Will you watch the 2010 Olympics?

[Keroin]

WTF?

Aren't these guys supposed to do their homework? Even just a little bit?

 

[Etoile]

...cancer?

 

[Keroin]

...cancer?

Michael J Fox = Famous actor with Parkinsons
Terry Fox = National hero who ran across the country to raise money for cancer awareness

NBC = FAIL

 

[Netzach]

WTF?

Aren't these guys supposed to do their homework? Even just a little bit?

Massive effing fail. I don't know jack about Canada and even I know who Terry Fox was.

 

[Etoile]

Michael J Fox = Famous actor with Parkinsons
Terry Fox = National hero who ran across the country to raise money for cancer awareness

NBC = FAIL

Ah okay, I hadn't heard of Terry Fox and thought maybe Michael J Fox had run across the country, but I knew it wouldn't have been for cancer. Weird.

 

[Keroin]

Massive effing fail. I don't know jack about Canada and even I know who Terry Fox was.

Yeah, if it was just a name mix up, I'd think 'Whatever', but that they showed both photos? That's just sloppy and insulting.

Ah okay, I hadn't heard of Terry Fox and thought maybe Michael J Fox had run across the country, but I knew it wouldn't have been for cancer. Weird.

To Canadians, it's like confusing Martin Luther King and Rodney King. I mean, come on. (Well, maybe not exactly the same but pretty darn close).

By the way, Terry Fox was just...amazing. We all mourned when he died. What a hero.

(This was before there was a walk/run/swim/coloured ribbon for every cause and disease, BTW)

 

[Quinn71]

I will watch. My country is hosting so I knda feel obligated..lol

 

[Homburg]

I grew up watching The Irish Rovers on TV. Were they big in your part of the world?

Not that I saw. Though I may have been out of country when they were on TV. I missed more than a few years of TV being overseas.

--

And grats to Canada on your first gold medal on home soil.

 

[ownedsubgal]

Olympic tragedy

as i'm sure most have heard, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died on the track friday just a few hours before the opening ceremony. at first there was much accusation pointed at Whistler Sliding Centre, as the track is believed to be the world's fastest and hence most prone to crashes. Kumaritashvili was traveling at a speed greater than 90mph when he crashed (bobsledders claim they can reach speeds of 96mph at the Whistler track).

however, everyone is aware that luging is a very dangerous, high risk sport. it requires immense control and concentration, not to mention experience. unfortunately the young man who died was quite inexperienced, and actually had expressed to others that he was afraid of the Whistler Track. some combination of nerves and inexperience caused him to make a fatal mistake navigating a turn, and sadly he lost his life. but the sport itself cannot be blamed. i was glad to hear that many of the athletes themselves have been speaking up and demanding the sport not be "babyproofed," completely sucked dry of all thrill and excitement. it is why many love it, after all.

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/luge/story/2010/02/12/spo-luge-georgian-alert.html

 

[ownedsubgal]

Kumaritashvili:

 

[Netzach]

I dunno. I think it's awful. I don't think someone stopping to say "hairpin turn...pole...hmmm" is babyproofing and I think it's disgusting that the committee is blaming a young man for his potentially preventable demise. Because it's not the track, but we redid the start just in case?

 

[JMohegan]

I dunno. I think it's awful. I don't think someone stopping to say "hairpin turn...pole...hmmm" is babyproofing and I think it's disgusting that the committee is blaming a young man for his potentially preventable demise. Because it's not the track, but we redid the start just in case?

Physics are physics. Today, tomorrow, and last Friday. The rules just don't change, and for people constructing luge courses, those rules really should not be a surprise.

My reaction to that video was: why the HELL wasn't there a plexiglas upper wall in place on that turn? People keep saying the course was safe for the top 10 or 15 athletes in the world, but they invited a lot more than 10 or 15 to the show. So it's time for the builders to step up, take responsibility for what happened, and quit blaming the athlete who died.

Having said that, I completely understand this point of view.

 

[Etoile]

Nobody is perfect, everybody has an off day now and then. The accident could've happened to anyone.

 

[Recidiva]

Luge for me is tragic and unfortunately I don't see the point to it. I'm sure it's there, but it's not something I see displayed. Nor do I actually want to see it any more than I want to develop a taste for foie gras. Too much suffering for too little payoff. I don't see the athleticism of it. Again, I'm sure it's there as other people appreciate it, but I fast forward through them in the events because I just don't get it. It goes right out of the realm of sports for me into the realms of daredevil/suicide/adrenaline junkie.

This strikes me every Olympics as well, all the suffering and pain and risk. I appreciate what the athletes go through, but there's a point I cross after which I lose my interest in seeing someone risk their health.

So far I've seen someone skiing with a torn ACL...another athlete who has had to have six ankle surgeries...there's a point at which I am disgusted and thinking someone's doing something wrong...not right.

Yes, everyone is capable of making their choices as an adult and taking risks as they so choose. But ideally I prefer to see healthy people doing extraordinary things. I'm not in it for the crash. I could watch NASCAR for that, I'm sure.

Why the hell the walls aren't built higher or why the hell there are exposed steel columns...yeah, that makes me wonder at what point sanity slips the leash when everyone involved in the sport and authorized to build a facility can't see that that...is a potential death trap.

Blaming the athlete who died, when the top rated luger in the world also crashed...is another inexplicable disconnect. It won't water down the insanity if there are some reasonable precautions taken to keep people physically on the track when something goes wrong. Not if. When.

 

[ownedsubgal]

I dunno. I think it's awful. I don't think someone stopping to say "hairpin turn...pole...hmmm" is babyproofing and I think it's disgusting that the committee is blaming a young man for his potentially preventable demise. Because it's not the track, but we redid the start just in case?

oh they have been just disgusting. they don't want to accept any responsibility, but they wanna cover their fannies just in case. sad, maddening, but a very predictable response.

my own viewpoint is that luging can be just as thrilling when the racers are pushing 85 as it is when they're going 10 mph faster. i do feel that a few quite simple changes could have been made to the Whistler track, such as the plexiglass wall JMohegan mentioned, which would increase safety while not going way over board as they are doing now, getting the athletes in an uproar (hence my "babyproofing" comment).

 

[YourCaptor]

Personally I think they should up the speed to like 200mph.

But I also think it was the track.

If you have seen the slow mo hi def video, the guy smacked into a straight wall, a wall that was on the track, wtf. If it had been a smooth tube, that energy would have been dissipated down the track and he may have had a burn on his ass. But no he smacks right into it with so much force that the bounce throws him like 10 feet up and 20 feet over.

Now I understand that this luge track was probably built for pro luge events, but then they could not have used it for the Olympics, which in large part is all about just being their.

 

[southern_sweety]

Watched it tonight! Is there any other snowboarder like Shaun White? I think not!

 

[YourCaptor]

Oh my god, whats with the united stats. Talk about a medal whore.

 

[Homburg]

Watched it tonight! Is there any other snowboarder like Shaun White? I think not!

I love how he blew out that last run like a madman even though he didn't need to. He could've run straight down the bottom of the pipe and won, but didn't. He could've played conservative, but didn't. Hell, I don't even know how he managed that last trick with the lack of speed that he had, aside from to say that he's a god on the snowboard.

It really does just please me immensely that he did that run even when he didn't need to.

--

Oh my god, whats with the united stats. Talk about a medal whore.

Let's see, the US is a large country with a relatively large population, some pretty serious mountains, and a history of a love for winter sports. As well as a load of funding and media covering those sports. No, we're not Sweden or Norway or somesuch, but we have a LOT of possible people from which to draw athletes from. Imagine how freakishly dominant Sweden would be with their culture and 300 million people.

Now, Germany, man, talk about over-achievers

 

[JMohegan]

Watched it tonight! Is there any other snowboarder like Shaun White? I think not!

My nephew sent me this link, which to me illustrates just how close the U.S. has come to the old Soviet Olympic machine we railed against, back in the day. (With giant corporations in lieu of a communist state, of course.)

I get a kick out Shaun White, regardless. Mostly because when he competes, the kid seems to be having so damn much fun.

 

[Keroin]

OK, I gotta admit, this is pretty funny.

 

[Keroin]

Oh that Canadian beaver.

 

[OldGuy1026]

I saw a Vid on these kids they are playing in the streets of Whistler, the only video I could find so enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dbdYlWJ8UA&feature=related

 

[Homburg]

Wow 5-3 US over Canada in Men's Hockey. I am amazed.

And pissed. Fucking TV station chose to air bullshit not-a-sport Ice Dancing over US vs Canada in Men's Hockey. The fuck?

Ryan Miller is bad-ass. Ryan Kestler though, wow, talk about brass balls. He scored the final goal and it was his real home ice, as he plays for the Vancouver Canucks. He's gonna be facing some unhappy home team fans, ow.

42 saves by Miller though. That's some serious goaltending.

 

[JMohegan]

Wow 5-3 US over Canada in Men's Hockey. I am amazed.

And pissed. Fucking TV station chose to air bullshit not-a-sport Ice Dancing over US vs Canada in Men's Hockey. The fuck?

Ryan Miller is bad-ass. Ryan Kestler though, wow, talk about brass balls. He scored the final goal and it was his real home ice, as he plays for the Vancouver Canucks. He's gonna be facing some unhappy home team fans, ow.

42 saves by Miller though. That's some serious goaltending.

Ha. I share your disdain for the ice twirling thing.

MSNBC aired the game, in its entirety.