The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler

[Big Fo]

Those pants the Norwegian curling team wears are so awesome. They could teach the figure skaters something about how to dress.

[DaddyTorgo]

NBC Olympics Coverage, Making Sports Fans Hate The Network More Than Ever - SB Nation

[Maple Leafs]

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'm confused. You live in the US, right? And NBC paid a bafillion dollars to broadcast an Olympics that was being held on the same continent. Clearly they must be broadcasting the events live, and not (to use a humorlessly extreme example) spending all their time showing bullshit human interest stories and viking snowboarders. Dick Ebersol is way smarter than that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, just tune in to NBC.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

I'm confused. You live in the US, right? And NBC paid a bafillion dollars to broadcast an Olympics that was being held on the same continent. Clearly they must be broadcasting the events live, and not (to use a humorlessly extreme example) spending all their time showing bullshit human interest stories and viking snowboarders. Dick Ebersol is way smarter than that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, just tune in to NBC.

Heh, you obviously haven't followed the criticism of NBC's coverage. They are showing a lot of events on tape delay including the snow boarding races so that the most "popular" sports will be in prime time each evening. I still enjoyed the snow boarding even knowing who was going to win, but I'll stay out of this thread until it is later in the evening for now on, as Canadian TV is of course doing a much better job of showing things live.

[DaddyTorgo]

pretty sure maple leafs was intending sarcasm

[EagleFan]

Holy Crap, flaming goth...

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Those pants the Norwegian curling team wears are so awesome. They could teach the figure skaters something about how to dress.

We were flipping back and forth between the Norway-Canada and US-Germany match in curling today and you could tell which spot on the ice the Norwegians were at just by seeing a glimpse or two of the pants the next team over was wearing.

Speaking of Olympic fashion- what was up with the Italian with the overalls and playing the country music?

Oh, and Johnny Weir looks like a woman. But if I remember right from the last Olympics, he's an idiot and a jerk.

SI

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

pretty sure maple leafs was intending sarcasm

Re-reading it, I think you are right.

[Galaxy]

Love that I get both CBC and the NBC channels. Feeds from both countries.

BTW, what time and channel does the Russia hockey game start?

[sterlingice]

Poor guy in wacky skeleton. He looked good but Hamilton kept crapping on him "Well, he did good. For him. Now, let's get back to the big kids."

SI

[sterlingice]

Ugh. I liked the pairs a lot better. It's like Hamilton, the PBP guy, and that annoying woman were served notes to not talk until after the presentation. And they did that. For one night.

SI

[EagleFan]

Is flaming goth the US team's theme?

[MrDNA]

Man, these commentators suck. And that skeleton outfit was AWESOME. It made me feel, like, 90% less gay to be watching this.

[Eaglesfan27]

I've been going in and out on the NBC coverage tonight. Did I miss the 500m Women's Speed Skating Final or is that still coming up?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I've been going in and out on the NBC coverage tonight. Did I miss the 500m Women's Speed Skating Final or is that still coming up?

Wait? We get something good coming up? I hope so.

I've been in and out, too, but I haven't seen it yet.

SI

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by MrDNA

Man, these commentators suck. And that skeleton outfit was AWESOME. It made me feel, like, 90% less gay to be watching this.

Didn't see that guy skate but I will agree on the commentators. They need to seriously SFTU.

Let them finish and then if you want to point out areas that you think may cost points do so then (but don't sound like a nit-picky little know-it-all bitch while doing so).

[MikeVic]

Can someone photoshop a Crosby, Stills, and Nash album cover with Crosby, Iginla, and Nash instead? What a line!

[Big Fo]

A pitcher's duel is going on in men's curling, Norway lead USA 2-1 in the seventh inning.

[Galaxy]

Love the anti-corporate attitude of the IOC on its athletes:

Gleason at the Games: Miller's mask might need new paint job

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Wait? We get something good coming up? I hope so.

I've been in and out, too, but I haven't seen it yet.

SI

Turns out my DVR was wrong or they chose to move it late. It will be in the late night coverage now.

[Galaxy]

I keep thinking Russia is wearing pants with the all bright-red uniforms.

[sterlingice]

Oh man, it's the Norwegians and their pants again.

SI

[sterlingice]

The Canadians with another win today, crushing the Germans so they forfeit after 9 ends. The Canadian skip (Martin) is great. Of course, on TSN, the shot of the match is brought to you by Tom Horton's.

US is in the 10th with a 5-4 lead but the Norwegians have the hammer so that's really bad news to just have a 1 point lead.

France-China is in the same boat. France just missed a shot to get a point and take a 5-4 lead, instead handing the lead to China but they get the hammer in the 10th end.

SI

[sterlingice]

The USA and Norway can't decide it in regulation so they're going to extra ends, tied 5-5. However, the US got back the all-important hammer.

SI

[Big Fo]

USA-Norway going to extras. There's no commentator and I have no idea how extra innings work in this, but it's fun stuff.

I'd love to try playing this sport one day, I wonder how far from southern SC I'd have to go to find a place where people go curling.

[sterlingice]

Near as I can tell from the extra ends in the Canada match earlier today, it's like baseball. Whoever is ahead at the end of the end wins. If they tie, then it goes to another end.

China-France with another potential extra end game. Down to 3 stones each. I have both games open in separate tabs and just go to whichever has something going on, muting the sound as applicable.

SI

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Oh man, it's the Norwegians and their pants again.

SI

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F5JE20100216


At least it isn't Scotland (yeah, I know, they are part of the Great Britain team in the Olympics). Imagine if the hockey teams had this design?


What channel is this on?

[sterlingice]

I'm watching this online on nbcolympics.com. Go to sports -> curling and they have links on the bottom.

SI

[sterlingice]

WOW! China-France came down to one awesome shot! They deserved that standing ovation the crowd gave them

SI

[sterlingice]

Oh man. Brutal loss for the US. They had it all lined up and missed what probably was an easy shot (according to my untrained eye).

SI

[Big Fo]

Damn, a foot less on that last throw and the US would've won, now they're 0-2 after the first day.

[bhlloy]

Very hard to get a read on this Russian team. The offensive firepower is obviously there and they looked awesome in the first period but since then they have taken their foot off the gas and defensively they have been very frail and have turned it over a bunch. I think they will have to score six or seven to beat Canada or Sweden and it will come down to how well the goalies play. But with this offense they probably could do that.

[jbergey22]

So the US was 0-3 in curling on the day despite being able to win all 3?

I think I reached my max curling watching ability after watching the majority of USA/Germany.

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

So the US was 0-3 in curling on the day despite being able to win all 3?

I think I reached my max curling watching ability after watching the majority of USA/Germany.

I was checking out betting sites to see how they thought the US team stacked up compared to the others, apparently we're in the middle of the pack in the men's and slightly worse than that in the women's.

[whomario]

personal recap of last day/night :

- The Biathlon was great, well done by Ferry who is just a specialist in the pursuit race. Too bad the canadian had that 30 second penalty, had a good run.

- the 500M decicion between the south korean and german Jenny Wolf was intense, incredible 2nd heat by both.

- Hockey : US team looked good, but the swiss team held their ground as well, good showing by both squads.
Russia-Latvia was highly entertaining, loved the latvian´s spirit of "fuck it, we a re just going all out regardless" that made for a great game offering the russians a bit more space than desireable if you are latvian

- women hockey :Seriously, the talent gap is ridiculous between some of the teams. The US could have scored 20+ if they wanted to yesterday.

- curling men : Good start fro the germans all in all, i agree that canada-norway was pretty damn great.

-snowboard women : The course was clearly a bit too difficult for them judging from the number of (often unprompted) falls and blunders, hardly any close finishes.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by whomario

- women hockey :Seriously, the talent gap is ridiculous between some of the teams. The US could have scored 20+ if they wanted to yesterday.

Yeah, this is a sport that seems to have gotten included in the olympics WAY too early. There just are not enough world class teams to hold a world class tournament. Basically, its the US and Canada, and nothing else.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Gosh, those tape delays sure are killing NBC's ratings.

Monday night was up 19% over same night Torino.

As this article puts it, as long as Americans are winning then American viewers will tune in to watch.

The first four days average is the highest Winter Olympics not held in the US since '94 (fueled by Harding-Kerrigan).

[sterlingice]

Women's curling live online right now. US-Germany tied at 1 after 4 ends. Japan up 3-2 on Canada in the 4th end. There are also 2 other matches that I'm not watching currently.

SI

[Pumpy Tudors]

HEY, NBC! BRING BACK THE TRIPLECAST!

[jbergey22]

This curling is just to much of a clusterfuck for my liking. One minute the announcers are saying the US is all but guaranteed to steal a point and a minute later Germany puts up a 3 spot. I'm still try to figure out the strategy in this game.

This might take the cake as the most unpredictable game out there.

[MikeVic]

Are the announcers guaranteeing points like that? It's like an NFL guy saying "well, the Pats are up by 14 with 2 minutes left, looks like they'll win this game." Yeah, a large percentage of the time they'll win but there's still the chance they can lose.

[bbor]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

This curling is just to much of a clusterfuck for my liking. One minute the announcers are saying the US is all but guaranteed to steal a point and a minute later Germany puts up a 3 spot. I'm still try to figure out the strategy in this game.

This might take the cake as the most unpredictable game out there.

Think chess...on ice.

[Ajaxab]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

This curling is just to much of a clusterfuck for my liking. One minute the announcers are saying the US is all but guaranteed to steal a point and a minute later Germany puts up a 3 spot. I'm still try to figure out the strategy in this game.

This might take the cake as the most unpredictable game out there.

I think the problem is that NBC's curling play-by-play guy doesn't grasp the permutations of differing strategies. He called out, "Great shot!" more than once yesterday during the Germany-US game. Don Duguid, the Canadian color guy, would subtly interject that it wasn't as great a shot as the play-by-play guy thought it was. I think Duguid was actually getting a bit annoyed with the play-by-play guy's commentary.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by bbor

Think chess...on ice.

Actually, what it really brings to mind is some sort of billiards on ice. It's simple geometry but you need to execute, there's some shot trickery needed, and when you start introducing more elements than hit one ball into a second ball, things get a lot more complex.

SI

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

I think the problem is that NBC's curling play-by-play guy doesn't grasp the permutations of differing strategies. He called out, "Great shot!" more than once yesterday during the Germany-US game. Don Duguid, the Canadian color guy, would subtly interject that it wasn't as great a shot as the play-by-play guy thought it was. I think Duguid was actually getting a bit annoyed with the play-by-play guy's commentary.

I thought Musburger was on ABC/ESPN?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

I think the problem is that NBC's curling play-by-play guy doesn't grasp the permutations of differing strategies. He called out, "Great shot!" more than once yesterday during the Germany-US game. Don Duguid, the Canadian color guy, would subtly interject that it wasn't as great a shot as the play-by-play guy thought it was. I think Duguid was actually getting a bit annoyed with the play-by-play guy's commentary.

This is why I keep watching the Canadian matches. I was trying to explain this to some people last night. The American announcers are treating the audience not just as neophytes- which is ok because we are- but with the same 3rd grade level intelligence that brings us Madden saying stuff like "If you want to win, you have to score more points than the other team".

However, the Canadian broadcasts doesn't have as much talking. They don't just say stuff to fill time. However, usually what they say is quite insightful and I tend to learn something. Even if it's a little over my head, I can retain it for use later.

SI

[whomario]

regarding the ongoing women´s downhill be told that it is both fucked up and speactacular.
I mean, that track might be more difficult than the men´s track, 4 real jumps with 2 of them leading into curves, a few really nasty turns and a ton of "unsteady" passages.

Spoiler

Anja Paerson just blew out her knee Just the latest and worst of a couple of bad falls, that course was unbelievably tough to ride it seems. Vonn and Mancuso with amazing rides. German favourite Maria Riesch a mixture of being terribly tentative, out of rythm (directly following Paerson and a long delay) and just being nervous i assume

Seriously, that track was fucked up ... Now the lesser riders will be well advised to not risk everything, hope everyone gets down safe

[jbergey22]

One of the Americans didnt do so well I leave it at that for those of you waiting to see this tape delayed. Pretty crappy when this isnt a live event on major TV. Streaming just sucks for the most part.

[DanGarion]

Man... oh man...

[SirFozzie]

Spoiler

Holy shit, a 60 meter accidental ski jump by that german skier?.. I think if that was on ABC, it would have been the new agony of defeat moment