Vancouver Olympics Discussion

[farmkid]

-Snowboard halfpipe - Kinda anti-climatic after what White pulled last night. Good for Torah (The Australian) and nice that the US did get 2 and 3. Kinda sucks for Bleiler though.

As I watched the women's halfpipe, I couldn't help but compare it to the men's the night before, and yeah, it just wasn't as impressive after watching the men go so much higher and do so much more. They really should have done the women's first.

However, I was rather interested in the women's halfpipe for another reason. It's the first time that I can remember that I was cheering for a non-American athlete over the Americans. It turns out that Torah Bright is my wife's friend's brother's sister-in-law. Did you follow that? Okay, my wife's good friend's brother is married to Torah Bright's sister. I know, it's a somewhat tenuous connection, but hey, we know someone in common. And, from what I've heard and read about her, she's a great person who everyone can feel good about cheering on.

 

[Roger Wilco]

It's the first time that I can remember that I was cheering for a non-American athlete over the Americans. .

That's sad.

 

[McCoy]

Actually, Canadians do it fairly often. We love gutsy underdogs, no matter what country they're from. We've even cheered for the odd American once in a while.

 

[farmkid]

It's the first time that I can remember that I was cheering for a non-American athlete over the Americans. .

That's sad.

Why? If there are 10 athletes to choose from and I know next to nothing about any of them other than their nationality (which is normally the case in the Olympics), why not choose the one with which I share something? Now, if there's something compelling about another athlete, and I know about it, that changes things; but that's rarely the case.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Actually, Canadians do it fairly often. We love gutsy underdogs, no matter what country they're from. We've even cheered for the odd American once in a while.

I think you misunderstood me. I meant it's sad that nationality is so important for him.

Why? If there are 10 athletes to choose from and I know next to nothing about any of them other than their nationality (which is normally the case in the Olympics), why not choose the one with which I share something? Now, if there's something compelling about another athlete, and I know about it, that changes things; but that's rarely the case.

I don't usually watch sports I know nothing about, but when I do the athletes' passport is not the first thing I look at in regards to who I'm rooting for.

 

[Arrqh]

There's some great pictures up today on The Big Picture from over the past week.

 

[farmkid]

Actually, Canadians do it fairly often. We love gutsy underdogs, no matter what country they're from. We've even cheered for the odd American once in a while.

I think you misunderstood me. I meant it's sad that nationality is so important for him.

Why? If there are 10 athletes to choose from and I know next to nothing about any of them other than their nationality (which is normally the case in the Olympics), why not choose the one with which I share something? Now, if there's something compelling about another athlete, and I know about it, that changes things; but that's rarely the case.

I don't usually watch sports I know nothing about, but when I do the athletes' passport is not the first thing I look at in regards to who I'm rooting for.

I didn't say nationality trumped everything else, which is what you seem to have understood. I meant that if all I know about an athlete is their nationality, their hair color, how tall they are compared to the others, and the color of their uniform, and maybe how long they've been in the sport if the announcer mentions it, I'm going to go with nationality. Unless it's a sport that I follow, which is none of them, that's all I know about most competitors. How do you choose who to cheer for?

 

[Roger Wilco]

That depends, there many different factors.
In regards to the Winter Olympics: Either I know something about an athlete (heard an interview or so) and that makes me like (Björn Ferry, Shani Davis) or dislike him/her (for example, I'm rooting against the entire Austrian alpine skiing team, because they are all arrogant jerks, without exception), or it's an athlete from an underdog-country in that sport or an old champion in one of his last races (Bjørndalen or Malysz for example) or someone who dominated so much I want someone else to win (Shaun White).
Or something that develops during the competition, like someone crashes and fights his way back or someone makes an unfair move (the Koreans' crashing in the Short Track and Ohno winning a medal was hilarious for me for example) .
Also, in general I'm rooting against German and Swiss athletes, because the media in those countries pisses me off when they are too successful in sports.
Often I don't root for anyone in particular but just hope for an exciting competition.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm always a sucker for the underdog. If there looks like there is an upset brewing, than I'm going to be rooting for the upset. It was that way last night in the Canada Hockey game. If the Swiss had won, I think that might have sent a bombshell throughout Vancouver/Whistler. It also provides a great story, which is what these olympics need more of.

 

[farmkid]

That depends, there many different factors.
In regards to the Winter Olympics: Either I know something about an athlete (heard an interview or so) and that makes me like (Björn Ferry, Shani Davis) or dislike him/her (for example, I'm rooting against the entire Austrian alpine skiing team, because they are all arrogant jerks, without exception), or it's an athlete from an underdog-country in that sport or an old champion in one of his last races (Bjørndalen or Malysz for example) or someone who dominated so much I want someone else to win (Shaun White).
Or something that develops during the competition, like someone crashes and fights his way back or someone makes an unfair move (the Koreans' crashing in the Short Track and Ohno winning a medal was hilarious for me for example) .
Also, in general I'm rooting against German and Swiss athletes, because the media in those countries pisses me off when they are too successful in sports.
Often I don't root for anyone in particular but just hope for an exciting competition.

All of that makes sense, and if I know something like that about a particular competition, I'll do something similar. However, in most cases I don't know any of that unless the announcer says it as the competition is going on. I don't follow these sports at all, so all I usually know about the athletes or teams is what the announcers say during the competition. The exceptions are the few American athletes who get a mention or a story in the media leading up to the Olympics, or in the case of women's snowboarding, the fact that Torah Bright and I know someone in common and I know a little about her.

 

[Canadave]

Thought some people might want to read this. Elvis Stojko, a two-time silver medalist in men's figure skating for Canada, absolutely rips into the decision to give Lysacek the gold.

Because of [the scoring], the sport took a step backward. Brian Boitano did the same thing, technically, in 1988. There are junior skaters who can skate that same program [as Lysacek].


And the judges’ scoring probably killed figure skating because kids now are going to see this and say, “Oh, I don’t need a quad. I can just do great footwork for presentation marks and do a couple of nice spins and make it to Olympic champion.” With that type of scoring, you don’t have to risk it. You can play it safe and win gold.


In what other sports do you have to hold back in order to win?


The International Skating Union has taken the risk out of figure skating and it makes me sick.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^^ On the flip side, should it be the other way around, landing one quad automatically outweighs any other performance factor? Because watching them last night outside of that it seemed to me Lycasek's program was better in every other facet.

 

[tomalak301]

Spoiler: Men's Super G Final

Is anyone ready to forgive Bode Miller yet, especially after the antics of 4 years ago. While he hasn't won gold, I do really like the fact that he seems to be taking this Olympics a lot more seriously, and maybe it's just because the pressure is off. It's still terrific to see someone who was so disappointing and arrogant in Torino make a turnaround in Vancouver to the point of being respected.

 

[Malleus]

A shame Canada's out of the medals for women's skeleton.

 

[firehawk12]

I love how the US has started the "Rent the podium" program.

 

[Trippy]

A shame Canada's out of the medals for women's skeleton.

Congrats to Britain though

 

[Malleus]

I hope the British media will now stop whining.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

 

[Malleus]

Since that's probably the only medal the UK will get in these Olympics.

 

[firehawk12]

Perhaps my favourite Olympic story ever:

That's Your Sister? Four of the ice-dancing pairs competing in Vancouver are siblings—and this year, there's a compulsory tango routine. How they get around the awkwardness.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703315004575073322907511564.html