2010 Vancouver Olympic Games

[kibaxx7]

Maybe not the best way to start the games but an athlete from Georgia died today after a crash on training. Link to ESPN here and vid.

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I'm looking forward to see Lindsey Vonn if she takes part of the skiing competitions.

[Abctest123]

RIP to the Luge athlete.

The lighting of the flame just got messed up. Only 3 of the 4 arms that were supposed to be lit went up.

[JaoSming]

RIP to that Georgian Athlete...that is very sad especially right before the celebration to start the Olympics off.

Kathryn said that there were a bunch of interviews from the other athletes saying that the track makes them feel like crash test dummies with little control. Not that I want anyone to crash or get hurt, but I will definitely be paying attention to the Bobsled/Skeleton/Luge competitions rather than just the Curling.

BTW, Curling is awesome.

[Abctest123]

Wayne Gretzky being transported by pickup truck with minimal security was freaking awkward. He was standing with the torch and outside it was pouring rain, with people shouting at him and running with him on the sides.

[The X]

Good to see Steve Nash with torch

[hova-]

Oh man, RIP Georgian athlete. That's really sad to hear ...

Let's see if Germany can again win the most medals, at least in winter sports we are pretty good.

[buzzy]

That's horrible. RIP.

Austria's definitely going to bag some medals in the Alpine and ski jumping events.

[The X]

Does make you wonder about it. I'm surprised they'd have exposed metal poles coming out of turns. The poor guy had no chance. RIP

[NovU]

That shouldn't have happened. Poor kid. Hope he's at a better place. It seems he was a great kid too.

This Olympics is already a disaster for locals. I do not understand why we hosted Olympics in the first place. BC economy is already bleeding hard due to its economy heavily relying on USA, and yet they spent so much to host Olympics. They will never make enough to recover the money that was spent and housings already is expensive as BC is the most expansive housing market in Canada(possibly in entire North America) even with its poor economy compared to other provinces. This translates to more taxes and pressures from government for local residents for benefits of a few people. The referendum itself was not fair since it was done against only small beneficial groups in Vancouver area. BC already has crazy debts and many expect the matters will get worse as soon as the Olympics is over. There is one more tax coming which is called HST(7% on everything FFS on top of 13%) in June this year, and I don't think that'll be the last tax hike. I'm thinking to relocate to the state(hopely Miami) in a near future as soon as my things are taken care of here.

Historically, winter Olympics never turned into profits in exception of 1 or 2 cases. Only a handful countries really participate and pay attention as the medals usually are swept by them. It ain't nothing like world cup or summer olympics.

[The X]

Summer Olympics sucks. Winter Olympics are much more interesting

[NovU]

Yeah, but more countries participate and draws more international attention, which translate to money and fame for the host. Winter Olympic sports are somewhat hard to relate to, for lots of nations out there. Some even don't broadcast it. I personally like Summer better since there are some exciting sports I like watching such as judo, basketball, swimming, etc. For winter sports, other than hockey and snowboarding, it doesn't really grab my attention.

[The X]

Swimming sucks. When you watch Olympics coverage here in Australia all they show is swimming since that's Australia's best sport. You seemed every heat of every event. They show basketball for the first quarter & then cut away to swimming heats & return to it with 2 minutes to go into the game. They've never shown judo in our coverage.

I find most summer events very boring outside of maybe the track cycling, however winter events have more novelty value. Shame they aren't really showing any biathlon here, I love that event

But yes, I'd agree summer games draws more money & attention, but frankly it shouldn't

[J@3]

I think you and I have polar (no pun) opposite opinions on this. The Winter Olympics hold so little appeal to me that I can't even compute it. I like the summer games, athletics, swimming, basketball, football, cycling etc all interest me... if only for those 2 weeks in most cases. I'd rank the Commonwealth Games and the Goodwill Games above the Winter Olympics, I've seen snow like twice in my life and never done any form of winter sport whatsoever. X Games, I'd rank that above the Winter Olympics too. I find it so boring and we're not good at anything that kills most of its appeal.

[The X]

I'm a Kiwi so I'm used to not winning so like seeing a variety of sports. I didn't watch any of last Commonwealth Games, think it was in Melbourne. I guess seeing Australia win 100 golds just isn't interesting at all.

For Summer Olympics, I like basketball (obviously), cycling & weightlifting. I'm sure I like other sports too but don't really like athletics (for the most part) or swimming (I use to but Aussie media has over-saturated it).

For Winter Olympics, I like all the luge, bobsled, speed skating & some of the actual skiing events.

Either way, for me the World Cup is the biggest sporting event that interests me the most

[hova-]

For me the summer olympics are also more appealing, but some winter sports are very interesting, too. Skiing was really cool last night, hell those guys get down there with 115 kmh, that's really cool.

[NovU]

I noticed that Aussie skiier won a silver in Moguls Skiing. Never been there, so I don't know how he did it, but it sounds pretty crazy a guy from a country that has no skiing facility is actually the second best in the world.

[The X]

I noticed that Aussie skiier won a silver in Moguls Skiing. Never been there, so I don't know how he did it, but it sounds pretty crazy a guy from a country that has no skiing facility is actually the second best in the world.

He's actually a Canadian It's not uncommon for Australia to adopt people from foreign lands to fill sporting voids

EDIT: Australia also has pretty good elite sporting academies (Australian Institute of Sport, which Patrick Mills also went to) that even cover some of the weird Winter Olympics sports

[buzzy]

Man, the Alpine events are like he only ones I care about (the only ones we could win some gold) and almost every single race was postponed because of the bad weather ..

[kibaxx7]

I'm looking forward to see Lindsey Vonn if she takes part of the skiing competitions.

And she won a gold medal today

[Oznogrd]

Our resident canadians at NLSC havent killed themselves because the US beat them in hockey right? please tell me it wasnt THAT important

[NovU]

If I had to choose I'd rather have my NHL team winning a stanley cup than Canada winning a gold, but sure would be good to see beating USA.

[buzzy]

Not a single medal for Austria's alpine men. I know nobody cares, but it's a pretty big deal in the local news here, worst Olympics for them.

[NovU]

Our resident canadians at NLSC havent killed themselves because the US beat them in hockey right? please tell me it wasnt THAT important

Canada just pwned USA in OT for the gold. What a game! Crosby was awful during the whole tourney, but when it mattered the most, he delivered. That last goal was just a beauty. Iginla and Crosby one two punch combo looked really good.

[Abctest123]

Canada with 14 gold medals, most ever by one country. Gold in both Men's and Women's hockey. Awesomeness.

[JaoSming]

That was a great hockey game