Before going to bed, here’s the quotage from Universal and NBC Sports from Day 4 of the Winter Olympics.
Let’s begin with the quotage from Universal Sports’ studio shows.
UNIVERSAL SPORTS AT THE VANCOUVER GAMES:NEWS, NOTES AND QUOTES FOR FEBRUARY 15, 2010February 15, 2010 — On the fourth day of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Universal Sports at the Vancouver Games continues its five-hour programming block, starting at 10 a.m. ET and continuing daily until the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, February 28.Vancouver Olympic News Center and Morning Buzz:News Alerts:Alexandre Bilodeau won the men’s moguls to become the first Canadian to win Olympic gold inside the country’s borders. Johnny Spillane held on at the finish to win silver in Nordic Combined, America’s first-ever medal in the sport. Nordic Combined veteran Todd Lodwick, second after the morning jump, finished a close fourth. Lindsey Vonn has gone through a complete slalom training session on her own, the toughest test yet for her bruised right shin. U.S. leads the overall medal count.Tom Steitz, former U.S. Nordic Combined Team Coach, on Spillane winning the United States’ first-ever Nordic Combined medal: “It’s like the Boston Red Sox and the Curse of the Bambino. It took 86 years to reverse the curse. I don’t know if there’s ever going to be a more exciting day than today. Ten years ago, there was no way we could have medaled. We all come to the Olympics hoping. But to be realistic (thinking this could happen)? No.”Steitz: (on Spillane’s jump): “This is as good as it gets. This is what you want to see. A guy coming out to the Olympics and doing his very best.”Steitz: (on the U.S. Nordic Combined team): “Amazing. They love each other, support each other and help each other. It’s a true team in every sense of the word. Physiologically, it takes ten years to build your body and get it up to these endurance levels. It takes a decade of solid, every-day training to get where these guys are. Three world champions, and now we have a silver medalist… the U.S. is by far the odds-on favorite to win the team event.”Jeremy Bloom, 2002 and 2006 Olympian, two-time Freestyle World Cup champion and Freestyle analyst: (on the disappointing day for the Americans in moguls): “You knew coming in you had to push the limits, had to go out of your comfort zone to win…There’s no shame in how Nate (Roberts) and Patrick (Deneen) skied. When you come to the Olympics, you roll the dice.”Bloom (on Bilodeau): “With all the pressure squarely on his shoulders, the hopes and dreams of the entire nation, he did it.”Andy Gabel, 1994 Olympic Silver Medalist and Speed Skating analyst (on The Netherlands’ Kramer winning the 5000 meters): “Sven Kramer probably has as much pressure on him as anyone at these Games; it’s The Netherlands’ national sport (speed skating). He brought the house down, it was fantastic.”Kenan Harkin, Snowboarding analyst (on snowboard cross): “It gets real close and personal. The sport borrows a lot from motocross with the contact and accidents. It’s a dangerous sport, with speeds reaching up to 40 mph and jumps of 20 feet.”Harkin (on predictions for the men’s event): “Seth Wescott is a definite threat as the reigning gold medalist. He really edged it out (in Torino). Snowboarding is a homegrown sport in the United States. Wescott and Nate Holland have been batting it out in the X Games all year.”Harkin (on predictions for the women’s event): “(Lindsey) Jacobellis has said she may pull the method grab again if the ‘jump feels right.’ It’s the spirit of snowboarding. She’s four years older, and she’s a little bit wiser.”Picabo Street, 1998 Olympic Gold Medalist, 2002 Olympian and Alpine skiing analyst (on what happens at the bottom of the course): “The finish line is oftentimes a very dangerous section of the course. Skiers come down, they get excited and look at their time. I’ve seen some gruesome crashes.”Street: “We call it the race switch. If you can turn it on, you can get in the Top 10. If you can’t focus, then you can’t get in the Top Three. You either have it or you don’t.”MEET THE OLYMPIC PRESS:Helene Elliott, Los Angeles Times reporter and honoree of the Hockey Hall of Fame (on women’s hockey): “The last two games I’ve seen (Canada vs. Slovakia, USA vs. China), there’s been a combined score of 30-1. I’m hoping it gets a little bit closer, a little bit more competitive.”Alan Abrahamson, NBC Olympics and Universal Sports reporter: (on Bode Miller, U.S. men’s downhill skier): “Anytime Bode comes in under the radar, it’s an advantage for him.”Jimmy Roberts, NBC Sports reporter and host of “Meet the Olympic Press”: “You don’t know what you’re going to get with Bode – it’s like watching a NASCAR race.Abrahamson (on a trend of U.S. doing better in Nordic/biathlon): “It’s by design. The U.S. has invested time and money into these sports. It’s clear, to win the medal count, you need to win medals in Nordic Combined and Biathlon, since there’s so many medals available.”Vicki Michaelis, USA Today reporter: “In Europe, they have venues everywhere. Not so in the United States…there’s what? Four jumping hills?”Michaelis: (on the Americans having only two spots in Ladies singles figure skating events, and no medals in past two World Championships): “The decline in (ladies) figure skating was possibly created by the dominance of Michelle Kwan for so long. But it’s a momentary lapse, the women will be back.”Abrahamson: “There’s a concerted effort to invest in all ice sports in Asia, including figure skating, speed skating, etc.”VANCOUVER REVIEW/PREVIEW:Eddie Olczyk, NBC Hockey Analyst: “There are six or seven teams that have a chance here. Certainly the pressure is on, expectations are high.”Olczyk: “(In Canada) Olympic hockey is the most important thing to them. To play for their home country…winning Olympic gold is more important than winning the (NHL) Stanley Cup.”Figure Skating Review/Preview:Peter Carruthers, 1984 Olympic Pairs Silver Medalist and Figure Skating analyst (on the performance of Chinese pair skaters Shen and Zhao): “What a start that was. Absolutely exceptional. Throws, jumps, lifts. The chemistry they have together. They now have this show quality, they perform and that’s so hard to do. It’s all seamless. So masterfully choreographed…when you can watch something like that and get immersed in the performance. Wow! That’s a home run.”Carruthers “This is far from over…less than a point separating first and second. Great to see the t
op teams all skated very well. We’re set up for a great program tonight.”Carruthers (on whether China will dominate): “I don’t think that’s going to happen (a Chinese sweep in pairs). What you’re going to see is a big battle between the Top Three. Who can put it together and win that free program? If the Chinese win the gold medal, it will be HUGE for pairs skating.”Kristi Yamaguchi, 1992 Olympic Gold Medalist and Figure Skating Analyst (on Mirai Nagusu): “She’s become the media darling of the Olympics. She’s a witty, young girl.”Shawn Johnson, 2008 Olympic Gymnastics Gold Medalist and Dancing with the Stars Champion: “What is a death spiral (in figure skating)? Sounds like something you shouldn’t even try.”Brian Boitano, 1988 Olympic Figure Skating Gold Medalist (on Evan Lysacek): “He’s perfectly clean, really well-trained and so focused. You’re not nervous and instead confident he’s going to do his best.”Boitano (on Jeremy Abbott’s Olympic medal potential in Vancouver): “I think the other person really floating under the radar is—and I hate to say it because I don’t want to jinx him—is Jeremy Abbott. If he skates like he did at the U.S. National Championships … he could win. I mean, I think he’s that good. I think he could win if he skates that well, as (he did) in the National Championships. It depends on how other people do, but he was so good (in Spokane).”WHAT TO WATCH FOR ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS NETWORK – TUESDAY, FEB. 16, 2010:Figure Skating Review/Preview: Guests include Jamie Salé & David Pelletier, 2002 Olympic Gold Medalists in Pairs Figure Skating, and Nastia Liukin, 2008 Olympic Gymnastics Gold Medalist.FUN QUOTES AND FACTS OF THE DAY:There’s a 5,500 mile-long border between the United States and Canada, the longest shared border between any two countries in the world.Yamaguchi (on Shawn Johnson’s performance during Dancing with the Stars): “She did moves no one else could.”Yamaguchi won the sixth season of the show. Two years later, Shawn Johnson, the youngest competitor to have appeared on the show to date, won with Mark Ballas, the same partner as Yamaguchi.Elizabeth Halverson, founder of Cowbell.com: “You want the bells to sound different (for the cows) so a farmer can find which one is missing…” Originally made to locate sheep, goats, and cows in Norway’s mountain pastures by a small factory in a tiny Norwegian town, the bells now add noisy clamor at sports events around the world.Harkin (on his zipline adventure in downtown Vancouver): “No form necessary on the zipline—it’s not figure skating, gravity does the work. It’s not a problem.”
To quotes from NBC’s daytime coverage.
DAY 4 DAYTIME HIGHLIGHTS OF NBC WINTER OLYMPICS COVERAGESwitzerland Takes First Ever Olympic Gold Medal In Cross-Country
Sweden Takes First Olympic Gold Medal In Women’s Cross-Country Since 1968
VANCOUVER - February 15, 2010 - Daytime coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games continued today on NBC. Live gold medal final coverage included the women’s cross-country 10km individual gold medal final and the men’s cross-country 15km individual gold medal final. Also, live coverage of men’s snowboard cross competition.
History was made today for Switzerland. Prior to today, Switzerland had not won an Olympic gold medal in men’s or women’s cross-country. Dario Cologna was the man to end the drought. For the firs t time since 1968, a Swedish woman won gold in cross-country. Charlotte Kalla became the third woman ever to medal in the event for Sweden.
Dick Button stopped by the studio with Al Michaels to preview the pairs gold medal final live in primetime tonight.
Coverage highlights include:
NBC:
DICK BUTTON’S PAIRS GOLD MEDAL FINAL PREVIEW:
BUTTON ON SHEN AND ZHAO’S SHORT PROGRAM PERFORMANCE: “They were wonderful. Their precision, their preciseness, their technique. All the elements that go into skating were simply breathtaking. Everybody says that they’re old. They’re 31 and 36. The Protopopov folks were too when they won an Olympic title. So that has nothing to do with it. They are in the best shape that I’ve seen any couple ever be in. They’re simply exquisite.”
BUTTON ON THE GERMAN PAIR SAVCHENKO AND SZOLKOWY: “I found what they did last night, what is true Olympic competitive spirit. They’ve been struggling and having a lot of problems during the year so far. Last night, they came through and did it magnificently. That I take my hat off to them.”
BUTTON ON THE GERMAN COSTUMES: “The music was ‘Send in the Clowns,’ and I think that’s what they’re trying to copy there. Don’t get me started on talking about costumes. We could talk for three hours about that.”
JIMMY ROBERTS ESSAY ON SHEN, ZHAO AND OLDER OLYMPIC COMPETITORS: “Seven months after US title holder Katie Denny was born, Shen and Zhao skated together in their first world championship. Now at an age when most in the sport had ceded the competitive high ground to those nearly half their years, the Chinese pair is back for their fourth Olympics.
‘We have come for the gold,’ they say. In their hearts that’s why everyone comes. But most are here to push themselves beyond any place they’ve ever gone before. They’ve come to compete. Like the swallows to Capistrano, they just keep coming back.
American Todd Lodwick so close to a medal yesterday, finishing fourth, is making his fifth Olympic appearance. But for a small and select cluster, there is only one reason to be here. For some, it works out. Dan Jansen side stepped tragedy and chased an Olympic title to four different games before dramatically seizing it in Norway. But for some, it doesn’t. Michelle Kwan won five world titles, but was ambushed twice by the young and unexpected before finally and tearfully admitting in Torino that she couldn’t chase gold any further.
Either way, the lure is strong. And so Shen and Zhao are back. They have accomplished much. Three world championships. Honored as the most influential sports figures in the history of the People’s Republic of China. And they were the other pair on the podium in Salt Lake City. But now they have returned for the one thing that matters most. The one thing to which they are pulled beyond all others.”
For the second day in a row, Roberts walked down memory lane with Al Michaels. Today, he showed a picture from the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics of Al and Dick Button.
WOMEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY 10KM INDIVIDUAL GOLD MEDAL FINAL
Al Trautwig (Play-By-Play), Chad Salmela (Analyst)
Gold: Charlotte Kalla, Sweden
Silver: Kristina Smigun-Vaehi, Estonia
Bronze: Marit Bjoergen, Norway
SALMELA ON TIME DIFFERENTIAL IN CROSS-COUNTRY: “30 seconds at this level is a lot of time over 10 kilometers.”
TRAUTWIG ON THE NORWAY, SWEDEN RIVALRY: “Yankees, Red Sox is Sweden, Norway.”
TRAUTWIG ON SWEDEN’S WOMEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY HISTORY: “Swedish women haven’t won a gold medal in cross-country since 1968 and in Olympic history they’ve only won two.”
TRAUTWIG ON KALLA TAKING GOLD: “They are rocking in Stockholm right now.”
“Everybody fell into Charlotte’s web.”
MEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY 15KM INDIVIDUAL GOLD MEDAL FINAL
Al Trautwig (Play-By-Play), Chad Salmela (Analyst)
Gold: Dario Cologna, Switzerland
Silver: Pietro Piller Cottrer, Italy
Bronze: Lukas Bauer, Czech Republic
TRAUTWIG ON THE RANGE OF COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING IN THE EVENT: “We’re convening a special session of the U.N. here today. We have 50 nations and 96 skiers in the race.”
SALMELA ON SWITZERLAND’S DARIO COLOGNA WINNING GOLD: “The man of the hour, Dario Cologna, has done just about everything in two years that you can do besides an Olympic medal, and he’s got a gold his first try.”
TRAUTWIG ON COLOGNA: “Today, he did the greatest thing he’s ever done on skis.”
TRAUTWIG ON THE ITALIAN COMPETITORS: “The Italians are famous, or, if you like the word notorious, for rising to the occasion for the Olympics.”
MEN’S SNOWBOARD CROSS COMPETITION
Pat Parnell (Play-By-Play), Todd Richards (Analyst), Tina Dixon (Reporter)
PARNELL ON SNOWBOARD CROSS: “Over a 700-foot elevation drop that fights the balance of friction and force and sometimes a little bit of fear.”
RICHARDS ON THE SNOWBOARD CROSS COURSE: “There’s a lot of big features in this snowboard cross course, big sweeping turns, a lot of table tops, plenty of areas to mess with your rhythm.”
“If you get down in those ruts, it’s doomsday for you.”
RICHARDS ON TEAM USA: “The American team is just stacked with talent.”
PARNELL ON DEFENDING OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST USA’S SCOTT WESCOTT: “A powerhouse when it comes to snowboard cross.”
PARNELL ON USA’S NATE HOLLAND: “Nate has had a blistering year. Five-time Snowboard Cross champ from the X-games and the only rider who has managed to beat Vaultier of France on the World Cup circuit. That says volumes about Nate Holland’s ability.”
PARNELL ON FRANCE’S PIERRE VAULTIER: “Talking with the American team earlier this week, they can’t even figure out what he does, how he’s able to bring his knees so high up and absorb those jumps. They’ve been watching tapes of him. That’s how ahead of his game, that’s how diligent he is with his training and technique”
PARNELL ON AUSTRIA’S MARKUS SCHAIRER: “It’s not easy to ride with three broken ribs that he sustained at the X-games.”
RICHARDS: “It’s hard enough to sleep with three broken ribs, never mind navigate this course.”
And we end with the quotage from primetime programming.
SETH WESCOTT WINS GOLD; BODE MILLER EARNS BRONZE; AND SHEN & ZHAO TAKE FIRST FIGURE SKATING GOLD“A fairy tale 18 years in the making.” – NBC’s Hammond on Shen & Zhao
VANCOUVER - Feb. 15, 2010 - Seth Wescott won gold in men’s snowboard cross, Bode Miller took bronze in men’s downhill, and China’s Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won gold in pairs figure skating on the fourth night of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. With Wescott and Miller’s medals, the United States increased its medal count lead to eight (two gold, two silver and four bronze). Germany is second with five.
Host Bob Costas introduced a touching feature produced by Canadian broadcaster CTV about the relationship between Canadian men’s freestyle gold medalist Alexandre Bilodeau and his older brother Frederic, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
Speed skating coverage of the men’s 500 meters was altered due to problematic ice conditions at Richmond Olympic Oval, which delayed competition for an hour and resulted in Team USA’s Shani Davis to withdraw. The conditions resulted in the following comments from speed skating analyst Dan Jansen and primetime host Bob Costas:
Jansen: “Quite frankly, it’s an embarrassing situation for the organizing committee.”
Costas: “A strange situation and certainly not acceptable at the Olympic Games.”
MSNBC’s coverage featured the women’s ice hockey game, Canada vs. Switzerland, which was won by the host nation, 10-1.
FIGURE SKATING:
Play-by-Play: Tom Hammond
Analysts: Scott Hamilton, Sandra Bezic and Tracy Wilson
Reporter: Andrea Joyce
Hammond on China’s medal favorites, Shen and Zhao, before their skate: “A fairy tale 18 years in the making.”
Hamilton on Team USA’s Caydee Denney & Jeremy Barrett: “Their meteoric rise has been fueled by their consistency.”
Hammond on Denney and Barrett: “Showing you why they’re U.S. champions and a force to be reckoned with and the future of pairs skating.”
ALPINE SKIING:
Play-by-Play: Tim Ryan
Analysts: Todd Brooker
Reporter: Steve Porino
Ryan on Bode Miller: “Arriving in Vancouver with a new attitude.”
Miller before his race: “I want to win, but I want to win by skiing a race I’m proud of.”
Ryan after Miller’s race: “That’s a look of satisfaction on the face of Bode Miller.”
Miller after the race: “I was pretty nervous this morning and that’s not unusual for me when I get in the big races and I’m really pushing hard. I get nervous. That’s the way it goes. I expect a lot out of myself and I’m going to push the limits.”
Olympic correspondent Cris Collinsworth, who joined Costas in the studio, on Miller’s win: “He showed some of the passion we didn’t see in Torino. If you’re at a World Cup or whatever and you don’t want to show passion, who cares? If you’re wearing the red, white and blue, you have to at least care.”
Brooker on Switzerland’s Didier Cuche’s expression after being favored and failing to medal: “That is a devastating look of disappointment. -- That’s a look of someone who is completely stunned.”
SNOWBOARDING:
Play-by-Play: Pat Parnell
Analyst: Todd Richards
Reporter: Tina Dixon
Richards on Wescott coming from behind to win: “It was like a chess game for him - just waiting for people to make mistakes so he could take advantage.”
Parnell: “Seth Westcott, in a sport where the one thing you can count on is absolutely nothing, controls his moment of gold, capturing America’s second ever.”
SPEED SKATING:
Play-by-Play: Dan Hicks
Analyst: Dan Jansen
Reporter: Andrea Kremer
Hicks: “Officials in this sport have never seen anything quite like it, especially on an indoor rink and in the Olympics.”
Jansen: “Quite frankl y, it’s an embarrassing situation for the organizing committee.”
Costas: “A strange situation and certainly not acceptable at the Olympic Games.”
ON LINDSEY JACOBELLIS:
Costas and Collinsworth discussed women’s snowboard cross athlete Lindsey Jacobellis, who famously fell in Turin resulting in a silver medal instead of gold and who will seek redemption tomorrow.
Costas: “I guess that’s the most famous silver medal.”
“I remember talking with her immediately after and the question that had to be asked was ‘What were you thinking?’ I was struck by the fact that, here’s a young woman and it’s kind of an awkward situation, but she handled it with as much grace as possible. I liked her immediately and I’m rooting for her this time around.”
Collinsworth: “As an athlete, you can’t wait to make up for a mistake. And unfortunately for these Olympians, you have to wait four years. And you just have to wonder if it’ll just add to the pressure tomorrow night.”
Below are highlights from MSNBC's Primetime coverage:
MSNBC, Women’s Ice Hockey:
Canada 10 vs. Switzerland 1
Bill Patrick (Host), Cammi Granato (Studio Analyst), Mike Emrick (Play-by-Play), AJ Mleczko (Analyst)
Granato on Canada: “The entire country is hoping for a gold. You would be hard pressed to find a Canadian that won’t be watching this tournament.”
Mleczko on Canada: “You talk about pressure in your homeland, but it’s not like anybody’s homeland. Hockey up here in Canada is a little bit different.”
That’s going to do it.
