Winter Olympics 2010--Anyone Watching?

[Tarakin]

Tobias Angerer, cross-country skiing, silver:

http://sport.freenet.de/contentblob/1170320/teaserImg847x565/tobias-angerer-v-und-die-anderen-langlaeufer-staspox436320.jpg

1 USA 6 7 10 23
2 Norway 5 3 3 11
3 Germany 4 6 4 14
4 South korea 4 4 1 9
5 Canada 4 3 1 8
6 Swiss 4 0 1 5
7 Sweden 3 1 2 6
8 China 3 1 1 5
9 Austria 2 2 3 7
10 France 2 1 4 7

Pic of the day:

http://l.yimg.com/i/i/de/sp//imago47.jpg

 

[Tarakin]

National bragging aside, what do you think of this one?

http://is.blick.ch/img/gen/w/V/HBwV7P3X_Pxgen_r_343x332.jpg

Scott Lago was banned from the Olympics after celebrating with his medal at a, well, unusal place...

 

[Handley_Page]

Greetings, Invisible One.

I think this one you quoted earlier:-

http://l.yimg.com/i/i/de/sp//imago47.jpg

is probably THE picture of the games!

 

[3113]

Scott Lago was banned from the Olympics after celebrating with his medal at a, well, unusal place...

Actualy, he wasn't "banned" he just apologized and left. Unlike Shaun White, Scott there wasn't yet aware of the attention Snowboard fame gets you and what standards you now have to live up to

 

[trysail]

( Lest there be any misunderstanding, this is not directed at anyone or any post in this thread. It's a longstanding sentiment of mine. )​

National medal counts have never held much interest for me. First off, I think it's somewhat sad that people have a need to artificially create a vicarious sense of winning or losing through the performance of other people. I am similarly appalled and disgusted by the need of far too many parents to live vicariously through their children's athletic accomplishments. It's sick; get a life!


The absurdity of national medal counts is that they take no account of population. With a population of 306 million, if the U.S. didn't produce a slew of medal winners, you'd have to conclude that something was seriously wrong. When you consider Canada or Germany or Norway or Sweden or Switzerland with their respective populations of 34 million, 82 million, 5 million, 9 million and 8 million, their performances vis-a-vis the U.S. is certainly impressive. I'm far more impressed by the victory of "a Jamaican bobsled team" than I am by an employee of an industrial athletic empire.


At bottom, athletes compete because they enjoy the activity and derive a sense of accomplishment from performing better than their peers. They, most assuredly, do not compete for their respective countries.


I wish the media would cease tabulating national medal counts. They never will, of course, because the practice serves their interest in stirring up emotions.

 

[JackLuis]

I agree, National Medal counts are silly. I do get a kick out of seeing the events, care about and cheer the Americans, mostly because I don't know who else to root for.

We've seen some amazing efforts at the games. The Downhill stuff is my favorite.

Bob sled and luge were very cool. That is a very fast and scary track though.

I hate having to stay up so late though. On the west coast, it isn't over until after midnight. Wish I had a TiVo.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I agree, National Medal counts are silly. I do get a kick out of seeing the events, care about and cheer the Americans, mostly because I don't know who else to root for.

We've seen some amazing efforts at the games. The Downhill stuff is my favorite.

Bob sled and luge were very cool. That is a very fast and scary track though.

I hate having to stay up so late though. On the west coast, it isn't over until after midnight. Wish I had a TiVo.

So do I. Actually, I've been rooting for Canada a lot recently. L.A. had our games back in '84. It's their turn this time.

 

[jomar]

The national medal count also loses validity because so many athletes are country hopping to get into the Olympics.

 

[sr71plt]

The national medal count also loses validity because so many athletes are country hopping to get into the Olympics.

Not to mention that a high percentage of them seem to be living/training in the United States anyway.

 

[jomar]

Redemption!

Bode gets gold.

 

[Weird Harold]

The national medal count also loses validity because so many athletes are country hopping to get into the Olympics.

Some don't even bother to actually hop countries, they just mail in the paperwork

For example, the youngest competitor in ice dancing is a fifteen-year-old american girl who got her Georgian citizenship pushed through just days before the deadline for olympic entires. She was born in Michigan and has never set foot in Georgia (either the US state or the country she's representing. )

The national totals won't go away until the opening ceremonies march in the competitors by sport instead of by country and they stop playing the national anthems for the gold medalists.

The medal totals are, in effect, the "Team Score" in the "team competition."

 

[trysail]

Dayum. I didn't realize that the big bad network was broadcasting many events on some of its other cable networks. I was wondering when the damn curling was gonna show up.


The amount of time devoted to advertisements is unbelievable. I read an article this morning that asserted that for every three hours on the air, a mere 51 minutes was footage of actual events. Something like 55 minutes were filled with commercials and the remainder was blabbing by "Bigmouth Bob" Costas or the network "human interest" vignettes that are 90% dumb.


I've watched very little of the broadcast; the ratio of garbage to events is so awful that I've discovered I'm far happier just reading reports of the outcome.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm more than tired of people who have to rag on everything. I'm enjoying the Olympics coverage and intend on continuing to do so.

 

[JackLuis]

trysail: Somebody has to pay the freight or we' have to watch on pay per view. And NBC has a lot of over head.

But PPV or On-demand might be better if you wanted to see all the ice dancing and none of the curling say.

I really enjoyed the looks of accomplishment and surprise on the medalists faces.

The Canadians are pulling off the Olympics very well and the weather has been lovely. I think we can agree that a good time is being had by almost all.