2014 Winter Olympics Thread- Sochi (spoiler tags for events that haven't aired)
 

State department says go at own risk

U.S. issues travel alert for Sochi Olympics - ESPN

Between this and the World Cup, it's going to be an "interesting" year for international competition.

This is the first time in my lifetime I would be scared to go to the Olympics. It's still a small chance that something happens, but I wouldn't go if offered free tickets. I have no faith in the ability of the Russians to keep everyone safe.

also its the olymipics....

Yep. Similar with the World Cup IMO - as awesome as it would be to see it in Brazil with all the passion down there for the sport.

I'm so glad the US Hockey team didn't pick Sidney Crosby!

Is pretty much the best line any of us could ever hope to see regarding the 2014 Olympics. It's such a shame @bruinsgirl18 deleted her account after the comments and tweets started coming in after she posted that.

I have a couple of friends from high school over in Sochi for the event. One of them is a behind the scenes guy that works on the technical stuff for the broadcasts. The other is a reporter for NBC, and this will be her 9th straight Olympics to cover.

re: safety
I felt perfectly safe in Moscow and St Petersburg (aside from the danger of pickpockets, etc from a large city) last year but don't know anything about Sochi and the Olympics is a bit of a security powder keg

SI

Might as well establish this early since we have this argument every 2 years: Spoiler tags for anything that happens in real time before the NBC (or CNBC or MSNBC or whatever) broadcast or open season on spoilers as they happen in real life?

I'm always for the former with spoilers before it's on tv because, for some reason, I can suspend disbelief for the Olympics and we can't visually see things that happen before prime time here. But, of course, for the other side: we live in an interconnected world so results are everywhere. ESPN seems to love to plaster it across the front page in what seems like a dickish way to give spoilers and get people to watch anything but NBC that night.

And, of course, the important question: what channel is curling on?!?

SI

I think spoiler tags until stuff airs on TV is the right way to do it, otherwise you drive people away from the thread it seems.

If the TV coverage was in anyway reasonable, I'd be all for spoilers, but given how they'll bury some events and spend half the time on interest stories and not showing actual events, I'm not sure I see the point of spoiler tags.

It's probably going to need to be a spoiler tag until the next day for anyone who is living outside the US. I imagine most countries will be showing the big events live rather than tape delayed.

{scratches head} How much conversation is there to be had if nobody can say anything in the open without waiting 24 hours? (or whatever it is)

Spoiler tags, fine. But really, if you know you haven't watched, just avoid the thread until you have?

1st, ****ing no way would I go over there.

But on that note, saw what I see as a humerous comment from a politician when asked about it. Unfortunately I didn't see who it was.

He basically said there is no way that he would go and he doesn't think he would let his family go.

So let me clear this up.... you are certain that you don't want to risk your life but not so certain about your family's lives?

Maybe he believes in free will and realizes he can't make people not go?

Or he has adult children and thinks they could make their own decisions?

Then you say "I wouldn't want my family to go"

Nevermind. I guess everything has to be serious around here...

Heh... a wee bit ironic. I thought you were the one being serious.

His comment made me laugh.

This is a bathroom at one of the venues. Imagine crowding in here with a bunch of Romanian national team supporters. I think I'd just bring an extra pair of pants.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25830617

Imagine being the person that causes an overflow in that bathroom? No way to make a discreet escape! :lol:

I really hope tax dollars didn't pay for these...

I'm thinking, "What's the girl on the right looking at?"

Which leads me to the follow up thought of some frustrated photographer saying "This was the best shot we could get in 100 shots..."

Something just caught my eye in that picture, do the stars in the American flag look off to anyone else?

1. Let me be the 23,435,829th person to say that the terrorists are gonna pull off something awful there.

2. Lucy Liu is an Olympian?

It doesn't look like every other row is properly indented, if thats the right word for it.

Yeah, it looks like 7 stars x 7 stars, but that's ok. As Grandpa Simpson said: "I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognise Missoura!"

SI

They look like a cross between a Nascar uniform (is that the right word) with all the ads and a winter sweater from grandma

SI

i don't mean to sound like a dick(ok, maybe i do somewhat) but if you don't want to know the results of something that's happened, stay out of a thread about the actual events. I'm not going out of my way to find out when something airs if it's not live.

Common sense.

I added that because it seemed like something people wanted. The problem is you can't ever really be in the thread then. You may be coming in to post about a different event and someone spoils something that hasn't aired for you yet. We live in different time zones. Now if it happened the day before that's a different story.

I totally understand, and this makes sense, it's just the nature of the beast I guess. I would say never read the current page of this thread...haha, but then it's hard to have a conversation. I dunno, I just won't ever enter a thread unless I want to know something. TV, movies, sports, whatever.

That's right, curling, keep being awesome :D

Cancel the Olympics because Norway’s curling team has already won | For The Win



SI

Twitter is fantastic with a lot of media getting over to Sochi and realizing how horrendous their hotel rooms are.

Sochi hotels seem like quite an adventure - SBNation.com

What a hilarious fustercluck.

I worry this will not be a pretty olympics.

Typically, I don't have much interest or sympathy with reporters bitching about accommodations or the like when covering sporting events. It was all the rage for a while for reporters to rip various Super Bowl host cities. It was whinging of the highest degree.

This, however, seems a bit more legitimate and concerning.

2018 World Cup looking good!

Sochi has plenty of regular hotels. Probably not enough for this event, but it's not some third world country. But their version of a Super 8, where the bottom-of-the-barrel reporters are relegated, I'm sure is a lot more rustic that comparable accommodations in the West. I hope the media doesn't come across as too snobby covering the whole thing. It's the same thing I felt when Qatar got the World Cup. I know there's problems and bribery that went into both of those selections, but I think it's possible to overdo the reaction. The entire world isn't a 5-star resort. Is it really absolutely necessary that the entire media get treated to 5-star accommodations for any major international event?

Edit: From what I can gather from a little research online, Sochi is kind of like Russia's Miami, a sea resort town with great nightlife with a spectacular natural backdrop. But it's oddly domestic, not a lot of foreign travelers. So it's not very Western or international. Which I guess makes it less than ideal for the Olympics. But partly that's just because it's not a place that has been overrun by American tourists yet. I just kind of dislike the idea that something has to be basically Disneyland to avoid ridicule.

No, but having a lobby in the hotel, or having say...potable water seems like a pretty low bar.

It seems like most are also legitimately surprised by not being able to flush TP, and having to throw it in a garbage can.

I was a little surprised learning that Tulum in Mexico would be that way, when I was planning our honeymoon. But that is a small, fairly recently-developed beach town, and not the site of a worldwide sporting event.

And I'm sure because of the reputation going in, every hotel/lodging/food/water issue will be twittered and will go viral immediately. But I don't think Sochi in general has brown water, or lobby-less hotels. It looks nice to me, and uniquely Russian, which for me, would be the draw of going there, and traveling generally. An odd Olympic choice though, to be sure.

Edit: It's kind of weird in retrospect that lake Placid got an Olympics (Looking back, they kind of won it by default when the only other host candidate dropped out). I'm not even sure how that worked. There must have been some rustic accommodations. No international mockery though. But they did use the local high school as a bar. It's the only high school ever to get a liquor license, says wikipedia.

Putin owns a lot of property there, which is a large reason why it was the Russian city put forward.

To anyone in Sochi: I am now in possession of three light bulbs. Will trade for a door handle. This offer is real: pic.twitter.com/7AeesqDi8Y

— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) February 4, 2014

For covering a world event, it's like they've never been international before.

When we've been overseas (Italy, Colombia, Russia), except for the modern buildings like new hotels and airports, that's pretty much the norm.

This reminds me of all the complaints at every Super Bowl about how Jacksonville is boring or Dallas doesn't have enough strippers or whatever.

SI

So what's up with a day of competition on Thursday before the Opening Ceremony on Friday?

SI

There usually are events prior to the opening ceremony at both summer and winter olympics. I don't think they used to be televised years ago, but these days with so much more coverage I guess it makes sense that they are too.

Usually it is just preliminary heats or rounds or such in sports that last a long time. I remember soccer started before the ceremony in the last summer olympics for instance.

Shaun White pulls out of slopestyle, citing safety concerns with the course after a "jammed" wrist on a training run. This after the gold medal favorite broke his collarbone on a training run on the course. Way to go Russia.

2014 Winter Games -- Shaun White withdraws from Olympic slopestyle - ESPN