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Swiss ski jumper wins Games' 1st gold medal
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/skijumping/story/2010/02/13/spo-mens-ski-jumping-olympics.html
Another bullshit olympic thread.
Not sure what you meant Boom Boom, but before this goes off the rails, let me say that there are a lot of threads about the politics of the Olympics, and I think we can have one thread where sports fans can talk about the competition itself.
So if by calling it bullshit you are trying to make this into another thread about the politics, please take it to one of the several active threads on that subject.
If your intention was something else, perhaps you could clarify?
Hey Boom Boom, I thought the "Medal Count" was a new Olympic event.
Well, the "Metal Count" is Metal 1: Humans:0
If it's distasteful, I'll edit.
So the Swiss, the Poles, and the Austrians aren't human eh.
Men's downhill rescheduled
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/alpineskiing/story/2010/02/13/spo-alpine-downhill.html
Still nothing for Canada so far.
It's my opinion that this thread's purpose is to record and discuss the game's medal count, and thus glorify or give legitimacy to an event we should be against in the first place for all the reasons already given on the other threads.
Hear, hear Boom Boom.
Confession time: I'll sneak a peek here and there but agree this is not the place to display approval of this shit.
Feel free to discuss that in the other threads. Some of us however are able to seperate the issues around the business that is the Olympics from the performance of athletes and should have the right to discuss that without lectures. For many sports this is the one and only time we in Canada can see reasonable coverage of those sports, and even still it will be over-dominated by hockey. Yet it is still a chance to see sports and athletes that we do not normally get to see here.
Sorry if you and others don't like that, but life is rarely black and white, but mostly shades of grey.
I think pretty much what Lou said. We have a hockey talk thread, even though they're a bunch of knuckle dragging goons. It probably doesn't belong in international news and politics, but that's not really important. Babblers who wish to do so can share the common experience of watching the sports without compromising our left-creds.
Lets not get overly heavy on this thread. I'll think of a place to move it. Babble banter is sometimes the safest place on the board.
Well there's one Canadian hyped hope down (short -track)
Wait, there might be a ruling here....
That would be good, but I was refering to the heat before
...oops, guess not.
The Canadian women's team just set an Olympic hockey record of 17, now 18, goals in a game and it's not even over yet.
How's that medal count going, NorthReport? Can you break it down into white country vs non-white for us?
Sorry, I meant to say "European" vs "Exotic".
Well that's not particularly fair. Us white folks get all the snow.
I don't really mind the 18-0 drubbing of the Slovaks. The Slovak team still gets a nice experience out of just qualifying and participating in the game, and both sides showed class.
South Korea is leading in medals.
US wins Gold, Canada wins Silver in Womens downhill moguls
USA now leads South Korea 4 to 2 in the medal count.
http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/765326--heil-s-silver-first-medal-for-canada
Good time to note that no "nation" wins ANY medal at the Games. Athletes do.
If want to talk about the sport of the Games, respect the athletes by calling them by thier name or teams, not what country they're from. We get enough nationalist jingoism from the CBC.
Good time to note that no "nation" wins ANY medal at the Games. Athletes do.
If want to talk about the sport of the Games, respect the athletes by calling them by thier name or teams, not what country they're from. We get enough nationalist jingoism from the CBC.
Do the athletes actually feel disrespected OR do you feel that the athletes should feel disrepected (but they just aren't aware of that)?
The athletes very often speak of love of country when winning. No complaint.
The silly part is members of the audience saying "we" won. But please, please, forget the equally silly analysis and let's just see the medals awards in this thread?
The silly part is members of the audience saying "we" won. But please, please, forget the equally silly analysis and let's just see the medals awards in this thread?
So, your "silly analysis" (members of the audience saying "we" won) is worth posting but my "equally silly analysis" is not?
Go figure.
In January, economist Daniel Johnson predicted the 2010 Olympic medal counts, by country.
I'll bet he'll be [url=http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/19/olympic-medal-predictions-business-spor... close[/u][/color][/url]...
The Canadian women's team just set an Olympic hockey record of 17, now 18, goals in a game and it's not even over yet.
Canada beat Slovakia 18-0. In one of the qualifying games to get to the Olympics, Slovakia beat Bulgaria 82-0.
Here's a handy-dandy medal counter: http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/index.html
Great efforts today by the Canadian women in Long-track 5000. Kristina Groves is looking great for her specialities.
Have to wonder why there are so few opportunities for speed skating in Canada. Every little hamlet has a hockey rink, but skating ovals are few and far between and even short track is not much available.
Does anyone know how many medals Team Visa athletes from various countries have won? How about Team MacDonalds what is that team's medal count?
Congrats to Canada for the Gold!!
What do people think of the opening ceremonies. I've read right wingers foaming at the mouth claiming they were "politically correct" by focussing on Aboriginals, preferring French over English and featuring the likes of kd lang and ashley macisaac.
I watched the segments of Sarah McLachlan, Ashley McIsaac, and kd lang.Lang did Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" fairly well, although I prefer Cohen's and Rufus Wainright's versions better. MacIsaac looked truly weird. Sarah MacLachlan performed well but I'm not a fan of hers. They had some canned Joni Mitchell music, would have been much better to have Joni live. Overall, I thought it was reasonably well done, but somewhat boring, too. I kept channel surfing during the entire proceedings as it was too boring to watch right through.
As someone with Acadian roots I thought it was interesting the "history" went straight from aboriginal to Scottish tartans not one costume that looked either Acadian or Quebecois. Yes I know the British won and ethnically cleansed my Acadian ancestors but Acadia did exist for over a hundred and fifty years. Does anyone know the significance of those horrid faux tattoos?
I really liked k.d. but from a Vancouver tourist promotion point of view they should have let her wear her wedding dress while she sang.
They also "forgot" Ontario.
How could they ignore the Centre of the Universe (tm)?
What's up with Dale Begg-Smith not skiing for Canada? He was born in Vancouver.
There was also a lack of acknowledgment of the Asian communities in Vancouver at the opening ceremonies--there has been some talk that VANOC didn't do nealry enough to make Asian Canadians feel included in the Olympics, and that didn't change with the OC.
I thought the FN bit was representatitve of Canada's historical treatment of First Peoples: exploitive, paternalistic and shameless. I was overcome with shame, actually.
As for Begg-Smith, I think there's something wrong with that kid. He seems to be sociopathic, but he might actually have a condition where he is unable to show emotion. At first I was a bit cynical at CTV's attempt to build him up as a villain, but after seeing him on the podium (I also remember him from Torino) something just didn't seem right with him.
Is sidescroll the latest example of a diversity of tactics, Le T? ;)
What's up with Dale Begg-Smith not skiing for Canada? He was born in Vancouver.
He skied to Australia some years back and never returned.
ETA: Hey, Le T, you should downsize your graphic a bit:
The Guardian: "it looked like four giant cocks".
Maybe we Brits, exposed to a lifetime of Benny Hill and Carry On have lost the charming innocence with which Canada is allegedly suffused, but you would have thought that someone in the army of choreographers, designers, and stage managers overseeing the production might have said at some point: "Sorry, but does that not look a bit like four huge todgers?"[...]
Sadly I was awake for the musical centrepiece of the evening, Canadian hit-makers Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado performing Bang the Drum, one of those anthemic dirges that have become obligatory at sports events. As someone who finds Search for the Hero Inside Yourself (searched, no luck, thanks) a more effective emetic than any proprietary product on the market, and has written to the organisers of the London Olympics pleading that Heather Small not be let within 50 miles of the opening ceremony, Bang the Drum was never likely to find an enthusiastic supporter in me.
Here is a sample of the lyric: "You and I, together we reach for the sky. It's not about winning, it's all about playing the game. From the east, from the west, each of us trying our best. Chasing a dream, burning to follow the flame."
For added cringe factor everyone in the audience was given a torch to wave and a drum to beat, and we were treated to shots of the suits in the dignitaries' box banging their drums, like the priest having a self-conscious bop at the school Christmas disco.
The evening was lifted for me by not particularly veiled references to Canada's noisy neighbour to the south. Americans do like to take the rise out of Canada – satirical paper the Onion once printed a headline reading "Perky Canada Has Its Own Laws, Government: Even Exports Things Like Canadian Bacon and Ice" – and this was a chance to have a dig back. The poet Shane Koyczan performed a piece called Defining Canada, including such lines as "Some say what defines us is something as simple as 'please' and 'thank you'", and "We say 'zed' instead of 'zee'", which was applauded wildly.
Canadian Olympic skiing gold medallist Kerrin Lee-Gartner, one of the BBC commentary team, said she was "quietly proud", adding: "We do not wave the flag like other countries do." Which countries would those be then, Kerrin? Maybe, instead of the torches and the drums and Bryan Adams, they should have just had the audience chant: "Are you watching, USA?" football-style, and we could have all got to bed a little earlier.
Heather Mallick: "From east to west, each of us will try our best"
The event gave the impression that Canadians spent their time posing on pointy mountains, paddling navy blue lakes and staring at evergreens (anti-deciduous to an extent that verged on the racist, I say), surrounded by snow snow snow, more snow than air. And we honour the wisdom of our aboriginal peoples, whose land we, well, stole but they have forgiven us and dance at our Olympic ceremonies.In reality, most of us are frighteningly inert, the water on the reserves where our poverty-stricken native Canadians live is undrinkable, British Columbia trees are being killed en masse by the mountain pine beetle unleashed by climate change, and the snow is brown and crusty on the curbs of the cities near the US border where most of us live.
I understand that one wouldn't wish to say that stuff out loud, but the Canadian Olympic people went too far in the other direction. Opening night was a giant Cheesy Blaster. We had a teenage girl attempt to sing a jazz version of the national anthem (lock up your belters now, Britain) which bewildered the audience of 60,000 gamely trying to sing along. The announcers garbled their French. We attempted to honour the Georgian luger who had died horribly that morning, and the next day blamed him for his own death while quietly rebuilding the track we continued to claim was perfectly designed.
[...]
I was deeply offended when the Canadian version of Sky TV ran a pre-ceremony Olympic ad saying, "We live in the best country on earth."
"That's bullshit," I told my British husband, who emigrated to Canada for some snowy peaks he once saw on a View-Master.
He said it was arguably true. I said that in recent years Canada has been pushing away a magnificent future with two good hands, which lessens its "bestness". A debate ensued. Similar discussions took place on Facebook where someone set up a group called "Were you dissing Canda? I couldn't hear you over my healthcare benefits."
Look, the Canadian Olympics are an overpriced mess. So is every Olympics. Is Greece happy right now? What is China doing with 21 empty stadiums?
All Canadians can hope is that a snowboarder doesn't die in mid-air. Or that it doesn't over-snow which, believe it or not, is possible. Climate change is unpredictable. I enjoy the irony of seeing Stephen Harper, a hardline climate-change denier, presiding over a warm, wet Olympics.
Olympics are a snapshot of the times, and the times are pretty dire worldwide. Not Canada's fault really. From east to west, each of us will try our best. A very Canadian sentiment.
Anything that leads to another holiday can't be all bad.
Ontario's Family Day unofficially was extended across the country Monday as millions of proud Canadians continue to come together to celebrate the athletic achievement of moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau.
The country remains abuzz after the 22-year-old captured an Olympic gold medal on Sunday night in Vancouver, the first by a Canuck in a Games hosted by Canada in 34 years.
"Bravo Alex Bravo!" speedskater Charles Hamelin, a medal favourite at these Games, said of his Canadian teammate on Twitter. "He is my hero, I am so happy for him! I'm eager to congratulate him in person!"
That could happen Monday as Bilodeau will receive his gold medal at a ceremony in downtown Vancouver.
Also "pumped" for Bilodeau is Brian McKeever, a visually impaired cross-country skier who soon will make history himself as the first Paralympian to compete at a Winter Olympics.
USA 6
Germany 4
Canada 3
France 3
S. Korea 2
Italy 2
Hmmmm...consider myself pretty aware of the token and trivial symbolic penis imagry that premiates our society, however in this instance I did not see 4 "penis"
maybe my eyes do not register a group of 'todgers" as being a representative of "todger" exhibition at all, and really what kind of slang is that for a penis.....
... saw 4 Coast Salish peoples in their cedar hats and caps holding out their arms welcoming visitors.
Now thinking back through it though, it could most certainly be taken as such, especially if one has never observed persons wearing traditional west coast First Nations garb, and by that very same token so too could the thrusting out "crystals" that made up the aldron base.
The IOC and VANOC have made the point the Olympics are all about men so......perhaps it was even a planned symbology....thereby sublimally re-enforcing it is all about the penis, eh! ;)
As for Begg-Smith, I think there's something wrong with that kid. He seems to be sociopathic, but he might actually have a condition where he is unable to show emotion. At first I was a bit cynical at CTV's attempt to build him up as a villain, but after seeing him on the podium (I also remember him from Torino) something just didn't seem right with him.
He's the multi-millionaire "Spam king" (spam, as in computer)
Hmmmm...consider myself pretty aware of the token and trivial symbolic penis imagry that premiates our society, however in this instance I did not see 4 "penis"
maybe my eyes do not register a group of 'todgers" as being a representative of "todger" exhibition at all, and really what kind of slang is that for a penis.....
... saw 4 Coast Salish peoples in their cedar hats and caps holding out their arms welcoming visitors.
Now thinking back through it though, it could most certainly be taken as such, especially if one has never observed persons wearing traditional west coast First Nations garb, and by that very same token so too could the thrusting out "crystals" that made up the aldron base.
The IOC and VANOC have made the point the Olympics are all about men so......perhaps it was even a planned symbology....thereby sublimally re-enforcing it is all about the penis, eh! ;)
After the 4th pillar of the Olympic flame's cauldron failed to rise one commentator on TSN said "as a man over the age of 45 I can relate to the hydraulics not working".
I was expecting some commentary about Catriona Le May Doan standing there all ready to go waiting as some guys failed to get it up.