Winter Olympics

[Rommie]

Figured it could use a thread over the next few weeks!

Always liked the winter Olympics because February is such a dreary month, and it's nice to have something to watch at night. Plus a lot of the sports hit the classic "once a year it's fun to care about this sport" thing.

I'm also kinda interested in being in Canada to watch it this year, as all countries tend to do different coverage, and this is obviously a huge winter Olympics country, more than summer. Though so far everyone seems mainly upset that the NHL is not allowing their players to go to the Olympics, so while Canada won the gold the last two times no one really knows how the teams will compare this time around.

I also btw found it interesting that both North and South Korea are coming together for a hockey team. Might be weird but my first reaction to that was "I guess neither was expecting to be terribly competitive in hockey."

[geonuc]

It would be fun if Korea medaled, wouldn't it?

I suspect the Bend area is nuts about the Winter Olympics. There's a lot of snow skiing here.

[SciFiFisher]

It would be fun if Korea medaled, wouldn't it?

I suspect the Bend area is nuts about the Winter Olympics. There's a lot of snow skiing here.

Weirdly enough the enemy radio station, you know... NPR, had a segment about two weeks ago. Apparently, Bend has produced several Olympic contenders for snow boarding. And a kid by the name of Ben Ferguson, from Bend, is one of the finalists who made the cut to go to the Olympics this year.

[Parrothead]

Not too concerned about the hockey. Team is mostly made up of players from Jr hockey ranks and some that have previously played in NHL. Suspect it is the same for most. Should still be competitive, especially amongst those that annually field teams in the World Jr tourney.

Canada's announced team: https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/news/2018-olym-nmt-olympic-roster-named

Can see the owners' pov, when winter games are so far away. Closing down the league for 2 - 3 weeks is costly. Either shorten/compress the season or run up to a month later than normal. Owners can be weary of star players getting injured. IIRC, from previous times, NHL teams/management had little or very limited access to their players, during the games as things were run by IOC and IIHF. With games in N.A. not as big a disruption.

Other than that, I'll watch hockey, alpine events, bobsleigh, luge and others. Will see what CBC's scheduling is, as there is a 14 hour difference with EST. Much will take place during overnight hours.

[Swift]

Though so far everyone seems mainly upset that the NHL is not allowing their players to go to the Olympics, so while Canada won the gold the last two times no one really knows how the teams will compare this time around.

I've never liked it when professional athletes, whether in hockey or basketball or whatever, have played in the Olympics. Watching a group of NHL or NBA all-stars play against college athletes or other amateurs just doesn't seem fair.

[Parrothead]

TSN currently has mixed doubles curling on. CBC is covering curling, figure skating and moguls, this evening.

edit: Up here coverage is on CBC, TSN and Sportsnet.

[Rommie]

My preliminary observations from my first two evenings of CBC coverage of the prelim stuff is there's a lot of curling in my future for the next two weeks.

I basically only get what CBC is because I don't have cable, just antenna. Guess there's online stuff too of course.

[Parrothead]

CBC's coverage isn't too bad. Yeah, there is online/streaming at cbc's website. I'll guess TSN will cover much of the curling, as they currently carry the national championships and worlds. Usually what happens, all three networks will carry much of the same events, just at different times, if they are on at the same time. Don't know if you can pick up Buffalo's NBC affiliate, by antenna or not.

Conspiracy time! Seeing as Russia, is competing under the Olympic flag and athletes are "Olympic Athletes from Russia" and will have the Olympic anthem played instead of Russia's, due to the state sponsored doping at Sochi. Do we have to worry about Putin sending Russian troops into another region once part of the USSR, during the Olympics?

ETA: In time for the Opening Ceremonies, a couple of days ago, Royal Assent was given to a bill, changing a couple of lyrics in the english version of " O Canada" to make the anthem gender neutral. The words "In all thy sons command" is now "In all of us command". This is the second time in my life, some lyrics have been changed. An earlier change (Late 70's or early 80's) was due to a perception of the anthem being too repetitive, a couple of "O Canada" were taken out, one replaced with "From far and wide" the other with "God keep our land". I wonder if the next idea will be to take God out of the anthem.

[Rommie]

Yeah, I had one or two older second cousins shouting "how dare they change my anthem?!" after a few too many drinks this weekend.

I find the Russia thing weird. Like ok, they're banned, but if 170+ athletes can still go and they can be called Russia, what exactly is the punishment there?

[Thumper]

Olympics snuck up on me. I guess walking the beaches of Oahu you don't think about skiing or hockey much. The TV in our room was on the surfing channel most of the week as the Championships at the Banzai Pipeline were going on at the North Shore while we were there. That was fun to watch.
But saw part of the opening ceremonies and have been watching as much as I can. USA Women's hockey looked great yesterday in a win over Finland. Saw the mixed doubles curling and was really confused for a while. But I'm usually confused watching curling so that was okay. Ohio kid did great in the Slopestyle a couple days ago. I think the US was poised to do the same in the women's last night but I had to go to bed to try to get back on EST. So we taped it and will watch later this afternoon.

The Russian thing just confuses me as well.
I'm glad it will be mostly amateurs playing hockey.

[Parrothead]

Best I can figure with the Russia thing:

Can't compete under Russian flag, hear anthem, due to state sponsored doping cover-up. A bunch of athletes were banned. Many convictions overturned on appeal by some international body, a week before start of games, as no real proof of individual athletes involved in State scheme. IOC held ground, did not extend invites for any of those to compete at these games, as they still had failed test results. Those clean athletes allowed to compete do so under Olympic flag/anthem, as State was banned from these games and compete as "Olympic athletes from Russia". I'll assume any sort of revenue sharing from results, is not passed on. In the end, it's the state not the athletes that are getting punished.

[Thumper]

So we, actually Mrs. T discovered another NBC feed we have, something like NBC Sports1. It appears to be constant 24h/day Olympic coverage. So there's now no way I'm going to keep up. We were trying to watch some of the Sunday night stuff we missed because we had to go to bed while keeping up with the Monday prime time stuff. I recorded about 14 hours of stuff overnight so I'll be that much further behind. I wish I could filter out the fluff and the all the constant ads (although some of the ads are inspiring and or funny). Anyway lots of choices. Watched the women getting blown off the mountain in slopestyle then some halfpipe and ski jumping. Another good women's hockey game, more mixed doubles curling, and some biathlon. Biathlon looks fun accept for the part where they almost die at the end. Oh 5000M men's speed skating:Kramer is indeed King!

[Rommie]

Finally watched the opening ceremony. (VPN'd into NBC coverage because the Canadian one is no longer online, it's pay per view, and I only have an antenna so whatevs.) My favorite part was when they explained to American audiences that "the reason the Dutch are so good at skating is because it's an important mode of transport in a city like Amsterdam." Yeah, right, ok, there's canals but I think they only froze once when I was there, for two weeks!

A lot of impressive figure skaters this year. The American woman Bradie has a ton of energy, the Russian woman who won four years ago is just super elegant, and the Canadian ice dancers were fantastic.

[Parrothead]

Apparently, many Dutch people took to twitter and had fun with Couric's comments. Posting pics of them "skating to work at the cheese factory", traffic jams on the ice, downside is falling through the ice, saying in Summer they swim to work, etc.

Canada doing good so far, 10 medals. Virtue and Moir were incredible.

IIRC, one athlete has already been asked to leave. A Japanese short track speed skater failed an out of competition doping test.

[SciFiFisher]

Yeah, I had one or two older second cousins shouting "how dare they change my anthem?!" after a few too many drinks this weekend.

I find the Russia thing weird. Like ok, they're banned, but if 170+ athletes can still go and they can be called Russia, what exactly is the punishment there?

I think they were trying to punish Russia but not the athletes who were clean. Frankly, I think it sort of fails at punishing Russia because any of those medals they win are going home to...Russia.

[Thumper]

Fast forwarded through about 16 hours of coverage last night in about 5 hours. US Women's hockey team is looking great. They say they're not thinking ahead to Canada.....They are. Scary wreck in the women's luge. Then I saw some recap. There were several scary wrecks. Missed Shaun White last night. I'm sure it's on the DVR somewhere. Women's ski jumping, they all look like they're about 12 years old...Sprint cross country looks grueling. Short track speed skating seems to be all about the start. Netherlands crushing "regular" speed skating. It's gotta be the canals...

[Rommie]

Shaun White is amazing. Like, I'm not much into snowboarding, but watching him... WOW. Dude is clearly the world's best and it's amazing.

He also looks way more normal than he used to.

[Thumper]

He also looks way more normal than he used to.

The price he had to pay to "normalize" his sport, I guess.

[Rommie]

He also looks way more normal than he used to.

The price he had to pay to "normalize" his sport, I guess.

I just figured it was because he was a 19 year old snowboarder the first time, and now he's a 31 year old one, and guys at some point along the way there realize scraggly long hair doesn't attract the women!

[Thumper]

I was mostly joking, but there are stories he took alot of grief from the X Games community when he wouldn't party with them and share the prize money. He apparently trained hard, won, kept all the prize money, and followed his sport to Olympic stardom and celebrityhood. The partying guys? They're probably watching the Olympics on a tube TV in the back of a head shop outside of Reno...

[SciFiFisher]

He also looks way more normal than he used to.

The price he had to pay to "normalize" his sport, I guess.

I just figured it was because he was a 19 year old snowboarder the first time, and now he's a 31 year old one, and guys at some point along the way there realize scraggly long hair doesn't attract the women!

Yep! Sooner or later most guys notice that to attract a partner you have to be presentable. Gay, straight, or bi... you can't look like something the cat dragged in and coughed a hair ball on.

[SciFiFisher]

I was mostly joking, but there are stories he took alot of grief from the X Games community when he wouldn't party with them and share the prize money. He apparently trained hard, won, kept all the prize money, and followed his sport to Olympic stardom and celebrityhood. The partying guys? They're probably watching the Olympics on a tube TV in the back of a head shop outside of Reno...

What? You mean he decided to be a serious athlete?

[Thumper]

That is indeed my thesis.

[Rommie]

Wait, why the hell would you share your prize money?

[SciFiFisher]

Wait, why the hell would you share your prize money?

Socialism? Or is communism? I can't remember one it is.