Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Vancouver games run from February 12–28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Winter_Olympics

http://www.vancouver2010.com/

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Thanks for telling us when it is, i love the Winter Olympics :D

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Same here cant wait to learn how to handle a bit of this white stuff :D

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

I shall be in Ontario during this period. :)

If it weren't so insanely expensive I would have gone back to Whistler. Went there a few years ago, fantastic.

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

I enjoy the Winter Olympics as much as the Summer Olympics. So many good sports to watch, bobsleigh, ski jumping, luge, skeleton, downhill skiing, slalom skiing etc. I'll be glued to the TV during the games! :)

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Don't know whether you watch any of the Winter sports action on Eurosport, but my favourite ski jumper Janne Ahonen (Finland) recently returned to the sport after retiring at the end of 2008.

They say that if a ski jumping athlete takes time out from the sport, it is very difficult indeed to return to form. However (like in all things) there can be exceptions - this one especially as he very nearly (coming 2nd) won the recent Four Hills championship - which would have been the sixth time - an all time record, which he already holds

Methinks the Winter Olympics may be the driver for Ahonen's return to the sport as he (like all the others) craves the gold medal - well just have to wait and see.

I have a great deal of respect for all winter sports athletes, as not only do they have to be incredibly fit, but extremely skilled as well, especially as in many cases their lives depend upon it. :erm:

Spiffing stuff! :D

Si thee :Sprint:

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

BBC new page with lots of reports on team GB for these winter games

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...10/default.stm

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Some very sad news ahead of the start of the games

luger Nodar Kumaritashvili dead after he left the track at high speed


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...ge/8513595.stm

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

I read that he had been injured, but not died :shocked:.

Is this a bad omen?

---------- Post added at 22:13 ---------- Previous post was at 21:49 ----------

No terrestrial channel is showing the openning ceremony either.

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Hom3r the opening is on BBC1 from 2am :)

shame bout the Nodar, but speeds at 95mph bloody hell you just need wings with it.

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

It's a bad omen for Nodar that's for sure....

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Dutchie:

5K speed skating tomorrow (starting 8 pm). Kramer in the 11th run, with Davis, De Jong, Skobrev, Fabris, Bokko and Hedrick in runs 12-14. You couldn't make it up.

Your place or mine? :)

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Having watched the video of the luge crash and listened to reports of how dangerous other athletes feel the track is and also hearing how the Canadians have limited practice sessions I can see no other option but to cancel all events due to take place on the track unless they are able to alter it in time.

A disgrace that this was allowed to happen - the crash was horrendous.

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

well am on a night shift but hey we'll get some medals outta this I hope :D

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Wow. I just watched two hours of speed skating on the Beeb. Fantastic!

I have to say that despite me being somewhat anal, I thought the commentary was quite good. Hugh Porter blundered his way through, getting all sorts of facts wrong, but Wilf O'reilly was excellent, showing great technical and historical knowledge.

Live coverage of speed skating on the Beeb. Long may it continue :tu:

Oh, Sven Kramer storms to the gold in 6:14.6. :) Big hats off to Seung-Hoon Lee for becoming the first Korean medalist in the longer distances. :tu:

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

This snowboard cross stuff is brilliant! :D

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Yep just watched the QF/SF and both finals...Amazing!!!!

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

500m Speed skating now. The technique of these guys is just amazing. Try doing that on a 1mil blade, riding on the outside of the blade.

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Wow. Or rather not. Amy Williams wins the first individual gold in 30 years, and no-one seems to care?

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

I do, stayed up to watch the 3rd and 4th round runs last night. Amazing to see a Brit start out in the lead and hold it. Well done to her, she deserves it.

I was kind of happy that the Canadian woman that was in 2nd after 3 rounds didn't get a medal, because their entrants had been down the course over 300 times each, whereas all the others entrants were lucky to get 30 training runs!

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Yes, It's a bloody disgrace. They've done this in pretty much all disciplines. Apparently, part of the 'own the podium' programme was to deny foreign athletes training opportunities :erm:

According to wiki, the massive problems with the ice resurfacing at the Richmond 'slow-val' may have been due to the machines not having been broken in properly as a result of this...

Anyway. Well done Amy Williams! :tu: :D

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

:clap: Yep, well done Amy, pity the other teams had to have a couple of official moans about her helmet..sore losers???

Glad to see the 2 man GB bobsleigh team escape serious injury as they crashed out..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...gh/8526666.stm

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Just watched the ski cross. Downhill skiing with 4 competitors on the course battling for postion. Utter madness :D

Looking forward to the bobsleigh cross now :)

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

I watched the ski-cross too. Great stuff. Gives skiing a bit of an edge that the traditional alpine events are missing.

I see our women curlers are rapidly kicking themselves out of the competition before the final stages. Threw it away against the USA last night on a couple of dodgy shot decisions and again today lost against the Swiss on a few more.

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

It's great to see how much fun the commentators are having. It's not often that you hear sports commentators laugh that much. It just goes to show how amazed they are at what's happening on the slope. Good stuff. :tu:

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

The only commentator I've found to be bad was the woman that co-commentated on the snowboarding. It sounded like they were in a silent room and her voice was very quiet and her comments were just pointless and added nothing to the event. It was like she'd never seen snowboarding before.

At one point she said something about a snowboarder falling over, when none had in the event. Turns out she'd been looking out of the window of the box where they were sat and some random snowboarder had fallen over and she felt the need to comment on it.

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Was she the one with the weird accent?

If so, I agree, she seemed to be on another planet, though I did think she sounded rather sexy :)

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Woot!!!!!!

Third gold to Holland!

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Yeah, she was either canadian or american.

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Oh dear, UK womens curling team blowing up in the match v Denmark. Now they'll have to beat the hosts, Canada.

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Oh my god...

You really couldn't make this up. Sven Kramer, the red hot favourite for the mens 10k speed skating is disqualified after posting the top time, as he chooses the wrong lane.

Speed skating is done on a 400m oval, and riders change lanes once a lap as the outside lane is longer than the inside lane, thus making sure every lap is 400m. This is normally not problematic, but Kramer's coach Kemkers was somehow convinced that Kramer needed to go into the inner lane when Kramer was getting ready to take the outside lane. So he shouts to him to get into the inside lane. Kramer who is firmly on his way to Gold (with a 6 second lead over the fastest time at that point) starts to doubt, and goes for the inside lane, and gets rightly disqualified. I am so gutted. I've never seen anything like this. How can you lose an Olympic gold over such a freak misunderstanding? :bigcry:

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Surely he knew he'd just finished the inside track and was on his way out to the outer track? Maybe he deserves it for being so daft! :D

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Yes, there is that. He did go on camera and was surprisingly calm and collected. Both are to blame, but it isn't helpful for a coach (who's gone on camera and took full blame) to confuse the athlete.

I've seen some weird things happen over the years. A famous examples is of a skater that lost count of how many laps he had to go. He started his sprint in the penultimate lap, and the commentators were raving about how much he apparently had left in the tank. They were slightly less enthousiastic when he stopped skating when he had one lap left to go.

It's a freak thing I suppose. **** happens. It's just hard to laugh about it when a dead certain olympic gold medal goes out the window through driver/coach error.

Well done to Lee Seung Hoon of Korea for posting the second time and taking Gold though. None of the others came close to his time. :tu:

Re: Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
 

Talking about daft...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...10/8533399.stm :D