Dang, this had started? I had planned to intentionally boycott the Olympics, but it looks like i forgot all about my fake outage and have ended up ignoring it instead.
Let me guess, countries that have a lot of winter are winning the medal counts?
This article's title sums it up nicely ---
Beijing’s big air jumps at the 2022 Winter Olympics look like a dystopian hellscape
Really, uh, bizarre.
Dang, this had started? I had planned to intentionally boycott the Olympics, but it looks like i forgot all about my fake outage and have ended up ignoring it instead.
Let me guess, countries that have a lot of winter are winning the medal counts?
I hate the politics of it but I have always been obsessed with the Olympics, particularly the winter Olympics. I don't like figure skating or the X-games type events, but all of the others are great. I am working on the couch this morning and watched luge, and now speed skating, and I think biathlon is coming up. I don't know what inspires someone to take up these sports but they are fun and really exciting. I love the music, the visuals of snow-capped mountains, and the announcers describing the nuances of a sport I know nothing about. And though I am a very passionate, patriotic American, I can appreciate the success of people from other countries as well.
Though I am looking forward to 2026 when it is in a more traditional location and hopefully Covid is also not an issue.
My suggestions for fixing the politics of the Olympics is to quit playing national anthems at medal ceremonies, let the competitors pick their medal winning music like baseball players pick their walk-up music.
I love watching all the sports. I love the addition of so many team events. The luge relay (added in 2018) is my newest favorite, right up there with the mixed team 4x400 relay at the Summer Olympics. I love the luge relay so much, pre-pandemic I was legit looking to see if there were any World Cup events within a reasonable travel distance so that I could go watch luge in person. Luge. In person. Lake Placid is only a 5 hour drive away.
Continuing in the vein of moving performances by athletes from surprising places - Mexican figure skater Donovan Carillo's short program last night - wow! He trains at a mall!! He's not allowed to play his music when other people want to skate. His training is often interrupted by people asking him where the restroom is. His goal was to qualify for the free skate. He did. It got dusty at my house when he finished his program.
I liked the American speed skater who they just showed who was covid positive so had to delay his travels to China. He flew Salt Lake to Atlanta, Atlanta to Paris, Paris to Beijing (not sure why they routed him that way but whatever) and got there the day of his competition, only to find out that his blades were lost so he had to borrow from someone else right before his race. Joey Cheek (former speed skater) said that he would rather skate on 35 hours travel than without his personal blades - it is that hard to not have your own skates.
The guy came in pretty far down the ranks but will be skating again later in the week on more sleep and either having broken in the borrowed skates or with his own skates.
I started watching early on, but was turned off by NBC's constant political talk. Especially throughout the opening ceremonies. If I can just see the competitions and turn it off before the guy in the suit jumps in , I am OK.
Those speed skaters scare me.
Been watching the Mixed Doubles Curling competition.
The US squad did better than expected but still wasn't up to snuff with the other world teams.
In the playoffs, Italy is dominating and undefeated. Snuffing Sweden to get to the Gold medal game.
The UK was doing well against Norway, but lost their nerve and lost the match; in the 5th end, they went for the safe 1 pointer when they had the hammer and lots of rocks in the house. But they had a riskier play where they could have gotten 3 or 4 points on the last throw and didn't take it. Their female partner was their better player and she didn't get the curl to take 2, but not taking the bigger risk was a wussy move when you're going for the gold. They deserve to lose the bronze today too. Thumbs down on that gutless play.
Curling is like baseball or chess; its fun and a real change of pace from some of this fast pace stuff. But it is timed; each team has 22 minutes of 'think' time for each game (excludes the time that the stones go down the ice). And you don't need a Russian judge to warp a score. You win on merits.
Italy vs. Norway tonight, live, on NBC.
Bronze medal at 5 on CNBC.
Men's 4's starts in its quest to defend its gold from 4 years ago (I think 3 of 4 team members are back), tomorrow vs. ROC .
Larry
DevilHorse
Short track speed skating is pure chaos and I don't like it - basically roller derby on ice but not as good. I like the full track, traditional speed skating - it is not one of my favorite events, but it is fun.
I haven't heard a lot of politics during the actual events, though maybe I've just learned to tune it out.
There are also some clever ads though some are already starting to get really old.
Local lad won a silver medal in skiing last night, 50 years after his mom won a gold medal in Sapporo:https://www.cbsnews.com/news/winter-...mom-gold-1972/
Yes, a great race in the Super G by RCS (as the announcers like to call him - Ryan Cochran-Siegle); gutsy performance after fracturing his vertebrae last Winter in a horrific crash in the downhill race at Kitzbuhel. He was only .04 (4/100ths) behind the winner yesterday (I believe that translates into about a 2-foot difference, if they had been racing side-by-side, at the speeds they travel). Although he had been of the top speed racers before his injury, he has not had a great season so far on the World Cup, so somewhat of a big surprise at his finish. Great story line with his mother's gold medal in 1972 and his family's history in US ski racing history. IMO, one of the compelling reasons to watch the Olympics - the human interest stories that always seem to develop (if you can also ignore all the "junk" that also takes place).
I thought the "Big Air" venue looked really cool. I enjoyed the competition too. Eileen Gu decided to represent China instead of the US. That was a business decision that paid off big for her. Nothing like winning a gold for the home country with 1.3 billion citizens as the state run media makes you the darling. Eileen is set to return to the US and attend Stanford in the fall.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/08/china...spt/index.html
Conversely, if you make a similar choice and don't perform, China might not like you as much
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-60298544