Torino Olympics 2006 thread

[JSngry]

Watched curling this morning on USA. I was treating as a joke at first, but about 10 minutes in, I began to get hooked. So did LTB. Can't say that I've ever seen a sport where the results of a play are more engrossing than the play itself, but hey, maybe that's an idea whose time has come.

[ejp626]

It seems every year I am less and less interested in the Olympics. I believe I will go this time without watching any, except for 3 minutes of curling I watched inadvertantly. There are a lot of things I dislike about the Olympics, but probably the number one thing is adding in ridiculous sports that only one country (and usually the US) is good at. Currently, I'm thinking of snowboarding and other ridiculous X-games imports. The US is well behind its own goals for the medals. It currently has 13 medals and 6 are from snowboarding. If you removed them from the count -- and I think we should -- then this has been quite a flop for the US.

[Chuck Nessa]

Why do the medals have big holes in them?

They look like flattened doughnuts, or spray-painted old 45 records.

They are awarding them AOL "45 days free" cds.

[GregK]

quite embarassing showing by canada today in hockey. how they got shutout by the swiss is a mystery. maybe they have too many older players, and not enough dynamic younger players like crosby. it should have stayed amateurs only anyway

[RDK]

I never thought I'd say it, but snowboard cross is pretty damn cool!

[Quincy]

There are a lot of things I dislike about the Olympics, but probably the number one thing is adding in ridiculous sports that only one country (and usually the US) is good at. Currently, I'm thinking of snowboarding and other ridiculous X-games imports.

Snowboarding doesn't really favor the US much vs. the rest of the skiing countries. In fact, if you associate snowboarding with young stoners Canada & Switzerland are at a significant advantage over the US (more young people try pot in these skiing countries. Of course you can't toke & ski in the Olympics.)

Short track speed skating has been great for China, S. Korea & Canada.

Events added in 2002 included additions to the biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and more short track speed skating. The biathlon has never been the US's bag. Neither has cross-country.

Ice dancing was introduced in 1976. No US gold medals but 6 for Soviet Union or Russia combined.

As far as the summer games, the great American game of baseball was taken away.

So I don't see much of a US conspiracy there, though I could be missing a few.

I can't stand the mogul events, but that's cause it makes my knees hurt. But put me down for snowboard cross!

[Brownian Motion]

It seems every year I am less and less interested in the Olympics. I believe I will go this time without watching any, except for 3 minutes of curling I watched inadvertantly. There are a lot of things I dislike about the Olympics, but probably the number one thing is adding in ridiculous sports that only one country (and usually the US) is good at. Currently, I'm thinking of snowboarding and other ridiculous X-games imports. The US is well behind its own goals for the medals. It currently has 13 medals and 6 are from snowboarding. If you removed them from the count -- and I think we should -- then this has been quite a flop for the US.

Oh, I don't know, I rather like the snowboarding. It's at least a shade more fun to watch than the biathalon.

Back before the fall of the Berlin Wall the Olympics was a periodic symbolic war between Democratic Capitalism and Totalitarian Communism, with the west having to demonstrate that it had not become soft and decadent in the four years since the last confrontation, and the Soviets and their satelites hungering for medals to prove (as if such a proof were possible) the superiority of their economic system.

Now the Olympics are marketed as a festival to celebrate globalism and the consumer economy, but as we watch rising Olympic powers like Korea and China gather up medals as American athletes-for whatever reasons--flounder and fall (a competition outcome less common than NBC's coverage would indicate), the decadence seems to have finally arrived and the new economic symbolism of it all becomes inescapable.

[ejp626]

Nothing says bloated excess like the Olympics. I would strip away somewhere between 50 to 75% of the events and get the thing back down to a week. But there is probably nothing that would restore the event to its roots where amateur athletes competed. It's not possible to train that hard without some compensation. But I am definitely not a fan of the trend of athletes moving to a different country and then competing for it.

[GregK]

Snowboarding doesn't really favor the US much vs. the rest of the skiing countries. In fact, if you associate snowboarding with young stoners Canada & Switzerland are at a significant advantage over the US (more young people try pot in these skiing countries. Of course you can't toke & ski in the Olympics.)

whoa! Where did that come from? growing up in Canada, I knew maybe two, three people who were "stoners". I see a LOT more young people doing that here in Michigan than I ever was aware of in Canada

[Quincy]

Snowboarding doesn't really favor the US much vs. the rest of the skiing countries. In fact, if you associate snowboarding with young stoners Canada & Switzerland are at a significant advantage over the US (more young people try pot in these skiing countries. Of course you can't toke & ski in the Olympics.)

whoa! Where did that come from? growing up in Canada, I knew maybe two, three people who were "stoners". I see a LOT more young people doing that here in Michigan than I ever was aware of in Canada

The lil' Pocket World In Figures that The Economist gives subscribers each year. And you need to check out the west side of Canada.

15 Year Olds Who Have Tried Cannabis In The Past Year (Europe & N. America only, 2001-02.)

Males, %

1. O Canada - 43.3

2. Switzerland - 40.3

3. USA! USA! - 36.5

4. UK - 36.3

5. GREENLAND - 36.1

6. Spain - 31.6

7. France - 31.2

8. Czech Rep - 30.9

9. Slovenia - 27.3

Females, %

1. Canada - 37.5

2. Switzerland - 35.3

3. UK - 31.7

4. GREENLAND - 31.1

5. Spain - 30.0

6. USA - 26.2

7. France - 23.8

8. Czech Rep - 23.2

9. Slovenia - 21.4

It appears that Greenland is aptly named! Poor kids, it's a big island with nothin' to do but watch the glaciers melt.

There is a difference between trying it young vs. embracing the stoner "lifestyle." And also, though everyone I know jokes about the snowboarder events being included "to give something for the stoners to watch," the Olympic athletes themselves don't get to partake due to testing. So in a way it's unfair to label the sport as such, though from what I see around here with the kids who snowboard there's a good reason for the stereotype.

[WD45]

I love ice dancing.

There.

I said it.

[Christiern]

They have pretty much removed sports from the Olympics. It has become a corrupt corporate excuse for a television show. Bringing professional competitors into this three-ring circus was a big mistake, IMO, and the very lucrative corporate carrots that are dangled before the winners is an invitation to unsportsmanlike behavior--which is what we see more and more.

Anyone catch the raid on the Austrians? Will it be shown on "Cops"?

[Noj]

three-ring circus

Five rings, Chris.

[Soulstation1]

i watched less than 5 minutes of the Winter Olympics

[Robert J]

As much as I like hockey, I wish the overpaid NHL-ers at the Olympics could play like this during the regular season.

[Dmitry]

Bringing professional competitors into this three-ring circus was a big mistake, IMO,

Virtually all the Soviet bloc athletes who competed in the amateur Olympics since like 1950 were professionals. It's hardly news.