Winter Olympics 2010

[kitaman27]

Well not off to the best of starts. R.I.P. Nodar Kumaritashvili.

Just before the opening ceremony they had this really awful commercial showing random Olympic events and accidents that have occurred, including a luge crash. Then someone says something along the lines of "sometimes these speeds are a risk you've got to take to win". Not very good timing

Watched most of the opening ceremony. I'm not really an artsy person so I got sort of bored at some parts, but I guess it was alright. Awful nice of zombie Michael Jackson to make a guest appearance for the We Are The World remake

The parade of nations was really the only part I watched for. Always nice to see countries you've never heard of. It was sort of weird that the NHL didn't start its break earlier so the athletes could attend the ceremony. I felt bad for the Inuit people who had to dance for sixty minutes straight. I found it funny to hear that the continent of South America has never won a medal in the winter Olympics. It was disappointing to hear Jamaica no longer has a bobsled team. What an outrage. Nice job with the cauldrons malfunction. It's not like its the most important part or anything

I can tell already that I'm going to get sick about hearing about Shaun White. Looks like he gets to be the winter version of Phelps. It was amusing listening to the announcers talk about a "shift in Canadian attitude" because they might actually want to win and how Harper had to go in front of Parliament to beg Canadians to cheer. Speaking of cheers, does Pepsi really expect you guys to be shouting "Eh! O Canada Go!"? Those commercials are annoying

Looking at the event lists, a lot of the events seem pretty painful to watch. Lets just hope they keep the figure skating coverage to a minimum. Just curious, what kind of thrill do people get out of curling. I swear its on our Canadian channels 24/7.

Can't have a Olympic thread without a mention of hockey. I'm not exactly sure how the ranking system works in the group standings, but earning a top four seed with Canada in the group seems unlikely. I guess it will come down to the U.S., Czech Republic and Finland for the final seed, assuming no major upsets. I don't really know much about Norway, but their roster didn't seem all that impressive. Switzerland had a few upsets in Turin so I guess they can't be overlooked. Miller is used to having to carry a team, but the last month he has been pretty shaky. Hopefully he can pull it together and return to his former form. I can't imagine the pressure on the Canadian team to win gold. Not winning would be a disaster, yet it is certainly possible considering the talent Russia has.

[tmanimax]

Curling is the best sport in the Olympics! Someone plays oversized shuffleboard, hollers at his teammates, and they sweep like mad. It is so odd that I have to watch it when it's on.

[Sauron]

Did the American feed play Wayne Gretzkys magical mystery tour in the back of a pick up truck through the streets of Vancouver? XD

[aXa]

i swear that shaun white looks a lil too much like carrot top for my liking. i mean, if carrot top had any talent. which i can only barely admit that shaun white does. but he was good in that "shaun of the dead movie."

[kitaman27]

Did the American feed play Wayne Gretzkys magical mystery tour in the back of a pick up truck through the streets of Vancouver? XD

Heh ya, he made the whole indoor torch ceremony slightly less embarrassing.

So NBC has struck again! Apparently they have decided not to air the U.S. vs Canada hockey game. "Instead, the Peacock will bring fans an exhilarating night of ice dancing, women's speedskating, men's freestyle skiing and men's giant slalom.

Apparently their decision is based upon the fact that more women watch the Olympics than men. To watch it you have to have MSNBC, which of course we don't get

On top of that, they randomly aired the video of the Georgian luger slamming his body into a pole with no warning. I'm pretty sure people don't want to see a guy die on national television

[kitaman27]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGuhZvO1 ... re=related

[kitaman27]

Congrats to Canada

It was a pretty entertaining game and I think the US played a lot better than last time, even if they didn't come up with the win. Have to be pretty happy with a Silver considering most people didn't expect them to medal. Figures it had to be Crosby with the winner though. Glad Miller managed to earn MVP, he certainty deserved it.

(Yay for triple post)

[Energy Surge]

So what's better, most overall medals or most gold medals?

[kitaman27]

Most medals, unless you ask the Canadians :p

[Energy Surge]

What if a country has one more medal overall compared to the next best country, but that country has no gold medals at all, while the other's medals are all gold? Would that still be better?

[kitaman27]

Well that would mean the nation had come in 2nd/3rd 37 times while never winning. I suppose if they choke that badly then they deserve to lose

[Energy Surge]

I was just trying to determine whether Latvia with two silvers really should be considered better than Great Britain with one gold.

[Sauron]

I think you have to look at golds, second and third places aren't victories in events, they're just the best losers :/ (and yes, I've held that opinion long before these games)

Regardless, woot Crosby etc.

[Energy Surge]

I've always held that the Olympics is a competition between athletes, not countries. In my opinion comparing countries is a waste of time.

But if you are going to compare countries, you should include those other medals in the tally. If one country sweeps all three top three positions in a competition, shouldn't they get more credit for that rather than only one of their participants achieving the top result, but another country filling in the remaining two positions? For purposes of comparing countries silver and bronze certainly hold some value, though they shouldn't be weighted equally with gold.

[kitaman27]

Both NBC and CTV list the standings based on total medals. It is funny how badly Great Britain always seems to do

[Energy Surge]

Both NBC and CTV list the standings based on total medals. It is funny how badly Great Britain always seems to do

Also the Vancouver 2010 Website defaults to sorting by total medals. However, I still believe that Gold should carry a little more weight than Silver and Bronze.