OT - The All-Purpose All-Event Winter Olympics Thread

[Eyes Without A Face]

Short track = roller derby on ice.

I just watched Canada's women hockey team exact payback on Sweden for what happened when our men fell asleep for one period.

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Illegitimi non carborundum!

[This message has been edited by Eyes Without A Face (edited February 17, 2002).]

[Kalita]

I really am all over both women's teams (hockey and curling); total powerhouses.

The hockey team seems to be less fun, though; they never get scored on, it's too one-sided.

[BBOvenGuy]

Some days it's good to be on the west coast and get everything tape delayed. I just caught the short-track race, and wow was that something.

The good thing is that Apholo Ohno was a terrific sport. He shrugged and said, "Hey, that's racing," and accepted his silver medal proudly. Classy guy. I hope the cut on his leg doesn't keep him out of his other events.

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Remember the Kitten Board Mantra: "Joss is nuts about Tara, Willow/Tara and Amber!"
(...and Marti's rather fond of them, too...)

[Eyes Without A Face]

Brooks and Dunn were rockin' the casbah tonight!

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Illegitimi non carborundum!

[xita]

quote:

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Originally posted by BBOvenGuy:
The good thing is that Apholo Ohno was a terrific sport. He shrugged and said, "Hey, that's racing," and accepted his silver medal proudly. Classy guy. I hope the cut on his leg doesn't keep him out of his other events.

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You have heard of the controversy that he was involved with about working with 2 other speed skaters to fix the qualifying for the olympics (not for him to get in but for one of his friends to get in). It's not surprising that being the high profile, profitable personality, mediation sided with him and his 2 other buddies. Other skaters still maintain the race was rigged, and did the main referee.quote:

[lion + dove]

though I'm comme-ci, comme-ca on the guy myself, I've seen interesting cases presented against direct fixing. The head referee certified the race when it happened with no comments, no asterisks. Only until complaints from O'Hare (I believe it is) did he bring up anything. And the other referees at the race all testified during arbitration that they believed nothing was amiss during the race. And the 3 day arbitration apparently came down decidedly enough on the non-rigged side that O'Hare voluntarily withdrew his complaint.

I guess it's all comes down to people believing that Ohno should win every race he's in (within reason), especially on a non-international level. Flat out he should have beaten the rest of the contenders. He claims he was trying to make it through his last race of the trials healthy and uninjured (as he already knew his semi-final run had qualified him in the event). And after tonights crash I'm thinking this isn't such a crappy or far-fetched idea...

lucky Australian bastard. go him. seriously, go him. sometimes it pays to be last.

do I even need to say I'm a serious Olympics geek?

having quasi-defended Ohno I will say this. I still think poor Jean Davidson was seriously screwed over. Does anyone know how the arbitration ended concerning her, Jean Racine, and Gia Johnson?

[Artemisia]

I just read this very interesting article in Time Magazine( about the Candian gold controversy) & I found something very interesting that i thought ya'll might want to say. also, as my reaction to the ohno thing seems rather unpopular, i wish only to defend it by saying- if he had fallen i should not have minded, but that he was taken out by another skaters fall that causes me to believe the race should have be re-run(& it has happened before in the event this week) that aside, here is the excerpt.(from an article entitled A Sport on Thin Ice(you can find it on time.com)
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The more serious problem is that the close ties of most judges to the national skating federations that name them to competitions lead some to act like operatives for their home-team skaters. At several competitions leading up to the '98 Winter Games in Nagano, Jean Senft, a Canadian Olympic judge, was disturbed to have been privy to conversations in which judges agreed in advance on the outcomes. When she complained to skating officials, they demanded proof. So Senft brought a tape recorder with her to the Nagano games. On the day of the pairs competitions, she surreptitiously taped a phone call from a Ukrainian judge, Yuri Balkov, who asked her to vote for the Ukrainian skaters in exchange for his support for the Canadian skaters Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz.

Senft submitted the tape to the I.S.U. As a result, Balkov was suspended from his duties for one year. But to Senft's astonishment, she was suspended for six months, a move by skating officials that would not do much to encourage other whistle blowers. "They felt I was part of the misconduct just by being on the other end of the phone," she says. "For heaven's sakes, if I were part of it, why would I bring it forward?" Meanwhile Balkov, his suspension complete, is at the Salt Lake City Games — as a judge in the controversial ice-dancing competition.
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interesting, no?

[BBOvenGuy]

quote:

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Originally posted by Artemisia:
if he had fallen i should not have minded, but that he was taken out by another skaters fall that causes me to believe the race should have be re-run

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As a life-long auto racing fan, I've seen plenty of good drivers taken out of races by getting caught up in accidents that weren't their fault. Not once have I seen the race rerun because of it. That's racing, it happens.

Edited to add: Okay, I take that back. I have seen it done a few times. However, those were all cases where there was a big accident at the very start of a race, before even a single lap had been completed. It's never been done for an accident at the end of a race.

As for the race that did get re-run, I thought that was because there was an injured skater on the ice and they couldn't finish the race with him lying there. I could be wrong, though...

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Remember the Kitten Board Mantra: "Joss is nuts about Tara, Willow/Tara and Amber!"
(...and Marti's rather fond of them, too...)

[This message has been edited by BBOvenGuy (edited February 17, 2002).]quote:

[Caity]

WOOHOO!!! OUR FIRST GOLD MEDAL EVER!!!!

Now, sure, the ENTIRE field, except for our guy, fell over, so it seems a bit unfair, I suppose, but hey - it's speed racing, right? I'd say that there are two things you need to do right to get anywhere.

1) Skate fast (and anyone who got there, would have to be able to do that), and

2) Stay on your feet.

So...

YAY GOLDMEDAL AUSSIE GUY!!!

It's simply unbelievable. We got a gold medal in the Winter Olympics... The country went nuts last time in Nagano, when Zali Steggal got a bronze. He just bagged a gold medal, out of pure chance, basically.

teehee... that's so Australian.

Caity

[Edited for typing error}

[This message has been edited by Caity (edited February 17, 2002).]

[Kalita]

quote:

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Originally posted by Artemisia:
I just read this very interesting article in Time Magazine( about the Candian gold controversy) & I found something very interesting that i thought ya'll might want to see.

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Yes, Jean Senft's been the CBC's skating-judging expert for the past week, lots of discussions with her over staellite from Vancouver.

I'm really going to keep a close eye on that Ukranian judge this week. I'm thinking the ISU will be revising its judging rules within the next short while, or Rogge and the IOC might just have to lean on them harder...quote:

[Irascible]

Wow, what a crazy race. I did not see this live, but only just caught a replay after reading all about it in the newpapers this morning.

I did not know that this was the first ever Olympic gold medal for Australia in the winter games. That rocks. Congrats to Steven Bradbury on staying on his feet (clearly an under-rated yet critical part of the sport) and taking home the gold.

[grifter]

Again with the bronze medal for Ausria! What´s up with that, I hunger for GOLD!

The Nordic Combination Team won bronze, which is a huge success and really cool, but we now hold at 1 gold, 2 silver and NINE bronze medals! Gimme GOLD!

Also, Alexandra Meissnitzer, who had a very hard way coming back from an injury, lost a medal in the women´s super g event by 0.09 seconds. The tears in her eyes were just too sad. ;(

[aladdin]

Yay for German guys..Silver Medal for Nordic Combined. And Bronze for the Cross Country Team..it's a happy day for Germany. Congrats to the Austrians (Oesis) for Bronze, it was a terrific competition!

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Dawn way, it is: "I take bowl condition nuclear projection."
(Dawns "I'll take a drumstick."-line in babelfish japanese.)

[lesbianinmaine]

I know someone out there can answer this- Why are there professional hockey players on the Olympic teams? I remember pro basketball players in the summer games too. I know this isn't new, and I have probably heard the explaination before, but can someone refresh my memory?

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"Say, you all didn't happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?
Willow in "Dopplegangland"

[Kalita]

quote:

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Originally posted by lesbianinmaine:
Why are there professional hockey players on the Olympic teams?

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Quite simply, nobody was interested in watching hockey (or basketball) if nobody knew the players or got the level of action they were used to watching on TV.

The IOC made the tricky (and still somewhat controversial) decision to let pro players from these sports in, to shake things up and to improve ratings.

Revenue is certainly up, so it's succeeded on that level...

EditAdd: Just saw Sale and Pelletier get their golds! Good to see how genial they were with Elena and Anton, I think everyone realizes how crazy all this was.

And good on Team Cananda, 3-2 against Germany. Just need some more offence!

[This message has been edited by Kalita (edited February 17, 2002).]quote:

[cachaco]

Wow, I'm totally hooked on speed-skating now, especially short-track. It's rollerderby with form-fitting outfits! What a crazy sport. And of course, that wacky finish last night. How funny is that that the Aussie stayed on his feet while everyone else wiped out in BOTH the semi AND the final? Advance, Australia Fair indeed!

I hadn't heard about the fixing controversy with Ohno, that's a shame, 'cause he did handle himself very well over the crash and medal situation. Although if I have to hear an NBC announcer intone "Apolo Anton Ohno" like that one more time, I'm gonna take a self-inflicted skate-blade to the head.

Six degrees of separation moment: Victor Kraatz went to my high school, although he left just before I got there. A good friend of mine had been his roommate, though. Despite my bias in Kraatz's favor, I have to say that I found his and Bourne's routine the least imaginative and visually interesting of the top five finishers in the pairs ice dance this evening. The French pair were really quite good. But what is it with this sport and unfortunate facial hair? Oy vey...

Also, did anyone see the heart-breaking wipeout of American skier Caroline Lalive in the women's super-G? Apparently, she's trapped in a vicious cycle where she just keeps falling in big races - hasn't finished her last eight major competitive events. This time, she was coming out of like the fourth gate, caught an edge, and just...ka-pow. Poor thing, she was so visibly mad at herself...you just feel terrible for someone like that.

Yay, the olympics are fun! I hadn't really been watching until this weekend, but the short-track really hooked me. Looking forward to more of that later in the week, along with more alpine events. I'm a bit of a purist with my taste in events - give me speed and the potential for nasty wipeouts, and I'm a happy boy. Artistry is nice (figure skating, the people who do twisting flips off the ski jump), stamina is admirable (cross-country, biathlon), but give me 40 mph over hard-packed snow and ice any day....

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PASTURE: See... that is, where you are a mockup. With I think on..., you grew up to what, and... then regard I, which you form... it me are proud. It educates me to love you more.

[This message has been edited by cachaco (edited February 18, 2002).]

[Kalita]

Well, 2 medals for Canada in women's airiels!That silver and bronze gives us 7 total, and we're in 7th place on the tally.

Gold in that event went to Australia, giving them their second gold in 2 days, their only winter golds ever.

Men's hockey - tie up with their nemesis, Czech Republic, 3-3 tonight. They gotta win every game through the eliminations now, good luck guys.

Ice dance final tonight. Gotta watch the judges closely, things looked fishy last night when the top 10 pairs kept the exact same ranking from Saturday...

[BBOvenGuy]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalita:
Ice dance final tonight. Gotta watch the judges closely, things looked fishy last night when the top 10 pairs kept the exact same ranking from Saturday...

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In all honesty, I can't remember a time when the rankings ever changed from the first compulsory to the end... I'm not saying it's never happened. Just that I can't remember it happening.

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Remember the Kitten Board Mantra: "Joss is nuts about Tara, Willow/Tara and Amber!"
(...and Marti's rather fond of them, too...)quote:

[aladdin]

Three Gold medals for the glorious Germans on Monday (if you consider the difference of time zones)...it's like an aphrodisiac to me.
I think I'm in love with the Olympics.

And I wanted to say thank you to the American hosts who show so much enthusiasm, hospitality and support for every athlete in every competition. From what I read, the German athletes are really enchanted by the wonderful American audience.
Edited to add an -l to the wonderfu.

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Dawn way, it is: "I take bowl condition nuclear projection."
(Dawns "I'll take a drumstick."-line in babelfish japanese.)

[This message has been edited by aladdin (edited February 18, 2002).]

[FrenchRose]

Just popping in here to say how proud I am of my beloved skaters Marina and Gwendal [Anissina/Peizerat] who just won the Gold in Figure Skating. It was a great night - loads of surprises, kick-ass programs by the Canadians and the Russians - and in the end, a for once fair judgment I think. So... this is me, maybe not gloating exactly but certainly rejoicing.*g*

Félicitations Marina et Gwendal.

FrenchRose

[judy]

ARGH! Why did Bourne and Kraatz have to go splatty splat splat at the end!?!? They looked like they were sailing toward a Bronze. I've always liked them and am so disappointed they ended up on their asses. Although for a moment I thought, Oh, interesting end to the program. Then the commentator stated that was not planned and that the judges would know this. ARGH!!! It's especially a shame since they had been so vocal about unfair judging at the last Olympics and this time they did themselves in big time.

That said, who is this Ross on Leno's show who does reports from Salt Lake City? Anyone know anything about him/her???

[This message has been edited by judy (edited February 19, 2002).]

[cachaco]

I know, judy, it was such a shame about Bourne and Kraatz, just heartbreaking the contrast after the fall between his grimace of pain and her smile of determination - putting her best foot forward to the very end. The way she kissed him briefly before getting up - gosh, what drama. The games are tape-delayed here on the West Coast, so I had already seen the results online, but even so, watching their routine was a nail-biter for me, 'cause they were doing so well, and I knew the fall was coming, but I didn't know when. And to have it be at the very end like that...ach. I really feel for them....

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PASTURE: See... that is, where you are a mockup. With I think on..., you grew up to what, and... then regard I, which you form... it me are proud. It educates me to love you more.

[shellybean]

I don't know if this was asked before, but what's the difference between ice skating and ice dancing?

[EvilAnya]

Does anyone else thing the two man luge(sp) looks tantalizingly naughty? maybe it's just me.

As for ice dancing and pairs figure skating--they are very different. Ice Dancing is basically dancing on ice. Compulsary dances include the foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, the tango, the rhumba etc...There aren't any throws or spins or jumps, but there are holds and lifts. Also more emphasis on footwork and unison, though that's also important in pairs. There's a lot of differences and the technicalities are really complex in both sports and I have to admit i don't understand much of it (and i used to be a figure skater!)

[lurker1.0]

There are actually many technical differences as well as differences in rules between pairs skating and ice dancing. Some of the more noticable and major differences being that in Ice Dancing the skater is not allowed more than one revolution in a jump. The amount on contact between the skaters is greater and they must keep physical contact with one another through the majority of the dance, as opposed to pairs skating where the skaters have very little physical contact.

Also Ice Dancing programs are much longer as compared to pairs. A long dance program is 4 minutes in length, when a pairs long program is between 3 minutes 15 seconds and 3 and a half minutes.

Also Ice dancing competetions consist of 4 parts. Two compulsory dances, a short dance, and the long dance, which have special names that my concussion is preventing me from remembering.

And speaking of consussions, if this doesn't make alot of sense, or i have left stuff out, which I know I have, please forgive me, because at the moment my brain is turning into a very nice squishy substance.

And Woohoo for Silver and Bronze medals!

[Kalita]

Yes, too bad about Shae and Vic; they really had a good skate up until the last 3 seconds...

And good on Shae for kissing the ice! If David can do it, why not?

[BBOvenGuy]

USA Wins Gold in Women's Bobsled!!!

After 46 years of medal futility from the men, the USA women's bobsled team won gold on their very first try. And surprisingly, it was the USA2 team of Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers who won it. The USA1 sled with driver Jean Racine and rookie Gea Johnson (who Racine had added at the last minute after dumping her best friend from the spot) ended up 5th.

Meanwhile, Derek Parra won the 1500m speed skating with a new World Record.

Edited to add the final Figure Skating results from the Ladies' Short Program:

1. Michelle Kwan
2. Irina Slutskaya
3. Sasha Cohen
4. Sarah Hughes
5. Maria Butyrskaya

The first-place ordinals were 5-4 in favor of Michelle. However, all four of the judges who ranked Irina first ranked Michelle second, but only two of the five judges who ranked Michelle first ranked Irina second. The other three ranked Irina third behind Sasha Cohen. Does that mean anything? I have no idea. It'll be another three hours before I get to see the actual performances out here on the West Coast. Anyone care to comment?

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Remember the Kitten Board Mantra: "Joss is nuts about Tara, Willow/Tara and Amber!"
(...and Marti's rather fond of them, too...)

[This message has been edited by BBOvenGuy (edited February 19, 2002).]

[Shaniezak]

Aaaaaaaaaaand the US women's hockey team shuts out Sweden, 4-0! Two goals for Cammi Granato (including a fabulous effort while swarmed by Swedish defensemen), one for Katie King, and yet another for the wunderkind Natalie Darwitz.

Loving that bobsled gold from the women, too.

And according to the L.A. Times today, curling's become quite the hip sport in Salt Lake, and U.S. women's skip Kari Erickson is something of a celebrity. KZLA afternoon DJ Billy Burke, after playing a Brooks & Dunn song, commented that Kix Brooks has become quite enamored of the sport as well.

And dammit, I've not seen a second of it. I wanna.

Edited, because I mistakenly attributed Katie King's goal to Karyn Bye.

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"And if there is a way to find you, I will find you . . . but threads that are golden don't break easily . . ." -- Tori Amos

"Love is lightning, love is ice; it only strikes the lucky twice--once so you will know the price, and once for crazy faith . . ." -- Alison Krauss and Union Station

[This message has been edited by Shaniezak (edited February 20, 2002).]

[maudmac]

My relationship with the Olympics is so weird. I really don't care about it, but my gf is watching it like it's her religion and I keep getting sucked in.

Seeing Bakken and Flowers win the women's bobsled gold was incredible. Not only is Vonetta Flowers the first African-American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics EVER, but she's a local girl. Alabama just keeps churning out these freakin' awesome women. Well, there've been a few...

I think I kinda like the Olympics. It's like a soap opera. But better.

[Kalita]

quote:

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Originally posted by Shaniezak:
And according to the L.A. Times today, curling's become quite the hip sport in Salt Lake...

And dammit, I've not seen a second of it.

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I thank my lucky stars yet again for CBC and TSN. They know how to show the Olympics.

Does NBC have a 7-hour daytime program? A 5-hour evening program? For all 16 days of competition? Didn't think so.

Sorry to gloat, just don't get why this big network would pay so darned much to get the Games, if they don't show it to the best of their ability.

Anyhoo... Curling. I've managed to catch quite a few games, especially women's, and Kelley Law is just my hero. That woman can skip! The other gals aren't slouches, neither.

And then there's Canada's Women's hockey team. Saw a repeat of their semifinal game from this afternoon, tense there in the second period but 5 goals in the third make up for it...quote: