RVAHub’s Olympic Must Watch Thursday Pick: Men’s Skeleton Medal Round

Our Pick: Men’s Skeleton Medal Round – Part of NBC12 Primetime Coverage starts 8 PM

Skeleton is the crazy person’s luge. Instead of going feet first you go head first. The skeleton event in the Winter Olympics uses a two-day, four-heat format. Thursday will be the second day so you’ll get to see medals being awarded. One thing to notice is that since the athletes’ heads are inches from the ice they’ve developed a bond with their helmets. These are the best from the last Winter Olympics and there is this NBC article on some of this year’s cool-ass helmets.

Photo: NBC Sports

Ghana’s first every athlete, Akwasi Frimpong to compete has a story behind his helmet called Lion Chases Rabbit.

“My former sprint coach Sammy Monsels talks about the analogy of a rabbit in a cage, ready to escape from a lion,” Frimpong said in an email Monday. “I am that rabbit, and I have escaped the lions [of my past]. I am no longer being eaten by all the things around my life.”

Who to Watch: The two American’s that are in the running are Matt Antoine (2014 bronze) and John Daly the slider, not the golfer. Although I’d pay really good money to see John Daly shoot down the track. This John prior to competing in skeleton was a BMX racer but stopped after breaking both wrists during a practice run.

Other sliders to watch include Martins Dukurs of Latvia and Axel Jungk of Germany.

What am I watching? – Basically, athletes throw themselves onto two long blades attached to a metal and plastic frame. They then fly down an ice chute head first. Skeleton sleds can reach speeds of around 80 mph as athletes fight intense G-forces created by the serpentine course to keep their heads up and their eyes on the track.

Also, Catch: Men’s Curling – MSNBC live at 2 PM

Curling is truly fascinating to watch and you’ll quickly invested in the strategy. You’ll even be able to use the term hammer for something other than construction and instead of following MC. Team USA takes on Italy in a men’s Curling round-robin game.

PyeongChang Winter Olympics Breakdown

When: Olympics run from February 9th – 25th
Where: PyeongChang, Republic of Korea. PyeongChang is a county in Gangwon Province of South Korea located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is approximately 180 km (110 mi) east southeast of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. (Wikipedia)

Mascot: Soohorang, a white tiger is the official mascot.

Official Olympic Website: PYEONGCHANG2018.COM

How to Watch: NBC, as you’ve probably seen, is the official broadcaster of the games. Full and detailed competition schedules, TV listings and live streaming schedules are available on NBCOlympics.com.

A total of 365.5 hours of Olympic coverage will be aired on NBCUniversal cable networks, which include NBCSN, CNBC, and the USA Network. The big events will be on NBC which if you’re a cable cutter you should be able to get over the air.

What we’re doing: PyeongChang South Korea is the home for the 2018 Winter Games. This is the 24th time athletes have taken to the snow and ice to compete for gold.

There are 15 official Winter Olympics events. All of those breakdown to individual competitions. For example, under the heading of Alpine Skiing, there are a total of 13 events to watch. This means there is a ton to keep track off.

That’s where we come in. We’ll pick the event or story to watch that you might miss.

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