2006 Olympics thread

[mike_s]

So... starting a thread to discuss anything related to the 2006 Olympics.
Open to any discussion about the Olympics, the people in it, stupid things they are doing, trouble, etc.



RIght now the "Ice Dancing" is on.... I have no clue why this is considered a "sport"

and where the heck did they get their costumes.???? I've seen strippers with better costumes!

 

[mike_s]

had mod move to right forum

 

[ScubaTexan]

USA v Russia tomorrow....who've you got, Tony?

 

[ScubaTexan]

Second intermission -- Russia 3, United States 2

The same exact score of the USA-USSR contest at the second intermission in 1980 at Lake Placid...

 

[ScubaTexan]

Final score -- Russia 5, USA 4

Phooey... :frown:

 

[mike_s]

does that knock USA out of getting a medal or is this just the "semi finals" ?

 

[lowwall]

RIght now the "Ice Dancing" is on.... I have no clue why this is considered a "sport"

Take any activity, perform it one ice and, voila, Olympic sport.

Dancing, shuffleboard, surfing, soapbox derby.

But then, I don't think anything should qualify as an Olympic sport if the winner can't be determined with a tape measure or stopwatch.

Alex

 

[ScubaTexan]

does that knock USA out of getting a medal or is this just the "semi finals" ?

It's the end of pool play, and the quarterfinals begin tomorrow.

Quarterfinals
Finland v USA
Canada v Russia
Slovakia v Czech Republic
Sweden v Switzerland

 

[SDAnderson]

RIght now the "Ice Dancing" is on.... I have no clue why this is considered a "sport"

and where the heck did they get their costumes.???? I've seen strippers with better costumes!

Main Entry: sport
Function: noun
1 a : a source of diversion : RECREATION b : sexual play c (1) : physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2) : a particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in

I'm inclined to agree with those that consider any athletic endeavor that doesn't have strictly objective scoring to be less than a "pure" sport. This means that ice skating, free-style skiing, half-pipe snowboarding, gymnastics, etc., though highly athletic, fall somewhere between sport and art. I'll take the ice skating and gymnastics but the snowboarding and freestyle skiing stuff leaves me cold.

Besides, if those costumes you spoke of didn't put you in a sporting mood, you've been spending too much time around strippers.

In the meantime, it's good to see curling (by the stopwatch/tape measure method, a real sport) getting so much airtime.

 

[lowwall]

In the meantime, it's good to see curling (by the stopwatch/tape measure method, a real sport) getting so much airtime.

Shuffleboard on ice makes it? You might as well add horseshoes to the summer games. I may have to rethink the whole thing, maybe add a minimum VO2max requirement.

Other than that, my rule permits no exceptions, so gymnastics must move to Cirque d'Soleil where it belongs. Ski jumping can stay only if they throw out the form judging, score it on distance only as long as they can manage to stay upright on the landing.

The TV coverage is so strange. Sports like curling and women's hockey get shunted off to cable, but then they give it hour after hour of coverage. Meanwhile, everything shown on NBC other than figure skating is hacked to death. They show 6-8 competitors per sport - the Americans, any medal winers, any crashers and perhaps the last Olympic champ.

My wife is Polish and is about to toss the TV out the window since the only Polish athlete to appear on TV so far was a speed skater who happened to be paired with an American.

Alex