Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

[Alpe d'Huez]

Speaking of drama...

The ladies figure skating competition was just icky this year. Every few years some major drama comes up in Olympic figure skating, but this year has been something else. The more dramatic emotional reactions from the ladies I can understand and overlook because there was so much pressure since last week, but the adults surrounding them and the people in charge of the competition just made me feel all around gross.

You're definitely right that this happens every few years. Or it's nearly ongoing, and we just don't see it. People think back and remember the whole Tonya/Nancy thing, but anyone who glances into the sport realizes just beyond that sheen of smiles, glitter and makeup it's just as ruthless as any other, with plenty of troubled characters. Tonya was actually fairly normal in the big picture, her abusive husband and his gang of thug friends were the real villans. The sport may be even more potentially damaging than others, as many athletes usually start around age 10. Tara Lipinski recently said her first drug test was at the age of 11. Welcome to the big leagues, kid! Let us pry your eyes open for you!

Christine Brennan's book Inside Edge really opened some eyes. There was another book called Little Girls in Pretty Boxes about how manipulated, molded, warped so many girls in skating and gymnastics end up. And it was written back in 2000! I haven't even seen Adam Rippon's book, but I guess he spills his guts, mostly about his own misgivings.

As a private coach/adviser Dick Button used to have a reputation of putting his athletes into near isolation, and he could see every possible flaw as a commentator (having a Harvard law degree probably played into all this). He had to be acutely aware of the dark side of the sport, which he never once spoke about it seemed. But the dark past in skating has always been there. Look at all the problems Nicole Bobek has had over the years, or the sad fall of Christopher Bowman.

 

[Norbea]

Norway only has 14% of the gold in these olympics. In 1928 and 1932 Norway took home 43% of the gold

 

[Sciatic]

Are you telling me korfbal should be part of the Winter Olympics?

By the way is the speed skating in Collalbo in 2026?

How about about adding team snowball fighting as a medal event? It’s one of the most common winter activities, most people have played it at least once, and would help get more Caribbean nations with chances for medals.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

You're definitely right that this happens every few years. Or it's nearly ongoing, and we just don't see it. People think back and remember the whole Tonya/Nancy thing, but anyone who glances into the sport realizes just beyond that sheen of smiles, glitter and makeup it's just as ruthless as any other, with plenty of troubled characters. Tonya was actually fairly normal in the big picture, her abusive husband and his gang of thug friends were the real villans. The sport may be even more potentially damaging than others, as many athletes usually start around age 10. Tara Lipinski recently said her first drug test was at the age of 11. Welcome to the big leagues, kid! Let us pry your eyes open for you!

Christine Brennan's book Inside Edge really opened some eyes. There was another book called Little Girls in Pretty Boxes about how manipulated, molded, warped so many girls in skating and gymnastics end up. And it was written back in 2000! I haven't even seen Adam Rippon's book, but I guess he spills his guts, mostly about his own misgivings.

As a private coach/adviser Dick Button used to have a reputation of putting his athletes into near isolation, and he could see every possible flaw as a commentator (having a Harvard law degree probably played into all this). He had to be acutely aware of the dark side of the sport, which he never once spoke about it seemed. But the dark past in skating has always been there. Look at all the problems Nicole Bobek has had over the years, or the sad fall of Christopher Bowman.

The scandals I remember the most are, of course, the Tonya/Nancy drama in 1994, and another memorable one was the judging clusterfuck in pairs figure skating in 2002 where both the Russians and Canadians were awarded the gold because the French judge was allegedly pressured into giving the Russians the gold. And now we have 2022...

You're right that there is probably a lot of behind-the-scenes dirt we don't usually get to see (or didn't get to see in the past) in women's gymnastics and figure skating, it's probably only due to the 24/7 media and social media that we even get to learn about all this muck nowadays.

On that note buckle up, we still have the pairs' competition coming up. Hopefully it'll be drama-free!

 

[SafeBet]

Are you telling me korfbal should be part of the Winter Olympics?

By the way is the speed skating in Collalbo in 2026?

Nope, Baselga di Pinè.
It's currently an open arena but they will build a roof.

 

[Red Rick]

Nope, Baselga di Pinè.
It's currently an open arena but they will build a roof.

That's even farther away. Guess a roof at 1000m altitude will have a big effect.

 

[Mayomaniac]

That's even farther away. Guess a roof at 1000m altitude will have a big effect.

The Dutch fans in Klobenstein/Collabo are usually pretty crazy.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

A burning question - are any of you interested in Olympic men's ice hockey this time around?

I realize the best of the best usually get drafted into the NHL, but sans the NHL surely there must still be some kind of competition going around with the leftovers.

 

[Koronin]

A burning question - are any of you interested in Olympic men's ice hockey this time around?

I realize the best of the best usually get drafted into the NHL, but sans the NHL surely there must still be some kind of competition going around with the leftovers.

I'd watch it if it was during a time that I could watch it. However, most of the time it's being shown when I can't watch it. However, I'm also someone who watching minor league hockey and has listened to Canadian Jr league hockey games on the radio. My bigger issue with international (vs North American) hockey is the rinks are bigger. I prefer the game on the smaller North American rinks.

 

[Keram]

A burning question - are any of you interested in Olympic men's ice hockey this time around?

I realize the best of the best usually get drafted into the NHL, but sans the NHL surely there must still be some kind of competition going around with the leftovers.

Yes

It lowered down the prestige of the turney BUT without NHLers it is way more unpredictable. 4 years ago Germany won silver this time Slovakia can win medal.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'd watch it if it was during a time that I could watch it. However, most of the time it's being shown when I can't watch it. However, I'm also someone who watching minor league hockey and has listened to Canadian Jr league hockey games on the radio. My bigger issue with international (vs North American) hockey is the rinks are bigger. I prefer the game on the smaller North American rinks.

This tournament has been on NHL size rinks, not the larger IIHL size. The Sweden-Finland game was pretty chippy before.

Rooting for Finland since Liiga gets kinda underappreciated a lot compared to SHL and KHL but it is still pretty decent standard. KHL has admittedly dropped away a bit over the last decade, it's probably on a par with AHL nowadays when it was clearly the 2nd best league around a decade ago. Would have been rooting for Germany due to the preponderance of ex-Penguins like Kahun, Kühnhackl and Tiffels.

 

[Red Rick]

Belgiums Bart Swings takes gold in the mass start speed skating.

If there was ever a time the Dutch would want to annex Flanders it is probably now

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sadly for Carlton and his gazillion pre-prepared puns, that's not actually how you pronounce "Schouten" in Dutch.

 

[Red Rick]

Sadly for Carlton and his gazillion pre-prepared puns, that's not actually how you pronounce "Schouten" in Dutch.

Like that has ever stopped the man.

I still think mass start is a dank event. It's like having a 20km flat road race in cycling.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Like that has ever stopped the man.

I still think mass start is a dank event. It's like having a 20km flat road race in cycling.

They just need to sort out the points system as it's clearly patterned after track cycling. But while they've got lip service to it being a points race, really it's a scratch race because the intermediate sprint points are so undervalued compared to the final sprint, so at a championships where the medals are the only thing that counts, it just makes the rest of the race pointless, and then it's too short to make endurance a major factor. The points race is just about the most interesting track cycling event and the ISU either scaling down the finish points or scaling up the intermediate sprint points to make more tactical options worthwhile would greatly benefit the format. I've seen Bergsma at least win from some long escapes on the World Cup but every single women's mass start I've seen follows the exact same formula, some lesser names try to escape, Claudia Pechstein gets some points in an intermediate, then with a couple of laps to go the speed increases and Schouten hits the front at around a lap to go and outsprints everybody.

 

[Cousin Orson]

What a performance from Nils Van der Poel in the 10km, new world record.

van der Poel has published a document detailing his training program from May 2019 - February 2022.

How to skate a 10K

How to skate a 10k… and also half a 10k.

www.howtoskate.se

 

[KZD]

Slovakia getting a surprising bronze medal after beating Sweden 4-0. Juraj Slafkovsky is the revelation of the tournament.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Are you telling me korfbal should be part of the Winter Olympics?

Not until they add Megavalanche cycling! No way!

 

[Aimar16]

Slovakia getting a surprising bronze medal after beating Sweden 4-0. Juraj Slafkovsky is the revelation of the tournament.

As only players from European leagues were involved, this is not as big a surprise as people claim. In these circumstances, Russians are always the biggest favourites and the Finns are a very well coached team that plays good defensive hockey, recently they have had very good results in the World Championship with very minimum NHL players. So it's no surprise that they're in the final. But the other hockey nations were very close in quality.

Slovakia had good quality in their team. Cehlarik and Hrivik have some NHL experience, they were the best players in the Swedish league last year and are playing well in the KHL this year. Jurco, Dano and Marincin also have NHL experience. They were all drafted at high draft positions. 1st and 2nd round...

Slafkovsky was already considered a top 5 pick in this year's NHL draft before the Olympics. He can probably go higher now ig. He is only 17, but he already has a man's body 192cm, 99kg

 

[jmdirt]

I know that we discussed this upthread, but even though I don't like judged sports, the big air/slope athletes are amazing!

Ski cross/snowboard cross are great events too!

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I know that we discussed this upthread, but even though I don't like judged sports, the big air/slope athletes are amazing!

Ski cross/snowboard cross are great events too!

I don't think these sports and their athletes are bad at all, I'm just feeling a bit of a generational disconnect. Perhaps if I had grown up watching them I wouldn't be feeling like such a boomer. That said if ski-cross or snowboard-cross are on (and nothing else of interest is) I'll watch them and I have in the past. As you said those athletes are doing some amazing stuff!

That said the Beijing Olympics are officially over, I thought they were okay for the most part. The outdoor scenery could have been better, there could have been a lot less drama in figure skating, but my fave 4-man bobsledders came through, so all is well with the universe.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I don't think these sports and their athletes are bad at all, I'm just feeling a bit of a generational disconnect. Perhaps if I had grown up watching them I wouldn't be feeling like such a boomer. That said if ski-cross or snowboard-cross are on (and nothing else of interest is) I'll watch them and I have in the past. As you said those athletes are doing some amazing stuff!

That said the Beijing Olympics are officially over, I thought they were okay for the most part. The outdoor scenery could have been better, there could have been a lot less drama in figure skating, but my fave 4-man bobsledders came through, so all is well with the universe.

I am of the generation that grew up with skate shops and snowboard stores. I just think there is a disconnect between the appeal of those sports as stylized video highlight pieces and adrenaline rush participation sports, and their appeal as televisual, judged professional competitions. This applies to all of that X Games alumni stuff too, and as I said during the Tokyo Olympics, if these sports really were as big as they get pushed as in the Olympic movements, then the X Games would garner much bigger audiences and attract much bigger and more mainstream channels to screen them - the key to this is that often an older generation of media personalities seeing this as something that is to connect with younger audiences over-pushes it, while simultaneously missing the point of what these sports are about, which is the freedom of expression and of performance that an Olympic structure doesn't afford them.

 

[jmdirt]

I don't think these sports and their athletes are bad at all, I'm just feeling a bit of a generational disconnect. Perhaps if I had grown up watching them I wouldn't be feeling like such a boomer. That said if ski-cross or snowboard-cross are on (and nothing else of interest is) I'll watch them and I have in the past. As you said those athletes are doing some amazing stuff!

That said the Beijing Olympics are officially over, I thought they were okay for the most part. The outdoor scenery could have been better, there could have been a lot less drama in figure skating, but my fave 4-man bobsledders came through, so all is well with the universe.

I'm old too, but I grew up jumping motorcycles over barns and snowmobiles off of 100 foot cornices about 20 years before there was an X before everything so I guess I feel some sort of connection (be it very far removed). That being said, I feel like some people discount the amazing skill/ability of these athletes because their main venue is the X-Games ('eh, that's for the younger crowd'). IMO, amazing skill is amazing skill. As I've noted up thread though, I love Nordic skiing and biathlon too (pretty differed to big air events...the big air is in their lungs). I agree that the Olympic model doesn't fit the 'free spirt' of these sports, but does it have to be that way?

Nitro Circus is one of the most entertaining events that I have ever attended in my life of attending a lot of sporting events. I don't really want to compare motorize events to human/gravity powered events, but entertainment = $$.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Now that the games are over, my only hope is that the Russian athletes not only cannot compete under a Russian flag, but no banner with the word "Russia" or "Russian" in it for the foreseeable future. To many people the difference between Russia and ROC is non-existent. The ROC is Russia. This supposed punishment they are dealing with after Sochi has been laughable, and tantamount to little if any punishment at all.

Considering the level the Russian coaches and athletic organization will go to win, until the rest of the world can be assured that their athletes will be competing in an honorable, clean manner, participating athletes should not be representing Russia as a country in any way, regardless of their heritage, country of birth, or country of residence.

 

[Koronin]

What this skater went through is one of the reasons the NHLPA voted against going to these Olympics.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/covid-strikes-twice-us-skater-142652535.html