I know as a dude I should never be caught watching figure skating but am I bad for wishing harm on Scott Hamilton? Did that guy make a deal with the devil to host every single event ever? Anyone know why the women have to start luge from a lower position than the men? It seems to me they should be just as capable of riding the luge down the hill.
Didn't expect the US women to lose to Japan in curling, especially after leading early on. I know they're not one of the strongest contenders, but that was one they should have won. The Olympics imspired me to attempt some moguls when I went skiing today. I hadn't done moguls since I broke my wrist on them 8 years ago. Managed to stay upright, but it didn't go well. I also forgot how hard it is on the knees.
No kidding. He just annoys the crap out of me. And to every NBC commentator, ESPECIALLY Scott Hamilton: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-8dytUtjlQ&rel=0[/yt]
Though I am both glad and not surprised that Canada won their first Men's hockey game, I'd be lying if I said it didn't irk me a little that Iginla got a hatrick! Turn the taps on at home, man!
Tonight is men's snowboard halfpipe, by far my favourite sport in the Olympics. I hope the organisers manage to get the halfpipe in decent condition. It's unfortunate that the weather doesn't seems to like the Olympics.
So yesterday I was watching the US/Japan Curling Match. It was more for background noise, but it was a pretty good match. Only problem is I have no idea how Curling works, and if Firehawk is reading, where are the Johnson sisters. I guess it's like Shuffleboard on Ice, but I'm confused about the scoring and the guards (I think Ends are like innings) and where the circle and blue and green represent. I might watch some more, but I think I need to read up on it, unless someone who is very familiar with it, wants to explain it and why whenever you close your eyes and hear the girls, it sounds like legal porn.
Anyone watch the Canada/Norway men's hockey game last night? I was a little worried after the first period but they started to pull it together in the 2nd.
Does anyone know why the Korean speedskaters have taken to kicking at the line? I find it annoying enough when skaters stick out their toe at the end, but I can understand why they do it. But this little kick is really bugging me, especially when it slows things down when they have to repair the ice surface? WTF?
This is the most unusual Winter Olympics I've seen to date. The Russians are not supposed to win cross country sprints. The Americans are not supposed to win alpine skiing events. The South Koreans are not supposed to win long track speedskating events. The Chinese are not supposed to win figure skating events.
So far the golds won have come from the newer, North American sports added. Not much payoff has come from speed skating (yet), for example.
I don't know how the US system works, but in Canada our curling teams are selected in national qualification tournaments. If it's the same thing, they likely just didn't qualify. Anyway, I'll try to explain the sport a little. First, the scoring, as aided by some MS Paint Diagrams of Science (TM). In essence, whoever has rocks closest to the centre (the button) of the rings (the house) scores, but only one team may score at a time, and only the rocks which are closer than ANY of the other team's rocks in the house. So, to illustrate, this is the house and the names of the rings: The colours\names are honestly fairly meaningless, it's really just for reference, with the names coming from the radius of the ring. And, for example, if you hear a commentator talking about someone needing to get "full four" on a shot, that simply means they need the rock entirely within the four-foot when it comes to a stop. Now, for the scoring itself... Okay, so in this example, yellow would score two. Why? Because the two yellow rocks in the four-foot are the closest to the centre. However, the rock touching the 12-foot would NOT score because there is a red rock closer to the centre than it. To give a more extreme example, in this case red would score one, in spite of all the yellow rocks in the house. Only the rocks of one team that are closest to the centre score. Make sense? Now, as for guards, they're basically to prevent a takeout (throwing the rock fast to remove an opponents rock from the house). The reason why they work is that when a rock is thrown quickly (or to use the curling term, thrown with a heavy weight) it will curl very little by the time it reaches the house. In comparison, a draw into the rings usually curls around 4 or 5 feet in between when it is released and when it stops in the house. So, a guard will basically get in the way of a takeout, and make it very difficult to remove a rock from the house. As for the yelling, it's all about the sweeping. Sweeping a rock does two important things: it makes it go farther, and it makes it curl less. So here are some of the things you might hear (the English-speaking) curlers yell: "Clean" or "Clean only:" This just means to sweep lightly to remove any debris that might be on the ice, preventing a "pick," where the rock veers off course due to something on the ice. "Weight only:" This is the skip or vice instructing the sweepers to only sweep if the rock does not have enough weight. "Yes for line" or "Line's good:" You'll often hear people yelling about the "line," which essentially means whether or not the rock is on the course it needs to be in order to complete the shot. Since it's very difficult for the sweepers to judge the line of a rock, it's up to the curlers at the end of the ice to keep track of these things. "Yes hard!," "Hurray hard!," etc: Any time you hear something along these lines, it just means to sweep all-out until the rock gets where it needs to go. Okay, that's a pretty quick primer on the sport. If you've got any other questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer 'em.
So Vonn nabs the gold in women's downhill even while not skiing at her best. Just an incredible performance.
[Congrats to St-Gelais getting the silver in speedskating.] OMG! Shaun White is just a freak of nature!