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In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Josh Levin is joined by Slate’s Justin Peters and the Wall Street Journal’s Ben Cohen, who’s been covering the Olympics in Pyeongchang, to talk about ice dancing, American disappointments, the rights and wrongs of Olympics tourism, and more. PhillyVoice’s Kyle Neubeck also comes on the show to explain what’s gone wrong with the Philadelphia 76ers’ No. 1 draft pick, Markelle Fultz.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- Follow Ben Cohen on Twitter.
- Follow Justin Peters on Twitter.
- Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skated to music by “Tom Waits’ gravelly, drunker uncle.” Or was it the Moulin Rouge version of “Roxane”?
- Neil Paine of FiveThirtyEight crunched the numbers on the gap between what was expected of this year’s U.S. Olympic team and the medal count so far.
- Read the Washington Post on the U.S. team’s weaker-than-expected showing in Pyeongchang.
- Cohen said the “most chill nation” at the Olympics, Norway, is crushing it by prioritizing fun.
- Cohen wrote about how Mikaela Shiffrin learned to race on the icy trails of Vermont.
- Shiffrin said she threw up from nerves before her slalom race.
- In Slate, Peters said Elizabeth Swaney “is the reason Olympics jerk watch was invented.”
- The Denver Post said Swaney “delivers average-skier perspective to [the] Olympic halfpipe contest.”
- Watch Swaney’s trickless halfpipe run.
- Cohen and Joshua Robinson wrote about Shirtless Tongan Pita Taufatofua’s path from Summer Olympics sensation to Winter Olympics sensation.
- Peters asked if the Shirtless Tongan is a jerk.
- Josh wrote in Slate that Ester Ledecka’s surprise gold in the super-G was the best moment of the games so far.
- Nathan Chen is pioneering quad jumping in men’s figure skating.
- Cohen went to a Warriors game with Chen, who’s an enormous NBA fan.
- Peters asked in Slate what the “quad-ification” of figure skating means, and if it harms the sport’s more artistic roots.
- Follow PhillyVoice’s Kyle Neubeck on Twitter.
- Neubeck wrote an in-depth investigation for PhillyVoice of Markelle Fultz’s lost year.
- Basketball shooting expert and coach Herb McGee talked with Deadspin about what he thinks is going on with Fultz.
- See for yourself what Fultz’s shot has looked like on the practice court.
- The Sixers have a history of drafting top picks who miss their first seasons due to injury.
Hang Up and Listen’s weekly Vivica Pulchritude:
Josh’s Vivica Pulchritude: Steve Kerr is more political than most NBA coaches. His fascinating childhood and family background go back to Lebanon and Armenia.
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Josh, Justin Peters, and Ben Cohen discuss Ben’s experience reporting on the games in South Korea and why NBC is willfully mispronouncing “Pyeongchang.” (Here’s Mina Kimes’ helpful “public service announcement” on the matter.)
Podcast production and edit by Andrew Parsons.
Our intern is Jason Rosensweig.
You can email us at hangup@slate.com.