Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

[BlueRoads]

Starting in 3...2...

well, on February 4. Okay, first events start on February 2, that is pre-events in curling, freestyle skiing and ice hockey.

It looks like the games are definitely going ahead, but covid cases may take out some athletes before the event.

What are you expecting? What are you hoping for? Which competitions will you watch?

 

[SafeBet]

Kind of amazing to have two Olympics in the span of 7 months.
Winter Olympics are generally a bit easier to follow without feeling completely overwhelmed (which is part of the summer edition's fun) but it's still almost impossible to watch everything. I'll take a week off (from 14th to 19th of February) and stay on my sofa for hours and hours anyway.

Sports I'm looking forward the most: alpine, biathlon, snowboard cross, ski jumping, figure skating, short track.
Athletes I really hope will get a medal: Dorothea Wierer, Dominik Paris, Kobayashi Ryoyu, Hanyu Yuzuru.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sports I'm looking forward to the most: biathlon, cross country, ski jumping, NoCo, ice hockey (could be really open and unpredictable with no NHL players and will be a real window of opportunity for some)
Sports I'm looking forward to the least: the X-Games stuff where you see apparently elite professional athletes wearing baggy sallies like me on my first day on snow of the winter.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Sports I'm looking forward to the most: biathlon, cross country, ski jumping, NoCo, ice hockey (could be really open and unpredictable with no NHL players and will be a real window of opportunity for some)
Sports I'm looking forward to the least: the X-Games stuff where you see apparently elite professional athletes wearing baggy sallies like me on my first day on snow of the winter.

Not to mention the expert commentators who talk with as many anglicisms as possible and sound like your typical Austrian wannabe-freestlye skier cookie cutter.
I hope to see Sergey Ustiugov in full 2017 Norge-slayer mode. It would be a nice story to see Stadlober win a medal after what happened at the last Olympics, but I don't see that happening.
The one sport where I'm really gonna cheer for the local guys/Italians in general is probably gonna be Alpine Skiing. Paris getting an Olympic medal would be pretty good.

 

[BullsFan22]

I second Mayo, Ustiugov hasn’t had luck health wise these last few years and he was unfairly denied participation in Korea. I don’t know if he can reach his 2017 level again, but I really hope he can ski well and come away with a couple medals. He deserves it.

I will also follow Biathlon, and I have hopes for Jakov Fak. He always does well at major championships and I hope 2022 isn’t different. Sure he’s coming to the end of his career and his results haven’t been great lately, but I have a feeling he’ll surprise.

I’ll try and catch some sledding disciplines as well.

 

[Koronin]

I remember when the summer and winter games were both in the same year so both being this close doesn't really feel that odd to me, it's just backwards.

The sports I'm looking forward to the most are the Alpine events, snowboard cross, halfpipe, bobsled, luge, skeleton, speed skating (long track and short track).

 

[BigCoward]

Norway should absolutely obliterate the record for most gold medals at a single winter Olympics (14).
At the most recent nordic/biathlon/alpine skiing world champs last year they won 22 alone. Projections have them winning 22 in total in Beijing.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I remember when the summer and winter games were both in the same year so both being this close doesn't really feel that odd to me, it's just backwards.

The sports I'm looking forward to the most are the Alpine events, snowboard cross, halfpipe, bobsled, luge, skeleton, speed skating (long track and short track).

I remember when the Winter Olympics were a fairly small, intimate affair, it just made you want to cozy up to a warm fireplace with some hot chocolate and watch some sports. I think it started with the Vancouver Olympics where they started including some musical performances and whatnot, it gave the Winter Olympics an MTV-ish sort of vibe. Prolly sound like a boomer, but I don't really care for it.

Having said that I'll watch whatever is on, but especially bobsledding. Cause everybody needs a little bobsledding in their life.

 

[BullsFan22]

Norway should absolutely obliterate the record for most gold medals at a single winter Olympics (14).
At the most recent nordic/biathlon/alpine skiing world champs last year they won 22 alone. Projections have them winning 22 in total in Beijing.

Hopefully not, but they could win half of those gold medals in cross country skiing alone.

 

[search]

looking forward to it as well. Alpine and Snowboard is gonna be a bit hard to follow due to the early starting times (in the middle of the night in Europe), but overall, it doesn't seem to be as bad as feared.

 

[BigCoward]

I

Hopefully not, but they could win half of those gold medals in cross country skiing alone.

I expect 4 Norwegians with J as an initial to beat every other country (if relay medals are included).

 

[Koronin]

I remember when the Winter Olympics were a fairly small, intimate affair, it just made you want to cozy up to a warm fireplace with some hot chocolate and watch some sports. I think it started with the Vancouver Olympics where they started including some musical performances and whatnot, it gave the Winter Olympics an MTV-ish sort of vibe. Prolly sound like a boomer, but I don't really care for it.

Having said that I'll watch whatever is on, but especially bobsledding. Cause everybody needs a little bobsledding in their life.

Did you know that (at least before Covid) Lake Placid has it open to allowing people to pay to get a ride on a bobsled with a trained driver?

 

[BigCoward]

Did you know that (at least before Covid) Lake Placid has it open to allowing people to pay to get a ride on a bobsled with a trained driver?

I did the Olympic run from Turin, one of the most painful experiences in my life, the G forces were horrendous.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I watched the men's downhill on Hahnenkamm yesterday and they have more races to come in Kitzbuhel this weekend, my burning question is - why would they take such a risk on such a tough course right prior to the Olympics? In addition to the possibility of crashing and getting injured the weather was also kinda rough yesterday and thusly adding to the thrills and spills...

I guess whoever finishes in one piece after this weekend will be showing up at the Olympics. (I do love watching the Hahnenkamm though, I doubt any Olympic race can compare. The scenery alone is outstanding.)

 

[BigCoward]

Who cares about anything. A Brit just won our first alpine World Cup race ever.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Who cares about anything. A Brit just won our first alpine World Cup race ever.

Wooooo! I just saw the replay, that was so awesome! I'm happy for the guy.

 

[Jagartrott]

The scenery will likely look a bit 'strange' for the outdoor events, as this region in China has very little precipitation over the winter months, so most snow will be artificial. They shut down some industry to make sure the sky has a nice shade of blue though.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Who cares about anything. A Brit just won our first alpine World Cup race ever.

I'm hapy for him, he has been skiing really well over the last few years, when he's in shape he's a top Slalom specialist.
That said, Italy had 4 riders in the top 10 after the first run, so what does their brilliant coach do when he's the one setting the course for the 2nd run? He sets one that is really different, instead of sticking with something that was great for his athletes. Big brain move, they should send him back to France...

 

[SafeBet]

I watched the men's downhill on Hahnenkamm yesterday and they have more races to come in Kitzbuhel this weekend, my burning question is - why would they take such a risk on such a tough course right prior to the Olympics?

You were almost predicting the future.
Sofia Goggia, who was the absolute favorite to win the Olympic downhill crashed today in Cortina and might miss Beijing...

And this is just one year after crashing in practice and missing the WC (again as the main favorite).

 

[roundabout]

I watched the men's downhill on Hahnenkamm yesterday and they have more races to come in Kitzbuhel this weekend, my burning question is - why would they take such a risk on such a tough course right prior to the Olympics? In addition to the possibility of crashing and getting injured the weather was also kinda rough yesterday and thusly adding to the thrills and spills...

I guess whoever finishes in one piece after this weekend will be showing up at the Olympics. (I do love watching the Hahnenkamm though, I doubt any Olympic race can compare. The scenery alone is outstanding.)

it's the race with the highest prize money in the world cup, iirc

edit

Ski Alpin: Rekord-Preisgeld bei Hahnenkamm-Rennen 2022

Auch bei der Preisgeld-Verteilung kommt es zu einem Novum.

www.laola1.at

 

[Mayomaniac]

it's the race with the highest prize money in the world cup, iirc

edit

Ski Alpin: Rekord-Preisgeld bei Hahnenkamm-Rennen 2022

Auch bei der Preisgeld-Verteilung kommt es zu einem Novum.

www.laola1.at

Also Wegen and Kitzbühlel are like Paris-Roubaix and the RVV for a speed specialist, winning there is as big of a deal as becoming a world champion.

 

[SafeBet]

And Cortina is a very important race in the female calendar too.
That said, Goggia had already won the downhill race the day before and it was pretty clear she hadn't been in complete control over the last few races. Perhaps riding the Super G wasn't the smartest idea.

 

[Mayomaniac]

And Cortina is a very important race in the female calendar too.
That said, Goggia had already won the downhill race the day before and it was pretty clear she hadn't been in complete control over the last few races. Perhaps riding the Super G wasn't the smartest idea.

Yeah, Cortina is probably the most important speed event of the women's world cup calendar, you don't skip that one.

 

[Keram]

I am looking forward most for ice hockey men tourney. It is a shame NHLers dont go again but it will be less predictable. Men hockey and women alpine ski races are must see events for me. Other events only if I have time for it. I hope Petra Vlhova will bring some medal(s). I hope at least from slalom. It would be surprise if not. I hope from GS and combined too but from GS it will be most dificult but not unreal.

 

[BlueRoads]

Mikhail Kolyada is out of the Olympics because of Covid.
Semenenko replaces him, I like that, but it still sucks a lot. I don't know if Kolyada will continue his career beyond this season, anyway I guess this was his last Olympic chance. But in these days I feel like, okay, at least he didn't have a life-threatening accident.