Winter Olympics 2014

[sixbuttons]

I agree that the commentators were knowledgeable and passionate about the sport. I wouldn't agree that 'whooping and a hollering' is somehow a new 'fresh' or 'cool' element to sporting commentary. Surely the purpose of the commentator is to enhance the visual with choice words or even aptly timed silence as the truly greats can do. Not just to start screaming his/her head off when something interesting happens.

There is no doubt that the snowboarding community is a relatively small and close knit group, especially the British scene as GB isn't a winter sports country per se. I still think when you are broadcasting you need to reign in the bias just a tad.

Maybe I'm wrong though, I might just be a total square man

I'm not saying you don't have a valid point, I'm more offering an explanation for what it is being what it is. It is maybe that thing of being a non-traditional sport - snowboarding and freestyle skiing has really only been around since the 60s and 70s and the first bout of major competitors have really only retired and taken up the traditional punditry and coaching positions that come with a competitive sport.

Personally, for me, I love boarding as a sport because you are so far removed from traditional rules of a game as you can get. You fight against fundamental unmovable forces of nature, not each other and not governing bodies. There's a freedom to experiment with that you might not get with more traditional sport and that's probably reflected in the attitudes of the participants and pundits. I felt more like whooping when I 180'd my board for the first time (not difficult at all) than I did when I learnt to smash a shuttlecock, for instance. I didn't whoop though

It's had really no time to be reserved as a sport, and it's perhaps not a sport that should be reserved. But that's a debate for another day.

[sixbuttons]

Cheering when a competitor falls is not commentating. The bloke might have been knowledgable, but he didn't have much of a grasp of English. ("Nerves are rising at the top of the course" - no, Tension rises, nerves tighten.) At no point was the competition format explained - I was expecting the runs to be in reverse order of points in the first run, and they kept reinforcing this with "three great boarders to come" - except two of them had scored buttons in their first run so their chances of beating Jones were pretty poor. The eventual gold medallist was described as "the Queen of the Snowboard" with no further info, you know, like the fact that she is the World Tour #1. We are continually told that it is a friendly, tight knit community, and then they start screaming with joy when one of them falls.

I'm all for passion in commentary but it has to come second to describing the action for the viewer. This wasn't commentating, it was impartial cheerleading with no thought for those watching. You'd have got exactly the same result if you had taken three people out of the stands and given them microphones.

Be reasonable - it wasn't screaming for joy because she fell, it was screaming for joy because it meant Jenny had her bronze. Simple as that. If she'd stomped the run and fallen short of Jones' score, they would've whooped all the same.

Listen to them go off when Candrian hit that 1080 (it's the run after Jenny's and it was a ridiculously good trick, any other competition that would've topped Jenny's run, but these Olympics judges were on crack). Mass respect.

On your other point, they did have every chance of topping Jenny's run. It's the best of either run and there's no doubt most of these girls have a bit more variety in their locker than JJ does at this point (age'll do that to ya, I suppose). But in a normal competition, if you make a mistake you are usually only downmarked on the actual trick, not the entire run. This spoilt it for me a bit as it meant the dialled back runs that had tricks easier to land were frequently outscoring the bigger flips. This is what happens when you give a ski federation the job of scoring a snowboarding event.

Not that I'm complaining as that inconsistency has given us a medal...

[fragglerock]

I expect the judging will be similarly mental in the ski slopestyle.

[catinthehat]

Dunno if this is poor netiquette or not, but Jenny Jones posts over on another forum I use and it's gone mental over there in the last hour or so.

Love the way she turns up a bit later in that thread just to say hello to her forum mates. What a gal.

http://www.villatalk.com/index.php/topic/10725-sochi-2014-winter-olympics/page-34#entry1233020

[fragglerock]

Fuck this work shit... I want to sit in front of the telly watching people slide around on various different surfaces!

[GViper]

Actually Canada's CBC got commentary right for the slopestyle. Explained the moves, what that meant for next jump, then excitement on nailing the last trick.

Saying that, it was awful during the opening ceremony, didn't shut up at all. Fuck you, Peter Mansbridge.

[bradigor]

Finland are taking on Canada in the Woman's Ice Hockey right now. The game itself is nothing spectacular and currently 0-0 at the end of the second period.

However, it has British interest with the officials as Joy Trottman (now Johnson) is officiating. She is a local official to me, often taking charge of Chelmsford games (Cheiftains and Academy) and it is great to see he out there.

She is doing a blog of her time in Sochi

http://www.joyinsochi.blogspot.co.uk/

[ryodi]

The BBC got 303 complains about the commentary during Jenny Jones slope style coverage

http://gu.com/p/3mj3x/tw

I thought the enthusiasm was great and it was obvious they were cheering because the fall meant Jones had definitely won a medal, not because the other snowboarder fell.

[shock33]

Think ipod got lucky there, thought the 15 year old Japanese kids run was the best by far

[Shimmyhill]

Think ipod got lucky there, thought the 15 year old Japanese kids run was the best by far

I was just blown away by all of them, great that after all those years of Shaun White domination he got one - some of the younger ones are just outrageous!

[Plissken]

Just seen the clips. That winning run was superb.

[sixbuttons]

Had a little smirk to myself when White failed to make the podium. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice bloke but he's done a lot of things in the past that are deliberately to the detriment of his competitors (have an entire park closed off when your closest competition is in town to practice? Classy) and is out to win at any and all costs. His actions are very antithesis to the spirit of snowboarding.

He reminds me of Billy Mitchell from King of Kong.

[merman]

Another good performance in the ski slope style for fifth.

A shame for Elise Christie to be disqualified in the 500m short track, but still got her best chance to come.

[merman]

Anyone see the luge relay? It's mad!

Female single slider first, after the finish is a pad she has to hit. This lets the second male slider start his run, he hits the pad and the two-man luge finishes it off.

The Germans took a clean sweep of the luge medals in the end.

[Mr Do 71]

@SkyNewsBreak

British athlete Lizzy Yarnold wins Team GB's first 2014 Winter Olympics gold in the skeleton competition in Sochi

[catinthehat]

Well done, everybody! I like to think we all helped in our own little way.

Great job.

[merman]

Lizzy was so far ahead, she could have gone half a second slower than her slowest run and still won Gold. Dominant.

[MrPogo]

Seems strange how inconsistent the scoring systems are across various events; falling over twice in his routine didn't stop a figure skater winning gold, but even slightly brushing the snow with your fingers in the snowboarding when landing the most impressive trick of the competition completely fucks your score.

[jonamok]

Elise Christie robbed again?

[p1nseeker]

What happened there? I didn't see anything worth penalising.

[Plissken]

Seems strange how inconsistent the scoring systems are across various events; falling over twice in his routine didn't stop a figure skater winning gold, but even slightly brushing the snow with your fingers in the snowboarding when landing the most impressive trick of the competition completely fucks your score.

I haven't seen the free skate, but the scores were combined with a previous routine and the lad was the first to ever break 100 in that, so I assume he was so far ahead it didn't matter.

[merman]

What happened there? I didn't see anything worth penalising.

Now saying she was inside the course and did not cross the finish line (the black line).

[jonamok]

She was inside it by 1cm so fair enough, but it's a shit rule because she gained no advantage from it, she actually travelled further to the line than the girl she beat. Such bad luck. Deserved a medal or two already, and now has to pick herself up for a third try on Tuesday. And she's had to delete her twitter account due to cyberbullying for fuck's sake.

[Dame Orbette]

Women's snowboard cross is on. It's awesome. I didn't realise this was included, I was looking forward to ski cross. ALL the crashing out.

[Gringo]

Snowboard cross was well exciting. Some dodgy camera work at times though.

[Plissken]

I thought that was because of the cable cam and the fact that the tracks seem much wider than before - I'm sure it used to be four to a race and not six.

Fun though. Zoe Gillings was very unlucky not to make the final.

[fragglerock]

It did used to be four.

Yeh she was really lucky to be in 3rd, then unlucky to miss it on the last jump.

Ski Cross is just as fun! they have weapons!

[Plissken]

Russia involved in an epic hockey match for the second game in a row. Beginning to feel for them a bit, the pressure on them is insane. But they aren't playing well.

[Plissken]

And in my becoming regular "the BBC commentators are shit" posting, I've had to mute the hockey commentary because it is so, so incredibly bad.

[bradigor]

And in my becoming regular "the BBC commentators are shit" posting, I've had to mute the hockey commentary because it is so, so incredibly bad.

I just watch the CBC feeds instead. Thank christ for Hockeystreams.com