Winter Olympics 2010, Vancouver

[BroDeal]

New complaint. I may have missed the good footage, but I caught a bit of the ski jumping and the camera work was about as useful as an extra wart on a toad's butt. This should be an awesome event to watch with skiers hurtling through the air for long distances. The camera work makes it impossible to see what is going on. The whole screen is filled with the athlete. Why cannot they pull back and show what is going on?

 

[auscyclefan94]

Typical Aussie, crowing before it's all over. Didn't you lot make this mistake in Beijing? We may have a gold coming up in a couple hours (but she'll probably blow it in true British style).

However, beating the British Winter Olympic team is like beating the American rugby team as an achievement.

You guys have a far larger population than us... The British live much close to the fascilities, venues and proper alpine snow areas than australia!

 

[BroDeal]

You guys have a far larger population than us... The British live much close to the fascilities, venues and proper alpine snow areas than australia!

Crikey runnings. The Australian bobsled team has to practice while balanced on a fence...in 45C heat...with no snow...no sleigh...and no ganja. It's tough.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Crikey runnings. The Australian bobsled team has to practice while balanced on a fence...in 45C heat...with no snow...no sleigh...and no ganja. It's tough.

What do you do for a living? You are a funny one! possible career path for you could being a comedian

 

[ak-zaaf]

Great. The 1500 meters speed skating for men stats at 01.15 here. =/
The womens 1000m lasted until about 03.30.

Can't they adjust the start times if there is just 1 country actually interested in an event?

 

[zapata]

New complaint. I may have missed the good footage, but I caught a bit of the ski jumping and the camera work was about as useful as an extra wart on a toad's butt. This should be an awesome event to watch with skiers hurtling through the air for long distances. The camera work makes it impossible to see what is going on. The whole screen is filled with the athlete. Why cannot they pull back and show what is going on?

Yes, that was a bit ridiculous. According to the norwegian commentators, the canadian producers have 28 different cameras positioned around the hill, and doesn't want any of them to go to waste. That was just the qualifying, though, hopefully they'll have sorted it out and won't be experimenting with "interesting" camera angles in the actual competition today.

 

[Moondance]

Great. The 1500 meters speed skating for men stats at 01.15 here. =/
The womens 1000m lasted until about 03.30.

Can't they adjust the start times if there is just 1 country actually interested in an event?

America is 'interested' in Shani Davis apparantly, and NBC wants to have it in prime-time, or resonably close to it, and he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Regardless, noone in the US will ever care about long-track speed skating, which is a shame, since the US has consistently been one of the strongest speed skating nations in the world, and usually wins quite a bit.

 

[Ferminal]

America is 'interested' in Shani Davis apparantly, and NBC wants to have it in prime-time, or resonably close to it, and he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Regardless, noone in the US will ever care about long-track speed skating, which is a shame, since the US has consistently been one of the strongest speed skating nations in the world, and usually wins quite a bit.

The US dictates event times... Happened in Beijing, no surprises that it's happening in Vancouver.

 

[Moondance]

The US dictates event times... Happened in Beijing, no surprises that it's happening in Vancouver.

Of course, it's nothing new, and NBC pays far more than any other broadcaster, so it perfectly acceptable. It's just a little annoying that they're forcing about 30% or more of all people in the Netherlands (because that's what type of ratings Olympic speed skating gets over here) to stay up till 4 in the morning, so that the approximately 0.1% of the American public who'll be watching get to see it at 6pm instead of 2pm. Annoying is all.

 

[BroDeal]

Of course, it's nothing new, and NBC pays far more than any other broadcaster, so it perfectly acceptable. It's just a little annoying that they're forcing about 30% or more of all people in the Netherlands (because that's what type of ratings Olympic speed skating gets over here) to stay up till 4 in the morning, so that the approximately 0.1% of the American public who'll be watching get to see it at 6pm instead of 2pm. Annoying is all.

It is worse than that. NBC is barely showing any live coverage. On the west coast everything in primetime is tape delayed for hours. Other time zones get four minutes of one sport, which may be live, three minutes of commercials, three minutes of another sport that is tape delayed, three minutes of commercials, then two minutes of an announcer with dyed hair. It would really make no difference to NBC what time the speed skating events were scheduled.

NBC has about a gazillion cable channels, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo, Syfy, Universal Sports, and probably more that I am missing; but the only sports that I have seen scheduled live for the daytime are curling and hockey. Marathons of reruns of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit or Monk are too important to bump for two weeks. How bloody hard is it to use a couple of their cable channels for live coverage and use the primetime NBC show for a condensed highlight program? Most people will stick to the highlight program for most of their viewing anyway; the majority does not really want to watch something like thirty ski jumping runs or a full biathlon. At least during the summer Olympics I got a laugh by watching the entire stupidity of the 50K walk.

 

[cartman]

Great. The 1500 meters speed skating for men stats at 01.15 here. =/
The womens 1000m lasted until about 03.30.

Can't they adjust the start times if there is just 1 country actually interested in an event?

That's odd, if you're the only interested country you should probably have more medals in the discipline than a nation with 1/3 the inhabitants of The Netherlands

Nah, joking aside, from my perspective it's quite good, because it allows me to see the biathlon/XC/Ski Jumping/Nordic Combined first, then I get to watch the speed skating out into the night. They could of course send it simultaneously, but then I'd miss the speed skating I'm afraid part of the problem is that most of the other sports I mentioned are more popular than speed skating throughout Europe and ends up getting the best time slots for our timezone, shame really, would be awesome if more nations in Europe shared your enthusiasm for the sport.

 

[Moondance]

That's odd, if you're the only interested country you should probably have more medals in the discipline than a nation with 1/3 the inhabitants of The Netherlands

Nah, joking aside, from my perspective it's quite good, because it allows me to see the biathlon/XC/Ski Jumping/Nordic Combined first, then I get to watch the speed skating out into the night. They could of course send it simultaneously, but then I'd miss the speed skating I'm afraid part of the problem is that most of the other sports I mentioned are more popular than speed skating throughout Europe and ends up getting the best time slots for our timezone, shame really, would be awesome if more nations in Europe shared your enthusiasm for the sport.

I get that this is meant as a joke but Me = confused

Netherlands has 3 medals, and only country which has more is South Korea which has 4; and South Korea is three times the size of the Netherlands, not the other way around.

 

[cartman]

I get that this is meant as a joke but Me = confused

Netherlands has 3 medals, and only country which has more is South Korea which has 4; and South Korea is three times the size of the Netherlands, not the other way around.

I was referring to the all time olympic speed skating medals, but I see what I wrote was confusing, my apologies. You're probably going to pass us (Norway) this olympic anyway

 

[Moondance]

I was referring to the all time olympic speed skating medals, but I see what I wrote was confusing, my apologies. You're probably going to pass us (Norway) this olympic anyway

Okay, I see it now.

Personally I think you'll hold on, we need 4 more medals to tie you guys, and that's probably what we'll get. That assumes of course that Norway wont win anything, and you guys have a pretty good shot at getting something in the men's team pursuit, and Bøkko has at least an outside chance at getting a medal in the 1500m and 10k.

 

[zapata]

Bøkko has a good chance of getting a medal or two, but no gold, unfortunately. That Kramer is really an outstanding athlete, though.

 

[cartman]

Agree on mostly everything, except the ski jumping. My favourite, since I was five years old. Queen of sports. Although the "normal" hill is an anachronism, far too small for 2010 and rarely used outside of the olympics, and should be dropped in favour of ski flying, minimum K-185 meters.

(Also, it just doesn't look as good anymore, with the V-style..this makes me sound a thousand years old, but if there's a clip of thoralf engan on youtube, you should watch it.)

I like that the normal hills used in the olympics and World Championships are around 100m, it's more than enough larger hills to go around during the season. I would have thought you as a traditionalist would like shorter jumps that puts more emphasis on what happens at the edge of the jump.

There's only 5 ski flying facilities in the world, I think it would be unreasonable to require all nations looking to arrange the winter olympics to go to the trouble of finding a suitable location for a K-185 or bigger jump.

 

[zapata]

I like that the normal hills used in the olympics and World Championships are around 100m, it's more than enough larger hills to go around during the season. I would have thought you as a traditionalist would like shorter jumps that puts more emphasis on what happens at the edge of the jump.

There's only 5 ski flying facilities in the world, I think it would be unreasonable to require all nations looking to arrange the winter olympics to go to the trouble of finding a suitable location for a K-185 or bigger jump.

Yes, in principle I agree. But when we're used to seeing long jumps all season, it's just anticlimactic to see jumps of 90 meters in the olympics. But no matter; the large hill is on now! Fingers crossed for evensen.

 

[BroDeal]

I have now decided that curling is not bad when compared to any judged event. At least there are objective standards for winning, and the strategy makes it interesting. I still would not go so far as to call it a sport...

One thing I don't get, though. Why are the curlers all so young? It seems like the best curlers would be forty years old and have been curling for twenty years. It is not like it requires any athleticism.

 

[Bala Verde]

I have now decided that curling is not bad when compared to any judged event. At least there are objective standards for winning, and the strategy makes it interesting. I still would not go so far as to call it a sport...

One thing I don't get, though. Why are the curlers all so young? It seems like the best curlers would be forty years old and have been curling for twenty years. It is not like it requires any athleticism.

Ever watched the German men's team... they look like these guys:

 

[BroDeal]

Ever watched the German men's team... they look like these guys:

Nope. I have only seen the U.S., Sweden, and Japan. They all seem like they are about twenty-four. Are those young curling nations?

 

[zapata]

Simon Amman! For the most part, Large Hill was pretty disappointing (not only for norwegians), but no doubt the best man won.

 

[Moondance]

If you want to talk about someone who can peak at the right moments, Simon Ammann.... Damn. 4 finals jumps, and 4 times he had the highest score.... Clutchl. Twice he's done the double now, that's so sick.

 

[zapata]

Amman is incredible. The austrians wants him disqualified for supposedly wearing illegal bindings..I think the best man won.

is that the word, bindings? The bit that connects the shoes to the skis.

 

[zapata]

In the cross country 30 km bauer and cologna doing their utmost to drop northug, going full speed from the start. If they don't drop him soon, I think it will backfire.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Amman, Claudio Chiappucci called, he wants his sunglasses back...