Vancouver -Winter Olympics

[Alan Marsden]

Have you been watching - what's your thoughts ?

[sandyship]

Pity about the first day death on the luge-bob sleigh . It sounds like it wasn't safe from the beginning, or was it just a freak accident on behalf of the sleigher. NZ is not doing too well so not much coverage of events over here. Sandy

[noel]

They're on while we are sleeping so I'm struggling to keep up with them, but as I was late back from Heysham on Friday I stayed up to watch the English girl Amy Williams win a gold medal, by quite a margine too, breath-taking. My son had a fortnight on Whistler 2 years ago and never tires of telling me he's skied down the various slopes. I felt very sorry for the Swedish women wh's name I forget who took a terrific fall at the end of the women's downhill, she was well on track for a medal and took a huge leap, somewhere in the region of 60 metres the commentator said, on the last jump and lost control, fortunately she was mjust badly bruised.
So enjoying them Alan, just wish I could stay up longer to watch them.

[filmoss]

The death was unfortunately pilot error as the rest of the events went ok ! On a high note,what a performance by Amy Williams the first Brit to win an individual gold medal in 30 years ! Despite her win the Canadians tried to have her disqualified due to her helmet having a couple of aerodynamic ridges in it ! The futile attempt was ruled out and thankfully she keeps her well earned medal ! Also she had the bitter rivalry with her fellow Brit skeleton rider the more well known Shelley Rudman who didnt even attend a celebratory meal put on for Amy by the British team ! So 2 bad losers eh !!

[Alan Marsden]

I watched part of the Can v USA ice hockey match, the canadians wer outplaying the US but the US goaltender outplayed them all and the US won 5-3. I used to watch ice hockey but recently it's become more of a boxing and wrestling match so I've dismissed it, however this was not bad in that respect. I found out only yesterday that the Canadian ice hockey players (who no doubt are mainly playing for US teams) receive (purposely avoided the term earn) an 'average' of over $5,500,000 each per year !
So, some Olympic participants are paying their own way, others are rolling in money, and then the Canadian taxpayer having paid for the Olympic complex and additionally paid over $100 million to prepare and support the athletes this past year are now being told ( by the Olympic activist enthusiast organisers)that we should continue to pump funding into subsidising their activities in the name of achieving more 'golds' next time ,( who's bothered about the golds anyway ? ).. is the world completely mad ?
The way the games are conducted makes no sense ! However I too would become enthused ,if I was on the Olympic selection committee !

[Spitfire]

It makes a mockery of the whole ethos of the games when professional sports people are allowed to compete.
Are there actually ANY amateurs still about? They are not `paid` as such, because expenses and sponsorship take care of all that.

Saying that, however, is harsh on the poorer countries where many competitors won`t receive anything.

The whole circus is totally out of control.

[rocketmanjohn]

Olympic games amateur status requirements were dropped in the 90's. More's the pity. It was being cheated on by all the major countries.
We've been watching the curling, not really a sport to my mind, but really good to watch. The TV viewing for the Canada versus USA at ice hockey was watched by 60 million in Canada, out of a population of 62 million.
John

[sandyship]

I did hear that more people are watching the Games than American idol---WOW sense at last !!!!!

[anacortesdamp]

Sports aren't my thing, but Eileen is quite interested. She watches American football as often as possible, but just on TV. It's so expensive to actually go to a game. The son of long-time friends worked for the Seattle Seahawks a few years ago. He got us and his parents free tickets. It was a bitterly cold day and we were outside. We did have access to some of the better restaurants and pubs. What blew my mind is that the face value on each ticket was over $120! That's a hell of a price to freeze your butt off watching your team lose!

I just go in the den and do things on the computer (like being on this forum!) while she watches sports and Coronation Street.

We watched today to see if Eileen's cousin's grandson appeared in the Grand Slalom. Although he did fairly well, down in the middle of the pack, none of the channels we can get had him on. Maybe we'll have more luck on Saturday, when he competes in the regular Slalom. There's not much else on by that day, so maybe we'll get to see him.


Frank


P.S. It's interesting to hear what is known as the "bobsled" competition referred to as "bobsleigh". Who was Bob?. Even those who call it the "bobsleigh" competition refer to the competitors as "sledders". Why not "bobbers"? Also, their vehicles are referred to as "sleds" by most people. Do Brits call them "sledges"?

PPS: I also do a double-take when people use the term "luger". To me, that's a German firearm! (although with the capital "L")

[anacortesdamp]

We didn't see anything of Eileen's cousin's grandson (David Ryding) on our local TV coverage. They were too focused on the recovery of an injured woman in the 4-person "Ski-cross" at the time.

He finished up 47th out of 81 who finished. US star Bode Miller crashed and burned on the first run and was ineligible for the medal round! At least David made it to the second round.

David's next event is the Slalom on Saturday.


Frank