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Winter Olympics 2006

the snowboarding event i am most looking forward to is Cross.
halfpipe is impressive, but it becomes repetitive (maybe the scoring system is part of the issue: I am not a big fan of judge-based sports in general).

cross is exciting and absolutely captures the essence of skiing/snowboarding.
I think with time it will become one of the main events of the winter olympics
 
macartistkel said:
Now I am quite aware he is jail bait...
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Speaking of jail, his parents are probably locked up right now, since he said in his interview that they "call in sick" while helping him with his training. Maybe he'll get a reward for turning in those scofflaw parents of his. :rolleyes:
 
Doctor Q said:
Speaking of jail, his parents are probably locked up right now, since he said in his interview that they "call in sick" while helping him with his training. Maybe he'll get a reward for turning in those scofflaw parents of his. :rolleyes:
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That's funny!! I still haven't seen the interview with him at the very end of the night...I have it recorded though (after the Michelle Kwan obituary I thought everything was over for the night :eek: )...and the parents knew what they were doing by being there for Shaun no matter what because look at where he is at already at 19, so I don't think they care he ratted them out! ;)
 
Don't panic said:
the snowboarding event i am most looking forward to is Cross.
halfpipe is impressive, but it becomes repetitive (maybe the scoring system is part of the issue: I am not a big fan of judge-based sports in general).

cross is exciting and absolutely captures the essence of skiing/snowboarding.
I think with time it will become one of the main events of the winter olympics
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Yes, I agree it is exciting to watch but still nothing gets me more pumped up than the halfpipe...I will be looking forward to watching the mens and womens cross races at the end of the week though!!! :)
 
I know I am wearing this thread out and I will probably have an avatar by the time the Olympics are over, but I need to make some comments on the women's half pipe after actually seeing it tonight!

Thoughts on the USA girls, I love Hannah Teter and she did do an awesome two runs, but I was not feeling her this time in the competition--maybe its because I knew she was really hurt and they said she had not even got to practice that week. I personally thought Gretchen did a much better job than her! Most of my props go to Kelly Clark--she kicked ass even though she didn't even place and she was the only one that was going as HIGH in the air as some of the men do--no joke, she was the most EXCITING to watch by far! Damn she has raised the bar for womens half pipe for sure! Also Elena Hight (only 16) was pretty damn good I must say--shocked me!!

Also Australian Torah Bright was very impressive too....she is someone to watch for sure because she is so willing to take risks!! That is cool!! :)

Norway chick Kjersti (bronze winner) was awesome too...I still think Kelly Clark's potential is more than any of the girls there! My fav Gretchen has got more style and form though! JMO
 
macartistkel said:
I know I am wearing this thread out and I will probably have an avatar by the time the Olympics are over, but I need to make some comments on the women's half pipe after actually seeing it tonight!

Thoughts on the USA girls, I love Hannah Teter and she did do an awesome two runs, but I was not feeling her this time in the competition--maybe its because I knew she was really hurt and they said she had not even got to practice that week. I personally thought Gretchen did a much better job than her! Most of my props go to Kelly Clark--she kicked ass even though she didn't even place and she was the only one that was going as HIGH in the air as some of the men do--no joke, she was the most EXCITING to watch by far! Damn she has raised the bar for womens half pipe for sure! Also Elena Hight (only 16) was pretty damn good I must say--shocked me!!

Also Australian Torah Bright was very impressive too....she is someone to watch for sure because she is so willing to take risks!! That is cool!! :)

Norway chick Kjersti (bronze winner) was awesome too...I still think Kelly Clark's potential is more than any of the girls there! My fav Gretchen has got more style and form though! JMO
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Torah Bright coming 5th was our best ever result in the history of women's snowboarding. Good on her!!!

Where'd my post go that just said "bugger"? It's just disappeared.
 
Not only do the women look as powerful as the men on those great snowboarding performances, they are so bundled up you can't tell which they are anyway! Are the baggy suits just part of the style, or are they made that way for protective or aerodynamic reasons too?

Chundles said:
Where'd my post go?
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One-word posts are almost always deleted by the moderators, in keeping with forum rules.
 
Chundles said:
Torah Bright coming 5th was our best ever result in the history of women's snowboarding. Good on her!!!
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Agreed it is a great achievement for Australia. Most of all she represented and showed the Aussie spirit well.
 
Doctor Q said:
Not only do the women look as powerful as the men on those great snowboarding performances, they are so bundled up you can't tell which they are anyway! Are the baggy suits just part of the style, or are they made that way for protective or aerodynamic reasons too?
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Snowboard pants have to be very comfortable and allow for movement--especially when doing the tricks like the pros!! :) My Burton pants are baggy and they are flare leg of course because snowboarding boots are pretty big and the pants need to cover them! I think the style is very cool on the men and the women! :)
 
DeSnousa said:
Agreed it is a great achievement for Australia. Most of all she represented and showed the Aussie spirit well.
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Yeah I was quite impressed with a few of Torah's tricks....I forgot what they called the one where she twists into it starting backwards and no other girl could do it except for her! I am definitely a fan of hers now and I think she showed a lot of confidence for being so young! :)
 
Doctor Q said:
One-word posts are almost always deleted by the moderators, in keeping with forum rules.
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...and knowing is half the battle.

Thanks Q, cleared it right up. Was hoping some sooky lala didn't get offended.

I hope out female aerial skier's knees hold up, I'd like to see us go 1,2,3. It's possible but unlikely. We're a definite medal chance in this one, gold is within our grasp.
 
Margins for error

Since I'm sitting off work, nursing a cold, I'm watching quite a lot of the Olympics.

One thing that has struck me is how small a margin of error there is in most sports. In speed skating, there are pile-ups when one person loses balance; in the luge, a single misjudgement and you're out; in slalom, you go either side of a gate and you're out. This all seems harsh but fair...

So how come in the ice-dancing, a team can crash out, get treatment, start again (admittedly a wonderful routine) and win a medal? Shouldn't their initial major mistake count against them?
 
Applespider said:
So how come in the ice-dancing, a team can crash out, get treatment, start again (admittedly a wonderful routine) and win a medal? Shouldn't their initial major mistake count against them?
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The Chinese woman took a real nasty spill, but the announcers mentioned that there was the mandatory reduction in their overall score for her fall. The judging in that sport is very subjective and they still managed to win silver despite the penalty.
 
Applespider said:
One thing that has struck me is how small a margin of error there is in most sports. In speed skating, there are pile-ups when one person loses balance; in the luge, a single misjudgement and you're out; in slalom, you go either side of a gate and you're out. This all seems harsh but fair...
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The other day in cross-country skiing (Men's 30km) and Eugeni Dementiev won the gold with a time of 1 hour, 17 minutes, 0.8 seconds. The next ten competitors were all within 10 seconds of his winning time. The silver and bronze medalists were less than one second behind over a total time of well over an hour. Can you imagine that? A dozen guys are thinking, "Damn, if I hadn't coasted over that one part, I would have won!" That's so amazingly close that it seems like it would haunt you forever.
 
Deepdale said:
The judging in that sport is very subjective and they still managed to win silver despite the penalty.
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I know that it's subjective but I did feel that this 'fall' and then nearly 5 minutes before they started again was wrong. Sure, if they'd carried on the routine immediately, a single penalty might have been appropriate. I just felt that this was a second chance that most other sports don't get.
 
Applespider said:
Sure, if they'd carried on the routine immediately, a single penalty might have been appropriate. I just felt that this was a second chance that most other sports don't get.
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We can pretty much rest assured that stated rules and time alloted for an injury before deciding whether an interrupted routine can be resumed were complied with otherwise there would have been timely protests lodged with officials. All things considered, it was a better ending than when the corrupt French woman judge tainted the spectacular performance of Canadian couple David Pelletier and Jamie Sale in Salt Lake City in 2002.
 
eva01 said:
Bode Miller disqualified in one event

wooo he is 0-2 now. Apparently if he isn't drunk he sucks at skiing o_O.

:p
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and it took the international TV guys around 20 minutes longer to show his error
was quite fun to see the guys from the austrian ORF showing it the US ski team press speaker (who is an austrian as well) since he was already off preparing for the 2nd run
 
eva01 said:
Bode Miller disqualified in one event

wooo he is 0-2 now. Apparently if he isn't drunk he sucks at skiing o_O.

:p
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That is funny eva....I thought it was hilarious the other night when one of the nbc commentators said someone saw Bode at the bar the night before the downhill race.....and then the other guy said "that is just Bode being Bode"! ;)
 
Deepdale said:
We can pretty much rest assured that stated rules and time alloted for an injury before deciding whether an interrupted routine can be resumed were complied with otherwise there would have been timely protests lodged with officials.
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True although the BBC are reporting some controversy since the rules say 2 minutes and they were stopped for 4 minutes. Apparently there's a loophole in the rules to do with when the referee announces the delay...

Whatever... it was just an idle observation that there's so little margin in most Olympic sports but here you can take a major tumble and still get a medal.
 
Applespider said:
True although the BBC are reporting some controversy since the rules say 2 minutes and they were stopped for 4 minutes. Apparently there's a loophole in the rules to do with when the referee announces the delay...

Whatever... it was just an idle observation that there's so little margin in most Olympic sports but here you can take a major tumble and still get a medal.
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I think they should just re-calibrate the new scoring system and increase the penalty for falls, so they have more of an 'impact' (;)). or add a bonus for a 'clean' programme
 
Ok this 6 hour delay is killing the coverage for me plus the fact that NBC is delaying it 12 hours after the event happens to show it in prime time. Why not show more live coverage at say 9 am rather then hold everything till 11 at night when everyone goes to bed.
 
If the figure skating rules permit a pause and restart, that's fine, and it makes sense that failing to do the quad throw that nobody else even attempted wouldn't count many points against them, although I'd think they'd miss the points they would have gotten for the triple throw they might have otherwise completed.

I really cringed when Zhang Dan went out to continue the program with her partner, bleeding knees and all. Showing determination (Olympic spirit) is great, but skating injured could do even more harm if the injury was serious. I also wondered if thinking only of "the good of the team" has been part of her training, and her health wouldn't be the #1 concern. In hindsight, we know she made it through.

While watching the Chinese pair deal with this, I remembered the story of Shun Fujimoto, the Japanese gymnast who stuck a landing on a broken leg. They show that replay now and then and it is hard to watch. And more recently there was the Kerri Strug story.

Numerologists may note that the Fujimoto, Strug, and Zhang stories were all from Olympic years ending in a 6, and that yesterday was the 13th. :eek:
 
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