Icy-Snowy Games

Anyone watching the Olympics?

I ran across it last night and thought.. oh, yeah.. that's right and watched a little: to wit an exciting finish in short track speed skate where the US won by Koreans taking each other out on the last lap!

And the womens moguls which was also pretty exciting... the hometown {canuck} chick getting beat out on last run by the US gal.
Pretty exciting. Not enough to make me miss 'Criminal Minds' though

I'm old, I guess.

What brought this up:
A blast from past.. Bryant Gumbel complaining about no black faces in Winter Olympic Games

"HEY, WAIT: Bryant Gumbel is still alive? Who knew?"
- Glenn Reynolds

"Hey.. I saw Cool Runnings! Both real and the movie"
- pettyfog

 

The winter games are pretty boring compared to the summer games. I might watch the hockey games and I will watch the rest of the games if nothing is on.

 

I had happily forgotten about the haughty Bryant Gumbel. I always liked his brother though.

 

I'm watching the stuff I want to watch online at nbcolympics.com

What I've seen so far:

Highlights:
- US first Nordic combined medal
- US Women beating China 12-1 in Hockey
- Swedish Women beating Switzerland 3-0 in Hockey (Hockey is good for highlights)

Full Events:
- Short Track 500m and 1500m finals

There isn't much at the Olympics that I *wouldn't* watch.

 

I watched the women's moguls where the girl from Vermont nicked gold from the Canadian girl on the final run. Also saw some of the long distance (4:00 min times) women's speed skating last night. Otherwise, I haven't watched much more than some highlights. I've enjoyed what I've seen so far but they are loaded with commercials.

 

The Olympics don't "officially" begin until tomorrow once Curling begins. Then it is on!

 

Growing up the son of a former ski instructor made me a ski racing fan. As a kid I still remember the Austrian Franz Klamer winning the downhill on his home soil by going to the proverbial edge (would make my list of memorable underrated sports moments, hmm a thread possibility? :roll: ). Which leads me to last night's men's downhill....

NBC's coverage sucked Donkey B@LLS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Didn't think it was possible to take out the inherent drama that the Downhill possesses, but they found it. Not the announcers fault since both Tim Ryan and Todd Booker are experienced but NBC showed 5 racers (25 guys were good enough to win). Pathetic and embarrassing is the only way to describe it, even with Bode Miller getting some redemption by medaling. I will be curious to see if that level of crap coverage is what will go on when US Olympic poster girl Lindsay Vonn races.

The moguls and snowboard-cross were very entertaining. If you've never skied them it's hard to describe how good the mogul skiers are. The US boarder Hescott making those crazy comeback passes to win the gold was cool.

I get it when people say they don't watch the Winter Olympics. Growing up in Portland, Ice Hockey wasn't something I was exposed to (until moving to Chicago, but by then it was never on my radar), aside from the Miracle on Ice in 1980. I don't watch or go to NHL games, but I'll still watch the medal rounds if the US playing.

 

SoCalJoe. That's why I don't watch NBCs TV coverage. At NBCOlympics.com, you can see complete events; I even avoid the Olympic news so that results are still a surprise.

 

I could be wrong but I think Franz Klammer's gold medal run in that olympics would make a lot of people's best sports moments of all time, certainly makes mine. So I'm not sure it is underrated, but that would be a good thread.

 

Great minds think alike Mo :roll:

NBC is loving the ratings (they pulled a 20 last night). If anything the fact most people knew Lindsay Vonn won 7 hours before it aired helped the ratings. For the US it doesn't get any better than last night. 3 of the biggest 4 US stars snagged gold (the 4th Apollo Ohno already has a silver, and advanced in his qualifying races yesterday)

Shaun White went crazy high in halfpipe. The kid plays the skate/snowboard "dude", but has marketed himself quite smartly (he pulls in 7.5 mill in endorsements annually).

Lindsay Vonn has the guts of a burglar and the looks of a starlet. The women's downhill course was brutally hard and there were some scary crashes. Vonn lived up to the hype and had to go to the edge to win. Adding to the moment her teammate Julia Mancuso won silver and put in a great run also. The coverage of the women's downhill was ten times better then the men's.

Shani Davis wins in speedskating. 4 years ago alot was made of his being african-american, now it's more about his accomplishment of winning back-to-back Olympics.

 

SoCal, I dont get the rollin' eyes, but whateva'. Also, my husband reminded me that one of the things that made Klammer's gold medal run even better was that the commentator (Tim McKay?) was going crazy. I would youtube it to see if it is as good as my memory but I still dont have audio on my computer. My memory of it makes me think of Paul Merson's reaction to Fulham's ManCity comeback.


Lindsay Vonn's reaction after her race will be one of my favorite memories of this olympics. After years of hard work and with the nerves, I would think more athletes would go crazy like that.

Congrats to Shani Davis on doing something no one else had ever done in that event. Coverage was good too.

Curling commentary was not so good.

 

The rollin eyes was just a little self-deprecation is all Mo. Without looking it up I believe it was Frank Gifford and Bob Beattie had the call on the Klamer run.

Bode Miller's Olympic redemption continues. Only a great run by the Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal kept Miller from winning gold. However, seeing Svindal's background story (mom dying as a baby, bad crash 2 years ago) it was cool seeing his father's reaction when he crossed the finish line.

America loves a comeback story. Bode is the best male skiier in US history. While he's past his peek, he skies alot smarter than he used to.

 

Heh.. I remember that one. About as excited as Frank got about anything.

Beattie's the one going nuts but it wont be as excited as you recall.

Franz Klammer's Gold Medal Run - Innsbruck 1976

 

Holy shit that was a great game. The US kept going ahead only to watch Canada come back and just when you think they would put the game away when it was 4-2, Canada scores and then plays target practice for a good minute. The US got the win 5-3 though and gets a bye into the qrts.

Good tournament for the US. They probably won't make it to the championship game, but USA hockey is looking good going into the future.

 

At my in-laws (who probably haven't watched a hockey game since 1980) and we watched it live on msnbc. Great end-to-end action and gives the US a really good chance to get to the semis. The pressure on the Canadian team is immense and now they'll have to win four games in a row to earn the only medal acceptable to the entire country.

Bode Miller added the only thing not on his resume...gold. 3 events, 3 medals, not too bad for someone who didn't workout in the summer and seriously contemplated retirement.

 

I thought the level of the upset was a bit overstated (these are NHL players afterall). Burke has done a good job building a young, hungry, but talented team with something to prove. Great game and a tremendous win.

The path to a medal is a lot easier as a result. The US has the 1 seed and after a bye, gets the Belarus/Swiss winner. We're guaranteed we won't see Russia or Canada unless we make the gold medal game. Assuming we don't choke in the quarters, we're looking at the Czech/Finland winner in the semis.

Canada otoh, has to beat Germany and then they get Russia. The winner of that one will likely face Sweden in the semis.

If Miller stays hot, I like our chances to play in the Final.

 

That's what I was thinking. It seemed akin to Argentina beating Brazil (or England beating Brazil).

Looks like the US produces insanely good goalie's in another sport. Go USA! (of course I'll be happy if Canada wins too)

 

It was more akin, to say, Russia beating England in a World Cup game. Yeah, the NHL is the biggest league, but some of the teams and half the fans are Canadians. Hockey is the #1 sport in Canada and many of the colder European nations as well, including Russia.

 

Somebody who watches hockey needs to explain why the biggest international game is decided by a 4v4 overtime. I love the golden goal rule and the overtime was exciting, but it makes no sense to figure out who the best team is by going to a 4v4.

So was this all for show and excitement or is there a legit reason for it?

 

Somebody who watches hockey needs to explain why the biggest international game is decided by a 4v4 overtime. I love the golden goal rule and the overtime was exciting, but it makes no sense to figure out who the best team is by going to a 4v4.

So was this all for show and excitement or is there a legit reason for it?