Discussion: Olympics

List your top 3 favourite and least favourite moments of the Olympics so far:

Most fave
1) Cindy Klassen: 4 medals
2) Canada's nordic sprint queens!
3) Canada's women's hockey domination.

Least fave
1) Canada's mens hockey team - going, going...!
2) Nordic skiing EPOlympics
3) Canada's mens hockey team - gone!

Least favorite:

NBC Olympic coverage.

I've seen maybe 2 hours total, so not much to go on.

Best -- the visuals of the men's 30K XC persuit. Also the win by the Italians in the men's XC relay.

Also good/surprising -- the coverage of the XC and Biathlon I saw was totally devoid of coverage of the Americans. The focis was on who was out front. And that was surprising because of all the nationalism that shows up both among the media and the fans, in every country (including Canada....). :-)

The worst -- well I'm sure there was much worse, but the phrase from the U.S. announcer: "This was supposed to be Michelle Kwan's Olympics," said as if the Olympics were supposed to be a coronation, and an American one at that.

Favorite is watching the live stuff during the day at work - biathlon, XC, and curling.
Second favorite thing is seeing the results posted live on the net, therefore not caring what happens on the tv at night. Have skipped all but maybe 15 minutes of primetime coverage, and I watch a ton of tv!

I managed to watch a total of 70-80 hours while being sick and sitting in front of TV in Ukraine watching 2 Ukrainian and one Russian channels showing Olympics 24-7. Coverage in US sucks, no matter what Peter says. Announcers are so nationalistic it is not funny anymore. The best show in my opinion was the men's pursuit biathlon race - the leaders were changing after every shot missed, at one point it was 1-2-3 Norwegians, and then they started to miss even Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, missed way too many shots and the French guy won.

Worst moment so far – disqualification of female Dutch speed skater Marianne TIMMER during first 500m race, who than won 1000 meters: the first false start was called by starter out of nothing. It does not look good what is going on inside men’s US speed skating team, but I think media makes more out of it, as always.

I disagree with Hammer on Nordic skiing, I would never suspect Norwegians in doping and watching live, it was obvious they (skiers from all countries) are all good for medals, in some cases the weather played serious role into who won, since the conditions were changing drastically during the race, same can be applied to biathlon too. The results are too close in all races (not like when Spanish German was winning it all during Salt Lake City): to suspect anyone you shell blame all. (Austrian team – I do not think they managed to get any advantage, they were caught early)

I do agree with Hammers least favorite #1 and 3, with addition of team USA to that list

I imagine that after the games there will be alot of unemployed Norwegian ski coaches and managers. There was quite a bit of controversy over the athletes left off the team and their very poor performance, except for Estil in the Pursuit, is really shocking. For sure one of the biggest stories of the games.

To see two Canadians in the A Sprint Finals today, wow. The men will be there in a few years. Same with American Andy Newell, he's going to be a beast too.

>I disagree with Hammer on Nordic skiing, I would never suspect Norwegians

Clarification... I was referring to the Austrian situation. Hey I lived in Norway for a year as a kid and grew up idolizing the Norwegian ski legends - I'm a big Norwegian ski fan.

I need to add to more fave moments....
4) Frode Estil's pursuit comeback
5) "Project Maple Syrup" Norwegian official giving Sara Renner a pole to help Canada win a medal while Norway placed 4th...

This will probably sound unpatriotic for a Canadian, but I still find myself cheering for Finland whenever its Finland v Canada. There must be a sociological term for this phenomenon. The exception to this is nordic, but this is the first time when its even been possible to cheer for Canada in any real way.

It's getting a bit strange just how poor the Finn men are. Yes their team exploded in 2001 because of doping, but we are talking about a major ski powerhouse here. Shouldn't there have been many many others to step up cleanly in their place? I guess Sweden went through a similar Post-Gunde period until Elofsson and the Frederickssons stepped it up, but come on Finland.

Finncandaphobia

So many other sports to choose from there, I guess: hockey, orienteering,...

Can this be true?

NBC website claims that curling is the #2 sport in Canada (youmena orienteering is behind both hockey and curling?) and that 94% of the world's curlers live in Canada!

In the 60's, ABC's Wide World of Sports introduced us to many minor sports and I do remember enjoying curling! I don't remember ever seeing orienteering on WWS though. Just not as exciting and photogenic as curling I guess!

People can laugh all they want about curling, but I would argue that it is the one of the only sports that truly epitomizes the the original (amateur) olympic ideal. All the curlers have actual real jobs outside of curling (well, I guess most of the Italians are technically constables in the caribinieri, but those are more or less honourary positions). Plus there will never be any doping problems, and as a bonus the winners buy the losers beer afterwards.

I kind of got a kick out of the Italian ice dancer who just stood there at the end of the performance glaring at her husband, who had dropped her. (I didn't really see much of the Olympics besides that. And that was a rerun the following night. Is it all over yet?)

Most fave - 3 different Canadian women won medals in x-c skiing. (it's not just Beckie anymore!)
The glare the Italian Ice Dancer gave her partner was unreal. The joke going around was along the lines of "Are those two married? Not anymore."

My favorite moments:

o Frode Estils comeback from the early pile up in the pursuit.
o Ole Einar Bjoerndalen's moving up from 12th (I think) to silver in the biathlon pursuit.
o The big build showdown between Davis and Hedrick in the 1500m, only to have it dashed by the speedy Italian.
o South Korea's dominance in short track.
o Lindsey Jacobellis showboating in the snowboard cross only to eat it just before the finish line.
o The primadonna US men's hockey team finishing with a record of 1-4-1.

Least favorite:
o The almost constant figure skating and x-games coverage in the US.
o The focus on Davis and Hedrick's relationship troubles.
o Canada knocking out the US team in curling. Disaster!!

Women's biathlon relay - on right now.

Russians and Germans just hammering on the skiing and shooting clean.

That's some prime athleticism - I have problems getting the punch lined up on the punch card and these gals are hitting tiny targets. Tremendous breath control.

Germany just got a penalty loop after misses on the standing and used the extra bullets. Russians out of sight.

US and Canada way down in the standings...

Does no one here watch the alpine skiing?

Though he hasn't performed that well, Bode Miller is fantastic to watch. During the super-G (I think), he had an incredible recovery after losing his balance:


He was probably wasted too!

overrated...

I liked Bode's recovery as well and Anja Paerson's win in the slalom yesterday.

The most memorable moment of this Olympic games was the performance by fugure skating pair from China Dan and Hao Zhang. She fell down in the beginning of the program and hit her knees badly. You could read the level of pain on her face and in her eyes! They continued and won silver medal!

Real olympic spirit on her part!

Top 3 favourite Olympic memories:
1. Crawford
2. Renner
2. Scott

Then, there's everything else ...
4. Klassen, Klassen, Klassen, Klassen.
5. Brad Gushue ripping it up for the Rock.
7. Women's ice hockey - Canadian gold again, Sweden (with a bunch of UMD alum) getting into the final.
8. The Canadian men packing up and going home. I think it serves them right for walzing in at the last minute with a bunch of random players from the NHL and thinking they can play as a team. No team chemistry ... and this is a surprise, why?

>5. Brad Gushue ripping it up for the Rock.
Schools on the Rock will be closed at noon tomorrow so school kids can watch the match live.

More fave memories
6) Frank and Gordon

Best:
1. Men's XC Team Sprint. All the anchor leg minus 1 competitors collapsed on the snow after they finished (apparently this is normal, but it was funny when they cut from the race to these guys recovering on the snow), and the anchor leg winner from Sweden was double-poling so hard it looked like he was coming out of his boots. Wow.

2. The fact that NBC televised any biathlon competition for more than 90 seconds. I'm actually going to write an e-mail thanking them (since I have written before asking them to please cover biathlon.)

Worst:
3. Tape Delay
2. I've got too much going on to watch.
1. I haven't seen a single curling match.

Frank and Gordon rock. Pippa is Gordon and I am Frank... we can do all the sketches now.
My favourite line is, "You DO realize we're beavers, don't you? Don't you find the symbolism a little redundant!"
Pippa likes, " Emus are very fast land birds...

reading this thread rates pretty high for my favourite olympic moment so far.... although I didn't see the italian death stare or the hot dog snowboard wipeout or any of the numerous canadians kicking ass moments.

The "Italian Death Stare". I love it. That's a keeper!
(I've got it on video actually - happened to tape it for my wife; but not sure how I could get into an e-version)

Worst - not figuring out until today that some of the morning coverage was on channel 30, and not 31. So, the worst is that I am the dummy!

The best is the lack of "Up Close and Personal" and more concentration on actually showing the competitions with lots of good camera angles/comparisons.

The worst is the gossip fest created by the media: The Italian Death Stare, the nonsense of the US Men's Speed Skating, the Bode Miller non-story - let him ski, the boardercross girl falling on the way to a sure gold.

I read 'boardercross' somehow as 'border collie cross'...

Yeah - but it was one of the few fun ones to watch.

George! You have a TEEE VEEE ?

I thought I was the only one who loved the "Emus are big and fast, and they're Emus" line of Frank and Gordon.

Olympic Trivia: Who's doing the voices of Frank and Gordon? One of them was a big star of an American show dominated by Canadians.

cedarcreek -- seems like all the curling was on CNBC and occasionally on the USA channel - pretty extensive full-match coverage, and a lot more interesting than ice dancing, figure skating, etc. Although I do wish I'd seen the "Italian Death Stare".

Got a real kick out of the curling commentators and the accent on one of them. Definitely from north of the border - overtones of what I think of as upper mid-west Scandahoovian with some Scottish overtones. But then you northern North Americans probably thought the other one was the one with the accent....

>Olympic Trivia: Who's doing the voices of Frank and Gordon? One of them was a big star of an American show dominated by Canadians.

Is it the big goofy guy from spin city with MJ Fox?

(a total guess)

The XC relays are always great. This year the women's relay last saturday was fantastic. Suprised no one mentioned this. The Russian ran away at the end, but the fight for 2-3 was truly inspiring. On the 3rd leg the German just hammered by everyone on the last hill and got an enormous (15sec?) lead.
Then the announcers were astonished to see, and then wrote off the German 4th leg. Sweden was in there and they passed her and everyone thought the German 4th leg skier was gone.
Then in the stadium in the last 200 meters she comes flying into the camera's view. No one saw her coming. She passes the others and gets 2nd.
A truly fantastic stradegy and incredible guts.

The "smart" beaver is one Norm MacDonald, former Saturday Night Live Weekend Update host. The other guy is a Canadian stand-up comic.

I could totally picture Norm MacDonald's face but I couldn't remember his name. Have you checked out their website?
http://www.frankandgordon.ca/

Aside from things already mentioned I think when medal favourites deliver it is pretty cool. I actually thought the most impressive alpine performances were by Michaela Dorfmeister.She dominated the downhill and the super G. Nice to see Paerson finally win a gold too. I thought Jen Heil was pretty awesome in freestyle.

Oh yeah, Brian you must have loved Gushue today!

What are the Olympics?

get lost John :)

Finland vs. Sweden hockey final live at
http://www.nbcolympics.com/streaming/index.html

Finnish broadcast live from a friend's radio via Skype... It works!

It's too bad Botvinov won a medal in the Mens 50km today, the only Austrian to stick around and a pretty dodgy one at that. Christian Hoffman, the other big Austrian who has such a great history of peaking, suddenly got sick and had to go home. The Polish girl that won the bronze failed a drug test last year, but got her suspension reduced somehow.

How soon will the Norwegian nordic team coaches and managers be replaced?

Watching the coverage for the men's50 Km, was pondering the impact of a mass start versus a staggered start for the event. With the mass start, you always know where you stand relative to the field, and you have a chance to react if someone makes a break (assuming you're in the front pack). If the pack collectively takes a breather, you can take advantage of it. Of course, if the pack surges, you have to go with it or you've just dropped yourself off the back.

With a staggered start, you're dependent on coaches to give you info on where you are relative to the leader, but without the benefit of pacing yourself off someone in front of you and slowly working to reduce their lead, and knowing that when you passed them, you're ahead of them timewise also. If you slack off for even a moment to catch your breath, it's time you've lost to the rest of the field, out there somewhere. Depending on who is around you or not, your sprint to the finish can be a solo affair - when even though you're pushing as fast as your lungs and legs allow, you might not have the benefit of someone right there to provide that extra mental push.

The finish today was spectacular with a heck of a good-sized pack even in the last km or so. Made for some great TV and a tremendous spectator event. None of the lone-man-against-the-course-and-the-clock that I remember from past Olympic 50Km races.

How would it change the character of the WOC classic if it was a mass start head-to-head event? Something to ponder on my next run - what would I do if I ran the world, or at least got to decide the format of the WOC Classic race?

The finish today was spectacular with a heck of a good-sized pack even in the last km or so. Made for some great TV and a tremendous spectator event.
...but that´s about all there was to it. The whole two hour coverage of the 50km-race was just about as ridiculous as last years World Championships race - likewise a mass start! My opinion may be old-fashioned, but I think more XC ski races should be run with indivual starts. This years olympic format presented only one race with classical individual start, leaving many of the best skiers out in the cold when it came to chances of getting any medals.
As for mass start in orienteering - there´s been a whole lot of discussion going on in that subject in Sweden the past years, with the Night O champs being a mass start race and also one of the World Cup races a year ago, but a majority (?) of the elite runners here don´t like it.
Of course there´s a certain charm to the mass start - it may have some positive aspects as well - but it shouldn´t be the only thing available.

Certainly works for relays, though...

and goats...

No gold medals for Finnish athletes. And this is what Swedish newspapers are writing (Do-it-yorself-gold-medal for team Finland):

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/sport/story/0,2789,7...

Best moments:

1) Biathlon- especially the relay
2) Downhill skiing- Going over 50 mph lots of fun
3) 50K cross country

Least favorite:

1) Having to hear so much about Michelle Kwan
2) Dick Button going on about skater's mistakes
3) The media making a big deal about teammates not getting along.

Best Moments:

1) sasha cohen's short program
2) shawn white's half pipe win
3) Xcountry skiing relay

Least Favorite:
1) Michelle droping out
2) sasha cohen's free program when she fell twice
3) everyone making a big deal about the athlets missing practises and things like that
4) that orienteering is not part of the Olympics.... that kinda ruins my dream of winning an olympic medal.