Tara Lipinski on Olympics Figure Skating Drama and Russian Teens

[UGG]

Tara and Michelle's situation was completely different than this. Not sure why anyone would think the current situation is the same? Tara was the reigning world champ at the 1998 Olympics.

 

[starrynight]

I think it would be hard to be a minor at the Olympics (especially the Winter Olympics). Most of the post competition team activities I saw on social media were heavily based on alcohol (particularly from Canada). That sort of surprised me a bit to be honest.

Hopefully some effort was made for fun spaces and activities for the young athletes as well. Otherwise going to the MacDonalds was probably going to be the highlight for them!

 

[dramagrrl]

And this is just as fecking old. It is possible to criticise Lipinski and it have nothing to do with Kwan.

Exactly. Many people (myself included) find her commentary inarticulate, technically void, catty, and generally annoying. This has nothing to do with her as a skater or anyone's opinion of her as a skater and/or the competitions she may have won or lost.

 

[Coco]

I love her commentary, never found her catty in the least.

 

[Justathoughtabl]

I love her commentary, never found her catty in the least.

Never found her to be catty either.

 

[thvu]

When I was watching the Olys, my friends wanted to watch the NBC feed over the nbcsports one because Tara and Johny were catty!

 

[Justathoughtabl]

When I was watching the Olys, my friends wanted to watch the NBC feed over the nbcsports one because Tara and Johny were catty!

Not catty, but not saccharine sweet either. It's like when a high school teacher or college professor would tell me I could do better on a paper, rather than "You're doing great!" because that was real and helpful. Not catty, just critical in a fair way.

 

[quiqie]

2. Alina was just excited to see McDonalds? That's an NBC storyline if I've every heard one. Take a look at this documentary where she reveals the pressure of trying to win competitions to support her family. Pretty sure she understood what a big deal the Olympics were...

I keep seeing this thing about Zagitova supporting her entire family with her skating, and there is something I think needs to be clarified:
1. In the documentary, she discusses her injuries and being fired by Eteri, coming back and finding new motivation for skating. She says that having gone through the hard times helped her realize what her goal is and that now she knows if she achieves something in skating, she will be helping her parents (she doesn’t say “huge help” as the captions say).
2. She does not come from a financially struggling family. To borrow the terminology from the other thread, her family living in Izhevsk is comfortably middle to upper middle class, but supporting Alina and her grandmother in a rented apartment in Moscow definitely puts an additional strain on the family’s finances. Winning the Olympics means she now has a (modest) guaranteed income for the rest of her life, but in no way is she supporting her whole family with it and she definitely wouldn’t be starving even if she hadn’t won.
3. In a post-Olympic interview Alina said that after winning the Olympics she was allowed to eat an ice cream. While I do not doubt that Alina saw a McDonalds before, I’m also pretty sure she does not eat there regularly if at all and does not consider it suitable food for champions, so I can absolutely imagine she was surprised to see a McDonalds in the Olympic village.

 

[Andora]

I can't believe all the hyperbole over this article. It's such an innocuous profile, and really made her come across better than usual.

When I was watching the Olys, my friends wanted to watch the NBC feed over the nbcsports one because Tara and Johny were catty!

If not catty, than at least more... interesting? I switched to NBC instead of CBC to hear Tara/Johnny/Tanith/Terry. They were all miles and miles better than Kurt & Carole on CBC. Talk about a garbage commentary team.

 

[thvu]

If not catty, than at least more... interesting? I switched to NBC instead of CBC to hear Tara/Johnny/Tanith/Terry. They were all miles and miles better than Kurt & Carole on CBC. Talk about a garbage commentary team.

No one should be subjected to Carole Lane's commentary.