Skeleton in the Winter Olympics

[likelysuspect]

Gordon Bennett!!

Are they mad?

Its making me anxious watching them.

Im not sure Ive seen this before, not sure how Ive missed it

That coach looks grim, I wouldn’t like to go back to him after my skate.

It was a reluctant cuddle wasnt it

Yes - head turned the other way

I’d be crushed by that

It was. The skater did have some beautiful moments as well as his wobbly ones.

The Japanese coach gave his poor skater a proper death stare.

If Team GB want someone who's good at falling over I can offer my services.

Does anyone else think they ever finish the arms off properly in the ice skating - they just sort of throw them out and back in- looks messy

craig revel horwood would have a field day

Oh no!

must be something on ice

Omg and again

Poor American bloke he looks gutted.

Lots of gasps here in my living room. Oof

Also OH says 'they're anorexic, so skinny'

Im like are you joking, they're just not big flabbies like us sat on the sofa!!! Look at the muscle on them

They do look skinner this year. I remember watching dancing figure skaters back in the 70s and 80s and they were well muscled up. Huge thighs and glutes to support themselves.

I wonder. I don’t remember there being as many falls usually. Perhaps they are over-extending themselves?

Edit: Claire Balding has just said it’s the pressure, but is it heavier now than usual?

Wow, I was not expecting that from Malinin. The Kazakh couldn't seem to take in what had happened.

I'm sure i heard they're using the same rink for the speed skating and the figure skating, some speed skaters were complaining that the ice wasn't right, maybe it wasn't for the figure skaters either, they need different things apparently and maybe it didn't quite hit either.

Could be. Although I think the issue for the speed skaters is the figure skaters toe picks. The figure skaters are used to slightly rougher ice.

the team events were really clean. I don’t think there were any falls on the first day. Not sure about the second.

obviously they were saving them all up for the men’s final.

I wondered that this evening but speed skaters looked bigger

OH said he thought it was the ice

LIke we know of course!

I've never seen so many falls. Obviously the tricks get more complex over time, but even so.

Different seating set ups round the ice, maybe.

Am fed up. Just watched skating and now, in the final 5 to skate, it's gone from the bbc... I guess didn't want to pay.
Now I can't watch!

If you mean the figure skating, they showed it! It ended a bit ago.

My antenatal class had a woman who occasionally mentioned professional sport. When probed it turned out she was a GB skeleton Olympic medal winner two years prior.

She seemed quite normal!

You are definitely correct.

I loved the cross country skier who wears a vest top. I do cross country skiing and I get so hot. I am not at all fast or fit but we did go skiing at an Olympic resort and I went round the 5K course in the time it takes the real athletes to do about 30L.

By the way I recently listened to The Favourites, an audio book about figure skaters, loosely based on Wuthering Heights. It sounds very cutthroat though the audio book has funny moments too.