2010 Winter Olympic & Paralympic Games

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

News item this morning:

Canadian Official Languages Commissioner has complaiined that there was not enough French in the opening ceremony. Bien, je suis Anglophone et il y etait beaucoup trop de Français pour moi. It is idiots like him that would take a once in a lifetime event and cloud it with controversy. Canada has enough internal problems. We don't need to hang out our dirty laundry at a love-in.quote>

Let's see . . . roughly translated that means you are an English speaking guy and there was more than enough French for you.  or something like that.  My skills in French are very elementary.

Compared to the death of an athlete, what languages are used seem insignficant.  

I'm watching these guys try to cross country ski in slush.    That is incredibly difficult.   I will not be surprised if lots of these guys don't finish.

They should have gotten the snow we did.   It has been more than troublesome here and they really need it.

[Cobraroll 138]

Originally posted by: chicah

How did Bjørndalen miss 4 times in the sprint? 4 TIMES!!!! And three in one shooting! God, this ruined for him tomorrow aswell... Pardon the language, but *****. I was really hoping for a gold in the biathlon sprint.

A lot of the "best" biathlon racers did pretty bad though. The Olympics can be somewhat unpredictable. And speaking of unpredictable, --- let's not get hostile about things people have no control over.--

At least Emil Hegle Svendsen did pretty good.

quote>

To be honest, the conditions were terrible. Look at the result list, nobody with a start number lower than ten managed to hit the top six. Vancouver has been really unlucky with the weather.

Now well, we have a Silver medal. I don't think this will be another Turin for Norway, but I don't think we'll do very good either. We excel at the sports that are most reliant on good weather conditions, and when the weather is like it is, we'll just have to do our best and remember that everybody else has to wade in the same conditions.

Go Norway!

[Easy Bakes 253]

When does mens Ice Hockey Start?

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

When does mens Ice Hockey Start?

quote>

Go here:  http://www.vancouver2010.com/

Click on "Ice Hockey" then "Schedule and Results"

[Easy Bakes 253]

Whoo

USA wins gold in mixed curling.

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

Whoo

USA wins gold in mixed curling.

quote>

   You're making that up, right?  

[beebs 129]

Canada wins its first gold, in Mens Moguls! And first ever gold medal at home!

[galees 0]

Yeah Canada!

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: beebs

Canada wins its first gold, in Mens Moguls! And first ever gold medal at home! quote>

I've been sitting here wondering how it's possible that no Canadian won gold at Montreal or Calgary.   That just doesn't make sense.   But I'm glad this guy did.  Somebody had to.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: Meg

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

Whoo

USA wins gold in mixed curling.

quote>

   You're making that up, right?  

quote>

http://www.hulu.com/watch/125173/the-simpsons-boy-meets-curl

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: Meg

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

Whoo

USA wins gold in mixed curling.

quote>

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

Originally posted by: Meg

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

Whoo

USA wins gold in mixed curling.    You're making that up, right?  

quote>

They were using curling irons.quote>

cartoon caractors to be precise.

[blade2k5 1,523]

I look forward to when it's over.

[chicah 20]

Cobraroll: We can hope for Northug today, but the weather conditions are disastrous for him. He's heavier than a lot of the other skiers, so loose/soft snow can really ruin his race. And I seriously doubt Marit Bj

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: Meg

Originally posted by: beebs

Canada wins its first gold, in Mens Moguls! And first ever gold medal at home! quote>

I've been sitting here wondering how it's possible that no Canadian won gold at Montreal or Calgary.   That just doesn't make sense.   But I'm glad this guy did.  Somebody had to.

quote>

This may boggle your mind more: Canada had a 50 year Olympic gold medal drought in its unofficial national sport: hockey.

[Cobraroll 138]

Ouch. That is all I can say.

Looks like I was wrong after all. This won't be another Turin. Turin was just the beginning.

We won't hit 100 gold this year, I think. That's pretty bad, seeing as we started on 98.

[DazzaDazza 29]

Originally posted by: beebs

Canada wins its first gold, in Mens Moguls! And first ever gold medal at home! quote>

They also won sliver in the Mens Moguls as well……  

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: mrdazza_460

Originally posted by: beebs

Canada wins its first gold, in Mens Moguls! And first ever gold medal at home! quote>

They also won sliver in the Mens Moguls as well……  

quote>

Not exactly . . .

Dale Begg-Smith won the silver in Mens Moguls.  He was born in Canada but changed his citizenship and was skiing for Australia.

But Canadian Jennifer Heil won the silver in the Womens Moguls.

[Nick9099 2]

Ah yes, the australian. A whole controversy about him here in Canada. Personally, I have no problem with him leaving for Australia, the problem is that he shuns the Canadian media.

By the way, the medal standings, as I type:

United States- 8

Canada - 4

Germany - 4

France - 4

As I type. It looks like Canada's Jeremy Whitherspoon might be winning a gold within a few minuites.

[Meg 368]

I find that I am agreeing with those who say that the (relatively) new scoring system is killing figure skating.  It just doesn't have the umph that it used to.   It just seems a bit dreary and flat these days.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: Meg

I find that I am agreeing with those who say that the (relatively) new scoring system is killing figure skating.

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

The old system was 100% subjective, the new one is much more transparent and has better measures. It also discourages (maybe even prevents) bloc voting. What's your problem with it? It seems to be working fine.quote>

Yes, the old system was bad and needed to be changed.  No question about that.  

Under the new system, the skaters get points for various technical moves.  As one commenter pointed out, the skaters are loading in so many technical elements that they don't have time to practice them all, which is why so many of them are falling.

The new system doesn't seem to give any (or enough) points for the subjective factors.   The "artistic" factor is being drained out of the programs.  

Go watch Torvill and Dean's 1984 "Bolero" dance.  It is arguably the best ice dance ever done.  First time I was ever truly mesmerized by anything.   But, if you score it under today's system, I suspect it wouldn't get enough points to be worth doing.

It's not just about the technical jumps and spins.  If it was, they might as well have left the actual figure carving in.  and that was a total snooze fest.

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Cobraroll 138]

Okay. Now, we're doing really, really terrible. We had great chances in many divisions, but things just failed on every level. Norway did its worst performance of all times in cross-country yesterday, our biathletes miss the targets, the skis are prepared wrongly for the cross-country people, and worst thing is, it's so darn close at times too.

And Moscov will be even worse. Believe me.

Our only hope would be the proposed drug rules. In short, if an athlete is caught for drug abuse, all athletes from his/her country is banned for this Olympics and the next, all the nation's medals taken back (for the athlete in question, this includes all medals earned in the past five years), and of course hefty fines. This would completely decimate some countries, but could be the way to deal with cheating.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: Meg

Under the new system, the skaters get points for various technical moves.

[Nick9099 2]

Originally posted by: Cobraroll

Our only hope would be the proposed drug rules. In short, if an athlete is caught for drug abuse, all athletes from his/her country is banned for this Olympics and the next, all the nation's medals taken back (for the athlete in question, this includes all medals earned in the past five years), and of course hefty fines. This would completely decimate some countries, but could be the way to deal with cheating.quote>

There'll be a lot less athletes competing if you adopt that sort of measures.  Scratch the entire Russian team, for a start.  I think it's too harsh to penalise an entire national team for that long because of the actions of one athlete.  Just banning that athlete, and not the entire country, would be a much more reasonable and fair approach.

[beebs 129]

		NATIONS				TOTAL
1		Germany	3	4	2	9
2		United States	2	2	4	8
3		France	2	1	4	7
4		Canada	2	2	1	5
5		South Korea	3	1	0	4
5		Switzerland	3	0	1	4
7		China	1	1	1	3
7		Norway	0	2	1	3
7		Austria	0	2	1	3
7		Italy	0	1	2	3

Well, it's the end of day 5.. why not share the top 10 medal leaders thus far.

In regards to the doping at the Olympics, I do think it's an issue that needs harsher treatment.. however punishing an entire team for the actions of one member (and sometimes, their coach) is a little bit too far, IMO.

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

Meg, I suspect you are in your element!  I bow down to anything you say!  quote>

Well, yes, I am enjoying this.  I'm an Olympics junkie and I like the winter games better than the summer games.  probably because I understand them better.

It is shame, though, that snowboards are after my time.   Looks like fun.    The one time I tried it clearly showed that I have no muscle memory for any of those motions.

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

Now, now! There are artistic merit marks too, and they can kill you if you don't pay attention to them. The technical stuff on jumps and spins may have big marks [a quad is worth at least 7 points if executed perfectly and can have up to 3 (subjective) points added by a judge] but they are now paying a lot of attention to things like form, line, and other balletic things. There are now technical and artistic marks for spirals and step sequences. Under the old system, this fell under "You must do some, and isn't that nice". These things are now required as they have replaced school figures in assessing ability.

I do agree that the system needs some revision to increase emphasis on non-technical issues, but that is a matter for the sport to work out with the reulating body (ISU).quote>

Well, the men's programs were better than the pairs.  Maybe they allow them more freedom.  

I'm looking forward to the exhibition skating where they don't have to worry about these things and just let 'er rip.

Has anyone been noticing this:

[chicah 20]

Norway beat the US in curling, wohoo! Didn't play too bad against Canada either, lost 7-6 after an extra round. And Helene Olafsen, DAMN, she was close to a medal in bordercross. Made it to the finals and everything, and then she fell...

Cobraroll: I don't think we can entirely blame the ski preparation. But it had something to do with it. And, btw, how did both Bj

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Meg: The men's was very exciting. The opening skaters really threw down the gauntlet. If that is the kind of depth that is around, the event should be something else in 2014. I note that the point totals for the short program exceeded 90 in three instances. You don't get there on jumps and spins. I am sorry Plushenko came out of retirement. It masks the current good guys.

I use a customized iGoogle page as my home page, so I didn't notice that, but I checked, and it is there. Not the best graphics in the world, though.

I really think Vancouver would be a better venue of the summer games. They have all they need, plus super climate, and tourism possibilities beyond belief. Only slightly less so in the winter.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, David Letterman, tasting the sour grapes, had to make vinegar of them.