![\"A](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Unknown1-e1771969399366.jpeg\")
<\/a>A bit of the stunning Italian Dolomite mountains and beautiful surroundings. Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the one at the top of this page. (And all of them, actually.)<\/p><\/div>\n
As many of you know, (at least I hope<\/em>\u00a0you do,) I tweeted over a dozen of my thoughts along the way. I had planned on many more, even as the shows were going on, but I just couldn\u2019t tear myself from watching to tweet. I was also always several hours behind the action, (because Italy is nine hours ahead of Los Angeles, and I couldn\u2019t force myself to stay up overnight and then sleep during the day, to watch live,) so, even with only a few hours sleep a night, I was totally time-constrained the entire time. I don\u2019t like repeating myself, so if you missed any of those tweets, my handle is @MajorCelebrity<\/strong> on X.com, (really still Twitter in my mind.)<\/p>\n First some overall impressions:<\/strong><\/p>\n I loved seeing all that beauty out there! And I do not mean the cute male athletes, such as Johannes Klaebo <\/strong>and Alex Hall<\/strong>\u2014I\u2019m referring to the Dolomite Mountains and other surrounding scenery. (Though I did<\/em> sit up a bit straighter every time those dudes showed-up!)<\/p>\n But I\u2019m sort-of disappointed that the TV peeps never gave us a tour of the cities and Olympics facilities, such as the Athlete\u2019s Village. That was strange. I thought we\u2019d at least see that sort of stuff on NBC\u2019s Late Night show, but instead, they did stupid little features, like the full-of-herself host, Maria Taylor,<\/strong> and Adam Rippon<\/strong>, (who was otherwise a highlight of their coverage,) giving citations to people who weren\u2019t smiling! Or Mary Carillo<\/strong> doing a long segment that was unabashedly an ad for a cruise ship company! Shame on them.<\/p>\n Spain’s Oriol Cardona Coll and Ana Alonso Rodriguez. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I know this is a tad weird for me, but Ski Mountaineering became my new favorite sport. It\u2019s the strangest! But I got fave athletes in it pretty quickly. I\u2019m soooo happy for all three medal winners, (well, actually six<\/em> because they competed in duos of each gender,) especially the Spanish guy, Oriol Cardona Coll<\/strong>, and girl, Ana Alonso Rodriguez<\/strong>. He\u2019s<\/em> the best in the world to begin with, and here\u2019s what Ana is going through: In October, she was riding her bike in a training session, and was hit by a car. She suffered a torn ACL and MCL, separated her shoulder and broke a bone in her ankle!!! She had to forego surgery on any of her injuries because then she could not have competed in the Olympics. So she didn\u2019t even train for one hundred days, and wound-up winning two bronze medals here! What a woman! (However, I<\/em> suffered a broken nail during her event, and could barely continue watching<\/em>!!!)<\/p>\n I was scratching my head about why so few stuffed animals got thrown on the ice for each skater. And then I realized\u2014they\u2019re most likely just way too expensive during the Olympics to throw away!!! Am I right or am I right?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve officially turned into my mother\u2014I desperately want to give tissues to all the athletes whose noses are running in the cold! (To the credit of the ice skaters, they blow their noses before<\/em> they start their routines.)<\/p>\n Now on to the athletes:<\/strong><\/p>\n Johannes Klaebo and his six, (out of six!,) Gold Medals! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Cross-country skier Johannes Klaebo<\/strong> has become my favorite athlete! I\u2019ve coined the name \u201cJoBo<\/strong>\u201d for him. Good, eh?\u00a0 He set records at this Olympics and he\u2019s also gorgeous. And more than all of that is that he especially adores his\u2026grandpa! Gramps is his coach! And best bud. I cried for over an hour when I saw a story on those two. I\u2019m not exaggerating.<\/p>\n The pure joy that Alysa Liu<\/strong> always has is even more wonderful than her skating. But her very unattractive animal-striped hair and yellow teeth, the front two of which have silver *\u201cjewelry\u201d on them, have got to go already!!! I used to think that she\u2019ll look back later in life and regret that she looked so awful in her shining moment, (as we all<\/em> do,) but I now think that Alysa is the most mentally-stable person and will get a kick out of her former bad looks instead of ruing them. *[I just found-out that what looks like teeth jewelry, (which I actually have myself, but would never use,) is really some weird kind of mouth piercing that she did herself! But it never moves when her lips do, so I assumed it was the glued-on pieces.]<\/p>\n Ilia Malinin congratulating Men’s Figure Skater Champion, Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan., right after Ilia himself had just lost the expected by everyone in the world Gold Medal. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I\u2019m still crushed for the best figure skater in the world, Ilia Malinin<\/strong>.\u00a0 In case you don\u2019t know, with the Gold Medal all but around his neck, he fell all through his final competition skate, and ended-up in\u2026eighth place!!! It was a disaster. He and Alysa could be the new faces of the \u201cthrill of victory and the agony of defeat.\u201d I didn\u2019t see or hear any mentions of this anywhere, but did anyone else notice that the Men\u2019s Free Skate occurred on\u2026Friday the 13th? No fooling that I feel that may have contributed to his situation.\u00a0And I swear\u2014I knew his catastrophic program was coming.\u00a0But this young kid was incredibly classy right after his scores came up, even though his head must have been spinning. In the wrong direction! He went right over to the shock winner and embraced him, and then even had the wherewithal to speak with the backstage NBC interviewer. (And, by the way, no sooner had I told Mr. X that this would not have happened to Ilia if the U.S. Figure Skating organization had sent him to compete at the previous Olympics in Beijing, an experience he had truly earned but was cheated out of by that Selection Committee, this wouldn\u2019t have happened here because he would have been used to the Olympics pressure, Ilia was overheard saying the very same thing to his coaches in the Kiss & Cry area! Everyone in sports needs to start listening to me<\/em>!)<\/p>\n Jutta Leerdam, (and her non-waterproof mascara,) upon winning. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n The best post-medal interview I\u2019ve ever seen was by U.S. women\u2019s hockey player Kendall Coyne Schofield<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Danish Speed Skating Champion Jutta Leerdam<\/strong> is beautiful, but I have two important words for her: waterproof mascara!<\/p>\n I really admire Cross Country Skier Jessie Diggins<\/strong> for winning a medal with bruised ribs! It reminded me of when I\u00a0broke a rib on the edge of my tub when getting out of a bath, but still managed to go to a major restaurant convention the next day! Twins. So, good for both of us. (I did<\/em>\u00a0go to the event, of course, but I hope you know I\u2019m kidding about the comparison!)<\/p>\n Jessie Diggins collapsing after her supreme effort to win her Bronze Medal. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I love young American Speed Skating Champion Jordan Stolz<\/strong>. He has a great voice and even better attitude. And he\u2019s intelligent, not full of himself, and talks like a grown-up. I\u2019d love to hear him as a commentator in a dozen years. Lovely fellow, as my mother would say.<\/p>\n How do Su Yiming<\/strong> from China, Gabriel Landeskog<\/strong> from Sweden, and three full Norwegian guys\u2014Marcus Kleveland<\/strong>, Atle Lie McGrath<\/strong>, and Lucas Pinheiro Braathen<\/strong>\u2014have zero<\/em> accents??? It boggles my mind.<\/p>\n And let\u2019s not forget the commentators:<\/strong><\/p>\n NBC and USA must read my tweets because shortly after I wrote a few complaining about certain things, they seemed to fix them a bit. The fix I was most happy about was that they started mixing their sound better on the Figure Skating competitions! Before my tweet to them, we viewers couldn\u2019t make-out what the commentators were saying amongst the skaters\u2019 loud music. Even on Mr. X and my great sound system! It got so much better from then on.\u00a0As a matter of fact, the entire sound system for all<\/em> those channels became so good after that that I could not tell which broadcasting teams were actually on-site, and which were doing their work from the Connecticut studio! The team that fooled me the most was Short Track\u2019s Ted Robinson <\/strong>and Katherine Reutter-Adamek<\/strong>. So good for them. (I figured-out the others from what they were saying, though. I\u2019m actually a very good detective.)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>