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

[Logan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I'm going back to one of my previous statements about Deadspin making a living this Olympics by shitting on everything venue and Russia related because, I dunno, I think some people still want to relive the cold war .

From an uneducated observer's perspective, it wasn't perfect down at the bottom of the pipe and during the qualifying runs during the daytime, it was probably too warm. However, at night, it was colder and a lot of the wipeouts in the finals were from guys doing hard tricks without enough speed. And, yes, a really cold pipe would have better speed but that also would have made it even harder to pull of some tricks and easier for others. A lot of those spills were when the snowboarders lost it in the slush down at the bottom but if they had control on their boards or wouldn't have landed partway down the pipe instead of at the top, it wouldn't have been a problem.

Look at the video of the silver medalist Ayumu Hirano- the run is clean as can be. However, his wasn't as hard as the gold medal run and Iouri Podladtchikov's run looked rougher but that's because he was doing harder tricks. I dunno- at an average X-Games, how many guys wipe out trying to do tricks too hard for them? I got the impression that especially in the finals, it was about who performed and who didn't much more than the conditions.

SI

Weren't they feverishly working on "fixing" the halfpipe basically up until it started, or am I sipping on Deadspin kool-aid?

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

USA Women Curling very nearly force an extra end, but Japan makes the shot to win, USA Women 0-4 and dead in the water.

I gave up on the Women's team when they gave up a 7 spot to the Brits yesterday-how do you let that happen in an Olympics?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Logan

Weren't they feverishly working on "fixing" the halfpipe basically up until it started, or am I sipping on Deadspin kool-aid?

For the daytime session, yes, but I didn't see anything about that for the evening session?

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I gave up on the Women's team when they gave up a 7 spot to the Brits yesterday-how do you let that happen in an Olympics?

I was on my way to a meeting yesterday and turned on the live stream on my phone just in time to see that 7 and I just turned it right back off. But, hey, Olympic record!

SI

[SirFozzie]

Why giving the winter olympics to Hoth was a bad idea.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I gave up on the Women's team when they gave up a 7 spot to the Brits yesterday-how do you let that happen in an Olympics?

Because they're terrible. Both of our curling teams are bad. Shuster of the men's team at least seemed to redeem himself a bit this morning against Denmark.

[chadritt]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

For the daytime session, yes, but I didn't see anything about that for the evening session?

SI

I thought I saw footage of them doing it for the nighttime session as well on NBC. It looked like they were pretty frantically trying to fix things.

[sterlingice]

I really like this downhill announcer. She's good with explaining the technical bits and very positive with the commentary in pointing out in both the good and bad

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

You may want to watch tonight: Women's Downhill Spoiler

Spoiler

The first ever time that there's a TIE FOR THE GOLD MEDAL, as Switzerland's Dominique Gisin and Slovenia's Tina Maze have the exact same time (down to the hundredth of a second).. so they both win gold!

That was awesome! I really felt for the 9 knee surgery girl as she was down by 0.4 and then Gisin hit some snow near the bottom and the tie is amazing.

SI

[stevew]

After hearing about how much the olympics cost to run, and how much money they lose, my 15 year old determined that the country that did the worst overall should be forced to host the next set of games.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by stevew

After hearing about how much the olympics cost to run, and how much money they lose, my 15 year old determined that the country that did the worst overall should be forced to host the next set of games.

SI

[sterlingice]

I think the main Russian figure skaters look like Jaws and Dolly from Moonraker (ok, not quite)



SI

[SirFozzie]

Oooh, the team luge is today.. (you have to sit up and hit a pad just after the finish line to allow the next slider on your team to go.. miss it and your team's fucked.. hard to do when you're going 80KM/h)

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Because they're terrible. Both of our curling teams are bad. Shuster of the men's team at least seemed to redeem himself a bit this morning against Denmark.

Agree. I think what makes it even worse is that they seem so unprepared in comparison to the other teams. Even the sweepers seem lazy.

These elite teams have skips that just punish the American skips.

[Logan]

Hockey. Finally.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by Logan

Hockey. Finally.

Best part of the US game being early...my 7 year old got up at 7a. I told him send me messages from his iPod giving me score updates, eventhough an AM station is broadcasting here.

I have random messages that read:

00

10 us

11

[mauchow]

Originally Posted by Logan

Hockey. Finally.

Spoiler

Kicking ass

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by mauchow

Spoiler

Kicking ass

Spoiler

Oh no! The butt kickers are comin'

[SirFozzie]

USA do something that's only been done twice before in US Winter Olympic History..

Spoiler

They sweep the podium in Skiing Slopestyle! (other times it's been done: 1956 men's figure skating and 2002 men's halfpipe snowboarding)

[sterlingice]

US women in danger of winning their first match, up 7-4 in the 9th end but about to give up 2. Still, up 7-6 with the hammer going into 10

SI

[SirFozzie]

Men's figure skating drama. NBC's going to love this shit

Spoiler

the crowd favorite Russian Plushenko withdraws from the event in warmups due to back injury, the US medal hope Jeremy Abbot falls, crashes into the boards and doesn't get up for 15 seconds... but finally gets up and finishes his routine to the approval of the crowd, and is high enough in the standings (currently in the lead with half the field to go) to possibly still medal

[BishopMVP]

Team Canada hockey panic level is now up to Orange. More offsides than shots on goal, multiple offsides and an icing on their own power play, Mike Babcock waiting all of 12 minutes before he started shuffling lines!

(Btw, didn't realize you can dress 20 skaters at the Olympics. That seems like one of those CFL rules that's unnecessarily different.)

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Team Canada hockey panic level is now up to Orange. More offsides than shots on goal, multiple offsides and an icing on their own power play, Mike Babcock waiting all of 12 minutes before he started shuffling lines!

(Btw, didn't realize you can dress 20 skaters at the Olympics. That seems like one of those CFL rules that's unnecessarily different.)

Need more Subban!

[Suicane75]

Johnny Weir needs to stop eye fucking Tara Lipinski, it's getting creepy.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

Need more Subban!

Oooh, now we have D/goalie miscommunication leading to a Norway goal!

Dammit, Doughty with a great little play to make it 3-1, and it'll still probably end up 6-1 or something. Which actually could make all the panicking articles sure to come out even funnier.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Team Canada hockey panic level is now up to Orange.

On skates and orange? Sounds like a recipe to success.

[Johnny93g]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Team Canada hockey panic level is now up to Orange. More offsides than shots on goal, multiple offsides and an icing on their own power play, Mike Babcock waiting all of 12 minutes before he started shuffling lines!

(Btw, didn't realize you can dress 20 skaters at the Olympics. That seems like one of those CFL rules that's unnecessarily different.)

No, no it's not

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

On skates and orange? Sounds like a recipe to success.

[cuervo72]

Please inform the Flyers of this, k thx.

[sterlingice]

Rough luck for Plushenko. He's one of the few I actually was hoping to see skate. And I'm guessing there will be a bunch of figure skaters I don't care much about and won't get to see the bobsled before heading to sleep.

SI

[stevew]

Really pulling for US-1 in women's bobsled. The driver is the neice of one of my wife's friend. Looks like the us driving/pushing is all weird though. Hopefully they get it figured out.

[sterlingice]

Norway's curlers want to know where the Spanish figure skater got his pants

SI

[SirFozzie]

40 minute cross country skiing race comes down to one tenth of a second between a bronze medal and the no-medal.

Holy shit

[Logan]

Sochi Olympics: Under Armour Suits May Be a Factor in U.S. Speedskating's Struggles - WSJ.com

[SirFozzie]

Great Britain women put up 12 again versus Japan, tying their own Olympic Record.

What worse, scoring seven with the hammer (vs US) or stealing five (vs Japan)

[Butter]

Scoring 7. No reputable team should allow another team to fucking lie 6 before the hammer. That just requires all kinds of ineptitude.

[MikeVic]

I wish I could watch more of the Olympics. The raw emotion from these athletes is nuts and what I think a lot of us like about sports. I think it's really evident in certain interviews where they just can't hold back their tears. There was one with some Canadian women's athlete (wish I could remember her name or even what sport) that I saw last night, and she was talking while obviously just finishing crying. It had that like gasp-talking and she kept wiping away tears, the interview had a kind of funny part too and it had me glued to my screen. She was trying to explain why she's crying and just quickly said something like 'oh i'm always crying.' Made me chuckle a bit.

Anyone else see this? I just love seeing raw emotion that shows they actually care about this more than just for money. One of the more recent examples I could think of in pro sports was when Garnett won the NBA title and did his 'anything is possibuuuuuuuuul' with Bill Russell there. Loved it.

[Neon_Chaos]

Woowoo. The lone filipino in the winter olympics is in the top 24.

[JPhillips]

I'll probably jinx things, but the Kazakhstan skater still having a shot for a medal is pretty incredible.

[DaddyTorgo]

I haven't been able to get into this iteration of the Olympics like...at all.

Which is weird, because usually I love it and I love watching the crazy winter sports, probably even more than the summer ones. Just...it hasn't grabbed me and said "HEY FOOL...WATCH ME!" and I don't know why.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

I haven't been able to get into this iteration of the Olympics like...at all.

Which is weird, because usually I love it and I love watching the crazy winter sports, probably even more than the summer ones. Just...it hasn't grabbed me and said "HEY FOOL...WATCH ME!" and I don't know why.

For me personally it has to do with knowing the action isnt live when I watch. I havent felt the American star power as much this olympics either.

Vancouver and St Lake City were easy to get into. When live action is from Midnight until around noon our time. Its tricky.

I am looking forward to USA/Russia/Canada in hockey however.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

For me personally it has to do with knowing the action isnt live when I watch. I havent felt the American star power as much this olympics either.

Vancouver and St Lake City were easy to get into. When live action is from Midnight until around noon our time. Its tricky.

Yeah, but even beyond this they do a terrible job of putting the events into context and presenting them. The couple times I've watched NBC's prime-time coverage they'll go to an event where X number of people have already gone, not mention how many have gone, who's left, or how the competition is scored (best run, combined times, etc), then show a few runs (the Americans, plus a seemingly arbitrarily selection of others) before putting up the standings which'll have a person or two they didn't even bother to show in the top 5.

Last night cracked me up because they spent a few minutes watching the warm-up before the men's skating, cut to the locker room for a "weird moment" with Plushenko showing his back scar, do their 10-minute feature on him, spend a few more minutes watching him struggle during warm-ups, cut to commercial, then come back discuss him for a few more more minutes before watching him say he can't skate. I know I'm not the target audience, but I just always get the feeling the announcers and producers know the results and are tailoring their narrative instead of just commenting on what's in front of them. It's possible to tape-delay something but still retain the feeling that it's live - these olympics feel more like I'm watching WWE Smackdown.

[sterlingice]

The skeleton was awesome drama. It's so unfortunate as there were 4 really close competitors (really, 5) for 3 medal stands. The emotion was so genuine and great (but also hard to watch- you just wanted them to pull the mic away from 4th place)

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

you just wanted them to pull the mic away from 4th place)

That was brutal even with the sound off. Felt very gratuitous. As my wife noted "it's NBC, of course they're going to milk it".

[sterlingice]

It went on at least 2 questions too long. How many different ways can you ask "so, how devastating was this? was it the 0.04 seconds- you know, like one single mistake? or that it was because you were doing this for your dead father?" It was just hard to watch

SI

[sterlingice]

I much more enjoyed the emotion from the silver medalist. And I would have loved if they had talked to the bronze medalist. I have to think the home town emotion is great

SI

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Logan

Sochi Olympics: Under Armour Suits May Be a Factor in U.S. Speedskating's Struggles - WSJ.com

Reportedly team USA is reverting to the pre-Olympics suits.

[mauchow]

Spoiler

US looking much better to start the second period vs Russia until Russia got a power play and started hitting the US players with the puck and knocking them out of the game.

Hopefully the US can bounce back here. I thought Russia controlled most of the 1st period and so far US has been doing better in the second period(up until two minutes ago).

[mauchow]

jinx........

[Ryan S]

Spoiler

If Russia loses the refs may need an armed guard to get out of the arena. It's a shame the refs can't explain why they disallowed the goal. Was it because of the net or a high stick?