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Post by janie on Feb 12, 2010 12:53:07 GMT -5
Is it true that it's RAINING out there? Rain just doesn't sound right for a winter Olympics. Too bad about the indoor ceremony, too, but I guess seeing everyone huddling under umbrellas wouldn't look right.
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 12, 2010 12:56:56 GMT -5
It often rains in winter there.
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 12, 2010 12:57:16 GMT -5
They were always planning the ceremony indoors. The recent weather had nothing to do with that.
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Post by leelee on Feb 12, 2010 12:57:34 GMT -5
It's been a very warm winter in Vancouver thanks to El Nino. I wonder how well the snow resorts are doing. Although, it's nothing new, I remember it was 50+ in Nagano.
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Post by janie on Feb 12, 2010 15:51:36 GMT -5
Yeah, they're having a hard time finding cold enough places for the Winter Olympics lately. They should try the Andes.
But Vancouver imported snow from further north for the skiing, at least I think I saw that mentioned tv. Too bad they can't take ours!
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Post by leelee on Feb 13, 2010 0:17:09 GMT -5
I don't get the Opening Ceremonies. It seems like a bunch of weird stuff to me. I felt bad for those poor people dancing non-stop for like 3 hours.
Also, online coverage SUCKS for us USians. NBC is only allowing curling and hockey, and saving everything for tape-delayed, jingoistic, schmaltzy crap. Sigh. I miss CBC.
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Post by DBBN on Feb 13, 2010 1:00:04 GMT -5
So sad about the Georgian...and so sad that this had to happen on Day -1.
Cancel the luge.
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 13, 2010 6:11:24 GMT -5
Sad, yes, but I don't believe that they should cancel the luge.
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Post by DBBN on Feb 13, 2010 10:20:42 GMT -5
It's the scariest luge ever. It should be filled with Jell-O and turned into a salad bar.
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Post by leelee on Feb 13, 2010 12:02:07 GMT -5
The crash was horrible, but that's the risk you take flying at 90mph. The lugers know that. I'm all for canceling unnecessarily dangerous sports like this, but it will never happen. People love speed for some reason.
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Post by DBBN on Feb 13, 2010 12:54:53 GMT -5
I agree; I'm kind of messing around about canceling the event. Perhaps it should be cancelled because of the pall the incident has cast, but not because of the sport itself.
The NBC peeps are all "I'm not worried about the Top 12 lugers in the world, I'm worried about those ranked 13 and below." But, like...no one forced him to go to the Olympics. So, if he's ranked 44th in the world, he knows enough to know the relative difficulty of the course (read: the fastest and most difficult course ever) and he should be able to gauge his proficiency on it before actually entering the event.
Of course, it will be hard to turn down an Olympics if you can qualify, so, there is that. But I'm really worried that this won't be the last fatality on the course, because it looked like a whole bunch of people wiped out during the training runs, and if the course is potentially going to be responsible for the deaths of multiple lugers, bobsledders, or skeletors, maybe they should move the event to Calgary.
Also, they should surround those fucking pillars near the end with, I dunno, bubble wrap. Or puppies.
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Post by Calico on Feb 13, 2010 17:09:49 GMT -5
So sad about the tragic luge death during a practice run of Nodar Kummaritashvili. The luge is such a risky sport. I hope Lindsay Vonn can recover from her shin injuryand make a good showing in Vanvcouver after all the hype she has received. And once again the NHL makes Olympic hockey throw together an event without any real training camp. The players need more training time together but they won't get it.
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Post by janie on Feb 13, 2010 21:01:57 GMT -5
Why are the US women's mogul skiiers wearing pajamas? Seeing them makes me want to get in bed!
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Post by Edna Krabappel on Feb 13, 2010 22:01:38 GMT -5
These moguls are weird, but they seem fun. It looks like USian and Canuck girls are the only ones worth anything, though. I wonder how those girls from other countries ended up there. They must have been stopped in the street and asked if they wanted a free vacation in Vancouver.
I enjoyed biathlon today. Olympic races always make up for a surprise or two. A Russian turned Slovak chick won the sprint. She defected from Russia because they weren't happy with her pregnancy or something, I bet they're kicking themselves now.
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 13, 2010 22:19:20 GMT -5
If I'm not mistaken, most of the hockey teams will be just fine, as most of them don't play in the NHL anyway. They may have a player here and there, but most of the euro teams kick around the euro leagues. It really just bites for Canada and the US, and a few players here and there. Am I wrong?
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 13, 2010 22:19:57 GMT -5
By the way, two former Penguins holding the flags for their countries: Jagr and Morozov. Good for Jagr, he's like 200 years old now.
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Post by Edna Krabappel on Feb 13, 2010 22:29:20 GMT -5
I believe a bunch of Swedes, Czechs, Finns, Russians etc. play in the NHL. Like, more than a half of their players. But I could be wrong, since I really do not follow hockey. I just saw the team rosters in the newspapers and I tend to memorize random stuff like that.
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Post by leelee on Feb 13, 2010 22:43:14 GMT -5
They weakened the luge course significantly. The problem is that if you don't make the course longer and difficult, then it entirely comes down to the quickest start... and that is boring as shit, what we have now.
Women's Hockey: Canada leads Slovakia like 19-0. It's been an Olympic sport for 12 years now, and there's still only 3 teams that appear to know how to skate. But, whatever pads the North American's medal count is good!
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 13, 2010 22:45:56 GMT -5
I believe a bunch of Swedes, Czechs, Finns, Russians etc. play in the NHL. Like, more than a half of their players. But I could be wrong, since I really do not follow hockey. I just saw the team rosters in the newspapers and I tend to memorize random stuff like that. I know a bunch of europeans play in the NHL... some of the best players aren't from North America... I just didn't think it had a huge impact on European teams outside of say, Sweden and Russia. But this may have been because I didn't examine the rosters
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 13, 2010 22:47:55 GMT -5
They weakened the luge course significantly. The problem is that if you don't make the course longer and difficult, then it entirely comes down to the quickest start... and that is boring as shit, what we have now. Women's Hockey: Canada leads Slovakia like 19-0. It's been an Olympic sport for 12 years now, and there's still only 3 teams that appear to know how to skate. But, whatever pads the North American's medal count is good! That score is horrid, but we've seen worse. I'd say that it would help prevent bad press if they didn't run up the score, but what the Hell else are they supposed to out there, float around? They can't fight in women's hockey. I mean, they really can't. It's against the rules. Anyway, 10 years ago there were only 2 good teams, so maybe in another 10 there will be 6.
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Post by leelee on Feb 13, 2010 22:53:41 GMT -5
Every country has a fair amount of NHL or minor leaguers now. Except Norway and Switzerland, in the fixed group.
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Post by DBBN on Feb 13, 2010 23:24:30 GMT -5
I enjoyed biathlon today. Olympic races always make up for a surprise or two. A Russian turned Slovak chick won the sprint. She defected from Russia because they weren't happy with her pregnancy or something, I bet they're kicking themselves now. They showed about 30 minutes of this, and I was riveted. Too bad no Americans are involved, we'd see more.
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 13, 2010 23:25:06 GMT -5
Other countries are cheating.
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Post by Wagasi on Feb 14, 2010 10:13:55 GMT -5
We're all preparing ourselves for the sadness that will ensue when this "own the podium" thing falls apart and Germany gets the most medals.
In other news, it's still shorts wearing weather in Bangcoubear
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 14, 2010 10:24:00 GMT -5
During the opening ceremonies, the feed that I had seemed to have a mix of Canadian and American commentators. It was ESPN of somewhere or other. Anyway, they kept rambling about how it's unCanadian to say that you want to win, and that the lead up to the games has been very unCanadian. I wanted to crawl into my laptop and kick them in the face.
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 14, 2010 10:25:11 GMT -5
In short, they were discussing boring Canadian stereotypes as if they were fact. Kicking. Faces.
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Post by janie on Feb 14, 2010 11:07:06 GMT -5
Ha, yes, I read the same, lamenting the Un-Canadian boasting and urging of Canada to WIN THE MOST MEDALS! Canadians will soon be forced to stop hating the US if they follow this course or it will become self-hate. I need to go get an old-fashioned "Sunday paper" (remember those? ) to see what's on when this week. I already missed a bunch of ski-jumping, which is one of the things I love to watch. It's so much fun to watch people fly, even if they all look identical (to a non-expert) in flight.
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Post by Wagasi on Feb 14, 2010 11:21:22 GMT -5
To be fair, the opening ceremonies themselves relied too heavily on boring Canadian stereotypes. The guy at the end was basically an extended Molson Canadian commercial and the fiddling in the middle of circle of giant, tacky maple leaves was cringe inducing.
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Post by The Chloe on Feb 14, 2010 11:42:29 GMT -5
I liked the fiddling. Maybe not the entire performace, but the fiddling going on in the background as I did other stuff was quite nice.
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Post by janie on Feb 14, 2010 12:48:31 GMT -5
I like fiddling! Now I wish I'd stayed up. Did they pass out maple sugar candies?
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