2010 Vancouver Olympics

[rounder]

I watch a lot of sports on tv but, to me, the winter Olympics are the best. For a lot of them, this is their only chance in the big time, since it only comes every four years, and this is it.

Vancouver is beautiful, the weather could be better, but so far the Olympics are great. Some of the events are hard to understand (you have to take a penalty lap if you miss a target in the biathalon) but these these guys are talented and that they go for it in each event. Anyone could see that the crosscountry skiers were knocking themselves out. I thought the snowboard cross was dumb in that the 36 racers each go through two qualifying rounds just to establish positions and eliminate four racers. But in the end, it was insane with four guys out there at the same time and the U.S. guy won the gold. Bode Miller won a bronze n the downhill but was within .09 seconds of winning gold.

[Dekonick]

The DH looked difficult - imagine going from ice to slush.

I don't get figure skating...

I love speed skating.

I just watched the luge accident. The only good is that it looked like he died instantly. Ouch.

Bumps - fun to watch.

Why no woman's ski jumping? If you are going to have snowboarding shouldn't you have a classic - ski jumping as well?

Bummer about the weather - global warming eh?

I missed a lot of the past few days because of work (why can't people realize that if there is a fire hydrant in front of where they live, they should dig it out if it is covered with snow? Is this a hard concept to understand that if their house catches on fire the snow is not going to put it out? Do they think the fire department can really dig out every single one? That is like making the assumption the post office will dig out your mailbox... guess what... if you don't clear your mailbox, you don't get mail... and if you don't dig out your hydrant, your house burns to the ground! Sorry... rant over...)

I love the winter games, but can't wait for the white stuff to go away so the 2 wheeled machine can get back on the road.

[deechee]

Rather than ski jumping, my question would be more why is there women's hockey? After watching the Canadian women humiliate Slovakia on Saturday and knowing the final will most likely be US vs. Canada, why bother? One of the excuses of not having ski jumping was the lack of international depth/strength but truthfully, the hockey isn't much better. I'm all for equality, but if it means preventing new exhibition sports, I'm not for it.

Its unfortunate that we are following in Beijing's footsteps but those opening ceremonies were weak. The native dancers made me think of Chris Rock:

“Nobody got it worst than the American Indian. You know how bad Indians got it? When was the last time you met two Indians? You ain’t never met two Indians. I’ve seen a polar bear ride a tricycle in my lifetime, but I’ve never seen an Indian family just chillin out at Red Lobster. Never seen it.”

There were so few dancers, and some of the people on stage looked caucasian to me. They couldn't find more native americans? You have got to be kidding. You can truck in loads of snow but not people? And whats with the random dancing throughout? Can't get dancers to memorize choreography? ...

I guess the one good thing about the warm weather is that maybe as a Canadian I'll get less jokes from people that Canada is a cold, desolate country. But the way they're going around it with snow truck deliveries and helicopter drops really rubs me the wrong way.

All that said, I do love watching the olympics. Its great that I can flip between English and French coverage, both Canadian and American. I do not like the CTV coverage, I much prefer the CBC, but what can I do. And its great having multiple nationalities to cheer different teams.

I also love seeing all the different uniforms. The Canadian suits have all been hideous though. I know my friends and I joked about the spidey ski suit and the "tony the tiger" skate suits of past but man, they're worse now! What is that weird black "X" on the speed skaters with the plastic diaper around their legs? And the ski suit looks like they got rid of the spidey web but they added red and white to the legs for no reason! And whoa... Japan? what's with the gold stuff? Its not even a nice gold color...

But nobody beats Poutala for style. I kept cheering for him as "Michael" eheh.

[tpendleton]

I love the Winter Olympics, having always envisioned myself competing in the alpine events. Of course, that proved to be delusional :)

Now that Bode set the stage for a strong US showing, I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of the alpine events.

I am amazed that an athlete would pour four or more years into training for his event to peak at just that moment in time, knowing that the duration of a lightening strike could determine Gold through 4th place. Or, dealing with a fall, or injury, or pour conditions, could remove the edge he's developed over those four years of training. Think they have any butterflies pre-race?!?!?

[rugbysecondrow]

Rather than ski jumping, my question would be more why is there women's hockey? After watching the Canadian women humiliate Slovakia on Saturday and knowing the final will most likely be US vs. Canada, why bother? One of the excuses of not having ski jumping was the lack of international depth/strength but truthfully, the hockey isn't much better. I'm all for equality, but if it means preventing new exhibition sports, I'm not for it.



I agree with this. I also think they could trim down some of the ice skating as it all seem repetitive. Frankly, I don't think dancing, regardless of whether it is on skates or not, should be a sport. Now, if they did feets of strength (high jump, pole vault, long jump) on skates...I would watch that.

The Olympics are a blast to watch and I enjoy the competition. I look forward to going to the gym to watch them during the work week, unfortunatly Curling was on...seriously, Curling? I play this drunk at the pub, it is call shuffleboard.

[Marcusaurelius]

Rather than ski jumping, my question would be more why is there women's hockey? After watching the Canadian women humiliate Slovakia on Saturday and knowing the final will most likely be US vs. Canada, why bother? One of the excuses of not having ski jumping was the lack of international depth/strength but truthfully, the hockey isn't much better. I'm all for equality, but if it means preventing new exhibition sports, I'm not for it.

Its unfortunate that we are following in Beijing's footsteps but those opening ceremonies were weak. The native dancers made me think of Chris Rock:

“Nobody got it worst than the American Indian. You know how bad Indians got it? When was the last time you met two Indians? You ain’t never met two Indians. I’ve seen a polar bear ride a tricycle in my lifetime, but I’ve never seen an Indian family just chillin out at Red Lobster. Never seen it.”

There were so few dancers, and some of the people on stage looked caucasian to me. They couldn't find more native americans? You have got to be kidding. You can truck in loads of snow but not people? And whats with the random dancing throughout? Can't get dancers to memorize choreography? ...

I guess the one good thing about the warm weather is that maybe as a Canadian I'll get less jokes from people that Canada is a cold, desolate country. But the way they're going around it with snow truck deliveries and helicopter drops really rubs me the wrong way.

All that said, I do love watching the olympics. Its great that I can flip between English and French coverage, both Canadian and American. I do not like the CTV coverage, I much prefer the CBC, but what can I do. And its great having multiple nationalities to cheer different teams.

I also love seeing all the different uniforms. The Canadian suits have all been hideous though. I know my friends and I joked about the spidey ski suit and the "tony the tiger" skate suits of past but man, they're worse now! What is that weird black "X" on the speed skaters with the plastic diaper around their legs? And the ski suit looks like they got rid of the spidey web but they added red and white to the legs for no reason! And whoa... Japan? what's with the gold stuff? Its not even a nice gold color...

But nobody beats Poutala for style. I kept cheering for him as "Michael" eheh.


Hmm, well you actually don't sound much like a canuck to me. Maybe from Alberta?

Women who play hockey don't play in the NHL so the olympics is pretty much all they can shoot for. And of course a new team will not play as well as team that has been playing for a much longer time and this happens in all sports including the olympics.

I think your causcasian comment sounds just a litte racist and reminds me of someone who likes quotas and categorizing people. I don't know if you are aware of it or not but aborginal and first nation of Canada do not refer to themselves as native americans. I think maybe someone south of the border might refer to themselves as native americans but I don't remember anyone else calling themeselves that.

Putola style I suppose a subjective thing nut I think it looked a little immature.