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

[Dr.G]

Ah let me get back to you on that Grifter, as soon as I can beat that.
Kalita, now say it three times in a row out *loud*. I know you speak some Dutch, come to chat tonight and prove it.

[This message has been edited by Dr.G (edited February 10, 2002).]

[SoccerGoddess8]

I'm happy there is a thread here for the Olympics. Finally something good comes from living in Utah I was at the opening ceremonies (no, I could not afford a ticket, I was working, kinda ) I got to meet Picabo Street, Cami Granato, Peggy Fleming, and Scott Hamilton. Cami even remembered me from 2 years ago, I'm not sure why, and I'm not even sure what brought it up. She just said "Hey, I know her (pointing to me), I remember you (now looking at me and smiling)". That completely made my night. I was so happy that I didn't get mad when our school bus broke down on the way home.

[maudmac]

Holy hell, is Kelly Clark awesome or what? I was upstairs and I heard my gf just screaming her lungs out. I came down and she rewound the Tivo thing and showed me Kelly getting the gold. Very cool.

[Kalita]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dr.G:
Kalita, now say it three times in a row out *loud*. I know you speak some Dutch, come to chat tonight and prove it.

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Wish I could; I don't have a microphone, and on top of that, have this thing about speaking aloud online. Nothing personal, just a standard rule. Part of the anonymity thing.

But, hey, Canada's got a medal! Cindy Klassen took bronze in the women's 3000m speed skate. Silver went to Renate Groenewold of, yes, the Netherlands; all 3 medalists, including winner Claudia Pechstien, came in above Pechstien's former world record.

Gotta love that fast Utah ice.quote:

[Puff]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dr.G:
Jochem Uytdehaage (all you non Dutch speaking kitties, try pronouncing his name three times in a row without breaking your tongue, heh heh

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I'd be happy if I could just pronounce it the once

I managed too watch the opening ceremony and can say that I know the sister of the woman that carried the Canadian flag.

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'The cold and ruthless sea tossed the lovers' into the starry black night. together they fall, together they sleep. forever.. forever.. *whisper*forever..the cold and ruthless sea...' By Sweetsquote:

[Kalita]

quote:

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Originally posted by Puff:
I know the sister of the woman that carried the Canadian flag.

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Hey, cool! Catroina should hit the ice later this week, I think, and has a good chance for a multi-medal take.
quote:

[BBOvenGuy]

Well, today's been a pretty exciting Olympic day, if you ask me. The Swiss kid who won the ski-jumping event was a lot of fun, even though he was too excited about winning to remember how to speak English for his interview. I also liked the Finnish Nordic Combined gold medalist with his blue hair.

And grifter, I'm mightily impressed with your skiing countrymen.

One thing I don't like, though, is NBC's rah-rah-America-boo-everyone-else attitude. They've done this before, too, and I think it's anti-Olympic. Plus it's so much pressure on the American athletes. In the Nordic Combined today, they were going on and on about what a heartbreaking tragedy the American's 7th place finish was, and I was sitting here thinking, "Come on! That's better than any American has ever done! Let's show some appreciation!"

Okay, so I'm weird. Sue me.

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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...)

"I have this sudden urge to dedicate my productive cooperation."

[Scoobiedoo]

quote:

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Originally posted by BBOvenGuy:

One thing I don't like, though, is NBC's rah-rah-America-boo-everyone-else attitude. They've done this before, too, and I think it's anti-Olympic.

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I understand the sentiment there Bob. I'm an Australian and when the Summer Olympics were on in Sydney in 2000 it was horrific to watch on TV. The network was all "Let's just broadcast when Australians win something and spend the rest of the time talking about those Australians...bugger the rest of the world." Made us look rather arrogant... and narrow-minded.

Patriotism is funny that way.

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"FINE! I'll go to the pool and you can go to the museum of pools!"quote:

[Epicurus]

I haven't seen much of the "rah-rah-America-boo-everyone-else attitude" as I tend to stick to the CBC station up here in Canada. I have to admit though that NBC covers these events way better than the CBC. I think the CBC gets confused between their radio announcers and the television broadcasters. TOO much taking, not enough sport.

Is there an internet site that lists all the results of every event? I'd like to check it out.

[icefire]

i just wish the olympics would fifnish so buffy comes on

[Kalita]

quote:

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Originally posted by BBOvenGuy:
One thing I don't like, though, is NBC's rah-rah-America-boo-everyone-else attitude.

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That's why I say, thank God for the CBC.

This is a bunch of people who actually realize that the Olympics are an international thing; that your country isn't the be-all and end-all.

And they show LOTS of events. Almost all of them. Usually live, and actually live, not sort-of-live-we'll-just-fudge-it.

If all I had was NBC, I'd go absolutely crazy. Thank God, again, that I live in Canada.

Sorry to disparage the American stuff, but it's really damn late and I feel like it...quote:

[lurker1.0]

I gotta say a agree with the boo-hiss attitude to NBC most of the time. I always feel kinda cheated if I'm watching the Olympics on NBC, nothing against all you Americans, it's just I'd like a little less America and a little more Olympics in my Olympics. The only good thing bout NBC is I can usually catch repeats of the day's competitions on late at night. Come to think of it tho, I don't much like CBC either, too much talk not enough sports. TSN all the way!

And WooHoo!!! Yay Bronze medal!!

[Dazey]

I am sooooooo not an Olympics person...but anyway I have this knack for turning on sporting events at just the right moment...like I hate baseball but one time when I lived in Philadelphia I accidentally turned on a Phillies game and it was the bottom of the ninth and they were losing like 10-1. Then all of a sudden there was all this action and they scored 10 runs and won the game, and I had only watched for 15 minutes but it was like a year's worth of baseball crammed into those 15 minutes, which was great because my infinitesimal appetite for the game was utterly sated and I've never had to watch it since.

Anyway, I accidentally turned on the Olypmics last night just in time to see the last few runs of the finals of women's snowboarding and Kelly Clark winning the USA's first gold medal. Now my Olypmics appetite is sated.

Snowboarding chicks are pretty sexy.

[wiltar]

quote:

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Is there an internet site that lists all the results of every event? I'd like to check it out.

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for all about the olympics, go to www.olympics.com

Patricia

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"What are they looking at?"
"The hotness of you, doofus!"

[This message has been edited by wiltar (edited February 11, 2002).]quote:

[Kalita]

Oh, I am SOOOO pissed off right now. Not sure why? Check out the results of the Figure Skating Pairs Long program.

The cliche, "and a 5.8 from the Russian judge", is not so silly right now. How 5 judges could sit there and deny the Gold to a virtuoso performance, with NO errors, is beyond my comprehension at the moment.

Well, Jamie and David got 6.0s from me (and my Mom, and lots of folks in the crowd), and I guess that's the important thing.

[Sela]

Yeah, I'm sad about the Pairs Long Program too. I think the announcer said, "I'm ashamed of my sport today." That pretty much sums it up. And I think I heard Scott Hamilton's voice crack when they camera was focused on Jamie. Sad, sad, sad.

It's not the Russian pair's fault. Bad judges must be punished!!!

--Sela

[Artemisia]

hey ya'll,
grr argh, just got done watching the pairs program. The Candians were so robbed. Also, since the Chinese Gal who won Bronze stuck the quad landing for like 4 feet according to Scott Hamilton then fell on her tushi, why does that not count as first quad? anywayz, am v. annoyed about the pairs- if it was up to me the medals would be
1) Sale& Peltier
2) Zimmerman & Kyko(sic)- I loved them- they were so lively
3) The Ukaranian Gal with the Broken foot( she deserves something & she did a blurry good job) & The Chinese team that won Bronze
sorry the Russian program was snoozy(the ones who won were Good & all(& well it is amazing she came back from parylsis(yes, i can spell ha!) but I just was not impressed-too languid for me. When do we get to the Women's Hockey? I cannot wait!

[tiger17]

I watched the pairs figure skating and I was shocked by the results. I thought the Canadian team should have gotten the gold. Oh well, at least the performance was great

[Pixie]

I'm joining the camp of the outraged over the Pairs Figure Skating results. I was so disgusted and sad for Jamie and David that I couldn't even watch the medal ceremony. I didn't want to see them try to look all happy and "we did our best, it doesn't matter what medal we get". Bah humbug. They were so beautiful and synchronized, they reminded me a bit of Gordeeva and Grinkov. To quote Captain Murdock: "Bitter, party of one."

[Bobo's Mom]

A little respectful comment about tonight's pairs result - the program with an error was much more difficult than the program without an error. Gordeeva and Grinkov won their second metal in 96 with a similar mistake, because the quailty of their program, it's speed and edges, were so much more difficult than the second place team of the year, who skated perfectly that evening. (OK, I know way too much about figure skating for a lesbian...when's that hockey on?!?)

While "Love Story" is a wonderful program, it's just not as difficult as what the Russian's did tonight. The judges mark the skaters on what they do, not what they fail to do. Think of it this way - if you aim for the stars and hit the moon, you'll always come out ahead of someone who aimed at the moon and made it into orbit.

It's too bad the commentary didn't match what was actually happening, or with what Hamilton and Bezic have said in the past. He himself won his gold in 84 on an imperfect night, and she has always leaned towards favoring the difficult program with minor mistakes over the good program skated perfectly.

Any good skating commantary should explain the sport, not just react with the gut. Oh well, I'll just use the mute button more in the future and let my eyes be the judge.

Back to Buffy

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TARA: Willow and I always know how to find each other!
ANYA: With yoga?
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BUFFYBOT: That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo!

[This message has been edited by Bobo's Mom (edited February 12, 2002).]

[WillowLikeWhoa]

How about the US sweeping the medals in the men's halfpipe competition? That was really exciting to watch. Those guys got some major air!!

~Michelle~

[BBOvenGuy]

With apologies to those who feel otherwise, you can count me in the "The Canadians Were Robbed" camp.

But then... is it really a surprise? I remember seeing one of the previews for the event and hearing someone say that the Russians "skate the way judges are trained to look for." It's not the fault of the Russian skaters, but they do have an unfair advantage if judges are taught to think that their style of skating is automatically defined as "good."

[This message has been edited by BBOvenGuy (edited February 12, 2002).]

[Eyes Without A Face]

We wuz robbed.

Shades of Toller Cranston again. Too creative for the narrow minds of many judges.

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Wallpapers
Illegitimi non carborundum!

[This message has been edited by Eyes Without A Face (edited February 12, 2002).]

[Kalita]

quote:

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Originally posted by BBOvenGuy:
someone say that the Russians "skate the way judges are trained to look for." It's not the fault of the Russian skaters, but they do have an unfair advantage if judges are taught to think that their style of skating is automatically defined as "good."

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That's my Mom's biggest beef with the whole system - why is there one, narrow definition of 'good'? If a skater, or pair of skaters, comes up with something original, that has the required elements and is as technically demanding, yet doesn't fit the judges' narrow convbentions, then we really need some new judges.

For the record, I agree with my Mom.

[This message has been edited by Kalita (edited February 12, 2002).]quote:

[tommo]

Does anyone remember Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards?

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Sweetie...I'm a fag.

[Dr.G]

Oh yeah, did he finally get contact lenses?

[Pixie]

quote:

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Originally posted by tommo:
Does anyone remember Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards?

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I didn't know about him, but NBC did a piece about him on Sunday night. They interviewed him now, and showed footage from his Olympic day in the sun. The reason they brought him up is that there was a young Canadian ski jumper who was representing England (his parents are Brits) and who kinda had the same impetus to compete as Eddie the Eagle. He came in 5th or 6th from last, better than Eddie. Eddie made some cute comment about how he wished the kid luck and hoped he was as good looking as Eddie.quote:

[grifter]

Eddie the Eagle was great...a real legend around here...

Did you see the boy from Switzerland jump to gold? My countrymen did awful, but I was in no way disappointed because Simon Ahmann was all cute and happy and ecstatic about winning.

Todays the women downhill race, and I hope Renate Goetschl wins! That is one chick you can file under "Kicks ass!"

Oh, and I hope Austria wins a medal every day, we did up to now! I´m afraid we won´t as soon as there´s no alpine decision though. ;(

[This message has been edited by grifter (edited February 12, 2002).]

[Wiccagrrl]

The Canadians definitely should have won the gold. The fact is, even if you didn't like their style as much (and I'm prepared to believe the judges might not have, although I thought they were great) they were technically much better last night. The commentator mentioned at least four fairly significant technical errors that the Russian team made, whereas the Canadian skaters were pretty much flawless.

I actually really like the Russian skaters- I remember them from four years ago, and her story is an amazing one (she had come back from a very serious injury to skate in Nagano) But they didn't deserve the gold last night.

[Kalita]

Was just talking with some colleagues - one opined that we're seeing the increasing stain of block judging. It's not just ice dance, they're being biased about pairs, too.

She thinks the ISU had better clean up their act about this - have the judges segregated and unable to confer when they give marks - or they may end up with figure skating being yanked from the olymic roster.

Not sure if I agree, but it's definitely something to think about.