Offical Vancouver 2010 Countdown Olympic Thread

[dalmatian]

Three Weeks to go until the 'offical' start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and personally cant wait. I love watching Eurosport on foxtel every week in the summer, especially Alpine Skiing, Snowboard Cross and the Ski Jumping. Still havent ordered the Foxtel coverage so im gonna decide in the next week whether i will or not (its $50 instead $65 until the end of the month). Channel 9's pathetic coverage every 4 years is probably going to force my hand, because the chance of watching anything other than events where Australia are actually competing are few and far between and figure skating to me, is pain inducing boredom for me. You can bet Ice hockey, alpine skiing and ski jumping wont be on 9 because the chance of an Australian being in the top 50 in either ski jumping or alpine skiing is pretty much next to none.

Still, it will be be must see TV for anyone who likes skiing, to watch the mens Super G and Downhill. Seeing if Carlo Janka (Switzerland) can take the crown after a pretty stellar world cup year in the downhill against the likes of Bode Miller (USA), Benjamin Raich (Austria), Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway), Didier Cuche (Switzerland), Werner Heel (Italy) and the hometown favorite, Manuel Osborne-Paradis.

Simon Ammann (Switzerland) vs Gregor Schlierenzauer (Austria) is going to a monumental battle on the mountains of Whistler in the Ski Jumping. On the Australian front, Dale Begg-Smith the Canadian come Australian due to his inability in 2006 to make the Canadian Mogul Olympic Team (Ironically taking the gold after his Australian nationalization) is a gold medal favorite. Lydia Lassila is a definate medal favorite along with the Chinese in the womens aerials, and Australia have a few sliders in the skeleton in the mens and womens events in the top 20 coming into the Olympics. Gonna be a good one, Winter Olympics to me at its worst, is still more entertaining than the Summer Olympics at their best. :p

The olympics starts proper on February 13, and cant wait :)

[Lazlow]

Olympic Hockey stinks >_>

I'll be hanging out for some Tandem Luge though. :D

And Figure Skating ain't too bad, some of the chicks are pretty hot, and when they fall its fun to see them persist with the routine while they slowly die inside.

[dalmatian]

Olympics starts in 6 days and only 1 post so far? I know the winter olympics arent exactly Australia's forte but geez....

[D.C.]

Olympic Hockey stinks >_>
How so? The star players are normally always very eager to compete (unlike tennis) and generally it's more competitive than basketball simply because of the even spread of talent that comes from Europe.

[Azzaman]

I too am looking forward to the ice hockey, I also like the snowboarding. Speed skating always makes me laugh, I hope Bradbury is still competing ;)

[V²]

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7971/vancouver2010mascotssum.jpg

[dalmatian]

How so? The star players are normally always very eager to compete (unlike tennis) and generally it's more competitive than basketball simply because of the even spread of talent that comes from Europe.

The reason Laz dont like Olympic hockey is because of the absence of the biffo that has made the NHL so famous (or inFAMOUS if you like :p). Personally i like both facets of the sport and think that fighting is a necessary part of international ice hockey (as it is a deterrent to dog players like Steve Ott, Jordan Tootoo and my personal favorite, Sean Avery) that have all made a career out of doing cheap shots and taking runs at other teams star players. That is the reason why i think the biff is necessary in the world of ice hockey, not because of it satisfying my 'bloodlust' (although i must admit, i love watching Riley Cote and Eric Godard going at it every Philly vs Pittsburgh NHL game :p.


On another note, for those with that have ordered the foxtel vancouver package, coverage starts at 4am AEDT when the Ski Jumping qualifying starts.

[Lazlow]

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr168/DartAran/1266030237231.gif

Poor bastard.

[dalmatian]

Luge is an entertaining sport. But the track designers must have rocks in their head to leave EXPOSED metal poles right where the fastest (and most dangerous) part of the track is. Its an absolute tragedy but it was only a matter of time until something horrible like this happened. Most luge tracks in Europe dont really get any faster than 135kmh, this Vancouver track is SO fast that the worst sliders are getting speeds in excess of 150kmh which is suicidal. When the luge started yesterday, organizers had to shorten the run by the first three turns in an effort to slow the track down slightly. Still my thoughts go out to Georgia and that luge racers family. A terrible way to lose your life

[Lazlow]

Shortening the start was pretty pointless though. The Georgian came off at 144km/h, the German currrently in the lead got up to 147km/h. Also, where the f*** is my tandem luge, I want to see dude going downon each other!

[sausage]

Man, with all the prime totty on show it should be called the Hoelympics.

[Azzaman]

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr168/DartAran/1266030237231.gif

Poor bastard.

I'm wondering why there isn't some plexiglass there or something to stop the riders flying over the top of the track. Would've been a pretty simple fix that could've saved his life.

[adam_91vn]

Another angle

http://www.ihasaids.com/upload/data/1266067327.gif

[sausage]

I'm sorry but that is bloody hilarious and no; not too soon either.

[Second]

Bloody Brilliant. Excellent work.

[Lazlow]

If only gifs had sound, then you could loop some yakety sax in there!

[Second]

ytmnd?

[adam_91vn]

They have since fixed the problem.



http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/8849/1266020624527.jpg