Winter Olympics 2014

[Bacon Horsemeat]

She's going to punch someone!!!

[Plissken]

I genuinely want the snowboarding commentators to be fired out of a giant cannon into the sun.

[jonamok]

Would watch. They could do their trademark inarticulate screaming and shouting as they flew heavenwards (at least while still in atmo).

[merman]

Parallel slalom was ace this morning, Vic Wild with his second gold and some nail-bitingly close finishes.

[Plissken]

Yes, the actual sport was great entertainment. That German police officer losing in the last few feet. The fact that they set it so that whoever hits the finish line in the second run first is the winner is a great idea.

[merman]

Very good closing ceremony, including references to 1980 and the failure of the snowflake in this year's opening ceremony.

Six drugs tests failed, including a Swedish ice hockey player withdrawn from the final.

All in all, I thought the standard of competition was high and the Russians organised it well with only one or two minor problems.

[jonamok]

Short-track judging. Grumble grumble.

[bradigor]

Very good closing ceremony, including references to 1980 and the failure of the snowflake in this year's opening ceremony.

Six drugs tests failed, including a Swedish ice hockey player withdrawn from the final.

All in all, I thought the standard of competition was high and the Russians organised it well with only one or two minor problems.

It is an odd situation this one and something I believe the Swedes will be taking up with someone. Niklas Backstrom was found to have a banned substance, but it was part of his medicine to treat his Sinusitis and isn't a banned substance by the IIHF or the NHL.

The Swedes are livid as he was only pulled 20 minutes before the final itself, despite being found much earlier.

Edit: Article here about it: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/sochi/2014/02/23/nicklas-backstrom-doping-test-sweden-olympic-hockey/5755859/

[Plissken]

Plisskens hastily typed review:

Closing Ceremony felt like an Opening Ceremony, really. More celebration of Russia, rather than the athletes party I (and Hazel Irvine) expected. Not that it was a bad ceremony, it wasn't. Loved the animatronic things, the extinguishing of the flame, the nod to the ring failure (the only bit of wit in the thing though). London 2012 will likely always remain my favourite for its celebration of ordinariness, but that was a damned good show and knocked London 2012 CC into a cocked hat.

Fell in love with curling. Want to see more (and want to have a go!) but that will undoubtedly be it for four years, which is an incredible shame. Yes, you either Get It or you don't, but if you do, it is a fascinating game. Am I being slightly unfair in saying Dave Murdoch and co clearly were utterly delighted to get silver and it affected their game in the Final? Cram and Lockhart in the commentary box were a brilliant pairing.

The hockey tournament never took flight. Not sure why - Russia were either going to win it in style or underperform massively - after the first five minutes of their opening game, they chose the latter and went out with a whimper, leaving Canada a clear run to the gold. Womens tournament was much better, with yet another classic match between Canada and the US. Commentary was a complete shower of shit, from two people who ought to know better.

Elise Christie must have headed to the short track rink each day with a route design to ensure she stepped on every black cat and walked under every ladder. That third disqualification was a joke. Perhaps a poor start position in Run 1 stopped our bobsledding team from a medal - I'm not sure they are getting the props they deserve. Lizzy Yarnold deservedly rules the skeleton bob. Amy Williams made the move from competitor to commentator pretty well I thought and bobsled really works in HD especially when you can see the runners on the sled twitching from side to side - you appreciate the skill involved.

It seems it is possible to love the snowboarding events while despising everyone involved in them. Extravagantly self-conscious and cliched from competitors to commentary. Preferred the racing aspect rather than the slopestyle, but not going to knock the sheer guts involved in the latter. Could quite happily drop kick some of the "characters" off a cliff. Terrible, terrible commentary, opening with a group of five year olds overdosing on Sunny Delight and by the end becoming an awful Sid Waddell tribute act. Kudos to the editors in Salford, who usually managed to cobble something together for the highlights show that made vague English sense.

Yes, I am getting old.

Never got into ice dance. Always loved watching cross country/biathlon. Niche of the niche, I know. Clare Balding continues her trajectory towards sainthood. The Shopping Trolley is slated to be on a future series of Celebrity Big Brother.

1,446 days to Pyeongchang!

[jonamok]

Great summary. Agree with all that.

[JohnnyNolan]

Agree with most of that other than I liked the snowboarders and really liked the fact most of them seemed to be happy to support each other no matter who they represented.

My down point would be the BBC's self importance at the expense of the sport. Fuck the shopping trolley stuff, it's not interesting or funny. Even worse when they run a five minute segment of a shopping trolley at the expense of showing the athletes and sport. The broadcast should be about the games, not the bloody BBC.

[csuzw]

The hockey tournament never took flight. Not sure why - Russia were either going to win it in style or underperform massively - after the first five minutes of their opening game, they chose the latter and went out with a whimper, leaving Canada a clear run to the gold. Womens tournament was much better, with yet another classic match between Canada and the US. Commentary was a complete shower of shit, from two people who ought to know better.

I didn't think the women's tournament was that interesting. The disparity between Canada and USA to the rest of the teams is too big. The only reason Canada and USA didn't get double digits in most of their games was the opposition goaltenders playing amazing.

On the other hand I thought the men's competition was made more interesting by the bigger teams not really showing up. Some of the smaller teams like Latvia and Slovenia got further than expected. I just wish Finland could have won it. I think it would have been a real possibility if Rask had been in the semi (not the Lehtonen is a bad replacement). Still Selanne scored a few and got a medal so that was good.

[merman]

Short-track judging. Grumble grumble.

International Federation judges who judge all tournaments, not Russian.

Same could be said for the fuss over the ladies figure skating. Korean skater's routines in short and free programme were less technical than the winner's.

[stefcha]

One thing that really annoyed me - a bit yesterday(?) where Graham Bell was on about some initiative about snow sports, bringing it to the less privileged then citing the upcoming Katie Ormerod almost as if she's someone that's benefitted from that sort of thing. She's really good, but then she's at a 3k a term private school (getting a 30% sports scholarship off that, but still not cheap) so it's not like she's been struggling through adversity or anything.

[stefcha]

Same could be said for the fuss over the ladies figure skating. Korean skater's routines in short and free programme were less technical than the winner's.

Yuna Kim was clearly a better skater than anyone else by miles though, most of it bored me and so many people were obviously struggling if not falling but she was absolutely mesmerising and made the whole thing look completely effortless in comparison - which possibly turned out to be the downfall if was due to being an easier run, unfortunately. Be interesting to see a really detailed breakdown of each routine, although there's ultimately no way of knowing how the judges came to their decision.

[csuzw]

I didn't pay much attention to the figure skating as the voting seems farcical every time I see it but from what I did see this time, without having a clue who was meant to best etc, I thought the Russian who won was best. I just find it funny that the 1 time I think they got the result right, there's a whole bunch of controversy over it.

[merman]

I didn't pay much attention to the figure skating as the voting seems farcical every time I see it but from what I did see this time, without having a clue who was meant to best etc, I thought the Russian who won was best. I just find it funny that the 1 time I think they got the result right, there's a whole bunch of controversy over it.

Listening to the commentary, you can hear Robin Cousens refer to the fact that Yuna Kim scored less on the transitions and spins. She was already behind on points from the short programme.

[Bacon Horsemeat]

The third DQ for Elise I think was to do with her elbowing the Chinese woman before she took her out, not for the same incident. Makes sense as you can't penalise the victim and the guilty for the same incident!

[AnimeExpert2003]

I've been reading up about the figure skating scoring, and it all sounds a bit of a mess, but really it doesn't even matter what was right or wrong on the night anymore, because the way it's going to be remembered is Yuna Kim not getting the gold medal she deserved.

I've watched the routines a few times, and I feel the same as the masses do on this one. Why wouldn't I? Kim's routines were beyond mesmerizing. She was just on another level completely. And then she didn't win.

[stefcha]

Thought this was quite a good article on it all:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/02/the-sad-perfect-end-of-kim-yunas-figure-skating-reign/283986/

Under the revamped system, you record more points if you perform a more difficult element and fall than if you performed an easier element and stayed on your feet.

Ultimately, she'll have known that although I don't know if you have to reveal what you'll be doing beforehand and then have to stick to it or if she could've modified things to be more difficult? Whatever, if I had to watch one of them again it'd be her no contest, and I'd enjoy it which for something that generally bores me to tears is something.

[fat flatulent git]

Listening to the commentary, you can hear Robin Cousens refer to the fact that Yuna Kim scored less on the transitions and spins. She was already behind on points from the short programme.

Kim was slightly ahead after the short program.

[Commander Jameson]

After news that Oslo is pulling out of the bids to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, leaving only Beijing and Almaty in Kazakhstan, here is a fantastic article about the IOC and the bidding process by Dan Wetzel.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/why-no-one-wants-to-host-the-2022-olympics-225450509.html

The list of IOC demands is... interesting.