2010 Vancouver Olympics

[Jimbo]

First one in.

 

Opening Ceremonies tonight.

 

Events I look forward to seeing:

Bobsled

Alpine Skiing

Speed Skating

Biathlon

 

A year ago I looked into getting tickets, but just a tad outside what we could afford. Who knows when it returns to North America?

[patrickgpe]

bobsled, luge, snowboarding, skiing, and speed skating.

 

I enjoy the winter olympics, but there is always a large emphasis on figure skating in prime time which i couldn't care about. The first week is always good with skiing and speed skating though.

[JoeHova]

I love the biathlon. My favorite winter event by far, just because of its incongruity. The rest of the events are generally weak and most of them barely qualify as sports. I still enjoy watching though.

[owbc]

I really hope they have Curling on at 2 AM again.

[TooLiveBrew]

Link

WHISTLER -- Tragedy struck at the Whistler Sliding Centre Friday morning when Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, flew off the track at high speed, smashed into a metal girder and died.

 

At 12:15 p.m. International Olympic Committee official Thomas Bach confirmed he was dead.

 

"It is with great regret that we confirm the death of the Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili during the final training session at Whistler Sliding Centre," read a statement released by the IOC.

 

"Mr. Kumaritashvili died after crashing on the last corner of the course during training. Doctors were unable to revive the athlete, who died in hospital.

 

"Our first thoughts are with the family, friends and colleagues of the athlete. The whole Olympic family is struck by this tragedy, which clearly casts a shadow over these Games," said IOC president Jacques Rogge.

Good grief. What a horrible accident.

EDIT: Saw this story via Deadspin, which also has followed up with this post, with multiple lugers commenting on how dangerous they felt the Whistler track was. Don't watch the embedded video clip at the bottom of this post if you don't want to watch this man die. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

[patrickgpe]

without knowing that much about the sport, to not have a barrier coming out of a corner makes that part very unsafe. One would wonder if there was something, if he'd be alive today.

[Oldcity]

Holy crap. How awful.

 

In a different direction, how sick are NBC executives right now over Lindsey Vonn's injury? They were already siphoning money on the Olympics. After Conan's disaster, I can't say I'm not taking enjoyment from that.

[Baldkin]

From what I've heard, the ski slopes may not even be ready. It was the warmest January almost ever in Vancouver and they are frantically trying to get enough snow.

 

Maybe they'll just have to take off the ski's and run down to the bottom.

[paul253]

I absolutely love Olympic Hockey.

[RayKingsForemanGrill]

Saw the video. Horrible. From a strict common sense point, how could that corner not have been protected? How could they leave large steel beams exposed like that. Going from 90mph to zero and being stopped by steel = sure death.

[craigharmann]

NBC is absolutely classless for showing the video, not once, but repeatedly. The guy died just this morning, and you have to run it? The still pictures are scary enough, but to watch a man die? That's just wrong.

[princeginterhallhelms04]

I am looking forward to all the ski events. Plus of course hockey and curling late at night!

[crewcrazy]

I felt queasy when the New York Times posted the image of him hurdling through the air (before impact) when the news first broke this afternoon. I couldn't believe NBC (repeatedly) showed it without much warning. The instances I saw on other networks (mostly ABC, both the local affiliate and the World News) at least gave the warning for jarring content.

 

Just the way the momentum was stopped instantly..ugh. I just hope there are no more luge/skeleton/bobsled incidents on that track in the coming weeks.

[craigharmann]

The sickest part to me was showing them trying to resuscitate him, and there's one guy who is looking up and has blood all over his hands. Saddening.

[jwill535]

By the way, so we are all clear, its the Opening Ceremony not Ceremonies. There is only one ceremony. I heard Dan Patrick talking about being chastised for calling it Ceremonies.

[jjkoestler]

I am absolutely disgusted with NBC. I can't believe they are repeatedly showing this video and even have it posted on their website. I cannot think of a single good reason why they would show this footage. The cynic in me can't help but wonder if they are showing the footage for ratings and to hype up the olympics. I hope that is not the case.

 

RIP Nodar Kumaritashvili.

[TooLiveBrew]

Oh, I'm absolutely with you on the ratings angle, jj. No question about it.

 

I watched the Opening Ceremony until they interviewed Shaun White about snowboarding tricks. I mean, a guy DIED today, and we're supposed to enjoy hearing White laugh about his halfpipe tricks? I had to turn it off at that point.

[razzzorsharp]

I will watch the games but I am a little worried that at some point NBC will air this accident without a real warning. I do not have any intention of watching a man die even if the clip is only couple seconds.

[RobertR]

Wait, NBC is showing the accident on their website?

 

Yeah, stay classy NBC with that snuff film footage of yours. Does anybody have a brain in that organization?

 

Robert

[JoeHova]

The opening ceremony was pretty tedious.

 

It is weird to think about a guy having died there today. It almost seems like they should have canceled the ceremony but of course people are always dying and life always goes on. It's hard to know how to act around death. I don't think it's necessarily callous to enjoy something in the aftermath of a death but maybe it is. The problem with that though is that someone dies literally every second of every day. It's just that people who die in public places or ways tend to make people examine their own mortality. I don't know what the answer is about what to do after someone dies.

[Baldkin]

I absolutely love Olympic Hockey.

The coach for the German team has said, whenever his team gets a 5 on 3 advantage, he's pulling his goalie and playing 6 on 3.

 

I can't wait to see that.

[Oldcity]

Alright... This is kind of embarrassing for Canada. Mechanical failure for the entire world to see.

[ilovebeer]

i turned it off 10 minutes ago, what happened?

[Oldcity]

They had four athletes with four torches, and the final thing was supposed to be four pillars coming out of the ground angling up to the main tower. Each athlete was supposed to light one pillar simultaneously to shoot up to the big tower.

 

Except there was like a two or three minute delay, and then only three pillars came up. One woman was forced to just stand there while the other three lit their pillar.

[razzzorsharp]

And of course I come out of the bathroom to the nbc news right in time to see video of a guy about to crash and die. Thanks NBC!