Winter Olympics Thread: Vancouver 2010

[Lavabe]

So Lindsey Vonn crashed on the slalom portion of the super combined. However, Julia Mancuso (who silvered to Vonn's gold in the downhill) took silver in the event. Mancuso was definitely fun to watch, especially when she started celebrating taking the lead at the end of her slalom run.

She's also the one who wears a tiara on the medal platform (at least she did at the last Olympics). Turns out she also has her own line of underwear called "Kiss My Tiara."

Vonn or Mancuso? Should be an interesting few days at the ski slopes.

[wilson]

Let the controversy begin:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancou ... &type=lgns
Elvis Stojko thinks Plushenko was robbed of a gold.

Maybe it IS time for figure skating to go on hiatus (and watch the Olympics ratings drop).

I dunno enough about figure skating to comment on whether Plushenko was "robbed," but the commentators were pretty adamant that the technical execution in his routine was markedly less than that of Lysacek's. Stojko may have a point that Plushenko's difficulty was greater than Lysacek's, but the "clean-ness" of his jumps did appear to be lacking on second look.
One thing is for sure: Stojko is doing his own sport no favors, and Plushenko's sour countenance during the medal ceremony was thoroughly unbecoming.
I will say that, while I've made no secret of the fact that I'm not terribly interested in figure skating, I enjoyed watching last night. I find it especially pleasing that the American Lysacek beat out the dour, haughty Russian for gold. I'm in no way above vestigial Cold War animosity.
Mr. Plushenko, I have but one thing to say to you:

[wilson]

[gadzooks]

Stojko also complained in an earlier column about "effeminate movement". Fuck you, asshole. Maybe Plushenko is the only straight guy out there, but he didn't skate as well as Lysacek; he did do harder jumps, but he also wobbled on just about all of them, while Lysacek landed his cleanly.

[Lavabe]

It seems that while Plushenko hit a quad, he also bobbled a landing, and front-loaded his performance. After a certain point in the performance, jumps go up in value, so as to reward stamina. Whereas EL had several jumps towards the end, Plushenko largely failed to do this, according to this house's figure skating maven (a.k.a. ILJ). Was this enough for EL to counteract Plushenko's quad? Apparently so. Plushenko should have had another jump or two late in his program.

[Lavabe]

Stojko also complained in an earlier column about "effeminate movement". Fuck you, asshole. Maybe Plushenko is the only straight guy out there, but he didn't skate as well as Lysacek; he did do harder jumps, but he also wobbled on just about all of them, while Lysacek landed his cleanly.

Doubt that Plushenko is the only STRAIGHT guy out there, as Lysacek's girlfriend, Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin, was there.

[Lavabe]

Canada
US
Sunday
7
PM
Olympic
Hockey

vs.

Duke
VaTech
7:45
PM
CIS

Hello DVR!!!

[wilson]

Canada-US
Sunday 7PM
Olympic Hockey

vs.

Duke-VaTech
7:45PM
CIS

Hello DVR!!!

Yeah, I'm in a quandary on this one too. While I think the Canadians are rightfully the overwhelming favorites for hockey gold, the American squad has started well, and there seems to be an awful lot of overall USA mojo this year. Still not sure which one I'll watch live.

[Lavabe]

The Canadians won a shootout last night vs. their Olympic nemesis, Switzerland.

[gadzooks]

Stojko also complained in an earlier column about "effeminate movement". Fuck you, asshole. Maybe Plushenko is the only straight guy out there, but he didn't skate as well as Lysacek; he did do harder jumps, but he also wobbled on just about all of them, while Lysacek landed his cleanly.

Doubt that Plushenko is the only STRAIGHT guy out there, as Lysacek's girlfriend, Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin, was there.

I skipped over most of the fluff, so I only caught the multiple mentions of Plushenko's wife. Elvis Stojko is still a homophobic asshole.

[wilson]

Super-G tonight. Awesome. Also more ski jumping, and possibly the most badass Olympic sport: skeleton. Very strong overall badass quotient from that trio. Also ice dancing, which only interests me because the Americans are such strong contenders (though that's still not enough to get me too geeked up about it).

[colchar]

Let the controversy begin:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancou ... &type=lgns
Elvis Stojko thinks Plushenko was robbed of a gold.

Maybe it IS time for figure skating to go on hiatus (and watch the Olympics ratings drop).

I don't know... I thought Lysacek was robbed in the prelim, and Elvis thinks Plushenko was robbed in the long program.

Here's a novel idea: give them a third round where they have to trace figures in the ice, and whoever gets the figures closest to the ideal shape wins the competition. Yeah, and make it worth like 50% or more of their score. ;)

Nope. Not going back to the future.

Figure skating is a pathetic joke but they will never drop it because of ratings.

This so-called sport is seriously seriously flawed. Dick Pound complained right before the Olympics about how terrible their scoring still is. Until they fix it, their competitions have no legitimacy. Heck, I remember reading somewhere about a month before the Olympics that they already know the order of finish for the ice dance competition (I wish I could remember where I read that so that I could provide a link and, more importantly, see if the order they mentioned turns out to be correct).

Take the men's program last night as an example - the Canadian kid (I don't give a rat's ass about figure skating so I can't recall his name) fell at least once (he might have fallen twice - I didn't pay enough attention to the highlight to remember) yet he was in first place after his routine! How the fuck can that be justified?!?!?!?

As I said, figure skating is a pathetic joke. It should be dropped until it is fixed but they will never ever drop it because of the TV ratings it generates.

[colchar]

Should be an interesting few days at the ski slopes.

They're off for a few (or at least a couple) of days aren't they? I think I remember Vonn saying something about taking the time to get some therapy before she competes next.

[wilson]

As I said, figure skating is a pathetic joke. It should be dropped until it is fixed but they will never ever drop it because of the TV ratings it generates.

Yeah, but at least we beat that damned Russky.

[colchar]

Canada-US
Sunday 7PM
Olympic Hockey

vs.

Duke-VaTech
7:45PM
CIS

Hello DVR!!!

Yeah, I'm in a quandary on this one too. While I think the Canadians are rightfully the overwhelming favorites for hockey gold

They shouldn't be - they are playing like shit right now. Well maybe not like shit but they definitely aren't playing up to their potential. They are gripping their sticks too tight, they are deferring to each other too much, they aren't shooting enough, they aren't playing with any kind of edge or nastiness, and they aren't developing any real chemistry. The game against the US will be interesting. Very very interesting.

[Lavabe]

As I said, figure skating is a pathetic joke. It should be dropped until it is fixed but they will never ever drop it because of the TV ratings it generates.

Yeah, but at least we beat that damned Russky.

Plushenko is a whiney putz:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancou ... &type=lgns

[DukeUsul]

If the quad jump is so important, they should change the rules to award it more points. But you clearly can't say "well he did a quad successfully, so he has to win gold" if the rest of the performance is inadequate. Otherwise why score anything other than just counting how many quads you land?

I hate judged competitions.

[colchar]

I hate judged competitions.

You and me both.

[colchar]

So he is the second person in CTN history to have earned that post? Oh well, at least I was first! Then again, I can't remember what I did to earn it.

[Lavabe]

So he is the second person in CTN history to have earned that post? Oh well, at least I was first! Then again, I can't remember what I did to earn it.

The Beatles