Elise Christie I believe you are referring to. As you say, it’s a bit too much of a lottery. I can’t imagine dedicating my life to it then getting taken out on the first corner and game over. The Australian Steven Bradbury was a famous beneficiary of speed skating chaos. He was so far back that he was able to merrily glide past everyone else for gold when they all took each other out.
On the subject of socal media mockery, I would love to see any of the keyboard warriors get up and do any Winter Olympic sport. The vast majority are not for faint hearted! I always thought the mocking of Eddie the Eagle was somewhat unfair, if anyone fancied getting up and doing a better job I’m sure they’d have been welcome. He certainly did a damn sight better than I ever could.