Vancouver Olympics 2010

Curling. I love curling. I don't know why. It's not "oh, this is so weird so I love it" either. I really do enjoy curling.
 
hockey, of course
the biathlon is pretty cool.... cross country skiing + marksmanship
 
Watching speed skating now.

edit: Ohno just raped everyone from 5th place in the last 4 laps. Beat 2nd place by a quarter lap lolz.
 
Just went downtown. Everything's busy as shit. Tried to get into the Aboriginal pavilion but the Dutch prime minister was there and no one was allowed in.
 
wat.

Oh you must be in that place they're holding it this year.
Assassinate him.
 
I would be very interested to see how much of this discussion comes to light during the course of these games:

The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place on unceded Indigenous land. Far from being simply about sport, the history of the Olympics is one rooted in displacement, corporate greed, repression, and violence. The effects of the upcoming Winter Games are apparent to everyone – expansion of sport tourism on Indigenous lands; increasing homelessness across the province and especially in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside; misdirected public spending and debt; vulnerable working conditions especially for migrant labour; unprecedented destruction of the environment; and unparalleled police and security spending,” according to the Olympics Resistance Network.
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Source.

Everyone thinks the games are such a good thing for the host city and its environs and populous, but the reality is they are extremely hurtful to--you guessed it--the poor, the native, and the environment. These are the things that mainstream media outlets will NEVER report on, but they are extremely important for everyone who watches these games to consider. If we are ever to work together as a human race toward peace, equality, and decent living conditions for all people, we need to examine the effects of this sort of wasteful corporate/governmental spending NOT being used to fund environmental, educational, social, and healthcare-related programs.
 
VictimOfScience said:
Everyone thinks the games are such a good thing for the host city and its environs and populous, but the reality is they are extremely hurtful to--you guessed it--the poor, the native, and the environment. These are the things that mainstream media outlets will NEVER report on, but they are extremely important for everyone who watches these games to consider. If we are ever to work together as a human race toward peace, equality, and decent living conditions for all people, we need to examine the effects of this sort of wasteful corporate/governmental spending NOT being used to fund environmental, educational, social, and healthcare-related programs.
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The protesters out atm are smashing shop windows. Great way to create more jobs right?

We've had problems with the natives long before the Olympics (hint: since colonisation).

Also: this is talked about ad nauseum already by local papers and media, it's just (as expected) the international press will be catching up during the two weeks.
 
its nice to here the opposition sometimes. i for one am not a sports nut and will probably watch all but 10 minutes of the Olympics at one time. I find that doing the real thing myself is more fun and I feel better when I do that activity.
 
Man watching the Koreans wipe themselves out like that on the speed skating... was quite amusing.

2nd and 3rd place by fluke, **** yeah!
 
The announcers are being pretty biased towards the good 'ol USA. Oh well, guess you root for your country. They aren't even talking about who got the gold medal. Also the Koreans screwed themselves there on that last lap.
 
That was pretty intense. Thought the Americans wouldn't get a medal as they were behind by a bit toward the end there.
 
Viperidae said:
The protesters out atm are smashing shop windows. Great way to create more jobs right?
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Yeah, I was watching some videos. They spent most of their time chanting "**** the police!".


GREAT PROTESTING THAR!
 
I was laughing at the fallen skaters. I actually thought that would happen, greedy bums.
 
Raziaar said:
Man watching the Koreans wipe themselves out like that on the speed skating... was quite amusing.

2nd and 3rd place by fluke, **** yeah!
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And the one responsible shall be called back to the fatherland for summary judgment and execution by firing squad. ****.
 
I heard the korean broadcast, the commentators were all "don't fight, don't fight each other!" Then they crashed.
 
DEATHMASTER said:
I heard the korean broadcast, the commentators were all "don't fight, don't fight each other!" Then they crashed.
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Haha. And the American commentator had been worried about team skating....

Anyone watch Women's Moguls? Pretty awesome. Canadian audience of course seemed disappointed that they didn't get gold (I actually felt a little bad for them).
 
AGH.

So goddamn close to our first gold on home soil.
 
medalsk.png
 
Qonfused said:
Curling. I love curling. I don't know why. It's not "oh, this is so weird so I love it" either. I really do enjoy curling.
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I agree with you, it's a highly enjoyable game once you've understood the rules.
 
Fastest track in the world. I'm hearing conflicting reports of how safe it was supposed to be.
 
About the track, people seem to be angry with the Canadians because they barred out foreign countries from practicing ahead of time before the Olympics. The Canadians has had much more practice on the track, whereas others had only two chances to run through it.

It was his last run, and last turn where it happened. It's a shame, and they blamed it on Athlete's error. Never should your body be flailed OFF the track, the wall should have been higher to begin with. Athlete's error or not, the track should have had more precautions, especially on the world's fastest track that reaches speeds of up to 90mph.
 
There are two important facts that contradict the statement that the track was perfectly safe:

1) A world class luger died on the track during a regular run

2) After that death, changes were made to the track to prevent future deaths
 
Dan said:
world class luger
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"Dad, I'm scared of one of the turns."

vs.

"It's not a woman's start, it's a kinder (German for children's) start. The rest of the track is OK, but it's not as fast as from the proper start. It's the same for all the athletes, but I don't like it. I felt very good, but now because of the new start it's not fun."

You tell me which one is the world class luger.

And as for point number 2, there's no way they could get away with not modifying the track after a death occurred. The public demands it, in this day and age. It could have been done completely for appearances even if they still believe the track was safe.

It's impossible to make a track perfectly safe. You can always fly out of the damn thing.
 
Kakashi623 said:
About the track, people seem to be angry with the Canadians because they barred out foreign countries from practicing ahead of time before the Olympics. The Canadians has had much more practice on the track, whereas others had only two chances to run through it.
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Except, we just lost men's luge miserably.

Soooo...
 
My only thing is that the last turn in the track was the fastest part with speeds exceeding 90mph. It should have had had a higher wall to begin with, especially when you have multiple steel beams right next to it.

He was a fairly amateur athlete, ranked I think 44th in the world, I just think it could have been prevented had the track been modified earlier.
 
Vegeta897 said:
"Dad, I'm scared of one of the turns."

vs.

"It's not a woman's start, it's a kinder (German for children's) start. The rest of the track is OK, but it's not as fast as from the proper start. It's the same for all the athletes, but I don't like it. I felt very good, but now because of the new start it's not fun."

You tell me which one is the world class luger.
Click to expand...
The one who went to the Olympics.

Nobody talks to their friends the way they do to the press. Imagine it this way: A world class luger was so unsettled by his Olympic course that he called his father and confessed, "Dad, I'm scared of one of the turns."
 
I dunno about that, I think the second guy is a lot more confident about it than the guy who died was. Confident with good reason, he's probably a better luger. Being in the Olympics doesn't mean you can handle anything.
 
Being completely fearless is for the most part unrealistic for most people... even the best soldiers, the best adventurers, the best astronauts... anybody who is doing something dangerous and adrenaline enhanced.

Bravery is being able to continue despite that fear. And he did... but unfortunately he died. It's truly a shame they had to suffer a death before they put the higher wall up. That should have been common sense... at some point you have think "is keeping this wall lowered for spectators going to potentially be deadly by exposing crashing riders to thick metal beams?"
 
I'm not talking about fear or bravery. I'm talking about confidence. As in, "I'm confident in my abilities that I can do this course"

Different from bravery.
 
You act as if confidence is a constant.
 
I don't think it should be possible in any properly run Olympic sport for an inexperienced competitor to die except perhaps a suicidal biathalete. Balancing the desire to win against the risk of death for public enjoyment is sick. And I am not just saying that because of The Deer Hunter thread.
 
It's not like the turn was designed to kill anybody. And I don't see that kind of accident as very forseeable, as it occurred at the beginning of a straight away. They can't very well board up the whole track.
 
They could put the whole thing in a plexiglass tube, but that would make it too hard to see inside.

The turn wasn't designed to kill, but it was designed to maximize the home turf advantage by making it faster and more likely to crash.
 
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