[OLYMPICS] Winter Olympics in PyeongChang - Sponsored by Putin, Big Buttons and NHL

[Mazuuurk]

So, winter olympics starting this week.

NHL not releasing any players anymore so the Hockey will be a bit shit, which sucks because it was always the best bit together with the Cross Country skiing. Russians off doping the shit.

Meanwhile nuclear holocaust looms over the horizon and the name of the city sounds like some 7-year-old trying to make Laser sounds.



Gunna be great folks.

[SincereTheRebel]

NHL used to release professional players to play at the olmpyics? That sounds awful. It should be ametures only if you ask me. I would be good to see them do that in football.

[Disco]

Would it be good? The standard would be absolutely terrible.

[SincereTheRebel]

It would be good. Sunday league man running around trying to get contracts for pro clubs.

Or even players from outside the football leagues

[Spikey M]

The Winter Olympics is great, but presumably this will be on during the night like the World Cup in Japan was.

Make the world Eurocentric again, you PC mongs.

[Lewis]

I didn't realise just how big an upset the MIRACLE ON ICE was until I watched that documentary about the commie ice hockey system. I knew that their players were effectively professionals, but figured that just meant within their own loser league[s]. I never knew that they used to go on tour and wallop NHL teams with their funky passing game, and seemingly only lost when the opposition set out to rough them up and disrupt it.

[Reg]

Eurosport are doing a month pass for 99p. https://promo-uk.eurosport.com/winter-olympics?ns_campaign=player-england-suspect-generic&ns_mchannel=sma&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=picture&utm_campaign=player-england-suspect-generic&utm_medium=sma&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=picture

[CJay]

Is Eurosport the only access the UK has? No BBC coverage?

And what time will this be on at?

[Spikey M]

Is Eurosport the only access the UK has? No BBC coverage?

And what time will this be on at?

I’ve seen a BBC advert, so they must be covering it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If by 'cover' you mean ignore the top athletes while focusing on the plucky endeavours of busty, up-for-anything, ruddy-cheeked 25 year old Shirley Maddox-Williams from Cirencester with a plucky 84th place finish in the luge, then yes the BBC will cover it.

[Alex]

If by 'cover' you mean ignore the top athletes while focusing on the plucky endeavours of busty, up-for-anything, ruddy-cheeked 25 year old Shirley Maddox-Williams from Cirencester with a plucky 84th place finish in the luge, then yes the BBC will cover it.

:D

Very good, that.

[Shindig]

"Let's get excited commentary over the snowboarding .... oh, she's fallen. Radical."

I only hope the Unified Korean team winds up being awesome or being so against each other it just makes things worse.

[CJay]

Eurosport are doing a month pass for 99p. https://promo-uk.eurosport.com/winter-olympics?ns_campaign=player-england-suspect-generic&ns_mchannel=sma&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=picture&utm_campaign=player-england-suspect-generic&utm_medium=sma&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=picture

Signed up. Cheers Reg. watching some curling now. :drool:

[CJay]

Eurosport’s Apple TV app seems pretty decent, if anyone has one.

[Pleb]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/42990101

Urm...:D?

[Shindig]

Steve Cram, Curling expert.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I can imagine the BBC Sport management conversation as they try to avoid paying another salary.

'What about Andrew Cotter?'
'Six Nations.'
'Shit. Hazel Irvine?'
'Dead.'
'Bollocks. Have we got any Geordies? That's near Scotland, must be cold.'

[Shindig]

"And now over to Brendan Foster with the figure skating."

[ItalAussie]

Watched the team figure skating. I'm surprised it took them so long to implement at the Olympics - figure skaing is the most popular event by far, so any excuse to have more of it is going to win eyes.

EDIT: Japan are 6 on 4 for the rest of their ice hockey match (about a minute), while being down by one.

[ItalAussie]

The short track speed-skating is fantastic, because Koreans are incredibly good at it, and the crowd goes off every time a Korean overtakes someone. Also, I didn't quite process just how fast they're going, but the speeds seem crazy. 44km/hr+.

I cannot get into watching luge. I think I need to be able to see the difference between good and bad competitors in order to really appreciate it. With luge/bobsled, unless someone hits the wall, I've no idea. So it just becomes getting really into numbers on the screen, which sucks.

[niko_cee]

Best luge ever:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtRC82AJC3A

[ItalAussie]

Have any of you lot ever skiied moguls? It looks outrageously painful.

[niko_cee]

I've no idea why you would bother if you weren't a professional skier.

It's going to end in (painful) disaster.

[Spikey M]

My knee would explode on the first mound.

[ItalAussie]

It turns out that if your ski comes off on a jump, you have to hike up yourself in your moment of shame to retrieve it. That's the best/worst thing I've ever seen in sports.

[Disco]

I've skied over about three in row on a training slope, that was plenty. It's not quite as bad as it looks (sane people won't he going half as fast for a start) there's just zero room for error.

[niko_cee]

There must be some way to game this speed skating where you 'advance' your own people by having other team mates crash into them.

[ItalAussie]

There must be some way to game this speed skating where you 'advance' your own people by having other team mates crash into them.

Heavily depends on teammates not low-key hating each other, which you have to imagine they secretly do.

[ItalAussie]

I also don't understand how proper ski jumpers don't just all die every time they blink wrong. How does one even get into a sport like that? At least in football you can be rubbish for a little while before you're good. Doesn't seem like an option in the "flying through the air" sports.

[Spikey M]

They said last night that it looks more dangerous than it is. You’re only ever a couple of feet off the ground.

[-james-]

They said last night that it looks more dangerous than it is. You’re only ever a couple of feet off the ground.

You're still going at about 90km/h and facing down a massive hill though.

Also, a couple of feet my arse.

[ItalAussie]

Short track relays are the most amazing chaotic sport there is. People going everywhere.

That heat was fantastic. The Korean stacked completely, and they still won by a mile. :D

[ItalAussie]

I see from the Guardian that we've reached the quadrennial point wherein they become experts in how the plucky British athletes have been wronged in sports they haven't watched since 2014.

[Spikey M]

You're still going at about 90km/h and facing down a massive hill though.

Also, a couple of feet my arse.

I don’t remember how high they said, but it wasn’t all that high.

[ItalAussie]

It took me a few moments to realise that the ski jumpers have very specialised boots. I assumed they simply all had gigantic calves, which didn't seem improbable.

[Shindig]

How else are they going to land without shattering their ankles? What a weird discipline. I wonder if they still feel the fear when they jump?

[Jimmy Floyd]

It always looks so highly controlled to me, like they're on a string, and then even if they fuck it they just pull out fairly easily. I don't think I've ever seen an accident in all my years of flicking onto it on Eurosport.

[Shindig]

The erm... 'thing that they jump off' does have those tracks which probably do most of the directing. I guess then all you have to worry about is speed, wind and then landing.

[niko_cee]

Isn't it all about angling the skis to make them more wing-like?

[ItalAussie]

It always looks so highly controlled to me, like they're on a string, and then even if they fuck it they just pull out fairly easily. I don't think I've ever seen an accident in all my years of flicking onto it on Eurosport.

So I just looked it up, and there are stories of people crashing and being absolutely fine, and stories of people crashing and almost dying. I guess it's situational, but that goes for the regular downhill stuff too, I suppose.

[ItalAussie]

Aussies 4th and 5th in the women's moguls. Brittney Cox was nailed on for silver if she'd just landed the first jump properly. :(

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Not watched much and all I managed to catch was ski jumping and the luge. Poles didn't care about anything else on the opening weekend. Wont be able to watch anything live tomorrow either though :(

[Jimmy Floyd]

Kim Jong un is top of the medal table. Yanks and southies both taken for utter mugs.

[Shindig]

Unify and they can cash in on this every four years.

[Pepe]

The fuck is this 'Olympic athlete for Russia' shite?

[ItalAussie]

Slopestyle events are the best snowboarding events of all. They should have more of them.

EDIT: Everyone's crashing out in their second run because they know what they have to aim for to get a medal. :D

[Trancemeister]

Watching a bit of hockey before going to work. I guess they don't have a Zamboni in korea? The ice looks absolutely terrible, can't even see the faceoff circles. The blue line is just visible.
And Canada leads now 4-1.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

9 of 52 runs completed successfully in the slope-style.

1-0 wind.

[randomlegend]

AGmFUDe

[Trancemeister]

Found out later that Sweden - Canada actually was a friendly not an actual olympic match.

[Pleb]

The fuck is this 'Olympic athlete for Russia' shite?
The Russians are pissed off with the doping ban so made their own team and renamed themselves the Olympic Athletics of Russia which is fucking lol.

Whatever medals they win won't count in the history books which is even more lol.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If they wanted to improve the Olympics (and it desperately needs it) they would remove all flags, anthems and national denominators and have everyone compete as individuals.

[phonics]

That's literally not what the Olympics is about. The whole thing is about representing your territory.

[-james-]

How would that work? Most people only watch it to cheer on athletes from their own country.

"And the gold goes to Artem Ivanovich!"
"Where's he from?"
"Dunno"

[Pepe]

That does sound incredibly lame.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Would make it less parochial and more about achievement. The amount of money GB wastes on buying medals in minor sports is ridiculous. Life's not a competition.

Of course you'd know where people were from, it just wouldn't all have to be about nationalist fervour and medal counts.

[Spikey M]

Doesn’t removing Nationality just make it the X-Games but without the more interesting sports?

[ItalAussie]

Would make it less parochial and more about achievement. The amount of money GB wastes on buying medals in minor sports is ridiculous. Life's not a competition.

Of course you'd know where people were from, it just wouldn't all have to be about nationalist fervour and medal counts.

Still happens in tennis and golf.

[ItalAussie]

An Australian got silver in the men's moguls, but the guy who got gold was so much better than anyone else that it's impossible to begrudge him.

Apparently there's some limited grumbling about the OAR representative in the female long skate part of the team figure skating. She saved all her jumps to the last part of the routine, which is the opposite of how it's normally done. Apparently some people reckon this advantaged her, although I can't see how. Still, if it's in the rules, why complain?

[Baz]

Chloe Kim tho. :hubba:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

lol at the Dutch speed skating absolutely wiping out the Canadian skater there in the relay.

Just went right through his arm.

[ItalAussie]

The cross-country skiing sprint is surprisingly good watching. Three-and-a-half minutes per race.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Elise Christie will never win an Olympic medal.

[ItalAussie]

It takes a lot for me to side with a British athlete, but I really hope Christie walks away from these Olympics with a medal of some kind to show for it.

[ItalAussie]

Chloe Kim is baffling to me. How can you possibly get that good at the half-pipe by age 17? She can't have been doing the massive jumps for more than a couple of years, surely.

Also, she is verging worryingly near to "famous people who are young enough to be my kid if I'd made bad life decisions as a 15-year old" territory.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Well she did qualify 4 years ago too but was too young to compete.

She's obviously a natural talent.

[phonics]

Some of these American competitors are coming across as weirdly human. I'm worried.

[-james-]

I've been enjoying the hockey. If I was going to get into American sport, it would definitely be that. Probably because it's basically football.

[Disco]

I can never see the puck in ice hockey, it's basically invisible most of the time.

[phonics]

I find Hockey dull as tears to watch on tv but at a match it's almost second to none.

[ItalAussie]

The whole ice hockey thing annoys me, too. The NHL not releasing players makes the competition stupid, and destroys the only international hockey competition anyone cares about. Someone should tell them that if the NBA can do it, then they (the inferior younger cousin of the NBA at best) can let the players go as well.

[Shindig]

It takes a lot for me to side with a British athlete, but I really hope Christie walks away from these Olympics with a medal of some kind to show for it.

I hope she takes one as well. For her own safety.

[niko_cee]

Chloe Kim is baffling to me. How can you possibly get that good at the half-pipe by age 17? She can't have been doing the massive jumps for more than a couple of years, surely.

Also, she is verging worryingly near to "famous people who are young enough to be my kid if I'd made bad life decisions as a 15-year old" territory.

Why are teenagers SO good at snowboarding? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/43022390)

[-james-]

Apparently it's been an event since the 60s, but I've just seen luge doubles for the first time and oh my fuck what on earth?

[ItalAussie]

Bit of a nothing day after the half-pipe final. Which was very good indeed.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Slovenia beating USA in overtime in the hockey :drool:

They were 2-0 down as well.

[Lewis]

lol at our trick suits getting a seethe out of the competition. Suck it up, chumps.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Built by 'engineers in Northampton', it's enough to make you shed a tear of pride.

[Lewis]

Two autistics and a spiv in a lock-up.

[ItalAussie]

Picked up another medal today, which makes three for the games so far. That's definitely Australia's best performance in terms of total, although no golds yet.

Two in the final of the womens' aerials, so there could be another one there.

[ItalAussie]

lol at our trick suits getting a seethe out of the competition. Suck it up, chumps.

My understanding is that Parsons was basically a nobody in the world of skeleton (ie. hovered in the 10-20 region for his past World Championship efforts), and that's what is raising some eyebrows. It'd be like if some random chump who'd never made a final started running Usain Bolt times out of nowhere.

Still, if a sport can be dominated by a slightly better suit, that's an indictment of the sport. Swimming had to fix their suit issue a while back, when they realised they either had to ban the super suits or make them available to everyone.

[niko_cee]

Marginal gains.

:cool:

Get that man some asthma medicine.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Does one even breathe at all during skeleton? The most aerodynamic way would surely be for air to go in through your mouth and out through your anus. Doubt they'd allow those suits in the rules so Dr Steve Peters it is.

[niko_cee]

Get a double diffuser on the sled.

[Ian]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/43083502

The Cool Runnings 2 script is coming along splendidly.

[ItalAussie]

Nathan Chen fell badly in his short program and came 17th, which means he had to go very early in the free skate. But because he's technically the best skater in the world, he threw down a routine with six quads (nobody else has done five in competition), so the score to beat is about 50 more than any of the other competitors in this part of the event schedule are getting. :D

[Disco]

Why do they ruin ski jumping with judges and points? Furthest wins, it shouldn't need to be any more complicated than that.

[Shindig]

I guess they don't want to encourage recklessness in the pursuit of distance. Or there's a conceivable limit given how guided the slope is?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP2xL9J752E

We now know why the Netherlands are so good at speed skating.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Christie going well again and then wiped out on the last corner.

Looks injured too.

[-james-]

Christie :face:

[Spikey M]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP2xL9J752E

We now know why the Netherlands are so good at speed skating.

:D

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Commentator is blaming the Chinese but I think that's on Christie.

She was leaning and had her arm across to block the Korean.

Edit: Judges clearly saw the same.

[ItalAussie]

Did she kill a black cat under a ladder at some point?

[-james-]

She seems incredibly aggressive in the way she maneuvers through the field.

[Jimmy Floyd]

British commentators during these things are on the point of embarrassing.

[Shindig]

How many crashes before she realises it's her fault?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Probably doesn't help that commentators (and probably Brits who interview her) try to push the blame onto other skaters as well as call her unlucky. She's reckless and almost always at fault. She pushed the Chinese skater down there which caused her to slip but that wasn't seen/cared about by the commentator.

Her boyfriend is in the final though. Shaolin Sandor Liu, what a name.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That was perfect by Choi for the gold in that race.

Her overtake with a couple of laps left was great and then she just pulled away.

[ItalAussie]

Choi was on another planet there.

EDIT: I do agree with the above points that Christie is aggressive and reckless as a racer. Plenty of her woes have been her fault. Would still like to see her grab a medal though, although she wouldn't have gotten near Choi.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

lol at the Koreans and Christie's boy toy.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Great run by Yarnold.

Track record and at least a silver :cool:

Took a little hit too.

[ItalAussie]

The Super-G result was absolutely mind-boggling.

Normally they run the top 20 ranked skiers first, and it's generally assumed that whoever is leading after that part is over will be the winner (as has been true since they started doing it this way). Anna Veith (defending champion) was leading, and the event was winding down. NBC actually counted her as the victor on their website. What nobody saw coming was a Ester Ledecka, a Czech snowboarder (the favourite for the parallel slalom apparently) who skis a bit on the side, coming out of nowhere to grab the gold medal.

Awesome ending. Also a bronze to Liechtenstein, which is pretty cool.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Flock the Austrian fucked it :harold:

Gold and bronze.

[Lewis]

'Mon the suits.

[ItalAussie]

Ski halfpipe is about as un-exciting as a jumping trick-based sport can be.

The ski slopestyle was fun, so it's not just that skis don't make for fun tricks. I think they depend heavily on the terrain.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I only watched half of the qualification for the ski slopestyle, it was great.

I was hoping that Oystein won the gold too as his second run was brilliant. Didn't score the highest in the qualification but you could see that should he tighten it up a bit (and stay longer on the rails) he'd beast it.

I'm also glad that the Brit James Wood missed out after his interview:

"Fourth place is minging, it's so devastating," Woods said. :sick:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I feel like this snowboarding big air isn't all that big. I want something more like a ski jumping ramp, really fucking go for it.

[ItalAussie]

I was watching the aerial skiing (possibly the best Winter Olympic event of all), and those guys wind up about four stories in the air before they land.

Obviously they are able to do so without breaking everything, but no matter how soft it is, and how steep the angle is, I simply cannot understand how they do it without shattering their legs on impact.

[Adramelch]

I had the same question. I don't remember the exact details but the answer had to do with the fact that you continue moving and something regarding the low friction but I don't recall the specifics.

[Shindig]

Russian curler charged with doping offence. What a return to form.

[-james-]

What possible performance enhancement could a curler hope for?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Hoping to get faster brush swipes.

[randomlegend]

There's quite a few drugs which induce parkinsonism, wonder if they are considered performing enhancing for curlers.

[phonics]

Why would you ever want to induce Parkinsons?

[Pepe]

For comedy purposes I assume.

[randomlegend]

Why would you ever want to induce Parkinsons?

To put it simply, because there are illnesses which are essentially caused by the opposite of Parkinson's (Parkinson's is not enough of something whilst they are too much).

The drugs brings someone with too much down to normal, whilst if given to someone already at a normal level or in too high doses will induce Parkinsonism.

[Kikó]

That's much clearer now.

[Mazuuurk]

Parkinsonism sounds like some sort of Top Gear cult.

[Kikó]

His name is Clarkson.

[phonics]

There's a joke about Ali in here but I'm not sure I want my head to do the legwork to find it.

[randomlegend]

That's much clearer now.

I thought it was a pretty straightforward explanation.

You fick mate?

[-james-]

Christie :face:

dots

[ItalAussie]

Christie was guilty as sin in that race.

The BBC commentary is a bit embarrassing for you lot.

[phonics]

Big lol at the American who somehow wangled a slot to represent Hungrary only to perform the dullest half-pipe of all time.

[ItalAussie]

Big lol at the American who somehow wangled a slot to represent Hungrary only to perform the dullest half-pipe of all time.

Her story is pretty funny, to be fair. She qualified by going to events and not falling over. Doing that enough times in a sport where half the competitors do fall over got her into the top thirty.

My favourite thing is the commentators, who talked about it with the same intensity they would any other competitor.

[-james-]

Big lol at the American who somehow wangled a slot to represent Hungrary only to perform the dullest half-pipe of all time.


The bit that got me is this:


According to the Denver Post, Swaney has traveled the world to compete in World Cup halfpipe events, including in China, Italy, France, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand, as well as stateside in California, Colorado and Utah. Her best result was 13th out of a field of 15 competitors in China, when most of the world’s top skiers were at a more prestigious event in the U.S.



So she's clearly fairly committed. Is she minted? Why hasn't she improved to the extent that she can pull off more than a few inches of air?

[phonics]

Aren't 99% of snowboarders and skiers just privileged children?

[Disco]

It's a bit too popular now to be one of those sports where you get the impression that anyone starting young with enough free time could be 'world class'. Like motor racing.

[Disco]

Christie was guilty as sin in that race.

The BBC commentary is a bit embarrassing for you lot.

I have a friend who keeps telling me she's the best in the world. I think you need to finish a few more races before making that claim.

[-james-]

Six olympic entries resulting in four DQs and two crashes seems a fairly indefensible record.

[Disco]

It's hard to tell if it's just our pundits wanking themselves silly over any prospect of a medal (or better yet a plucky Brit narrative). She's won other stuff presumably so she must have some pace; the David Coulthard of speed skating.

[ItalAussie]

I have a friend who keeps telling me she's the best in the world. I think you need to finish a few more races before making that claim.

She's definitely not, even when she stays up. That's the Korean racer. But she's probably in the top three or four (when she stays up). Ignore talk of world records though, because that's too dependent on how fast the early stages of the races are. Christie often pushes the pace early, so she records fast times.

She was the third favourite for the 1000m, and the fourth for the 1500m and the 500m.

EDIT: Short-track relays may be my favourite thing on ice. Glorious chaos.

[ItalAussie]

The bronze medal going to the winner of the B final. Best sport ever. :D

(Also, now I understand why short track needs B finals.)

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_K1q2DRGg

That is so good.

[ItalAussie]

The commentators treat it with absolute seriousness. The highlights. :D

And good on her. She saw her shot at competing in the Olympics, and she took it.

[randomlegend]

Yeah that is absolutely brilliant.

[Shindig]

I have a friend who keeps telling me she's the best in the world. I think you need to finish a few more races before making that claim.

Well, she is. Reigning World Champion 3 times over. Makes it even more daft, really.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_World_Short_Track_Speed_Skating_Championships

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

What a semi final in the speed skating team thing, I really thought New Zealand had it.

Korea 0.4s behind New Zealand with 2 laps to go and they win by 0.72 seconds.

Great race and a track record to get them through.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

lol at the Dutch.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Netherlands ladies going faster than their Olympic Record in the final but still losing by over 1.5 seconds to Japan, wow.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWj6WCHU8AAxJ8g.jpg:large

[ItalAussie]

Well, she is. Reigning World Champion 3 times over. Makes it even more daft, really.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_World_Short_Track_Speed_Skating_Championships

You'll notice that Choi Min-jeong isn't anywhere in that list (she's the one who streaked away in the final of the 1500m). She's the best skater in the world, and she wasn't at that event.

Not saying Christie isn't excellent; she was third- or fourth-favourite for every individual event.

[Spikey M]

Do you reckon the mongs that wear surgical masks to sporting events are lolled at by their own society too?

[phonics]

In Asia it's a normal thing. We've got some Chinese embassy above our office and they've always got them on in the Winter. It's a manners thing.

[ItalAussie]

Do you reckon the mongs that wear surgical masks to sporting events are lolled at by their own society too?

When they wear masks, they aren't worried about getting sick. They're unwell and worried about passing it on to others. It's social responsibility, and it's weirdly admirable.

[ItalAussie]

The thing I like about the Winter Olympics is that it's just small enough that you can mostly follow everything that happens. It's not like the Olympics where some random Azerbaijani wins a wrestling medal and you only notice when they appear on the medal tally at the end of the day. It's really easy to keep tabs on all the events that are happening at any given time.

I currently have the biathlon relay on my computer, and the short track on the TV. :D

The Guardian liveblog is pretty good, but the BBC one is the worst thing I've ever seen. It makes the Sky cricket commentators look fair and balanced. Half the commentary today is about Elise Christie, and how short track speed skating is unfair and needs to change.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/43168312

Second Russian pisses hot.

[wullie]

Get Crown Green bowlers decked out in Heelys and you've got field curling. I'm looking for £25000 for a 15% stake in my business

[randomlegend]

I don't think brushing a lawn would have the desired effect.

[wullie]

That's where the Dyson comes in.

[Byron]

RL is on a proper joykill rampage today.

[Spikey M]

They’d have to use rakes, surely.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Do you even have an exclusive rights deal with Dyson?

[wullie]

I'm talking to them as well as the Brummie fella from GTech, advanced negotiations with Mr Sheen for the indoor version of the game too.

[Trancemeister]

Germany knocking out Sweden & Canada to reach the final in the hockey :D

[Shindig]

Russian Bobsled woman charged with doping. Y'know, if my country was under the microscope for this stuff, you might be wanting to knock it off for 18 months until the dust clears.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

This is her:

http://thespun.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Nadezhda-Sergeeva-775x465.png

Brilliant.

[Pepe]

:harold:

[John]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/feb/23/bbc-coverage-winter-olympics-too-nice-lacks-impartiality

Barney Ronay, what the fuck are you writing? Someone needs to give him a good, solid slap.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I thought that was absolutely brilliant and spot on. There are millions of kids wanting to play football, basketball, and all other sports and they can't because we plough all our money into these irrelevant cunts supposedly 'inspiring us' by winning medals, as only inspirational people like them can do. They can all piss off and the money should be used to build playing fields and sports centres everywhere.

[John]

I couldn't finish it. My eyes started to glaze over around the Ark of the Covenant reference and it was never going to last long after that.

[ItalAussie]

The final of the Big Air was rubbish. Nobody could land a jump, and the winner was the one who put down two vaguely competent jumps without ending on his face. Every landed jump was mediocre, without a single 90.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Mass start speed skating is pretty good.

[ItalAussie]

Mass speed skating was outstanding. Really exciting finishes in both races.

The fin(n)ish of the 50km cross-country was worth watching for the preceding hour. Admittedly, I didn't have much else on this afternoon, but it was time well-spent. It showed how little the commentators knew though, as they spent the last 10 minutes writing off Niskanen and saying he was exhausted and would inevitably drop away, before he turned on the afterburners and left the Russian behind with a minute to go.

As obvious as it seems though, Ledecka winning gold medals in two different sports is the highlight of the games, and possibly one of the most staggering things I've ever seen in sport. Admittedly, both events involve getting down a hill quickly, so it's not like winning, say, the 100m and the middleweight boxing. But anyone who has done both will tell you that they are definitely two different skillsets, and winning both is remarkable.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Guess it's like Carl Lewis winning the 100m and the long jump.

[ItalAussie]

Guess it's like Carl Lewis winning the 100m and the long jump.

He's not the only one to do that. Marion Jones got bronze, and there's quite a lot of crossover athletes. Most long jumpers have been sprinters at a high level. I once asked someone who knew these things, and apparently the skillset is quite similar. The long jump mostly hinges on going very, very fast and then raising your legs, but it's fundamentally a very close sport.

If we start to see more snowboard/skiers, it'll be the same thing. But I've never heard of another one at this point.

I'm not sure what the right analogy is. Maybe winning the archery and the shooting? Or possibly the Judo and the Taekwondo? Possibly even the 100m and the triple jump, which is a lot more about the actual launching aspect of the jump, rather than raw speed.

Either way, it's bloody impressive.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The weightlifting and the dressage.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Elyse Perry innit. It's all snow.

[John]

Hang on, she won skiing and snowboarding? That's bonkers.

The differences are massive but subtle. You'd take the same turn at a different angle, you'd start to turn at a different moment, and you'd distribute your weight completely differently.

[John]

In terms of the size of the differences in two superficially similar events it's like someone winning the 100m and the 10k.

[Pepe]

John Surtees > any snowboarder.

[ItalAussie]

Good Olympics overall. Timezone helped for me, I imagine.

A solid 8.5/10.