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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Last clip of Lichen Lunch
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Feb 20, 2010 - 09:13pm PT
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I don't even have a TV....just a dead box.
Will the games start soon?
Will I miss anything? Does anyone even care?
are my shoes untied(again)?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Feb 20, 2010 - 09:30pm PT
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No problem, Kirk - I don't have a TV either. Though I sometimes visit my dad and watch a bit. There's lots on the net.
In fact, seven out of eight of the Norwegian medal-winners are from Trøndelag, in central Norway. A district with about 400,000 inhabitants. Which means that the US would have to win several thousand medals to even come close.
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Trondelag+talents+take+owning+podium/2590954/story.html
And yeah, those fuzzy things are somewhat lame and infantile - but then, I don't think we're the target market. They're a bit like some of the overbred small dogs, designed to retain infantile features.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Last clip of Lichen Lunch
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Feb 20, 2010 - 11:29pm PT
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Thanks for the Laugh, Anders.
Maybe all the other figure skaters can be pushed into the hole, too?
I just don't get figure skating. It's ok, I guess, But why SO much of it?
And whatinHell is Ice Dancing all about? It's kinda just more prancin' around, right?
Be better if it was combined with Hockey.
Now that'd be a challenge.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Feb 21, 2010 - 12:43am PT
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Be better if it was combined with Hockey.
Hey Cap'n, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq9z0PFfD9M
It's bowling compared to hockey, rather than figure skating, but the comparison stands.
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 21, 2010 - 01:09am PT
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Walked around Downtown Vancouver today, took a few snapshots. Seemed like millions of people on foot everywhere ....
Spring has sprung for sure up here.
Unreal number of people out walking around. Most of them had accents or were speaking another language it seemed, but locals out in force too. Every cafe and restaurant had a lineup, every single one.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Feb 21, 2010 - 02:33am PT
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Tricky Swedes in the men's 3,000 m. cross country. Ganged up on everyone else as a team and got the gold and bronze. Pretty interesting to watch although the snow was horrible and a third of the starting group didn't finish because of the 54 degree heat.
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blahblah
Gym climber
Boulder
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Feb 21, 2010 - 03:18am PT
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The NBC News trumpeting of the US medal count shows up the sad state of
math ability in this country. Let's see, 6 golds for the US and 5 for
Norway. That's 1 per million Norskies, right? Then I guess we should
have 300 golds by my math, n'est ce pas?
Sorry, but your "logic" is whack. The US is not an alpine nation--HUGE parts of the US couldn't care less about the Winter Olympics or any of the sports in it.
You seem pretty dumb, so let me illustrate with an example: which country has more people living within training access to a nordic ski jump?
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MH2
climber
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Feb 21, 2010 - 03:41am PT
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Cherry blossoms! All right!!
What are all the people doing downtown?
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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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Feb 21, 2010 - 12:51pm PT
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Perhaps we should have a Trøndelag vs. Vermont competition!
By my count, Vermont has 3 medals, one of each. GO GIRLS!
(Hannah Kearney, Hannah Teter, and Kelly Clark).
(with a population of ~ 600,000).
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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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Feb 21, 2010 - 01:59pm PT
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Actually, some of the athletes in highly specialized sports like speed skating and figure skating DO come from southern states. Or, at least they were born there.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/teamusa/browser/index.html
(Don't trust the database, though, it has flaws! For example, snowboarder Kelly Clark moved to Vermont at age 8 and graduated from high school in Vermont, but is listed under Rhode Island and California, so go figure.)
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Feb 21, 2010 - 04:15pm PT
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Dear BlaBla,
Yeah, I'm pretty dumb for assuming anybody has any sense of irony or knowledge of geography,
let alone a sense of humor.
So for the sake of argument how about you post your rules for what consitutes
"living within training access to a nordic ski jump?" Off the top of my head I can think of prolly
at least 5-6 times the population of Norway who live within the 4-5 hours many wouldn't
think twice about driving to go gamble their life savings away or could
instead drive to jump off a 60 meter hill. Actually, that number is now
higher with the addition of the Whistler jumps so you could add one more
'Norway' with the population of W. Washington. Too bad they tore down the
jumps that used to be up at Mt Baldy near LA.
That would be what, 5 more Norges?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Feb 21, 2010 - 10:22pm PT
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Canadian Melissa Hollingsworth won her second silver medal today, in 1,500 m long track speed skating.
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blahblah
Gym climber
Boulder
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Feb 21, 2010 - 10:43pm PT
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Re ski jumping: I was thinking more of hills in a metropolitan area (such as within 1 hour), not 4-5 hours. That is, a distance where kids can jump every day, not just on weekends. In Colorado (where I live), that's just Steamboat, which is not tiny, but is pretty damn small.
I should not have called anyone "dumb"--I am a patriotic American and got carried away responding to what I perceived to be an insult against the American athletes, who are doing an amazing job (as are many others).
Norway definitely does "punch above its weight," but it's not quite fair to compare the entire population of the US to Norway when so much of US doesn't participate in these sports. I guess all those Norwegians are skiing and jumping and skating and what not (good for them).
Just watching the ice dancing as I write this--anyone else think that Scottish brother-sister thing is a little weird? Maybe I've just got a prurient mind.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Feb 21, 2010 - 11:08pm PT
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The times are changing and not in ways Mighty Hiker will like.
The Canadians lost in hockey against the U.S. but won in ice dancing.
I hope we don't read in the future that the decline and fall of the nation began with this event.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Last clip of Lichen Lunch
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Feb 21, 2010 - 11:13pm PT
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I liked your vid, Ghost. Awesome!
Combinations can be cool! I've always thought that golf courses & cemetaries could be combined, too.
It'd be like pinball, sorta.
Ice Dancing, Yarrrr.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Feb 21, 2010 - 11:15pm PT
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As for geography and demographics. Every Norwegian lives in a country with 4 - 5 months of winter, where skiing is a huge part of the culture. Most Canadians (80% = 24 million+) live in a similar country, where unfortunately hockey and curling get far too much attention. Our natural strengths should be cross country skiing and speed skating - we only have real ski jumps at Callaghan Valley, Calgary, and Thunder Bay (?). Probably 1/4 to 1/3 of the population of the US lives in border or mountain states, or New England. That is, maybe 100 million. (No idea about ski jumps in the US - a better test is probably cross country areas.)
Hannah Kearney says she is half-Canadian, as her mother is from Canada. A fair number of the athletes compete for other than their home country, sometimes on passports of convenience. There's the Canadian who competes in moguls for Australia, because he had a snit. One of the US figure skating pairs is made up of a Canadian and an American. And of course lots of people in the Maritimes, New England, and southern Quebec have family on both sides of the border. Athletes also train with other teams and in other countries, e.g. Aksel Lund Svindal from Norway, who until recently trained in Canada. Which is all good, in that it helps de-emphasize the nationalistic aspects of these competitions.
The thing to watch, clearly, is the east Asian nations, as they make concerted efforts in certain sports - short track speed skating, figure skating, all the trick skiing and snowboarding events, cross country skiing, etc. The Chinese reportedly funneled a large number of young gymnasts into these things, on the basis that kids who were already very used to jumping and twisting and tumbling could probably figure out the ski/skate thing with some work.
Several of the ice dancing couples from Canada are brother-sister, and I read somewhere that two are partners in real life, but skate with the others. Must get interesting.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Last clip of Lichen Lunch
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Feb 21, 2010 - 11:17pm PT
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What can we say?
Canadian chicks are hot. WooHoo!!!
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John_Box
Ice climber
Bellingham
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Feb 22, 2010 - 12:35am PT
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Anyone got an non NBC live stream of the game. I'm in the states and haven't been able to get most links to work.
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