Huge convoy of police coming through tthe park today, some squads of plice at street corners.
Patrol cars randomly acivate their sirens and speed off now and again...
Huge convoy of police coming through tthe park today, some squads of plice at street corners.
Patrol cars randomly acivate their sirens and speed off now and again...
Figure skating, short programs
Cracky, you live close enough to see the flame glowy--will you attend anything?
Awright, so I missed the whole weekend of coverage, just getting updates now.
Speed Skating
Moguls
Biathalon
Pairs Skating
Luge
BUT WHAT THE HELL IS THE OLYMPIC MASCOT? There's always a marketing mascot, but I have yet to see it.
*Also, I adore Scotty Hamilton. He's such a great commentator. I used to love watching him skate, such joy on ice, it came right through the tv screen. He doesn't look very good right now, I hope his cancer is still in remission....
Last edited by GGT; 02-15-2010 at 04:54 AM. Reason: *
Hey Canada!
Get your shit straight!
Honestly, first someone died, then the cauldron malfunctioned, then the courses are mushy and melting, then it rains and is 50* for a couple of days, now the ice inside the speed skating oval is melting or something.
Sochi 2014.
Nah, I don't really care enough to attend any of this crap, especialy when I can see it from the comfort of my living room...
"Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time! COOL RUNNINGS!"
Viva la Jamaican Bobsleigh Team!
Watched Snowboard Cross for men.
Icemachines ice skating malfunction had me staying up until 5:30
I could have had class. I could have been a contender.
I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum
Which is what I am
I aim at the stars
But sometimes I hit London
What happened?Originally Posted by Ziggy Stardust
Icemachines ice skating malfunction had me staying up until 5:30
~
Haven't watched any of the winter olympics so far, just 10 mins of the opening ceremony.
This was during the 500 m speedskating for men. They need to re-ice the surface after each 10 races. Takes about 15-20 minutes usually. One machine broke down completely. One broke down when it got on the ice and dumped a lot of water on it which froze and ruined the track, so they had to re-ice the whole thing. Then they had to decide whether to continue or not. All of this took 1 hour and 30 minutes. I was prepared to stay awake until 4 am. But 5:30 was hard work
I could have had class. I could have been a contender.
I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum
Which is what I am
I aim at the stars
But sometimes I hit London
The machines that broke were the new "green" electric ones too.
Zamboni rescued the day!
Shooting the messenger will not right the wrongs at Vancouver 2010
Guardian
Depressingly for those who think the comings and goings of the media are the least important and least interesting part of a great sporting occasion like the Olympics, the media has become something of a talking point in Vancouver over the last 24 hours, thanks in large part to Mark Adams, the director of communications for the International Olympic Committee, who said yesterday he did not recognise the Games as portrayed by the British press.
"You wonder which city they're reporting from," Adams said. "What they're saying bears absolutely no relation to what I've seen at the competitions. It's been amazing. You wonder where these people have been."
The man from the IOC has a point, or at least he does if you accept the view of Renee Smith-Valade, the head of the communications for Vanoc (the Games' organising committee) who said yesterday "the Games are a great success" – a declaration somewhat undermined by the fact that moments earlier Smith-Valade confirmed 20,000 tickets at the snowboarding venue were being cancelled, and the money refunded, because of safety concerns. So much for great success.
There is, of course, an alternative to the IOC-run Neverland occupied by Adams and Smith-Valade and it can be easily explored. Just go to a computer, type the words "Vancouver" and "Olympics" into any search engine and you will come up with the following headlines:
- Shameful Absolution
- Money Poorly Spent
- Horrible accident mars opening of Games
- Fatal crash confirms athletes' fears
- Vancouver mayor wants flame freed
- Anger as Olympic flame fenced off
- Another day, another cancellation: more standing room tickets gone for Cypress
- Weather throws cold water on ticket holders
- Mr Furlong, tear down this fence!
- Buses crying shame
- Mishaps plague Games
- Challenges dog Olympic venue Cypress Mountain on every front
- Outrage builds as Vancouver Olympic Cauldron is closed to the public
- Broken, lost athletes' buses cause Olympic transport chaos
- Cancellations rile ticket holders
- True Bilingualism is Games' first loser
There are more where those came from – many, many more – and what they all have in common is that they have all appeared in mainstream Canadian newspapers and websites in the last five days.
Suffice to say, if Adams does not recognise the Games as portrayed by the British press, then he might take time out of his busy schedule to flick through the local papers, which along with celebrating the achievements of the home athletes has been doing superb job in cataloguing the travails of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Even CTV, which paid around £100m to broadcast the Games in Canada, has chipped in, posting a story on its website last night from the Toronto Globe and Mail headlined "What's Gone Wrong and How to Fix It".
Things must be bad if the Games' broadcaster is singing from the same song sheet as the out-of-tune British press. Or maybe CTV and the Toronto Globe and Mail are taking their cue from another critical source; the mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, who was heard complaining yesterday about Vanoc's decision to hide the Olympic flame behind an ugly wire mesh fence.
Of course, the man from IOC would not dare to publicly challenge the opinions of Vancouver's mayor. It is far easier to misrepresent the reporting of foreign journalists, and then criticise that instead.
Students of modern media management will recognise what is going on here because it is the first thing you learn when you enroll in PR school; when the message is uncomfortable attack the messenger. That the way the story becomes the media's reporting of the story and not the story itself.
So what exactly is the story? There is no doubt the majority of city's residents have embraced the Games. Vancouver is a beautiful place, and a compact one too – both characteristics that lend themselves to communal celebrations such as an Olympic Games. There have been protests but in the grander scheme of things the inconvenience they have caused has been far outweighed by the determination of local law enforcement to accommodate, within reason, Canada's proud tradition of free speech.
The sport itself has occasionally been magical (ice skating has to be seen live to be believed) even if some events have been so one-sided they barely deserve to be called sport (some of the women's ice hockey games fall into this category). Canada have won two gold medals so far, both of which provoked an outpouring of joy so infectious non-Canadians could not resist joining it. There will be more magical moments ahead over the next 12 days and, with any luck, home athletes will feature heavily. Olympic Games are international occasions, but they are at their best when the host nation is doing well.
As for the downsides – they have been catalogued in great detail by the Canadian press, from the minor technical problems at the opening ceremony (which did not detract from a terrific evening), to the transportation problems, to the inexplicable decision to "hide" the Olympic cauldron – the symbol of any Games – in a place where the public can barely see it.
More darkly, there are now serious questions being asked about the Whistler slider rack where the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died last Friday, with the Wall Street Journal claiming today that commercial considerations were partly responsible for a design that was faster, and ultimately more dangerous, than any sliding track in history.
No doubt that particular story will run and run, just as there will probably be a few more organisational and logistical problems before the closing ceremony, all of which will be reported by the press in Canada, in France, in the US and, yes, in Britain. The IOC could do itself, and the Olympic moment, a favour if rather than attacking those who report such problems they actually sorted the problems instead.
Normally I'd be the first to criticise the over-zealous and traditionally nasty British press, but it seems the author here may have a point. Is the reporting in the UK's press painting a poorer picture of the Games than other nations' press? Hmmm.
Haven't followed the games at all thus far, but just going by what people are posting here, Vancouver does seem to have had a high proportion of ... to understate it ... mishaps.
No kidding... women's downhill...
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Aye - I watched some of that - the first event I've seen.
Exciting as hell - but my god those crashes! My heart was in my throat.
I was wondering why the people chanting "Let's Go Denmark" during this curling match were speaking English. They show the crowd, and what a surprise, they are Canadians!
Interesting definition of risque...American halfpipe bronze medalist Scotty Lago volunteered to leave the Olympics on Friday after risque pictures of him showed up on the Internet.
Lago, who was awarded his bronze medal Thursday night, was at a party, wearing a Team USA T-shirt when somebody snapped a photo of a woman kneeling below Lago’s waist to kiss his medal. That picture, and another showing him sticking the medal in the woman’s mouth while teammate Greg Bretz looks on, appeared Friday on the TMZ Web site.
Lago apologized to officials at the U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and decided to go home.
In the aftermath of several out-of-competition incidents in Turin, one of which resulted in the dismissal of freestyle skier Jeret Peterson, the USOC has made extra efforts to emphasize athletes be on their best behavior when they’re at the Olympics.
Before the Beijing Games, the USOC began its “Ambassador Program” that athletes are made to complete before they travel to the games.
Lago was a member of a group of snowboarders called the “Frends,” that included Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis, both of whom were badly injured before the Olympics and couldn’t make the trip.
“I put all that aside and rode,” Lago said.
He said he put together one of the best runs of his life to win the surprise bronze on a night overshadowed by Shaun White and his gold-medal performance.
Prudes.
We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.
At least people can't complain about double standards for men and women when it comes to things like this now.
Hope is the denial of reality
Amy Williams won Britain's first solo Winter Olympics gold medal for 30 years with victory in the women's skeleton.
Team GB won a gold?
Wonders will never cease ...
Great Britain just had an awesome ice dancing pair. Edgy contemporary music and costumes....and SHE lifted HIM
Double post. Sue me.
Watching the ice dancing made me think about ways it could be even better. Ditch the arena lights, let them skate in a large lighted circle, with the crowd (and wall graphics) blacked out. Ice dancing is about showmanship and theatrics as much as technique, so treat it like drama.
Would also be cool to see two men or two women ice dancing as a pair. But I suppose the Olympic committee views it like marriage or something (one man + one woman).
They also raised a stink when a man wanted to compete in synchronized swimming, and it ended up being a SNL parody
I take it you didn't see the brother/sister pair?
FUCK!
I could have had class. I could have been a contender.
I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum
Which is what I am
I aim at the stars
But sometimes I hit London
Fuck indeed; Sven Kramer (NL) was disqualified after making a wrong change of lane, afaik due to his coach giving faulty directions. Kramer would have had the gold medal if not for this mistake.
Congratulations America
The Dutch don't like the track.
Fear prompts bobsledders to quit Olympics
Van Calker told his coach he just couldn't drive this track and so on Wednesday the four-man No. 1 sled from the Netherlands pulled out of the Olympics.
Because their driver was terrified.
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
Did you see the women's bobsled crashes? Germany blew out bad. They get up to 3G's.
Cedar, brother/sister is still man/woman.
Nicely done Canada
I could have had class. I could have been a contender.
I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum
Which is what I am
I aim at the stars
But sometimes I hit London
What a game. Looks like the US falls to the Reds this time around.
Nice game and good job to Canada. Man that was intense.
Fuck would be the right word, yeah
Nice hockey game last night though
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
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