The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Discussion Thread

The USA vs. Canada hockey game is being broadcast on MSNBC from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. tomorrow 2/21.

 

That's good to hear.

 

Watched a bit of curling last night, though the friends I was with were... well, confused would be an understatement

 

Yeah, my stepdad and I decided that we'd rather watch curling, in which we don't understand the scoring, than ice dancing. I'm glad that my mom was in the minority.

 

Heck, I still don't understand the rules of curling practically at all. I kinda understand what they do, but not why or much of the rules. But it was still more interesting that figure skating, I agree

 

I get the basic strategy for curling. There's some sort of invisible grid over the circles, and the skips try to place the rocks in certain coordinates. I just don't know how the grid relates to the circle. I keep wanting NBC to superimpose it, but they never do.

 

Do you know how many points you could hypothetically score in a frame? I remember them talking about one team having a chance to score three points. Is it just as many as you can, or is there a set limit?

 

I believe Canada has scored 5 in an end during these games.

 

Nice run for Vonn there, but not enough.

EDIT: to clarify, not enough for gold. She still got bronze

 

So curling is scored like lawn bowls then?

I thought there were only 8 stones (2 per team member.)

 

Dang, the Koreans look good in the short track speedskating.

 

There's 10 rocks for each team in an end in curling.

 

How many does the vice-skip release? Is it 4?

I managed to see some short track after work last night...it's just so chaotic and nervewracking to watch. Really fun, too.

I was watching the ski jumping earlier yesterday, and I've decided that I'd never do that. I'd probably seriously injure myself on the first attempt. It looks really awesome, though.

 

Pretty nice

Watching a bit of cross country right now... lots of people all close together, unlike the earlier times I was watching.

 

Yeah, I was wrong. It's 8 rocks per team per end.

I find it hilarious people are complaining about the crowds that are coming to see curling.

 

Congrats, that's pretty cool!

Yeah, I'd probably still seriously injure myself. Then again, I've never been skiing.

 

I'm originally from Northern Ontario, where curling is a big thing. Generally, even small towns have a curling rink. You don't have to be good to enjoy or play it; men, women and kids all play; you can play as a senior; and you can pop some beer after the game. What's not to love? Plus brains do help, unlike a lot of sports.

 

Yeah, sounds exactly like lawn bowls here. (Though bowls is played mainly by seniors, it's making inroads amongst younger people.)

Ski jumping (along with alpine skiing) is my favourite sport at the Winter Olympics. I still remember the Japanese guy dominating the Nagano Olympics back in 98.

 

Lawn bowling is fairly popular in B. C., too.

 

Well, the first period of the USA-Canada hockey game is in the books. Miller has looked pretty good, only gave up one goal on way too many chances to Team Canada. Hopefully he continues to play well the rest of the night. I'm glad that Team USA got off to a quick start, and quickly bounced back after Canada tied it up.