Anyone else a bit meh about the winter Olympics?

[Cheeky Monkey]

I'm meh enough about the regular Olympics, let alone the snow and ice version.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Just my opinion, but i'm really not keen on sports where the winner is decided by judges. Its my perception but the winter olympics has more than its fair share. When its the opinion of judges deciding who wins rather than a time or score i do lose interest. I hate the phrase "done enough to IMPRESS the judges".

I do enjoy the ice hockey and snowboard racing though.

 

[Biancazzurro]

The Dan Snow programme about the Winter Olympics actually said that we pretty much did invent competitive skiing, sounds odd I know. Well worth a watch on iPlayer.

The freestyle skiing half pipe and slope style will be great, first time they've been at the games. Both have some amazing athletes competing. My tip is Kevin Rolland of France for the half pipe gold.

Exactly. It's one of the only events in the world whereby we didn't really found it. We just have good enough athletes to take part. I don't have a huge affinity to skiing, I've been twice, but I appreciate it is a great sport, not forgetting all the other events.

Dismissing bob/skeleton/luge as just sliding down ice is ridiculous. I bet you've shat yourself tumbling over ice.

Why should the winter and summer Olympics be compared? The only similarity is the word Olympics. Darts (a pub game enjoyed by cholesterol ridden men and women) shares the same name with the 'beautiful game' (and it is not really a beautiful game, is it?).

Maybe the average Brit would feel a little differently about the games if they made an effort to build an ice rink or two. Skating is a legitimate sport and should be encouraged. But then, Brighton houses a very young population and sees fit to offer limited sports facilities, so what chance does the country hold?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Just my opinion, but i'm really not keen on sports where the winner is decided by judges. Its my perception but the winter olympics has more than its fair share. When its the opinion of judges deciding who wins rather than a time or score i do lose interest. I hate the phrase "done enough to IMPRESS the judges".

I do enjoy the ice hockey and snowboard racing though.

Why? A sport that is intricate enough to need an expert to devour the rules.

Compare sports...

Darts - you know what is hit and you just need a powerful voice to tell you the score - or figure skating, an endurance sport that requires hours upon hours upon hours of training, before they are even Olympic standard.

Are you turning your back on cricket, rugby and maybe football as a judge is/will be reuired?

How do you judge something that is not black or white? An ugly song might keep up with the beat and stay in tune, but it won't sell.

 

[Doc Lynam]

Just my opinion, but i'm really not keen on sports where the winner is decided by judges. Its my perception but the winter olympics has more than its fair share. When its the opinion of judges deciding who wins rather than a time or score i do lose interest. I hate the phrase "done enough to IMPRESS the judges".

I do enjoy the ice hockey and snowboard racing though.

Bloody love the ice hockey though, must be the Brighton Tiger in me.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Why? A sport that is intricate enough to need an expert to devour the rules.

Compare sports...

Darts - you know what is hit and you just need a powerful voice to tell you the score - or figure skating, an endurance sport that requires hours upon hours upon hours of training, before they are even Olympic standard.

Are you turning your back on cricket, rugby and maybe football as a judge is/will be reuired?

How do you judge something that is not black or white? An ugly song might keep up with the beat and stay in tune, but it won't sell.

Well I don't like darts either. Don't get me wrong, the stuff those ice skaters do is amazing and their dedication to it must be mind blowing- cant knock that. However I just can't connect with it when the result is decided by what some guys thought of it.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I reckon this bloke will come first.

My 12 year old son was watching when that come on he couldn't contain his giggles.

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

Bloody love the ice hockey though, must be the Brighton Tiger in me.

Me too, my Grandad was Canadian and thanks to him I got my love of hockey and the Albion from him

 

[CP 0 3 BHA]

I'm quite surprised we've not had an "I would " themed thread about Jenny Jones yet. I'm rather concerned that NSC is losing its mojo.

My apologies. Upon further research I find that an "I would" was posted at 18:46 on the Winter Olympics thread. I should never have doubted the ever reliable NSC.

 

[Spider]

Dismissing bob/skeleton/luge as just sliding down ice is ridiculous. I bet you've shat yourself tumbling over ice.

Why should the winter and summer Olympics be compared? The only similarity is the word Olympics. Darts (a pub game enjoyed by cholesterol ridden men and women) shares the same name with the 'beautiful game' (and it is not really a beautiful game, is it?).

I think you've missed my point. I appreciate that sliding down ice takes some skill - I just find that particularly with winter Olympics it seems like there's loads of very niche events that are all different ways of sliding down ice, it does, to me, very much feel like someone sitting down saying "we need to pad this out" and adding loads of things that really boil down to very similar.

And my point of comparing winter and summer Olympics is exactly because they have the same name. The very fact that we're denoting them by seaosn of the year suggests they are the same size of spectacle. It seems that each time this event comes around it's trying to be closer and closer to the main Olympics, whereas it feels to me that it would be more appropriately considered a section of an overall Olympics umbrella rather than a single event which has to be padded out to feel justified.

And the funding issue really annoys me - I'm all for funding sports (and arts), but not really funding sports with almost zero interest or participation from the wider community. Fund tennis courts, cricket pitches, swimming pools, not some bloke who needs to commute to Lilyhammer every other week to practice skiing on his own.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I think you've missed my point. I appreciate that sliding down ice takes some skill - I just find that particularly with winter Olympics it seems like there's loads of very niche events that are all different ways of sliding down ice, it does, to me, very much feel like someone sitting down saying "we need to pad this out" and adding loads of things that really boil down to very similar.

And my point of comparing winter and summer Olympics is exactly because they have the same name. The very fact that we're denoting them by seaosn of the year suggests they are the same size of spectacle. It seems that each time this event comes around it's trying to be closer and closer to the main Olympics, whereas it feels to me that it would be more appropriately considered a section of an overall Olympics umbrella rather than a single event which has to be padded out to feel justified.

And the funding issue really annoys me - I'm all for funding sports (and arts), but not really funding sports with almost zero interest or participation from the wider community. Fund tennis courts, cricket pitches, swimming pools, not some bloke who needs to commute to Lilyhammer every other week to practice skiing on his own.

I'm of the belief that if a five year old wants to be a space traveller then they should be encouraged to do that. I'm not suggesting he should be paid to fly over to NASA every weekend.

All people should be encouraged to reach for the stars. How much did average joe pay Jenny jones for her medal? One should know that before complaining about funding her.

Not funding sports (or interests) would mean they die out unless they are the preserve of the wealthy.

 

[joeinbrighton]

Like the skiing, bobsleigh/skeleton bob, ski cross and ice hockey. Less fond of everything else, especially the ice skating, biathlon and curling.

 

[joeinbrighton]

Fund tennis courts, cricket pitches, swimming pools, not some bloke who needs to commute to Lilyhammer every other week to practice skiing on his own.

Who decides which sports are worthy and which are not? I mean, your rationale appears to be based on which sports we are more likely to excel in. Yet, we only have 1 tennis player ranked in the top 100 in each of the men's and women's game at present whereas in the skeleton bob, we have produced 3 world class female competitors in the past few years despite having no facilities in this country.

 

[The Fifth Column]

My 12 year old son was watching when that come on he couldn't contain his giggles.

My 10 yr old son was the same, was giving me the smirky look and referring to the 'w' word, I played it with a straight bat for the missus's sake but gave him a wink when she wasn't looking, much to his delight. I later convinced him that willy van boobrubber was competing in the ice diving competition.

 

[goldstone]

Frankly it's complete rubbish filled mostly with made-up sports ... something akin to the teacher making up some new games for sports day. I will not be watching one second of it.

 

[Simster]

I quite like lots of sports and the winter Olympics have lots of sports, so it's all good IMO. I'm not watching much though, as it's difficult justifying having it on during working hours.

I do wish we were proper decent in the ice hockey - I could right behind us in that. Instead, I just end up sporting Canada and Sweden.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

The ice hockey should be pretty competitive and good viewing.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

for the benefit of a bit of a novice- who are the big dogs when it comes to ice hockey? I've always presumed that Canada are a bit of a force...any truth in that?

and is olympic ice hockey taken seriously, or is it like olympic football?

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

I'm just upset at the timings, obviously can't be helped but I've always found the winter Olympics to be better than the summer ones, certainly more fun to watch (for me anyway).

As to someone earlier in the thread suggesting that it seems bloated with disciplines to make it seem bigger, have you ever noticed the endless amount of swimming events in the summer games?

 

[Simster]

for the benefit of a bit of a novice- who are the big dogs when it comes to ice hockey? I've always presumed that Canada are a bit of a force...any truth in that?

and is olympic ice hockey taken seriously, or is it like olympic football?

The Canadians roll their eyes when their hockeyists under-perform in the Olympics, much as we do when our own £200k a week twats are out outplayed in the World Cup.