The Vancouver 2010 Olympics

Crytone · #1 02-16-2010, 10:58 PM

It's been a few days already and no Olympics thread?! We have to fix that!!

The opening ceremony was very well done I felt. Had everything; Peter Pan, a neckbeard, a violinist devil, floor whales and NO Celine Dion! I really liked when KD Lang sang Hallelujah too.

Now I know everyone is shocked about the Georgian luger's death (and blaming Canada no less) but is it really so hard to think that it's not a very safe sport to begin with? I know the track was fast but other tracks aren't that much slower (maybe 10kph slower at most). So going 135kph instead of 145kph I don't see as being a huge factor. That's faster than most people drive on the highways in their cars, not on a small sled that offers no protection in any crash. It just seems like a disaster waiting to happen to me. I'm a bit appalled they show the footage of him hitting the pole on TV though.

Now onto the main events;
Canada just got their second gold. Womens Snowboard Cross. It was a good race if you missed it. I'm sure if you did you'll be hearing about it very soon on any news channel out there.

First gold being in Mens Moguls as I'm sure everyone heard. It's too bad the 2nd place Aussie guy was such a poor sport about it (didn't smile, and he's a Canadian too! I heard a rumor he's rich from creating Malware too...). His coach was bad talking the Canadian saying our guy shouldn't have won. I think what his coach failed to realize that even though the Canadians run wasn't flawless, he did really well still and was doing a more technical stunts (thus worth more points) and finished about 20 ms faster.

Womens moguls the day before had me on my seat also. I wish we would have got Gold there too but Silver is great too!

I'm excited for the Mens Hockey tonight! Going to be a good game versus Norway (if I recall). Can't wait! We have a good lineup on our team I think, just hoping the goalies pick up the slack they've had the past few weeks.

What else... Mens curling was earlier today versus Norway. Was a close match but Canada squeezed by.

So.. What are your thoughts? Anything you're excited to see? Predictions? let's get this thread going!!

Chase31 · #2 02-16-2010, 11:01 PM

how about WWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!! go canada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thinking hockey is russia vs canada in the final, cant wait for the rest of the mens !!!

workn2hard2day · #3 02-16-2010, 11:17 PM

LOL, 2 Albertans more excited than those living in the Olympic venue.
hmm no Canadian smiley only an American one
Go Canada

Mr.nintendo · #4 02-16-2010, 11:17 PM

what a waste...

this city is such a mess

sphelps · #5 02-17-2010, 12:57 AM

It's a shame about the death it was a tragic accident but it probably could have been prevented. The wall could have been up before hand as those poles really did look like an accident waiting to happen, especially around the last and fastest corner. I'm no expert but the track may have been too fast, competitors were all saying it was too fast and after the investigation they did conclude it was too fast and made corrections including starting everyone from the ladies start point. Also going around that corner that fast puts tremendous G forces on the body, enough to make you pass out. From the footage it seems to me that the guy passed out before he was thrown from the track. 10km/h difference may not sound like a lot but it could be the difference between pushing though the G forces or blacking out from them. These athletes are pushed to the extreme limit and it doesn't take much to cross the line.

Oh and yeah that Australian is a real douche-bag, it was tight but he was slower and was fairly beaten. He needs to get other that.

Speaking of poor sportsmanship I've noticed a lot of it this time around. Lots of competitors are dropping out and not finishing their events because they no longer have a shot at a medal. Like many of the speed skaters dropped out before the second run forcing others to race solo and in woman's snowboard cross the one women in the shot final went out the gate and then just walked off the course, total BS in my mind.

Chase31 · #6 02-17-2010, 03:01 AM

i dont think that the ladies and junior start gate was great the men starting from the ladies was fine but the women starting from the junior start gate was not so good it caused huge problems and i didnt think it was very fair

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #7 02-17-2010, 04:26 AM

We have a 2010 thread on another board since the opening ceremonies. Time we had one here.

OK, thoughts about the Games so far.

The Opening Ceremonies started slow (with the native part - too few performers on too big a stage & with those phallic totem poles) but then it really picked up nicely. Loved the killer whales & spirit bear.

I liked the fact they included the First Nations into the Opening Ceremonies, but I thought it was also misleading, since people who don't know much about Canadian society would get the impression that the First Nations play a leading role in Canada's cultural scene.

The sporting events:

Jenn skiied excellent, but we (my family & I) agreed that the American skier was just a bit better, so Silver was fair. She showed a lot of class in accepting Silver when she went in as the Gold medal favourite.

Soooooo happy that Alexandre beat that traitor from West Van. The pseudo-Aussie is known in the Aussie media as Spam Man since his company produces Spam, Malware & other crap that messes up our computers. He may be rich, but he has absolutely NO class. The pic in the Province newspaper totally shows what a poor sport he is. Even the Bronze winner was smiling, but nooooo..... this traitor was obviously POed & wanted to be anywhere else.

The South Koreans shot themselves in the foot in the speedskating final by cutting each other off or else they would have swept the medals & Apollo would not have gotten a medal.

Happy for the latest Cdn. gold medal winner who snowboarded a perfect race while the last two in her race wiped out & finished waaaaaaaay back. Too bad the men's final didn't produce a gold too since our Cdn. snowboarder lead almost the entire way. At least the nice American won & not the nasty American who wiped out on his own.

RuGlu6 · #8 02-17-2010, 04:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.nintendo

what a waste...

this city is such a mess

+1
and on top of that we will have to pay for 30 years and we had no choice.
IOC is a $ making scam committee.
here: http://www.thefiveringcircus.com/5ring.swf

At least someone knows what these "GAMES" really are

Kryptic4L · #9 02-17-2010, 05:21 AM

1. the best mogul run was the american who crashed, that dude was going for the gusto!

2. Not happy about the luge being pushed down to the ladie's, people have trained on this coarse for awhile now. A bigger fence to keep them in the track would suffice. Where he hit was very strange and the angle's seemed just right to cause the outcome.

3. why the heck is boarder cross even in the olympic's , keep that crap to x game's. throw in a street style coarse or even set it up to be more like a mogul compition so them loser's actually have to do a trick. its been dead since shawn palmer left.

4. the half pipe comp mens is over before it starts

randallino · #10 02-17-2010, 05:32 AM

This will be my second Olympics that I am part of. It didn't hurt Calgary in fact it gave it a real boost (just before the price of oil started to climb again). The early 80's were not good for the oil patch and Calgary suffered from that much like what has happening now with BC's resource based economy. So hopefully we will see a shot in arm for our economy from the Olympics. Be proud of your city and being Canadian.
My 2 cents worth.