Sadly, I was too tired to even make it through the "B's" during the Parade of Nations. Can't wait to see the skeleton and the bobsledding, though!
I don't like KD Lang's grating stand on certain issues, but I sure had to respect her rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. She really crushed that song. Well done.
At the end end of the ceremony they had these 3 giant torches in a big sculpture. They looked like giant joints. I bet the snowboarders got excited seeing that!
At the end end of the ceremony they had these 3 giant torches in a big sculpture. They looked like giant joints. I bet the snowboarders got excited seeing that!
The tech side was great. I never could take all the dancing and stuff that these shows are always rife with though. Come to think of it, I didn't know they had clog dancing in Canada.
Wasn't Rush supposed to play?
Limbaugh?:cross:
Of course, we can't see anything live. In the pacific time zone they're tape delaying everything. Even though the OLYMPICS are TAKING PLACE in the PACIFIC TIME ZONE!
I ****ing hate NBC.
hehe that was my first thought. At least he'd be able to tell Lindsey Vonn where to get some good painkillers for her shin!
The "investigation" of the luge death kind of bugs me. They decided that there's nothing wrong with the track and how it's designed and that it was the rider's fault. They said It appears after a routine run, the athlete came late out of curve 15 and did not compensate properly to make correct entrance into curve 16, and it was his mistake that killed him.
People make mistakes! All the time! So you have to have a perfect run if you want to live? Mistakes should mean you lose, not that you get killed. You should be able to make a mistake and not fly off the track and die.
People make mistakes! All the time! So you have to have a perfect run if you want to live? Mistakes should mean you lose, not that you get killed. You should be able to make a mistake and not fly off the track and die.
I think that they should ban horse riding if they did that Christopher Reeve and countless others would still be alive.
Chris lived for 10 years after his accident
i'll also add, the scoring on the figure skating short program was amazing in its randomness.
granted, i don't know much (anything) about figure staking, but the announcers seemed to be shocked at times. not that that means anything.
but couples who fell down were scoring higher than couples that didn't. maybe that's not a big a deal as i think it is.
With that being said, I thought short track was supposed to be an Individual event. It seems to me that those S. Koreans were working together, which I get to a point. But they were REALLY going out of their way to screw Ohno over.
Ohno got damn lucky those two wrecked.
I think the olympics are different. If I'm a speed skater, at any other event I am trying to place the best that I can. However, the olympics bring an underlying sense of national pride, so I'm going to do what I can to get my country as many medals as it can.
I disagree. For me the Olympics should be primarily about individual achievement. The nationalism thing will arise naturally, but it is more of a scourge than a benefit of the Olympic games. You should do your best for your own personal pride and screw everyone else.
I agree with this.
Does an Olympic athlete train so their COUNTRY can win a gold?
No, they train so THEY can win a gold.
First of all, I should clarify that I think that there is a point when nationalism ends and you just go for the gold. Before that, though, many people in so-called individual sports will work together, nationalism or not. Maybe I just have more national pride than the average person (<-this is the part where I troll you to make you upset), but if I can work with one of my countrymen to prevent someone from another country from beating either one of us and just make it come down to a last lap race between the two of us, I will do that. .
Dale Begg-Smith proved that. Canada team tries to force him to quit his businesses and he jumps ship, as he rightly should have.
This does not upset me at all, and I totally understand that sentiment. For me though, I would always be supporting the most dedicated athlete that in some cases even had to overcome the barriers put up by their own nation over someone like, for instance Body Miller in the last winter games who partied all night and was so full of arrogance. I want the guy I LIKE to win!
The S#ccer World cup (Still can't type the "S" word in full) is coming later this year. Now, that is a different thing all together. S#ccer is a team sport and they are all representing their nations as a team. There are no individuals, so you are left to freely support your own team through national pride alone. There is nothing wrong with that. You are born into a team although you can still have a soft spot for other teams. However, that soft spot is almost always formed by political influences.
Wait. Are you saying that the difference between competing for your country, and competing for your own pride is the number of participants?
So a single person can compete for himself, while a team has to compete for their country?
Basically, yes. Team sports are different from individual sports. If you are a downhill skier, you are on your own. Your achievements are your own, and the gold medal is yours alone. If you are a member of a team, then that is self explanatory. You are representing yourself as a member of a team. If you are a good team member, then the well being and succes of the team is more important than your own ambition. When this is the case, then yes. You will be up for team USA and want your country to win the gold as if the team were an individual competitor.
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