Russia sticking their OARs in: Winter Olympics 2018

[tee rex]

Some tumbles and tangles at the start of the men's cross-country, the kind of thing where commentators say "nobody wants to see that", misjudging their audience by a mile.

Well, we got the comedy AND the heart-warming story ... Krueger fell, and then won. Fantastic race.

[Gerontophile]

Never mind the per capita medal table, there should be some kind of formula based on "likelihood that you ever got to do the sport when you were a kid".

A Kiwi has just come 4th in the men's speed skating. Now if it were the judged half-pipe snowboard mixed tango, I could understand it. We have mountains and ski resorts, and the kids like to do those rad moves, man. (Note to self: Edit for updated slang). But nobody ever goes out on a frozen lake. It's a news headline when they do, because they fall in.

He's not even Dutch. (Kramer, the winner, must be one of the least known "legends" in world sport, though I suppose you get quite a few of those at the Winter Olympics. Wins a bunch of golds and he's less famous than a Premier League bench-warmer who couldn't get them to the World Cup).

Fucking spoilers, man!

[Gerontophile]

And, strange as it may seem, the mens' 5000m is on live, now.

(The commentator was on about the viability of the suit on the guy from Norway... and the other guy went 'Well, 9th of 10, 10 seconds behind... good advert?")

[Gerontophile]

Bob de Jong was dying on his arse, but he is still in 4th.

[Gerontophile]

I'm watching on BBC. The guy who is not the commentator, but is supposed to be the 'expert'... well...

[Gerontophile]

The guy who is not the commentator, has just said stripsleam...

yeah.

[Gerontophile]

I may not be watching, live.

THAT KIWI HAS JUST BLOWN THE PLACE APART.

x

[Gerontophile]

A fucking dead heat??? ARE YOU SHITTING ME?

[Gerontophile]

(Fuck this Ted-Jan twat. Kill him Sven.)

[Gerontophile]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

x (A pair still to go.)

[Gerontophile]

I really like speed skating.

[Gerontophile]

And, I really like Dutch people winning Olympic gold medals, in speed skating.

[ursus arctos]

Women’s Giant Slalom postponed due to very high winds.

We are risking a pileup of alpine events if the wind does not abate.

[tee rex]

Sorry about the spoilers, Gero. How many hours behind is your coverage? (OK, I got the message, don't mention the Luge ... ).

The ski-ing being postponed is also distorting the 'feel' of the games. It's more like the Ice Olympics so far.

[Ray de Galles]

How did the makers of 'I,Tonya' manage to fix it so Mirai Nagasu made the first ever Triple Axel from an American woman at the Olympics right in the middle of awards season? Great publicity.

[Kevin S]

OK, I take back some of my opprobrium about the BBC coverage. NBC viewers have my sympathy.

https://twitter.com/JosDuijvestein/status/962368563230269441

[Wouter D]

There's this popular satirical news show on Dutch public TV every Sunday night. Yesterday's theme was the ridiculous costs of the Olympics. Before the main event, however, there were some funny points:

- every single Dutchman being interviewed in Pyeongchang seems to be contractually obliged to complain about the cold. I distinctly remember the Olympics eight years ago, when everyone was throwing a fit because the weather was too warm and the snow was melting, but now it's too cold? THESE ARE THE WINTER OLYMPICS! What were they expecting? A beach holiday with cocktails with little parasols in them? Ridiculous.

- also, some stats: in the history of the Winter Olympics, Belgium have won five medals in total*. The most recent one of those was in 1998, won by a Dutchman loaned to the Belgian speed skating association for the tournament. The other four were all from 1948 and earlier. Special mention for the 1924 four-man bobsleigh team which won bronze for Belgium, consisting of: (1) Charles Mulder, (2) René Mortiaux, (3) Paul Van den Broeck, (4) Victor Verschueren, and (?) Henri Willems. It turns out that, back in 1924, you could enter a five-man team in the four-man bobsleigh.

* this also implies that there was an hour during these Pyeongchang Olympics during which the Dutch had a better medal haul than the Belgians during the entire history of the Winter Olympics.

[Furtho]

Interesting article about anti-Olympic activism in South Korea and Japan, here.

[tee rex]

A thing happened in the speed skating. SPOILER.

[Kevin S]

Heh.

Incidentally if you put

[spoiler]some stuff inside spoiler tags[/spoiler]

then you will get a clickable spoiler box like this:

[spoiler]some stuff inside spoiler tags[/spoiler]

[Ray de Galles]

There's really no point in being worried about spoilers regarding live sporting events! If someone is having to watch on a delay then they should just avoid the relevant thread until they've caught up - that's what I do.

So, what happened, tee rex?

[Kevin S]

That's true of course, otherwise the thread loses much of its punch!

[Levin]

Oh hurrah. Team GB haev top secret suits to give themselves an advantage. "GB skeleton riders blitz practice rivals as custom skinsuits deliver cutting edge"

Why do we do this? If you were an athlete who won because of what you wore would you feel like you'd really won? How would you feel if you lost to a super suited person?

Oh, how much leeway is there in bobsled design? I'm surprised that Team GB isn't all over that.

[ursus arctos]

The spoiler thing is especially true for any one trying to watch on NBC, as not only is most everything delayed, it is also presented out of chronological order.

[San Bernardhinault]

I love watching biathlon, particularly pursuit biathlon. Even when it's on tape delay. I have no idea why it's so fun - and I can't imagine I'd want to watch it more than once every four years. But it's one of my favourite things about the winter olympics.