Topic: I've seen fireworks before

[gpw11]

But the Olympic opening ceremony.....shit, they lit up the sky.  Amazing.

[idolminds]

Oh man, that must have been awesome. I watched the whole thing. They did a great job.

[gpw11]

It was fucking sweet.  I would have loved to have been there or been downtown, but I have to leave town early tomorrow morning (and tickets to actually get into the opening ceremony are impossible to get), and going down there would pretty much ensure I couldn't make it out in time.  But yeah, the fireworks were amazing, and you can see the outdoor torch burning from my place.  Sweet.

I'm actually really pumped for the next two weeks. It's amazing how much more vibrant the city is.  You can  pretty much feel energy in the air.

[Ace_O_Spades]

Was wondering if someone was going to do a 2010 thread. Maybe we can just rename this thread "2010 Winter Olympics"

The big event kicked off today, with a tragic morning as Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili died during a trial run at a VERY fast Whistler luge track.

High-speed crash on sliding course kills young Georgian athlete

February 13, 2010
DAVE PERKINS

WHISTLER, B.C.–The gruesome potential of high-speed sports became tragic reality when a 21-year-old Georgian luger died in a training crash Friday morning, instantly shattering the mostly joyous lead-up to the Vancouver Winter Games

Nodar Kumaritashvili, competing in his first Olympics, lost control of his sled on the finishing turn in his final pre-Olympic practice run at the Whistler Sliding Centre. He spun out of the final turn on to the braking straightaway, which rises gradually to slow racers, but he scarcely slowed and flew off his sled and over the railing, slamming back-first into the seventh of 20 steel poles that hold up a protective sun roof.

Gretzky lights the cauldron after a huge technical mishap strands the final torchbearers for over two minutes.

Four Canadian icons officially open Games
 
LeMay Doan, Nash, Greene Raine, Gretzky light the flame
 
By Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver SunFebruary 13, 2010 1:14 AM

In the end, it required four indisputable Canadian sports icons, not simply a single hand, to light the Olympic flame and officially open the XXI Winter Olympiad in Vancouver.

Famed wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen carried the torch into BC Place, passed the flame to gold-medal winning speed skater Catriona LeMay Doan, who lit NBA star Steve Nash's torch, who lit gold medal skier Nancy Greene Raine's, who fired hockey great Wayne Gretzky's.

Doan, Nash, Green and Gretzky-- each carrying a torch-- then walked to the base of a cauldron seemingly composed of giant shards of ice that emerged from the stadium's playing field.

Together, the four were to use their torches to ignite the base, but only three did as one of the giant shards failed to emerge from the turf.

Protesters protest, as per usual in Vancouver

Protesters march, chanting 'shame, Canada, shame'
 
By Allan Dowd, ReutersFebruary 13, 2010 2:12 AM
 
Anti-Olympic demonstrators marched yesterday through the streets of Vancouver to the Games opening ceremony chanting slogans such as "shame, Canada, shame" but were blocked from entering the event.

Although two people were taken into custody as police and protesters clashed outside the stadium, much of the march by several hundred people supporting anti-globalization and anti-poverty groups took place in a party-like atmosphere.

The downtown was also packed with tourists, many of whom looked confused as they passed the demonstrations. Others were seen having their photographs taken in front of the Olympic countdown clock as nearby speakers denounced the Games.

Any interest in the winter Olympics? I live in the 'burbs of Vancouver, so I have a pretty unique perspective on all the shenanigans if anyone wants more information. As does GPW, as evidenced by his making this thread.

[scottws]

I like the skiing events.  I'm not into Olympic hockey at all because the huge arena makes it boring.  I could care less about any of the skating stuff and curling (seriously?).

[gpw11]

IT's in Canada this year, so don't forget that bare handed bear hunting is back in.

[idolminds]

I love the Olympics. I'm not a big sports guy, but I get all excited when the Olympics come around. Especially the winter games. Luge, skeleton, curling, biathalon, bobsled, skiing...love it. Except figure skating, since NBC seems to show a billion hours of it at the expense of every other sport at the games. I don't particularly like sports that aren't deterministic and need judges.

[ren]

I liked the crazy light show. The flannel/leather dressed biker fiddlers were pretty funny but actually very enjoyable. The speech given by the Vancouver representative was absolutely awful though, almost as bad as his attempts at speaking french. Gretzky standing in the back of a pickup truck to run in the torch was also pretty bad.

Overall it was pretty enjoyable though. I had fun watching it. The NBC commentators were hilarious. The Canadian guys were very boring and not at all worth listening to.

I like the skiing events.  I'm not into Olympic hockey at all because the huge arena makes it boring.  I could care less about any of the skating stuff and curling (seriously?).

Curling is awesome. I thought it was stupid for a while but a couple of years ago I actually sat down to watch an entire game. Far better than expected.

[idolminds]

Once you understand how the game is played, curling becomes very interesting to watch. There is a surprising amount of skill and strategy involved.

[Ghandi]

I've been watching today. I prefer winter games any day over summer games. They are much more enjoyable to watch.

[Quemaqua]

I haven't watched any this year so far, but I got some play-by-play from idol, heh.  I'll hopefully catch some reruns of day one later tonight.

[shock]

I watched the entire opening ceremony.  I'm usually not one for sports, but I too love the Olympics.  I thought the ceremony was a little silly at times.  The polar bar was a giant "wtf" moment for me.  I felt bad that the lighting of the torch didn't go exactly as planned.  That said, it was still an interesting and mostly enjoyable to watch.

[ren]

When that polar bear came up all I could think about were the Coke commercials.

[idolminds]

Did anyone watch the games today? The mens short track speed skating was INSANE! Go find a video of it online if you can, it was wild.

The womens moguls was full of crashes and excitement. Damn I love the olympics.

EDIt

Ahhh, fuck you NBC! I just looked at the schedule and curling is only going to be shown on their cable channels. FUCK!

[shock]

I can't BELIEVE those two Koreans got tangled up and gave the Silver and Bronze to the Americans.  I about died when that happened.  The last turn nonetheless. 

The women's moguls was great, though.  America... fuck yeah !  The Canadian girls did well too, though.

My friends and I were laughing at the displayed information under each woman for the moguls: Age, Height, Weight, and Hometown.  We drunkenly decided they should include bust size in all future events.  It's a bit hard to tell under all those layers.

[idolminds]

Haha, I was shouting at the TV when the US dudes fell behind. GO GO! HURRY UP! Ah fuck we los....HOLY SHIT!

[Schlotzky5]

Ahhh, fuck you NBC! I just looked at the schedule and curling is only going to be shown on their cable channels. FUCK!

Yeah, during the olympics CNBC is Curling NBC.

[Quemaqua]

Isn't there somewhere you can catch that stuff on the internet?  I know that's a dicey proposition for you with dialup... but it seems like there must be something.

[Ghandi]

[gpw11]

You can definitely catch streams of it on howard.tv and other sites like that, but I can't see it really working out all that great with dial up.

[idolminds]

The snowboard halfpipe mens competition was awesome to watch last night. Shawn White didn't even need his second run to win gold, but did it anyway for fun and did even better than his first run. Insane height and tricks.

Today they are showing the womens competition and...its not nearly as fun to watch. Maybe women actually listen to the part of your brain that says "Doing this shit is really dangerous" because they arent coming close to the speed, height, or tricks that the men put down.

[Ghandi]

Damn, I really wanted to see that. What events are coming up the next few days?

Maybe women actually listen to the part of your brain that says "Doing this shit is really dangerous" because they arent coming close to the speed, height, or tricks that the men put down.

Nah, it's just because they physically can't do a lot of the stuff that the men can do. That sounds sexist but it's true.

[idolminds]

Not sure what coming up, I didnt even know the womens halfpipe was today.

[angrykeebler]

U.S Mens hockey team beats Canada for the first time in the Olympics since 1960

CHEYEEEEEEEEEEEAH

[Pugnate]

haha yea I saw that.

[shock]

That was a GREAT match.

Also: Sweden/Finland was awesome.  For Sweden.   

[Quemaqua]

Damn it, I wish I could have seen that.  I'm going to have to buy the Olympics on DVD or something this year.  I've missed everything.

[ren]

You can buy the olympics on dvd? I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that.

[Pugnate]

You can buy the olympics on dvd? I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that.

[Cobra951]

If you go to your favorite torrent-search site and type "olympics", you won't know where to start.

[gpw11]

U.S Mens hockey team beats Canada for the first time in the Olympics since 1960

CHEYEEEEEEEEEEEAH

Canada is running train on Russa right now. I would not be suprised of we saw a rematch for the gold medal game.

[ren]

7-3 against Russia. Crazy. Over here they had on skating and bobsled instead of the game so I couldn't watch it. Was Canada really playing that well or was Russia helping us out a lot by sucking?

 So this means that the next game is against Sweden? That should be an interesting match.

[gpw11]

Canada was playing really well, but Nabokov got rattled pretty early and let in one or two he shouldn't have.  Nevertheless, although they got sloppy in the third, Canada played very well.

[gpw11]

Sweden vs. Slovakia was just fucking AWESOME.

[shock]

I still can't believe Sweden lost that.  They seriously outplayed Slovakia to an absurd degree.  None of the shots were going in.  Then Slovakia had a few fast break goals and.. that was that.  GRRRRR

[gpw11]

Wow, Slovakia had some hardcore pressure going on there against Canada.  In the third period they were probably playing better than I've seen any team play in this tournament. I guess Canada and USA have a rematch for the gold on Sunday.  Should be fucking AWESOME either way.

[idolminds]

They showed the end of that match on NBC. The graphic on the screen said it was the third period...and then it ended? Does hockey only have 3 or something?

[gpw11]

 The number one and main reason is the ice; 20 min. is the sweet spot for resurfacing the ice and an hour is the sweet spot for game length. It used to take quite a while to flood and resurface, so if they were to break it into 15 min. quarters, it would just take too long to run a game from start to completion. By 30 min, the ice is too sloppy. Break the game into three periods and you can resurface ice enough times and keep the between play periods down.

Obviously, now they can resurface ice in a fraction of the time that it used to take (notice that the break between periods is substantially longer than the break before overtime or between overtime periods). They keep the same system and the same period break length because of tradition I guess.  Well that and some other reasons.

Keeping the old system provides for two breaks instead of one half-time break like in many sports without a full blown offensive/defensive switch (soccer, rugby, basketball). Generally, hockey shifts are fast and intense, and line changes can happen so fast that you may end up playing 13 min of a 20 min period, but mixed all over the place so you don't get a rest at all.  Most sports sub less often and more consistently, but in hockey it's very situational and all over the place. Also, goalies. Hockey goalies tend to be much more active (percentage of playtime wise) than soccer goalies and have to remain in a ready state more often. Period breaks are the only breaks they get usually.  Box lacrosse, which functions very similarly to hockey, operates differently because it's so closely related to field lacrosse which requires each team to play goal on each side of the field once as it is an outdoor sport (think football - wind and elements come into effect, the side you score on has impact).  Lacrosse goalies also tend to be just the fattest guys who can move moderately quickly (no joke).  They remain fairly stationary.  Fun fact completely unrelated to everything; when you're first learning lacrosse, the general rule is that your first shot of the game goes straight for the goalies mask.  Those fuckers don't move and they take up so much net that you have to put the fear of god into them in hopes that they'll get rattled every time you wind up.

[gpw11]

And Canada takes Gold in hockey against USA in overtime.

[iPPi]

That was quite intense.