2010 Winter Olympics

[Weik]

Only two weeks until the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In the men's ice hockey tournament Canada will be the favourites, but I think Russia will beat them in the final. Sweden will win the bronze medal. Petter Northug has the ability to win six gold medals, and will probably be the most successful athlete in Vancouver. Ole Einar Bjørndalen could become the most successful Winter Olympian of all time if he wins three gold medals. Slovenia (Petra Majdic & Vesna Fabjan in cross-country skiing) and Latvia (Martins Dukurs in skeleton) can win their first gold medals at the Winter Olympics.

 

[holy king]

just curling. i love curling.

 

[Sofista]

Figure skating, because my GF raves about it. Me, I keep my interest awake judging the ladies' looks and laughing whenever someone falls.

 

[Darkness]

Speed skating of course. What else are we Dutch going to get medals in anyway.
I may watch some of the hockey and alpine skying, if I can the time to do so...

 

[Fetus4188]

Hockey, speed skating, downhill, and anything involving throwing people down a frozen chute at great speed.

 

[Esckey]

You know as a Canadian I say this with all the respect possible but I hope Canada doesn't even get Bronze in Hockey. We need to be taken down a peg

 

[Cutlass]

A little here, a little there. Probably not a great deal.

 

[classical_hero]

Not much, considering we are generally a warm climate over here, thus it is not really to our liking.

 

[Grisu]

Hockey, some alpine skiiing. that's about it

 

[Weik]

Lindsey Vonn's results this season:
Downhill: 1-1-1-1-1-5
Super-G: 2-3-1-1-1
She looks almost unbeatable.

 

[Camikaze]

I absolutely love the Winter Olympics, because I don't get to see any of the sports in it any other time in the intervening four years. I won't really get a choice of what I watch, though; TV programmers will have limited-ish coverage. But if I had a choice, I'd definitely go for the curling, bobsleigh, speed skating and ski jumping.

 

[classical_hero]

You can if you have either Foxtel or Austar.

 

[Camikaze]

I should add, for the benefit of non-Aussies, that no-one has pay TV here. By no-one, I mean, the vast majority do not.

 

[Grisu]

Lindsey Vonn's results this season:
Downhill: 1-1-1-1-1-5
Super-G: 2-3-1-1-1
She looks almost unbeatable.

true enough, I would be surprised if she's not among the top 3 in both races. But then, it's the olympics and it wouldn't be the first time that an athlete who dominates the whole season somehow fails there while some complete nobody wins

 

[Serutan]

TV coverage here is complete crap, so I won't be watching. I'll follow the cross country skiing results.

 

[Shekwan]

Theres a Winter Olympics?! Building snowmen is an event I hope? I bet Phelps could ace that whilst high too.

 

[jUmpSt0p]

I absolutely love the Winter Olympics, because I don't get to see any of the sports in it any other time in the intervening four years. I won't really get a choice of what I watch, though; TV programmers will have limited-ish coverage. But if I had a choice, I'd definitely go for the curling, bobsleigh, speed skating and ski jumping.

I agree totally!

the great thing about Winter Olympics is that you don't ever get to watch these sports normally (well, minus skating/skiing/snowboarding stuff), and when you do see them the stakes are the highest they ever get!

but we get the same problems in America with the programming.... you never know what the bastards are going to show. last time I remember watching Winter Olympics the NBC coverage was atrocious... they go to each event for 2 minutes, show you ONLY the Americans, and then move on to Bob Costas blabblering in mittens... WTH!

 

[Orange Seeds]

You know as a Canadian I say this with all the respect possible but I hope Canada doesn't even get Bronze in Hockey. We need to be taken down a peg

You should be shot. I'm pretty sure we went through this scenario last time.

We broke the all time record for warmest January. The average is nearly 5 Celsius above seasonal. The three local mountain(including Cypress, an olympic venue) have a snow pack that cannot support commercial operations. Even nature has been fooled. Flowers are already sprouting a full two months before they ought to. Curious to see how VANOC will handle it.

Thank heavens the University is closed. I might actually have time to enjoy myself.

 

[Weik]

Medal table based on current world cup standings*:
Germany 9-11-16 = 36
Canada 9-11-7 = 27
USA 9-5-6 = 20
Austria 8-9-9 = 26
Norway 8-8-3 = 19
China 7-6-6 = 19
South Korea 5-4-4 = 13
Switzerland 5-3-1 = 9
Russia 4-5-6 = 15
Sweden 4-4-9 = 17
France 4-1-4 = 9
Netherlands 3-4-1 = 8
Poland 3-0-0 = 3
Czech Republic 2-2-0 = 4
Finland 1-5-5 = 11
Japan 1-2-2 = 5
Italy 1-1-1 = 3
Latvia 1-1-0 = 2
Australia 1-0-0 = 1
Belarus 1-0-0 = 1
Great Britain 0-2-0 = 2
Slovenia 0-1-3 = 4
Ukraine 0-1-0 = 1
Croatia 0-0-2 = 2
Denmark 0-0-1 = 1

*no consideration have been taken to the fact that gold favourites like Evgeni Plushenko and Shaun White have not been competing regularly in the world cup. For sports without different cups for different events (like cross-country skiing) I have made my own calculations.

 

[Grisu]

South Korea? What winter sports are they good at? some skating thing?