No thread on this yet? For shame. Opening ceremony is on the 12th of February. Looking forward to it - bought my deluxe pack on Pay TV, $50 for 4 HD channels 24 hours a day. Australia as ever is looking for slim pickings, but we stand a good chance to pick up medals in men's moguls and women's aerials. Bring it on!
Speaking of thread: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s8sXdL3IIo&NR=1"]YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]
I can really only get into a couple of sports, Hockey, Short-track SS, and of all things Curling. Still looking forward to it. I'm not going to watch the opening ceremony though. Opening ceremonies at Olympics are some of the weirdest things I've ever seen.
I mainly like the hockey, speed skating, and alpine skiing (mainly the downhill and various slalom events). But I quite enjoy the sled events as well. It's enough to keep me going, that's for sure.
as long as the Hockey goes....Gold..Russia...Silver Sweden and Bronze Finland it will be a great tournament. go Russkies!!
I don't know what it is, but the games are just fachinating. I actually looked up a curling club in Indy one time, but it was like $200 for seasonal membership. Still, I'd love to play at least once.
Like I said elsewhere on this board, I signed up to a scheme with my electricity supplier and every medal Sven Kramer wins in the speedskating he is going to cut my electricity bill! He's predicted to win three gold medals (5km, 10km, team pursuit). Come on Sven! If the Dutch can repeat a top 10 finish in the medal table I'll be happy. It'd be even better if we got medals in a non-speedskating event for the first time at the winter olympics which this year is on the cards with two bobsleighing teams (men and women) and world cup leading snowboarder Sauerbreij in the running for medals.
Olympic hockey is so much better than the NHL variety. Bigger rinks so there's more room for the guys to navigate around and the referees don't tolerate any fighting. It's an opportunity to watch real hockey.
You're right, I should've said non-skating events! I get fifty Euros off my annual bill for each gold medal Kramer wins.
This is one of my favorite things about Olympic hockey as well -- but tragically, this year, they're going to be playing on an NHL-size rink. (source: Wikipedia, so it may be wrong.)
Its true. They felt that doing the renovations just to have it a temporary intl. sized rink weren't worth it.
I'm not even into icehockey but I remember some epic icehockey finals, USA v USSR notably. That's what's so brilliant about the olympics, you get excited about sports you don't normally and you watch those sports even when your own country isn't involved. Well I do anyway. One sport I just can't get my head round: curling. To me that just spells OAPs.
If she doesn't forget her wax, she might even be able to win it. Sauerbreij is leading the World Cup, so why not? Getting quite sick of the Svencouver hype, with his own song, posters everywhere, ads, dvd's! Svencouver, Svenergie, But expect him to win, (almost) hasn't lost a single 5km/10km in the last 3 seasons and even when we was sick he managed to do this! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qoLcnPwVBo"]YouTube- Schaatsen Zieke Sven Kramer versnelt naar winst op 5km Heereveen[/ame] Legendary race! Great Comeback.. 6.16.29 -> Sven Kramer 6.16.38 -> Bob de Jong Expect 3 or 4 gold medals this year. Will have to give up my sleep next week.. And it's during carnaval... Ah well, you can't have everything. If he manages to win 2 times, or 3 times gold in Vancouver. He will deservedly been rated as one of the best skaters ever. Only 23 years old and already 93 gold medals, 20 silver and 12 bronze in official matches. Unbelievable..
What with all the Sven hype, if he brings home less than three gold medals it will be a disappointment! I think he's up for it though, he's got an almost un-Dutch winner's mentality. I'm not going to stay up for all of it but I signed up to the NOS texting scheme so here's hoping that I'll be woken up a lot! What would be the coolest thing to me is if our bob team won a medal. Who's carrying our flag do you know?
Timothy Beck or Sauerbreij, one of them will it be. Dare to bet 10 euro's on it. Can't see our bob win a medal, they might stunt once, but 4 runs are to much for them. Not consistent enough. Sauerbreij: 3rd Olympic Wintergames (2002/2006/2010) Timothy Beck: 1 Olympic Summer Games (2004) and 2 Winter Games (2002/2010)
It's just the precision and tactical nature of the game. Yes it is slow and if you're not into that kind of gradually developing tactical play you won't like curling, but for me there is just something cool about the counteracting strategies of placing guard stones, peeling off, and the precision placement in the house.
This is my token post to complain that I live in the same time zone as the Games, and still can't watch the Games live on NBC.
