2010 Winter Olympics

[Winner]

Watching Latvia-Czech Republic. What a game! 2-2 in overtime.

Great, I've made the right choice when I decided to sleep through the game

 

[Bamspeedy]

For some reason the American and Canadian stations are counting medal totals, as opposed to the way I'm used to (# of gold medals first, then silvers, then bronzes)

Has it always been like that? or am I just crazy..

North America has always been like that (at least the last 20 years), don't let anybody tell you differently.

For the Beijing Olympics that ordered them by gold medals won. I'm not sure if that is the common practice but i prefer a count of total medals.

CBC website in 2002:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020201000000-20020301235959/http://cbc.ca/olympics/
http://web.archive.org/web/20020201...http://cbc.ca/olympics/medals/medal-fulltable

In the US, it has usually been which way makes us look better.

You would think with how old you supposedly are you would know we've always done it by total medals. Don't be confused by the 'historical medals' from news sites, as these sites just compile the data from the IOC olympic handbook that's given out at every olympics....those standings are not in the same format as they were posted in the american media at the time those olympics were held.

There is no official way to post the standings, so if you do find one small town newspaper was lazy and just copied the bbc website so they did post them by golds it doesn't mean the rest of the american media didn't post the standings by total medals.

Some media (like the Guardian) went crazy about USA Today changing the way they do the tallying from the 2004 games vs. the 2008 games, but the Guardian is the one who screwed up.

Here is where the Guardian tries to make the claim:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2008/aug/14/bustedhowamericaturnedthe

But when you click on the first picture (the 2004 standings) it is a ranking that was re-compiled after the olympics, since they are already posting the medal standings for 2006! In fact, click on 'full coverage' for Athens 2004 and you get a small table with it listed by total medals. Click on 'full list' and you go back to the 'gold first' table. Do the same thing for 2006 and again you will see that the 'small' (front page) list is done by total medals, but the 'complete' (after the olympics are over) standings it is done by gold first method (probably copied from IOC handbook/press release).

Go check out 2002 full coverage.

1. GER - 35
2. USA - 34
3. NOR - 24

1998 done by 'total medals'

http://www.usatoday.com/olympics/result/medals.htm

It's always, always been by gold medals here. The Australian media laughed it's head off at the American media during Beijing when they were listing it by total medals won instead of gold medals won, which put them ahead of China. Listing by total medals won would be a new innovation here. If the American and Canadian media are doing that, well, the differing ranks of countries under the two tallies is a fair indication of why.

And I'm laughing at the Australian media for being so ignorant. Didn't they bother to ever ask themselves "When have Americans ever done something because that's the way the rest of the world does it?"

Americans had always done it by total medals (with few exceptions, since there is no 'official' policy), and the Canadians had done it by total medals since at LEAST 2002 (which it wouldn't matter that year since they finished 4th either way), but in 2006 putting it by total medals moved them from 5th to 3rd....there was no 'sneaky' record-keeping to make themselves look better that year, they used the same tallying they did at the previous olympics!

I already posted the past Canadian media olympic rankings, so here is the US:

CNN/Sports Illustrated from 2002:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020212....cnn.com/olympics/2002/current_medal_tracker/

Notice that with this ranking they could have put the US in first/second (tied with Germany), but instead they are listed as 3rd! behind Austria because they only looked at 'total' medals and then just listed ties in alphabetical order.

counting only the total is silly, IMHO. surely a country winning 5 gold is more successful than a country winning 6 bronze...

the most sensible approach would be some gold to silver to bronze conversion.

I agree that a more sensible approach would be something like 5 points for gold, 3 points for silver, 1 for bronze or some sort of scoring like that.

Just ranking by golds has problems as well (1 gold > 5+ silver AND 5+ bronze?! ). Just look at the 2006 rankings:

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total

18.....Japan (JPN)... 1 0 0 1
19.....Finland (FIN). 0 6 3 9

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

So now I'm watching Slovakia and Norway, and its 3-2 in the second. Looks like Norway is determined to make a game of it.

Also, Tore Vikingstad has an awesome name.

EDIT - Oh wow, 3-3, end of second

 

[warpus]

@Bamspeedy: yeah, both systems have pros and cons. personally i don't like either.

@Winner: name an international hockey team that's capable of getting an olympic medal that doesn't have most of their players in the NHL

 

[Grisu]

Anyone see Dutch national hero Sven Kramer screw up? (Or are the Dutch the only ones actually watching speed skating? )

probably, I heard it from another dutch guy...so you might be right

sounds like a crap day for him

 

[Grisu]

ah, goddammit.

you still need 2

I'm almost feeling bad for the male ösi skiers

 

[Darkness]

Anyone see Dutch national hero Sven Kramer screw up? (Or are the Dutch the only ones actually watching speed skating? ) Rode the fastest 10km by far, only to be disqualified for inproperly switching lanes. Ouch.... I mean even though I think he's a bit arrogant, and I do not mind the Korean guy who's got the gold now winning, I really do feel bad for Kramer. It's a lousy way to lose...

Actually, he was going to switch lanes correctly, but his coach told him to go to the inside lane at the last moment, which confused Kramer and in that moment he decided to go with the instruction the coach called out to him...

Stunning gaffe by coach costs Holland's Kramer a sure gold

 

[willemvanoranje]

I'm so pissed off...

 

[kroket]

The worst thing is Sven didn't lose a single 10k since 2006 dominating all races. This Korean guy that came out of nowhere might be a threat in the future but not yesterday. Gerard Kemkers (his coach) got confused. Sven was cruising without any problems (2,9 sec ahead at 6,6km) and his coach showed him different things every round (the gap, next lap should be 0,2 sec faster etc). Kemkers wrote on the board (outside of the olympics SOMEONE ELSE does that but they don't allow that many people on the ice at the olympics apparentley). Kemkers watched up and saw Kramer skating too far to the right (= the boarding) and somehow he thought Kramer should be in the innerlane (Skobrev was on the innerlane at the beginning of the track so Kemkers concluded he was heading out but Skobrev already switched very early from out to in) so he shouted 'binnen' and pointed his finger to the innerlane... Kramer was heading to the outside but switched the last second jumping over the pillon (??). So he skated 1 innercorner and therefore got disqualified. The fact that he was 4,1 sec faster (extra outerlane would have costed maybe 1,5 sec extra) and that he skated out really easily the last 3 laps (sparing energy for team pursuit) doesn't matter anymore. Very cruel and undeserved. Kramer won all 10kms from 06 onwards and won the most important too only to get disqualified.
As to his supposed arrogance. Arrogance and confidence are close-connected. Kramer isn't arrogant at all just realistic (just watch what he says at 1500m where he was an outsider).
I expect Kramer to take revenge on the Teampursuit even though there is the danger that he will skate too hard and skate away from his teammates... Still this olympic games will forever be a dissappointment for him despite winning gold on the 5k...
Concerning the confused coach Kemkers and his supposed resignation... Well this was clearly an incident so this alone isn't enough to lead to something like that. The fact that only Kramer and Wust (gold 1500m f) + Groenewold (protected status but failed miserably after injury preseason) made it and 6 other teammembers missed out on the games weighes more heavy though... I really wonder if Kramer and Wust didnt win their golds despite Kemkers rather then because of him because of this... TVM-team has been underperforming his year after all. Kramer would probably have won gold if they had put a donkey next to the track rather then Kemkers. That's rather cruel especially because it's 4 years to the next race.

 

[REDY]

On the other hand, people like me would never hear his name without such incident

 

[willemvanoranje]

That's just because Czech usually don't do anything significant in speed skating... notable current exception bein Sablikova.

 

[Orange Seeds]

That really sucks about Kramer I had to head out of the house just before he started his laps. I saw the Korean fellow lap his competitor.

Ok, I take back the "respectfully" part. You're just another of those guys who sees ice hockey as a function of two things - the number of NHL stars playing on each team and... oh wait, no, that's it, there's nothing else

Like that worked so well for the Russians in the 1990s I remember how they kept loosing time and again despite having something close to an NHL all-star team.

There are things like team spirit, chemistry between players, sheer determination and hard work, which also play a role. And there are schools of hockey very different from the kind of game that's being played in NHL. So, my "anti-intuititve" position is in fact just an expression of hope that these things will continue to remain important in the future. Because if they didn't, what point would there be in watching hockey?

NHL players can have spirit, chemistry and determination too. I'm not sure how poorly coached Russian squads in any way show that NHL players are worse than International league players. You have yet to argue that other leagues are more talented than the NHL. I am really unsure what your point is here: I said the NHL is the most talented league in the world, and countries whose players cannot make the NHL are less talented. You responded by saying that team spirit, chemistry and determination are important. I'm pretty sure my position still stands.

Anyways, I'm incredibly nervous about the Canada-Russia game today. I was going to head downtown but it's raining and I'm not sure how worthwhile watching it at Robson square is going to be.

 

[El Koeno]

On the other hand, people like me would never hear his name without such incident

Pfff... Like we care for your Ice Hockey team!

Spoiler :

Actually I do care a bit about hockey. A friend of mine knows half the Czech team personally, so they're a natural favourite to me. However, I'm quite good at missing the matches. I'm being helped in that by our national broadcasters who seem to think an analysis of an upcoming skating race is more important than actual sports...

 

[warpus]

You know somebody who's friends with Plekanec? I have a friend who wants a piece of that ass - could you hook her up?

 

[REDY]

That's just because Czech usually don't do anything significant in speed skating... notable current exception bein Sablikova.

We even have not speed-skating track...Sablikova trains on duckpond. Here is big movement to finally build one for Sablikova
Maybe success of Sablikova may inspire some youngsters.

 

[kroket]

On the other hand, people like me would never hear his name without such incident

Funny you would say that because you are right. 'His' 'Mistake' will only help propel him to greater heights. Take into account that Sven has been far more dominant in Speed Skating then for instance Tiger Woods in golf the last 4 years. He won all allround championships (4 distances combined in 1 weekend), won all 10ks and just lost 1 5k (his only serious defeat in 4 years) only to crush the same opponent by a large margin a week later and retake the worldrecord that was stolen (=Fabris skated after Kramer who could have gone harder but relaxed...) from him by 3 sec.
Speed skating might be a small sport outside of holland but still it's really international with loads of good asians,americans and canadians not to mention norway and germany. Last night about 40% of the dutch population watched the race. Not sure if super bowl achieves that in america??

 

[Adria]

I'm tired...but yesterday was fun! The rain kinda sucked, but the hockey game was great. The little Inukshuks covering the shoreline between GM Place and Science World were really cool.

The Swiss-Belarus game was a lot of fun. 95% of the crowd was wearing Canada gear. There were some Swiss and Belorussian flags around though. At first it seemed like the crowd might be more pro-Swiss, then some Belorussian guys got the rink chanting 'Belarus' for a while. I just thought it was a good game overall, and I got to see OT and a shootout so I can't complain. I'll try to upload some photos from the game later.

Now I get to wait it out for the Canada-Russia game. I have to work late tonight so the game will be over by the time I get home (hopefully without catching the score - could be though because I walk past a pub on the way home).

 

[Formaldehyde]

The goal that was't...

I'm watching the US-Switzerland game. It's at the end of the second period. The period ended with the puck right smack on the Swiss goal line! Another 0.1 second and the score would now be 1-0 instead of 0-0!

 

[jUmpSt0p]

anyone else's NBC feed go off in the middle of the Olympics last night?
and stay off ALL NIGHT???

dammmmmmmmm u DirectTV!!!! lfdajslkfjs;fdjk;a

 

[REDY]

Well fun is over, enjoyable matches ended and now will be two debacles. Finnish will finish us