The 2010 Winter Olympic Games: Vancouver

[DavidMn]

Its hard to believe another Olympics is upon us. It's odd to me because it seems like NOBODY gives a ****. I mean, I'm not exactly an Olympicophile, but I am certainly interested in the figure skating competition. I know Shizuka Arakawa, the Japanese lady that won in Torino is not competing here, but Evgeny Plushenko, who in my humble opinion is a gorgeous man, is back to defend his title. Anyway, we have 2 weeks to discuss, dissect and anylize the performances of whatever sport you follow. ENJOY!

[GODDESS6]

i love all the olympics~ i prefer summer, since i myself am an gymnast from way back~ but i am looking forward to the ice/speed skating, all the skiing, the snowbaording, stuff like that~ my son & i will be watching as much as we can~

go USA!!!~

[DavidMn]

Originally Posted by GODDESS6

i love all the olympics~ i prefer summer, since i myself am an gymnast from way back~ but i am looking forward to the ice/speed skating, all the skiing, the snowbaording, stuff like that~ my son & i will be watching as much as we can~

go USA!!!~

It would be nice if an American man could win the figure skating event. No american has won since Brian Boitano in Calgary in 1988.

[louielouie2000]

At one point I was an olympic-phile... but somewhere in the past decade or so that flame has been extinguished. Well, I should be more specific... the winter olympics were always my thing. I'm a big snow skier, and I love watching figure skating too. I think all of the politics and scandals have finally poisoned me to the games, though. Somewhere in between Tonya Harding whacking Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul being a drunk, Eric Rudolph bombing the Atlanta games, China being communist but allowed to hold the games anyway, Michael Phelps being a pothead, Barack Obama being painted pink for not wooing an olympic committee to hold the games in Chicago, hearing about Vancouver being bashed for having druggies near their venues, etc I have lost my interest. In my eyes, none of this crap is anyone's fault but the media. The way they take the most minute, private, trivial thing and make it seem like the end of the world just makes me f-ing NUTS! The actual games, much less the spirit of why they're actually held, is totally secondary. Who really GIVES A DAMN if Michael Phelps smokes up? Could Barack Obama have said ANYTHING that would have really changed a committees decision, whose mind was more than likely already made up? Honestly, I didn't even realize 2010 was an olympics year . I knew I kept reading about Vancouver's intravenous drug usage problem casting a "stain" on the upcoming games, but that's about it . I'm just so sick of media sensationalism ruining every damn good thing!

[GODDESS6]

Originally Posted by DavidMn

It would be nice if an American man could win the figure skating event. No american has won since Brian Boitano in Calgary in 1988.

i loved brian!!!~ omg, did you see his cooking show on the food network?~ i liked it, then it just disappeared~

did ya hear nancy kerrigan's father was murdered by her brother?~ she has drama around the olympics even when she is not competing~ poor girl~ & i just saw a pic of tonya harding, wowzer she turned into a moose, i was so surprised~

i like that red headed kid shaun white too, he just freaks me out w/ what he does~

[GODDESS6]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

At one point I was an olympic-phile... but somewhere in the past decade or so that flame has been extinguished. Well, I should be more specific... the winter olympics were always my thing. I'm a big snow skier, and I love watching figure skating too. I think all of the politics and scandals have finally poisoned me to the games, though. Somewhere in between Tonya Harding whacking Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul being a drunk, Eric Rudolph bombing the Atlanta games, China being communist but allowed to hold the games anyway, Michael Phelps being a pothead, Barack Obama being painted pink for not wooing an olympic committee to hold the games in Chicago, hearing about Vancouver being bashed for having druggies near their venues, etc I have lost my interest. In my eyes, none of this crap is anyone's fault but the media. The way they take the most minute, private, trivial thing and make it seem like the end of the world just makes me f-ing NUTS! The actual games, much less the spirit of why they're actually held, is totally secondary. Who really GIVES A DAMN if Michael Phelps smokes up? Could Barack Obama have said ANYTHING that would have really changed a committees decision, whose mind was more than likely already made up? Honestly, I didn't even realize 2010 was an olympics year . I knew I kept reading about Vancouver's intravenous drug usage problem casting a "stain" on the upcoming games, but that's about it . I'm just so sick of media sensationalism ruining every damn good thing!

not me, & w/ those humongous lungs of his, could you imagine the size bong hit he could take?~


uuugggg oksana, she turned from this waify orphan to a drunken bleached blonde drunkin' ho~ whenever i see her or hear her name, i cringe~

everytime i see either nancy or tonya all i can hear is nancy crying "why, why, why..."~ omgoodness also someone had tonya's penthouse spread from her honeymoon, my eyes are still burning from looking, i shouldn't have, but that damn curious cat in me~ there is something about an olympic hopeful w/ her fist stuck in her hoo hoo that one will never get over seeing~ i felt like i needed to be cleansed by a priest afterwards, wowzer~ what a train wreck~ has she been arrested lately?~

[GypsySorcerer]

I love the Olympics, both winter and summer. I enjoy watching the various sports that don't normally get much publicity.

I was obsessed with figure skating as a kid. The first Olympics I remember watching were the 88 games in Calgary. "The Battle of the Brians." I was pulling for Debi Thomas too, but Katarina Witt was just so wonderful and deservedly won gold. And the Russian skaters...Gordeeyva and Grinkov. Loved them.

[skcin]

Love the Olympics, winter and summer. Looking forward to figure skating & ice dancing the most. I like to watch curling - not sure why, I guess my close proximity with Canada made me catch some sort of virus or something.

[Musicman408]

I definitely look forward to watching some awesomeness!!!

[skcin]

Oh my god, how tragic.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-feat...page&GT1=39003

WHISTLER -- A men's Olympic luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia crashed training for the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Friday and has died from the injuries.

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died from injuries suffered in the crash, German IOC official Thomas Bach confirmed.

"It is a tragedy for his family and the team," said Bach, the IOC vice-president."It casts a shadow over the opening ceremony."

He is the third athlete to die in training in Winter Olympic history. No Winter Olympic athletes have died during competition.

Nodar Kumaritashvili prepares at the start during training at the Whistler Slider Centre on Friday. Nodar Kumaritashvili needed emergency treatment after an accident on a track that is the world's fastest and has raised safety concerns among competitors.

Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled near the finish Friday, went over the track wall and struck an unpadded steel pole near the finish line at Whistler Sliding Center.

International luge officials did not have an immediate update on his condition, and officials would not disclose where he was taken.

Rescue officials rushed to the scene and were performing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Kumaritashvili was lifted into an ambulance. An air-rescue helicopter was summoned and was over the track about eight minutes after the crash.

Kumaritashvili struck the inside wall of the track on the final turn. His body immediately went airborne and cleared the ice-coated concrete wall along the left side of the sliding surface. His sled remained in the track, and it appeared his helmet visor skidded down the ice.

"It's a very rare situation," three-time Olympic champion and German coach Georg Hackl said. "But there's some things that you can't do anything about."

It was unclear how fast Kumaritashvili was going, although many sliders have exceeded 90 mph on this course. The track is considered the world's fastest and several Olympians recently questioned its safety. More than a dozen athletes have crashed during Olympic training.

At the finish area, not far from the crash scene, athletes, coaches and officials solemnly awaited word on Kumaritashvili.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Shiva Keshavan, a four-time Olympian from India. "I'm afraid it's bad."

Training was suspended indefinitely, International Luge Federation members were called for a briefing and team captains from each nation were asked to attend a meeting.

The head of Georgia's delegation also said Friday that the Georgia team may withdraw from the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

"We are all in deep shock, we don't know what to do. We don't know whether to take part in (today's) opening ceremony or even the Olympic Games themselves," Irakly Japaridze said.

Kumaritashvili competed in five World Cup races this season, finishing 44th in the world standings.

Earlier in the day, gold-medal favorite Armin Zoeggeler of Italy crashed, losing control of his sled on Curve 11. Zoeggeler came off his sled and held it with his left arm to keep it from smashing atop his body. He slid on his back down several curves before coming to a stop and walking away.

Training days in Whistler have been crash-filled. A Romanian woman was briefly knocked unconscious and at least four Americans -- Chris Mazdzer on Wednesday, Megan Sweeney on Thursday and both Tony Benshoof and Bengt Walden on Friday in the same training session where Zoeggeler wrecked -- have had serious trouble just getting down the track.

"I think they are pushing it a little too much," Australia's Hannah Campbell-Pegg said Thursday night after she nearly lost control in training. "To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we're crash-test dummies? I mean, this is our lives."

Kumaritashvili is the third athlete to die during practice for the Winter Olympics. Preparations for the first-ever luge competition in 1964 led to the death of Britain's Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski, who careened off the course on a practice run at the Olympic course in Igls, Austria. Three days later, Australian downhiller Ross Milne also died after crashing into a tree on a practice run.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

[FMlex]

^ So tragic. Very, very sad.

Disturbing video of the accident:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6202459n

[DoubtfulMiracle]

^ This is very sad. It really highlights to me just how dangerous some of these sports are -- regardless of all the protective gear they have, I guess there's never really going to be anything safe about pounding down a track at anywhere up to 90mph.

I'm a huge fan of the Winter Olympics. I think for me it's the fact that, by and large, these aren't activities I can just wander down the road to do like many of the summer sports (swimming, running, tennis, gymnastics, boxing, cycling etc.). Not that wandering down the road to have a go at them is the same as being a world-class competitor, but so many of the winter sports are completely foreign to us over here in Australia. Everything just seems to look so extreme!

Well, except curling, but I like that too. I think of it as lawn bowls on ice.

[Moz]

Aw yeah, The Opening Ceremonies have started! I'm pumped, mainly because HELLO, CANADA! I love Canada and I want the world to see how awesome we are.

[bucklind17]

I love the Olympics. I tend to prefer the Winter ones because they just feel cozy somehow. There's less sports, so more focus on each of them. I love the human interest stories about the athletes and I love watching the less mainstream sports like luge (horrible what happened today, wow) and speed-skating and ski jump. Figure-skating and hockey are actually my least favorites of the winter sports, though I enjoy those too. I'm excited to watch the ceremonies today!

[Ghost_Tracker]

Originally Posted by DavidMn

Its hard to believe another Olympics is upon us. It's odd to me because it seems like NOBODY gives a ****. :

I'm not sure that's true. Seems kind of slow on Seven Wonders, in here, and on Facebook tonight for some strange reason! . . . .

I just watched a bit of the Opening Ceremonies, and I thought they were fantastic!