The Winter Olympic Virus: Day 12

• In what has to be the LEAST surprising news of the entire Games, Kamila Valieva won last night's short program by over two points.  The top six consist of three Russians, two Japanese, and a Korean.  Russia is favored to sweep the women's event on Thursday.
• A Finnish skater won the drug wildcard spot awarded by the IOC into the free skate.
• Jarl Magnus Reiber has to be heartbroken today -- leading the Nordic Combined large hill competition by 45 seconds, he somehow went the wrong way on the cross-country course.  As a result, fellow Norwegian Jorgen Graabak won the gold medal.

Olympic TV ratings Friday and forward, per Sports Media Watch.  (All comparisons are to Pyeonchang coverage):

• Friday:  4.6 rating, 8.57 million viewers.  -51% ratings, -48% viewers.
• Saturday:  4.4 rating, 8.24 million viewers.  -46% ratings, -43% viewers.
• And now to show the power of the Super Bowl.  One of the most prime spots for any television program is the first program after the post-game coverage of the Super Bowl.  This year, because of the unique quirk that the Olympics and Super Bowl were on NBC, the primetime coverage for Sunday was that prime spot.
• As a result, the small primetime coverage window drew a 9.8 rating and 21.28 million viewers, which were increases on Pyeongchang, obviously.
• In what probably is the most shocking number from Sunday:  USA Network actually drew a rating for the portion of it's 24/7 (yes, with the lack of NBC Sports Network, USA Network is showing either live or reran coverage of the Games all day every day until the cauldron goes out next Sunday!) coverage during the Super Bowl, an 0.52 rating and just over 900,000 viewers.

Other news and thoughts:

• To give you the current sorry state of the US Alpine skiing program:  There are 88 scheduled runners in today's men's slalom competition.  The United States has the same number as vaunted Alpine nations like Puerto Rico, Pakistan, San Marino, East Timor, Lebanon, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines and all the other nations which took only ONE such skier.
• It is official.  The IOC will *NOT* recognize Kamila Valieva as an Olympic medalist -- if the Russian finishes in the top three, the results of the entire competition will be declared "provisional", awaiting a full trial on the full merits of the case, probably before WADA, and then the CAS.  I've heard a number of people criticize the IOC -- it's not the IOC, and probably never was, back to the McLaren Report.  It's the CAS you have to worry about.