The pressure’s on in Love Is Blind: Japan and the 2022 Winter Olympics Women’s Alpine Slalom

Olympic competitor Mikaela Shiffrin still has a chance after her fall, and yes, we explain what a slalom is

By Sulagna Misra | February 8, 2022 | 6:00am

TV Lists the 2022 Winter Olympics

The pressure’s on in Love Is Blind: Japan and the 2022 Winter Olympics Women’s Alpine Slalom

Love Is Blind: Japan Photo: Netflix

Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Tuesday, February 8. All times are Eastern.

Top pick

Love Is Blind: Japan (Netflix, 3:01 a.m.): Yes, Love Is Blind: Japan is the American show Love Is Blind, set in Japan. It remains to be seen how much Japanese people care about looks compared to Americans. Remember that one woman in season one who talked in a baby voice to everyone and found her would-be spouse so unattractive that she drank constantly on their engagement vacation? Does that woman haunt you too, or is it just us? Our prediction is that someone in this spin-off will do something similar, and a million thinkpieces will also come out of it.

Regular coverage

This Is Us (NBC, 9 p.m.)

Wild card

The Olympics: Women’s Alpine Slalom (NBC, 9:15 p.m): What is Alpine Slalom? Would an alpine skiing event sound as badass under any other name? Truly, we are not sure. According to Wikipedia, “Slalom is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline, involving skiing between poles or gates. These are spaced more closely than those in giant slalom, super giant slalom and downhill, necessitating quicker and shorter turns. Internationally, the sport is contested at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, and at the Olympic Winter Games.” The term comes from “the Morgedal/Seljord dialect of Norwegian word “slalåm”: “sla”, meaning “slightly inclining hillside,” and “låm”, meaning “track after skis.” The modern version was developed by Arnold Lunn in 1922 and first used in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

All eyes are on Mikaela Shiffrin, the American favorite, who was already disqualified from the giant slalom. We first wrote about Shiffrin in 2014:

Still smarting at the absence of Lindsey Vonn’s star power, NBC pulled out all the stops to create a new star in 18-year-old skier Mikaela Shiffrin. Of the broadcast’s first two hours, at least 45 minutes was devoted to Shiffrin and her successful attempt to win gold in the women’s slalom.

We suggest you tune in. At this point, anything can happen.