Your Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics anticipation thread!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e3/Sochi_2014_-_Logo.svg/608px-Sochi_2014_-_Logo.svg.png

It's never too early to feel the warmth!

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2012/olympics/2012/writers/sl_price/08/12/2014-sochi-olympics/vladimir-putin-sochi.jpg

The official page is a traet of marketing. The Wikipedia page is a traet of abuse and curiosity.

This section is written like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this section from a neutral point of view.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Olympic_park_Sotschi_2014_en.svg/800px-Olympic_park_Sotschi_2014_en.svg.png

If they can't write this section from a neutral point of view, we will help them.

on March 2, 2008 there was an unofficial referendum held in Sochi to elect the mascot for the 2014 Winter Olympics. 270,000 voters along with their ballots received a coupon with four mascot candidates: Ded Moroz, a snowflake, a polar bear and a dolphin. According to a representative of Sochi city administration, the majority of Sochians voted for the dolphin.

Ded Moroz, BTW:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Ded_Moroz.jpg

I, Santa Pope, hereby declare this to be Olympic grounds!!@!!!

"Santa Pope" = I am almost in tears here.

nothing says winter olympics like a dolphin

http://www.dolphinolympics.net/

Eighteen months y'all.

And the mind games begin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerns_and_controversies_in_the_2014_Winter_Olympics

2014 will be the first year of a Formula One Russian Grand Prix. The proposed circuit runs through and around the Olympic Park. The IOC has cautioned that it has the power to move the race back to 2015 if the races' preparations interrupt the Olympics, as track surfacing will occur during the closing ceremony.

nobody fucks with the circassians

It'll be entertaining.

Hoping that there's enough oligarch capital around in 2014 to up the insanity level on the opening ceremonies.

LOL the talk page on the wiki entry for these games is rather eye opening. Loads of people having at erach other in nasty manner. Use of phrases like "black monkies".

Gonna be a fun runup, I can tell.

also lol @ the "yay showing a good face for Russia this time round" comments when theyve ALREADY banned the Pride Tent thing due to it being "propaganda" wtf.

curliiiiiiing

Expect MASSIVE doping/illegal equipment scandals around the Austrians, who received no medals whatsoever in London and will respond the best way they know how.

The fact part of the complex is built on Circassian burial grounds has caused a few protests in the UK as well. It does raise the prospect of the world's first haunted Olympics, though.

Sochi is kind of a strange place to hold it all round. Should be fun, however.

I have to admit i had never heard of Sochi til this.

Or the Circassian ppl.

So how much of a clusterfuck is this going to turn out to be, at this rate.

us should boycott

we should boycott

http://thedroidyourelookingfor.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/linguo.jpg

lol

summer and winter olympics should each just have 4 cities that they rotate through

I nominate New York, London, Paris and Munich.

oh that'd get me to move

At this point between the IOC and FIFA, I think maybe we should just staty away in droves. Maybe that would show them.

I'm not convinced that any official national boycott would be all that useful. An 'organic' social rejection would be more culturally irrefutable.

Was the US wrong not to boycott the China games?

so the official US delegation to the Games will not include the POTUS or Biden, but some out gay former athletes, as well as glass-closet cases like Brian Boitano and Janet Napolitano. A half-measure very typical of the leader of the Free World Democratic Party.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2013/12/white-house-announces-sochi-delgation.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/sochi-2014-ioc-jeopardized-safety-of-athletes-and-fans-in-awarding-games-to-putins-russia/2014/01/22/3c5427a8-83aa-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html

IOC officials have long collaborated with plunderers, and treated human rights abuses as acceptable if it meant good commerce, regardless of the harm: In Beijing, dissidents were arrested and tortured for refusing to support the Games. But the IOC's amoral stupidity and avarice finally may have peaked in Sochi. Activists have been jailed; homeowners evicted without compensation; 25 construction workers have died at stadium sites; illegal dumps of toxic construction waste have ruined local drinking water and caused homes to sink; and Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister, alleges up to $30 billion has been stolen in preparing for the Games. Now we can add $3 billion in security costs to the price of hosting this festival of malevolence and greed.

I liked Dave Zirin's article today in the Nation on all this: http://www.thenation.com/article/178053/lgbt-movement-takes-aim-sochi

How about those disastrous US unfiforms, huh

They're really horrible! May be to discourage people from wearing them outside the Olympic village on security grounds.

I kind of like the ludicrous patterns the Russians are using:

http://i.imgur.com/dazZDQ3.jpg?1

Though I suspect they have been designed so they're difficult to counterfeit.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2014/snowboarding/story/_/id/10406292/2014-winter-games-shaun-white-withdraws-olympic-slopestyle

Dead dogs.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2exr0co.png

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/02/04/journalists-at-sochi-are-live-tweeting-their-hilarious-and-gross-hotel-experiences/

Judged on whether bathroom tap water is drinkable, hotels are free of ongoing construction work and you can flush toilet paper, plenty of Moscow wouldn't be "ready for the games" let alone Sochi. Good case for journalists stopping being such big fucking babies (or sending ones who had been to disadvantaged countries before).

they're less being fucking babies than wondering what $50 billion and seven years of preparation translates to

It doesn't translate to replacing an entire Soviet plumbing system.

Well then perhaps they shouldn't have gone out to host the games, and the IOC shouldn't have given them the honor.

Yes, all major events should clearly be given to countries with the most superior plumbing.

Reports from the athlete village and more importantly arenas and slopes suggest everything that really matters (from a technical standpoint) is in top shape. I mean have at IOC's cowardice and obviously the horrible politics of the government but when I saw moaning about 'put toilet paper in the bin' signs I'd had my fill of 'lol russia' comedy from the brave journalists.

For real, though, these aren't just North American journalists/athletes/etc making complaints. Everybody coming from everywhere expected a certain baseline for quality of living to be established and it appears that it's not even close to being met.

complaining abt trash cans for TP = dud

complaining that only one of the eleven rooms you booked back in May is available = pretty understandable

the whole "no manhole covers" thing doesn't seem so good

There's also the whole Shaun White thing.

The whole "exterminating the stray dog population" thing doesn't either.

Provides a nice bit of context for Putin's choice of Sochi as the location for the Games:

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/feb/05/why-sochi-russia-olympics/?insrc=hpbl

Sochi has also been the no.1 domestic summer holiday resort for middle-class Russians for decades. It has good transport links, plenty of hotels and a hospitable climate in the winter. I don't think many people would enjoy a winter Olympics in minus thirty weather elsewhere in Russia. Krasnodar Krai has been very lightly affected by unrest elsewhere.

There's always been something symbolic in Russians putting a stamp on former Circassian lands but this isn't anything new and some of the thinkpieces are being massively overthought.

slopestyle qualifying is fun. glad for this to start.

aren't a lot of these issues due to hotels/new facilities being located outside Sochi in an undeveloped area?

Yes, I think some of the biggest costs, after corruption, were associated with developing the mountain sites outside of Sochi proper.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in understanding a bit more about the region and the history of the Circassian people, Oliver Bullough's Let Our Fame Be Great is a good starting point.

There's always been something symbolic in Russians putting a stamp on former Circassian lands but this isn't anything new and some of the thinkpieces are being massively overthought.

At least in the NYRB piece, the Circassian history was mentioned it seemed more as a historical footnote rather than as the center of the piece. The main thrust was about Russia's more recent troubles in the Caucasus generally - especially in Chechnya. It's interesting in terms of Putin's personal biography since the launching of the 2nd Chechen War was instrumental to his coming to power. It's an interesting and very complicated region, of which I know little. I guess it's mostly known in the West now as a hotbed of terrorism.

Grozny is a 500 mile drive from Sochi. It's also a world away in terms of political context. It's a peaceful, thriving tourist destination and has been unambiguously under the Russian thumb for over a hundred years. They aren't really many legitimate parallels to make with the situation in Chechnya and there are plenty of far more plausible reasons for choosing it as the Olympic site.

Good case for journalists stopping being such big fucking babies (or sending ones who had been to disadvantaged countries before).

Don't remember there being such an issue during the last World Cup, and that was in South Africa.

They aren't really many legitimate parallels to make with the situation in Chechnya and there are plenty of far more plausible reasons for choosing it as the Olympic site.

Fair enough. It makes sense if the area was already known for summer tourism that they'd want to develop it for winter tourism as well.

Here's an interesting article from 2005. Apparently even then the area was known for having Russia's best skiing although the lack of infrastructure kept it fairly exclusive, although it was apparently popular with some oligarchs and Putin himself:

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2005/oct/09/wintersportsholidays.wintersports.russia

Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, reflected the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi's big debut out of bias against Russia. "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day," he said. An aide then pulled a reporter away before Mr. Kozak could be questioned further on surveillance in hotel rooms. "We're doing a tour of the media center," the aide said.

Haha, cameras in the showers

The mayor just announced there are no gay in Sochi, thank goodness.

so they're actually filming people in the shower? or terrible at making things up? or both?

in my country, shower takes you

I did lol at this: https://twitter.com/bishopk/status/430735620089339904/photo/1

Almost echoes the start of the thread.

kozak defense of facilities is some real life onion story

i really like the new team figure skating format

i like it too. yuzuru hanyu really kicked some ass tonight.

otm dude looked like something from the future

Really looking forward to the opening ceremony, even though i won't be able to watch in real time. Safe to assume that Anna Netrebko (who's from up the road in Krasnodar) will feature heavily. Have given up hope of a reunited Tatu putting in an appearance, under the circumstances, though.

https://twitter.com/tatuofficial/status/428653333373784066

i have to say (and in this i echo my two russian friends, who left in the mid-2000s and have no interest in returning) that this country appears to be almost total shit. i hope the athletes wear their freak flags proud.

xp That's amazing!

*Struggles hard not to take amateurist's bait*

i really like the new team figure skating format

― Mordy , Friday, February 7, 2014 3:06 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I got a little bit excited when I read this, assuming they would all be on the ice at the same time. A series of dances doesn't really add up to a team IMO.

On the other hand well done for opening with the gayest sport of all time.

the snowboard slopestyle? (which was on in the morning)

Oh I thought team skating was first.

*Struggles hard not to take amateurist's bait*

― 龜, Friday, February 7, 2014 3:38 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh i know, there are millions of wonderful people in russia and culture and history etc., i'm not an ignorant douchetard. it's just that the news coming out of there lately is just bad bad bad bad bad.

can't wait for TEAM LUGE RELAY guys

if Putin hasn't banned Luge Doubles of course

xp There are plenty of reasons to be depressed about the state of contemporary Russia but so much of the news coverage is laced with ignorance, hypocrisy, hyperbole and chauvinism it's often difficult to pick through it all rationally. The country is rebuilding itself after a complete financial and social collapse.

People are living longer and have better access to healthcare. Poverty is declining. Many of the vile conservative policies (like the 'gay propaganda law') are a reactionary backlash to the idea that young Russians are getting more socially liberal and more accepting of gay people / culture. It's not all bad.

Heaven forbid.

oh boy, the ice capades

(40+ years after attending, i figured out last week that's a pun on "escapades")

They had some dude named Vladimir Pozner along with David Remnick talkin' politics with Bob Costas. Vlad estimated that a solid 85% of Russians are virulently homophobic, to a violent degree. He (and Remnick did not seem to disagree) insisted that the supposedly more socially liberal/better educated/affluent protest-prone part of Russian society is a tiny, tiny minority, and Remnick iirc summed up the prime Russian motivator as "resentment." Things may be getting "better," but you still must toe the absolutely autocratic line, which doesn't sound that much better.

I'm not sure how easy it is to make estimates like, that to be honest. There's clearly no shortage of homophobic people in Russia of all ages but big cities will generally have an open gay scene (clubs, bars, etc) and the impact international and domestic gay culture on Russian popular culture has been immense. Young Russians are probably growing up with homophobic parents but they're generally going to be more liberal than any generation before.

Resentment (aimed at who?) seems to be a separate issue.

*impact of*

I agree that the overwhelming gangpile of western journalists posting pictures of tandem toilets and stray dogs seems awfully loaded/pointed, but I've seen very little compelling evidence that suggests Russia is, at the moment, anything other than an ongoing human rights violation. The pics of demonstrations being staged there always seem to feature the same two dozen faces, suggesting there is no relevant pro-LGBT movement there.

Then again, I could be wrong: http://blogs.indiewire.com/bent/the-russian-lgbt-rights-documentary-everybody-should-watch-20140207

There are lots of LGBT groups in Russia but I don't think there's one central organisation like Stonewall that can organise things on a massive scale and bring significant numbers of non-LGBT sympathisers in. I get the impression that there's a certain amount of complacency from some of those sympathisers as well though. There seems to be a perception that it's a bad law but it won't mean as great a restriction on LGBT rights as is being made out so it isn't worth making a major issue of. Moving from passive support to active campaigning won't happen overnight.

Yeah, well, as a Russian activist in that article says, the most effective way at this point may just well be to humiliate the country on the international stage.

I would rate that as the single worst approach possible. Irrespective of political stance, there isn't much Russians tend to hate more than outside interference and loss of national face. It's almost certain to provoke a hardening of negative opinion towards any good causes.

So, to reiterate, gays there are fucked.

You are Johnny Weir and I claim my $5.

No, the Olympics can and should be used as a platform for Russian activists to promote awareness of LGBT rights in Russia but talking in terms of national humiliation is probably counterproductive.

there isn't much Russians tend to hate more than outside interference and loss of national face.

i.e. resentment

have we talked about how the "you will get hacked if you turn on your computer in Sochi" story was really an "I'm a dumbass and downloaded a sketchy app from a sketchy website" story already

xp There's definitely resentment at what's perceived as interference by outside agencies - particularly the US - in national politics. There are good and bad reasons for that.

Resentment's also a major factor in widespread racism / anti-semitism but i don't see it as a motivator of homophobia itself (though that might not have been the point being made).

It's extremely difficult for people outside of Russia to strike the right balance between supporting hugely important human rights causes and potentially making things worse.

Sisters have to do it for themselves, amiright?

Giving money to LGBT groups in Russia is an option. I think, or at least hope, there is a way for people outside of Russia to have a part to play in the conversation without generating a massively negative reaction. I wrote an article about Russian pop culture a while back and criticised the law when it was still a regional policy being discussed by the city authorities in St Petersburg. I tried to do it in a way that made it clear that it wasn't an attack on the Russian nation or its right to self determination.

The worse the Western reporting is in terms of xenophobia and hyperbole, the easier it is for people to dismiss it as cultural imperialism or an attempt to trash the country's international standing.

A voice I've trusted recently has been, perhaps oddly, Marc Almond -- he's visited/lived in/loved Russia for two decades running now, but has always been forthright about both its problems and what he sees as outside oversimplification of said problems. I don't know if he's done any long form recent pieces (he's written them before in his earlier books and collections) but his occasional thoughts on Twitter over the past year have helped me not completely jump to conclusions.

Recent interview with almond hitting that topic on bbc world a few days ago.

Thanks! I'm sure he announced that, I must have missed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=effb2JYiKXM

http://specblo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-Winter-Olympics-Sochi-Google-Doodle.jpg

have we talked about how the "you will get hacked if you turn on your computer in Sochi" story was really an "I'm a dumbass and downloaded a sketchy app from a sketchy website" story already

SochiBuddy

i love that story so much.

Just slapping the word "Sochi" onto a "hackers MAY ALREADY BE ON YOUR PHONE" scarepiece

http://nyappykun.tumblr.com/post/75918242761/tatu-performs-nas-ne-dagoniat-at-the-sochi-2014

that canadian add is a little bit funny but also tone deaf i think

ad

xpost

speaking of tone deaf...

http://www.visualnews.com/2014/02/07/10-vintage-winter-olympic-posters

Slopestyle final starts in half an hour. Looks ridiculous. There's a matryoshka built into the course! BBC guy is claiming that Shaun White withdrawing had nothing to do with the run and that it's as close to perfect as it could be.

GB has a chance of a medal, I think.

Hugely contentious scoring but Sage Kotsenburg is out in front at the moment.

This is amazing. Everyone nailed their jumps in the semi final this morning but there have only been three clean runs in the final so far. Everyone is falling over.

Sage Kotsenburg wins! First gold to the USA.

Nerveracking sport

Marit Bjørgen gets another gold. Kalle pushed her to the end though.

Nice finish.

Black tape on their arms because a team member on the Norwegian women's cross country team lost her brother yesterday.

Suspect that some of the officials at the Slopestyle are your hookups for "gnarly buds" in Sochi.

My daughters keep asking me why all the female snow competitors are model-beautiful with long, blonde hair.

What did you answer

The dutch sweep first speed skating event.. AFAIK one of two nations who have taken all winter olympic medals on ice (w Korea).

Mistaken, they got their first snow medal w snowboarding gold @ Vancouver.

AFAIK one of two nations who have taken all winter olympic medals on ice

thought they had won them all on grass brah

Sven Kramer makes it look so effortless.

Biathlon def the best event. The later mass start ones are bigger blockbusters though.

I kinda liked the opening ceremony's mix of kitsch and weird

What did you answer

We told them that for starters, most of these athletes are young and astoundingly fit, which is half the battle, and then past that, a lot of women dye their hair blonde, have stylists, are tanned and extra blonde from the sun. And then we told them that a lot of the competitors in the winter olympics come from countries where people may be more likely to look like that, and we pointed out how few people of color of African or Latino descent compete in the winter olympics.

After much thought and deliberation, my conclusion is that these Western journalists should be glad their rooms were not outfitted with squat toilets

http://site.comforthouse.com/yswimages/db4300.jpg

Yes! Bjørndalen wins the 10km biathlon sprint tying the all-time winter olympian medal record, at the tender age of 40 and with some tough recent seasons behind him.

While you were sleeping, the U.S. women beat Finland, Norway dominated cross-country skiing -- and Sage Kotsenburg won a gold medal

Woo Hoo, USer Sage wins slopestyle

That was from : http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/

Finally the figure skating conspiracy theory the games were lacking http://olympics.cbc.ca/news/article/alleged-olympic-vote-swapping-deal-would-keep-canada-from-gold.html

who is this lady skater now? french, maybe. she's awesome.

Yulia beasting.

Seriously. She was unbelievable. That final spin!

i turned away just after the ending. did she score well (and as well as she expected)?

She was in first place with a season's best score of 72, I think.

Way to go, Daily Currant: http://dailycurrant.com/2014/02/08/man-responsible-for-olympic-ring-mishap-found-dead-in-sochi/

there isn't much Russians tend to hate more than outside interference and loss of national face.

Unlike every other country on Earth, right?

Idk, I come from a country with very low self esteem.

The Russia situation is probably better explained as an extreme distrust of the motivations of outside agencies, even from a lot of people who would otherwise agree with their positions.

Well I come from the USA, where the United Nations is a secret plot to turn us into Europe (which is an evil, dark place unless you are going there on vacation).

http://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/83f264388b776fdb37cd4cf9b362b2ec/tumblr_n0oe1bfTmS1s6ylubo1_500.jpg

(real) sisters are doing it for themselves (as the third one couldn't make it to the podium)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bf-mhLtCIAMs0Uf.jpg

You can't fight in Olympic hockey, can you? Why not?

~the olympic flame~

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/19f2obuuw2874png/ku-xlarge.png

What is up with Bob Costas' eye?

Ah infection. I see. Nvm.

Women's slopestyle on now.

Nicely poised for the second half. Torah Bright didn't quite get a clean run but has the potential for a big, big score if she can.

Jenny Jones of GB in gold with nine riders runs to go.

Sine Candrian does what the commentators think is the first 1080 in women's slopestyle but falls just short of Jones's score.

That's why you wear a helmet kids.

Tough as nails to get up again and ride to the finish on her own.

I love this sport.

Only Anna Gasser can deny Jones a bronze!

Anderson was stunning.

British commentators are the kinda worst, kinda lol

Yeah, cheering people falling over is nagl but Fuller is Jones' teammate and friend so kind of understandable.

that's what i meant, her genuine emotion was endearing in the end but i feel bad when you're cheering somebody else's mistake

anyway that was a pretty excellent competition from a noob's eye view

there was a time when ch5 would show Winter X, usually at 2am. i hoping they'll restart that after this.

Killer routine from Yulia again. Just outstanding.

Nice duel against Yuna in the singles.

my friend's bro got 5th in the DH!!!

Yes! Kamil Stoch demolished the competition in the ski jump. Regrettably couldn't find my Adam Małysz T-shirt to watch the event in.

Question that hopefully someone can answer. In the old Soviet days, athletes there were sent to training camps at young ages and then basically groomed for gold for years. Post collapse, obviously that infrastructure went away, and even though Russian spent tons of money and time pre-Vancouver, Russian athletes pretty much stank it up at those winter olympics. But this year they seem to be doing significantly better. Does anyone know if, in advance of hosting, Russia pumped up its training camps/budgets again to ensure their athletes wouldn't leave them hanging as hosts? Have their been any articles about current Russian training habits? I know the Russian government has dangled cash rewards as medal incentives, but what else have they been doing?

In the US the olympic drive is pretty much funded by sponsors and donations and private funds, right?

They've roughly doubled the investment that went into Vancouver, have tried to rebuild some of the training facilities and attract / retain top class coaches.

There's a blend of state funding, oligarch funding and sponsorship from companies like Gazprom. They are still a long way behind Canada and Norway but most of the Olympic disciplines are pretty small minority sports in Russia so it's tough to catch up.

Especially given how Russians feel about minorities.

свист
svist
"zing" in Russian

Do they have Stand Your Ground laws there too?

Given that such a huge percentage of Russian men die before the age of 50, mostly thanks to alcohol, I'd suspect there is a lot of standing your ground, assuming you're not already prone.

Curling and short track events kick off today.

http://i.imgur.com/F5OJNXA.gif

This makes me really happy

Short track relay is the absolute peak in olympics insanity.

SO disappointed that almost all the curling is going to be aired in the US during hours when I'm either asleep or at work.

http://www.weather.com/sports-rec/olympics/former-olympic-sites-decay-photos-20130718

sochi 2015

Well Athens seems like the worst case in olympics history. With the snow venues Sochi seems to have a long term plan and desire to become a ski resort.

Biathlon pursuit, this should get intense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racewalking

if only there were a winter equivalent of this silliness

should involve snowshoes

how about "penguin walking"??

Moguls finals for men, 4 of the final 12 contestants are canadians!

watched womens moguls, damn how can something so impressive be so boring. imo.

3 out of 6, for the final round.

Bilodeau's run was superb.

Gold and silver, again!!

#canadacares

Once again, two years later, it STILL seems crazy to me that the only way to watch US coverage is to have cable tv. And...if there's an internet-only package available, I'm not seeing it?

Just used up my "free" half-hour of live video allowance. ;___________;

is it really necessary to separate men's/women's curling?

watched womens moguls, damn how can something so impressive be so boring. imo.

otm I hate moguls

oh, nice iron cross.

Important Winter Olympian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubertus_von_Hohenlohe

Cross country sprint on now. Most entertaining xc event for casuals. Only shot at xc gold for the US of A as well.

Short track on skis

i think hubertus deserves his own thread, ja?

Its 30 degrees f in Moscow but in Sochi:

At noon, temperatures at some of the mountain venues were at 43 degrees. It was projected to hit 45 degrees at the RusSki Gorki Ski Jumping Center, where women’s ski jumping will make its Olympic debut Tuesday night.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/olympics/wp/2014/02/11/sochi-2014-officials-start-shoveling-as-temperatures-at-mountain-venues-creep-higher/?hpid=z3

cross country sprint final was v entertaining. this happened:
http://i.minus.com/ihprBAX57qnmk.gif
and dude who was distanced and all alone back in 6th ended up taking the bronze

reminds me of this classic short track final

At least the two leading the race got through without crashing this time, although the one swede had given up, was close to death and still managed to drag himself over the line for a bronze medal.

Great biathlon pursuit again. Domracheva like a total boss with that opening and the shooting.

http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/doge-meme-26.jpg

Women's ski jump starts now - way overdue for the first time in the olympics. Female ski jumpers have fought tooth and claw to get a world cup series and compete at all, to jump the largest hills, and now to compete in the olympics - previously suing the federation for their right to do so. Massive discrimination. Losing then, but finally it's happening now. And the sport grows in popularity. No reason not to, they start at a slightly different gate but jump as far as the men.

I can't belive they won't allow nude ski jumping!!

Half pipe was great. Podladchikov gets gold, White gets nothing.

whoa really??

Yep, had a stunning 95 point run in qualifying but finished 4th in the final behind Hirano and Hiraoka. Hirano is 15!

uh it's 45 degrees why do all the snowboard bros wear neck gaiters, balaclavas, or bandannas? is the spray really gonna choke them out?

^^^because they look sweet, sheesh go back to the office, grandpa

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/Wiseblood/Val%20Disere%202007/DSC00703.jpg

Tie the bandanna around the thigh for respeck to get paid imo. Onion on belt optional.

I rode my damn bike in -2 today and my eyes were exposed - you wussies!

Volosozhar / Trankov got gold in the pairs skating with a terrific routine. The other Russian pair got silver.

The women's downhill was ridic. Gisin of Switzerland put down a great time early on and had to watch on as other skiiers got closer and closer to it. She looked so nervous, particularly when Tina Maze of Slovenia was bombing down the course. The look on her face when she realised that Maze had tied her score to the hundredth of a second so they'd both get gold was priceless.

Potter P. Howard served two terms as mayor of Boise, Idaho, from 1947 to 1951.

ugh poor plushenko

"The sanitization of American politics in sport, like the celebration of militarism, illuminates the profound connection between corporate sponsorship and plutocratic governance."

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/14/matt_lauer_pleasant_corporate_stooge_americas_double_standard_on_politicizing_the_olympics/

Where does Johnny Weir fit into all of this?

<iframe class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/M7eex17ZAVm/embed/simple"; width="600" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

wu tang is for the children

sorta knew that wouldn't work...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1960275-swedish-skier-tells-world-wu-tang-is-for-the-children-nearly-loses-pants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvCLr3mSl7w

this is really lovely

the women of curling are very sexy to me

Has anyone tried the abominable NBC olympics iPhone/iPad apps? Jesus Christ what pieces of garbage.

1. They shove like 5 ads at you every time you do ANYTHING - Pause, turn on AirPlay, switch clips...
2. On AirPlay, they only seem to work with mirroring, which means you get a banner ad at the bottom and the video is shrunken down. This, along with the incessant ads.
3. They seem to have a second set of announcers for the events that are on the web. Not that the official ones are great, but it's weird that they have a different set for the app.
4. When you watch a "whole event," they start before the event even starts, introducing the judges, etc., and if you try to skip forward to the actual sports - more fucking ads.

Missing the simplicity of when YouTube had the online video.

is there an app for close up curling women asses - tee heeh eheeheheheheheh! ! ! ! more of that !!!!!!
assalympics!!!!

"Ian Farquhar
1 year ago

Dang. Susan O' Connor has a great big butt. I'm willing to go further for that if you know what I mean."

I'm not sure I do Ian.

http://olympic.ca/team-canada/susan-oconnor/

Slovakia are getting pasted by Slovenia in the final third of the hockey. 3-0 at the moment. Slovenia have never won an Olympic match or afaict beaten Slovakia before.

13 of the Slovenian squad were born in the same town (population 20,000).

Now here's a Short Track Speed Skating name to look out for if you're into "juvenile humour": http://www.sochi2014.com/en/athlete-semen-elistratov

National crisis in Norway as we did not win the assumed safe, guaranteed gold in the women's cross country relay. Not even a medal. Talks of death penalty being reintroduced for the technical team responsible for waxing the skis.

Any obvious reason that Russia goal didn't stand?

The net was off the line, I believe.

Justice that kovalchuk goes down. Asshole

both the men's game and the women's game this morning were awesome imo

reds done got oshie'd

men's skeleton is delivering on triumph and crying porn

Ski jumping was great. Pleased for Kamil Stoch, who picked up his second gold, but it would have been great for Noriaki Kasai to win at the age of 41. He was competing at the Olympics before nine of his rivals were born. In the end Stoch took it by 75cm.

I think everyone was cheering for him. But I had the great pleasure of seeing him win a world cup contest earlier this year (ski flying @ kulm) which was his first win in like 10 years so it's been the happiest of seasons anyway. Great dude, great story.

if ppl haven't seen this yet, i think it's really beautiful + tremendous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzlcVKFVWVI

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2014/02/olympics-ennui.html

National crisis in Norway as we did not win the assumed safe, guaranteed gold in the women's cross country relay. Not even a medal. Talks of death penalty being reintroduced for the technical team responsible for waxing the skis.
― abcfsk, Saturday, 15 February 2014 13:37 (9 hours ago) Permalink

the swedish woman's come-from-30-seconds-behind-to-win-gold in this was the best olympic moment yet for me. holy shit.

if i had one wish, i'd be in as good shape as these cross-country skiers. the strength and stamina involved are incredible. still, you can tell how much they are exerting themselves by the end: they are panting and foaming at the mouth, and when they collapse on the snow after the finish line they can barely move for five minutes.

jason brown killed it w/that program at the u.s. nationals. he was too nervous yesterday unfortunately.

the whole mens free skate was a miserable battle of attrition, too many gd quad jumps that no one can handle. i thought the dude who won bronze skated a fantastic program, but he was the only one who did.

i assume brown has a bright career ahead of him

Brown still has technical stuff to work out but he has plenty of personality.

Free skate was grim but Hanyu deserved it for the short programme.

i thought the dude who won bronze skated a fantastic program, but he was the only one who did.

the kazakh guy! yeah, he was great, and good music choice too as I recall.

he has such a great dancer's build--really compact and powerful. loved how he sprung into the jumps.

next olympics i want to see a routine scored to "dueling banjos"

Steve Holcomb looks like a nu-metal singer.

i don't think he weighs his food, but i could be wrong.

i always forget that bobsled dudes are really big rugby type guys

roffle

http://www.sadanduseless.com/2014/02/faces-of-olympic-figure-skating/

srsly tho figure skating looks crazy impossible and that jason brown skate that mordy linked upthread is pretty much amazing to me

http://www.thenation.com/blog/178409/sochi-land-circassians-they-cant-hide-anymore#

also: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/02/05/the_circassians_and_the_olympics_did_the_age_of_genocide_begin_in_sochi.html

Vladimir Luxuria (queer activist, and first openly trans member of parliament in Europe) arrested in Sochi for holding a gay rights banner, although she's apparently by now been released:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/feb/17/sochi-vladimir-luxuria-gay-rights-banner

The position of the Circassians in the Middle East is super interesting and something I'd definitely like to know more about. Circassian culture has a very strong martial ethos and an incredible focus on loyalty so a lot of them became bodyguards / advisors for the Syrian and Jordanian elites because the kings / presidents knew they could be trusted 100% not to betray them. There's a Circassian town somewhere in Israel and most of the residents are in the IDF, iirc.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2014/02/the-promise-of-jason-brown.html

ice dance final featured some tremendous skating for those who will watch in primetime

it's pretty much impossible not to be spoiled about the results of big marquee events this year before broadcast on primetime

yeah i taped the live event and avoided news sources for like 6 hours today so we could catch up when we got home

other than badminton i'd say figure skating is my favorite olympic sport. loved the ice dancing today, and am 100% in the tank for this brown kid

yeah figure skating owns

I like the new team event.

i enjoyed it but i think it should come after the individual events....since each person/pair only does two programs it's kind of anticlimactic because you've seen some of the best programs already by the time the individual events come around

Needs some tweaks but def a cool addition.

what's the deal w/ the country you represent at the olympics? is there any basis for it or do contestants just apply through the country of their choice? bc it seems like there are athletes representing countries they weren't born in, athletes representing countries they don't currently live in, etc. i assume this was also common during soviet era olympics w/ defectors?

also heard great things about today's american pairs figure skating performance - about to air here

Charlie White and Meryl Davis' relationship goes back for 17 years.

The two talented skaters were first paired together since the age of 10 and have danced together for 17 years. It is no wonder that the two are so well synchronized and their chemistry and love on ice leads viewers to wonder whether the dancers are dating.

However, White explained his relationship with dance partner Davis to Yahoo.com: "As an ice dancer, we take our on-ice relationships so seriously, and that's really the way we like to go about it. Obviously we get a lot of questions about whether the two of us are dating, and that's a good thing, because that means we're doing our job out on the ice. Meryl and I are oftentimes trying to portray people who are in love. We've always been great friends, and we have a special relationship, but we've never been romantically involved."

ohplz

<3 meryl and charlie

lol xp it sounds like it would be like getting involved with your sister but who knows

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/423944/meryl-davis-o.gif

perfect biathlon weather, guys

what a finish to that mass start biathlon

Svendsen did not learn from the blooper reels of olympians losing gold as they celebrated their win, but he juuust made it. Great contest.

some good speed skating on right now -- netherlands guy sets olympic record a few minutes ago, and now his teammate might break the world record in the next heat

man, ran out of gas. great show though

I wanted to deck that reporter from the other day who kept hounding Bode Miller about his dead brother.

one question too many

She should have just let it go once he was so visibly shaken. I just felt so bad for him.

nbc's cross-country commentator is losing his shit

or did, whenever this event actually took place

he's awesome, been going nuts every single race

However, White explained his relationship with dance partner Davis to Yahoo.com: "As an ice dancer, we take our on-ice relationships so seriously, and that's really the way we like to go about it. Obviously we get a lot of questions about whether the two of us are dating, and that's a good thing, because that means we're doing our job out on the ice. Meryl and I are oftentimes trying to portray people who are in love. We've always been great friends, and we have a special relationship, but we've never been romantically involved."

apparently he's dating another figure skater. don't tell the legions of preteen white/davis fans, though.

i admit i got tired pretty quickly of the ice dancing. i thought the american brother-sister duo were adorable, and the french duo pretty amazing. the "2nd" russian duo (the ones who didn't get a medal) had an awful routine ("madness")--embarrassing. you should look like you're having fun out there, ferchrissakes!

above all i got tired of the pumped-up rivalry b/t the canadian and american duos. the canadian lady had good bitchface, i will admit that.

above all though last night's prime time coverage just reminded me how much the speed events are more fun for me than anything else.

also, i was really happy for the ski dude from belarus. he was so fucking pumped to win. i wanted to reach into the TV and give him a high five.

above all

above all

above all

above all

ouch

http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2014/02/16/cross-country-skiers-mom-declares-him-the-worst-norwegian/

Mordy, re citizenship

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/at-sochi-2014-athletes-nationality-is-pliable/2014/02/17/42eba17e-9802-11e3-ae45-458927ccedb6_story.html

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/23/new_yorker_to_ice_dance_for_lithuania_at_olympics/

xp lol Scandinavians are the worst

http://www.theonion.com/articles/lolo-jones-becomes-first-american-to-be-objectifie,35222/

thx curmudgeon have I mentioned lately that ur one of my all time fave posters?

Snowboard cross, for all its lol merits, needs to be gtfo of the Olympics

I like how there's like a 50/50 chance of crossing the finish line once you've started

it is hilarious and i never want to see it go

if they just put pits of crocodiles under the jumps they could always put it in the x games- where it belongs

they should let snowboard crossers punch each other ssx-style

gtfo rolling worst videos of sochi 2014

but no one watches the x games

yeah i really hate the xtreme events being in the olympics, don't even care about the shaun white stuff really

spinning trick stuff is dumb but the snowboard cross is amazing

I like the spinny stuff but skis>>> boards on that

the fog was kind of beautiful today (yesterday)

Snowboard cross is great. It looks like a bit of a lottery but watching Samkova / Vaultier / Olyunin dominate their races shows how little is down to chance when you're the best.

i love the freestyle skiing stuff and all the snowboard events, including and especially snowboard cross which is the closest thing IRL to mario kart

my favorite extreme sport so far was skistyle which blew my mind

Wait Snowboard Cross was not an official event this Olympics?? How does that even make sense??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSpUg__zBTs

This came out in 1998. For fuck's sake's, people.

Too bad no game has matched that yet.

Biathlon mixed relay on now, one of a few mixed events introduced for the first time these winter games.

xp it was an event this olympics, mens final run was aired last night

i love the freestyle skiing stuff and all the snowboard events, including and especially snowboard cross which is the closest thing IRL to mario kart

extremely OTM

wooooow russian hockey team is OUT

Snowboard cross, for all its lol merits, needs to be gtfo of the Olympics

― waved my hands in the air (problems solved) (Hunt3r), Tuesday, February 18, 2014 10:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're kidding, this is by far the most entertaining thing ive seen during this olympics. Both the mens and womens events were friggin hilarious.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg1zyArCMAAHqbi.jpg

man i wanted a rematch

US now favorites to gold?

Canada and Sweden have shorter odds. USA is 3rd, ahead of Finland.

Happy to see that scumbag Kovalchuk go down. Thank you Finland.

Really enjoy seeing male and female teammates embrace after a collective effort - the olympics are such a rigidly gender separated thing most of the time.

i love the freestyle skiing stuff and all the snowboard events, including and especially snowboard cross which is the closest thing IRL to mario kart

― max, Wednesday, February 19, 2014 9:32 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

smh you rube, when snowmobiling is an olympic sport i hope you're happy

besides figure skating i've preferred the x-game events to the historical events. all the snowboarding stuff is super exciting. not so the bobsled stuff.

short track dude

yeah sorry, not so into speed skating. whenever i watch it i think about how i'd rather be watching the 100m sprint.

best events so far:

snow cross
short track
men's figure skating (due to the falls)

i've never been into track events really, i vastly prefer short track to something like a 100 meter sprint. much more strategy/tension imo

i think the permissible bumping/wipeouts in short track are dumb but i love them in snowboard cross, mostly because snowboarding is absurd in the first place

women's figure skating starts today i think? i'm excited to watch tnite. i like wagner

http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2014/02/09/ashley-wagner.png

bring on snowmobiling! the winter olympics are a joke anyway, lets at least make them more entertaining

winter olympics >>>>--->>>> summer olympics bro

Women's figure skating is underway, first favorite out Yuna Kim about 30 minutes away

thanks to childhood, I associate snowmobiling with barbed wire decapitations

obv I support this as an Olympic sport

no way are winter better than summer. winter are just bourgie western countries congratulating each other on their wealthy ppl sports.

winter are so much better than summer

summer has horse dancing, ergo winter wins

summer has running, throwing, jumping + swimming

An entire week of summer olympics is dominated by track and field events, the least exciting of the bunch. Also summer - b grade football tournament, winter - super hyped ice hockey games. Summer - static gun firing events, winter - biathlon.

if the summer olympics stepped their game up and included shuffleboard to rival curling, then we might be getting somewhere

also sochi bear is still mourning russia's loss

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg2b0khIUAArMYe.jpg

It was kind of hilarious watching the women's super combined and basically seeing that there's an unofficial "must be this cute to participate in the sport" criterion at play; at one point my wife was all "is this the sport all the pretty rich girls do?" (I think it was during Julia Mancuso's "training montage" set in Hawaii. which may be the most surreal thing I've seen in Olympic coverage since watching Mary Carillo eat a scorpion in Beijing)

Mary Carillo coverage is the best

I think summer vs winter needs to be polled

yeah poll it

they introduced snomobile into winter x-games the year before they stopped showing it here. it was surprisingly dull.

(the last 3 or 4 years they showed the x-games here, on a minor channel at 2am, they started introducing more and more motor-racing and that was really dull too. i watch the xgames for the skateboarding and bmx. if i wanted to watch rallying i'd watch rallying.)

tuuka rask finding new ways to be my favorite goalie, huh

Summer Olympic Games vs. Winter Olympic Games

we should have really polled that in fall or something when we will all be much calmer about the whole thing ;)

The routine was a little awkward but Polina Edmunds has got some skills.

Ovechkin scored only 1 goal for the Ruskies. Tisk tisk...

Yuna scored a bit lower than her very best, but should still be the best in this competition. I like Yulia but no way should she outscore that.

Ovechkin isn't so good w/o his linemates from the Caps plus there is some beef between him and Malkin allegedly.

Yulia fell :(

She looks distraught.

Poor Yulia. Her sad little face! :(

But I think she still wouldn't have outscored Yuna even if she had made that jump - her spins and flexibility are impressive but she just lacks... I dunno, flair? There's something stiff about her performance. Only 15 though, fully expect her to rule 2018.

Sotnikova omg

I know!

Neck and neck! I'm still cheering for Yuna.

Costner and Sotnikova both with personal bests. Surprising. Nice, high quality top three though.

bodie miller has $175k worth of skiing equipment that he wears during his runs. it's too un-egalitarian imho.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/fa4292d61a9ce14e9d17325bcaf454af/tumblr_n0ymf6iimP1rsr4poo2_250.gif http://25.media.tumblr.com/2840da04f34d05dca724a85b602603e7/tumblr_n0ymf6iimP1rsr4poo1_250.gif

love how he can't turn his head without closing his eyes

jesus that mao asada routine was tough to watch.

xp real kudos to NBC imo

Tara/Johnny has been a good move imo

they're amazing and should absolutely be doing primetime over scott hamilton and that horrible lady

my only complaint with tara/johnny is their weirdly bulky headsets

lol ski cross right now. final jump and guy in first place falls on landing, guy in second place too cos he's right behind, guy in third crosses the finish line first and guy in last place also falls. photo finish to find who finished second and the photo is hilarious with all three skiers lying down and stretching towards the line.

how GREAT is curling, guys

even if it's a Bronze medal match!!

ok I'll watch the Ski Cross Final for the broken limbs

whoa just watching the replay of everything crashing over the line!!

curling is awesome
ski cross final in a few minutes. 4 competitors, 3 of them french !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26265230

I am amazed that I didn't know about Johnny before these games because my god he's wonderful and I love him and yeah, kudos to NBC big time.

honestly I'm still surprised by how great a commentator Tara is

Mao! What a comeback from yesterday. Emotional.

That was wonderful. I was tearing up at the end. :')

Mao <3

Really glad she got to redeem herself after that painful SP - that was a gorgeous performance. Going out in style.

These Two (Women's Hockey) Teams Just Don't Like Each Other

ban skating to 'rhapsody in blue'

Daaaaamn Kostner and Sotnikova. Am beyond nervous for Yuna now.

149!

Really don't get that score. Several shabby landings. Thought Carolina was better in all other aspects as well.

Yeah, I call bs, as amazing as that performance was, no way was it 8 points better than Kostner's.

Possibly somewhat generous to Gold as well.

Can't breathe. Please be perfect Yuna.

Yuna has magic powers, she can do it.

USA 2-0 CAN in women's hockey!

Omg it's Adelina!

;_;

Fuck this

Overscored in short and in free. Put in 1st place fully artificially.

I like Sotnikova but ugh this is so wrong...

Awww

I guess I don't understand figure skating. Yuna's skate looked perfect.

I don't have the expertise to judge correctly but commentators are saying her jumps were more difficult if not as flawlessly executed.

i watch ice hockey basically only at the olympics but i really liked the canadian team at the last olympics and their awesome cigars&champagne celebration when they won in vancouver. so i'm a bit disappointed, they don't look very convincing to my untrained eye.

third plalce game between sweden&switzerlandwas a lot more entertaining tbh

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg8HTV4CQAA2i63.jpg

lol at that usa shot hitting the post after canada took their goalie off the ice.
also, in this case the ref kinda blocked the canadian player from getting the puck and thus almost gave a goal to the uS. is that something that happens often?

annnd yes, canada equalise with les than a minute to go

WOOHOO game tied!

That's not something that happens often, the officiating for both women's and men's hockey has been abysmal. xp

ok thx. cos i feel like i've seen the ref blocking a player happen so many times in the 4-5 games i've watched this time around.

lol at that even-up call

also how is that not a penalty shot

CANADA

well that is pretty rough

i guess the kessel and bozak families are used to this stuff tho

It's not a penalty shot because she wasn't even close to having a chance to score. Correct call IMO, congrats Canada.

The slashing call on the USA prior to that was bullshit but oh well.

two goal lead, the most dangerous lead in hockey *solemnly nods*

3 goal lead is worse, says this Maple Leafs fan

kind of glad i don't (/can't: lol britishes) follow this sport on the regular because it is so impossibly stressful. poor team usa :( :( :(

canada hasn't lost an olympic game since 1998

We watched down in the gym with the whole school. Five hundred intermediate kids--bedlam, of course. Another teacher got a heads-up about a minute ahead of the winning goal--she was texting with someone who had a more reliable feed--so her and a bunch of teachers started moving into position (whatever that means...) right away. Happily, no one got too stupid.

same thing tomorrow?

Hockey is best.

SOCHI, Russia -- One of the nine judges who picked a young Russian skater over two more refined competitors for the Olympic gold medal Thursday night was suspended for a year for trying to fix an event at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

And another is the wife of the president of the Russian figure skating federation.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/brennan/2014/02/20/winter-olympics-games-sochi-figure-skating-women-yuna-kim-gracie-gold/5643143/?AID=10709313&PID=6149513&SID=1kll3tbez7uem

A year? What the fuck.

Man, even the 2002 judges responsible for tarnishing the ISU's entire scoring system only got 3-year suspensions.

I don't know how instructive this is but it's interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/20/sports/olympics/womens-figure-skating-jumps.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

same thing tomorrow?

― mookieproof

More of a class-by-class thing. I was actually kind of down on the idea today, because we've had a lot of interruptions the past couple of weeks and I've been scrambling to work stuff in. I'm of course glad now that no one pays attention to me. If it's an afternoon game, I'll definitely have it on for my two art classes.

yuna kim was robbed!

IMO it should have gone

1. yuma kim
2. carolina kostner (sp?)
3. maybe adelina sotnikova

Otm

Lipnitskaia was the most memorable skater of the competition for me, which is why the team competition seems like a bad idea to me.

is she the little 15-year-old russian girl? i was rooting for her, in part b/c i knew she wasn't really threatening carolina or yuna.

yuna kim is a like god. her outfit was great—I loved the way that when she spun the two colors of her suit—green and black IIRC—flashed in alternation. also, for the lack of a better word, her routine had a great through-line to it. what she did at the end was unique and expressive!

i don't have the vocabulary to describe this stuff, but she seemed off the charts great to me save for one minor mistake on a landing.

like a god

Are any of us in a position to make a valid judgement though? Yuna got a higher presentation score, after all.

Robin Cousins was was discussing this on the BBC and said that he thought Kim was a lock for gold, as did Katerina Witt, but they both called it before her routine finished. When he watched the slow motion replay of the whole thing he knew it was going to be much more close. I don't think he agreed with a five point gap but did seem to think that Yuna's presentation was so remarkably smooth that he didn't pick up on the fact it wasn't as technically challenging.

of course i'm no position to make an authoritative judgment!

http://bilder.bild.de/fotos-skaliert/aaa-biathletin_37122889-1392980375-1-34781450/3,w=993,c=0.bild.jpg

yeah sotnikova's program had the higher technical score -- this was discussed even before the programs began as a potential difference-maker -- and she pretty much nailed her routine, save for a slip-up on (i think) that triple flip. yuna as graceful as always but she chose to skate a less challenging program and when you're in a virtual tie after the SP that's the risk you take

lipnitskaia is a fantastic technical skater (especially her spins, my god) and it seems like a foregone conclusion she'll be a world champion soon enough but her programs didn't really engage me -- she's so emotionally distant; there's no feeling in any of her moves, they feel cursory. part of that is being 15 tho obv

Felt sotnikova's steps and basically execution of every element was so much worse, hardly bronze medal stuff, nevermind gold, that the higher difficult was basically irrelevant.

only watched the 3rd but it looked liked canuckleheads deserved it.

USA didn't play with a finals mentality. Their whole game was tentative.

only watched the 3rd but it looked liked canuckleheads deserved it.

― bnw, Friday, February 21, 2014 2:13 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I cant imagine any scenario by which they would deserve it.

two cases of bud lite lime for stephen harper

Hahaha

It was so disappointing that Elise Christie got disqualified in the speed skating for the 3rd time. I can't really work out what she did wrong.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/22/sports/olympics/from-johnny-weirs-team-a-fresh-voice-for-nbc.html

...makes me wish I had cable.

From Johnny Weir’s Team, a Fresh Voice for NBC

By RICHARD SANDOMIRFEB. 21, 2014

NBC’s deployment of two figure skating announcing teams for the Sochi Games creates an opportunity to compare how each performed at an important moment.

Calling the women’s free skate live Thursday on NBCSN were Johnny Weir, Tara Lipinski and Terry Gannon, who have demonstrated the ability to deliver quick, critical analysis. Calling it on NBC in prime time in a recorded package were Scott Hamilton, Sandra Bezic and Tom Hammond, enthusiasts who are given as much to analysis of triples as they are to flowery praise.

The most important moment Thursday was how each team assessed Kim Yu-na, the defending Olympic champion and final skater of the night, who had been challenged by the Russian Adelina Sotnikova.

Shortly before Kim finished her program, Weir said that she looked “a bit tight,” and when she was done, he said quickly: “On a night when she needed to give more, she didn’t. She gave what she had to.”

As Lipinski watched the replay, she noted that the height of Kim’s jumps and her speed were less than usual, and that Kim had landed six triples to Sotnikova’s seven.

Hamilton noticed a shaky landing by Kim on a triple lutz. But when her skate was over, Hamilton and Bezic filled the Sochi air with superlatives. “She skated incredibly, perfectly,” Hamilton said. Bezic said the performance was “pulled back” from Kim’s free skate four years ago in Vancouver, yet called it “four years better, four years more mature, and spirited, and sensual.”

And even after Hamilton suggested that the scoring system might benefit Sotnikova — that the Russian’s technical elements were so high that Kim needed a “phenomenal artistic score” to win the gold medal — Bezic declared that Kim’s performance “was head and shoulders above anyone else.”

When Kim’s score gave her the silver, Weir was quick to offer needed context, saying of Kim: “On any other night this would be hers, but Adelina Sotnikova made the Olympic moment.”

Lipinski added: “You cannot skate safe in the Olympics.”

Hamilton and Bezic let the score stand on its own, without criticism. “She went up against an artist and threw everything she could at her in the air,” Hamilton said in his praise of Sotnikova.

As their broadcasts ended, neither announcing team raised the possibility of the controversy that has once again engulfed the judging of Olympic figure skating. By Friday morning, 1.7 million people had signed a petition at change.org demanding an investigation into the debated decision to award the gold to Sotnikova. The petition cites some prominent comments on Twitter, including one by Katarina Witt, the last woman to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals. “Shame Gold Medal,” she wrote. “Yuna Kim is a real queen.”

NBC Sports executives will not decide for a while how to use their two announcing teams in four years at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. In its first Olympics, the Weir team has earned raves; one friend told me that listening to their preternaturally smart analysis reminded him of hearing John McEnroe analyze tennis on television for the first time. Naturals.

Hard-core fans might want to keep the teams where they are. Weir, Lipinski and Gannon have been terrific, with the energy to call one routine after another for hours; they have also given viewers some real-time narration of skaters’ scores as they are being totaled, which they can see on monitors in front of them.

Maybe the NBCSN cable channel is the best place for them. Maybe the tight structure of the prime-time package, with its long commercials breaks, would make them less effective.

Hamilton, Bezic and Hammond are reliable and usually good (although I could do without Hamilton’s emotional sound effects). But sometimes announcing teams reach a plateau and need a shake-up.

And sometimes viewers like to hear a sport called by new voices who are closer to current athletes and speak to one another as if in a friendly conversation. So it would surprise no one if NBC infused youthful voices in its prime-time figure skating booth in the same way it uses sports like snowboard cross and halfpipe as part of a strategy to reach young viewers.

I love listening to Bezic & Hamilton-- you can almost hear her patting Scott's head when he gets excited.

loooooooooool at this Jr Celski piece on Macklemore

shameful

lol i saw that and the second macklemore showed up i was like that....is not where i thought this piece was going

The final biathlon men's relay essentially turned out to be a duel for top position on the overall medal standings - Russia vs Norway, and Norway's Svendsen, in the lead on the final shooting, collapsed, giving the gold and overall lead to Russia.

Ha! I had Russia at 9/1 to win most gold medals.

GG

Now the FS gala with its wonderful absence of judges.

Finland with easy men's hockey bronze win over US 5 to 0

Both USA teams chokers, men much more so.

http://i.imgur.com/7t0TZd0.jpg

Russia 1-2-3 in the 50km means they can't be caught at the top of the table (and that I win my bet).

Another gold in the four man bob for good measure.

And the sporting events of the 2014 OG are over!

http://i.minus.com/ji8F8Dy0VQClC.jpg

Closing ceremony on in 10 mins

http://i.minus.com/iS3ryuB2Emq4L.gif

Loved the fifth-ring self-parody choreography

GB got their best medal haul since Chamonix 1924. Go GB!

ok - so what the hell is that creepy-ass gif?!

bear say bye to me

the tear appears to be scarring it's face.

I hate when the Olympics are over.

the cross-country "marathon" was pretty exciting. russia sweeps! i feel bad for norwegian dude.

the american guy, who was not remotely expected to metal, did surprisingly well, esp. in the 1st half. interviewed afterward, he had a real good attitude about it too.

what did people think of the french ice dancing couple's dirty dancing moves in the figure skating gala?

Am I wrong or did Adelina get tangled up in her props during the gala?

medal, not metal

French pair (Pechalat / Bourzat) were my favourites!

Also really liked Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. It's a cliche but they do skate with more soul than Davis / White.

yeah the french duo's gala performance was delightfully tacky, esp. when they switched to the remix.

Is that a dancing Dostoevsky in the closing ceremony now?

K-pop now because the next winter Olympics are in South Korea

The crying bear again...

I love listening to Bezic & Hamilton-- you can almost hear her patting Scott's head when he gets excited.

― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Friday, February 21, 2014 7:37 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

those two are very good imo, they have just the right tone and timing for announcing figure skating -- it sort of reminds me of hearing margaret juntwait announce opera over the radio. but i do prefer weir and tara -- i think the mcenroe comparison is pretty spot-on

preferred finale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV4JNUu02ro

i thought of the leningrad cowboys when NBC briefly featured the Russian Policeman's Choir

remind me what the dia de los muertos imagery is all about

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/sports/russia-doping-sochi-olympics-2014.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/271/69/69271/1391788153-0.jpg

wow thats big

just putin being putinesque