Winter Olympics

I've been recording and watching some of this, but I'm quite selective. I'm not at all interested in the number of different ways you can go down a bob-sleigh run on a "tin tray," or much of the snow boarding, or somersaulting on skis. It all looks a bit "samey."
I'll watch the downhill skiing and slalom events.

I like the ice hockey, speed skating, all forms of figure and ice dance and particularly the curling.

It amuses me that when one member of the team wants the other to brush vigorously,
Regardless of the nationality, they shout "Hard! Hard!!" with a Scottish accent. Such is the effect of that nation on the sport.

 

Ive been watching bits of it, schedule for the next few days.

Monday February 12

• Alpine skiing - men's and women's pursuit events
• Biathlon - men's and women's pursuit events
• Curling - mixed doubles semi-finals
• Figure skating - men's and ladies free skate, ice dance free dance
• Freestyle skiing - men's moguls
• Women's hockey - Switzerland v Japan, Sweden v South Korea
• Luge - women's heat races
• Ski jumping - women's competition
• Snowboarding - women's slopestyle final, women's halfpipe qualifying
• Speed skating - women's 1,500m

Tuesday February 13

• Alpine skiing - men's alpine combined
• Cross-country skiing - men's and women's individual sprint finals
• Curling - mixed doubles bronze and gold medal matches
• Women's hockey - Canada v Finland, US v Olympic athletes from Russia
• Luge - women's heat races
• Short track speed skating - women's 500m final, men's 1,000m qualifying, men's 5,000m relay qualifying
• Snowboarding - women's halfpipe final, men's halfpipe
• Speed skating - men's 1,500m

Wednesday February 14

• Alpine skiing - women's slalom
• Biathlon - women's 15km individual
• Curling - men's and women's round robin
• Figure skating - pairs short program
• Men's hockey - preliminary round US v Slovenia
• Luge - doubles
• Snowboarding - men's halfpipe final
• Speed skating - women's 1,000m

Thursday February 15

• Alpine skiing - men's super-G
• Biathlon - men's 20km individual
• Cross-country skiing - women's 10km individual
• Curling - men's and women's round robin
• Figure skating - women's aerials qualifying
• Women's hockey - preliminary matches
• Men's hockey - preliminary matches
• Luge - team relay
• Skeleton - men's heat races
• Snowboarding - men's cross
• Speed skating - men's 10,000m

Friday February 16

• Cross-country skiing - men's 15km individual
• Curling - men's and women's round robin
• Figure skating - men's short program
• Freestyle skiing -women's aerials final
• Men's hockey - preliminary matches
• Ski jumping - men's large hill qualifying
• Snowboarding - women's cross
• Speed skating - women's 5,000m

 

Thanks for the info.

I've just watched the curling, the Swiss beat the O A R

That should be the R A T S R B B.

"The Russian Athletes Who Should Really Be Banned."

 

This is probably more your cup of tea from my reading , ive got the golf highlights on one tv/pc and the Olympics on the other tv.

 

Thanks for that.

We haven't got Sky, just BT sports. I can only watch the Masters and the couple of events that the BBC have. To be honest, I'd rather play than watch golf. In fact my golf cub got rid of our Sky contract. Not enough people bothered watching the golf when it was on during the day and there are few people wanting to stay late to watch football, because of the drink and drive laws.
As the cost of Sky is linked to the rateable value of clubs and pubs, we'll be saving £9,000 each year.

I do like the conversations between Peter Alliss and Ken Brown.

What made me smile was many years ago when Steve Rider who used to work for the BBC and Ken Brown were walking part of the course before the event, being shown during the preview the day before on BBC TV..
Now Rider was a bit of a hack golfer at the time, I don't know if he's improved.

Anyway, he said to Ken, affecting an air of that he knew what he was talking about.

"Now Ken, can you give the average club golfer a bit of advice about how to get your ball up out of a fairway divot?"

Ken gave him an old-fashioned look and replied, "Well, I find it's best if you just nudge it with your foot."
Steve shut up after that.

 

I intercept live feeds its free, golf often turns up but you need a dish pointing at 12.5W and its not set in stone its going to appear no program guide for this, it gone now and all im left with is a testcard.

 

Back to the Winter Olympics, as I see it there's two ways of going down a bob-sleigh run on a "tin tray." Either head-first on your front, or feet-first on your back. I might find it more watchable if it were head-first on your back and feet-first on your front.
Either way these young people must be mad as a box of frogs to risk it.

 

Wake me up when its over...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Its nice to see us doing well

 

I think it fantastic that Lizzy Yarnold has "won so many gold medals this year." By my reckoning it must be over a dozen! Yes fair dues to the girl, it's a fantastic achievement to retain the title, but why do the BBC have to keep showing it so often?
Because it's the only gold we're likely to get.
I really despair of the BBC sometimes, I think the coverage visually is superb, but that's down to the Koreans, but the commentaries at times have much to be desired. As for "The Clare Balding Show," she who likes to dominate conversations and can on occasions, "talk rubbish with authority," I avoid it. Going back several Olympics when she was new to board sports, she obviously hadn't done her homework as she was an embarrassment with her lack of knowledge.(our youngest son his partner and her daughter were well into it). They went to Canada every year on snowboarding holidays, so the technical stuff rubbed off on me.

I record everything and fast forward through the "non-action."

 

Excellent achievement by Lizzie Yarnold. I happened to catch the whole thing live which is unusual for me. Her last run was astonishing. It broke the track record and left her a good .5 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. My understanding was she hadn’t won “ANYTHING “ so far this year. In 2014/5 she won everything and then took a year off to recuperate.

Well done to Laura Deas too. It took somebody else’s mistake to let her in but at the end of the day you’ve got to be in it to win it. She was consistent and that’s what got her through. (In context the jump that got Greg Rutherford his gold medal in 2012 wouldn’t have have got him any medal at any other recent olympics.)

2 podiums in one event at the Winter Olympics is a huge achievement.

I do agree with the point about overplaying things. It’s also how they make a lot of tv documentaries. Before each interval they show you what’s going to be in the next segment. After the break they recap what happened in the previous segment. You end up watching the same bits of film 2 or 3 times. That does wind me up.


Yesterday also saw the final stages of the 1500 speed skating competition. That’s a strange thing to watch. It’s looks a bit like speedway. Everybody goes around a very tight track in single file and then at the bell all hell breaks loose. There is a mad scramble for the front and you are very lucky if you don’t end up in a heap on the floor.

There were 2 British ladies competing in seperate semifinals. The one in the first (sorry I don’t recall her name) was at the back of the field and fell over. I’m not sure why. The commentator said she had also fallen over in her previous race. Heartbreaking for her of course and live on TV too. It does make you wonder though what the competition for places must be like.

The lady in the 2nd heat, Elise Christie was tipped to go through to the final. As the finish line approached she became entangled with a Chinese lady and they both went off the track. It was a very nasty collision that led to Elise being stretchered off. Thankfully nothing was broken. In the aftermath it was deemed that the collision was her fault and the Chinese lady was reinstated. She went on to win a medal.

Of course it was only right for the BBC to be concerned about an injured athlete. The where’s and why’s of the accident become insignificant until she has fully recovered. What did bother me though is that the other British lady (the one who’s name I couldn’t remember - ironically) was never mentioned again.

I understand the point about the ‘Claire Balding Show’. She does tend to dominate conversations. I like Hazel Irvine. I always have. I used to like Helen Rollason who sadly passed away.

It’s getting late and I have so much to do today. I have asked my my mum around for tea. I’m now wishing I hadn’T as I’ve been under the weather all week and I don’t really want to go out shopping. Perhaps we can eat out instead.

Anyway. Sorry for the long post. I love sports generally and especially ones with British interest. I have nobody to discuss them with at home so it helps that I have somewhere like this.



G.

Ps It would be hypocritical of me if I didn’t say well done to Linzi Bennet (I think that was her name ) who’s Bronze medal in free fall skiing was Britain’s first ever skiing medal at a Winter Olympics. 3medals in one day is also a record. And 4 overall. That’s 3 more than we’ve achieved for about 50years.

 

@Jack Sparrow ...it's a real shame about Elise Christie because there was a real chance she could have won gold in the events she crashed out of. She now in doubt for her next race as she has soft tissue damage to her ankle.

 

Bless her. It was a very heavy contact.

 

My apologies to the skiier. Her name was Izzy Atkins.