Originally Posted By JazzCat I am so sick of the Olympics being a political arena. If a Russian falls or does a mediocre performance, they get a high score. Not that it would matter, but I would love to boycott them.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Not sure which perfomance you are referring to... all the Russians who have won medals so far haven't fallen that I have seen. Granted, some other the performances have been less artistic, but the new scoring system rewards the difficulty and amount of tricks a skater performs. Plushenko's free skate, for example, wasn't artistic, but he performed more skills and cleaner skills than anyone else, which is why he won.
Originally Posted By gadzuux The "russians"? That's sooo 20th century. They're not the enemy du jour anymore. The bear has no teeth. I wouldn't chalk it up to politics.
Originally Posted By Lake Nona >>but he performed more skills and cleaner skills than anyone else, which is why he won.<< True, can't wait for the ladies on Tuesday and Thursday. Just watch the gold go to Irena. (Just Kidding). The cold war is over and the pres of Russia (USSR) is the ex head of the KGB.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I've found the judging to be very fair this year. The Russian pair skaters who won the gold clearly blew everyone else off the ice!
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 As long as I can see Taneth Belbin on the medal stand for Ice Dancing, the Russians can win all the medals they want.
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 I can't bear watching because of the announcers. They drive me nuts. Twice I've tried to watch and then I hear "oh no, that is going to cost them points or "he was supposed to do a triple there, that is going to cost him"............I tried to turn off the sound but then I can't hear the music, so I end up just switching channels. It's just something that has always annoyed me and it's no different with this olympics.
Originally Posted By mele I have very painful flashbacks from being forced to watch ice skating as a child. This doesn't really have anything to do with the topic...I just had to share. ;-)
Originally Posted By smeeeko ice skating is my least fave sport to watch these days.. I prefer curling, speedskating, and the halfpipe and some of luge.. the thing that bugs me is that as soon as the US is out of some kind of run for a medel they stop showing the event.. like it only matters to NBC or whovever if the US still has a chance. COME ON! I want more curling and luge and hockey! it's not all about US really.. sheesh. (although I am glad curling is getting more air time even if it's in the middle of the night) Whatever happened to the redhat luging lady?? Was she ever able to win her protest about her wrist wrap?? I haven't even seen her yet! sigh.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 Can some explain curling to me? It seems to be like shuffleboard? Am I close?
Originally Posted By smeeeko it's more like chess on ice.. a lot of strategizing and physical upperbody strength.. I always thought it was a Scottish sport but it's really popular in Canada and parts of the midwest. I personally started watching the sport during the Salt Lake games but I understand the previous Winter Games in Japan had it as well.. I think it's kind of cool and pretty much anyone can learn to play it.. also you can't get killed or maimed (that I'm aware) playing it.. although I imagine the 'skip' (the person sending the 48lb stones down the lane might pull a muscle or two) 10 'ends' with 2 teams of 4.. nbc has a pretty good website about how it's played.. but it's basically a game of strategy so that's why they keep referring to it as chess on ice.. The object is to get the 48lb 'stone' as close to the center of the target or button to earn points.. The strategy comes into play when you have to set up 'guard stones' to make your opponent manuever around them (which takes a lot of concentration, strategy & physical effort). While you are doing this a clock is running so if you are out of time before the 10ends then I think you have to concede or something.. this almost happened to the US womens team the other day and they tied at the end of the 10th end and went into an 11th end tie breaking end with no time on the clock (which is ok I guess). I'm still figuring it all out but it's pretty interesting.. I wish they had clubs around here.. <a href="http://www.nbcolympics.com/curling/inside.html" target="_blank">http://www.nbcolympics.com/cur ling/inside.html</a>
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 Well that's a pretty good explanation, but it's still confusing to me what with all the sweeping and stuff.
Originally Posted By JazzCat Yes, I was referring to Yevgeny Plushenko. He shows no emotion and very little (if any) artistic ability. If he was given the gold for his ability to jump and not fall, I would understand. However, he had a score of 160+, which means he scored high on artistic as well which is obviously not true. Gadzuux, I'm not saying Russia is the enemy. Please don't put words in my mouth. I'm saying that judges don't care how good someone skates, just what country has been the best in the past. How can you say it's *not* political?
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I've never been able to watch curling because I can't get past how silly the sweeping looks. What's that for anyway??
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 JazzCat I understand your feelings about the judging, I've never understood it and also thought the favoritism (sp) shows through. It must be so frustrating for the skaters. Another reason why I can't watch it, I feel so badly for the skaters when they fall or do poorly and then have to sit there and wait for their marks.
Originally Posted By disneyfreaksk ^LOL Watching Men's Ice Skating to see the babe from Canada! What a cute butt!!!!
Originally Posted By seanyoda << What's with the sweeping in curling? >> The sweeping is used to clean (and slightly melt) the ice in front of the stone to make it travel further/straighter. On the nbc link smeeeko provided, click on "Gameplay" and then "Sweeping" for more information.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>I've never been able to watch curling because I can't get past how silly the sweeping looks.<< This probably belongs in the confessional, but everytime curling is on, I get hooked. Really. It's sort of a mix of horseshoes, bocce ball, shuffleboard, more of a "game" than a "sport" but I find the darn thing fascinating.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I really think a lot of the judging is fixed. I'm still up set about the winter Olympics years ago where the British figure skating team lost. They were absolutely incredible. The crowd was booing the judges and rightfully so.
