2010 Winter Olympics

[Orange Seeds]

Just won curing tickets from standing in a very long line.
9:00am tomorrow kind of sucks, but now I can say I've gone to both Olympic hockey and curling!

 

[Maniacal]

Every team plays every other qualifying team. Based on the results the top four teams advance to the medal round.

There will be four curling matches going simultaneously tomorrow AM as part of the round robin.

Aye, but why is it called a 'round robin'?

 

[RedFred]

Blame the French...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-robin

 

[warpus]

What the heck is a "round robin" anyway?

batman's overweight sidekick?

 

[warpus]

i watched the half-pipe whatever-it's-called snowboard finals earlier tonight

shawn white was amazing. his first run was incredible and i thought unbeatable - but then he beat it himself with a 48.something. he was leaps and bounds better than any of the other opponents and really deserves that medal

canada got silver in women's 500m speed skating! - that was somewhat exciting but at the same time a bit anti-climactic for me.. we had 2 skaters in the 4, so could have gotten 2 medals and another gold.. or so i thought! "the queen" was really good and deserves her gold. the italian was strong and refused to allow the other canadian to get into 3rd place right after the finish, and that pretty much settled 3rd and 4th place.

and justyna something-or-other got a silver for poland in cross country finally.. she was expected to medal in the 10km, but didn't, so it's good to finally see her get a medal.

Also watched a lot of curling. Last night the canadian men's team made SO MANY amazing pin point shots.. they were SO PRECISE i was blown away. it's only curling and i'm getting excited - that should tell you how amazing those shots were.. and i gotta tell you.. i love the japanese women's curling team.. they look so much better than all the other female teams! they are HOT. what happened to 250 pound curling players from the 80s? WHO CARES

 

[Vind2]

Nice to see Finland pick up a medal

 

[warpus]

Nice to see Finland pick up a medal

It was silver in speed skating of some sort, right? I think I saw that

 

[Adria]

The Canadian's medal streak on Cypress came to an end tonight. Fantastic performance from Shaun White though.


As for going to the games myself, it looks like Tuesday will be the best day to go over - far better than the Monday my bf thought he had off. Monday has no medal ceremony at BC Place, and I'm already scheduled for a 'late' shift on the Wednesday so the midnight sailing back won't be quite as rough the next day. I'll find out for sure tomorrow if I'll be able to make it over.

Better still if you have tickets to events. This week I picked up a couple more at cost from Craigslist of all places.

Getting tickets will be difficult. I won't even look at events on the mountain because I'll be spending enough time traveling to & from Vancouver - I don't want to spend more on a bus to Whistler/Cypress. Getting something in town - speedskating, curling, hockey, or figure skating - would be difficult due to demand for those particular events. I am seeing some qualification round hockey tickets on craigslist for $400 per pair...might be worth it as I don't see myself getting to another winter olympics. And some of them are for the game that the US would be playing in if they end up in that round (if Canada wins the round-robin game). Even if the US aren't there, it'd still be Olympic hockey.

I'll have to read up on all the different free venues and 'houses' too, to see which ones I'd want to check out.

 

[willemvanoranje]

Speed skating 1000m was another disaster yesterday... now the ice finally seemed of acceptable quality thanks to the new maintenance machine of a different brand, and then the damn starters pistol and clock started malfunctioning.... a Japanese and a Russian guy had to appear to the start twice, a different pair involving one Italian had the same problem... and some of those four were considered outsiders...

 

[Tekee]

shaun white was so boring his stupid spinning is so boring. Half Pipe is a terrible sport because spins are rated too high. The Ladie's snowboard CROSS is a much better sport!
Also the world hates Vancouver now, they blame Canada for all disasters :/
Men's Figure Skating on tonight! American firgure skaters are all so gay OMG, and it was our CTV commentatros that complained that the Russian and Ukrainian outfits were "questionable" and "embarrassing"
American men's figure skating is embarrasing...
Oh yeah and Jonney Weir ha a russian coach and he speaks russian

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

A great job from the American athletes the last couple of days.

 

[TheBladeRoden]

Bah, why is curling always on while i'm at work?

 

[tcjsavannah]

Had to come in here and vent about how bad the USA Curling teams have been.. I mean, 0-fer? Really?

At least the US "stars" have all showed well.. Vonn, Ohno, Shaun White, Shani...

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Norway just scored a goal against the US in men's hockey. Their first Olympic goal since 1994.

 

[Zelig]

Bah, why is curling always on while i'm at work?

Dunno where you live, but Canadians can stream it at ctvolympics.ca. My work even provides me with dual monitors to stream sporting events.

 

[Adria]

I scored Olympic men's hockey tickets!

It's for the qualification round - the playoff round for teams that don't get a 'bye' into the quarter finals. If the USA has to play in this round, they'll be playing in the game I got tickets for. Only $440 for a pair of lower bowl tickets, after all the fees on the VANOC fan-to-fan site. Everything else available for under $500 were pairs of upper bowl seats. Makes me wonder if the person selling them really wasn't interested in a big profit (will make $80 after the fees) or if they thought they were selling the tickets at $400 each and not $400 for the pair...

 

[Tekee]

You are very lucky Adria!!!!! I couldn't be bothered to go that far to see olympics (I'm in ottawa.. meh)...
but all the gold medals Canada is winning is getting a little much.
I was so happy when Canada won gold in moguls!
Then the first Canadian woman to win gold.
But today another gold for Canada... ok I'm tired of cheering, we all are.
These gold medals for Canada are becoming souless

 

[RedFred]

Er... congrats... I think. ONLY $440? Thank heavens I like curling. A lot easier on the wallet. The morning draw was great - we had tickets in the 3rd row. They were for the families of the US team resold to us at cost. Had to deal with our zone cheering for the US, but the surrounding Canadian sections were the big majority when it came to cheering. Great time - it was really rocking in there. Would have been pretty fun even without the 'no doubter' Canadian victory and the Norwegian pants. Love those pants.

People were selling/giving curling tickets away like crazy. Even the scalpers were discounting, not profit taking for the afternoon draw. Plenty of tickets still to be had.

 

[Tekee]

YES Switerland just tied Canada in a 2 to 2 game
************* CANADA!!!!!!
I really want Canada to not get a medal at this event oh I think I'm getting an ulcer from the stress this is causing.
Stupid Canada wanting to remind who's game this is.
They can win woman's hockey but womans hockey is lopsided. 18-0? 43-0?
These scores are unbeleivable, a mercy rule is needed... woman's hockey is broken.

 

[RedFred]

No difference really between the women now and the Canadian men nearly a century ago. In 1924 Olympics they outscored the opposition 110 - 3 en route to the gold medal.

Over time women's hockey will mature and the European teams will become as competitive as the men's teams are now.