WINTER snOwlympics

[CaleyD]

Anyone else wondering what the "Nordic Combined" is all about? Is it just an event for those who are not very good at ski-jump and/or cross country?

[Yngwie]

None of it holds much appeal for me. Too many of the events are against the clock. Would be much better if the skiing, luge etc were multi-competitor races.

[+DoofersDad]

I agree. There's not much to get excited about watching one athlete after another bsically doing the same thing but of course the nature of the events and courses mean they have to be timed events - it would either be impossible e.g. luge or insanely dangerous e.g downhill, to have folk actually racing against each other. To me, it therefore lacks the excitement of the summer athletics. Also, there's only so much you can do on snow and ice and some of the events really seem a bit too contrived to be awarded Olympic status.

Having said that, you can't help but admire the skill and courage of these competitors. I don't know if you saw a fascinating documentary earlier in the week with Michael Johnson the great double olympian meeting up with some of the great downhillers to see what makes them tick? He commented that he knows what it is to train hard and to experience the great buzz of competing and winning but he didn't risk his life every time he competed. And, of course, an athlete sadly died in practice in the luge this week.

So despite the tremendous skill and bravery of the top athletes, I will give it a miss - until the curling comes on! Now there is a sport where one team competes against another head to head with them altering tactics and demonstrating their skill in response to what their opponents do. And, of course, we might just win a medal! Don't know that I would pay to watch it but it beats Coronation St.

[Charles Bannerman]

I agree. There's not much to get excited about watching one athlete after another bsically doing the same thing

You mean a bit like darts or golf? Except that it's a bit of a stretch to apply the term "athlete" there... well maybe not in Tiger's case - now there's a real ATHLETE!

I actually think golf would be smartened up a whole lot if it took place against the clock and the person to get the ball in all 18 holes in the shortest time was the winner irrespective of the number of strokes. It would be up to each player to decide how many clubs he wanted to encumber himself with. Look at the way 20/20 has made cricket tolerable.

Mind you I would imagine Colin Montgomerie would find this version of golf a great deal more difficult even than the existing one! :D

Edited February 14, 2010 by Charles Bannerman

[CaleyD]

Biathlon

Cross Country

Curling

Parallel Snowboarding Slalom

Speed Skating

Ice Hockey

Snowboard cross

Ski cross

.......all of those are all (wo)man v (wo)man / team v team events.

"Summer" Olympics have their share of against the clock/tape events as well

Shot Putt

Javelin

Discus

Long Jump

Triple Jump

High Jump

Pole Vault

All the Gymnastic events

Horse Jumping/Eventing/Dressage

Canoeing

Diving

Weightlifting

...and maybe some more that I've missed.

[Council Juice]

I like the snowboard cross. One of the compeditors last time out was way ahead in 1st and decided to do a trick of one of the jumps and failed on the landing. Got overtaken. Would they have done the same again. You bet they would.

Because they are ALL nuts.

[dan_ict]

Hope leslie mckena does well this year and brings home another few gold medals

[+DoofersDad]

I agree. There's not much to get excited about watching one athlete after another bsically doing the same thing but of course the nature of the events and courses mean they have to be timed events - it would either be impossible e.g. luge or insanely dangerous e.g downhill, to have folk actually racing against each other. To me, it therefore lacks the excitement of the summer athletics. Also, there's only so much you can do on snow and ice and some of the events really seem a bit too contrived to be awarded Olympic status.

I take it all back. Watched this the other night. Is this good or what!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_ga...010/8517392.stm

[starchief]

I find the winter olympics (I'm struggling to find a channel to watch it on) strangely relaxing. Even when they're hurtling down like a speedcar, there's just something bizarrely calming about it. Maybe because I have so little interest in the actual result.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Oops. Where do start?

Let me just say that these games, showcasing the top 30 athletes in the whole wide world in each sport are a thrill a minute.

A canadian friend of mine who is temporarily living in Dorset states that the BBC could not afford the huge cost of purchasing the media -controlled full daily, non-stop ,24 hour (at least it seems like that), coverage and has been showing only snippets. Great Britain, unfortunately perhaps due to a lack of backing of the U.K Government don't appear to be featuring anywhere although they do have some athleteswho seem to be able to keep up but rarely win any medals.

The Olympic fever, which was muted here in Vancouver almost right up until the start of the games, has reached a fever pitch crescendo and with 60,000 people showing up at the Opening Ceremonies ,which was very spectacular, and at least 60,000 people, including visitors, athletes, and youth showing up nightly in the centre of Vancouver (which has been completely blocked to traffic) the noise and party atmosphere has to be seen to be believed.

The youth of this town is having an absolute ball with parties of every description taking place in Vancouver and also at Cypress mountain and WhistlerVillage. They have specially built "houses" where ath;etes and families and friends can gather for informal relaxing sessions and the facilities are, needless to say, top notch.

The British Columbia. and CanadianFederal Governments have spared nothing in their desire to provide one helluva show and I shudder at what we, the residents of this area, will be faced with after the shindig has passed in terms of the huge costs. The Richmond Olympic Oval which was specially built for the speed skating cost 90 million dollars alone and , apparently is beautiful.

Regarding the mountains, the West Coast of Canada has experienced very unseasonally warm weather so far .The "El Nino" phenomenon , which brings warm water from the South every 4 years or so is in full swing and we have rain here instead of snow. This has meant that they have had to bring in bales of straw to re-construct the runs and then covered them in snow trucked in by helicopter and trucks from Manning Park t\o Cypress Mountainsome 90 kilometers away . Then, at least 1,000 volunteers have been toiling daily since 3 a.m. until late at night ,working on the runs and have been roundly praised for thier tremendous effort and work to produce great courses to date.

You, in the UK have been missing all this whilst small countries like Latvia and Albania have T>V> coverage all done and susted.

The cameras here are the top of the line and the pictures absolutely superb with colour and vibrancy being spell-binding. The camera operators are also great and some of the shots of the action --viz: the dowhnhill racers, who are captured at every angle and at every turn, and the speed skating where the competitors are caught head on by the strategically-situated cameras on rails, makes it seem as ify ou are speeding in front of them in a bus or something\watching evey expression on their contorted faces and so on are quite enthrtalling. The speeds that tes eskaters go at is awesome.

The spirit now prevailing in this area , where everybody , seems to be friends with everyone else is hard to believe when we have been faced with so much cynicism of t Government and high prices, taxes ,wconomic woes etc in recent years is actually very inspiring and quite amazing. Touriosts say that the facilities are magnificent and that the opeople here are friendly and everyone is spending pots of money.They are here for a good time if not a long time and they sure won't forget the screaming hordes of spectators on the hills at every venue and every sport.

To be truthful this is one of the most heartening spiritual upliftment events that I have ver viewed or experience. I stay up late at night glued to the T>V> admiring the joys of victory, the anguish and tears of defeat, the superb information and commentaries from top notch commentators from every media slot in North America and from around the world, interviews from athletes from all around the world (all speaking English) and the tremendous efforts of all the athletes to produce their very best performances.

I am told tht the BBC , instead of highlighting the performances, apparently chooese to highlight, for exmple , the "Vancouver riots" that did mar the start of this event but their reports of rioters and terror tactics is complete and utter nonsense. What happened was that about 200 young people protesting against the big business who they allege are profiting from these games at the expense of the poor, plus what they state (that these Olympic games is a complete waste of money --which I initially agreed with by the way)were marching peacefully and fast down the centre of the city with police around to watch what was going on. Then some of them ,just a mere handful, got out of hand and started smashing the large plate glass windows of The HUdson's Bay Company just because they were the official suppliers of all the Toques and T-shirts, the red mittens that are the hit of the games, and all the other retail paraphernalia that goes weith this event. Theyu also overturnmed some metal newspaper bins and dragged them into the street (oooooh my!!!!!).One or two were arresed and turn out to be well-known in Canada and the U.S. for thier "activist" tactics.

But there was no riots, no violence and no tasering of participants who were never stopped from execrcising their rights to demonstrate peacefully. Personally I find it sad that otherwise responsible journalistic outlets can so distort events elesewhere just for medisa sensation because they have no thing much else to report.

A for the athlets and the actyual soports this is a corncucopia of excellence.

1. The Luge death. The day it happened my wife came home from work and immediately told me that the word in he street was that other incidents had happened with this track and been, basically, ignored. The other truth is that the gentleman who was shot out of his luge sled at the very fast final turn at the bottom of a every fast and dangerous course was not as experience as he should have been for this run and he had confided tohis father just before he started the run that he had been scared. So what fault did the Olympic committe lay. A LARGE ONE IMHO--firstly, they should ave had the wall at that point at a much higher level and the metal stanchions should have been deeply padded in anticipation of such an event., especially since there have been several accidents on this course where the luge-ers have been ejected out of their sledges but somehow have managed to hang on to them and have not suffered any serious injuries to date.

Now the O.C. hav immediately reduced the speed for the men's run by some 10 KPH (oooooh!) making the Women's starting position farther down the course their starting position and the women's starting position is now a similar distance even further downhill from their initial starting position. This hast horoughly pissed -off all the very highly trained and experienced athlets on bOTH sides , both male and female, since they know the dangers but want the thrill of being the best in the world at the limit of their abilities and have trained at very fast speeds that they now have to change and get used to after 2 years of training. What a chaotic mess I can tell you.

The downhill races are thrilling and so far there have been a few accidents, especially in the women's runs where today one skier fell badly near the finish and had to be helicoptered to hospital. Ulp.

The Canadian young woman (24) who won the cross boarding downhill event yesterday and the gold medal has had 8 surgeries on her knees and had the leg broken twice and so on. Make no mistake ,these athletes are fun to watch and their skill cannot be underestimated. Some 25 years ago I ripped my ligaments in my left knee just skiing slowly down a nely opened run at Whistler's sister mountain, Blackomb, and, despite trying twice to come back, I could not make it without the knee breaking down again which meant that my sports career was over cin virtually any sport except cycling. So I know the dangers , the fear and the joys of wto get your recreation.

It's a pity that you are not treated to the T.V. showing of these ports because you would also get witht he games a panoply of magnificent views of the local snowbound peaks and sports facilities, whic are awesome.

To sum up :- I now view these games and the spirit of joy and friendship that has been generated with many people from, and around, the world as worth the cost, since the experience has been, and will continue to be , a never-to-be-forgottent uplifting of the spirit which frankly transcends and disipates any negativity relating to the problems that have been experienced in running the Games and in running this planet.

I have thought ,in the 36 years that I have been here in Vancouver that Candians, by and large, are more motivated by money than anything else but what I have seen and felt during only the first 6 days of this absolutely spectacular, well run and huge World event, has revealed to me that , particularly among the up and coming youth of this area and this world, that given the chance we as a human race can achieve miraculous and upliftimng things and, frankly, it is a life-changing new perception of who we are deep in our hearts and what we should and can aspire to if we put co-operation and spirituality first. It is VERY inspiring and thrilling.

Emigrate to Canada if you want because it is a small population country where opportunities for personal success and growth abound and has SO much potential for any hard-working, ambitious and positive person.

Thanks :allhail: :D guys,hope you are still awake.

[tm4tj]

I'm going to read scarlets post, so I have no time to watch the Olympics.

[Scarlet Pimple]

"Scarlets"has an apostrophe before the "s" Manfer. :P

You're a nice little mannie , so you are.

And I think that you like me.!! :002: :001:

[tm4tj]

OK, thats it, run spell checker over yer post and then get back to me.

Bring back Eddie the Eagle

[Yngwie]

A gold medal, well done, but that skeleton trackis wide enough to take 4 competitors at once which would make pretty exciting viewing - particularly if pushing is allowed!