Winter Olympics - sports discussion

mirandashell said:

It was but because of the required elements there is a lot less originality in it for me. You go back to something like Bolero or Mack & Mabel and those routines just wouldn't be possible now. They wouldn't be allowed. So for me a lot of the routines nowadays are more same old, same old.

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Aye, that's a fair point. I haven't watched ice dancing for a while, because we were in the US for a few years and their Olympic coverage is utter pants. The required elements do stifle things a little. Ah, Bolero, now that was just amazing...and that pasa doble.

mirandashell said:

Yes the Paso was fantastic too.

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I think I preferred that to 'Bolero'.

So, apparently an ABC news team messed up the flag arrangement: http://fansided.com/2014/02/09/soch...ion-fails-medal-count-geography-photo/#!u4C7d

They put the Canadian flag next to Team USA, the Netherland flag next to Canada, and the US flag next to the Netherlands.

I'm hearing about a bit of controversy over in women's slopestyle. A Czech boarder had a nasty tumble and halved her helmet. She was out cold for a minute and then recovered and had attendants instruct her to ski the rest of the way down.

Trying to find an article on it or the name of the boarder but haven't had any luck yet.

I watched the czech boarder on TV last night. I heard the announcer (US TV) say [paraphrasing] she insisted on "finishing" under her own power. ETA: link

Snowstorm said:

I watched the czech boarder on TV last night. I heard the announcer (US TV) say [paraphrasing] she insisted on "finishing" under her own power. I'll see if I can find a link too.

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The Canadian post-analysis in this morning was horrified. Didn't catch what the announcer was saying as I don't have access to TV with audio (no cable package at home.)

Xelebes said:

I'm hearing about a bit of controversy over in women's slopestyle. A Czech boarder had a nasty tumble and halved her helmet. She was out cold for a minute and then recovered and had attendants instruct her to ski the rest of the way down.

Trying to find an article on it or the name of the boarder but haven't had any luck yet.

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I saw that, but sadly I can't remember the boarder's name. It was gut-wrenching to watch. Her head hit the ground and then she was like a rag doll skidding down the hill. Once she came to a stop she started moving again, although she had to have blacked out for at least a few seconds. Was very, very surprised they let her ski down, even if she insisted on it. (Not sure if she actually did or not.)

ETA: You guys are fast! I could see that her helmet was cracked as soon as she sat up. Well, shattered, really.

mirandashell said:

No-one was horrified at the time, not on British TV anyway. And the 3 girls in the medal positions relaxed when they saw her get up.

These things happen in snowboarding. Both of our commentators are involved in the sport and acted like it was bad but it was nothing unusual. And once she stood up and was talking they relaxed.

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Understand that in North America, two sports leagues have faced or are facing huge lawsuits regarding concussions (ice hockey and gridiron football.) There has been a lot of discussion on this issue about having players continue to play after they have had their bell rung and that is why the post-analysis I mention (which wasn't with people in snowboarding, mind you) raising the issue of letting her continue down on the board.

I agreed with the announcers that the Czech should have scored much higher on her first run. It seems like the judges were obsessed with perfect landings rather than the difficulty of the trick. They seemed to score differently from the mens event?

The Kiwi rider also went down but not as badly, so of course our press is saying the course was too dangerous.

Just caught a glimpse of the Canada-Finland women's game. Great to see such rapid development of women's hockey in Finland. They are really making the Canucks sweat!

Watched Bilodeau become the second Canadian to repeat with gold (after the recently retired Catriona Le May Doan). Did a couple spectacular helicopters on the mogul jumps and earned a convincing 5.4% edge over the Canadian with silver. We almost swept the moguls but oh well.

Oh my! Caught the Russian speedskater who after her win in a race was about to rock her Joe Thornton out, but quickly realised she had nothing underneath her suit and quickly did an awkward recovery.

Xelebes said:

Oh my! Caught the Russian speedskater who after her win in a race was about to rock her Joe Thornton out, but quickly realised she had nothing underneath her suit and quickly did an awkward recovery.

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Hahahahaha this reference is amazing.

For those who don't follow hockey: see this.

The Bilodeau family (Alex won the moguls gold two Olympics in a row) is inspiring. Alex's older brother Frederic has cerebral palsy. Last night NBC played a video of the family. Watching this family warms my heart!