2010 Vancouver Olympics

[trwi7]

I think this Japanese speed skater's uniform is made of gold leaf.

[Jimbo]

Mmm, now Matt Vasgersian is a ski-jumping expert (?)

 

On Al Michaels, pretty sure that was his voice but wow, look at his face I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

[Vgmastr]

Vasgersian did play-by-play for ski jumping in the 2006 Olympics as well.

[JoeHova]

Could an athlete from Puerto Rico, since they would be an American citizen, choose to play for either Puerto Rico or the United States?

Yes. I remember that it came up with Tim Duncan, who is from the U.S. Virgin Islands, and also when Puerto Rico made an attempt to recruit Carmelo Anthony (whose mother is Purto Rican) for their Olympic team. At those times, I recall hearing that once an athlete decided who to compete for, he couldn't later change to the other (unlike A-Rod in the WBC).

[thebruce44]

I always forget how terrible NBC's coverage of the games is. Here they are on the first day showing interviews with Wayne Gretzky and some stupid NBC commentator instead of showing ski jumping, which is already over. I accidentally found out the results on ESPN, stupidly assuming that because these games were in North America, NBC wouldn't use much tape delay.

Weren't they planning to show the Men's Downhill before the weather delays? I think the ski jumping was done yesterday so without any programing they probably decided to show the taped event. Hard to blame NBC for the weather.

[JoeHova]

Weren't they planning to show the Men's Downhill before the weather delays? I think the ski jumping was done yesterday so without any programing they probably decided to show the taped event. Hard to blame NBC for the weather.

No, the ski jumping qualifying round was yesterday. The medal round was today and instead of showing it, they aired random interviews that nobody could possibly care about and then aired the jumping on tape delay. I'm not blaming NBC for the weather, I'm blaming them for idiotic decisions and ignoring the actual events.

[crewcrazy]

Can't wait for the short-track speedskating tonight. Those races are always similar to roller derby, and you're lucky if everyone makes it through the race standing.

[hawing]

A long night for Slovakia in women's hockey. Canada led 12-0 midway through the 2nd period. This lopsided matchup is being televised on CNBC, where the abrupt breaks to and from commercials (missing some of the scoring in the process) is reminiscent of WMLW Brewers broadcasts.

 

Edit: The final was 18-0. At least the (mostly Canadian) fans in attendance gave the Slovakia goalie an ovation as she left the ice.

[Patrick425]

A bit off topic from the previous discussions, but how is it that Puerto Rico, Bermuda, or the Cayman Islands can field an Olympic team? I find it a bit odd that the athletes competing are actually citizens of countries that they could be conceivably playing against. Could an athlete from Puerto Rico, since they would be an American citizen, choose to play for either Puerto Rico or the United States? I guess I just didn't realize that this occurred until watching the Ceremony last night.

Yeah, this same topic came up with the WBC. For instance, Vinney Rottino playing for Italy (among many other odd conections to countries)?

Under this logic, only Native Americans should play for the USA team.

 

[Patrick425]

I'm really enjoying the short track racing tonight. It's amazing how these guys jockey for position.

[TooLiveBrew]

The makeup they have him today has taken all color out of his face.

Sorry... I wasn't posting that to try & prove you wrong or anything. I just hadn't seen him recently & your post got me curious. Figured at least one other reader would be curious too, so I posted the pic.

I always forget how terrible NBC's coverage of the games is.

Me too. I always get excited about the Olympics, but then as soon as I start watching the events I remember that NBC is worse than CBS with the men's NCAA basketball tournament. I feel like they show 8% of the events they could show, and spend the rest of the time telling us how important they & everything they're doing is. On a semi-related note, Chris Collinsworth actually found a way to work what a super-amazing golden boy Tom Brady is into his segment/interview with Apollo Ohno. I just about vomited. I even like Collinsworth as a NFL guy, but come on.

[TooLiveBrew]

Patrick425 wrote:

Yeah, this same topic came up with the WBC. For instance, Vinney Rottino playing for Italy (among many other odd conections to countries)?

Iirc the WBC rule is that if your grandparent(s) were of said country, you can play for it. Not sure about the Olympics' standards.

[sbrylski]

The short track was nuts... Ono making his move but hitting his skate on the other guys arm and stumbling back to fourth... the three Koreans in front, and then two going down in the final turn. My friends and I jumped out of our seats at that.

[DocLuna7]

TooLiveBrew]

Patrick425 wrote:

[quote name=Yeah, this same topic came up with the WBC. For instance, Vinney Rottino playing for Italy (among many other odd conections to countries)?

Iirc the WBC rule is that if your grandparent(s) were of said country, you can play for it. Not sure about the Olympics' standards.

I am pretty sure that you are correct on the rule. This explains Rottino, DeFilice, and Piazza playing for Team Italy or A Rod with the Dominican Republic. What I was even more surprised to see though is that Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, or Bermuda even had teams. It just seems kind of weird that you can have a team in international competition but not have a passport from that same place.

 

 

[berniebrewer4life]

Anybody see that a ticket the the olympic hockey events cost more than a super bowl ticket? Wow.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2010...ympics_tickets/index.htm

[Jimbo]

hawing]A long night for Slovakia in women's hockey. Canada led 12-0 midway through the 2nd period. This lopsided matchup is being televised on CNBC, where the abrupt breaks to and from commercials (missing some of the scoring in the process) is reminiscent of WMLW Brewers broadcasts.

 

Edit: The final was 18-0. At least the (mostly Canadian) fans in attendance gave the Slovakia goalie an ovation as she left the ice.

In today's MJS it metioned the same Slovak team beat Bulgaria 82-0 in a qualifying game.

 

The Slovak goalie plays for Bemidji State. I had forgotten that was mentioned during the televised Camp Randall Classic. I wonder if Badger fans will have any witty chants prepared when she plays in Madison next season.

 

 

 

[ewizabeff]

Patrick425 wrote:

I agree about figure skating and too much of it in prime time. It's hard for me to get too much into a sport where the outcome is entirely in the hands of the judges. It all seems very biased. The people that are favored get more favorable scores than the "no names".

I'm by no means a figure skating expert, but I was watching it tonight and they mentioned that the scoring system is different than it was in the past. Every skater/pair is judged on their own merit, and other skater's performance has no bearing on their scores. You only see two subtotal scores, compared to the scores out of 7 from each judge that we saw at previous olympics.

[FVBrewerFan]

Figure skating scoring is still a joke. I saw only bits and pieces lst night, but I think one of the favored pairs fell down, and still got a higher score than a pair of "nobodies" that led off the competition. It may or may not be better than in the past, but it's still patently unfair.

 

Seemed like the moguls were judged fairly, even though that competition is based in part by subjective judging.

 

Bravo to the U.S. nordic team. A sport I know almost nothing about, other than this was by far "our" best performance ever in the Olympics.

[trwi7]

Can't wait for men's hockey tomorrow. USA opens up against Switzerland at 2 PM Central on USA.

[TooLiveBrew]

That Nordic Men's Combined finish yesterday was awesome to watch. Each of the first four finishers just collapsed to the ground after crossing the finish line. The medalists were separated by less than one second.

[ewizabeff]

The pair that led off the competition actually have the highest score so far....and they're gold medal favorites, not nobodies.

[utdfan]

FVBrewerFan wrote:

 

Seemed like the moguls were judged fairly, even though that competition is based in part by subjective judging.

Although I'm not a freestyle expert, I could not for the life of me figure out why the French guy who went last did not get a medal. He had the fastest time by a few hundredths of a second and his jumps looked clean. I thought he had a legitimate chance of taking the gold away from the Canadian before his score was posted, as did the commentators who said that it was going to be very close. I was shocked when he ended up 6th.

I guess I just don't like events that are based on the combination of a quantifiable distance or time as well as a subjective style rating. Why doesn't the longest ski jump always win? Keeping all other conditions constant, doesn't the distance indicate the best form? That being said I love watching this stuff. Only during the Olympics will I spend a few hours watching something like cross country skiing.

[brew522]

I agree about figure skating and too much of it in prime time. It's hard for me to get too much into a sport where the outcome is entirely in the hands of the judges. It all seems very biased. The people that are favored get more favorable scores than the "no names".

I'm by no means a figure skating expert, but I was watching it tonight and they mentioned that the scoring system is different than it was in the past. Every skater/pair is judged on their own merit, and other skater's performance has no bearing on their scores. You only see two subtotal scores, compared to the scores out of 7 from each judge that we saw at previous olympics.

Just to elaborate/clarify this...This scoring system (replacing the 6.0) has been in place since before the 2006 Olympics, and was a result of the 2002 Pairs controversy. Each jump/spin/footwork sequence has a point value, and the skaters are awarded points based on how well they perform it, to make up the Technical Elements Score. There's also a Program Components Score, which replaces the old Artistic mark. That's where the judges can still get away with a lot of their cheating. There were some definite sketchy moments during the short program, such as one of the Canadian teams being held up, but all in all, things worked out how they should.

[olliegjw]

utdfan]

Although I'm not a freestyle expert, I could not for the life of me figure out why the French guy who went last did not get a medal. He had the fastest time by a few hundredths of a second and his jumps looked clean. I thought he had a legitimate chance of taking the gold away from the Canadian before his score was posted, as did the commentators who said that it was going to be very close. I was shocked when he ended up 6th.

I believe the commentators said that he screwed up on his last jump. He was supposed to grab his skis, or something like that, but totally missed. To the casual observor, like myself, I thought it looked fine, but they saw the miss, and so did the judges.

[Mike2k33]

Curling has begun! USA vs Germany on USA(the network) right now. It's the 2nd end, USA trails 1-0 after a poor last rock by USA skip John Shuster. We keep the hammer.

 

Curling is my favorite winter Olympic sport, mostly because the Olympics are just about the only time it's on TV. Also, I find it tremendously fascinating.