The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler

[digamma]

I don't think it's searching, Jon. It's front page of ESPN.com or Yahoo stuff. Or ESPN radio updates.

Admittedly, I have no idea how you quantify long term value depreciation here, particularly when you're seeing a short term ratings boost versus four years ago.

That said, on an anecdotal basis, I know of three folks who did not watch the coverage last night because they heard during the day how the downhill finished, an event most would probably rank in their top five for winter Olympic viewing.

[sterlingice]

Wow- what a shot in the Norway-Canada match. He knocked out 3 Canadian stones in one hit, turning what looked really dangerous for them into a blank frame.

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

no commentary from you Jon about how NBC doesn't have a responsibility to show the Olympics in any particular way, but only to maximize shareholder value?

{shrug} I figured that went without saying I guess.

[jbergey22]

US is in some trouble in curling. The breaks are going Germany's way.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

You do realize that NBC is providing almost 850 hours of coverage across the various platforms? The most ever given by any US network to the winter games, and in the neighborhood of as much as the past two Winter Games combined. And that they did over 1,000 hours of coverage of sports virtually no one gives a damn about leading up to the Olympics?

Where / when is this 850 hours of coverage? Near as I can tell from my local guide, a fair chunk of it is Universal Sports, an SD simulcast digital station that is essentially an "ESPN-NEWS" for the Olympics, running updates on what already occurred rather than actually showing events. And they can brag about 850 hours all they want, when 6-8PM is showing only women's hockey on one channel, they aren't covering much.

Likely another large chunk will be making heavier use of CNBC once Men's hockey starts today, but we've just had so many events missed or juggled already.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by digamma

I don't think it's searching, Jon. It's front page of ESPN.com or Yahoo stuff. Or ESPN radio updates.

I've been on every one of my usual sites today, same as normal. Including ESPN.com, 4 different newspaper sites, and my portal that aggregrates headlines.

I can tell you that Janikowski became the highest paid kicker, that Pat Summitt kicked a freshman PG out of practice yesterday (first player kicked out in three years), that Jair Jurjens is having an MRI done on his shoulder, that the Athens-Clarke County government is going to be asked to spend $54m in SPLOST money to enlarge the local convention facility, and that Fulton Co. GA has gotten a judge to approve them banning liquor sales in strip clubs. I've been on FOFC, I've been on Facebook, I've both emailed & called people relating to work. In short, my normal routine.

But as far as the Olympics go, other than knowing that some ski event was bumped due to weather again, I couldn't tell you jack. Well, that and there was some apparently spectacular shot in the Norway-Canada hockey matchup (although except for looking up the cable schedule earlier I wouldn't have known whether that referred to men's or women's hockey & I'm still not 100% sure even then).

How hard is it to miss this stuff again?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I've been on every one of my usual sites today, same as normal. Including ESPN.com, 4 different newspaper sites, and my portal that aggregrates headlines.

I can tell you that Janikowski became the highest paid kicker, that Pat Summitt kicked a freshman PG out of practice yesterday (first player kicked out in three years), that Jair Jurjens is having an MRI done on his shoulder, that the Athens-Clarke County government is going to be asked to spend $54m in SPLOST money to enlarge the local convention facility, and that Fulton Co. GA has gotten a judge to approve them banning liquor sales in strip clubs. I've been on FOFC, I've been on Facebook, I've both emailed & called people relating to work. In short, my normal routine.

But as far as the Olympics go, other than knowing that some ski event was bumped due to weather again, I couldn't tell you jack. Well, that and there was some apparently spectacular shot in the Norway-Canada hockey matchup (although except for looking up the cable schedule earlier I wouldn't have known whether that referred to men's or women's hockey & I'm still not 100% sure even then).

How hard is it to miss this stuff again?

wasn't hard yesterday. probably aren't as many medal-events today

[digamma]

Also, it's still morning out here.

[digamma]

The only events scheduled for this morning were the Curling prelim matches, the ski race which got postponed and a cross country race which is underway.

[digamma]

Triple freakin' dola...

The women's snowboard cross final is at 2:40 local time this afternoon. If Jacobellis wins that you, I bet you won't have to look far to find her glowing face on your normal web stops.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by digamma

If Jacobellis wins that you, I bet you won't have to look far to find her glowing face on your normal web stops.

Is she one of the blondes from the opening night interviews?

[digamma]

Likely. Curly hair, the one who busted while hotdogging it 4 years ago.

[Galaxy]

US-Swiss set to drop the puck.

Does Norway have any NHL players?

[TurnerONU22]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Does Norway have any NHL players?

Sort of. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen played for Columbus, moved to Philadelphia at the start of the season, and was just traded to Detroit a week or two ago. Detroit demoted him to their AHL club after the trade.

[sterlingice]

The curling action was pretty exciting today, particularly Canada-Norway. They went into extra innings (ends?) and Canada won on the hammer, sliding a stone past 3 Norwegian blockers for the point.

SI

[johnnyshaka]

SI...come on...get the lingo right...extra ends and guards, not blockers!!!

[johnnyshaka]

DOLA...I look forward to seeing the curling later tonight as it looked like CAN had the game under control early but must have stumbled/or NOR woke up later on.

[Maple Leafs]

Hey look everyone, I made a video!

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

SI...come on...get the lingo right...extra ends and guards, not blockers!!!

Hey, I'm working on it. It's been 4 years since I've seen curling so I'm having to relearn a bit.

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

DOLA...I look forward to seeing the curling later tonight as it looked like CAN had the game under control early but must have stumbled/or NOR woke up later on.

Norway had a couple of great shots to keep Canada at bay and Canada had two costly errors.

SI

[sterlingice]

Women's curling starting now, streaming live on nbcolympics.com

SI

[Big Fo]

So NBC's website won't be showing a live stream of the women's snowboard cross (looks like they're only showing hockey and curling streams), anyone got a good recommendation?

edit: nevermind, found a Eurosport one.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

So NBC's website won't be showing a live stream of the women's snowboard cross (looks like they're only showing hockey and curling streams), anyone got a good recommendation?

The official website (vancouver2010.com) lists all the websites that are allowed to live broadcast. It seems NBC is the only tv channel allowed to broadcast over the 'net to USA viewers. You could try any of the others, but you'll never know you get past the IP checks...

edit: heh, looks like you found your solution already.

[MIJB#19]

btw, I just noticed the untraditional way the Vancouver 2010 website lists medal winning countries in. The traditional way is to order by gold, then silver, then bronze, but they list countries by total medals.

[johnnyshaka]

Gold ML!!

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

edit: heh, looks like you found your solution already.

German Eurosport flaked out on me but Romanian Eurosport is holding up well.

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

btw, I just noticed the untraditional way the Vancouver 2010 website lists medal winning countries in. The traditional way is to order by gold, then silver, then bronze, but they list countries by total medals.

I prefer the non-traditional/American method adding gold/silver/bronze together.

[Scoobz0202]

I'd appreciate a pm from somebody that has a stream for the snowboard cross final

[cartman]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

btw, I just noticed the untraditional way the Vancouver 2010 website lists medal winning countries in. The traditional way is to order by gold, then silver, then bronze, but they list countries by total medals.

Hmm, the way they have it is the way I remember the lists being in the past. First sort is total medals, then they go to gold, then silver, then bronze.

[Dr. Sak]

Great stuff Maple Leafs

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by cartman

Hmm, the way they have it is the way I remember the lists being in the past. First sort is total medals, then they go to gold, then silver, then bronze.

Huh - I always remember gold first, in every country I've ever read a paper in.

[MIJB#19]

Interesting, so apparently there are different standards for how to list the medals. I mean, there's no 'right' way to order, but knowing which company is responsible for the stats tracking it's surprising to me they changed their own standards.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Huh - I always remember gold first, in every country I've ever read a paper in.

Yeah, to be clear, it is listed as:

Gold Silver Bronze Total

but the sort order is how I described it.

[Dr. Sak]

Good win by the American hockey team although they did get sloppy in the defensive end. Ryan Miller had a good game and I think he'll have to carry this team if they have any hopes of medaling.

[johnnyshaka]

Sorry, EF27.

Spoiler

Looks like we have our 2nd gold with Ricker winning Women's Boardercross. Nice!!

[Eaglesfan27]

I need to remember to stay out of this thread if people are going to be posting results of stuff that will be aired later on in primetime.

[Johnny93g]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I need to remember to stay out of this thread if people are going to be posting results of stuff that will be aired later on in primetime.

I think that's probably the best solution. In Canada, most stuff is airing live on one of 3 channels. I haven't been following NBC's coverage, and I have no idea if they have been doing the live stuff, what has aired, what is 'off limits'.

Snowcross was really fun to watch. Very happy with the ending

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

USA/Japan curling match on CNBC is a good one. Now in the 9th end.

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

Good win by the American hockey team although they did get sloppy in the defensive end. Ryan Miller had a good game and I think he'll have to carry this team if they have any hopes of medaling.

I wouldn't read too much into it. For a team that just had one day of practice together and had a choppy ice surface, they played well. Canada has line combos/pairings that are used to playing together.

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by TurnerONU22

Sort of. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen played for Columbus, moved to Philadelphia at the start of the season, and was just traded to Detroit a week or two ago. Detroit demoted him to their AHL club after the trade.

Basically a borderline NHL player and that is it.

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Basically a borderline NHL player and that is it.

He isn't even playing in the game against Canada...family emergency.

[TurnerONU22]

Also, Patrick Thoresen played for the Oilers and the Flyers from 2006-08.

His moment of fame in the NHL came from an injury, which was initially thought to be a "ruptured testicle", but tests showed no rupture. Nevertheless, that's still gotta hurt.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I haven't watched much of the Olympics yet, but every time I do, I keep hearing the commentators talking about Whistler and Whistler and Whistler like it's supposed to mean something to me. "Now we head to Whistler..." "Let's go back to Whistler..." "Today at Whistler..." I think these people just like saying "Whistler." I like saying "dicksissle," but you don't see me dropping that word every chance I get.

Dicksissle.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I haven't watched much of the Olympics yet, but every time I do, I keep hearing the commentators talking about Whistler and Whistler and Whistler like it's supposed to mean something to me. "Now we head to Whistler..." "Let's go back to Whistler..." "Today at Whistler..." I think these people just like saying "Whistler." I like saying "dicksissle," but you don't see me dropping that word every chance I get.

Dicksissle.

You going to tell that to Kris Kristofferson?

SI

[bhlloy]

Fricking Direct TV... you would have thought their search for "sports -> hockey" would include the Olympic games on CNBC. I missed the first 2 periods of the Canada game because of that. Only found out the game was on by pure luck when an article I read on line had a link to the schedule.

Getzlaf and Perry seem to be playing really well in the 3rd period. Bit surprised Canada hasn't scored more against possibly the weakest team in the competition.

[BishopMVP]

Nice rip by Heatley off the post.

Women's snowcross is kind of hilarious - girls wiping out behind the coverage and apparently not even finishing. 1 qualifying for the semis while faceplanting and sliding the last 50 feet on her face.

[Drake]

Snowboardcross (or however the fuck you spell it) is one of those sports that I only remember during the Olympics and always makes me wish I liked snow more. That looks like a hell of a lot of fun, and if I was 20 years younger, I would adore it like Totino's pizzas and Cocoa Pebbles.

It is the rare winter olympics sport that I would actually like to play rather than watch.

Unfortunately, I don't even like to walk outside when it's snowing, let alone play in it.

[Eaglesfan27]

That sucked for Jacobellis.

[Drake]

What do you think the chances are of getting Jim or Mark to drop their football projects and code a snowboardcross sim? That could be huge. For me.

[MrDNA]

Well, that's one athlete who hasn't been having some good Olympicses.

EDIT: Olympi? What the heck is the plural of "Olympics?"

[Drake]

I sort of like Olympicses, whether or not it's correct. Or maybe Olympixi.

[Fidatelo]

Snowboard cross is definitely pretty awesome to watch. Makes me wish I was 16 again. I'll have to settle for living vicariously through my children.