Day 8: To spoil or not to spoil...

So I am now 0 for 3 so far in terms of not knowing who won the skiing events at the Olympics until it aired on NBC. On Tuesday, I was watching the figure skating preview show on Universal Sports and they interrupted their chat on the skating to let everyone that Bode won bronze. On Wednesday, I was signing off my email at work, and bam! there it was, Lindsay Vonn wins gold. And then yesterday, I was in the supermarket when I ran into someone who shall remain nameless who said, "can you believe she missed a gate!" so I knew Vonn did not win. (But yay for Julia Mancuso's second silver medal of the Games, which I did not know about in advance.) I have kind of come to terms with the fact that some events will be spoiled for me over the course of the Olympics, but it leads me to the following question: Who prefers to find out what happens right away and who prefers to wait until they can watch it play out on television? I think my thoughts on the subject are obvious, but if not, keep reading.

Let me tell you about my dedication (some might have other words for it) to the sport of figure skating. My friend Miriam B. came over to watch the men's long program with me last night. She had dinner plans earlier in the evening (happy birthday, Zehava) so we agreed to watch it a little late from my dvr. My roommate, Sara C. and my sister Rebecca both joined us as well. Over the course of the skating, both Sara C. and Rebecca managed to forget that we were not watching live and went online and accidentally found out the results. Miriam and I allowed them to keep watching with us provided that they observe my strict rules of no talking, making facial expressions or even breathing, lest they give anything away. As we watched each skater, the anticipation of watching the last performance of the night, Russia's Evgeni Plushenko grew - who would win, him or American Evan Lysacek. And then... my dvr stopped because the Olympics had run passed midnight and I forgot to record the News, even though I have been doing that every other night since the Olympics have begun. Sigh. After freaking out, Rebecca remembered that NBC reairs the Olympics at 2 am each night/morning, so I decided to wait until they showed Plushenko's performance at about 4:50 am. And it definitely paid off! Plushenko did the quad and a bunch of other jumps, but really had nothing else to offer. I was nervous that the judges were going to give it to him anyway since he's been so dominant this season, but once again props to them, the judging has been spot on so far. I think Evan deserved this one. I hope Plushenko doesn't feel like his entire comeback was a waste just because he didn't win. He is an exceptional skater who won his third Olympic medal: silver in 2002, gold in 2006 and silver last night as well. That's quite an accomplishment.

Anyway, back to me, I feel like Jimmy Roberts should do one of those sappy, emotional pieces on me about my dedication and perseverance to my sport. Talk about Olympic spirit.

I can't end this post without mentioning the Americans success in women's halfpipe, where Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark won the silver and bronze medals last night. Special shout-out to Torah Bright and her number one fan, Avi Z. for winning the gold.