Winter Olympics on TV

Norwayviking

metaoblivia wrote: »

I didn't get that at all from the article. They seemed to be celebrating Norwegian achievement in the Winter Olympics and explained some of the factors that go into that achievement. It reminds me of gymnastics. During the 1970's and 80's, women's gymnastics was dominated by the Soviet Union, and the only country that could challenge them was Romania, a tiny country by comparison, with far fewer resources.

It's easy for countries like the US, China, Russia to be dominate in the Olympics because they have huge populations and lots of resources. But when a smaller country maintains that same dominance, it's far more interesting because the reasons for their success go far beyond how many people and how much money they funnel into sports.

At least, that's how I interpreted it.

Yeah i agree on that

And i think this has something to do with it as well long traditions.

Morgedal - The cradle of modern skiing


07/05/2009 9:32 am

Morgedal - The cradle of modern skiing


Morgedal is a tiny village nestled in the mountains of Western Telemark, set against a backdrop of picturesque forest-clad mountain ridges and slopes, which are decked in wild flowers in the summer and snow in the winter.

One of Morgedal’s most famous sons is Sondre Ouverson Norheim, the skiing legend who was born here in 1825, though he died in Dakota, USA in 1897. Sondre was born in Øverbø, a cotter’s croft and even as a child, skis played an important part in his life during the winter.

Sondre and his contemporaies from Morgedal and throughout Western Telemark had adopted a style of skiing which was unique at that time. Their skills were exceptional in comparison to those of Norwegians elsewhere. The type of ski, with its increased side cut, is still in production to this day, and the Telemark turns and landings, expressions and jargon from 19th Century Western Telemark and Morgedal are still used in the terminology of modern alpine skiing.

Skis based on those of Sondre Norheim, are in production in Morgedal to this day. Sondre is known throughout the world and avid skiers journey to Morgedal to walk in his footsteps. Sondre Norheim is generally accepted to be the father of free-heel skiing.

Aidric

Kirsten McGarry skies 61st for Ireland in the Giant Slalom (1st run). By my reckoning that should come around in about an hours time. For those who can't view it there is live tracking here. http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-alpine-skiing/schedule-and-results/ladies-giant-slalom-1st-run_asw030101Kk.html

Aidric

She should actually be out in a couple of mins.

kmart6

Atleast she can say she finished ahead of Vonn:p

Skid

Third Round of the Bobsleigh is on now ... Only the Top 20 of the 21 get to go in the fourth and final run.

Teams are going from first to last so I guess Ireland will go 20th - Hope they can build on the second run yesterday.

opinion guy

GB1 just crashed out - OUCH - jaysus one of them got a right wollop to the head

Skid

54.73 in third run, good enough for 19th place. Russia have gone ahead of Ireland, but we have topped our arch rivals Australia, who are in 21st and last.

Possibility that GB1 might not race again as they took a heavy crash, which would let Australia back in for the last run.

opinion guy

Apparently gb1 won't run.
ok so we need to catch the Japanese next!

Guy:Incognito

opinion guy wrote: »

GB1 just crashed out - OUCH - jaysus one of them got a right wollop to the head

They still managed to get down quicker than us.:)

opinion guy

opinion guy wrote: »

haha thats just taunting Death now isn't it ?

Why are the Brits so good at this sport ?

This was in reference to skeleton. I've just found out why. The British sports council put 3 million a year into skeleton and its their most highly funded winter sport!

Skid

opinion guy wrote: »

This was in reference to skeleton. I've just found out why. The British sports council put 3 million a year into skeleton and its their most highly funded winter sport!

Skeleton is Ireland's most succesful Winter Sport too. I remember coming home during the 2002 to find Lord Clifton Hugh Lancelot de Verdon Wrottesley in the hunt for a bronze medal for Ireland in the skeleton.:D:confused::D

He came fourth in the end, shame he didn't get the medal but still a great performance.

Skid

Looks like they didn't let Australia back in, even though GB1 pulled out.

Japan stayed ahead of us, but Russia crashed, so I think we can do no worse than 18th.

Well done to our girls, they beat the Australians who tried to kick us out before it started, and finished ahead of a few more.

And anyone who goes down that run four times deserves a medal. The Dutch mens Four Man Bob team have dropped out before their competition even starts.

opinion guy

Holy crap!

Germany 2 just crashed in a BIG way. Brake woman came out of sled at 145kph

Edit: they didn't let aussies back in ? Good.

Skid

That Germany crash looked bad, think they are OK though.

Canada finish 1-2, Good for them, but obviously the Ireland v Australia face off was the real highlight of this event, Job Done!

robinph

opinion guy wrote: »

This was in reference to skeleton. I've just found out why. The British sports council put 3 million a year into skeleton and its their most highly funded winter sport!

They give more funding to the events that had the best results in the previous games to try and build on that success, which in the last three games has resulted in a bronze, silver and now gold so clearly works.

LiamMc

robinph wrote: »

They give more funding to the events that had the best results in the previous games to try and build on that success, which in the last three games has resulted in a bronze, silver and now gold so clearly works.

Clearly works for the Skeleton (at this time). The same policy is taken for the Short Track and out of all the distances I don't know if Great Britain have got an athlete into a Final.

Short Track hit the headlines in Britain when Wilf O'Reilly won some medals. Was there a Bradley before O'Reilly that won medals when the sport was at invitational level at the Olympics?

robinph

Short Track seems even more pot luck than the sliding events though and I think they were a bit unlucky with not getting anyone through in the womens 500(?). The skaters were good enough, but the DSQ due to a bit of argy bargy with the Canadian was a bit harsh in one semi, and I think the GB one in the other semi was the more junior skater so was a little out of her league, but as the Aussie proved in 2002 it's still worth turning up. There were a couple of very young lads in the team as well I think so will be expecting better results in Russia next time round.

I think that Wilf chap won in Calgary when it was a demo event, and without the need for the rest of the field to fall over.

opinion guy

robinph wrote: »

The skaters were good enough, but the DSQ due to a bit of argy bargy with the Canadian was a bit harsh in one semi,

Agreed. I thought that was an appalling decision (maybe even biased?). Horrible way to go out of your last games.

did you see the women's relay 5000m with the koreans winning and then getting dsq ? ouch. korean coach looked lik eh was going to rip the ref apart with his bare hands

Aidric

opinion guy wrote: »

did you see the women's relay 5000m with the koreans winning and then getting dsq ? ouch. korean coach looked lik eh was going to rip the ref apart with his bare hands

Saw that. It was the correct decision so he can get back in his box.

opinion guy

Aidric wrote: »

Saw that. It was the correct decision so he can get back in his box.

to be honest i don't know enough about the sport to comment. but i can see its sport with damn-harsh decisions!

robinph

I thought they were going to completely restart the womens GS today, seems it's just run 2 they are doing now. On Eurosport and the eurovision links no doubt.

kmart6

I really don't know how the Canadian women didn't score more than two there, and I know peole are going to say there were similar shot totals but the Americans were just hitting with hope a lot of the time in the last period!

Spaceman Spiff

The Canadian women's hockey team is getting in some "trouble" for their post-game celebrations from the IOC. It seems celebrating a gold medal victory in an empty arena with (non-Olympic sponsor donated) champagne, beer and cigars isn't befitting of an Olympic athlete.

So while this is cool (in fact, this is the coolest Olympic moment ever)


This requires an investigation










And perhaps most reprehensible of all, the girl on the left, Marie-Philip Polin, who scored both Canada's goals, is only 18 and thus not old enough to drink in BC. (Won't somebody think of the children?!)

rainbow kirby

^ The really silly thing there is that Marie-Philip Poulin is actually legally old enough to drink in her home province of Québec!

Seriously though, the girl scored the two goals to win a gold medal in the Olympics, who the hell is petty enough to kick up a fuss about having a drink in an empty ice hockey stadium...

Also, this man just gave the best excuse of the games. "I ****ed up because I watched too much porn over the last 2 weeks"

Spaceman Spiff

rainbow kirby wrote: »

^ The really silly thing there is that Marie-Philip Poulin is actually legally old enough to drink in her home province of Québec!

She can also drink in Calgary, where she was living for the 8 months in the leadup to the Olympics. The other provinces in Canada are full of prudes.

Seriously though, the girl scored the two goals to win a gold medal in the Olympics, who the hell is petty enough to kick up a fuss about having a drink in an empty ice hockey stadium...

I wouldn't put it past the IOC, but they probably saw the "underage girl" and made a statement about it to protect their own asses. Most media outlets are just covering the fact something like this is even a story, but regardless of what happens, the team just got a whole lot more popular because of this.

Fattes

Go team Canada just wait till you see what will happen when the men win on Sunday

robinph

Was skiing in Fernie, which is just in BC, last year and thought it was 18 for drinking there but 21 in whatever state Calgary was in a couple of miles east of where we were.

cena

hk797 wrote: »

If you enjoy the Winter Olympics checkout a recently released movie on iTunes called Truth in Motion. It follows the US ski teams buildup to Vancouver. Runtime is 43 mins with a regular (628mb) and HD (1.38gb) download for free.

is this on itunes ireland

robinph

:eek:

Canada threw away two easy shots of getting the gold in the Womens curling there. That "sport" really shouldn't be quite as exciting as that.

rainbow kirby

The Canadian skip ****ed up bigtime. She messed up matchwinning shots in the 10th and 11th ends and pretty much handed Sweden the win. Pity, because she'd been playing great until then...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL9mlqbG5CU