1crowdedhour

It's the Winter Olympics, and that means long hours sitting on the sofa or otherwise seeing what I can do within reasonable proximity of the television. A European location and CET is a treat for UK viewing times after the past two were in China and South Korea. I have been taking advantage.

* Cross-country. Good course, slightly mixed conditions, fun racing. I hate the GOAT concept, but even I will admit that as far as men's XC goes, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo really is it. You've won 107 World Cup races out of 189 starts but never even podiumed in this particular format? Nope, no problem taking that gold. I have to give him credit. It's not only the fitness, the strength, the speed, the focus and professionalism of training, it's the superb technique and understanding of his own abilities and how to use them. Less medal-tastic, the British men - and woman again, hurray - are doing well with new highest placings for GB. Of the FIS/IOC quotas massive misjudgment that denied us a relay team, I shall not bore you. Of the Swedish women's relay fail - my goodness, I've never seen hubris clobbered so hard by nemesis (even with the eventual silver medal). Heia Norge!

* Alpine skiing. Gorgeous scenery, enjoyable races, brilliant performances by Federica Brignone among others. Mostly I watch it and want to be on a mountain.

* Figure skating. A horrible demonstration of what is wrong with the men's discipline at the moment and how the points system incentivises failure rather than delivery. Deserved medals for those who held their nerve and actually showed what they could do more (gold) or less (silver). It did make me wonder how much Ilia Malinin had trained how to respond when things go wrong. I don't normally watch pairs, but watching the last 5-6 last night was a stark contrast.

* Curling. Sorry, I still cannot care about bowls on ice, although I appreciate the skills required, but you really can't rely on a gentleman's code at Olympic level competition, and they're paying the price for not having got their act together on that front sooner. Good for Sweden, honestly, for dragging the issue into the open.

And many others. I don't care about slopestyle etc, but an evening or two every four years is highly entertaining. Biathlon relay shooting meltdowns await. Can Nordic Combined get the viewing figures to save itself before the IOC uses its own refusal to admit women as an excuse to boot the whole sport for being unequal because they weren't allowed to be equal? How on earth do the luge/skeleton competitors possibly find that fun??

But ah, the snow! We have had about 2mm shortly after new year here, and otherwise it feels like it has been solid rain for more than three months. Just seeing the snow, whether under bright skis or pelting down (alas, poor ski jumpers) is a real treat.