XX Olympic Winter Games - Torino, Italy

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trevster2k said:
Ok, now we can confirm how crazy Canadians are. The province of Newfoundland is closing schools early at lunchtime on Friday so the students can go home to watch St. John's native Brad Gushue and his rink play for the gold medal in men's curling live in Torino. :applaud:

Do we love the Olympics or what? :dancing:
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I don't know what will happen if they win! A provincial parade? It'll be a good excuse to act silly and joyous--I cherish those moments. Especially after the hockey disaster...that made me sad :sad: :sad: :sad:


SWEEEEEP...HARDER HARDER!!!!! :hyper:
 
Who is the negative figure skating commentator on NBC who seems to rip everyone? I'm watching the NBC feeds tonight for a laugh!! So far it's lived up to my expectations, lotsa commercials too, wow!!
 
trevster2k said:
Who is the negative figure skating commentator on NBC who seems to rip everyone?
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Is that the one who was banging on about that girl's laces not being tucked in for like 5 minutes? Yeah, we got it the first 78 times!
 
Wasn't Shizuka Arakawa amazing? plus I love Violin Fantasy of Turandot by Puccini, fantastic piece of music.

Again, I thought the commentators were full of crap, conservative and beatable, puh-lease! 3rd highest score ever under the new system and 5 triples with 3 in combination. Ok, she downgraded one triple to a double but she didn't fall and was incredibly graceful on the ice. Tough to beat yes, beatable no.

Speaking of which, the same people who questioned how medal winners who fall get medals better be back here questioning Sasha Cohen's medal too. I understand why but c'mon, be consistent. Like Fumie Suguri was technically excellent but lacked the choregraphy and depth to tie it all together, I thought she skated great but the details count to the judges, I'm just a guy who likes chicks in short skirts.:wink:

ETA and those little 16yr olds have a great future in the sport, very impressive. Vancouver will welcome them in 2010.
 
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I'm glad someone who got absolutely no hype from NBC and the rest of the press skated great and won the gold. Go Shizuka! I love Sasha's skating, but I was getting sick of hearing about her. And Irina has one of the ugliest skating styles I've ever seen.
 
i've been avoiding this thread because of hockey spolilers cause NBC isn't putting the games on :madspit:

but now i have downloaded a few games and caught up :drool:

the Russian offense (against USA) was so good it was scary. the way they skate and pass in the offensive zone :combust: and the shooting was amazing :drool:

the USA deserved to lose to Finland, they showed no desire or discipline


the Russia vs Finland game should be great :hyper:

even though i'll have to download it later cause the semis aren't on nbc either :mad:

nbcrusader said:
Most of the announcers on NBC feel they need to fill airtime with pointless drivel.
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yes:| yesterday i think they talked about and previewed more ice skating then they actually showed :down: and since i don't care about ice skating...:down: :down:
 
tre, you are downloading games off the web, :ohmy:

CBC has rebroadcast every Canadian hockey game in entirety during late night. They will probably do the same tomorrow with one of the semi-finals.

How did you avoid hearing the scores in the games before getting the downloads? or is no one talking about it?
 
Woohoo Tanja Poutiainen won the Silver in the womens shalom today!!! Finlands first Olympic medal in the Alpine events EVER!! Well done Tanja! Now if we could just keep the momentum up for tonights Curling match (in which even if Finland loses the guys will still get the silver) and Hockey match against Russia!!!!:hyper:
 
I purposely avoided the results yesterday, I wanted to be surprised.

Comments:

Sasha, like Peyton Manning, is extremely talented but can never totally deliver when the pressure is on, you could see it in her eyes. She was very lucky to hold on for silver. She was very gracious about it, saying she didn't think she was going to medal at all and was happy to have it. This is good, I hate seeing people whine and cry over silver or bronze like they 'lost'. The odds against getting any medal, considering the amount of competition from all over the world, is enormous. Then consider thousands more didn't even make the Olympics! If you get a medal, any medal, you are one of the fortunate ones. Be happy!

The commentators, especially Bob Costas, are terrible about this.(treating silver and bronze as a 'loss.) He did this long speech last night and Sasha's and Irina's dreams being dashed, well excuse me but I saw them on the podium! Irina has 2 now, a silver from last time and a bronze this time. He also did the speech for Michelle Kwan saying how her career would always be tainted by no gold, treating it like she was a complete loser! I think being a double medalist, even if they are silver and bronze, like Irina, Michelle and Nancy Kerrigan, are maybe even a better career haul than one gold that came out of nowhere as a surprise by someone we never hear about again.

Congrats to the Japanese girl whose name I can't spell, I'm happy for her, and so glad Japan finally got a medal at the games. They have a lot of good athletes and I was sorry things weren't working out for them.
 
trevster2k said:
Wasn't Shizuka Arakawa amazing? plus I love Violin Fantasy of Turandot by Puccini, fantastic piece of music.
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Yes she was, and I love that piece of music too

She was conservative because she knew she could be, the homer cheering by the NBC announcers is/was blatantly obvious and distasteful to say the least.

Sasha didn't use her groin issue as an excuse, and she said the silver was a gift. (she had even changed out of her dress according to the paper I read this morning). I think it's a sign of personal maturity on her part that she hasn't always displayed, that might be much more valuable in her life than a gold medal could ever be.

Congratulations to Shizuka :up:
 
I hate this "gold or nothing" mentality that rules some minds. An Olympic silver medal isn't shabby. In fact, it's pretty damn cool.
 
hcbiggs2002 said:
Woohoo Tanja Poutiainen won the Silver in the womens shalom today!!! Finlands first Olympic medal in the Alpine events EVER!! Well done Tanja! Now if we could just keep the momentum up for tonights Curling match (in which even if Finland loses the guys will still get the silver) and Hockey match against Russia!!!!:hyper:
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It's been a great day for us Finns and I hope it'll only get better! :hyper:
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
She was conservative because she knew she could be, the homer cheering by the NBC announcers is/was blatantly obvious and distasteful to say the least.
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We could only make it through two skaters last night. It seems like the commentators all want to be Simon Cowell, with dry, sarcastic comments ripping performances. :down:

I wish I could get better coverage that focused on the athletic competition.
 
I absolutely LOVED Arakawa's performance last night! The music was beautiful - one of my favourite pieces. I knew the results before watching, but it was incredible. I'm very happy for her!

I loved seeing the Italian woman skate as well - she brought me to tears. She was so happy and proud to be skating in her home country, even though she knew she wouldn't win a medal. Truly a classy woman.
 
nbcrusader said:


We could only make it through two skaters last night. It seems like the commentators all want to be Simon Cowell, with dry, sarcastic comments ripping performances. :down:

I wish I could get better coverage that focused on the athletic competition.
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It's quite pathetic, that's for sure. Such a shame.
 
I loved watching Silvia Fontana skate, too. She was obviously so happy just to skate on Olympic ice. However, I turned off the TV after Emily skated and went to bed. I had the inside scoop that the competition was a splatfest and didn't have the stomach to watch it because I wanted Slutskaya to win. I was so disappointed. If I had a song to describe the ladies' competition for me it'd be Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". :sad: :sad: :sad:
 
Finland got silver in curling! YAY! :applaud: Obviously gold would have been even better (congratulations Canada!) but I can't complain really. Now fingers crossed for our hockey team to win tonight...
 
How can a skater have two falls in a performance, yet still get a medal?

I wish they could better convey the scoring of a performance - so you knew how many points were available and how many awarded for each move.
 
Ava79 said:
Finland got silver in curling! YAY! :applaud: Obviously gold would have been even better (congratulations Canada!) but I can't complain really. Now fingers crossed for our hockey team to win tonight...
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Despite having Canada lose to Finland, I'm all for the Finnish hockey team as Saku Koivu is awesome to the awesomest level.

And congrats to our curlers.
 
nbcrusader said:
How can a skater have two falls in a performance, yet still get a medal?

I wish they could better convey the scoring of a performance - so you knew how many points were available and how many awarded for each move.
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I'm still trying to figure out this scoring system. Basically, if someone has a more complex and intricate program than someone else, their base marks are higher (or should be). Thus it's possible for someone to fall and finish ahead of someone who does not. Actually, the judges have been overmarking Slutskaya in program compenent scores, the artistic impression marks, all year. Last night they did not. I'm told that Fumie Siguri didn't do too much besides her jumps, thus her fourth place finish.
 
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verte76 said:
I'm still trying to figure out this scoring system.
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If it is still confusing to you (one who is far more familiar with the sport) imagine how it appears to one who watches infrequently.

I wish there was a way to match scores with any move (footwork, jumps, spins, etc.). Otherwise, it comes across as so subjective - it becomes meaningless.
 
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