winter olympics

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I understand your point in this post, but it only says that an individual is concerned with his own self winning, whereas on a team, each individual is concerned with the team winning. This is not the same as competing for one's nation. Has nothing to do with "representing one's country". It just means they want to win. Every competitor has that in them. If not, they will most likely not be anywhere near the olympics.

I've been team motivated in the past when in competition, but never nationally motivated. I have never been particularly patriotic for any country where I have been a citizen whether it be Britain, South Africa or America. Having said that, I do have strong and strange allegiances to national teams that marked the birth of my interest in those sports. Although I am not particularly interested in rugby or cricket, I like to see South Africa beat England in those sports simply because I saw how important it was to my friends in those countries. It seems to mean more to them, ergo I want them to win.

Now that both England and the USA are in the same qualifying group in the football world cup I am almost severely conflicted. I want both teams to progress to the next rounds and hopefully meet in the final. Since though, I have supported the England team all my life through accident of birth, and the USA citizens couldn't give a fook about it all, then my hopes for the outcome are an easier choice.

Edit: Yeah, I'm not the patriotic sort, and i'm an atheist. I'm a REALLY bad American!

 

[arch1tect]

i could be wrong, but i think they all get two runs to try and secure the best score -- he was the last to go (and had already secured the best score with his first run, so there was no need for the second) but he threw down anyway...hence the "victory lap."

This is correct. 2 runs each, best score counts. He secured it in his first round so the 2nd was just a coaster because he went last, as he qualified in first.

I'm glad we won the gold but it's not as exciting anymore.

 

[Bdogg]

I've never really been big on national pride or any of that and I don't find the olympics to be very exciting. Some guy wins a gold medal in speed skating by a few hundredths of one second - uninteresting. Shaun white won gold - Oh, didn't see that coming, the guy has his own personal half pipe on his own personal mountain with a helicopter to shuttle him around. He had damn well better win gold. I dunno. To me the whole thing just seems like a lot of bluster and a great big media frenzy circlejerk - people are running around complaining about how some people train at an illegal elevation or accusing them of hiding magnetic propulsion devices in their shoes, every little thing that goes wrong with the program is made to be a crisis- I always feel like it's just another way to make millions in advertising dollars and at the end of the day the whole thing just always seems mediocre.

I do like that the torch looks like a bunch of joints though.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Good stuff last night. Womens downhill was very good imo. A couple of a really bad crashes and Lindsey Vonn gutted it out for an amazing run.

Unfortunately I saw the schedule for tonight: Primetime: Men's Figure Skating.

 

[JohnnyO]

Good stuff last night. Womens downhill was very good imo. A couple of a really bad crashes and Lindsey Vonn gutted it out for an amazing run.

Unfortunately I saw the schedule for tonight: Primetime: Men's Figure Skating.

Agree on all fronts.

Watching the women's downhil was downright frightening. That course is absolutely insane!! Crongrats to Vonn on taking the gold. However, I despise the fact that she is such a drama queen. I understand that she may have been performing in some pain, but I believe that all professional athletes do so fairly regularly. If your job is to beat the crap out of your body and continue performing, you're going to be in pain sometimes. Get over it.

Men's Figure Skating tonight? Ugh. I'm just waiting until Curling is in Primetime!! This weekend!!

 

[Memorex88]

Watching curling now, Canada vs Sweden.
Here with Bell expressvu we have 5 free PPV channels all through the Olympics. Only problem is switching to see the Biathlon and Curling being on at the same time

Other than that... THANKS BELL!

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Agree on all fronts.

Crongrats to Vonn on taking the gold. However, I despise the fact that she is such a drama queen. I understand that she may have been performing in some pain, but I believe that all professional athletes do so fairly regularly. If your job is to beat the crap out of your body and continue performing, you're going to be in pain sometimes. Get over it.!

I was very pleased to see her win. She was absolutely over the moon to win. A more arrogant person would have just been pleased. I believe her emotion was genuine and not just drama. I like it best when the person I want to win also happens to be American!

 

[jgln]

Agree on all fronts.

Watching the women's downhil was downright frightening. That course is absolutely insane!! Crongrats to Vonn on taking the gold. However, I despise the fact that she is such a drama queen. I understand that she may have been performing in some pain, but I believe that all professional athletes do so fairly regularly. If your job is to beat the crap out of your body and continue performing, you're going to be in pain sometimes. Get over it.

Men's Figure Skating tonight? Ugh. I'm just waiting until Curling is in Primetime!! This weekend!!

She was shaking like a leaf at the gate moments before her run, she looked cold but maybe just nerves? Maybe a way to warm up? Looked like she gained control though when it was time to leave the gate.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

She was shaking like a leaf at the gate moments before her run, she looked cold but maybe just nerves? Maybe a way to warm up? Looked like she gained control though when it was time to leave the gate.

And that weird 'visualization' thing she does. I thought it was pretty amazing when they showed her favoring her good leg even when it was the uphill leg. And all on an icy/fast course. Pretty amazing imo. Her emotion seemed genuine to me.

 

[jgln]

And that weird 'visualization' thing she does. I thought it was pretty amazing when they showed her favoring her good leg even when it was the uphill leg. And all on an icy/fast course. Pretty amazing imo. Her emotion seemed genuine to me.

That was her? I saw her doing it but did not catch who it was. Yeah, pretty freaky.

 

[Homercidal]

I've been team motivated in the past when in competition, but never nationally motivated. I have never been particularly patriotic for any country where I have been a citizen whether it be Britain, South Africa or America. Having said that, I do have strong and strange allegiances to national teams that marked the birth of my interest in those sports. Although I am not particularly interested in rugby or cricket, I like to see South Africa beat England in those sports simply because I saw how important it was to my friends in those countries. It seems to mean more to them, ergo I want them to win.

Now that both England and the USA are in the same qualifying group in the football world cup I am almost severely conflicted. I want both teams to progress to the next rounds and hopefully meet in the final. Since though, I have supported the England team all my life through accident of birth, and the USA citizens couldn't give a fook about it all, then my hopes for the outcome are an easier choice.

Edit: Yeah, I'm not the patriotic sort, and i'm an atheist. I'm a REALLY bad American!

No worries!

I could not care less about the soccer games, but I just don't care that much for soccer. I just don't get it. Well, I mean it's not that much different than hockey, fundamentallyso I ought to enjoy it. I just don't see why everyone in the world adores it so much.

But then I don't see the attraction in NASCAR either, so I feel pretty even.

And it's not like I expect every athlete to want to win "for their country". I mean, I don't remember getting my portion of the gold medals at the last olympics...

What I like about the snowboarding, is that it's still a very young olympic sport, so there is a huge potential for new moves to be shown. Not so much in figure skating.

And the skiing is pretty exciting. The course looks pretty dangerous, so you know those guys are right on the edge of a really bad crash all the time.

 

[Memorex88]

Bobsleigh starts later today WOOT!!!

 

[cowperc]

suck it Canada!! that was on hell of a hockey game, hosers! eh?

USA! USA! USA!

 

[buffalobrewer]

suck it Canada!! that was on hell of a hockey game, hosers! eh?

USA! USA! USA!

something tells me that might be a little premature as they might be telling us to suck it, suckers when the medals are on the line.

 

[Homercidal]

It pisses me off that there were a ton of games on Sunday, and I missed them all. I played Wow for a while and a friend said that the US game was going to be on a little later. I looked and looked and could not see a single hockey game on the schedule.

WTF?

I would have watched ANY of the hockey games if I could have found them! Then to miss USA beating Canada just sucks.

Well, the curling was nice, even though the men lost.

 

[DMace]

That game was amazing last night. I can't believe that they had ice dancing on NBC, which is the only station that shows HD on my cable. I had to watch the hockey game on MSNBC. Oh well, what an atmosphere. And what a nail in the coffin as Ryan Kessler dove to direct the puck into the empty net. The Canadians need more guys named Ryan.

 

[Memorex88]

suck it Canada!! that was on hell of a hockey game, hosers! eh?

USA! USA! USA!

Hey cowperc SUCK IT!!!! That was one hell of a game!!! One hell of an Olympic. PROUD TO BE CANADIAN!!!

 

[cowperc]

Hey cowperc SUCK IT!!!! That was one hell of a game!!! One hell of an Olympic. PROUD TO BE CANADIAN!!!

lol...guess i deserved that one! hell of a game. congrats

 

[DMace]

If Canada was going to win, that was how I hoped it would end. Crosby is the man.

 

[cowperc]

as a lifelong Rangers fan, that was about the worst way it could have ended. *sigh*

 

[Memorex88]

lol...guess i deserved that one! hell of a game. congrats

Ya sorry dude, but I kept my mouth shut waiting for this moment. *%$# typical Canadian politeness that's in our water/beer that stopped me from rassing you guys on.
I'm just so stoked that it went to overtime... show the world where the best players are from heheh

Gonna catch the closing and get back to yas.

 

[Fingers]

Ya sorry dude, but I kept my mouth shut waiting for this moment. *%$# typical Canadian politeness that's in our water/beer that stopped me from rassing you guys on.

Heh, me too. I went looking for this thread when the game ended but you'd already beat me to it. I didn't want to rub it in too much especially since cowperc was gracious in defeat. Not only that, the US played so well that I didn't want to diminish their performance by gloating.

 

[boo boo]

Ya sorry dude, but I kept my mouth shut waiting for this moment. *%$# typical Canadian politeness that's in our water/beer that stopped me from rassing you guys on.

Me too.
He who laughs last usually laughs best.

 

[Memorex88]

What a show Canada put on
Damn it end's tonight

Looking forward to the closing ceremonies in an hour.

BTW We have the record for most Gold in a Winter Olympics AND the most from a host country!
Congrats to USA for the most medals, let's drink to this

 

[Yooper]

It really was a great game. I was really impressed by Canada's defense in the first and second periods, and of course their offense! I felt that at the end, it could have gone either way. It was a great game to finish the Olympics.

 

[Memorex88]

HEY Yoop! It was edge-of-the-seat game that made it so exciting and a fit way to end it. Getting pretty druk and almost out of beer
Gonna have to get some local mass stuff. DAMN! It's gonna suck

 

[FlyGuy]

That game really could have gone either way. What a great match-up!

Canadians were REALLY hoping for a win in hockey today because it was our last chance to win a gold. On the line was the all-time record for most Gold Medals ever at a winter olympics, and they did it. Pretty decent accomplishment for a country that is only 11% the population size of USA, 41% the size of Germany, and only 2.5% as big as China.

Canada couldn't be prouder of its atheletes right now.

:rockin:

 

[Memorex88]

Cheers FlyGuy!

 

[cowperc]

it really was an incredible game. i feel so bad for Miller -- he played lights out through the whole Olympic Games. i thought we handled the puck great (Erik Johnson in particular wowed me with some of his stickhandling through traffic) but i was more impressed with the Canadian pressure...it was like a basketball full court press every time we got control in our own zone.

silver sucks right now, but Team USA has nothing to be ashamed of -- they beat the Gold and Bronze medal teams, and took the title game to OT. not too shabby for a group of guys who weren't even supposed to contend for a medal.

Congrats hosers, eh! lol

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Beginning of the closing ceremony was absolutely classic!!