I’m not sure if it’s the general state of the world or that it’s been cold and snowy in New England and I have no where to go, but boy was I invested in the Winter Olympics this month. From the time I woke up in the morning until the time I went to bed, I had some sport on my TV—or laptop while I was working during the week.

Based on the list of current sports from Wikipedia, I actually watched at least a short part of every sport except for Skii Mountaineering, which is new for this year. I then had to look it up, and Wikipedia describes it as “skiing discipline that involves climbing mountains either on skis or carrying them, depending on the steepness of the ascent, and then descending on skis.” Hmm, I mean, can’t be weirder than the biathlon.

Favorite sports to watch

• Figure skating: I feel like this is a favorite for everyone (except my dad, who refuses to watch it). I got really into the ice dancing competition.
• Curling: Once upon a time, I used to know more of the rules, but I’ll still watch it and cheer like I know what’s going on.
• Short-track speed skating: It always makes me so nervous but I can’t look away.

Least favorite sports to watch

• Cross-country skiing: I mean, aside from the guy from Norway getting six gold medals, it’s kind of boring to watch?

Sports I have questions about

• Biathlon: honestly, who was like, “You know what would be fun? Skiing around and then shooting at a target halfway through.”
• Anything sled-based (luge, skeleton, and bobsled): Not sure if humans were made to go almost 80 mph speeding down an ice track on basically a lunch tray? Can we also talk about two-person luge? Like, you really gotta like your partner to do that.

There are only 16 winter sports, compared to the 30+ for summer. Maybe that’s why the Winter Olympics seemed more manageable and enjoyable to watch? I remember in 2024 watching the Summer Games and almost feeling overwhelmed by how many sports there were. This time around, I was able to get more invested in these games and the athletes.

(That being said, with some of the on and off the snow/ice drama, these Olympics sounded like a Stefon from SNL sketch: “These Winter Olympics have everything: Norwegian biathelte confessing that he cheated on his girlfriend after winning the bronze medal, a French biathlete winning after stealing her teammate’s credit card and getting a suspended sentence, and Swedes setting up an op to catch Canandian cheating in curling.”)

Of the listed sports, I have only ice skated in my life; I’ve never been snowboarding or skiing but would be open to at least skiing because you’re on two skis instead of one snowboard and that sounds safer to me. That being said, I can only skate in a line and go around the curve in the rink, but I have trouble stopping and usually just slide into the boards. And I can only do about three turns in a row on land (I haven’t tried on ice); I often try to negotiate with my dance teacher during class to do the least amount of turns because I get incredibly dizzy.

I tried not to armchair quarterback, but while watching the men’s free skate program, I criticized one of the skater’s cartwheels, saying his legs weren’t straight and his knees were bent. Josh heard me and then criticized me for criticizing the ice skater because “well are you going for a medal?” to which I replied, “No but I know how to do a cartwheel. Granted, probably not on ice skates, but I can do a cartwheel.” Be glad I wasn’t making a comment about how his toes weren’t pointed, since it’s pretty hard to point your toes in skates.

I was sad while watching the Closing Ceremony live on Sunday because what am I supposed to watch now all day, every day? I did put my nightly shows on hold, like The Pitt, so I’ll get back to those. And I guess count down to the 2028 Summer Olympics.