I'm not a huge fan of sliding on ice generally, but I tuned in this morning to watch the women's jumping rail sliding skiing* and it was really entertaining. Some of the ladies did some great stuff, going upside down, going backwards, twisting round and round in the air and all sorts. Much better than that shyte old "Ski Sunday" show they used to put on. As with motor racing though, you're only waiting for the crashes and these were pleasingly frequent and catastrophic during the qualifiers. Best of all was a very fit Paraguayan señorita in a very fetching lycra. She skidded along the pipes OK, but when it came to the last and biggest jump of all, she did her twisting and flipping but then landed with the most enormous Spppppperllatt flat out on the snow. Skis went flying off in different directions, the ski pusher stick things went flying off in other directions. Tremendous. Even better on the HD slow-mo replay from several angles they showed straight afterwards. * Don't know official name for it
Definitely. Kind of glad that Shaun White didn't win, it was time for some new competitors. Blown away by that 15yr old too.
Cheers wfc4ever. Holland are running riot in the speed skating while their traditional rivals Norway are not doing too well. Great to see Trankov and Volosohar in the lead in the pairs. If they can pull out anything similar to recent efforts like this: [video=youtube;dXTSA0QThko]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXTSA0QThko[/video] they should maintain Russia's magnificent record in this event. Womens ice hockey has been fun to watch. The highlights of the young Russian side were impressive especially Vafina's goal although Japan were disallowed a clear goal. The mens tournament starts tonight at last. Should be on the red button.
I find the snowboarding extremely dull. It's like watching NASCAR: the only thing that separates one lap from another is a crash.
Lizzle Yarnold already ahead in the Skeleton. James Woods going 3rd last in the Slope style final - so potentially a very good chance for him but he has got a dodgy hip.
Well we had a silver...then it got taken away in the Speed staking. TBH Elise Christie took the decision in good grace.
She questioned it but accepted it. She did well to get to the final in her weaker event, she just needs to clear her head and get on with the next one now. I reckon she'll do well. Yarnold has a huge chance tomorrow and barring a major hiccup she'll do well.
Yarnold should get the gold. Given the resources she has as opposed to the Germans she has done remarkably well. Watched the pairs replay last night. Great one two for Russia and I preferred Klimov and Stolbova's routine. Fairly predictable wins in the hockey looking at the scores although Slovenia put up a fight against Russia winning a period. Fingers crossed there are highlights on the red button. Shame GB isn't there. If Slovenia who were with us in the second tier a decade or so ago like Denmark can get there we could do as well if IHUK had any vision and brains.
Elise Christie can count herself very unfortunate. The Italian ought to have been disqualified. Robbed of a silver.
I'm loving the curling, been getting super into it, but it could be boring if you don't like slow paced tactical sports (If you like snooker, you'll probably like it)
Curling is just a horizontal version of darts where you get to alter the flight of the dart mid-journey in order for it to best serve you. Tinpot.
They call it "chess on ice" and it's easy to see why. It's a decent sport and I'd probably compare it to bowls as well. The only problem I see with this sport is the Scottish independence thing- if Scotland becomes independent, we're gonna suffer greatly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for the last few Winter Olympics, all of our men's and women's teams have been Scots (which makes sense as the sport came from Scotland).
What curling has that bowls lacks, is housework. When the economy of an independent Scotland goes belly-up, all those highly skilled curlers can come south to work as cleaners.
Definitely true. Another thing that curling has that bowls doesn't is good looking women. I definitely wouldn't say no to Anna Sloan and Eve Muirhead. ..
Ladies curlers looking good now. Only way Yarnold won't win is if she crashes on the 4th run... Just got a track record.
:naughty: Sorry for being selfish................................................................................................................................................
certainly not a bad looking lass. http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67388000/jpg/_67388480_eve_muirhead_*****.jpg
Slovenia have beaten Slovakia 3-1 to pull off an upset in the ice hockey. Great team work and they do have several decent players aside from Kopitar who have played on the national side for several years together. Slovakia minus Visnovsky and Gaborik looked really flat but all credit to the Slovenians despite the small size of their player pool. IHUK take note. The commentary from Seth Bennett and Brent Pope has been abysmal. I could do a better job certainly than Bennett as the commentator. Apparently Michael Handzus and Martin Hanzal are one and the same person not to mention mixing up Latvia's sole NHL'er Girgensons with Ozolins etc etc.
Just watched Charlotte Franks in the board racing thing. She is English but races for France (from Hemel). Luckily she wiped out. Karma.
Yes some dreadful officiating. Russia dominated the first two periods until Radulov's needless penalty. Typically dull American hockey of the dump and chase variety aside from a few flashes from Patrick Kane and Kessel. Quick knocked the post off himself and Tyutin's shot was in the middle of the net but chalked off. Meanwhile in overtime one of the American forwards is rabbit punching one of the Russian defencemen and nothing gets called. Amazing. The officials have been terrible in all the matches. Nearly as bad as Seth Bennett.
That was what I was thinking. She cannot be bothered to represent Great Britain. Charming. Her brother does which makes it all the more strange why she has elected to compete for France.
Canada have just topped their group. Drew Doughty with his second and the winner against a very well marshalled Finnish team. Rask will be rather disappointed to have let his shot slip in five hole. Some questionable decisions again from the officials which is marring this tournament once again. Russia lead the mens bob with a largish margin and the speed skating facility should be renamed the Dutch Dome. Another clean sweep of the medals for them in the womens 1500m and more to come no doubt. Enjoyed the men's cross country relay with Sweden defending their title and Russia coming from behind to claim a silver with France the bronze.
Bizarre how the dutch can dominate one sport particularly when like us they are not a winter sports country. Why are we good at womens skeleton but not the men and why not the luge when pretty much the same thing but facing back instead of forwards.
I saw a little piece on the skeleton and we do have some heritage in the sport back in the twenties when an Englishman was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Winter Olympics. As for the Dutch they used to skate on canals in the cold weather and it was a huge attraction with thousands turning out to watch skaters travel from city to city for events like the Elfstdentocht. Obviously with a warming climate it's not often possible to do this but the love of skating in races is central to the Dutch consciousness. [video=youtube;ENSqWlF9OnI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENSqWlF9OnI[/video] Something like this never developed in the Fens for example partly because of the warmer climate despite the similarities to a degree of drainage canals and flat land due to our climate. Marrit Leenstra is rather nice as well. They also have a reasonable hockey side which is slowly improving as well and a couple of decent teams like the Tilburg Trappers.