SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And now it's time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Winter Olympics, twilight of the quad god. But American women's hockey is a juggernaut. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin looks to bounce back, and an NBA All-Star weekend. Sports reporter Michele Steele joins us. Michele, thanks for being with us.
MICHELE STEELE: Buongiorno, Scott Simon.
SIMON: (Laughter) Buongiorno. What happened to Ilia? Boy, we were rooting for him.
STEELE: Yeah.
SIMON: Finished eighth last night.
STEELE: Yeah. Everybody thought he was going to win gold too. You know, even the quad god can have a rough day at the office, I think. You know, he admitted the pressure felt heavy...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...In a way that he didn't expect. And I want to say this. It feels like every Olympics, we have this habit of preordaining athletes for gold. Remember Nancy Kerrigan and her fairy-tale return, Michelle Kwan in Nagano, Simone Biles in Tokyo. But the Olympics, Scott, completely different animal. They don't care about the script that's been written.
SIMON: U.S. women's hockey team, though, is a steamroller. Beat Italy 6-0 yesterday. Won their first four round matches by combined score of 20 to 1. How are they doing it?
STEELE: I checked, and the only thing more efficient than U.S. women's hockey right now, I think it might be Swiss watches.
SIMON: (Laughter).
STEELE: You just rattled off a good stat. They have outscored opponents - I checked - over the last five games 26 to 1.
SIMON: Wow.
STEELE: They allowed one goal in the very first match against Czechia, and they've made adjustments since then because they've had four straight shutouts. They face Finland in the semis on Tuesday. They already shut them out in the prelims. And if they keep this up and Canada wins in their semifinal round, we're going to get a great match in the gold medal match on Thursday.
SIMON: Mikaela Shiffrin's the most decorated alpine skier of all time. Not so decorated at the Olympics. Finished 15th in her run. She's in the women's giant slalom tomorrow. You foresee a comeback?
STEELE: You would think. She's the most talented skier on the planet, and it's something that we've already a little bit referenced here...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...With the Olympic paradox, where you win everywhere but the Olympics - 108 World Cup wins, the most in skiing history. But these Olympic medals sort of elude her after a tough 15th-place finish in the team event earlier this week. Yeah. A lot of people are expecting a comeback. But as we've seen with Ilia, sometimes you can have great talent, but...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...Olympic gold can be very elusive.
SIMON: NBA All-Star weekend, the league launches a new format for the game with three all-star teams - Stars, Stripes and the World. Why are they doing this?
STEELE: Yeah. The league is effectively trying to solve the problem, Scott, of the game being - and I'm going to speak frankly here - painful to watch.
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: I've called it the jog-star (ph) game. Guys are phoning it in for whatever reason.
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: And, you know, the East versus West thing isn't really setting the world on fire either in terms of just competition. So now the NBA is leaning into the very real international rivalry...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...That now defines the league. So we've got three teams - Team Stars and team Stripes. Those are the youth versus the vets - right? - among the Americans. And then we have Team World with guys like Giannis, Luka, Jokic. The rest of the world isn't just catching up, though, Scott. I think they might be the favorites here. Plus, the NBA players who win get $125,000 each. So trying to juice them...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...A little bit with some cash as well.
SIMON: Even to an NBA player, that's money.
STEELE: Yeah, yeah.
SIMON: Listen, I have to ask. Finally, Norman Rockwell has made it into the Art Institute of Chicago. Alongside all those French guys, a 1948 magazine covered the dugout showing a chagrined Chicago Cubs bench during a doubleheader now hangs in the Art Institute. As you and a lot of people know, that mortified Chicago Cubs manager. At the center of the painting is my Uncle Charlie, Charlie Grimm, married to my Auntie Marion. He always thought the painting made him look like a basset hound. My Auntie Marion always told him, you know, Charlie, people love basset hounds.
STEELE: Yeah. People love basset hounds, and I think that, you know, people forget that he's actually, to this day, the second-winningest manager in Cubs history. I'm glad that they could kind of have fun with it. I think it's so cool, Scott. You know, it's such a remarkable piece of history. Most families have heirlooms, like, you know, the family silver or quilts, but you guys have a masterpiece dedicated to the exact moment that the lovable losers were being cemented into the American zeitgeist. I love it.
SIMON: Oh, that is so beautiful (laughter). I'm tearing.
STEELE: I do. I really do.
SIMON: Oh, that is so beautiful.
STEELE: I think it's the only - I can't wait to see it in person. As you know, I'm in Chicago.
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: And I've only seen, you know, sort of images of it. You can hear the sigh through...
SIMON: We'll...
STEELE: ...The paint (laughter).
SIMON: We'll bring you, OK?
STEELE: Can't wait.
SIMON: I think we can get in. So thanks so much, Michele Steele. Thanks for being with us.
STEELE: See you next time.
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