The Swamp

Well we’re less than 12 hours away from curling, and hence, the start of the games.

I feel like the Sochi-Pyeongchang-Beijing trilogy has done irreparable damage to the Winter Games.

Does anyone have a more optimistic take?

Sorry, I did that. Figured a new thread would be cool.

Rex wrote: ↑Tue Feb 01, 2022 7:58 pm Well we’re less than 12 hours away from curling, and hence, the start of the games.

I feel like the Sochi-Pyeongchang-Beijing trilogy has done irreparable damage to the Winter Games.

Does anyone have a more optimistic take?

I feel Pyeongchang doesn't belong in this group? They ran a great games.

I don’t have anything against the Korean organizers. It’s just that Pyeongchang in the middle made it three Games in a row in an odd time zone for the main TV benefactor (and an odd location for European fans, who let’s face it bring a lot of the atmosphere that niche sports need).

So it’s not so much that 2018 was bad, it’s more like how Attack of the Clones was a fine but forgettable movie in between two stinkers. Am I right?

Rex wrote: ↑Tue Feb 01, 2022 7:58 pm Well we’re less than 12 hours away from curling, and hence, the start of the games.

I feel like the Sochi-Pyeongchang-Beijing trilogy has done irreparable damage to the Winter Games.

Does anyone have a more optimistic take?

Nope.

Never seen a winter olympics with less hype in Canada.

Partially - I think - because there was a summer olympics just 6 months ago. Also no NHLers.

26 is on Milan so not much better. Should have been here in Calgary but our Mayor chickened out.

Vancouver or Denver might be putting something together for 30.

pruitt2 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 01, 2022 9:37 pm

Rex wrote: ↑Tue Feb 01, 2022 7:58 pm Well we’re less than 12 hours away from curling, and hence, the start of the games.

I feel like the Sochi-Pyeongchang-Beijing trilogy has done irreparable damage to the Winter Games.

Does anyone have a more optimistic take?

Nope.

Never seen a winter olympics with less hype in Canada.

Partially - I think - because there was a summer olympics just 6 months ago. Also no NHLers.

I had no idea they were starting! I used to live Winter Olympics, but I can’t imagine I’ll watch much. I’d rather catch up on all the streaming shows in my queue.

Yeah...no hype at all for these Olympics. I don't know...maybe I'm a cranky old guy, but to me the Winter Olympics should be somewhere known for being...winter? Like you hear winter sports, places like Innsbruck or Grenoble or even Salt Lake and Vancouver seem right. Beijing? Does it even snow there? Where are the skiing events happening?

And then add in Covid...and the fact that there were Summer Olympics just 6 months ago....just doesn't seem like the normal thing.

It snows more in Beijing than probably Vancouver and Sochi combined. Sochi is a beach resort. Beijing has mountains to the north past the Great Wall.

degenerasian wrote: ↑Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:59 pm It snows more in Beijing than probably Vancouver and Sochi combined. Sochi is a beach resort. Beijing has mountains to the north past the Great Wall.

Yeah, Sochi was a bad choice. The mountains were far away, and even then the conditions were terrible.

For those of you who have Peacock or Xfinity customers, the competition has started. Mixed Curling with the US vs. the Aussies is on. Curling, gents.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 7:17 am For those of you who have Peacock or Xfinity customers, the competition has started. Mixed Curling with the US vs. the Aussies is on. Curling, gents.

So many tattoos. Thanks!

truth
thanks this is a great watch while i'm working :)
had no idea Australia had a curling program/team

rass wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 7:28 am

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 7:17 am For those of you who have Peacock or Xfinity customers, the competition has started. Mixed Curling with the US vs. the Aussies is on. Curling, gents.

So many tattoos. Thanks!

It looks like her ink on her left arm is relatively new, while his looks at least a few years old.

From ESPN - Olympics 2022 -- How we ended up with a Winter Games amid China's human rights crisis

RE: the lack of "hype" for these games:

Already, we have seen Olympic sponsors playing down their connection to this Games, with The Wall Street Journal noting that several big brands -- including Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble -- did not launch their typical pre-Olympics advertising blitz ahead of Beijing, seemingly in an attempt to lessen their association with China.

And this guy being a little too real:

Shortly after Beijing won the 2022 bid, Gian Franco Kasper, then the head of the International Skiing Federation and an honorary IOC member, told a Swiss newspaper that the choice of Beijing made perfect sense. "Dictators can organize events such as this without asking the people's permission," Kasper said. "For us, everything is easier in dictatorships."

Also, I forgot/never knew that Oslo, Norway dropped out of the bidding for the 2022 games not long before the deciding vote:

Only then, about six months before the final vote, Oslo backed out. In addition to financial concerns about actually staging the Games, Norwegian politicians (and their constituents) were put off by, among other things, the IOC's alleged demands for perks during the Olympics. The IOC's requirements included an audience with Norway's king and a cocktail party for IOC executives with the Norwegian royal family (paid for by the Norwegian government) as well as "seasonal fruit and cakes" in members' hotel rooms, mandatory smiles for all arriving IOC members from hotel employees, extended hours for hotel bars and service of only Coca-Cola products. The IOC also requested that local schools be canceled during the Games and residents be encouraged to go away on vacation.

The IOC blamed the media for distorting the IOC's requests and disputed Norway's reasons for backing out.

Isn't the US doing a partial boycott of these games? No government officials and there was talk of no media at one point. I forgot the reason, maybe hiding COVID info or human rights stuff?

For what it's worth, it seems like the 2022 bidding was an eye opener even for the IOC. I think even they realized that something was wrong if Beijing and Almaty are the only two candidates. Since then it's been a rout for the West: France, Italy, USA, Australia (and good odds for another USA or Canada squeezed in there).

The Sybian wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 10:04 am Isn't the US doing a partial boycott of these games? No government officials and there was talk of no media at one point. I forgot the reason, maybe hiding COVID info or human rights stuff?

I think that the diplomatic boycott is because of human rights stuff, but the broadcasters are doing it remotely because of Covid concerns.

Australia has a curling team?

Must be expats who bartend in the Rockies.

Is curling not an indoor sport in Canada?

pruitt2 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:51 pm Australia has a curling team?

Must be expats who bartend in the Rockies.

Nope they're Australian. They train in the Rockies, sacrificed three years to get to these Olympics.
Mixed curling has opened the sport to many countries since you only need two people instead of four. Hungary also has a really good mixed doubles team that just missed out here.

How many of you can say you’ve personally attended a curling bonspiel?

SC raises hand

Flex!

Nascar style all at once ski racing please.

Rex wrote: ↑Tue Feb 01, 2022 7:58 pm Well we’re less than 12 hours away from curling, and hence, the start of the games.

I feel like the Sochi-Pyeongchang-Beijing trilogy has done irreparable damage to the Winter Games.

Does anyone have a more optimistic take?

I really don't. Add in the Tokyo Summer Olympics and I'm just really not into it this cycle. And this is coming from a guy whose wife isn't a big sports person, but LOOOOVES the Olympics. Her enthusiasm is way down this year and it feels... weird.

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:58 pm Nascar style all at once ski racing please.

skicross is an event...x-games type addition to the program. Now if they can keep pushing beyond short track speed skating to Red Bull Crashed Ice....

also been a very long time since an olympic speed skater's mom has sued a citizen of the swamp (maybe this goes into the stuff that makes me feel old).

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 1:22 pm

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:58 pm Nascar style all at once ski racing please.

skicross is an event...x-games type addition to the program. Now if they can keep pushing beyond short track speed skating to Red Bull Crashed Ice....

also been a very long time since an olympic speed skater's mom has sued a citizen of the swamp (maybe this goes into the stuff that makes me feel old).

Skicross and snowcross are fun spectator events on TV.

I think SLC is making a bid to host with Winter Olympics in 2030.

The facilities seem to be in good shape from the last time and they've already made the crooked land deals, so I don't think it'd be too costly.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:57 pm How many of you can say you’ve personally attended a curling bonspiel?

SC raises hand

Flex!

Is a bonspiel mean the whole tournament or one day where a building full of matches is going on. Because we did go to one of the matches in Vancouver. It was great.

I’ve never sat through a whole tournament, either. I was at a small-town, regional thing in Saskatchewan, years ago, while we were visiting my grandparents. The audience was mainly old farmers trudging in wearing old caps and galoshes.

Whoever does the PR for Curling over the last 20 or so years needs a raise. The first I heard of it was the 1998 Games, and the general consensus was "What the hell is this? You slide a rock down the ice and then you sweep?" But then gradually it seemed that the sport has developed a niche following, and as at very least considered legit. And somehow, it's become, if not a marquee event, at least one that gets a decent amount of coverage and eyeballs.

One of the things I like about the Olympics is the sports I don't necessarily follow closely getting a chance to see them. Now I'm pretty much down with any Olympic event in either season. Except for Racewalking. And Ice Dancing. Those sports are fucking dumb. But hook an IV drip of Curling for me.

The best thing about curling are the mics. You can hear everything. Teams openly talk strategy in front of each other, they don't care. So you're right in the middle of the action.

Growing up in MI, curling was fairly ubiquitous because we only had a few channels and one of them was Canadian. I think it was the CBC?

I hated curling, mainly because I didn't really understand it, and it would be on ALL FUCKING DAY. With limited channel choices, having one essentially blacked out for ice shuffleboard felt like a personal affront.

Nowadays, I can enjoy a nice highlight package, but I'm still not sitting around watching that sport for more than 20-30 minutes. I'm sure the novelty makes it interesting for folks, but it's the rough equivalent of watching pool, bowling or darts to me. I understand it's very skillful... I also just don't give a fuck.

But, absolutely agree that a lot of the sports are cool as fuck, but I only really watch an event in the Olympics. All the stuff on bobsled hills fascinate me. Ski jumping is cool.

Oh, another sport that takes up a bunch of airtime that I can only watch the last 15 minutes of is anything XCountry. I don't mind the Biathalon, because I love the penalty for missing shots. But, still, that shit just takes too long.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 3:40 pm Growing up in MI, curling was fairly ubiquitous because we only had a few channels and one of them was Canadian. I think it was the CBC?

It was definitely on CBC Saturday afternoons in the mid 90's. We ended up watching a full match one particularly hungover Saturday. We were hurting too bad to get up and there was nothing else on. It started as a joke, but we got into the strategy of it. By the end, we were calling out shots and debating what the players should do. We watched the Brier Cup (Canadian Championship) and the World Championship that year was in Hamilton Ontario, just 90 minutes away from campus, so we decided we were going to attend, but it was the same week as Spring Break, so that ended the dream.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 2:29 pm I’ve never sat through a whole tournament, either. I was at a small-town, regional thing in Saskatchewan, years ago, while we were visiting my grandparents. The audience was mainly old farmers trudging in wearing old caps and galoshes.

and that's what I likes about yous SC

Do they curl in Vermont? Looking for a second scene.

Our Ice Warrior Queens are on right now against Finland.

Curling is a staple of winter sports coverage here and has been since I was a kid.

I've curled a few times and it is a lot of fun. And the best tradition is that the winning team buys the losing team the first round after the match.

The good thing about the lack of buzz is that I can watch tape delayed coverage without fear of spoilers

Rex wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:46 am The good thing about the lack of buzz is that I can watch tape delayed coverage without fear of spoilers

I don't get worried about spoilers for the Winter olympics because I probably won't remember most of the names of the winners anyway by the time I get to coverage. Wait, was it Sigur Sigursson or Sonson Alfredsson that won Nordic combined?

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 10:03 am

Rex wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:46 am The good thing about the lack of buzz is that I can watch tape delayed coverage without fear of spoilers

I don't get worried about spoilers for the Winter olympics because I probably won't remember most of the names of the winners anyway by the time I get to coverage. Wait, was it Sigur Sigursson or Sonson Alfredsson that won Nordic combined?

You call yourself a sports fan. Everyone knows that Sigur Sigursson only focuses on the Super G.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 10:09 am

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 10:03 am

Rex wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:46 am The good thing about the lack of buzz is that I can watch tape delayed coverage without fear of spoilers

I don't get worried about spoilers for the Winter olympics because I probably won't remember most of the names of the winners anyway by the time I get to coverage. Wait, was it Sigur Sigursson or Sonson Alfredsson that won Nordic combined?

You call yourself a sports fan. Everyone knows that Sigur Sigursson only focuses on the Super G.

I should keep my winter sports takes Yandle-focused, obviously.