These posters are all over town — probably all over the country. They are way cool, so much so that I don't think I can resist watching. Short track speed skating has always seemed to me a sport that could be huge if marketed properly and downhill short-track right through the middle of Québec City is a totally boss prospect. Probably won't be as good as the poster but I'll give it a go.
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Invented sport of the week
My god! That does indeed look brilliant. I note they're wearing hockey pads, though! (...And sweaters that hint at the Canadiens uniform on the poster, I note.)
I imagine that quite a few roads will have to be closed because of this? Surely that can only be achieved because of Red Bull's 'clout'? I mean - I can't imagine it happening if it was just some national speed-skating body approaching the city council with such an idea. (I don't think that such 'inconveniences' are a bad thing, btw. In fact, I wish people were more tolerant of them for sporting events. People (doomsayers) moaned like hell before London hosted the start of the Tour de France regarding "all the disruption" it would cause. In the end it was a massive PR coup, on balance, and stage 1 drew the largest crowd for any sporting event in history!)
Back on this 'Crashed Ice thing, though - next year, perhaps they can send ice speedway bikes down behind the skaters?
Now... monkey tennis... -
Invented sport of the week
It's definitely a Red Bull promotion and they're pulling out all the stops. They have it in prime-time on a Saturday evening, right up against Hockey Night in Canada, a brassy move. Yes competitors do appear to wear basic hockey gear (the shirts in the poster are altered to give them the same colour, so they aren't too distracting.) I guess this is the third year they've run it but the first when it's been publicised on this kind of scale.Comment
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Invented sport of the week
Man, that looks ace.
Must be said though, those Red Bull plane races look completely rubbish on the TV. Perhaps less so if you're there.Comment
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Invented sport of the week
They did one of those downhill tracks in Duluth a few years ago. They call it skatercross. I saw it on tv. It is awesome. I really, really, really want to try it, but I don't know if there are any tracks set up beside the one for the Red Bull event. Apparently, that moves around. It was in Sweden a few year ago. Then it was in Duluth for two years and this year it's Quebec.Comment
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Invented sport of the week
According to the web site it was in Helsinki last year and Québec the year before that. There are qualifiers from all over Canada, including here. I'm not sure how you do it though. There's nothing similar locally, maybe they use the bobsled run at Whistler...Comment
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Invented sport of the week
Amor de Cosmos wrote:
Ooh! That reminds me......maybe they use the bobsled run at Whistler...
Raaah for us!
Our bloke came second in the mens' category, too.
We do love our speed, us Brits.Comment
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Invented sport of the week
Well I watched this yesterday. It's clearly mainly an advertising vehicle but fun nevertheless. It also has an X-sport vibe so no one takes themselves too seriously. The very best thing about it was the location and crowd: 125,000 in the middle of Québec City. Apparently there are several of these events over the winter, in Scandinavia, Austria and Russia but none get the crowds the Québec one does and nowhere are they on top of the track as they are there. The runs are variably exciting, if the four skaters stay grouped together it's pretty wild, but if they get spread-out early it's slightly less thrilling to watch than downhill skiing. Two Finns came first and second, the winner repeating from last year. It looks like it would be a blast to attend.Comment
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Invented sport of the week
Do they have pitch invaders?Comment
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Invented sport of the week
Not quite. There're are loads of people hanging over the boards and banging on them though, which seems like a good way to potentially lose a limb. It did look like there was a renegade at one point. During one of the women's heats some guy in black started skating down the course after them, turned out he was only part of the crew with a minicam on his helmet.Comment
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