on Mikaela Shiffrin’s fall in her giant slalom run: “Unbelievable. Shiffrin, who is one of the most consistent and mistake-free skiers that we’ve ever seen, goes down on her hip and out in her first run here in Beijing…You never know what’s going to happen in the Olympics with all the pressure and all that’s on the line.”

Ted Ligety on Shiffrin: “It just shows how steep this thing is. She was just trying to cling on to that line with her fingernails, trying to stay on the course, and when it is this steep, there is just no chance of getting back in it…That’s just a really heartbreaking experience for Mikaela, but she has a lot more chances in these Olympics.”

Steve Porino: “It is hard to overstate what a perfectionist Mikaela Shiffrin is. The fact that she went out just a few seconds into this race is something. She was attacking…but you don’t see this very often.”

Porino on Shiffrin’s aggressiveness: “Mikaela Shiffrin was not mailing this one in, she was going hard. And that provoked the issue. It takes a lot of courage to get in a position that is so precarious, but she didn’t get out this time”

Shiffrin to Todd Lewis on her fall: “I was attacking and just a small mis-timing kind of when I set my edges, and just slipped out. It’s an amazing surface, it’s such amazing conditions, but you don’t have any room for some small errors…and I was pushing, so I’m really happy with that, but yeah, five gates into the course, that stings.”

Shiffrin to Lewis on her outlook moving forward in these Games: “It’s hard not to dwell…but I just cannot afford to spend or waste energy on something that’s now in the past…I’m going to reset, focus on what I can control for the slalom. There’s still a long two weeks to go, and I’m still looking forward to it. I’m sorry that that was the performance that I did today, but that also happens and, well, I want to hide the disappointment but I’m also not going to dwell on that because that’s not going to help me at all.”

Ligety on lack of practice at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Centre on Xiaohaituo Mountain: “It just shows how important it was for these women to get over there and get some training on the snow and these conditions. Coming from Europe, it’s a huge adjustment to go from the icy conditions to these dry, manmade conditions. It’s a real challenge. Your skis want to bite on you, they’re turning at a different radius, and it almost feels like somebody’s yanking your foot around.”

***

FIGURE SKATING – NBC & PEACOCK

Terry Gannon on the U.S. ice dancing team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates: “A statement and a reminder of how deep and how talented the U.S. ice dancers are.”

Tara Lipinski on Chock and Bates: “This is the thing with Madison and Evan — their elements are so exceptionally executed, they should be in many cases, the highest scoring elements of the night. So, their recipe for a great score might differ from others, but it gets there.”

Johnny Weir: “(Russia Olympic Committee’s Victoria) Sinitsina and (Nikita) Katsalapov skated the crowd-pleaser, they skated a program that they knew would work at the Olympics, but Chock and Bates it was like haute couture. There was something just so special and unique about that performance. It was the first time I’ve loved that free dance all season, and they earned that.”

Gannon on Karen Chen’s free skate in the team event: “Time and again she’s been counted out, there have been doubters. Karen Chen keeps coming back.”

Lipinski on Chen: “She looked so relaxed in this performance today. She said before the short program, she’s a little sad when she leaves China because she knows that her career is coming to an end and she just wants to embrace every positive and negative performance or skate here with the best attitude and remember this as her final Olympics. I think this free skate was an incredible way to do that.”

Lipinski on ROC’s Kamila Valiyeva: “The first to land a quad, the first to land two quads – what she is doing is other-worldly. It’s almost like a special effect. Is it even real?”

Weir on Valiyeva: “She is the best skater I’ve ever seen. The way she utilizes the ice to help her get up into these jumps, the technique on those jumps, her style…she’s not going to be happy with that performance because she missed that one element, even the rest of the world should only be so lucky to skate like that.”

***

FREESTYLE SKIING – NBC & PEACOCK

Hannah Kearney on Team USA’s Jaelin Kauf’s moguls silver medal: “She did the absolute best she could. Today it was silver, and that is a gold medal in her eyes, in her family’s eyes. That was incredible. There were doubters out there after she did not perform wearing the No. 1 bib at the last Olympics, and here she is bringing home a medal for the United States of America.”

***

TIRICO ON PENG SHUAI

Tirico: “The International Olympic Committee released a statement saying that IOC President Thomas Bach had that promised dinner with Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis star and three-time Olympian. That dinner happened 36 hours ago. Peng later attended the China-Norway curling match. The carefully-worded statement also said that Peng plans to attend more events in the coming days, but it made no mention of Peng’s allegations from earlier this fall of sexual coercion by a former high-ranking Communist Party official. After not being seen publicly for nearly three weeks, there was and still continues to be an international outpouring of concern. Thomas Bach had a call with Peng, you might remember, back on November 21 aiming to establish her well-being. It ended up raising even more questions, which this latest development does little to quell. In addition, Peng was interviewed for the first time by an independent media outlet – the French newspaper L’Equipe – but she was accompanied by an official from the Chinese Olympic Committee, continuing concerns about her ability to speak freely.”

ABOUT NBC OLYMPICS

NBCUniversal will provide coverage of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games from Feb. 2-20. The Opening Ceremony will be presented on Friday, Feb. 4, live in the morning and again in primetime on NBC and Peacock. Similar to recent Winter Games, NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage begins the night before the Opening Ceremony on Thursday, Feb. 3. Coverage begins on Wednesday, Feb. 2, on USA Network and Peacock. NBCUniversal is presenting its 18th Olympic Games, 12th consecutive overall, and sixth straight Winter Games, all the most by any U.S. media company.

— NBC OLYMPICS —