2010 Winter Olympics

[Guest DroMPHo]

A bit of ski jumping today, but the Olympics get underway tonight with the opening ceremonies (7 PM EST on CTV, 7:30 on NBC).

I expect this thread to be little more than a transplanted version of the Hockey thread, but maybe somebody will pop in once in a while to marvel at the skicross or something.

Anyone have any ideas who the last torchbearer will be tonight? Speculation has everybody from Gretzky to Betty Fox to David Suzuki to Rick Hansen, but I'm getting the sense it might be somebody out of left field (unfortunately, since those are probably the four best names for the job).

[Meacon Keaton]

USA! USA! USA!

[SeanDMan]

It should be Betty Fox, but it definitely shouldn't be David Suzuki. Fuck that guy.

Supposedly there's a lot of pressure from Harper and his suits to make the torchbearer an aboriginal. Don't see that happening. They'll probably pick some douchecone like Furlong or something.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

We're after THREE MEDALS as our target! BRITAIN! BRITAIN!

[gunnar hendershow]

I have been able to forget repeatedly that the Olympics are starting up, the Summer Olympics are such a big deal for me but even with 3 feet of snow on the ground outside I haven't been able to get terribly excited about anything this year except the hockey next week. That said, USA! USA! USA!

[Guest DroMPHo]

And Canada gets off to a great start with ski jumping - 50 jumpers, 40 of whom would make it through the pre-qualifying. Four Canadians in the field, all managed to crack that elusive bottom ten.

[Katsuya]

YAY WINTER OLYMPICS!!!!

I bloody love these, no-one who knows me quite understands why, and neither do I. I just love them, ever since Nagano. Here's hoping that the UK might actually be able to get a bronze/silver here or there, but it looks like as per usual it's going to be the curling that we have the best chance in, which...meh.

[Guest DroMPHo]

Yeah your men's curling team is awesome. Two years in a row Murdoch has been invited over here to play a skins game against some of Canada's best teams, and both years he's won pretty easily.

Although there's nobody I'd rather have representing Canadian curling than Kevin Martin. He's like the Fedor of curling. At least facially.

[SeanDMan]

His jiujitsu is pretty good too.

[Guest DroMPHo]

.

[Guest DroMPHo]

Apparently he's dead. RIP Georgian luge guy.

[Meacon Keaton]

And we're off to a FLYING~! start.

You find death funny? DO YA?!

And to add a little to the topic. USA! USA! USA!

[sahyder1]

Saw the video before Youtube rightfully pulled it but it is unbelievealbe that their are morons in this world who would go post "lol" as a comment to that video repeatedly after finding out that the kid died. People calling for Luge to be pulled as a sport are also just as dumb. It is a dangerous sport, people taking part in it know the risk like they do when they get into Formula One.

[TCO]

I saw it too, really horrible, don't think anybody could survive that impact at those types of speed. A tragic event that'll put a huge dampner on the whole event

RIP

[Guest DroMPHo]

To be fair there was a gap of 10-15 minutes between when the video surfaced and when reports came out about his death. Obviously it's not funny now knowing the outcome.

[TCO]

Picture before the impact for anybody who wants to see it.

Edited February 12, 2010 by The Cool One

[GA!]

Why the flying fuck are there steel poles in close proximity for an event where crashes like this are likely?

[sahyder1]

To be fair there was a gap of 10-15 minutes between when the video surfaced and when reports came out about his death. Obviously it's not funny now knowing the outcome.

Wasn't saying you. I saw the timestamp on your post. I was talking about people who were commenting in the Youtube comments section long after it had been made clear by several people commenting that the kid has passed away.

Why the flying fuck are there steel poles in close proximity for an event where crashes like this are likely?

I'm guessing they're needed to hold up the structure. But yeah, I'm sure they'll look into getting it padded.

[Clawson]

Took CTV an hour to announce he died after it was confirmed. Bravo.

[Guest DroMPHo]

There were probably internal battles over whether they should say anything that could reflect negatively on the IOC. Their Olympic love-in puts anything CBC ever did to shame.