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Russia sticking their OARs in: Winter Olympics 2018

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    Russia sticking their OARs in: Winter Olympics 2018

    Less than a month to go until the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea - it starts on 9 February. What's happened so far?

    • Three Nigerian women have qualified in their bobsled for the Winter Olympics, the first time any team from Africa has competed in the event.

    • North Korea reopened some diplomatic ties with the South, wishing them well for the games and confirming that they will send qualified athletes and a delegation.

    • Russia are of course banned due to state-sponsored doping, but athletes who qualify and can satisfy the authorities that they are clean can compete as Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR). But even athletes with doping bans are competing in qualifying events, as described here.

    I'd forgotten how bad it looks when a bobsled overturns, I looked at a video of the bobsled track for these games, which was used last year in a world cup event. Here's Canada's men going over. They slide and bump their heads along the side for a long time. And then when one of them gets out after it stops, his act of pressing on the sled sends it sliding back up the other way again.

    But then I suppose the Winter Olympics are full of moments that make you go 'ouch'.

    BBC seems to have extensive rights, hopefully with choice of events online.

    #2
    I hope Aksel Lund Svindal wins the downhill. He's been winning all the World Cup races for fun but often the olympic gold goes to a complete outsider who has one good day. It makes it fun I suppose but it always seems desperately unfair.

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      #3
      Ooh, there's a third curling competition this time. As well as men's and women's, there's going to be mixed doubles at the Olympics for the first time. Here's the difference from the four-a-side game.

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        #4
        30 year old British men's bobsleigher Bruce Tasker has had a minor stroke.
        http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/42652360

        The Bobsleigh and Skeleton have a world cup round starting any minute now, too. You can watch it here:
        http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/winter-sports/41529974

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          #5
          NBC does the coverage in the US, which means the evenings will be wall-to-wall figure skating, with occasional mentions of Lindsay Vonn. The daytimes will be mostly figure skating, with some freestyle skiing/slopestyle kind of stuff. They won't show anything else, other than USA games in the Ice Hockey.

          In fact, the figure skating - in the form of the US nationals - is already dominating NBC's schedules. It is also no coincidence that the Tonya Harding BioPic was just released.

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            #6
            It's extraordinary the degree to which the entertainment fascination with Vonn has eclipsed the massively more talented Mikaela Shiffrin, who has just won five World Cup races in a row.

            And yet one of my Google News headlines this morning was "Meet Skier Mikaela Shiffrin Who Keeps Lindsay Vonn on her Toes".

            Sponsors are upset that the generic upper middle class white girl figure skater on whom they centred their campaigns was eliminated in the trials.

            We just watched the men's biathlon relay from Ruhrpolding. I very much hope that there will be on-line coverage of those events (though I don't mind watching in Russian).

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              #7
              Thinking of the biathlon, did Bjorndalen finally quit after the last Olympics or is he somehow still competing? I really hope to watch online, but NBC Sports has some pain in the arse extra subscription cost, and we don't seem to get their new Olympic channel.

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                #8
                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                It's extraordinary the degree to which the entertainment fascination with Vonn has eclipsed the massively more talented Mikaela Shiffrin, who has just won five World Cup races in a row.

                And yet one of my Google News headlines this morning was "Meet Skier Mikaela Shiffrin Who Keeps Lindsay Vonn on her Toes".

                Sponsors are upset that the generic upper middle class white girl figure skater on whom they centred their campaigns was eliminated in the trials.

                We just watched the men's biathlon relay from Ruhrpolding. I very much hope that there will be on-line coverage of those events (though I don't mind watching in Russian).
                If you have cable, you can watch other stuff than the NBC main shit. NBC Universal will deploy all the channels they own to cover it. At least they have in the past. And, of course, online coverage.
                There's usually tons of curling on CNBC in the afternoons, for example.

                I don't get the continued Lindsay Vonn thing. I hate to be crass, but Mikaela Shiffrin is just as hot (assuming that's the main thing that makes Vonn so marketable).

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                  #9
                  He’s still competing, though he wasn’t in the Norwegian team that won at Ruhpolding today

                  We don’t get the Olympics Channel either, but do get NBCSN

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                    #10
                    Yeah, we get NBCSN, but have to pay extra for NBC sports online content - for example, watching any premier league games that aren't on the main channels, or (I think) watching any events that have previously been broadcast. I think during the last Summer Olympics NBC had free feeds of absolutely everything, usually with either no commentary or the very dry official Olympic commentators, so I hope we get a repeat of that.

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                      #11
                      Yes, that's the "NBC Sports Gold" gambit.

                      It is also where a good deal of their cycling coverage is, but I give that a wide berth due to Liggett, Sherwen and adverts.

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                        #12
                        If I haven't mentioned already, Ireen Wust. She isn't going to win as many as you might think. Because, her wife might beat her.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                          Yeah, we get NBCSN, but have to pay extra for NBC sports online content - for example, watching any premier league games that aren't on the main channels, or (I think) watching any events that have previously been broadcast. I think during the last Summer Olympics NBC had free feeds of absolutely everything, usually with either no commentary or the very dry official Olympic commentators, so I hope we get a repeat of that.
                          I thought you could get that just by having a cable subscription. Like ESPN 3 or whatever they call it now.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                            It's extraordinary the degree to which the entertainment fascination with Vonn has eclipsed the massively more talented Mikaela Shiffrin, who has just won five World Cup races in a row.

                            And yet one of my Google News headlines this morning was "Meet Skier Mikaela Shiffrin Who Keeps Lindsay Vonn on her Toes".
                            I've not been reading this thread, so have just come across this. I would take issue with the idea that Shiffrin is massively more talented than Vonn. The younger American is certainly exceptional, and her achievements at her age are greater than Vonn's at the same stage, but Vonn is still the most successful Alpine skier of all time, and that despite a career interrupted by at least two highly serious, long term injuries.
                            Both have utterly dominated their field at times, though for Vonn that is in the past whereas Shiffrin currently does. Vonn's Lake Louise downhill performances were often just jaw-dropping, an athlete competing in a completely separate event from her rivals. Shiffrin is the newish kid on the block, and come the final analysis in a decade's time might be considered the greatest ever, but for now Vonn holds that crown. And even if Shiffrin does go past, we are talking first among equals here.

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                              #15
                              I was speaking of their current ability, which is what I thought was most relevant in a discussion of marketing for this Olympics.

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                                #16
                                Ah, well, that is why you are getting the 'meet Mikaela Shiffrin' articles. Vonn is already a known personality, at least so far as any winter sportswoman is going to be. If you are going to sell the event, you use the established star whilst trying to grow the buzz around the rising talent. Trying to sell it off the back of that newbie and people are more likely to ignore through lack of recognition.

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                                  #17
                                  The New York Times was running meet Mikaela Shiffrin articles before Sochi.

                                  The idea that she is “keeping Vonn on her toes” is risible, though I obviously shouldn’t expect anything from the general sport media or NBC here.

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                                    #18
                                    BTW, it was confirmed over the weekend that Bjørndalen won’t be going to Korea.

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                                      #19
                                      Oh! That's a shame.

                                      Now which aging legend who, by all rights, shouldn't be competing, will I support? It can't be Vonn, because I'll be sickened by NBC's coverage.

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                                        #20
                                        The top two women in this season's Biathlon World Cup - Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland and Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia (though her brother competes for Russia) are 35 and 33, respectively.

                                        Martin Erat, who is captaining the Czech Republic hockey team, is 36

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                                          #21
                                          Given that I obviously don't want to back any Russian born athletes, Mäkäräinen looks like a good call.

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                                            #22
                                            Akwasi Frimpong represents Ghana in the men's skeleton event. I'll be rooting for him. I also quite like the idea of the joint Korean women's hockey team.

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                                              #23
                                              A chance to break out the Korean Unification Flag, perhaps.


                                              Also, Jamaica's women's bobsleigh team has secured qualification.

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                                                #24
                                                Some live sliding stuff from Königssee here:
                                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uro0HpSWO2k

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                                                  #25
                                                  Vonn wins in Cortina for the 12th time in her career and will be a real threat in the downhill.

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