She just won silver in Freestyle Skiing: Moguls. Moguls scores are 60% based on mogul turn technique, 20% on speed and 20% on the quality of the jumps. Jaelin was F*ING FLYING down the hill to maximize the speed portion of her score. All french fries, no pizza slice, that’s for sure.

What might have also helped were the two special necklaces she was wearing, gifts from her mother who was also a pro skier. The first she received four years ago for the 2018 Olympics where she had a disappointing games. The second was sent to Jaelin when she was already in China and included a pearl and a diamond from her grandmother. “She wrote this whole note, but basically, a pearl is made from grit and turned into something remarkable,” Kauf said. Love it.

And just like our first medal, it came from the women’s team in an X-Games type event and the gold medalist, Jakara Anthony got her country their first-ever winter gold medal. This time it was New Zealand’s neighbor Australia!

I just watched the entire coverage of the men’s 5K Long Track Speed Skating and they seem to be doing a “Venue Ceremony” right after the race is finished that doesn’t include medals but PANDA STUFFED ANIMALS. Well, to be specific, the Olympic mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen.

The announcers said there will be a medal ceremony later on but there is something hilarious about Scandinavian men, descended from Vikings, battling it out for a stuffed animal.

Are these going to be the new Beanie Babies and traded amongst the athletes like pins and souvenir condoms?

Nils Van Der Poel of Sweden, in the last skate of the event, had an inspirational last lap to take the gold. Silver medalist Patrick Roest of the Netherlands, who was sitting with the gold and the Olympic Record for over an hour, was very upset and moped around for a little while before seemingly coming around to be excited for the Silver, and the panda.

But Van Der Poel dropped the panda at one point to hold up the Swedish flag….he’s going for another gold in the 10,000 later this week and I’m a little worried for his chances now that he’s disrespected the panda stuffed animal. They also made them walk around the venue with the pandas and wave a lot, again, hilarious.

Will Bing Dwen Dwen get the last laugh? Tune in on Friday, February 11 at 3:00am for the live answer…you know I will be because time doesn’t exist for me during the Olympics.

And the first medalist of the United States in 2022 is…..JULIA MARINO with a silver medal in snowboarding slopestyle. You can watch the full replay here.

The crazy part is that of the 3 American women in this competition Julia was the least talked about. Jamie Anderson was the twice reigning champ and an obvious medal frontrunner. The third American, Hailey Langland, was attempting a redemption story after a disappointing 2018 Olympics and is dating men’s slopestyle’s reigning gold medalist Red Gerard.

But Julia had an amazing second run of three and is bringing home the hardware and has the exciting honor of being the first medalist for the United States in the 2022 Olympics!

This is incredibly fitting because the US ladies brought home more medals than the US men in 2018 for the first time in 20 years (which has long been the trend in the summer Olympics).

Also, the gold medalist, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott from New Zealand, won her country’s first Winter Olympic gold medal EVER. An exciting and rewarding contest all around.

Round Robin Play: USA V. CZECH

While this is still round-robin play, this is a pretty important match because the USA is currently in fifth and there are only three more matches before the top four teams move on to the semifinals. Czech is currently seventh so getting a win here would help keep us in contention for the medal rounds.

The USA Team: Vicky Persinger & Chris Plys

Instead of giving you any useful background information about either of them I’m going to share an Instagram post of them with an animal.

Here We Go

• I didn’t know the Czech team was a married couple. I wonder if that actually makes much of a positive difference in a sport like curling where you take turns and can talk in between “plays”. I guess one could more easily call out the other if they are claiming they can make a shot that they actually always miss. “Are you going to make that shot just like you make the bed every morning? Didn’t think so.”
• As a very novice curler myself, it is ridiculous to see some of the shots they are able to make with ease. When I throw a rock I still have to use a plastic handle thing for balance, the equivalent of training wheels for curling. They are 73% accuracy, I am probably 25%.

• Not loving they left the door open for Czech to score 5….I guess the fact it’s only 3-1 after 2 ends isn’t that bad overall but we aren’t looking too sharp right now. The announcer definitely called out Chris pretty hard by saying he had the lowest accuracy of all guys in the tournament. Not a great stat to have.
• Ok, I feel a lot better now they followed that last end with 3 themselves to return to the lead. I’m also loving their teamwork and how supportive they are of each other…should they also be a married, curling couple/team?
• Remember the Russian married mixed doubles team that got a medal in 2018 and then got caught doping…still cracks me up.

• TIED GAME…this is getting very exciting. I was worried with some of the high scoring ends it was going to get out of hand. But I’m also watching this on the Peacock app so I’ve seen the commercial for JLo and Owen Wilson’s “Marry Me” ten times and the more I watch the preview the more I think there is no way they would ever fall in love…unlike curlers.
• “GHASTLY ERROR”….I’ve thrown rocks past the house SO. MANY. TIMES. That makes me feel a lot better. Like when you see someone playing golf on TV shank it.
• Unfortunately, it does seem like the Power Play is what doomed them this match and possibly the tournament as a whole. There’s still a chance if they win their final two matches and some other pieces fall into place. We’ll see what happens!

I know there are A LOT of thoughts on these opening ceremonies. The games have a long history of being political but these ceremonies, and their coverage, felt the most influenced by current and impending world events since I’ve been alive.

I’m not going to pretend that I’m even remotely knowledgeable enough to comment on a lot of what happened during the ceremonies last night. But I did have 1 very important takeaway….

MY NEW LIFE GOAL IS TO BECOME ONE OF THE PEOPLE THAT DANCES FOR TWO HOURS DURING THE PARADE OF NATIONS

I don’t have the upper body strength to hold a snowflake above my head for two hours but I think I could joyfully dance for two hours to usher in all the Olympians. They had a few synchronized routines but most of what they do is “solo dancing in the corner of the room.” I spent four years of college perfecting that.

Here are some examples if you look in the background:

LA2028 is only 6 years away so I should probably start training now. Maybe it will be the start of a love story if someone sees my dance moves and is very impressed.

In the meantime, if you see me walking down the street like this, you’ll know what I’m working towards!

Mascot – Bing Dwen Dwen

“Bing” means ice and “Dwen Dwen” represents children in Mandarin. He is obviously a panda, no surprise there, but the big twist is he’s got a magical ice space suit? If you watch the video on the official mascot page, he does in fact go into space and high-fives an astronaut. Maybe it’s a secret dream of all pandas? I’d rate him a 6.5/10. He’s no kung-fu panda but he’ll do.

BUT, I think they had trouble translating him into costume for events. He looks like he’s wearing multiple hoodies…and took many things at a music festival and is being escorted to the medical tent, just to be safe.

Medals – “Tong Xin” meaning “Together as One”

The Olympic medals are inspired by Jade pendants from ancient China. There is a lot of subtle symbolism built-in, like five rings on the front for the Olympic rings. I’m actually going to give these an 8.5/10 because I had a couple of “ancient Asian coins” as a kid that I thought were the coolest. So I fully acknowledge this rating is purely based on personal nostalgia. The sorcerer in my Playmobile castle used those coins to trade for more beakers for potions all the time.

Paralympic Mascot – Shuey Rhon Rhon

Saving the best for last, Shuey Rhon Rhon.

1. The name itself, Shuey Rhon Rhon is very fun to say out loud.
2. Shuey Rhon Rhon is an anthropomorphic Chinese lantern. Lanterns represent harvest, celebration, warmth and light. Who doesn’t love all those things? Especially a good harvest!
3. Even though Shuey Rhon Rhon is a lantern so can fly and likes snowboarding he seems very grounded and wants to make our world a better place. He’s not trying to visit space for funsies like some celebrities and billionares and a certain Panda are doing…..
4. Shuey Rhon Rhon. That’s all. Just his name again.

Shuey Rhon Rhon: 10/10.