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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: jingle.boy on January 22, 2014, 06:53:51 AM
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Figure with a couple of weeks to go, it's time to start a thread. Other than Hockey, is anyone else looking forward to anything? Not sure I'll watch much (and certainly not live, being 8-10 hours off from Sochi (I don't know officially what it is), but I'll catch the highlights. After hosting and killing it with a record number of Gold's, this time around is only bound to be a bit of a let down. Add on all the hype (and not in a good way) of Russia's human rights issues, and I can't say that I'm all that amped this time around.
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Hockey is the most radular, speedskating is tight, Curling, the skiing events are all rad, etc etc. I've always held waaaaay more interest in the Winter Olympics compared to the Summer Olympics. Unfortunately though with my school schedule, and the fact that the channel that broadcasts it only comes in through the tv in my living room, I probably won't be able to catch to much of it.
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Skiing all the way! Especially the faster alpine disciplines.
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I'll be rooting for the Jamaican bobsled team.
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I don't watch any of the big sports (hockey, basketball, soccer etc) in the Olympics, I find they get enough airplay as it is. For me it's more about seeing tenacious individuals, so I'm looking forward to stuff like biathlon.
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I pretty much watch whatever's on. Not too big on the biathalon or cross-country, but I like the other sports and the diversity of the participants.
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I like to watch the curling and bobsled events.
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I'm sure I'll catch some here or there, but I don't really care very much for the Winter Olympic sports.
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January 22 08:55:43 AM, the first time curling was ever referred to as 'rad.'
I dislike much pretty much everything about the olympics but I truly hope this doesn't turn in to Munich pt 2 with all I've been reading about terrorism threats.
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Right, you don't like curling so it can't be enjoyable for others.
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Misinterpreted. There are lots of things like curling that people enjoy, yet are not usually referred to as ‘rad.’ That should be used to describe things like a DT concert or your team going to the Super Bowl. I like bowling, but would never refer to it as a ‘rad’ activity.
But curling is still lame. :p
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I'll try to catch as much as I can from biathlon, ski jumping, bob sledding, alpine skiing - so basically all the ones where Germany is good at. :hat
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Misinterpreted. There are lots of things like curling that people enjoy, yet are not usually referred to as ‘rad.’ That should be used to describe things like a DT concert or your team going to the Super Bowl. I like bowling, but would never refer to it as a ‘rad’ activity.
You don't know many curlers, then. :lol
...as for your lame comment, thanks, we hope your ego was sufficiently stoked by putting our sport down. :p
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I'm sure I'll catch some here or there, but I don't really care very much for the Winter Olympic sports.
For me it's the other way around. I usually don't care much for the Summer Olympics. I'm not into running or swimming, and those always seem to be the main events in the Olympics (at least in the US). I will watch high jump though, that's always entertaining.
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You don't know many curlers, then. :lol
...as for your lame comment, thanks, we hope your ego was sufficiently stoked by putting our sport down. :p
I don't know any. And I smiley'd it, hopefully to imply my joking manner. I see I failed.
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No, I got it, no worries, that's why I added the same :p to mine.
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I like watching hockey, bobsled, the huge ski jump, snowboarding... to name a few. I plan on watching when I get the chances to.
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Curling = Eskimo bowling :jets:
I dig watching it every now and then. Looks simple, but man there is some talent there.
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I'm Austrian. Winter Olympics means I can't turn on Austrian or German TV (even if it's just the news for world headlines, not sports news) without being bombarded with snowy stuff I don't care about and people expecting a thousand medals and complaining when it's only 999.
Except ski jumping, that's cool. Not because Austrians are usually winning. Go Noriaki, show the kids how it's done! :biggrin:
Greetings...
Nef
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Except ski jumping, that's cool. Not because Austrians are usually winning. Go Noriaki, show the kids how it's done! :biggrin:
Aw man ski jumping rules :metal I mostly cheer for jumpers from Finland, Norway, and Poland; I don't care for Austria or Germany, which is unfortunate, as they are dominant :yeahright
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Aside from hockey (go Team Sweden!) I guess I'll be watching some skiing, unless the Norwegians kick our asses...
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Except ski jumping, that's cool. Not because Austrians are usually winning. Go Noriaki, show the kids how it's done! :biggrin:
Aw man ski jumping rules :metal I mostly cheer for jumpers from Finland, Norway, and Poland; I don't care for Austria or Germany, which is unfortunate, as they are dominant :yeahright
Look! A Milena sighting! Nice way to start my day. Stick around will ya?
As for hockey, I predict a USA/Russia final, and would just be happy if Canada played for the Bronze.
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I am so pumped for this! Even though I don't watch these sports otherwise (mainly because I can't, because the expensive TV channels have taken everything), I always really get into the Winter Olympics. Let's hope the headlines during the 16 days will be dominated by the sport.
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Bumpity. Apparently Sochi's a mess.
https://www.newsweek.com/race-finish-will-sochi-be-ready-227977
Gross.
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^^ Well, we're off to a good start, then. That glass of water is indeed dirty and disgusting. My goodness.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfmfjoTCMAAMPy0.jpg)
All I ask for during these games is to make sure that the referees are on the top of their game and that there will be no officiating shenanigans on their end during the hockey games. I don't know why I think that it's going to happen. The NHL refs had made some bad decisions, this season. Would I expect this to be different?
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Absolute shambles. Plus on top of all that there's the whole homophobia problem, although the rest of the world seems to be united in making fun of Russia for that.
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I don't watch any of the big sports (hockey, basketball, soccer etc) in the Olympics, I find they get enough airplay as it is. For me it's more about seeing tenacious individuals, so I'm looking forward to stuff like biathlon.
Same here. Other than hockey and figure skating, I really enjoy most of the other events. But I'll even watch those if push comes to shove (although I MUCH prefer the women's figure skating over men's).
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I enjoy watching the more obscurer sports in the Olympics. Since this is the winter olympics in this case it'd be something like bobsledding and even curling.
And apparently for all your complaints for Sochi, you can vent it all out on here...
https://twitter.com/SochiProblems
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Man, what are they doing? Commercials breaks every 5 minutes?
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So apparently the opening ceremony isn't being streamed online anywhere. I've got a TV, but it's kind of small, plus I can't watch it comfortably and use my computer at the same time, cause I usually like to do several things online at once.
I guess it's NBC's right not to stream it, but I can't say I'm not kind of bummed. Guess I may catch some highlights later on.
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Man, what are they doing? Commercials breaks every 5 minutes?
They've done that for the last 2 Olympics as well. It's agonizing I know and considering this is tape delayed (I think) they could've shortened it if they felt like it.
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Considering the amount of money NBC paid to broadcast these games, I can't blame them for showing lots of commercials.
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First Swedish medal today, Charlotte Kalla took the silver in Skiathlon :tup
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First Swedish medal today, Charlotte Kalla took the silver in Skiathlon :tup
:metal
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My little country has something to be proud of again.
(https://puu.sh/6OmY7.jpg)
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Enjoying Day 1 so far. Watching Canada's women's ice hockey team thrashing Switzerland. 5-0 with the 2nd period just about to end.
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Canada gets its first medal! A bronze in men's slopestyle.
It's really impressive when you learn that the guy had a broken rib for the entire competition.
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My little country has something to be proud of again.
(https://puu.sh/6OmY7.jpg)
Indeed. What's that again? Oh yes, all three medals go to us!
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Impressive :tup
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The Netherlands always completely dominate speed skating. It's like "we're gonna do one thing, and we'll do it right!!" :lol
No idea what the hopes are for Germany.
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Canada gets a gold and silver in women's mogul skiing!
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Wow. Not that I am really into figure skating that much, but Yulia Lipnitskaya's final spin was amazing.
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I thought Ashley Wagner got gipped on points though :\
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I missed the first part of her skating. The commentator mentioned that "once she realizes that she got dinged for the first combination, she will understand" though.
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Her first jump was like ***barely*** short. And she still landed it radularly.
She landed every jump and looked fantastic the whole routine. Japan's gal fucking biffed it and scored higher than her still.
I hope this doesn't come off as as American bias, because for most events I'm actually rooting for other countries heh. I just feel like Ashley got snubbed big time.
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Canada gets a gold and silver in women's mogul skiing!
Sisters no less! :D
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First Swedish medal today, Charlotte Kalla took the silver in Skiathlon :tup
And Marcus Hellner got the silver in the men's Skiathlon just now :metal
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WOOHOO!!! Team GB's first ever Winter Olympic medal in the snow! GET IN!
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Canada gets a gold and silver in women's mogul skiing!
Sisters no less! :D
(https://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/nw.UA7ixBUoCpnJGDWg4MA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00NTg7cT03NTt3PTYzMA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-02-08T193432Z_562280669_LR2EA281IDAFZ_RTRMADP_3_OLYMPICS-FREESTYLE.JPG)
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Speaking of Ashley Wagner, anyone know where I can see her performance?
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Have you tried nbcolympics.com? It's illegal for anyone to post Youtube videos of it apparently.
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WOOHOO!!! Team GB's first ever Winter Olympic medal in the snow! GET IN!
Yep, that was awesome! :D
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Yeah, Jenny Jones was adorable. In a very good way.
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Watching women's hockey right now, they're very clumsy and awkward.
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I wonder if these olympics will be as sexually active as the last summer olympics was. Some wild stories came out of that one.
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I wonder if these olympics will be as sexually active as the last summer olympics was. Some wild stories came out of that one.
Aren't pretty much ALL Olympics like that? Just, the stories actually made it out of the Summer Olympics?
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I would be surprised if they didn't. You got a village full of men and women in prime shape and in their twenties, with lots to celebrate. That's Party Central, right there.
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US Ice Dancing in PRIME shape right now. Gonna be tough to beat them.
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Let us all appreciate the one day of the Olympics that our (our being like 5 people here) little country is in the lead.
(https://puu.sh/6R1UN.png)
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Canada gets another Gold and another Silver in mogul skiing! This time in the Mens'.
They're not siblings this time though.
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Canada gets another Gold and another Silver in mogul skiing! This time in the Mens'.
They're not siblings this time though.
No, but there is still a sibling tie. Such a cool and great story for the Gold Medal winner Bilodeau.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/spenceralthouse/canadas-alex-bilodeau-dedicates-olympic-gold-to-brother-with
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Alex was our first gold medal winner last time around in Vancouver, which made him the first Canadian athlete to win a gold medal in an Olympics we hosted (we never won a gold in '76 or '88). This story with his brother was all over the news in '10. :tup :tup
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I am watching a lot of coverage, but my favorite story is how Bob Costas has been devoured by the Eye of Sauron. I'm waiting for footage of his burning eye hovering over Sochi any day now. :rollin
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I am watching a lot of coverage, but my favorite story is how Bob Costas has been devoured by the Eye of Sauron. I'm waiting for footage of his burning eye hovering over Sochi any day now. :rollin
Yeah, wtf is up with that. Caught a bit on The Daily Show about it. Did someone swap his visene with tap water?
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I am watching a lot of coverage, but my favorite story is how Bob Costas has been devoured by the Eye of Sauron. I'm waiting for footage of his burning eye hovering over Sochi any day now. :rollin
Yeah, wtf is up with that. Caught a bit on The Daily Show about it. Did someone swap his visene with tap water?
He was busted checking out the Taught buttocks of Putin's ice skating girlfriend. NO ONE eyes Vladi's woman......especially a 3'-11" smooth tongued American
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I'm amazed at the stunts on the men's slopestyle final! Daaaaamn!
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What's annoying to me as a foreign national is that the Olympic coverage rather spend 5 minutes on some stupid "athlete overcame adversity" story, than showing athletes of other nations competing.
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Risk Santorum took home a medal.
https://dailycurrant.com/2014/02/12/russia-awards-rick-santorum-honorary-gold-medal/
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The Onion News tours the Olympic Village
Link (https://www.theonion.com/video/olympic-village-tour-see-where-the-athletes-live-t,35266/)
Link has much NSFW language and work-questionable video content.
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Canada gets a gold and silver in women's mogul skiing!
Sisters no less! :D
(https://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/nw.UA7ixBUoCpnJGDWg4MA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00NTg7cT03NTt3PTYzMA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-02-08T193432Z_562280669_LR2EA281IDAFZ_RTRMADP_3_OLYMPICS-FREESTYLE.JPG)
This is beyond sexy.
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Really? I can't help but feel like she's screaming in agony as her leg is snapping. ...then I remind myself she's holding her skis so it must not be that bad.
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:rollin :rollin :rollin
I thought she was celebrating and playing air guitar or something
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Probably is, but it looks so awkward.
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I'm amazed at the stunts on the men's slopestyle final! Daaaaamn!
Americans sweeping the podium is even more amazing! :2metal:
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MONSTROUS effort by Kalla to snatch the gold for Sweden in the XC relay. Absolutely fantastic.
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Yeah, what a fantastic race! Our first gold medal! :metal
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Way to represent the Blues Mr. Oshie! That was a great game to watch, makes me wish the NHL rinks had that additional 15 foot on the width. Much more fluid and smooth. Good win by USA against a Russian team who I still think is going to contend for the Gold medal.
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Way to represent the Blues Mr. Oshie! That was a great game to watch, makes me wish the NHL rinks had that additional 15 foot on the width. Much more fluid and smooth. Good win by USA against a Russian team who I still think is going to contend for the Gold medal.
That was a great game. Lucky break for USA on that disallowed goal. Oshie was awesome. On that last goal I was thinking 'how many more moves does he have?'
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MONSTROUS effort by Kalla to snatch the gold for Sweden in the XC relay. Absolutely fantastic.
This was amazing. I only turned it on for the last part and I was getting emotional :lol
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Way to represent the Blues Mr. Oshie! That was a great game to watch, makes me wish the NHL rinks had that additional 15 foot on the width. Much more fluid and smooth. Good win by USA against a Russian team who I still think is going to contend for the Gold medal.
That was a great game. Lucky break for USA on that disallowed goal. Oshie was awesome. On that last goal I was thinking 'how many more moves does he have?'
Yeah, that was a lucky break. Glad it wasn't controversial.....a rule is a rule, but I'm glad it happened the way it did. And, Oshie is a very good SO shooter. That 5 hole shot he has is wicked because he has such quick hands plus he's able to conjure up some sick moves real quick when the 5 hole isn't there. But watching him over the past few seasons....it's near always the 5 hole shot in shoot outs and he's always about a 75-80% success rate.
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MONSTROUS effort by Kalla to snatch the gold for Sweden in the XC relay. Absolutely fantastic.
This was amazing. I only turned it on for the last part and I was getting emotional :lol
It makes it so much better if you would know that the Norwegians had not lost any relay for five years, and an underdog won.
Norway had horrendous skis though, the waxing conditions had changed overnight because the organizers salted the tracks, but most waxing teams dealt with it fine.
For someone who follows cross-country skiing regularly, the thought of Norway not even making the podium in the women's relay was not even on the radar, barring a cardiac arrest from one of the skiers.
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Kinda stupid how they used a half hour of "olympic coverage" to detail the history of USA/USSR space race. ::) Interesting history yes, but for a separate special, not in place of events.
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I used to think ski jumping took balls. Then I started seeing some of these skeleton runs.
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Did anyone else see that NBC interview (on American Television) of Bode Miller after he won the bronze in the Super G? That interview was horrible! She asked the same question like 4 times, mostly trying to get him to talk about his brother who passed away, and wouldn't let it go until he finally broke down and cried. She's not just a bad reporter, she's a horrible human being.
If I could find a link to it I'd post it. Sorry.
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https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1962741-bode-miller-brought-to-tears-during-post-race-interview-with-nbc
Apparently they had that footage for awhile and could've cut it out but didn't.
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Did anyone else see that NBC interview (on American Television) of Bode Miller after he won the bronze in the Super G? That interview was horrible! She asked the same question like 4 times, mostly trying to get him to talk about his brother who passed away, and wouldn't let it go until he finally broke down and cried. She's not just a bad reporter, she's a horrible human being.
If I could find a link to it I'd post it. Sorry.
Yeah, I saw that. Some of those reporters are heartless, stupid muthafukas. If she had a heart and a brain, she'd probably be doing something more constructive with her life.
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I used to think ski jumping took balls. Then I started seeing some of these skeleton runs.
Skeleton is a sport where I always imagine the creator of it going "wait you guys are actually doing this? I WAS JOKING!" :lol
I mean, you take a luge sled. Strip it down to nothing. Give it no way to really steer it. And for laughs, RIDE IT FACE DOWN.
Insane sport.
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Did anyone else see that NBC interview (on American Television) of Bode Miller after he won the bronze in the Super G? That interview was horrible! She asked the same question like 4 times, mostly trying to get him to talk about his brother who passed away, and wouldn't let it go until he finally broke down and cried. She's not just a bad reporter, she's a horrible human being.
If I could find a link to it I'd post it. Sorry.
Yeah, I saw that. Some of those reporters are heartless, stupid muthafukas. If she had a heart and a brain, she'd probably be doing something more constructive with her life.
You mean like medaling in the Olympics in skiing?
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Yorost, anything else would be a vast improvement over trying to make athlete's cry on live television. You name it.
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She had an accomplished career in World Cup skiing and won an Olympic silver medal a year after receiving a bone graft. Here's her bio...
CHRISTIN COOPER
Alpine Skiing Analyst
Christin Cooper, a two-time Olympian and Olympic silver medalist, returns as an alpine skiing analyst for NBC’s coverage of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. This is Cooper’s third Olympics with NBC and her sixth as a broadcaster. Cooper earned her Olympic silver medal in the giant slalom at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic Winter Games.
Cooper was America’s top finisher in the slalom and giant slalom (8th and 7th respectively) in her first Olympic appearance in the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games. In 1982 she became the first American alpine skier in history to win three medals in a single World Championships, earning silvers in both the slalom and giant slalom and a bronze in combined. In her eight years on the U.S. Ski Team, Cooper was a six-time National Champion with five victories, 26 podiums and 65 top-ten finishes in World Cup competition. She retired after the 1984 Games.
Cooper’s charitable work in the war-torn Olympic host city of Sarajevo in the early ‘90’s earned her an induction into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in 1995.
You've decided to make your comments about her based on what? ...have you known anything about her prior to this one interview? Terrible interview, but she's had at least some notable public spot light for almost 40 years and not done anything like this before (that I know of). Does one event in all of that time make her deserving of such harsh judgment?
Oh, and what about the whole production team? NBC did not have to air that, it's all on tape delay. They still did.
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NBC and the reporter are both at fault. She didn't have to keep pressing him on the issue like she did, and I expect shameless stuff like that outta NBC, so that didn't surprise me that they showed it.
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maybe there was also a producer in her ear telling her to press the issue with Bode? Wouldn't be the first time.
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Let me be clear on this, I am in no way saying she doesn't deserve criticism for the interview.
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I was thinking about how much better the Olympic Coverage would be if it was not just one network that had the rights to show it. Imagine if NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN, FOX, etc all had the ability to show the coverage. NBC would certainly have to step up its game. I would definitely expect it to not have the tape delay. Or even the really stupid delay 1 hour delay on NBC (not NBCSN, USA, etc) that Mountain and Pacific time zones get (even when they have "live" events). Those features they do on the Space Race, Siberia, or whatever fluff they do would likely only be an online/on demand feature. They do all these annoying things because they know you can't do anything about it and they want to have you watching as long as possible.
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She had an accomplished career in World Cup skiing and won an Olympic silver medal a year after receiving a bone graft. Here's her bio...
CHRISTIN COOPER
Alpine Skiing Analyst
Christin Cooper, a two-time Olympian and Olympic silver medalist, returns as an alpine skiing analyst for NBC’s coverage of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. This is Cooper’s third Olympics with NBC and her sixth as a broadcaster. Cooper earned her Olympic silver medal in the giant slalom at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic Winter Games.
Cooper was America’s top finisher in the slalom and giant slalom (8th and 7th respectively) in her first Olympic appearance in the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games. In 1982 she became the first American alpine skier in history to win three medals in a single World Championships, earning silvers in both the slalom and giant slalom and a bronze in combined. In her eight years on the U.S. Ski Team, Cooper was a six-time National Champion with five victories, 26 podiums and 65 top-ten finishes in World Cup competition. She retired after the 1984 Games.
Cooper’s charitable work in the war-torn Olympic host city of Sarajevo in the early ‘90’s earned her an induction into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in 1995.
You've decided to make your comments about her based on what? ...have you known anything about her prior to this one interview? Terrible interview, but she's had at least some notable public spot light for almost 40 years and not done anything like this before (that I know of). Does one event in all of that time make her deserving of such harsh judgment?
Oh, and what about the whole production team? NBC did not have to air that, it's all on tape delay. They still did.
None of that really concerns me. What matters is that the media should treat the athletes with consideration and respect. Especially if some of them are former athletes. To me, that makes her behavior just that much worse. She not only made Miller feel bad, but also everyone that was watching it. It's a shame because now she can't take it back. I can't tell ya how bad I felt for the guy.
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(https://allrus.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Russian-ice-dancers-Ilinykh-and-Katsalapov-11.jpg)
I saw this Russian figure skater dance on Sunday and I find her stunning!
Elena Ilinykh!
(https://fotos.fotoflexer.com/2485c2fd850593478b7abacb92f47dd6.jpg)
(https://cs11183.vkontakte.ru/u1306895/136593879/z_a5e279d9.jpg)
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OH HEY, FINLAND KNOCKED RUSSIA OUT IN MEN'S HOCKEY.
Suck it Russia, and I would looooooooooooove to see Finland play for Gold or Silver this time around.
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A guaranteed medal in men's curling for Britain makes this their best Winter Olympics performance since 1936! They can do no worse than silver now. A bronze medal for the women would bevery nice as well.
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USA rolling over Czechs!!! :metal
and fun fact...Jonathan Quick hails from my hometown of Milford CT!!!
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If this were the Soviet days, you would never hear from the coaching staff of the hockey team again. :rollin
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Suck it Russia
Pretty harsh, don't you think?
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UK in 19th place :lol
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Suck it Russia
Pretty harsh, don't you think?
Not really.
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Yeah, I could've thought of something a hundred times worse than that. :lol
Anyway, the ice skating part of the Olympics isn't really my favorite. I's just ok, but watching Davis and White take the gold in ice dancing the other night was really cool. They have really mastered their craft almost to perfection. Fantastic.
:clap:
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Suck it Russia
Pretty harsh, don't you think?
Not really.
I'm with Dark Castle on this one.
And, barring an utter collapse choke job.....Team USA should beat Canada on Friday. Canada has not looked good to me at all. Where as, Team USA has looked more like a 'team' and have gotten stronger with each game and still hasn't played thier best. I'd say USA wins that game Friday 3-1, 4-2....something like that.
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The best part about it is that David Backes and Ryan Callahan are finally on MY team!
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The best part about it is that David Backes and Ryan Callahan are finally on MY team!
I could get used to those two being on the same team...... :tup
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The best part about it is that David Backes and Ryan Callahan are finally on MY team!
I could get used to those two being on the same team...... :tup
Yeah, like the Bruins! :P
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Forgive me. I don't actively follow sports other than football very much, so I guess it just didn't click that there are douche fans for just about every sport. :lol
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Forgive me. I don't actively follow sports other than football very much, so I guess it just didn't click that there are douche fans for just about every sport. :lol
Lol. How often do you see hooliganism in connection to American Football? Just curious. I have never really heard of it. But when you go to South America or Europe, you'll see people fighting and dying for the colors of their quarter. It's more than just douche fans.
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Props to Ashley Wagner for skating to Crazy Diamond!
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And, barring an utter collapse choke job.....Team USA should beat Canada on Friday. Canada has not looked good to me at all. Where as, Team USA has looked more like a 'team' and have gotten stronger with each game and still hasn't played thier best. I'd say USA wins that game Friday 3-1, 4-2....something like that.
It's true that Team USA has looked better and like more of a team, but Canada has still yet to lose, and they still have the most talent, so if the sleeping giant gets woken up this weekend, they will take the gold. Here's hoping they don't put it completely together and Team USA wins tomorrow! :tup :tup
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And, barring an utter collapse choke job.....Team USA should beat Canada on Friday. Canada has not looked good to me at all. Where as, Team USA has looked more like a 'team' and have gotten stronger with each game and still hasn't played thier best. I'd say USA wins that game Friday 3-1, 4-2....something like that.
It's true that Team USA has looked better and like more of a team, but Canada has still yet to lose, and they still have the most talent, so if the sleeping giant gets woken up this weekend, they will take the gold. Here's hoping they don't put it completely together and Team USA wins tomorrow! :tup :tup
I don't think it'll be easy by any means.....Canada is definitely stacked.....I just think team USA 'has it going' for them. You can kind of sense the confidence and team comradary on team USA. I don't get that sense from Canada. It seems like they're playing tight, playing not to lose.....and playing not to lose is a tough way to play.
It's going to be a fun game to watch and I can't imaine that whomever wins that game between them loses the Gold Medal game to either of the other teams remaining.
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These refs in the CAN/US womens Hockey game friggin' suck! They are taking the game out of the players hands on some BS friggin' calls.....
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That makeup call was utter horse shit. What a shame that the women lost the gold because of that. :tdwn :tdwn
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That makeup call was utter horse shit. What a shame that the women lost the gold because of that. :tdwn :tdwn
It certainly was......and it didn't help matters at all. BUT.....there is absolutely no excuse to blow a 2 goal lead that late in a GOLD MEDAL game, I don't care how good your opponent is. Thier butts puckered and they choked...plain and simple.
The BS calls in overtime were just that, especially after the refs had missed/let go (2) pretty obvious penalties on CAN in the closing minutes of the game that would have all but done them in. That slashing call was utter crap though.
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Yeah it shouldn't have come down to ticky tack "we called one on them, time to call one on you" penalties. 2-0 with four minutes left, the US only has themselves to blame for being in that position.
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Loser Keeps Bieber! :lol
https://twitter.com/tomcbs4/status/436602205513080833/photo/1
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Lauer just smoked Costas like a ham
https://deadspin.com/matt-lauer-asks-bob-costas-if-hell-be-taking-the-red-e-1527709862
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We're in the hockey finals! :metal
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We're in the hockey finals! :metal
King Henrik is the man! :metal
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He did make a huge error letting Finland get that first goal, but apart from that he was superb. Always feels good to beat the Finns.
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Welp, that really sucked to see, no offense guys :lol
I was really pulling for Finland, and seeing them lose to a team comprised of a bunch of Red Wings makes it sting all the worse.
Congrats though, and at least the Bronze Match will be entertaining as well, 4 fantastic teams this time around.
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We're in the hockey finals! :metal
Being a Blues fan I'm happy for Steen and Berglund. Being a Hockey fan I think it's horrible that the loser of the US/CAN game can only get bronze being that THEY ARE the two best teams left.
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Good game between USA/CAN. I still maintain its utter horse $hit that USA has to play for third now when the two best teams just played. It's a crap way to set up a tournament where the two best teams don't play for the Gold. Anyway....I'm a sore loser so I'll just stop now.....blah blah blah....congrats to canada.....blah blah......
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That was a bummer, but Canada was clearly the better team. Only the terrific play of Quick kept Team USA in the game. But I got the impression that they could play for another 5-6 periods and we still wouldn't score, given how great Canada was at limiting the good scoring chances.
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Good game between USA/CAN. I still maintain its utter horse $hit that USA has to play for third now when the two best teams just played. It's a crap way to set up a tournament where the two best teams don't play for the Gold. Anyway....I'm a sore loser so I'll just stop now.....blah blah blah....congrats to canada.....blah blah......
I don't know. Seemed total chance. If the US had beaten Russia in regulation you would have had your wish.
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We're in the hockey finals! :metal
I hate you... >:(
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Welp, that really sucked to see, no offense guys :lol
I was really pulling for Finland, and seeing them lose to a team comprised of a bunch of Red Wings makes it sting all the worse.
Congrats though, and at least the Bronze Match will be entertaining as well, 4 fantastic teams this time around.
Thank you. Finland wins tomorrow! ;)
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Canada has been on fire in the homestretch! Gold in Women's and Men's curling, Gold in Women's hockey, Gold and silver in Women's ski cross, and now we're in the Men's hockey final! It has been an exciting couple of days.
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Finland wins tomorrow! ;)
I can honestly say I could care less about the bronze medal game. Anything other than First Place (Gold Medal) is 2nd loser.......in any sport. Second, third....whatever, you're not the winner and winning is why you play. Actually, I'd ask the girls team if they want to play Finland tomorrow......I'd rather not take the chance on getting any of my NHL players hurt in an utterly meaningless game.
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We're in the hockey finals! :metal
I hate you... >:(
:riskybiz:
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Fuck...Fuck....and....Fuck!!
I think the South Park guys were right...... we need to invade Canada!!!! :yarr
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Good game between USA/CAN. I still maintain its utter horse $hit that USA has to play for third now when the two best teams just played. It's a crap way to set up a tournament where the two best teams don't play for the Gold. Anyway....I'm a sore loser so I'll just stop now.....blah blah blah....congrats to canada.....blah blah......
Who's to say that Sweden isn't the best team in the tournament? Who's to say that the U.S. isn't the 4th best team? We'll find out tomorrow.
Finland wins tomorrow! ;)
I can honestly say I could care less about the bronze medal game. Anything other than First Place (Gold Medal) is 2nd loser.......in any sport. Second, third....whatever, you're not the winner and winning is why you play. Actually, I'd ask the girls team if they want to play Finland tomorrow......I'd rather not take the chance on getting any of my NHL players hurt in an utterly meaningless game.
I think that you mean that you couldn't care less.
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Who's to say that Sweden isn't the best team in the tournament? Who's to say that the U.S. isn't the 4th best team? We'll find out tomorrow.
I understand the point you're making. Yeah, Sweden hasn't lost and is indeed playing for the gold. But to try and convince me that they....or any other team other than Canada are 'better' than the USA squad would never work.....because they aren't.
The thing that makes the Olympics interesting and exciting is the fact that it's a one game series and even a second rate team can play the game of thier lives and beat a team they shouldn't. (miracle on oce anyone?) The thing that sucks about the Olympics is that it's a one game series and the good teams don't have the chance to even it out and ultimately win a series against an inferior squad.
You trying to tell me that if Sweden plays the game of their lives on Sunday and beats Canada they are the better team? I don't think so.....they'd just happened to have played a good game against a team that in all actuality won the gold medal game played between the best two teams about five hours ago.
And thanks for the correction.....I couldn't care less about that meaningless bronze medal game.
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So I'm listening to New York sports radio today and the midday hosts are talking about how the Olympics are so great for the sport of Hockey.
They went on to say...
"The casual fan doesn't tune into the Rangers and the Mighty Ducks during February but EVERYONE gets behind the Olympic hockey team and is watching with excitement."
I have news for them...
Who really gives a shit what the casual hockey fan is into??? The "casual" hockey fan doesn't really watch hockey at all! I watch the Rangers all season long!!!
AND another thing...If I'm being honest... its cool to watch the American hockey team compete for a gold medal, BUT seeing the Rangers win the Stanley cup is a 1000 times more important to me as a fan than watching the American hockey team win a gold medal.
And any diehard hockey fan feels the same way about their team. Winning the cup is WAAAAY more important!
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Who's to say that Sweden isn't the best team in the tournament? Who's to say that the U.S. isn't the 4th best team? We'll find out tomorrow.
I understand the point you're making. Yeah, Sweden hasn't lost and is indeed playing for the gold. But to try and convince me that they....or any other team other than Canada are 'better' than the USA squad would never work.....because they aren't.
The thing that makes the Olympics interesting and exciting is the fact that it's a one game series and even a second rate team can play the game of thier lives and beat a team they shouldn't. (miracle on oce anyone?) The thing that sucks about the Olympics is that it's a one game series and the good teams don't have the chance to even it out and ultimately win a series against an inferior squad.
You trying to tell me that if Sweden plays the game of their lives on Sunday and beats Canada they are the better team? I don't think so.....they'd just happened to have played a good game against a team that in all actuality won the gold medal game played between the best two teams about five hours ago.
And thanks for the correction.....I couldn't care less about that meaningless bronze medal game.
Sweden is the #1 ranked team according to the IIHF. I have no idea why you're not giving them any credit. They took care of their business, earned the top seed and have coasted into the gold medal game. At this point, I hope they beat Canada soundly.
I wanted the U.S. to beat Canada and win it all. Watching Oshie do what he did against Russia last week was one of the coolest things I've seen in sports. But today, The U.S. got shut out. So at this point it would take the combination of Sweden also getting shut out against Canada and the U.S. beating the bricks off of Finland to justify any of this U.S. is in the top two talk. Just my opinion.
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So I'm listening to New York sports radio today and the midday hosts are talking about how the Olympics are so great for the sport of Hockey.
They went on to say...
"The casual fan doesn't tune into the Rangers and the Mighty Ducks during February but EVERYONE gets behind the Olympic hockey team and is watching with excitement."
I have news for them...
Who really gives a shit what the casual hockey fan is into??? The "casual" hockey fan doesn't really watch hockey at all! I watch the Rangers all season long!!!
AND another thing...If I'm being honest... its cool to watch the American hockey team compete for a gold medal, BUT seeing the Rangers win the Stanley cup is a 1000 times more important to me as a fan than watching the American hockey team win a gold medal.
And any diehard hockey fan feels the same way about their team. Winning the cup is WAAAAY more important!
I agree that to the diehards, seeing your team winning the Cup is the ultimate.... but unfortunately, the entire sporting industry "gives a shit" what the casual fan is into, which is precisely why the Winter Classic has been made such a big deal and has even spawned off the stadium series.
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So I'm listening to New York sports radio today and the midday hosts are talking about how the Olympics are so great for the sport of Hockey.
They went on to say...
"The casual fan doesn't tune into the Rangers and the Mighty Ducks during February but EVERYONE gets behind the Olympic hockey team and is watching with excitement."
I have news for them...
Who really gives a shit what the casual hockey fan is into??? The "casual" hockey fan doesn't really watch hockey at all! I watch the Rangers all season long!!!
AND another thing...If I'm being honest... its cool to watch the American hockey team compete for a gold medal, BUT seeing the Rangers win the Stanley cup is a 1000 times more important to me as a fan than watching the American hockey team win a gold medal.
And any diehard hockey fan feels the same way about their team. Winning the cup is WAAAAY more important!
I agree that to the diehards, seeing your team winning the Cup is the ultimate.... but unfortunately, the entire sporting industry "gives a shit" what the casual fan is into, which is precisely why the Winter Classic has been made such a big deal and has even spawned off the stadium series.
I would argue that its NOT the casual fan watching the Winter Classic...Its the diehard fans of ALL TEAMS watching these games rather than just watching their own team play. That's what I think.
The casual fan watched the very first Winter classic game played. That was all the novelty they needed. They are not still watching.
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So I'm listening to New York sports radio today and the midday hosts are talking about how the Olympics are so great for the sport of Hockey.
They went on to say...
"The casual fan doesn't tune into the Rangers and the Mighty Ducks during February but EVERYONE gets behind the Olympic hockey team and is watching with excitement."
I have news for them...
Who really gives a shit what the casual hockey fan is into??? The "casual" hockey fan doesn't really watch hockey at all! I watch the Rangers all season long!!!
AND another thing...If I'm being honest... its cool to watch the American hockey team compete for a gold medal, BUT seeing the Rangers win the Stanley cup is a 1000 times more important to me as a fan than watching the American hockey team win a gold medal.
And any diehard hockey fan feels the same way about their team. Winning the cup is WAAAAY more important!
I agree that to the diehards, seeing your team winning the Cup is the ultimate.... but unfortunately, the entire sporting industry "gives a shit" what the casual fan is into, which is precisely why the Winter Classic has been made such a big deal and has even spawned off the stadium series.
I would argue that its NOT the casual fan watching the Winter Classic...Its the diehard fans of ALL TEAMS watching these games rather than just watching their own team play. That's what I think.
The casual fan watched the very first Winter classic game played. That was all the novelty they needed. They are not still watching.
I think that this article puts it better than I can....
SIGNATURE EVENT
In just six years the outdoor game that started as nothing more than a one-off novelty has grown into the league's marketing centre piece, a New Year's Day showcase that has eclipsed the Stanley Cup as the NHL's signature event.
A concept that has captured the imagination of casual hockey fans, the appeal of the Winter Classic lies in game's outdoor roots, anchored by romantic nostalgia and wintry charm.
The New Year's Day Classic, however, has grown well beyond its initial sentimental appeal into big business, a cash cow for the league, teams and the city's who have hosted them.
The Winter Classic was the main event in the week long hockey extravaganza that featured alumni games, junior and minor league hockey games played in Detroit at Comerica Park, home of Major League Baseball's Tigers, pouring an estimated $60 million into the bankrupt city's economy and another $15 million into Ann Arbor.
Four of the five most-watched NHL regular-season games in the U.S. since 1975 have been Winter Classics and Wednesday's edition is almost certain to join that list.
"I think the week the NHL has put together here and at Comerica Park to sell our game is a great thing," said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. "It's kind of like the Super Bowl setup in a way.
"This is an unbelievable event to sell hockey."
https://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/02/us-nhl-winter-classic-idUSBREA0100120140102
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I understand what they article says BUT they don't know who is buying the tickets. I still think its the genuine hockey fan.
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Sweden is the #1 ranked team according to the IIHF. I have no idea why you're not giving them any credit. They took care of their business, earned the top seed and have coasted into the gold medal game. At this point, I hope they beat Canada soundly.
I wanted the U.S. to beat Canada and win it all. Watching Oshie do what he did against Russia last week was one of the coolest things I've seen in sports. But today, The U.S. got shut out. So at this point it would take the combination of Sweden also getting shut out against Canada and the U.S. beating the bricks off of Finland to justify any of this U.S. is in the top two talk. Just my opinion.
It's not fair for me not to give Sweden credit.....they have like you said 'Taken care of their business' to get where they are. Their certainly formidable. I'm not sure how the IIHF ranks teams but I'd question it's accuracy if they didn't rank Canada #1. But they have no where near the level of talent that either Canada or USA has. Talent isn't everything and less talented teams have beaten more talented for sure.....but Canada and the US are the two best teams in the tournament. It sucks they aren't squaring off for Gold Sunday morning like it should be.
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Finland wins tomorrow! ;)
I can honestly say I could care less about the bronze medal game. Anything other than First Place (Gold Medal) is 2nd loser.......in any sport. Second, third....whatever, you're not the winner and winning is why you play. Actually, I'd ask the girls team if they want to play Finland tomorrow......I'd rather not take the chance on getting any of my NHL players hurt in an utterly meaningless game.
To me, this is the difference right here for how most of the world sees the Olympics vs how many Americans see them.
Not all Americans, but many.
For the rest of the world, we see it as the best of the best coming together for exciting competition, and may the best person/team win. Yes, you want your country to bring home the gold, but you want everyone else to bring their A game too, and when an athlete from another country wins, there's a level of respect there.
As well, if you get a silver or a bronze, that's still the second or third best in the entire world. That's fantastic!
Many Americans seem to view it as 'those durn other countries are takin' our medals! That's not right!'. Also, the attitude of 'only gold matters, silver and bronze are worthless' (which the US women's hockey team and one of your figure skaters were pretty blatant about) goes against the entire spirit of the games.
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I don't see it as them 'taking' any of 'our' medals at all. If you win you've earned it. I 'personally' just think that anything other than First when your competing is a let down. I get what you're saying about the whole spirit of the games but to quote the great Nuke Laloosh "You know winning....it's like better than losing?"
Besides this is Hockey I'm speaking about....not skiing or ice skating where tenths of a tenth of a point separate First from Last. There are basically (5) good teams. 2nd or 3rd out of 5 pretty much sucks IMO. Gold is all that matters. Without the aid of google 90% of people couldn't tell you who won the Bronze medal in Hockey in 2010.
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Without the aid of google 90% of people couldn't tell you who won the Bronze medal in Hockey in 2010.
Without the aid of Google I couldn't tell you who won the gold medal in hockey in 2010. Triumph, not glory. The Olympics are more about aspiration than gloating.
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Finland wins tomorrow! ;)
I can honestly say I could care less about the bronze medal game. Anything other than First Place (Gold Medal) is 2nd loser.......in any sport. Second, third....whatever, you're not the winner and winning is why you play. Actually, I'd ask the girls team if they want to play Finland tomorrow......I'd rather not take the chance on getting any of my NHL players hurt in an utterly meaningless game.
To me, this is the difference right here for how most of the world sees the Olympics vs how many Americans see them.
Not all Americans, but many.
For the rest of the world, we see it as the best of the best coming together for exciting competition, and may the best person/team win. Yes, you want your country to bring home the gold, but you want everyone else to bring their A game too, and when an athlete from another country wins, there's a level of respect there.
As well, if you get a silver or a bronze, that's still the second or third best in the entire world. That's fantastic!
Many Americans seem to view it as 'those durn other countries are takin' our medals! That's not right!'. Also, the attitude of 'only gold matters, silver and bronze are worthless' (which the US women's hockey team and one of your figure skaters were pretty blatant about) goes against the entire spirit of the games.
That's the dumbest fallacy I have ever read. No American thinks that we should get every medal. That's ludicrous. I sometimes think people think we are arrogant and when I read posts like this others need to see the irony.
If an Olympic athlete wins a medal from another country it is because they put many years of hard work to win that medal and are the best in the world and good for them. They deserve it.
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Finland wins tomorrow! ;)
I can honestly say I could care less about the bronze medal game. Anything other than First Place (Gold Medal) is 2nd loser.......in any sport. Second, third....whatever, you're not the winner and winning is why you play. Actually, I'd ask the girls team if they want to play Finland tomorrow......I'd rather not take the chance on getting any of my NHL players hurt in an utterly meaningless game.
To me, this is the difference right here for how most of the world sees the Olympics vs how many Americans see them.
Not all Americans, but many.
For the rest of the world, we see it as the best of the best coming together for exciting competition, and may the best person/team win. Yes, you want your country to bring home the gold, but you want everyone else to bring their A game too, and when an athlete from another country wins, there's a level of respect there.
As well, if you get a silver or a bronze, that's still the second or third best in the entire world. That's fantastic!
Many Americans seem to view it as 'those durn other countries are takin' our medals! That's not right!'. Also, the attitude of 'only gold matters, silver and bronze are worthless' (which the US women's hockey team and one of your figure skaters were pretty blatant about) goes against the entire spirit of the games.
That's the dumbest fallacy I have ever read. No American thinks that we should get every medal. That's ludicrous. I sometimes think people think we are arrogant and when I read posts like this others need to see the irony.
If an Olympic athlete wins a medal from another country it is because they put many years of hard work to win that medal and are the best in the world and good for them. They deserve it.
Well said, my friend.
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Gary, I kinda see your point, but it would be a shame if any Olympic athlete didn't put their 'all' into the competition, even if they know Bronze is the best they can hope for. Stay home if you're only gonna put forth an effort for Gold. That's the definition of a sore loser (not you Gary, the competitors). 20 years from now, you think any of the USA players would rather be fourth place, or have the Bronze medal? You know the Fin's will be playing their asses off. I doubt the Stanley Cup means more to these players. This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity for most of them, and I bet they up a lot more weight on that over the Stanley Cup - that they have a career to chase after.
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Gary, I kinda see your point, but it would be a shame if any Olympic athlete didn't put their 'all' into the competition, even if they know Bronze is the best they can hope for. Stay home if you're only gonna put forth an effort for Gold. That's the definition of a sore loser (not you Gary, the competitors). 20 years from now, you think any of the USA players would rather be fourth place, or have the Bronze medal? You know the Fin's will be playing their asses off. I doubt the Stanley Cup means more to these players. This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity for most of them, and I bet they up a lot more weight on that over the Stanley Cup - that they have a career to chase after.
I understand the point you guys are making Chad, and you all are right. It's pride in your country....you owe it to the players/people who didn't make it to do your best. I really do get it.
Unfortunately for me my since of compete tuition was ruined from a young age from playing on select baseball teams from age 9-18 where if you didn't win....there was no "well at least we tried and got second guys" from the coaches. It was, if we didn't win....we practiced more and entered more tournaments to have the chance to come in First more.
It was a horrible way to learn about competition and in fact I read an e mail 20 minutes ago where my 7 year old sons baseball team needs a head coach and as much as I'd love to do it I'm worried about infecting any of those kids with my warped sense of competition.
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So I'm guessing that Canada game sucked the life out of them. :P
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Hell yeah Finland, what a win!
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Hell yeah Finland, what a win!
Was it? I'd consider that more like when I'd let my little brother beat me at HORSE when we were younger. He needed that way more than I did like Finland needed it more than the US. We had the game on in the background and it pretty evident that the US was going through the motions, they looked like Russia. When your goal idl Gold and you don't get it.....it's a loss no matter if you medal or not.
Happy for Selanne though.....he deserves to 'go out' with a medal.
So I'm guessing that Canada game sucked the life out of them. :P
That Canada game WAS the tournament.
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I think USA is going to feel pretty embarrassed that they didn't even medal when they were a favorite. They played for it through the first period, but after Finland drew blood, USA collapsed. This is why I wish Finland had beaten Sweden yesterday, they're a fantastic team(don't know what happened yesterday though D:).
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I think USA is going to feel pretty embarrassed
No they should feel ashamed. Despite my view on what Silver and Bronze mean.....it is a big deal to the players and Countries. And for them to go out and half a$$ a game like that is ridiculous. I'm sure Finland is above average and all but there was no reason for the US not to win this game 5-0 rather than Finland doing it to them. Their coach must have given them my prep talk.
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USA was picked to medal this Olympics so if they don't there well be egg on their faces.
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Still think that Team USA was one of the two best teams in this tournament? What a joke!
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Big time egg.
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Disappointing, but this happens all of the time, where a team is playing for a lot less than what their goal was, resulting in a lackluster performance. We see it all of the time in NCAA basketball where a bubble team fails to make the tournament and then gets ousted in the 1st round of the NIT, simply because the whole team is not "all in" when it comes to playing for a lot less than what they hoped to play for.
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Disappointing, but this happens all of the time, where a team is playing for a lot less than what their goal was, resulting in a lackluster performance. We see it all of the time in NCAA basketball where a bubble team fails to make the tournament and then gets ousted in the 1st round of the NIT, simply because the whole team is not "all in" when it comes to playing for a lot less than what they hoped to play for.
Yeah....I'm done defending them. They blew it plain and simple. I still think they're one of the top two teams in that tournament despite not getting a medal. If they weren't the. The level of disappointment and 'shock' wouldn't be so high from nearly every pundit and news source out there. Oh well.....no matter the outcome (2) Blues players come home with Gold and (2) with Silver, that's cool.
And, at least Oshie produced a pretty epic Olympic moment out of the whole deal.
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I had picked a Russia/USA final, so I'm utterly stunned they both failed to medal. I think you're right Gary... that result was an absolute embarrassment, and to be mentally unprepared for the game will haunt them all after they're retired... especially those that never play in an Olympics again, and/or never get a Cup.
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That's the dumbest fallacy I have ever read. No American thinks that we should get every medal. That's ludicrous. I sometimes think people think we are arrogant and when I read posts like this others need to see the irony.
If an Olympic athlete wins a medal from another country it is because they put many years of hard work to win that medal and are the best in the world and good for them. They deserve it.
Well to be fair, we are arrogant and there are plenty of examples that are demonstrated with the Olympics. For one thing, the coverage here is embarrassingly Americentric. It's actually annoying enough for me that I've skipped a lot of it. The most recent example (but I notice such things any time it's on) is when the smoking hot Russian girl won the figure skating gold. Rather than showing her accept the medal they cut to some American guy standing through our national anthem after an event that occurred hours before. I would have much rather seen her with her unabashed excitement and enthusiasm than his stoic ass; better television.
Another thing is the notion that our rivals get bitter or angry when they lose to Americans. This has gone on forever, and the truth seems to be that it's rarely the case. Far from being pissed off about Jesse Owens, Hitler had actually been quite respectful to him before the events, and he was far more respected and appreciated in Germany than he was here. Khrushchev was pretty pissed off when the judges asked him at the First International Tchaikovsky Competition if it was OK for them to give Van Cliburn the medal. All I heard about after the America/Russia hockey match was how humiliating it must have been for Putin. Putin has won so much by this olympics it's amazing. I doubt this was much of a setback for the man.
And then there's all of the coverage about how fucked up Sochi is. It takes years of preparation to host the Olympics, and every single time they're rushing and scurrying up to the very end to get it all together. Somehow I doubt that Atlanta and Los Angeles were really up to spec when they hosted, and if you'd given me a camera I could have offered up 100 examples better than the twin toilets. For some reason I never saw any pictures of incomplete facilities of those on American television.
I'm not pointing these things out to bash America. I'm just suggesting that anybody with some objectivity could look at how we present this thing and come away with the very valid opinion that we're pretty damned full of ourselves. Probably the only people who don't see that are the actual foreign competitors. I would that inside the Olympic village there's little left outside of mutual respect and admiration, which is one of the few reasons left for me to watch the thing.
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El Barto. you must know a lot of fucktards. I certainly don't know people like this and if I did they are assholes. Besides you can't use the TV coverage to point out all Americans. We know how slanted new is here in America.
Whoever wins in these Olympics deserve all the accolades.
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Perhaps it's because I'm not really a sports fan (the Olympics are the only sports I ever watch), but I don't really even care who wins, I just enjoy watching.
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And that is the greatness of the Olympics. I hate the media coverage. Look at what happened to Bode Miller as a prime example.
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El Barto. you must know a lot of fucktards. I certainly don't know people like this and if I did they are assholes. Besides you can't use the TV coverage to point out all Americans. We know how slanted new is here in America.
Whoever wins in these Olympics deserve all the accolades.
Only my coworkers. I don't knowingly hang around with fucktards. However, I have no idea who you're referring to. Who are the fucktards? My only point in responding to your post was that you said there's a perception of American arrogance, and I think it's perfectly understandable for many reasons, with our coverage of the Olympics as a fine example.
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I had picked a Russia/USA final, so I'm utterly stunned they both failed to medal.
Am I the only one who thought Russia didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of medaling? :lol
I got the final I predicted though. Canada/Sweden is gonna make for an awesome game. Staying up all night to catch this. Let's go boys! :metal
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El Barto. you must know a lot of fucktards. I certainly don't know people like this and if I did they are assholes. Besides you can't use the TV coverage to point out all Americans. We know how slanted new is here in America.
Whoever wins in these Olympics deserve all the accolades.
Only my coworkers. I don't knowingly hang around with fucktards. However, I have no idea who you're referring to. Who are the fucktards? My only point in responding to your post was that you said there's a perception of American arrogance, and I think it's perfectly understandable for many reasons, with our coverage of the Olympics as a fine example.
I find it hard to believe that people in other countries can't separate the coverage from the people. If you know that, they should know that so what does that say about them?. If some people in America think like that, and I've only seen a few, they are the fucktards.
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Good Job Canada on the Gold. Just a methodical machine that defensively shut down every team they played. A true TEAM effort and they deserve the Gold again.
Thrilled for my 'Blues' boys but I have to say......I'm so happy that we can get back to NHL Hockey now!
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WE WIN THE GOLD! WAY TO GO, BOYS!
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This BTW is why I don't like seeing team sports at the Olympics. It just becomes an extension of the NHL, NFL or whatever.
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This BTW is why I don't like seeing team sports at the Olympics. It just becomes an extension of the NHL, NFL or whatever.
Sorry, but this is a dumb statement. Football isn't played in the Olympics for starters, and why shouldn't the greatest athletes play, no matter what their vocation is outside of the Olympics? The USA, Russia, Sweden were all stacked with NHL players... which just goes to show that the NHL attracts the best players in the world.
Why don't you like that?
Also, Gary nailed it... perfect team execution; brilliant defense, and generating enough offense.
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One hell of a win for team Canada.
Now I may not agree with Rumbo, I do love the individual sports because most of the sports I watch are team sports except for Tennis and Golf.
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Got to love it when the Gold Medal team beats the Silver Medal team, who beat the Bronze Medal team, who beat the 4th place team. Really makes it clear who the best teams are.
Congrats to Canada. That was an impressive performance.
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Got to love it when the Gold Medal team beats the Silver Medal team, who beat the Bronze Medal team, who beat the 4th place team.
Touché. Well played.......... :clap:
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Something else that's annoyed me about the Olympic coverage is that every time I tune in it seems to be some event that just doesn't translate well to television. Do we really need to watch all of a 2 hour cross country race where nothing will ever happen between the first and last 10 minutes? Christ, even NASCAR has the occasional pass or fatality. Why not intersperse other events with updates? Hell, it's all time delayed anyway. This seems to happen a lot this time around. Every time I turn it on I last through 15 minutes of yammering, 3 commercial breaks, and then turn on something else.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXtqvBOlibY
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Awesome game! :metal Our defense was monstrous and when they weren't there Price always was to take away the goals. Good stuff!
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Something else that's annoyed me about the Olympic coverage is that every time I tune in it seems to be some event that just doesn't translate well to television. Do we really need to watch all of a 2 hour cross country race where nothing will ever happen between the first and last 10 minutes? Christ, even NASCAR has the occasional pass or fatality. Why not intersperse other events with updates? Hell, it's all time delayed anyway. This seems to happen a lot this time around. Every time I turn it on I last through 15 minutes of yammering, 3 commercial breaks, and then turn on something else.
For me, there really aren't that many excited or compelling Winter Sports. The newer ones....all the snow boarding and more extreme skiing is fun to watch, the Hockey.....but even when you get into figure skating to where (again for me) if a chic or dude doesn't fall it's not entirely noticeable or distinguishable who did better than who. Some routines are more fluid sure.....but they are the same moves.
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I spent a lot of time watching figure skating, and you get to notice whose performance was tougher than the other, but there was some incredibly biased judging going on. Like I think the Russian gal who won gold deserved it, but the 15 year old "prodigy" fell and biffed it twice, and got 2 places (5th)higher than Ashley Wagner whose only mistake was not rotating enough(barely) on her first jump spin(while still landing it with finesse) Hell even the other American placed higher(4th) and she biffed it once or twice as well. Made no sense to me. Ashley had a pretty exciting routine that wasn't a cake walk by a long shot.
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I always liked and watched the 2 & 4 man bobsled.
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This BTW is why I don't like seeing team sports at the Olympics. It just becomes an extension of the NHL, NFL or whatever.
Sorry, but this is a dumb statement. Football isn't played in the Olympics for starters, and why shouldn't the greatest athletes play, no matter what their vocation is outside of the Olympics? The USA, Russia, Sweden were all stacked with NHL players... which just goes to show that the NHL attracts the best players in the world.
Why don't you like that?
Also, Gary nailed it... perfect team execution; brilliant defense, and generating enough offense.
Thanks for the "dumb statement" comment :\
I don't like watching *major* team sports at the Olympics. Because all it is is an extension of the regular leagues those sports have anyway. Just FYI, it's not just hockey. I don't like that soccer has become part of the summer Olympics either. It's irrelevant when compared to the World Cup, Champions League etc, and only takes away from other sports, some of which are getting pushed out (e.g. wrestling)
To me, the Olympics are a competition of *personal* perserverance.
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This BTW is why I don't like seeing team sports at the Olympics. It just becomes an extension of the NHL, NFL or whatever.
Sorry, but this is a dumb statement. Football isn't played in the Olympics for starters, and why shouldn't the greatest athletes play, no matter what their vocation is outside of the Olympics? The USA, Russia, Sweden were all stacked with NHL players... which just goes to show that the NHL attracts the best players in the world.
Why don't you like that?
Also, Gary nailed it... perfect team execution; brilliant defense, and generating enough offense.
Thanks for the "dumb statement" comment :\
I don't like watching *major* team sports at the Olympics. Because all it is is an extension of the regular leagues those sports have anyway. Just FYI, it's not just hockey. I don't like that soccer has become part of the summer Olympics either. It's irrelevant when compared to the World Cup, Champions League etc, and only takes away from other sports, some of which are getting pushed out (e.g. wrestling)
To me, the Olympics are a competition of *personal* perserverance.
Didn't mean to insult your intelligence the first time 'round... it just seemed like a minimalist statement - uncharacteristic of you. Your more detailed comments make more sense as to why you dislike the professional sports being part of the Olympic competition. There are some team sports that don't fall into this category (water polo, volleyball in the summer... speed skating, bobsled in winter).
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I spent a lot of time watching figure skating, and you get to notice whose performance was tougher than the other, but there was some incredibly biased judging going on. Like I think the Russian gal who won gold deserved it, but the 15 year old "prodigy" fell and biffed it twice, and got 2 places (5th)higher than Ashley Wagner whose only mistake was not rotating enough(barely) on her first jump spin(while still landing it with finesse) Hell even the other American placed higher(4th) and she biffed it once or twice as well. Made no sense to me. Ashley had a pretty exciting routine that wasn't a cake walk by a long shot.
I agree with all of this, and I noticed the exact same thing about Wagner, Gold and the tiny Russian girl. That said, I think it's more a function of how silly the scoring actually is rather than overt bias. Perhaps I'm just being naive, though.
As for the team sport thing, I'm with Rumbo on that one. The parts of the Olympics I'm interested in tend to be about perseverance, overcoming adversity and demonstrations of tremendous aptitude. It's the personal aspect and you really only get that with the individual events. A fine example of that was the smoking hot Rooskie that won the figure skating gold, after the Russian team passed her over. That's a great story and it showed in her enthusiasm. Same thing with the Japanese girl who was well out of contention but turned in the best performance of here career knowing that it was going to be her last. This is what I tend to enjoy.
That's not to say that there's nothing to be said for the team sports. It's pretty much an allstar game but divided by nationalities rather than conferences which is quite interesting. Still, it rarely offers what I actually want to see in these sorts of things.
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That's not to say that there's nothing to be said for the team sports. It's pretty much an allstar game but divided by nationalities rather than conferences which is quite interesting.
I can understand everything in your post up to this point. The All-Star games in basketball and hockey are NOTHING like their respective games in the Olympics. The All-Star games are a sham. No emotion, nothing to play for... they should be outlawed. The Olympics are the exact opposite, and if anything, I'd say there is more emotion, and more to play for than in the pro league. Representing one's country for a gold medal every four years is more meaningful and prestigious than playing for the NHL/NBA championships, representing the city that hired you.
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Lol, well played, Russia, with the Olympic rings.
Also, Russia just has the best anthem. Hands-down. It's that perfect combination of epic, sad and uplifting.
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Representing one's country for a gold medal every four years is more meaningful and prestigious than playing for the NHL/NBA championships, representing the city that hired you.
No. But then, they aren't really 'representing the city that hired them" either. They are playing for the same thing everyone else plays for: being able to hold up the trophy after the last game of the season (that, and the fat contract extension).
And All-Star games are just exhibitions. I don't care for them either, but I don't think we should ban athletic exhibitions.
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Lol, well played, Russia, with the Olympic rings.
Also, Russia just has the best anthem. Hands-down. It's that perfect combination of epic, sad and uplifting.
No idea what the rings were, but I agree completely about the anthem. Not only perfect for a national anthem, but distinctly Russian, as well.
That's not to say that there's nothing to be said for the team sports. It's pretty much an allstar game but divided by nationalities rather than conferences which is quite interesting.
I can understand everything in your post up to this point. The All-Star games in basketball and hockey are NOTHING like their respective games in the Olympics. The All-Star games are a sham. No emotion, nothing to play for... they should be outlawed. The Olympics are the exact opposite, and if anything, I'd say there is more emotion, and more to play for than in the pro league. Representing one's country for a gold medal every four years is more meaningful and prestigious than playing for the NHL/NBA championships, representing the city that hired you.
Yeah, that's a valid point. These events are certainly far more meaningful and serious than allstar games. Still, I don't find them particularly interesting to watch as compared to the individual accomplishments seen in other competitions.
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Fair enough, and you have a valid point... we see top notch hockey/basketball/soccer all the time. We don't get mogels, luge, skeleton etc .... except at the Olympics.
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Fair enough, and you have a valid point... we see top notch hockey/basketball/soccer all the time. We don't get mogels, luge, skeleton etc .... except at the Olympics.
That's a funny thing. After watching these events with a good amount of attention and enthusiasm on how the sport is played, I'm thinking that I should tune in more to the Universal Sport channel that holds these events and the "World Championships" events that the commentators are always plugging before a run or something.
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Lol, well played, Russia, with the Olympic rings.
Also, Russia just has the best anthem. Hands-down. It's that perfect combination of epic, sad and uplifting.
No idea what the rings were
During the opening ceremony, one of the mechanical Olympic rings didn't open. They got some flak for showing rehearsal footage for that section on the TV stream. Well, during the closing ceremony they had hundreds of people doing the Olympic rings, and one of the rings didn't open again :lol Than was great self-deprecating humor.
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Fair enough, and you have a valid point... we see top notch hockey/basketball/soccer all the time. We don't get mogels, luge, skeleton etc .... except at the Olympics.
If you live in Europe, you're going to get those events in their regular seasons through Eurosport. There must be someone who broadcasts across the pond...
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If you live in Europe, you're going to get those events in their regular seasons through Eurosport. There must be someone who broadcasts across the pond...
I think there is a channel owned by NBC called Universal Sports that has these sports. I think I can get it through my local channels via digital converter box or something like that.
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Lol, well played, Russia, with the Olympic rings.
Also, Russia just has the best anthem. Hands-down. It's that perfect combination of epic, sad and uplifting.
No idea what the rings were
During the opening ceremony, one of the mechanical Olympic rings didn't open. They got some flak for showing rehearsal footage for that section on the TV stream. Well, during the closing ceremony they had hundreds of people doing the Olympic rings, and one of the rings didn't open again :lol Than was great self-deprecating humor.
I didn't see it, so I am only going off of your vague description. So they intentionally screwed up one of the rings in the closing ceremony to poke a bit of fun at what happened during the opening, is that right? :lol If so, that's really cool.
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Yeah, exactly. I mean, this was people running around in the stadium to make the various shapes. At the very end they made the rings, and the top-right group just stood in a tiny compressed spot. Eventually they opened up to become a circle too :lol
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(https://blogs.reuters.com/fullfocus/files/2014/02/RTX19D7T.jpg)
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It was Rumbo. What a great sense of deprecating humor. I loved it!
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I spent a lot of time watching figure skating, and you get to notice whose performance was tougher than the other, but there was some incredibly biased judging going on. Like I think the Russian gal who won gold deserved it, but the 15 year old "prodigy" fell and biffed it twice, and got 2 places (5th)higher than Ashley Wagner whose only mistake was not rotating enough(barely) on her first jump spin(while still landing it with finesse) Hell even the other American placed higher(4th) and she biffed it once or twice as well. Made no sense to me. Ashley had a pretty exciting routine that wasn't a cake walk by a long shot.
Just read this article. I don't think there is any question that there was some heavily biased judging going on in favor of that Russian skater. It's not her fault....she's a great skater, but c'mon.
https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/russian-figure-skater-gold-medalist-hugs-judge-moments-after-win-103935597.html
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Meh. People looking for controversy. I will say that somebody who was suspended for trying to rig a vote shouldn't be a judge ever again; seriously, WTF? That said, the voting system is just strange as hell. Nevertheless, we were already discussing the Wagner thing, and I seriously doubt they were trying to rig the 5th-7th place finishes. :lol As for Sotnikova, she was hugging everybody she could find (shame I wasn't on hand), so this doesn't surprise me. Furthermore, she skated a technically stronger routine, and while I agree that Korean Chick's performance was more graceful, that's not all there is to it. I watched the whole thing live and I had no problem with it.
And to fix the thing, why not just have 10 judges, remove the high, low and 3 random judges for each skater, average it out, then factor in LoD.
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The only part I found conspiratorial was:
In addition to the cases of the two questionable judges, it's also worth noting that four of the 13 free skate judges hail from former Soviet republics — Russia, Estonia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.
I just don't see how they could have been completely unbiased. To be clear....I think the Russian chic did awesome...she was fantastic! But to top the performance with questionable judging....ehh....i don't think speculation will ever end when you have that type of judging system anyway. I just thought the article was interesting in pointing out some more 'fuel' for the fire.
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There were 13 judges for that event? So goes the conspiracy, as far as I'm concerned. To respond to your point, I don't think anybody can be completely unbiased, so the best you can do is to try and minimize the impact of an indvidual judge, and having 13 of them goes a long ways towards doing that. If they still remove the high and low votes, all the better. I still maintain that the scoring is silly and ineffective, but this is just yellow journalism, AFAIC.
I'll also point out that being a former Soviet Bloc nation doesn't necessarily fill you with fondness for Mother Russia. :lol Who's to say the Azerbaijani's father wasn't killed during the Baku crackdown of 1990? I think the Estonians might have been caught up in that unpleasantness, as well.
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To be honest, I can only shrug my shoulders at the purely subjectively scored sports. Like, you got a girl dancing an "Awake", but then you got Blob as a judge who says "this is the worst dance of all I've seen today".
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Are you "DTF" dumbing it down for us? :lol
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I'd say that he made it more sophisticated. :lol
And is there no talk of Bäckström's positive test in this thread? It has exploded in Swedish media of course.
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And is there no talk of Bäckström's positive test in this thread? It has exploded in Swedish media of course.
I thought it was just allergy medication? Was it something more substantial?
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And is there no talk of Bäckström's positive test in this thread? It has exploded in Swedish media of course.
I thought it was just allergy medication? Was it something more substantial?
It was just allergy medication (Zyrtec-D) but that contains pseudoephedrine. Not surprisingly, Pseudofed is on the banned list. I guess I can understand why they banned it (at certain levels) since it is a mild speed, but unless you're really tweaking it really shouldn't be that big of a deal.
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And is there no talk of Bäckström's positive test in this thread? It has exploded in Swedish media of course.
I thought it was just allergy medication? Was it something more substantial?
It was just allergy medication (Zyrtec-D) but that contains pseudoephedrine. Not surprisingly, Pseudofed is on the banned list. I guess I can understand why they banned it (at certain levels) since it is a mild speed, but unless you're really tweaking it really shouldn't be that big of a deal.
I'd say that's a failure of coaching/management then not to fully vet their players. The dude has allergies and is probably used to taking that medication. Was it banned only in the Olympic Games.....or is it banned in the NHL also? Either way, if it's prescribed (or not) for actual allergies it seems a bit ridiculous he was banned from the game.
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Well, if there is one thing I have learned about professional sport, it is this: If you give people a chance to get even a 1% benefit from something, they will generally jump on it. Sometimes people get careless and get caught. Not sure what to think about this specific case, but I've learned not to trust the words of athletes and doctors.
A former NHL player said in Swedish media that pretty much everyone in the NHL had at some point used (https://www.expressen.se/sport/hockey/tre-kronor/forre-nhl-backen-alla-har-provat-det) pseudoephedrine, that it is commonly used even among players who do not medically require it.
Not sure how the ban status is in the NHL. I don't think there should be any differences between NHL and the IOC/WADA. The NHL and other organizations should IMHO obviously follow WADA doping rules.
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I don't think there's much advantage to be gained from pseudoephedrine. It's a little speedy, but not much. Given the risk/reward you'd probably be better off just doing a rail or two. But I agree with GMD about his coaches and trainers. They should have known that this would be a problem. Also, Zyrtec is going to be an OTC drug, and pretty much all athletes of any sport are going to have it hammered home which OTC drugs can get them into trouble.
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To be honest, I can only shrug my shoulders at the purely subjectively scored sports. Like, you got a girl dancing an "Awake", but then you got Blob as a judge who says "this is the worst dance of all I've seen today".
:rollin :rollin :rollin
But yeah, it has always been difficult for me to really enjoy the olympic events, summer or winter, where the winners completely depend on the subjective opinion of judges.
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Thank god this shit is over! :metal