“However artificial the setting, there is something compelling when people dare to show their humanness in public. It would have been easy for Shiffrin to invent a story to explain away her weakness. Instead, she did something remarkable: She publicly demonstrated what it means to be a human being in confusion and pain.” Michael Gerson in WaPo: Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympic heartbreak offers an important message to viewers: You are not alone. (So much of sports viewing is less about who wins and more about the story. And Shiffrin gave us one. She came in ninth in the Super G, and that was one of the best stories of the Olympics so far. Shaun White came in 4th place in his final Olympics, but again, the story trumped the result as White broke down in tears and his much younger competitors lined up to give him a round of applause.)

+ White passed the torch to Japan’s Ayumu Hirano who put together two super human half pipe runs to take home the gold. Hirano’s second run had the potential to be the Games’ most controversial moment when the judges inexplicably gave him a second place score for the greatest half pipe of all time. Luckily, his third run was even better. The NYT: See How Ayumu Hirano Made Olympic History in Halfpipe to Win Gold.