Grab Bag: Winter Olympics wrap, with a shocking result in one competition, Dogs gone wild, and several history making results! Also a couple of TV show reviews ! And Golf?!?
- Colby Michaels
- Mar 3
- 6 min read
Welcome back! We're deep into the Winter Olympics now, so lets dig into some of the highlights I DID see (basically no skiing stuff for me!) ! First lets rip the band-aid off off with that shocker: Heavy, heavy favorite to win the Gold in Men's Singles Figure Skating, Illa Malinin, having won every competition world-wide in the last year, had a disastrous free skate/long program, as he fell TWICE and was just out of sync though the entire program. The Olympic pressure nerves did get to him; he did not even make the podium, finishing in 8th place. Illa was a gracious good sport, gining humble interviews and wttnding his fellow USA teammates competitions, and will perform at the Figure skating gala (no medals, just fun skating!). Now for the Winter Olympics history section! The skater Illa lost to was Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, was left stunned as he won gold – his country's first Winter Olympic gold in 32 years; two Japanese skaters took the silver and bronze!
In Pairs skating, The 2026 Winter Olympics pairs figure skating champion is Japan. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara skated flawlessly, despite going into the night ranked fifth after the short program, to outdo the Georgians and Germans for the gold medal with a total score of 231.41. It is the first time that Japan has won in Pairs skating!
In some remarkable Winter Olympics history, ss the snow fell in Bormio, and the fog settled in, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made history by becoming the first South American to win a Winter Olympic medal. Then, as the realization that he had won gold for Brazil in the men’s giant slalom, he collapsed to the floor and allowed the tears to flow.
In Monobob (1 person instead of two in the bobsled), Elana Meyers Taylor arrived at Milan Cortina 2026 with one of the most storied Olympic careers in women’s bobsled history.
At 41 years old and at her fifth Olympic Games, Meyers Taylor was already a five-time Olympic medalist. Three of them silver, two bronze. Elana ties the record for a woman with the most medals in the Winter Olympics!
Her golden moment finally came on Monday at Cortina Sliding Centre. Elana won the elusive Gold medal by .04 seconds over her German rival. Elena is also the mother of two absolutely adorable young deaf boys (we saw her profile package- heartwarming was the word tossed around!), so to juggle training with special needs kids....she IS GOLDEN!
In Men's Speed-skating, American Jordan Stolz fell short of making history of winning three golds in his races, getting the Silver in the 1500M. Jordan did, however, make history by breaking the Olympic speed record in both the 500M and 1000M in those Gold medal victories!
In Women's Figure Skating, Oakland's very own Alyssa Liu, took home a surprising GOLD medal, as she was not the favorite, two of Japan's skaters were, but Alyssa but on a fun, charismatic, error-free performance, set to Donna Summer's "MacArthur Park", that won over the fans, and in the end, her score was high enough to beat the final two skaters! US Alyssa fans are giddy with joy, which is what Alyssa brings to the ice! It is the first women's Figure Skating Gold medal win in over 20 years!
In hockey, both USA teams won in thrilling fashion over their Canadien counterparts, both games ending in overtime, and both by the score of 2-1. It's the first gold medal for the US men's team since 1980's Miracle on Ice victory, while the US women have collect another gold to add to their trophy cases! I do want to point out that San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini, playing for his home country of Canada, became the youngest player in Olympic hockey history to score FIVE goals in his Olympic debut, AND became the first Olympic player EVER, to score a goal on the first ever penalty shot (just him with the puck, trying to outwit the goalie!). Us SJ Sharks fans are giddy to have this Silver Medal rising star!
I did not quite catch his name, but Norway skier Klabeo (??) set a Winter Olympics record by winning SIX gold medals- making him the first athlete to win that many gold medals in a single Olympics! Norway also broke the record for most gold medals (18), and for most medals overall (40).
Closing Ceremonies, held at the outdoor Verona Coliseum (brr!), showcased Italy's love of opera, with the five classics highlighted via video and live interpretation. We learned that a record of over 2900 athletes competed in these 2026 Winter Olympics, and now that the games are done, the athletes can get down and party, making new friends, learning of different cultures and the joy of being an Olympic athlete! Onto the French Alps in 2030! A couple of bonus videos, the first being eh Figure Skating Gala, no points or medals, just dance/skate to your heart's desire, and the big scene-stealer was our young men's upset winner, from Kazak, fully committing to the movie he loves! As you can see, there are clips of other skaters as well (soccer???!!!) as well. You can see the Kazak panda full performance (a triple axel!!) in other videos.
Lastly, the breakout star or this Winter Olympics, was this wolf dog who decided to go for the GOLD in the women's cross-country event, crossing the finish line behind the top 2 women skiers and becoming an instant Internet Olympic star! Jason, was thinking of Jax when this went down! Oh, btw, the wolf-dog not only was reunited with its owners, but The Olympic Skiing Board did give the furball a Gold for the Good Boy category! Almost all videos are blocked from the official NBC/Olympics, but I found this link with some great comments, and the furball's story- Definitely worth a looksee!
https://www.reddit.com/r/olympics/comments/1r8rkza/instant_replay_good_boy_nazg%C3%BBl_crosses_the_finish/
In GOLF (?!!), My favorite, visually, golf course the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, saw my favorite golfer, Cal Bears very own Collin Morikawa win the Pro-Am. On Saturday, he had an almost unheard of score of 62 on the 18 hole course, but was trailing! The rain was might in Monterey, California on Sunday, but the winds were whipping and gusting, sending several gold balls off the course and onto the pebble-stewn beach (wonder where they got the course name?). I watched two golfers naviage the pebbles to chip over the 35 foot cliff that they climbed down, to attempt to get the ball back on the green; one of them did quite well, the other, not so much, hitting the rocky cliffside and careening that ball into the beautiful Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, the golfers ahead of Collin kept making mistakes, while Collin minimized his, and was tied on the last hole, where he made a great shot off the cuff of the rough to set up an easy putt for the WIN! it's been a LONG time coming for Collin, 62 weeks, to be exact, since he won his last tourney! Very Happy for him! OH, and to top off the day, he let the world know he and his wife are expecting their first child! Mozeltov! or is it FORE? :)
TV Show reviews: Star Trek- StarFleet Academy: A different take on most Star Trek shows, this won geared towards the young cadets and their instructors based in San Francisco (Sausalito, to be exact!). Holly Hunter is the Captain/Chancellor of the USS Athena, a teaching ship that can go on away missions from the Academy, and they definitely do. Paul Giamiatti is having the time of his life (he's a Trekkie), playing the villain , and he and Hollys scenes are electric! I have about 3 more episodes to go, but so far, I am liking it, the cadets provide some nice eye candy, lessons are learned (some the hard way, based on Episode 6!), and the sets and SFX are on point! Definitely recommend so far, will come back when the season os over to pass out grades! :)
I like this trailer , btw! Episodes now airing on Paramount Plus.
The Beauty- On FX and Hulu. A Ryan Murphy production that is not under the American Horror Story, but should be! I think this show got delayed due to the success of the Demi Moore film, The Substance, as the plots share similarities about the pursuit for beauty and perfection. Starring Ashton Kutcher, Evan Peters, Isabella Rosselini (YES!!), and the actor who is having the time of his life with his assassin character, Anthony Ramos (his monologue on the greatness of singer Christopher Cross and "Sailing" is awards worthy!), this show has held my attention from the beginning! I've got four more episode left, so I'll have to do a followup to let you know if it stuck the landing! Lots of eye candy in this show, btw, that is before the side affects of "the beauty" kick in! Quick note- I now have 2 episodes left, and the last episode I saw, well, lets just say one should be specific with the term "youth"!
My "blind" highly recommend show is Night Agent on Netflix. a spy/espionage thriller that just completed its third season. The lead actor is perfect for the role (not too little, not too much), and plenty of twist and turns and action scenes to enjoy! Check out the trailer for the first season! Methinks you will enjoy this show!
That's a wrap for this edition of the Bag...gonna be taking some time off from the Bag, as Formula One is starting and gotta get the Zoomies in zoom-zoom mode!
And Macklin’s a QT pie too
I never heard of the term monobob before….sounds like something dirty!
poor Illa…
Great Olympics synopsis & anecdotes!