Mikaela Shiffrin threw up breakfast. Nathan Chen threw away his shot. And, just like that, NBC had to throw out its Olympics script.
What had been advertised as a medal march for U.S. Olympians Shiffrin and Chen became something else altogether on NBC’s broadcast and cable telecasts in the space of a few minutes Thursday night.
Something else, as in: Hey, coming up Friday, Team USA’s Lindsey Vonn competes in the super-G! Hello, Adam Rippon!
Whether it was nerves, norovirus or whatever, Chen and Shiffrin were humbled. So too, presumably, were those media folks who had jacked up what had seemed justifiable expectations under which they struggled to perform.
Figure skater Chen, a two-time U.S. champion, wobbled, stumbled and fell to 17th place after his short program.
Between this and Chen’s also uncharacteristically shaky performance in the team competition, which the U.S. skaters won bronze despite him, the American favorite’s reputation has taken a beating.
It was so bad, self-explanatory and pitiable that neither Tara Lipinski nor Johnny Weir, NBC’s sharp-tongued figure skating analyst/critics, had much to say about it beyond calling it a disappointment.
Chen’s failings were especially evident in that they came immediately after a performance by Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, the defending Olympic champ who’s back after losing part of the past skating season with a training injury.
Lipinski called Hanyu’s skate “everything you could ever want in a short program,” and Weir said it was “a masterpiece of epic proportion.”
Rippon, Chen’s outspoken U.S. teammate, is poised to be receive attention that otherwise might go to Chen. Lipinski dubbed him “the prince of the Olympics.”
As if to underline that, the NBC email newsletter it on NBCOlympics.com that was headlined “Defining moments for Mikaela Shiffrin and Nathan Chen come tonight" in its nightly preview Thursday and "Adam Rippon skated into America's hearts last night amidst unexpected performances" in its morning recap Friday.
Shiffrin had been seen as a multi-medal contender and cast as a shoo-in to at least place in the defense of her Olympic title in the women’s slalom, considered her strongest.
Certainty seemed only to grow after she took the gold the day before in the giant slalom, although having to stay up late for the medal ceremony may not have helped her. After all, the reigning overall World Cup champ had won 26 of the last 32 slalom races.
Then Shiffrin finished fourth.
She was a mere eight-100ths of a second away from a bronze medal, sure, but it was the first time Shiffrin had finished a slalom race short of a spot on the podium since 2014.
A few days earlier, as weather delayed the skiing events, NBC ski reporter Steve Porino said Italian competitor Sofia Goggia told him of how skiers out with Shiffrin during training runs “watched her ski, we stared at each other and our jaws dropped.’ Then Goggia said to me, simply, ‘Mikaela has already won the gold medal.’”
But shortly before Shiffrin’s first of two slalom runs, Porino said Shiffrin had looked relaxed until, “seconds ago (she) went behind my setting, vomiting heavily.”
Skiing analyst Bode Miller told of how nerves affected him when he raced, as it was assumed that was the issue getting to Shiffrin,
NBC’s Heather Cox asked Shiffrin about it at the bottom of the course after her first run.
“I don’t know,” Shiffrin said. “That was kind of sudden. It almost felt like a virus, less about nerves.”
Later, after the event, Shiffrin told reporters she had come to realize that it was in fact the pressure getting to her, not illness. But the degree to which NBC had been dubious of her illness claims was disconcerting.
Miller, wisely leaving jokes aside or whatever that was about marriage on Wednesday night’s broadcast, isolated the moment when winning slipped away from Shiffrin in her second run.
“Even after that mistake, it looked like she was tentative to take a risk on the bottom half of this course,” Miller said.
Back at the skating arena, Rippon fielded a question from NBC’s Andrea Joyce about his success at age 28, which puts him 10 years older than Chen.
Rippon, who has relished his star turn, cupping his hand to ear after his short program to encourage more cheering from the crowd, said he’s coming into his own, confident and having fun.
“I can’t explain witchcraft,” Rippon said.
Who can? But it makes a good story.
philrosenthal@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @phil_rosenthal
Like many great champions, Mikaela Shiffrin is compelling, and human, in defeat »
Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu leads heading into long program as Nathan Chen bobbles his short program »
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