Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

[Red Rick]

A lot of places are just a bombardment of the X Games crap like Slopestyle and Big Air, because the television producers want to appeal to what they think the youth are interested in. But as I pointed out with the similar trend in the Summer Games, if those sports were really as appealing as they think, the X Games would draw much bigger audiences.

However, we are also not a particularly representative group either - we are on this forum due to a shared interest in an endurance sport, so it's not surprising that those sports which have similar characteristics to the sport that unites us are the most popular ones on this board.

Would honestly think the X game crap has a lot more superficial appeal than something like speed skating but maybe that audience just doesn't watch the Olympics. I presume it's also hard to compare audiences cause normally those sports are on different channels

I like those things a lot more as an addition than just adding more events to speed skating or whatever like a team sprint which nobody cares about and just ends up being stat padding.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Would honestly think the X game crap has a lot more superficial appeal than something like speed skating but maybe that audience just doesn't watch the Olympics.

I like those things a lot more as an addition than just adding more events to speed skating or whatever like a team sprint which nobody cares about and just ends up being stat padding.

I think it's more that those sports don't attract as much of an audience to their actual competition aspects as just to the kind of free-ride videos and the likes that you see shown in skate or surf stores, or the old Bam Margera skate videos with pranks and punk rock soundtracks. A lot of the appeal of those types of activity are the freedom, so the more structured environment seen in the Olympics can be seen as kind of a weak point to a lot of the fanbase rather than a strength.

People like to see the highlight reel tricks, but they don't necessarily want to see the grind (not grind as in trick category) that it takes to get there.

 

[limak_]

Thought it's worth to share this one.

Polish speed skater Natalia Maliszewska (from her insta, google translated), after being tested positive, negative, positive, negative and finally positive and taken out of competition.

"I don't understand it. I don't belive in anything anymore. In no tests. No games. This is one big JOKE for me. I hope that the one who controls it is having a good time"

 

[KZD]

That story above is exactly the kind of stuff I worried about. China is not worth of helding these games.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

What a mess. I believe in science, and testing. But something is completely screwed up there, as in, not scientific.

A lot of places are just a bombardment of the X Games crap like Slopestyle and Big Air, because the television producers want to appeal to what they think...

Oh yeah, we get a lot of that too. Not as much as figure skating, but they toss a lot at us. However,

I like those things a lot more as an addition than just adding more events to speed skating or whatever like a team sprint which nobody cares about and just ends up being stat padding.

This I would agree with. We've seen this in swimming in the summer games over the last 12 years or so. So very many events, of people swimming back and forth across the pool. Track cycling has slowly had this problem, but not like swimming. I'm worried XC skiing could head this way too.

Imagine if in mountain biking for XC they gave medals for short track sprint, XCO, and XCM. Plus a relay, a mixed relay, plus the DH, plus an Enduro, plus..

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I have to admit, I'm being a little whiny. If I look, I can find all sorts of events, some of just about everything. This is a lot better than it was 20 years ago. Or 40 years ago.

Did you know that before TV was everywhere, say, 1976 and before, filmmakers would take a crew to the games and make a film of it? Since there wasn't a whole lot of the Olympics on TV, or the viewing quality was not great quality, you would go to the movie theater several months later, and watch a movie on the Olympic experience. Kind of neat in a nostalgic retro sort of way.

Film on the 1960 winter games at Squaw Valley

 

[Sciatic]

Would honestly think the X game crap has a lot more superficial appeal than something like speed skating but maybe that audience just doesn't watch the Olympics. I presume it's also hard to compare audiences cause normally those sports are on different channels

I like those things a lot more as an addition than just adding more events to speed skating or whatever like a team sprint which nobody cares about and just ends up being stat padding.

I know I’m a traditionalist, but for me it depends on whether a new sport introduced to the Games can be a competition without judging. So it makes complete sense that there are snowboard races where time to the bottom determines the winner. For that matter I would welcome snowboard jumping if that was determined by distance or time. I would still “grandfather” in sports that have always had judging, like figure skating and ski jumping.
obviously this is an individual opinion, with the primary reason that I don’t want to listen to an announcer in order who understand who won and why they were better. That’s partially because I detest most announcing anyways (with the exception of baseball radio announcers), and that’s why I watch all my cycling and skiing in French, which I understand just well enough to hear them identify riders and situations but not well enough to understand if they are blathering on about something inane

 

[Sciatic]

I have to admit, I'm being a little whiny. If I look, I can find all sorts of events, some of just about everything. This is a lot better than it was 20 years ago. Or 40 years ago.

Did you know that before TV was everywhere, say, 1976 and before, filmmakers would take a crew to the games and make a film of it? Since there wasn't a whole lot of the Olympics on TV, or the viewing quality was not great quality, you would go to the movie theater several months later, and watch a movie on the Olympic experience. Kind of neat in a nostalgic retro sort of way.

Film on the 1960 winter games at Squaw Valley

That’s interesting, but doesn’t match my experience. I watched all the Olympics, every minute I could get of it, from 1968 through 1980. (I watched a LOT of television in those days). I felt like I got much more feel of being at at Olympics even though ((or maybe because) because there is as down time when events were delayed or postponed). And because the U.S. had so few elite winter sports competitors in that era, they couldn’t just focus on American athletes. True, we had to tolerate ABC’s “Up close and personal” bits, but they were’nt just about Americans.

 

[sir fly]

Winter Olympics: Canada and ROC wear masks for women's ice hockey match

Players wear face masks for an ice hockey match at the Winter Olympics after confusion over Covid-19 tests.

www.bbc.com

 

[BlueRoads]

I didn't get to watch it, but hey, Denise Herrmann!! So happy for her.

Next, men's figure skating tonight... well, I'm probably not going to watch that either , but hopefully some replays...

 

[Jagartrott]

Ski jumping (mixed, team) today was a complete f***-up.

‘This is a parody’: Germany left fuming after night of ski jumping mayhem

Slovenia won the mixed team ski jumping gold, but the big talking point of the event’s first appearance at the Olympics was a series of disqualifications

www.theguardian.com

Also, in speed skating (short track), the Chinese again got an enormous gift by the referee(s) to win their second gold. It feels fishy.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

There has been a huge amount of triumphalism about the little guy getting the medal with the Canadians in the ski jumping, especially given how young their team is, but most of those seem to be seeing it as a platform to build on rather than as a complete Steve Bradbury. This is actually somewhat akin to the 1982 Vuelta where Lejarreta essentially won because he was the highest ranked rider not tested after the Navacerrada stage.

The Canadians do have a platform to build on for this, but unfortunately building on this would be to get into the midfield, rather than being at the tail end of proceedings. They were the 7th best team - about their usual level - on a points per jumper basis, so the unexpectedly high number of suit DQs - and the suspicious fact that all five were women, and two of them managed to complete a jump without trouble but were DQed after the second jump - only really serves to show that this isn't a representative performance. I'd say "you can't take that away from them" but I'd be surprised if no appeals are lodged given them allegedly using different measurement methods from the usual World Cup events and the high profiles of the teams disqualified in the circumstances. The Germans were lying 2nd before Althaus' jump was expunged, while other teams managed to stay in the competition because of the number of DQs and China being so far from competitive, and the same people who'd already been disqualified were able to jump in the 2nd round which is just another level of bizarre. To illustrate:

Slovenia 1001,5 / 8 = 125,19
Japan 836,3 / 7 = 119,47
Norway 707,9 / 6 = 117,98
Germany 350,9 / 3 = 116,97
Austria 818,0 / 7 = 116,86
ROC 890,3 / 8 = 111,29
Canada 844,6 / 8 = 105,58
Poland 763,2 / 8 = 95,40
Czech Republic 722,8 / 8 = 90,35
China 229,8 / 4 = 57,45

If you saw that order at the end of the competition, you wouldn't bat an eyelid. It's a cool story for the underdogs to get a medal, but there has been a fair bit of romanticising that rather overstates the achievement here. The Canadians did not get a medal by having career best days and upsetting the form book. This isn't really a breakthrough or anything more grandiose. They performed at about their level, and acquired a medal by default.

 

[Red Rick]

Ireen Wüst sets a record with gold medal at 5th consecutive Olympics.

 

[BigCoward]

Britain absolutely schooled by the Swedes in the curling bronze medal match. Every missed chance at a medal really matters for us.

 

[Keram]

I read article about Ireen Wust and I discover mythical competition called Elfstedentocht. It must be huge for dutch people. Shame that last edition was held in 1997.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I read article about Ireen Wust and I discover mythical competition called Elfstedentocht. It must be huge for dutch people. Shame that last edition was held in 1997.

The alternative version is usually helt on the Weissensee in Carinthia, Austria, where a few thousand Dutch race, with the longest distance being the 200km Marathon.

 

[Keram]

YES YES YES! Gold for Vlhova. Unreal race. Still thrilled two hours after race. I feel so sorry for Shiffrin. She didnt deserve this. I hope with all my heart she will win some medal from SG or combination.

 

[BigCoward]

Redemption for Jacobellis.

 

[Sciatic]

YES YES YES! Gold for Vlhova. Unreal race. Still thrilled two hours after race. I feel so sorry for Shiffrin. She didnt deserve this. I hope with all my heart she will win some medal from SG or combination.

That was a thrilling finale—happy for Vlhova.

 

[King Boonen]

Mod hat on:

Please stop discussing doping outside of the clinic.

Cheers,

KB.

 

[SafeBet]

Hanyu missed the podium in the figure skating competition. He went all in and attempted the 4 Axel but couldn't land it.
Chen won the gold medal after the big disappointment of 2018.

Grassl performed very well in the free program (4th score) and is looking great for the Cortina Olympics in 2026.

 

[BigCoward]

Luge relay is mental.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Hanyu missed the podium in the figure skating competition. He went all in and attempted the 4 Axel but couldn't land it.
Chen won the gold medal after the big disappointment of 2018.

Grassl performed very well in the free program (4th score) and is looking great for the Cortina Olympics in 2026.

I was rooting for Hanyu and don't mind Chen at all, but the kid I really liked was Kagiyama. He's got a bright future ahead of him, his youthful energy and exuberance is infectious.

I don't know what's going on with the ladies' competition, I'm not sure the IOC does right now either. But so far figure skating has been pretty entertaining.

 

[Unchained]

Watched women's speed relay..the push is better than my Madison technique..surprised at how few crashes. Women's half pipe..the difference in ability of competition is crazy..looks like qualifying process needs refinement..men's combined..going 70mph and somehow get air, don't crash and stay tucked..incredible..curling..don't know much but it's fun for a match or two..figure skating..not sure how they count the spins, but the velocity when they leave the ice and start twirling is crazy cool..I hope lots of the biatheletes and cross country skiers could do some real damage in bicycle races..hope they stick with snow and skiing for everyone's sake..

 

[Unchained]

Not sure if people have seen some of the food photos posted by athletes..there is one of a tray that includes pats,sauce on the side and some other tired looking veggies..and some kind of rib meat looking stuff that looks like a prop from Jurassic Park movies..
got to be a factor for some athletes..