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Winter Olympics 2010, Vancouver

Page 12 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Sep 25, 2009
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cant wait for the lady’s 30k today and man’s 50k xc tomorrow - the pinnacle of ‘my’ olympics.

my prediction
30k: kovalchik gold, bjørgen silver, medvedeva bronze
50k: Petter Northug gold, lucas bauer silver, vyleghganin bronze.

would also love to see the final ice hockey. my prediction - canada will win in the exciting brotherly fight. these teams are twins but the canadians MUST win.

oh, and i predict canada will beat russian girls in the team speed skating finals for gold.
 
"man’s 50k xc tomorrow - the pinnacle of ‘my’ olympics." completely agree! The 50 km is the absoulte high point for me as well.

Agree that kovalchyk will probably win tonight, she looked awfully strong in the relay. Kalla too, but if it's in classic style, she's maybe not as good? More skeptical about northug, though, there's a lot of people who'll be interested in dropping him well before the sprint. Bauer is a monster in classic, Legkov, the swedes, germans, none of them is interested in having Northug around in the end. Should be a VERY exciting race, though. And now het volk is on in two minutes!
 
Well, that was a splendid race! Good job by kowalchyk, she looked pretty spent for a while, and I really thought Bjørgen would win it until the last meters.

Coming up, Norway vs Holland in the bronze final of the team pursuit..
 
zapata said:
Well, that was a splendid race! Good job by kowalchyk, she looked pretty spent for a while, and I really thought Bjørgen would win it until the last meters.

Coming up, Norway vs Holland in the bronze final of the team pursuit..

Ahhhh.... It might not take away the shame of losing to a couple of American teenagers, but it's always nice to beat the Norwegians at speed skating :p

Keep your Oscar Mathiesen, Ivan Ballangrud, Hjamar Andersen, Knut Johanessen and Johann Olav Koss, we're the best now, B!tches!

Shame that both the Norwegians and Dutch beat the North American times. We are the best two countries, but I guess both the Euro powerhouses took the semis yesterday far too easy.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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yeah, for a moment i thought kovalchik didn't have it but she is one tough fighter. she beat bjørgen at her own game by out sprinting her. interesting to observe differences in the ladies physique and their skiing styles.

anyway glad my prediction of 1-2 turned out right. not that it i was saying anything others didn' see.

hmm medvedeva didn't even start. i wonder when did they withdrew her ?
 
Moondance said:
Ahhhh.... It might not take away the shame of losing to a couple of American teenagers, but it's always nice to beat the Norwegians at speed skating :p

Keep your Oscar Mathiesen, Ivan Ballangrud, Knut Johanessen and Johann Olav Koss, we're the best now, B!tches!

Shame that both the Norwegians and Dutch beat the North American times. We are the best two countries, but I guess both the Euro powerhouses took the semis yesterday far too easy.

Hehe! Apart from the "b*tches" part, I have to agree. How a dutch team with Kramer on it could lose out to Usa, I don't know.
 
zapata said:
Hehe! Apart from the "b*tches" part, I have to agree. How a dutch team with Kramer on it could lose out to Usa, I don't know.
Yeah, it is really sickening I know. I mean the same three guys who lost to the Americans yesterday skated 3.5 secs faster than they did yesterday and about 1.5 secs faster than the Canadians did for the gold. They probably saw Hedrick, Kuck and Hansen and thought they had it in the bag. Also Kramer skated something like 5 1/2 laps today, and I see no reason why he shouldn't have done so yesterday, when he rode about 4. Just because there are two others guys on the team doesn't mean they have to ride if there is a better option.
 
Have to say, the team pursuit-ing was extremely exciting. Some of the best skating TV wise I've ever seen. I doubt we've heard the last of the women's final yet, tho. If anything I thought the Japanese women were ahead.

Also the Canadian women end up skating the fastest time, if only for the 5th spot. Funny how in the end both the teams that were perceived as the strongest from the outset ended up skating the best, they just couldn't get their collective butts into the final.
 
I haven't been watching much team pursuit-skating before, but it's certainly a good event for tv. Could be longer, though? To me, personally, the heats are just finished to soon.. Why not 12 or 16 laps, instead of 8?
 
Mar 18, 2009
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zapata said:
Now to find out: which is the greatest nation on earth, cananda or usa?

Canada, Canada, Canada ... No, wait ... Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi! But I am looking forward to the hockey final tomorrow night!
 
zapata said:
I haven't been watching much team pursuit-skating before, but it's certainly a good event for tv. Could be longer, though? To me, personally, the heats are just finished to soon.. Why not 12 or 16 laps, instead of 8?

I think because it would rule out too many countries. I think the current distances (6 for women 8 for men) allow a lot of countries to be competitive. It still allows for 1500m men/women to be able to compete and actually do very well. If you were to increase the distance 50% or so it would just turn into a long-distance fest, which is not what the intention was.
 
Plus, it would probably be less suited to TV if it was much longer. Still, to me personally, I like the longer distances better, don't know why. Never could concentrate on the hundred meters running either.
 
Moondance said:
Same for me.... I know why though, it's because they were the distances where the Norwegians always won. :p

That might have something to do with it..but in general, the longer races appeal to me, and seem more glorious, wether it's Milano-San Remo, Vasaloppet, the 50 km cross country skiing, or 10 000 meters skating, the distance is what sets it apart and makes it special.
 
zapata said:
That might have something to do with it..but in general, the longer races appeal to me, and seem more glorious, wether it's Milano-San Remo, Vasaloppet, the 50 km cross country skiing, or 10 000 meters skating, the distance is what sets it apart and makes it special.
In speedskating the 500 m is just ridiculously short (the time differences are sometimes within the margin of error of the measuring system) but to me the 1500 meters is the absolute pinnacle of long track skating, and no less glorious than the 10 k.
 
I don't know..I remember thinking, when Ådne Søndrål was winning 1500s, that that's all well and good, but nevertheless, it's only 1500 meters. Still, it's a LOT better than the 500 meters, which pass by so quick that i hardly notice.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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I always thought that the country with the most Gold medals (then silver, then bronze) would win the overall ranking, applying a 'quality' ranking, instead of a quantity ranking, whereby the one wins with the most medals overall?

According to NBC this is the current ranking:

1) United States 9 14 13 36
2) Germany 10 12 7 29
3) Canada 13 7 5 25

According to dutch sources:

1 CAN 13 7 5 25
2 DUI 10 12 7 29
3 USA 9 14 13 36

Are there any 'rules' to declare a country the (un)official overall winner?