The Sochi Olympics

[Jester]

Well, they're over. And while I still haven't watched the Closing Ceremonies--I've got them DVR'd, and I'm getting to them--here's what stuck with me:

Kate Hansen's dancing.

The story on the Russian hockey team that was killed I a plane crash.

How truly stunning Torah Bright is. And I love the fact that some fellow snowboarders said about her something people have said about me: that she has boundless energy despite the fact that she doesn't drink caffeine. Yay! Another in the decaffeinated club!

How truly insane skeleton is, and how great the female skeleton and luge athletes looked in their uniforms.

How much this cold weather hater truly loves bobsled, skeleton, and luge. Probably one of the only reasons I'd venture into an actual winter area. Other reasons include Torah Bright, Kate Hanson, Katie Uhlaender, and Ashley Wagner.

I'd heard that you could actually do bobsled, and I looked it up this time around. You can! At both. Lake Placid and Park City. And you can also do skeleton! And yes, I plan on doing both. And soon. Probably at Park City, as it's not only closer to my home town of Phoenix, but because in both cases, you can go faster than at Lake Placid. (If you're wondering about my obsession with this, I've loved watching bobsled as long as I can remember watching the Winter Olympics. And I've always wanted to do it. Now that I've found out I can, it is absolutely the next thing on my bucket list.)

The story in Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Finally got to hear Kerrigan's thoughts on it. Was impressed with how forgiving she seemed to be. Not sure I could be. And it seemed sincere.

The little Russian figure skater. Girl has ice in her veins. And I'm not talking about the gold medalist, but the little waif Yulia. In four years, she may be unbeatable.

How awesome snowboarding was, for all three events. Even snowboard cross.

How skiing stole ski cross from snowboarding. And how ski cross was just as exciting.

How much ski jumping didn't impress me like it used to as a kid, and how idiotic it was for a sport of height and distance to bother with style points. And how even more idiotic it was for the jumpers to get style points for landing with their feet in a "telemark" landing, which not only seems very arbitrary and pointless, but actually counterintuitive to the way one would want to land after dropping out of the sky like that.

The collapse of the Russian men's hockey team.

The utter choke job of the American women's hockey team in the gold medal game. I'm sorry, I call it like I see it, and if you're up 2-0 in a hockey game, going for the gold medal, with only 3:30 to go, and you somehow manage to NOT win that game and that gold medal, that is a choke job, pure and simple.

How some people seemed thrilled with a bronze or a silver, and others seemed utterly disappointed with same. This is not, by the way, a criticism of the latter group. I understand how coming in second can be disappointing, even heartbreaking, especially if you're expected to win it all, or if you came really close to winning it all, or you thought you won it all. Credit to all those that fell into this group but didn't whine or bitch despite their disappointment.

How different countries focus and obsess on different sports. What we often feel are "niche sports" are HUGE in other countries. I'm looking at you, Dutch speed skaters. (Among others.)

I was shocked to find out that the 2014 games were the first with women's ski jumping. And that women don't have a four person bobsled event. Why? And why?

Two man luge. I agree with the way one reporter famously described it: it looks like a bar bet gone bad.

How curling is still a ridiculous sport, and yet still utterly mesmerizing if it happens to be on tv. I have no explanation for this. Though I did learn a couple things about curling this year, not from the tv, but from a bar guest. (So these are not confirmed, but they sound plausible.) First, that the Olympics are the only international curling event that doesn't allow kegs of beer on the ice. Secondly, that it started with very poor Canadians who had lots of ice and stones, and brooms. Put in that context, the brooms and the nature of the sport make a lot more sense. It's still utterly ridiculous, mind you, but it makes more sense than it did without that information.

The mottos of the Olympics are "Faster. Higher. Stronger." And yet, the Winter Olympics have no pure strength events.

Something that's bothered me since childhood: how the hell do the skiers know which flags are the gates? And why are there all those extra flags out there that aren't gates?

The story about Jessica Tatiana Long. Truly awesome. And yes, I did tear up. I'm not embarrassed to admit it.

The comment from NBC's Russian correspondent: "If Russia wins the gold medal in hockey, nothing else matters. And if they don't win the gold medal in hockey, nothing else matters."

How the women snowboarders, no matter what country they were from, all seemed to be really close friends with each other. I've seen less camaraderie among teammates than I saw with this group of competitors. Example: when one girl had a bad crash in the half pipe, and one of her competitors was among the first to sprint up the hill to make sure she was okay. The girl who went to her aid eventually won the gold, but clearly she was able to have room in her head for both athletic focus AND caring for her friends. A lot of athletes could learn a lot from these women and this sport. (The men seemed really friendly with each other as well.)

The Ukrainian team that opted for a moment of silence rather than their national anthem during their gold medal presentation. Pure class.

The pure joy of the sport, no matter how well or badly she did, displayed by Noelle Pikus-Pace. I was rooting for Katie Uhlaender, but there was no way to root against Noelle.

There were probably several other things, as I watched a lot of Olympic coverage over the last two weeks (my DVR was very busy), but anything else I either forgot or involved something I honestly didn't care about or have any interest in. (Ice dancing, men's figure skating, biathlon, cross country skiing, etc.)

What were YOUR Olympic highlights?

[Jay 2K Winger]

I freely admit to not really caring all that much about the Olympics. I will periodically ask someone "And is our [American] guy/girl/team any good in [sport/event]?" and "did we get a medal?" But that's just down to my general disinterest in sports.

My sister, on the other hand, loves watching the Olympics, and she mentioned that she's really into the biathlon after catching the event in the 2006 Turin games, specifically the Pursuit event. She knew nothing about the biathlon, but there was this one biathlete, Ole Einar Bjørndalen from Norway, who is the King of the Biathlon. But in the closing race of the event, a Frenchman named Vincent Defrasne was closing on him, stumbled in the last hairpin turn, but still managed to close the gap and pass Bjørndalen to win the gold.

Sis said it was the way the announcers were going nuts to see someone make that kind of comeback to pass the King of the Biathlon and win the gold medal. She got hooked after that.

[mathnerd]

I think the thing that stood out the most to me was the cross country skiers. I can't remember who the individuals were, but the coach who gave a ski to a skier from another country after his ski broke, and the guy who won his race, but stayed at the finish line until everybody had finished to shake hands with and congratulate everybody, including the last place finisher really stood out as examples of the way sport *should* be.

[KiaKat]

Former alpine racer here!

It's difficult to see on TV, but there is a logic to the gates. You have one colour for each side, and the whole thing is contained in a barrier- either rows of gates, or an actual barrier. IIRC, blue is pass on the left, red on the right.

Before a race is run, after the gates are set, the racer goes down the course slowly, usually with a coach. They discuss strategy, what line to take, problem spots, and snow conditions. This not only cements the route in the racer's head, but also gives her a chance to consider alternate lines ahead of time, which comes in handy when the snow is soft and develops deep ruts. Which was a major problem, especially for the women.

[Jester]

Former alpine racer here!

It's difficult to see on TV, but there is a logic to the gates. You have one colour for each side, and the whole thing is contained in a barrier- either rows of gates, or an actual barrier. IIRC, blue is pass on the left, red on the right.

Before a race is run, after the gates are set, the racer goes down the course slowly, usually with a coach. They discuss strategy, what line to take, problem spots, and snow conditions. This not only cements the route in the racer's head, but also gives her a chance to consider alternate lines ahead of time, which comes in handy when the snow is soft and develops deep ruts. Which was a major problem, especially for the women.

So what look like extraneous gates to a layman like me are actually a barrier, basically saying to the skier, "Out of bounds, dude"?

As for going down the course, there was one race, I don't remember which, though I think it may have been Giant Slalom, where the announcers said that the racers were not allowed the course examination they're allowed in downhill. That their first time down is hairier because of that. Did I misunderstand what they were saying?

[fireheart]

To me, there were two major highlights.

-Jana Pittman competing in the women's bobsleigh. The reason why I say this is because she was the first female athlete in Australia to compete in both the summer and winter Olympics. Although she and her partner didn't rank higher than 14th, it's still something to watch. In fact, Wiki confirms that there were five people who did the exact same thing (they were former track-and-field athletes, now they're part of the bobsleigh) this year, but Jana was the first female Aussie to do so.

-The Super G Slalom. Why was this a highlight for me? Because I went at the sheer number of people who did not finish in the women's event. Out of 49 skiers, 18 of them did not finish and one did not ski. Talk about tough!

The Australian coverage wasn't too bad. They had it running over 2 different channels (Channel 10 and ONE, which is their "Sport" channel, but also shows some much more "adult" content) where Channel 10 had coverage mixed in with interviews and all that, while ONE had complete coverage from the word go, sans interviews.

It'll be interesting to see who has the Commonwealth Games this year (of the three major channels in the state, all three of them have now broadcast the Olympics at least once, while the Commonwealth games are usually broadcast by the same channel and have been for years) and how well they do the coverage.


ETA: Re the women's ski jumping and the lack of bobsleigh, I do believe that it's something to do with a lack of numbers in the case of the latter or something along those lines. as for the Ski jumping, they'd been fighting to have it for a while and it was only after the last olympics that they agreed to do so.

[Jester]

-The Super G Slalom. Why was this a highlight for me? Because I went at the sheer number of people who did not finish in the women's event. Out of 49 skiers, 18 of them did not finish and one did not ski. Talk about tough!

The men didn't fare much better on that course. Skiers were going down like flies. Amazing no one got seriously hurt. But it was entertaining to watch!

As for the Ski jumping, they'd been fighting to have it for a while and it was only after the last olympics that they agreed to do so.

Imperialist chauvinistic pig dogs.

[KiaKat]

So what look like extraneous gates to a layman like me are actually a barrier, basically saying to the skier, "Out of bounds, dude"?

Essentially, yes. It's easiest to see if you pause playback during commentary. When you get a shot of two gates, you can see how the track winds around them.

As for going down the course, there was one race, I don't remember which, though I think it may have been Giant Slalom, where the announcers said that the racers were not allowed the course examination they're allowed in downhill. That their first time down is hairier because of that. Did I misunderstand what they were saying?

Ugh. Talk about ensuring the inevitability of a major crash. You understand perfectly. Because of the issues with snow quality, they weren't allowing extraneous runs, which meant no examination. I understand the concerns, but I do believe that's why so many racers crashed. If you have to make decisions on the fly, on what is held to be the most difficult course in Olympic history, you're going to screw up. I'd bet anything that's why Bode did so poorly. He relies on his knowledge of the course to bolster his ability to ski like a freaking maniac.

[AccountingDrone]

I freely admit to not really caring all that much about the Olympics. I will periodically ask someone "And is our [American] guy/girl/team any good in [sport/event]?" and "did we get a medal?" But that's just down to my general disinterest in sports.

My sister, on the other hand, loves watching the Olympics, and she mentioned that she's really into the biathlon after catching the event in the 2006 Turin games, specifically the Pursuit event. She knew nothing about the biathlon, but there was this one biathlete, Ole Einar Bjørndalen from Norway, who is the King of the Biathlon. But in the closing race of the event, a Frenchman named Vincent Defrasne was closing on him, stumbled in the last hairpin turn, but still managed to close the gap and pass Bjørndalen to win the gold.

Sis said it was the way the announcers were going nuts to see someone make that kind of comeback to pass the King of the Biathlon and win the gold medal. She got hooked after that.

I will be the first one to admit that other than a very few sports in the Olympics, you could simply show the 3 winning performances in any sport [gold, silver and bronze] and I would be happy. It is with great sadness that I watch biathelon as that was the sport I was going to be shifted to for competition when I broke my back. Though it is a fascinating sport IMHO.

I thought the women and men of the various outside snow sports were so much better to watch. What the fuck is it about skating that turns people into boring asshats. Watch the women get to the end of the snowboarding runs, and they bounce and hug each other. The skiers will give someone a new pole. Skaters come off the ice looking like they were in line for the firing squad. Where is the joy in participating as a better than world class athlete with your peers? I would be fucking pumped at being at the Olympics.

[Gravekeeper]

They were practically running out of snow by the time they got to the bottom of that one. The other one was the snowboarding half pipe, which was just a death tube. Again due to poor course set up and conditions.

Then there's that poor Russian skier who broke her spine on the course. 2 surgeries so far and she still can't feel anything below her waist. Two others were wiped out by the same jump before they changed the course.

75% of the injuries in the games were to women. I guess there was some problem where they didn't get any practice/training on this style of course until they actually got to Sochi. Then the practice course they got was a death trap.

The snowboarding courses were definitely death traps.

Skaters come off the ice looking like they were in line for the firing squad. Where is the joy in participating as a better than world class athlete with your peers? I would be fucking pumped at being at the Olympics.

That may have something to do with the fact that figure skating is subjectively judged and the judging is notoriously corrupt. So you have nfi what you're going to get handed as a score until the very end.

As evidenced by the whole fiasco with Russia's second skater suddenly becoming a world class gold medalist overnight after their favourite skater ate it. With one judge married to the head of the Russia figure skating organization and another judge having actually been caught trying to fix scores at a previous winter Olympics. Yet somehow is still allowed to be a judge. >.>

[MoonCat]

Men in spandex

I learned something interesting about curling: Trash talking your opposing team, or taunting them when they mess up, is not done. The general attitude among curling teams is that you should be polite and display good sportsmanship. That's a refreshing attitude among athletes, I have to say.

[Jester]

That may have something to do with the fact that figure skating is subjectively judged and the judging is notoriously corrupt. So you have nfi what you're going to get handed as a score until the very end.

I wouldn't say they have no idea how they did. You can often tell by their reaction at the end how they thought they did. The gold medalist, for example, knew she had just skated as well as she ever had. And the Russian wadi knew coming off the ice that her falls in both the short and the long programs had killed her. Other than that, though, I'd agree that they don't always know precisely where they placed. But the same could be said for snowboard slope style and half pipe, which are also judged. The major difference is audience, history, and attention. Skating has a lot of all three, whereas the much newer snowboard sports have less pressure since they have far less of all three.

As evidenced by the whole fiasco with Russia's second skater suddenly becoming a world class gold medalist overnight after their favourite skater ate it.

To be fair to the gold medalist, she skated a fantastic program with just one minor bobble. And, more importantly, no one else really stepped up to knock her off. It could be argued that she was scored excessively highly, but it's also conceivable that even were she scored less highly she still would have won. Lipinski and Weir seemed to echo those sentiments. But if you're gonna get into scoring issues, it could be argued that the bronze medalist from Italy skated better than either of the girls ahead of her.

Myself, I was far more annoyed by the low score of Wagner, as I thought she did a better job than Gold or Yulia. I had Wagner at 3rd or 4th.

(I refer to the Russia waif by her first name simply because I can't remember her long and very Russian last name to save my life. My Russian ancestors would be disappointed.)

Men in spandex

Lycra. Not spandex. Trust me, I was observing the women's uniforms. Closely.

I learned something interesting about curling: Trash talking your opposing team, or taunting them when they mess up, is not done. The general attitude among curling teams is that you should be polite and display good sportsmanship. That's a refreshing attitude among athletes, I have to say.

Makes sense. Canadians invented it. I'm sure it would have been far different if Americans had come up with it.

"You can't slide for shit, man! What kind of end was that? I haven't seen sweeping that bad since my high school janitor! That stone is smarter than you!" Etc, etc.

[mathnerd]

Men in spandex

Yummy. Also a very good reason to appreciate ballet. But I digress.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Makes sense. Canadians invented it. I'm sure it would have been far different if Americans had come up with it.

"You can't slide for shit, man! What kind of end was that? I haven't seen sweeping that bad since my high school janitor! That stone is smarter than you!" Etc, etc.

I think you overestimate our 'Canadian niceness'. Hockey. Enough said.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Not much stood out to me other than the U.S. hockey teams playing like professional sports teams from Cleveland.

Other than Bob Costas's pinkeye.