Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

I know people don't seem to like the Winter Olympics nearly as much as the Summer games, but is anyone else watching this year? The horrible crash that ended the Georgian luger's life notwithstanding, there's been some pretty entertaining stuff so far, like Apolo Ohno's race just now and his lucky medal, and the women's freestyle skiing that is also going on right now. Curling and hockey are yet to come, which are two of my favorite sports in the winter games.

Also, are any of you lucky enough to live near Vancouver? I've always heard that it was gorgeous out there, but some of these shots I've been seeing of the landscape, in HD no less, are simply remarkable.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

As I've mentioned before, my girlfriend is Korean. The air in the room was pretty intense during the race between Ohno and the three Koreans. We get into the Olympics when they come around, but I just like to see a good event. It's neat to see the olympians talking and hugging after their matches. To me it just feels nice that people can come from different countries to compete, setting aside (for the most part) their cultural differences to do what they enjoy the most and bring the rest of the world together in the process.

As far as my opinion goes about the Ohno race; During the 2006 games he was shoved by the Korean skater while trying to pass and the Korean was disqualified for it. I think the exact same thing happened tonight. We replayed the slow-mo version of that corner on Ti-vo and it was really clear the Korean skater commited an illegal move. They shove him like that because he's half Japanese and the Koreans are brainwashed from birth to hate all things Japanese (which is why my girl will not admit the Korean should have been disqualified and stumbled with mounds of bad excuses upon watching the replay). To a Korean there is nothing worse than losing to someone of Japanese origin.
The fall the two Korean team mates had? Purely karma
Of course I'm only being half serious about all that. Seriously though, the guy who got gold should have been disqualified.

I was hoping that Georgia would take home the gold in the luge event. Would be a bit of bitter sweet justice for their fallen commrad. Alas, I heard the other Georgian comptetator pulled out after the death of his team mate, so I don't know how that will work out.

I watched the opening ceremony on my friend's ridiculous Samsung HDTV. Some really amazing scenery going on up there in Vancouver. If it's even half that nice in person that would warrant a vacation trip to a Canadian ski lodge in the future.

I'm really waiting for the hockey matches. Hockey is my favorite part of the winter games. The biathlon is pretty wicked too! I hear the US actually has some good athletes for it this year. I'm curious if we have a shot at a medal. Norway generally has the market wrapped up in that area.

This post has been edited by Sephiroth on 14th February 2010 09:12

--------------------

Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

I really love the winter olympic games. I especially enjoy watching curling, which a get a big kick out of. I had never even heard of it until the olympics four years ago, when I just happened to stumble upon a bit of a curling marathon at about 10:00pm. That I continued to watch until about 2:00. I also like the skiing events.

I think it's real fun to root for the athletes from the small countries with delegations of like 2 people. The skiers from Croatia four years ago come to mind.

--------------------

Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

I should first point out that the disqualification you mention actually happened in 2002, not 2006, and that several other skaters didn't necessarily agree that it was worthy of disqualification ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apolo_Anton_Ohno#Games ). If anything, I'd think that if there was a grudge against Ohno in the 2010 games, it would be based more on that prior slight and not the fact that he's half Japanese. Additionally, while I would say that the pushoff last night did look pretty obvious, I didn't think it was all that much worse than some of the others I saw, personally; the judges didn't seem too concerned, either, as Lee Jung-Su still has his gold medal. Finally, as to the question of karma, the two that crashed didn't have anything to do with the pushing; they were just trying to get around each other. To say that it's karmic would paint all the Koreans with the same brush, which at best would be a bit of an awkward thing to say.

Anyway, geopolitics of sport aside, as I'm not out to have a debate on it, I'd like to point out Hannah Kearney's win last night in the Women's Freestyle Moguls. That was some ridiculously fluid skiing, and it reminded me of why the Olympics are so awesome: even though there are a lot of heartbroken people who do not win the gold, the ones that do look about as happy as a human can be, and you can't help but feel happy seeing them.

Quote (Death Penalty)

I especially enjoy watching curling, which a get a big kick out of. I had never even heard of it until the olympics four years ago, when I just happened to stumble upon a bit of a curling marathon at about 10:00pm.

People constantly give me a hard time for it, but I adore curling. I watch as much of it as I can in the Olympics and have in every Olympics since 1998. I don't think people quite grasp the strategy involved, just because it looks so silly; I find it hypnotic.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 14th February 2010 23:15

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Okay, I'm not technically Canadian - I'm American, lived in Canada for the vast majority of my life - but:

BILODEAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUU!

First Canadian gold, first Canadian gold on Canadian soil, it's pretty damn awesome.

Does anybody have info about the person who died?

--------------------

Praise Be To Helix!

You'd think that, as a Canadian, I'd be a bit more into the Olympics this year. Frankly, I've never really cared for the event at all. I'm glad that one of our own managed to win some gold on our own turf, but have no real desire to discover who did, in what, or how.

I'll be watching the hockey games only because I want to laugh at how boring and straight-forward the game is compared to NHL hockey, and the fact that most American hockey players are originally of Canadian descent, Canadian citizens and what have you.

All the same, go Canada, or whatever.

--------------------

Okay, but there was a goat!

Quote (Rangers51 @ 14th February 2010 18:10)

If anything, I'd think that if there was a grudge against Ohno in the 2010 games, it would be based more on that prior slight and not the fact that he's half Japanese.

I don't think you would say that if you lived in Korea for awhile. While it might not be fair to "paint all Koreans with the same brush," it is pretty well known that Koreans (almost as a whole) hate the Japanese. It's taught in their schools and promoted in the media. You can't bring up anything about the Japanese in Korea without the person you're talking to giving you "the speech" about how all of Korea's problems are caused by Japan etc. etc. (atleast, I've never been able to). I won't go far enough into it to derail the thread, I'll just say that in my five years of being emersed in Koreans by having lots of Korean friends, a Korean step brother, and girlfriend, (not to mention my time in Korea) I feel pretty confident that he was shoved because the Korean skater couldn't stand the thought of losing to a half Japanese guy. Then, it's easier to have a less emotional opinion when you look in from the outside, so I can never claim I'm right 100% about what the guy was thinking.
Also, I was joking about the karma comment. I don't believe in karma, not even a little.

Blitz, what kind of info are you looking for? I'm pretty Georgia pulled out of the luge (that's what I heard), and if you want to watch the video of the guy's crash you can find it on YouTube. Although, I'll warn you, it's really sad...

R51, got any idea when the curling events are supposed to start? I have never seen it before, but was reading about the game recently and it sounds interesting!

--------------------

Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

Quote (Sephiroth @ 15th February 2010 02:05)

R51, got any idea when the curling events are supposed to start? I have never seen it before, but was reading about the game recently and it sounds interesting!

Looks like tomorrow at noon Eastern according to nbcolympics.com.

Edit

Yeah, looks like you can watch live curling starting in about 15 minutes online, if you have a cable provider who have partnered with NBC. I have Comcast, so easy-peasey.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 16th February 2010 16:42

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

US teams taking a beating in curling so far.

Did anyone just see Shawn White's first run in the halfpipe finals? He didn't even pull out his best trick, looked like he put no effort in at all, and still was in first at the end of the first set. Absolutely ridiculous.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 17th February 2010 23:42)

US teams taking a beating in curling so far.

Did anyone just see Shawn White's first run in the halfpipe finals? He didn't even pull out his best trick, looked like he put no effort in at all, and still was in first at the end of the first set. Absolutely ridiculous.

Even I caught Shaun White's runs. He had won the gold on the strength of his first run alone, the second was completely unnecessary, and he did it anyways. That 1260 he finished the second run with was completely out of this world. Apparently his final score from the two is the current all-time record for Men's Half-pipe. I think watching him play was the first and only thing I've enjoyed so far from all this Olympic nonsense.

Well, that and Alexisonfire being involved in 9 people getting injured when the concert went bad.

--------------------

Okay, but there was a goat!

Quote

US teams taking a beating in curling so far.

Oh gosh, it's embarrassing. This is why I usually pick a random European team to root for! It seems like Schuster & co. will string together three-or-so good ends in a row and then proceed to completely mess up. Half the time when they have the hammer, to make it even more embarrassing!

Quote

Did anyone just see Shawn White's first run in the halfpipe finals? He didn't even pull out his best trick, looked like he put no effort in at all, and still was in first at the end of the first set. Absolutely ridiculous.

How about his second run? The event is scored out of 50 and he was barely over a point short of a perfect score!

Another fun event: biathalon. Let's take cross country skiing... and add a gun. Fantastic idea! Great fun to watch.

--------------------

Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

Does anyone remember that ice-skating race a few years back where everyone fell over at the last corner before the finish and the Australian guy, who'd been losing and was behind everyone by quite a long way, cruised over the line for gold with a look of completely bewilderment on his face? That has to be one of my all-time most hilarious sporting moments. It just wouldn't happen to anyone who wasn't Australian. I can't find a video or a link, but I'm pretty sure it was Winter Olympics.

Not been paying much attention so far but I'm pleased GB got the first individual gold for quite some time. Well done Amy Winehouse or whatever your name was. My Finnish friends are anticipating the ice hockey a little too much. I think they see it as quite an event in their calender. If it's on at the pub I'll watch some of it I'm sure.

--------------------

Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

I was introduced to curling earlier this year when a large puddle by my house formed and then froze over. There were some large smooth stones laying nearby, and I remembered this crazy game with brushes and rocks, so I went online and educated myself, then educated my friends. I haven't been able to catch the men's curling games, but the women's curling matches have been showing at a great time for me, so I've been following the US team. To be honest, I've enjoyed watching the team from Denmark most. They talk to each other a lot and are very expressive, so I have a better time getting in their heads and figuring out the strategy.

Go Denma - err, USA!

Quote (Death Penalty @ 19th February 2010 14:08)

Another fun event: biathalon. Let's take cross country skiing... and add a gun. Fantastic idea! Great fun to watch.

I don't get it either; it makes little to no sense. Does anyone know what the reasoning behind combining those particular "sports" together is?

Quote (Kane @ 20th February 2010 21:08)

I don't get it either; it makes little to no sense. Does anyone know what the reasoning behind combining those particular "sports" together is?

Wikipedia says it originated in Norway as military training. Makes sense when you think about it, if you're infantry in Norway, cross-country skiing seems a pretty efficient way to move.

I think it's just widely separated from the original look and feel now due to the extremely technical nature of the rifles. It's not that different than the pistol events in the summer games, where the weapons are so specialized and technical that they barely resemble pistols as we know them.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 20th February 2010 19:00)

Wikipedia says it originated in Norway as military training. Makes sense when you think about it, if you're infantry in Norway, cross-country skiing seems a pretty efficient way to move.

I think it's just widely separated from the original look and feel now due to the extremely technical nature of the rifles. It's not that different than the pistol events in the summer games, where the weapons are so specialized and technical that they barely resemble pistols as we know them.

I guess it does make sense when you look at from that perspective, but being so specialized still leaves a feeling of the ridiculous (in my mind). Oh, well, at least there is some rhyme and reason to the events inclusion. Ish.