Winter Olympics Sochi 2014

[Mokong]

 

So with the Winter Olympics starting next week I thought a thread might be in order.

 

Opening Ceremony is Friday the 7th, live coverage starts on BBC2 at 3.30pm

 

Anyone else here looking forward to watching some winter sports?

 

I'm looking forward to the Bobsled/Skeleton/luge, Snowboarding, Biathlon, Ice Hockey, Speed Skating and Skiing events.

 

 

Really happy to see Jamaica have qualified in the 2-man Bobsled event, here's hoping for some Cool Runnings! from them haha.

 

Think they had a issue with raising money to actually get to the event after they qualified but I think they got that sorted now through a combination of crowdfunding, donations and I think I read somewhere Samsung stepped in with sponsorship too.

 

What I found a bit annoying bout that whole thing though is I don;t think the Jamaican Olympic Commitee (or whatever they are called) even offered to fund them. Now I might be wrong but I'd assume given how successful they are at the summer games I'd expect they would have money in reserve that could have easily funded the Bobsled team?

 

But the main thing is they got their funding anyway and will compete. Hope they do well, would be awesome to see them push for a medal and we might get a Cool Runnings 2 then haha.

 

 

For my own Irish point of view we've got 5 athletes qualifed.

2 in Alpine Skiing (1 man 1 woman), 1 guy in cross country skiing, 1 guy in the Skeleton and 1 guy who qualifed for both halfpipe and slopestyle in teh snowboarding.

 

I have no idea if any of them are considered "contenders" for medals, but hopefully even if not they give it a good effort. Would be awesome to see them get even one medal as we've not yet had a medal at the Winter Olympics, haha, still waiting for our first!

 

 

Also interestingly spotted my mothers and wifes country, Philippines, have one athlete qualifed (their first winter olympian since 1992) in the mens figure skating so I might keep tabs on him too.

 

 

 

Also does anyone know which channels will be showing live events?

 

I checked the Sky Guide for next Friday to see which channels were showing the Openig Ceremony and only BBC2 have it listed, very disappointed our own national broadcaster (RTE) aren't airing it, not even on delay, and very surprised to see Eurosport aren't showing it either.

 

In fact Eurosport don't seem to be covering much of anything with out a few 30min highlight shows listed for the Saturday

 

I'm assuming though maybe BBC will have all their coverage on the "red button" feeds...least I hope so, didn't see any other listings for the WInter Games live or otherwise on the sky guide.

 

 

 

(NOTE: I know there's been a fair bit of controversy surrounding these games with the whole anti homosexual laws passed in Russia and stuff but I'd like to keep this thread just about the games and the sports, if anyone wants to discuss those other issues please make a new thread )

 

 

 

Must dig up my DVD of Cool Runnings before Friday and give that a watch to get me in the proper Winter Olypmic mood, haha.

[Retro_Link]

LOVE the Winter Olympics!! Can't wait

 

Lets see what Russia makes of this...

 

[Charlie]

I think that BBC are showing a lot of the Winter Olympics.

 

I'm really looking forward to it. My favourite events are the ski cross and snow(board) cross. Small track with tight corners and big jumps. 6-8 skiers all at once, absolute mayhem, it's great. I've skied on the some of the tracks they've used before and they're absolutely mental. Even at my intermediate level I managed to get a fair amount of speed up along the track.

 

I also really enjoy all the sled events, Britain always seem to do relatively well here too.

[Jimbob]

Starting this week, all good. Hopefully the BBC coverage is as good as it was with the London games, that was brilliant.

[Ganepark32]

Very much looking forward to the Ice Hockey as always. Lets go Canada, eh! Will definitely be interesting to see if Russia can cause an upset and knock out either the USA or Canada in the hockey to reach the final. A lot of people are putting them down as the favourites but I'm not so sure.

 

But we, as in Team GB, do have some decent medal hopes this time around. Lizzy Yarnold in the Skeleton should bring a medal home having just won the World Cup, then there's the freestyle skiing and snowboarding which could net us something along with the curling. So it could be a decent games for Team GB at least.

 

Last time around the BBC's coverage was woefully, especially their online streams. And I'm not optimistic that they'll do much better this time around because they've still only got 6 streams available, as they did in Vancouver which meant I missed a lot of stuff like the hockey and some of the bobsled events because they wanted to put on the figure skating instead. Hopefully they'll do a better job and not have to cherry pick so much but as I say, not overly optimistic.

[Tales]

Been looking forward to this of course. Most excited for cross country skiing, biathlon and curling. The first two I follow every weekend every season so it's not just in the olympics. But will watch pretty much everything anyway and especially if we have athletes there, which is pretty much everything :p

 

That Irish cross country skiing athlete, is he the one use wooden skis? Or maybe he was British.

[Jon]

Cannot wait for the Ice Hockey, I reckon it will be the Swedes taking Gold. They've got some roster and the North American sides don't usually fare very well on the larger ice.

[Ramar]

I hope Teemu and Team Finland can pick up a medal in the Ice Hockey.

[Mokong]

I've only just realised, because of time differences most events will be well over by evening times here, ie: will miss everything due to being at work (I only start a new job next week, starting to think I wish they weren't starting till the following week now haha)

 

But just checked the Sky guide again and spotted BBC2 do indeed seem to have a good amount of coverage. (Previously I was checking the "evening" times as I was pressing the "+24hours" button, totally forgetting the time differences and didn't spot everything was happening during the day.

 

Looks like live coverages start Saturday morning at 8am and continue through the day with a few hours break in the afternoon picking up again round 2pm and going till 8pm. Seems to be the same for every other day after.

 

So I'll just check when events I'm interested will be on and set the sky plus

[WackerJr]

I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully BBC will show a decent amount. Britain always stands a chance in the Curling, as it gains it's 4-yearly section of media coverage!

[Mokong]

So anyone else watch the Opening Ceremony?

 

I thought it was pretty good, really enjoyed it.

 

Loved all the big things they had suspended in the air during the whole thing. Fav part was the Space or "Starry Sky" bit with the light models of different winter sports poses.

 

Though Lol at the fail in the Olympic Ring reveal at the start, hope the Russians don't "blame" some poor fella for that failure.....

 

Oh and the way the floor acted as a screen to allow different images be projected on it was brilliant. Loved the way they used that during the Parade of Nations to show pictures of each country as viewed from space as the entered the stadium.

 

Got a fair bit confused by the order the nations entered though, first few were fine, A to B, then it just seemed to get random, had to google the Russian Alphabet to get an idea when Ireland would be coming out.

 

Lighting of the Cauldrun was cool too, not as spectactular as I hoped but was good and I liked the way the fire seemed to be climbing up a ski slope

 

Here's some pics I took of my TV during it

 

Team Ireland... COME ON YOU BOYS (and GIRL) IN GREEN!

 

Feel The Rhythm Feel The Rhyme Get On Up It's BOBSLED TIME! COOL RUNNINGS!!!!!!!

 

 

And the Olympic Flame burning bright!

 

 

 

After the Ceremony was over I then popped in my Cool Runnings DVD to watch that with my son to get right proper into the Winter Olympic mood

 

Man that final scene when they carry the sled and the clapping.... still gets me everytime *tear*

 

 

 

Gonna get up early tomorrow to watch the Semis of the Snowboarding Slopestyle (after which I'm sure I'll have an urge to play 1080 :wink:)

Edited February 7, 2014 by Mokong

[Charlie]

Turns out a girl I went to school with is in the GB curling squad.

 

 

Lauren Gray, the girl with the fringe, on the right of centre. Looking forward to watching it.

 

Did anyone else catch the Slopestyle final this morning? Love that event, incredible what those guys can do.

[Mokong]

Yeah I had the alarm set to make sure I woke up on time to watch the Slopestyle.

 

Really enjoyed it, some massive tricks and great runs.

 

Smeis were good, got to see Irelands, Seamus O'Connors 2 runs, he made some good improvements, in the qualifcations on Thrusday he only managed a score of 40.00, in his 1st semi run he did I think 65 points and then his 2nd run improved it to 70.25, not enough to get to the final though, finished 9th in the semis, which I think placed him 17th overall. Not bad, he's only 16 so he has a lot of room and time to grow and improve so hopefully he can come back in 4 years and be a contender. He's in the halfpipe event this year too so hope he does well there too.

 

Britians Billy Morgan I was really impressed with at the Semis, he pulled of a monster first run which won the semis for him. Had great expectations for what he could do in the final but alas he took a fall in both his runs, shame.

 

When it came to the final I think you could tell the nerves were playing on a lot of the boarders with every other one making little mistakes that the judges punished them for and a fair few falls.

 

 

Womens Slopestyle is tomorrow, looking forward to that.

 

Then Mens Halfpipe on Tuesday, looking forward to seeing Shaun White compete again.

 

Womens Halfpipe is on Wednesday

 

Then the Cross events start with Womens next Sunday the 16th and the Mens on Monday 17th (will have to sky+ that)

 

Giant Slaloms then on Feb 19th and 22nd

[Tales]

Not bad first day for Norway. Two golds, a silver and a bronze. We're actually in the lead in the table as of now.

 

Really happy for biathlon and Bjørndalen, the king is back and alive

Edited February 8, 2014 by Tales

[Retro_Link]

Jenny Jones!!

 

GB's first ever Winter Olympic medal on snow! Bronze in the Snowboarding, Great watch!!

 

Also Luge is epic!!

[Mokong]

Yeah watched the Womens Snowboard Slopestyle this morning, awesome again it was.

 

Noticed the girls didn't go as big or crazy as some of teh guys did on their tricks but still they were certainly pulling off stuff I'd have no hope of emulating, bloody fair play to them all.

 

Did you see the crash one of them took in the final, bloody cracked her helmet in half She must have been very lucky to have walked away from it. Took her time getting up though, I thought maybe she might have broke something.

 

Jenny Jones' run was good, thought she'd break 90 points but only got 87, bet she was so nervous watching the girls going after her wondering how many might beat her score. Lucky for her was on two and she got the bronze, fair play.

 

 

Watched a bit of the Luge and Downhill too, bloody speeds they reach on both those events are maddness 130 Km/h and more! The max speed limit here is only 120 on a motorway and that's in a car! These guys are just sliding down on a small sled or pair of skis!

 

Watched a bit more Speed Skating too and some Ski Jump was just on and caught a bit of the Biathlon. Work tomorrow ggrrrrr.... have the Sky+ set so hopefully will be able to watch that undisturbed (two kids good luck with that Mokong) when I get home.

 

 

Oh also I dug up 1080 Avalanche to have a game on that (Took me AGGGGEEESSS to find the right memory card though.... in fact forgot the GC had memory cards for a minute )

Really enjoyed playing that again Visually still looks great! I had no trouble with the Match Race, still able to win all of that... though I'm no where near my best at pulling off tricks anymore.

 

So sad we never got another 1080 game.... Nintendo had damned well better make one for the WiiU, could just imagine some of those mountain views in HD and hopefully get an awesome licensed soundtrack again

 

 

[Diageo]

I don't normally watch TV or the Olympics, but I'm especially not watching it because I don't want to support Russia and their laws.

[Iun]

I don't normally watch TV or the Olympics, but I'm especially not watching it because I don't want to support Russia and their laws.

 

Dude, can you just try breathing out and in without making a statement about something?

 

I'm not watching this because I have virtually no interest in the Summer or Winter Olympics. I don't enjoy that kind of competition.

[Diageo]

Dude, can you just try breathing out and in without making a statement about something?

 

I'm not watching this because I have virtually no interest in the Summer or Winter Olympics. I don't enjoy that kind of competition.

 

Yes I can. I don't normally make statements, but this one is important.

[Mokong]

I don't normally watch TV or the Olympics, but I'm especially not watching it because I don't want to support Russia and their laws.

 

Chances are if the games were elsewhere I'm guessing you prolly wouldn't be watching either anyway?

 

I know it's an important and hot-topic issue but I did say in the top post if anyone wanted to discuss that situation to open a new thread so we can keep this one just about the sport, please.

 

As far as I know no athlete has had any issues with those laws thus far or with local public reception and the IOC have said athletes are free to make any political statements they want in media inteviews within Olympic grounds (except on the Podium when getting medals but it has always been that way).

 

 

But yeah back to the games.

Just home awhile ago, not checked up anything yet, finished dinner and just watched the new ep of Walking Dead so gonna go check me Sky+ and see whats there to watch. I think the Mens Moguls, Womens Luge and I think some Short Track Speed Sakting was on today so looking forward to those.

 

EDIT

 

 

Has anyone got a video of Sage Kotsenburgs winning run in the Mens Snowboard Slopestyle from Saturday.

 

I been looking all weekend thinking it surely someone must have put it on Youtube somewhere but all I can find are news reports that show no footage or troll vids that show nothing or show just still photos

[Diageo]

Chances are if the games were elsewhere I'm guessing you prolly wouldn't be watching either anyway?

 

I'd probably watch the events with the attractive people there.

[Mokong]

Watched the Mens Snowboard Halfpipe yesterday, shocking to see Shaun White not in the medals, very surprising, especially after his qualification run which just knocked it out of the park. But doesn't matter how many spins and flips you do, if you don't land clean you will lose points and for whatever reasons he just couldn't get all his landings clean i the final taking 2 falls in his first run and 2 near falls in his 2nd.

[Murr]

Watched the Mens Snowboard Halfpipe yesterday, shocking to see Shaun White not in the medals, very surprising, especially after his qualification run which just knocked it out of the park. But doesn't matter how many spins and flips you do, if you don't land clean you will lose points and for whatever reasons he just couldn't get all his landings clean i the final taking 2 falls in his first run and 2 near falls in his 2nd.

 

Yeah I watched that too dude. 15 Year old Japanese kid was awesome,.... 15?? Geez...

 

I don't agree with the other Japanese guy taking 3rd spot. There were some better runs than his.

 

But then I'm not an Olympic snowboarding judge so what do I know? :p

[Ganepark32]

I annoyingly missed the final of the Men's halfpipe but went back to watch the highlights and wow. That run from the Swiss guy was unreal. That final trick, the YOLO 1440, and how cleanly he landed it was just incredible. Definitely deserving of that gold medal right there.

 

And yeah, amazed not to see Shaun White in the medals. But as you said @Mokong, you can do all the flips and twists that you want but if you don't get the full rotation and a clean landing then it doesn't matter. Admittedly, the pipe did look a bit of a mess throughout the day yesterday but if others can pull out the good stuff then you really need to be on the top of your game.

 

Sitting watching the Women's halfpipe in the office at the moment. Bit more sedate though. Qualifying rounds obviously but still rather enjoying watching it all. And the pipe does look to be in a better condition today than it was for the Men's yesterday.

 

And of course, the Men's hockey starts today. Haven't checked in on much of the Women's matches but one of the games yesterday (Russia vs Japan) looked like a peewee hockey match and was just a bore to watch. Such a disparity between the top 2 in the Women's game (the USA and Canada) and those behind them in the rankings compared to the Men's game. Does make it a little hard to watch the matches without those two as a result.

[Charlie]

I was watching the womans ski slopestyle final yesterday morning as I happened to flick onto the BBC website just as Summerhayes the British woman was about to go so I watcehd it. The commentators were awful, screaming, cheering and said "that's definitely a medal!" at the end of it.

 

She finished 7th out of 12.