Olympics time

So, since I'm really not doing anything else, I'm thinking maybe I should cover the 2010 Winter Olympics. This is not entirely without precedent, as I previously did this with the Euro 2008 soccer tournament. I may have also bitched about diving in some regard for the summer olympics of that year, but I really don't feel like looking that up.

First things first
- The opening ceremony
--Parts of the actual opening weren't bad if you were willing to stay still for no less then 6 hours. Parts were bizarre. Parts included a slam poet (big mistake, dude was rocking a big ass neck beard). Other parts didn't work. -- The indoor cauldron for the actual lighting ceremony had technical difficulties.

Yeah, after several hours of everything working fine, and everything requiring a very high level of technicality, the one moment that actually mattered failed.

HOW DARE YOU KEEP THE GREAT ONE WAITING AS SUCH!

-Whistler
--This was all after the highly publicized luge accident on the sled course. A certain Georgian (the place Stalin was from) Olympian was training on the course when he rounded the harrowing 13th turn, flew off the course and had his neck snapped by a un-padded and unobstructed steel support beam.

Unfortunately, it raises more questions than it answers.
-Why was the track built backwards (looping turns up top, sharp turns at the bottom being hit at full speed)?
-Why wasn't the track fixed in some regard after already having a short history of accidents -- it was either the 08 or 09 world cup in Vancouver that was racked with sledding accidents, in practice and in competition?
-Why were the steel support beams exposed coming right off that turn?
-Why didn't the Canadians let the other sledders use the track more in practice leading up the the games (alot of the sledding and skiing courses were kept off limits to non-Canadians prior).

But the games must go on. ... minus two Georgians ... his teammate left the games in grief.

And on the first day of actual events, are qualifying runs for Mens Luge!!!!

-The Alpine nations again dominated.
-The starting point of the track was moved up to the starting point used for womens and doubles luge, which shortens it to a point where they're only going 85-90 mph at the bottom instead of 95-100.
-A swiss luger lost control on the 11th turn (I think that's equivalent to the 13th turn the Georgian had problems with) and almost fell off his sled. He somehow managed to regain control, get fully back onto the sled, and actually post a time to finish the race.
skill

And for the record, it wasn't just novice lugers, or lower tier lugers who get weeded out and only go to the games to show up that were having problems, nay, it too affected the top level atheletes of the sport.

Also today was Womens Moguls, where an American placed first, and Canadian second, and fifth.

Short track speed skating had an event, as well as a relay event. A trio of Koreans was looking to sweep the medals for that particular singles short track, as the one in second place wiped out, taking number 3 with him. This left two Americans to pull second and third, silver going to Olympic veteran Apolo Anton Ono.

There was also normal ski jump (the shorter one), and a biathalon event, though I missed em. Kinda a shame, cos I like biathalon. I propose for the next games they mix shooting and downhill skiing for a biathalon event, to complement the shooting and cross country skiing biathalons that occur now.



-That seems good for now. Since it's almost 4 in the morning I don't feel like putting any pictures or videos or anything up. Next olympic post should have a witty title/graphic, and this post will likely be retro-tagged thusly.

Until then, happy lupercalia everybody!!

-- Knuttel