Arena 2022 Winter Olympiad thread

Figured somebody might as well start this thread.

To start with two protestors disrupted the Olympic flame lighting ceremony in Greece.

 

All athletes at the Winter Olympics will be tested daily for COVID, live in closed loop:

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story...ests-covid-19-remain-closed-loop-games-venues

 

Can't wait for the Nathan Chen/Yuzuru Hanyu/Vincent Zhou showdown on the ice.

 

I'm so glad that Biden only order a diplomatic US boycott of the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing and not the athletes. Hopefully, the Omicron variant doesn't postpone the Winter Games either as watching the previous Winter Olympics was so much fun.

 

Biden learned from the 1980 Boycott that it only hurts the athletes as it did nothing to put any pressure on Soviet Union to get out of Afghanistan.

 

Australia is also doing the Diplomatic Boycott, which China has replying with "We don't care."
It seems rather toothless of a protest.

 

Lot of countries will join the Diplomatic Boycott. It does put a little egg on China's face but nothing that will make a difference as again anything more significant would hurt the athletes. I think if anything China is more worried about hosting the games safely and not causing an endemic in the process.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59582137 - UK and Canada have joined the diplomatic boycott.

 

The omicron Olympics.

Isn’t the big holiday season in China the Lunar New Year? This year Chinese New Year is February 1st. These Olympics will be happening during the two week surge in cases ignited by the holiday.

 

Well last I heard, they're not allowing fans at the Olympics anyway, so...

 

Good. That will stop COVID blowing around. Even better if they’re not allowing people at the Olympics.

 

https://www.espn.com/olympics/figur...ing-championships-due-positive-covid-19-tests

At this point the US figure skating committee should just choose the team.

 

Honestly since hockey will barely be interesting I doubt I’ll even watch it

 

I hate to tell you this but no one out but Liu was gonna make the team anyway. I follow ice skating and dancing.

 

The summer games were eerie with with the indoor events...Volleyball, gymnastics, etc. Far to much piped in music and way to many closeups to hide the empty arenas. I don't even remember a basketball game from Tokyo.

Is figure skating gonna be like that? hockey? curling? speed skating?

Don't think I realized how much the crowd mattered to these spectacles before.

 

It's hard to say whether or not people will be allowed into the events. I have not come across any reports on the omicron effects on China, not whether or not China is allowing people to travel to China to attend the Olympics.

For what I can tell, China is very conscience of their appearance on the world stage and I would suspect they would want to have the events heavily attended to show how well the country is doing.

I'm hoping China's opening ceremony is as epic or better than their 2008 Summer Games opening ceremony.

Looking forward to seeing some curling competition.

 

I just finished the 4 part documentary on Peacock called Medling. It's about the Pairs skating controversy in Salt Lake '02 Olympics. I liked it and I really liked that it had a mostly happy ending. The world needs more happy endings. It also got me more interested in watching some ice skating.

 

My fandom for ice skating goes all the way back to the prime days of Peggy Fleming and Dorthy Hamill, as my mom and older sister were huge fans of the sport. When the Ice Capades tour rolled into my town my mom always got tickets for the show.

 

I like speed skating but I can't stand ice dancing or figure skating. I think my tastes lie more with the luge and downhill skiing/ski jumping events.

 

Curling is probably the greatest sport ever invented, but I like the skiing too. Once you've discovered that curling is a thing humans do you can never really be surprised by anything else they do.

 

The NHL isn't letting its players go, so already the men's hockey competition is just the best of what's available (300+ Canadians, almost 200 Americans, 70+ Swedes, 40 Finns, 37 Russians all at the top of their game are off the table).