2010 Winter Olympics

[Formaldehyde]

They should be much safer starting from the women's launch point, even though a woman was knocked unconscious during practice on the same corner.

And the competition will likely suffer as a result. The original configuration was a true separator from the wheat from the chaff. But people shouldn't die in sports just because they make a mistake...

 

[warpus]

I just ordered TSN HD so that I could watch the ski jump stuff.. starts in 15 minutes..

woke up at 6:45am to watch the chelsea fa cup game, been up since.. ate some blts for breakfast.. gonna take a shower, get back in bed, and watch some hd olympics.. aww yeahh

 

[Formaldehyde]

Just saw on NBC that they have reduced the speed by about 10 mph bringing it into the range the atheletes see at all the other tracks. They also worked on the exit to make it easier to get it right. And probably most importantly, they have erected a plywood wall at the exit of the last curve where there were exposed pillars.

 

[warpus]

Just saw on NBC that they have reduced the speed by about 10 mph bringing it into the range the atheletes see at all the other tracks. They also worked on the exit to make it easier to get it right. And probably most importantly, they have erected a plywood wall at the exit of the last curve where there were exposed pillars.

Good to see that they made it safer.

In other news, Adam Malysz (the Polish Batman) just got the first medal for Poland by getting silver in ski jump That Ammann guy was unbeatable.. 108 on the second jump!

Big hill is going to be interesting

 

[Orange Seeds]

I have never watched an opening or closing ceremony before, but that was rather neat yesterday. I don't plan on going anywhere today(I'm bloody tired after last week!). Who knows, maybe I'll head into downtown tomorrow. I am very, very happy that the University is shut down for two weeks or I would have been far too distracted to enjoy the games at all.

Definitely going to watch the men's hockey games in Yaletown though--should be exhilarating.

Weather is still a huge problem and is showing no signs of abating. There is so little snow on the north shore that when I go hiking later this week, not only will I not have snowshoes, but I'm not even going to bother with the cramp-ons. In other words, the conditions would be normal if this were early May.

 

[Adria]

So many channels showing Olympic coverage, and I can only watch & record 2 at a time. If there was more time fo watching stuff, I'd consider setting up the other PVR downstairs too.

I was quite happy with the opening ceremonies last night. It's a shame le May Doan didn't get to help light the cauldron though. Once it was determined that the fourth pillar wouldn't come up, she should have joined another athlete at their pillar to help with the lighting.

The projection stuff was pretty awesome. I think that may be some of the unique stuff they said they could do because it was an indoor opening ceremonies. It was great to see a lot of local BC talent. I think the beat poet, the dancing/Sarah McLachlan bit, and the fiddling/tap dancing were my favorite parts. The two parts I didn't really like were the Olympic anthem (great opera singer, but I don't the song was meant to be sung like that) and the Canadian anthem performance.

 

[Maniacal]

I generally don't watch opening ceremonies, but last night I watched the whole thing. a part of that was because I get it in HD.. and I really wanted to see what the world was going to see when they tuned in to check out Canada. and I gotta say - I was impressed with most of the opening ceremony! Some of the speeches were a bit over the top, but that whole artistic bit was incredible! I'm impressed at what they were able to pull off - it came off as very unique, and I think it achieved its goal.. The one part I did not like was when they were doing the whole "dudes dancing around trees" bit. It seemed a bit off. Plus, they totally forgot Ontario On purpose? A part of the thing focused on Canada's north, then they did the east/maritimes, then Quebec, then the prairies, and then the rockies/west.. hold on a sec, what the hell happened to the most important part of the country? Ah well, I suppose this is vancouver after all, maybe they are peeved at being Canada's #3 city after Toronto and Montreal.. and there's no way they could have left out the Francophone aspect of Canada in the show - that would have caused too many complaints.. but Ontario? Nobody's gonna care if you leave that out

Vancouver rates as (or one of) the best city in the world to live in, and is certainly better than Toronto. Although I personally would still not live there unless I was being paid at least a million dollars a year (I despise cities, too many people, concrete etc).

I have no idea how they would have represented Ontario, it doesn't have anything particularly unique culturally that it is famous for other than being the largest province with a lot of big cities.

 

[warpus]

So many channels showing Olympic coverage, and I can only watch & record 2 at a time. If there was more time fo watching stuff, I'd consider setting up the other PVR downstairs too.

Yeah, I didn't realize we'd be getting so much coverage.. CTVs got a couple stations with coverage, there's TSN, Sportsnet, and then America's NBC, and who knows what else that I haven't found yet.

I was quite happy with the opening ceremonies last night. It's a shame le May Doan didn't get to help light the cauldron though. Once it was determined that the fourth pillar wouldn't come up, she should have joined another athlete at their pillar to help with the lighting.

What I thought should have happened was Wayne Gretzky sitting that part out instead of her... cause I mean.. he got to light the outdoor thing all by himself.. she didn't get to do anything!

 

[warpus]

I have no idea how they would have represented Ontario, it doesn't have anything particularly unique culturally that it is famous for other than being the largest province with a lot of big cities.

It's just kinda funny that that's the ONLY part of Canada that they left out. How hard would it have been to come up with something artistic to represent Ontario? They were able to represent every single other part of Canada! The country's capital is in Ontario - they could have done something with Parliment hill. or niagara falls (that thing hanging down from the ceiling could have been used to represent the falls).. or skyscrapers.. or the cn tower!

In the end they probably figured that inserting one more "scene" would have taken up too much time, and the urban-ness of canada was already represented with vancouver..

Either way, I just finished watching the 5,000m speed skating stuff. KRAMER won! Korean got an unexpected second, and a Russian hung in there for bronze.

 

[warpus]

And I gotta say, I'm very impressed with both Canadian and American coverage so far. I have complained about this in the past.. but the American and Canadian stations I've seen so far seem to be showing EVERYTHING, with minor stuff cut out during commercials. When I watched ski jump, they showed every single jumper in the second round. Then both CTV and NBC were showing every single race for the 5k speed skating.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Just wait until the Americans start competing and they have more events to cover.

 

[civ_king]

two man luge looks like the queerest sport ever

 

[Adria]

And I gotta say, I'm very impressed with both Canadian and American coverage so far. I have complained about this in the past.. but the American and Canadian stations I've seen so far seem to be showing EVERYTHING, with minor stuff cut out during commercials. When I watched ski jump, they showed every single jumper in the second round. Then both CTV and NBC were showing every single race for the 5k speed skating.

I think it helps that CTV has 4 channels (CTV, SNET, TSN, TSN2) to split coverage over. And being the winter games, there are far fewer events to cover than there are in the summer games.

I'm waiting for the live events to start up again. Next is moguls qualification at 4:30, then luge, short track speedskating heats, and women's hockey (Canada) at 5. I'm really looking forward to the ladies moguls final tonight - Jennifer Heil could become only the second Canadian to successfully defend their Olympic gold medal (if I heard that correctly, Catriona le May Doan is the only other athlete to do it).

Full event schedule here: http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-schedule-results/

 

[Shekwan]

The Women's Ice Hockey is on TV now and Canada are beating Slovakia 15 -0 at the start of the 3rd quarter. I love seeing teams get demolished in any team sport. I'm finding it very entertaining.

 

[Riffraff]

The Women's Ice Hockey is on TV now and Canada are beating Slovakia 15 -0 at the start of the 3rd quarter. I love seeing teams get demolished in any team sport. I'm finding it very entertaining.

Women are allowed to play icehockey ?!?

 

[holy king]

yeah, but they need someone to open the door for them for substitutions, or else they would never get on the field.

 

[RedFred]

Canada wins 18-0. What a mismatch. Not your typical game even on the women's side.

My wife volunteered at BC Place in the morning prior to the opening ceremonies getting everything ready. It has been a long time since they have had a crowd remotely resembling the 60,000 at the opening.

Right now there is a real buzz about the games. Everyone is talking about it, elite atheletes, trainers, media people and celebrities are everywhere.

Everyone has their fingers crossed that the Canadians will put in a decent showing. The last two Canadian olympics were complete disasters. In both the Calgary 1988 winter olympics or the 1976 Montreal summer olympics our atheletes failed to win a single one.

 

[Adria]

The Women's Ice Hockey is on TV now and Canada are beating Slovakia 15 -0 at the start of the 3rd quarter. I love seeing teams get demolished in any team sport. I'm finding it very entertaining.

3rd period - a hockey game has three 20 minute periods.

Slovakia was happy just to qualify for the Olympics. They're still a step (or two or three) behind the top women's teams.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Canada wins 18-0.

It is good to see that good sportsmanship and the Olympic spirit is still alive and well in Vancouver.

 

[RedFred]

It is good to see that good sportsmanship and the Olympic spirit is still alive and well in Vancouver.

In fairness, the Slovak team beat another european national team by more than 80 to nothing.

http://www.personal-freedom.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12792

My wife just got some curling tickets at face value! Seems like tickets can still be had without paying exorbitant prices.