With the Sochi Games nearing its end, several of the medal-winning U.S. athletes have returned home and started making the late-night talk show rounds. CBS' "Late Show" continued its week-long Olympic celebration on Thursday, welcoming slopestyle skiers Joss Christensen, Gus Kenworthy and Nick Goepper after hosting Gold Medal-winning snowboarders Sage Kotsenburg and Kaitlyn Farrington. CBS' David Letterman noted the three swept the podium in the event, which made its Olympic debut at Sochi, and said, "These sports that came from extreme activities have really put a boost of excitement into the Olympics. It's just craziness." Kenworthy said of slopestyle, "It wasn't really that long ago the sports (arrived). It's come a long a way in not a lot of time." Letterman added, "The attention that you guys have generated for the sport has just been fantastic." Kenworthy was one of the first athletes to address the plight of the stray dogs in Sochi, noting, "There is just a ton of stray dogs in Sochi. ... Some of the dogs were maybe at one point in a home and then abandoned and some of them were just born on the streets. But there are just a lot of stray dogs." Christensen said of the heights they achieve in slopestyle, "We scare ourselves, that's for sure. It’s worth it though." Letterman displayed the Corn Flakes box featuring the three skiers on the front and asked, "You guys eat this stuff?" Kenworthy: "It's all I eat now" ("Late Show," CBS, 2/20).
STILL STOKED: Kotsenburg appeared on TBS' "Conan" Thursday night, with host Conan O'Brien noting after Kotsenburg sat down on-stage, "Not many people walk out with a Gold Medal." Kotsenburg is from Park City, Utah, and O'Brien noted he was there on vacation while Kotsenburg was winning his Gold Medal. O'Brien: "Everybody knew you. I think you owe some of them money." Kotsenburg: "I owe a lot of them a lot of bets I lost." Kotsenburg said Park City is so "supportive of athletes and there's a lot of Olympians that are coming from there, so definitely a pretty sick vibe there. Everyone's stoked." At this point, O'Brien said, "Let's talk about this 'stoked' thing, because you were using the word 'stoked' a lot when you were in … Sochi and to the Russians that means something else and they were confused." Kotsenburg: "I use 'stoked' a lot and I guess it means you're drunk in Russian. So I was like, 'Yeah, I was so stoked at the top of the run,' and they're just like, 'This guy's drunk? What a bone move: Underage, drunk'" ("Conan," TBS, 2/20).
OLD MAN WINTER: U.S. skier Bode Miller made a visit to Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" Thursday night, with host Stephen Colbert asking if the Sochi Games were Miller's last. Miller said, "I don't know. I brought home the Bronze in my wife's favorite event, so I think maybe this will be the time to hang it up." Colbert replied, "At the very least, go for the curling team." Miller said he would "have to change it up a little." Colbert: "You don't have to go as fast down the ice and that sport comes with a bar." Colbert said of Miller, "You grew up in a cabin in New Hampshire with no running water and no electricity. Is that a true story or did NBC make that up for your montage?" Laughing, Miller said, "I grew up on 57th Street." Colbert noted Miller is the "oldest athlete to ever medal in alpine skiing. How old are you, 78, 79?" Miller said, "I turn 50 in 15 years" ("The Colbert Report," Comedy Central, 2/20).
