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Post by Desert Dweller on Aug 2, 2017 0:45:16 GMT -5
Meh. Los Angeles is actually a great host. They didn't go broke last time. They had a great financing system before that prevented them from taking big losses. Gotta figure they'll come up with something like that again.
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Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Aug 2, 2017 11:46:27 GMT -5
Awarding the 2028 Games four years early is a sign of desperation by the IOC. I think they were generally worried that, while LA is excited about hosting now, they wouldn't be in 2021, when the 2028 Games were originally scheduled to be awarded. Plus, the IOC is giving LA an interest-free loan, which I'm sure is not at all an incentive for the city not to get cold feet. LA also has the advantage of not having to build anything from scratch, at least as far as facilities go (woo I play tennis at an Olympic facility! Actually I think I knew it was built for 1984 but it was still cool to see)—apparently they’re not even building an Olympic village and just housing people in empty college dorms. I think it’s garnering more interest locally as a nice deadline to get some infrastructure stuff done than anything else. |
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Aug 2, 2017 11:47:03 GMT -5
Relevant. Fair amount of politician-speak and Simmons is not a great interviewer when it comes to anything of substance, but still an interesting listen.
Mayor Garcetti on Bill Simmons Podcast |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Aug 11, 2017 0:13:50 GMT -5
It is kind of bizarre to realize I lived in LA during the last time the Olympics were there, but I have no memory of it. Well, I have a memory of watching Mary Lou Retton on the balance beam on television.
Can't blame my parents. My brother was born only a few months before the Olympics started. So, it isn't like they had time or money to take us to any events. But still.
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Post by MarkInTexas on Aug 11, 2017 11:27:08 GMT -5
Just a reminder that it's now less than 6 months to the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, in...Pyeonchang, South Korea, 40 miles from the DMZ. Oh dear.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Aug 11, 2017 23:48:15 GMT -5
Just a reminder that it's now less than 6 months to the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, in...Pyeonchang, South Korea, 40 miles from the DMZ. Oh dear. That has definitely been on my mind lately. Can we put Pence in charge that month? I mean, he's horrible, but he's also much less likely to start a nuclear war. |
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Post by MarkInTexas on Dec 5, 2017 17:04:56 GMT -5
And Russia is out of the 2018 Olympics.
Good.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Dec 9, 2017 15:47:06 GMT -5
And Russia is out of the 2018 Olympics. Good. Long time coming. I was amazed when so many of them were allowed to compete in the 2016 Olympics. |
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Post by MarkInTexas on Feb 8, 2018 12:18:08 GMT -5
As a curling aficionado, I have to say that I don't think I like the 2-man (technically, 1-man & 1-woman) version too much.
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Post by Lt. Broccoli on Feb 8, 2018 14:45:33 GMT -5
As a curling aficionado, I have to say that I don't think I like the 2-man (technically, 1-man & 1-woman) version too much. I don't like that American guy with the baseball cap. You can't curl in a baseball cap! You may wear a tam o'shanter, if absolutely necessary. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2018 16:44:00 GMT -5
As a curling aficionado, I have to say that I don't think I like the 2-man (technically, 1-man & 1-woman) version too much. I don't like that American guy with the baseball cap. You can't curl in a baseball cap! You may wear a tam o'shanter, if absolutely necessary. You just mad because USA won and Canada lost! |
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Crash Test Dumbass
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Feb 8, 2018 17:40:01 GMT -5
As a curling aficionado, I have to say that I don't think I like the 2-man (technically, 1-man & 1-woman) version too much. Mixed doubles seems kind of interesting, what I've seen of it (five rocks, two more strategically pre-placed, just one sweeper so fewer takeouts, no skip so it's hard to aim as well, not nearly as much yelling), and I will likely watch it tonight when I get home, but I'm more looking forward to the normal 4-human teams next week. When I curled, we would occasionally be stuck with a 3-human team (one sweeper, but the skip still held the broom), and it wasn't as much fun to play as with a foursome. |
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Post by MarkInTexas on Feb 9, 2018 4:13:46 GMT -5
As a curling aficionado, I have to say that I don't think I like the 2-man (technically, 1-man & 1-woman) version too much. Mixed doubles seems kind of interesting, what I've seen of it (five rocks, two more strategically pre-placed, just one sweeper so fewer takeouts, no skip so it's hard to aim as well, not nearly as much yelling), and I will likely watch it tonight when I get home, but I'm more looking forward to the normal 4-human teams next week. When I curled, we would occasionally be stuck with a 3-human team (one sweeper, but the skip still held the broom), and it wasn't as much fun to play as with a foursome. I once had to play on a two-man team (our other two members were out, and there weren't any available subs). We got our asses kicked. Now that I think about it, it might have been a 3-man team, as one of the players on the other team switched allegiances for the evening. We still got our asses kicked. |
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Post by MarkInTexas on Feb 9, 2018 4:36:24 GMT -5
I didn't get a chance to watch NBC's coverage tonight, but here's hoping against all hope that the prime-time coverage will treat the games as a sporting event with the very occasional human interest story, not as a human interest newsmagazine showing occasional athletic footage, 99.9% of which will involve American athletes. That said, NBC usually does a much better job with the Winter Games. Ironically, despite there being far fewer sports in the Winter, the network shows more different sports in primetime than they do during the Summer, when that slot seems limited to track, swimming, diving, and beach volleyball*. Obviously, figure skating will be the #1 focus during nearly every night of primetime, but in years past, NBC has also devoted time to skiing (alpine and freestyle), snowboarding, speed skating, bobsled, luge, and ski jumping. About the only sports I'd be genuinely surprised to see on primetime are biathlon, Nordic combined, and curling, unless the US makes a gold medal match (though I would love curling to dominate primetime. Have I mentioned lately how much I love curling?). In other news, not to drag politics into this, but anyone read this bizarrely racist rant from a Fox News VP? www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/07/in-olympics-lets-focus-on-winner-race-not-race-winner.htmlI like how he sneers that there are openly gay Olympians, without mentioning there are exactly two of them, and that one is arguably one of the three best freestyle skiers in the world and the other is arguably one of the 10 best figure skaters in the world. Yeah, the defending silver medalist from Sochi and the skater coming off of a Grand Prix appearance are both there only because of "diversity". *Edited to add Gymnastics. How I forgot that one, especially with it being in the news lately so much, I don't know. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2018 8:44:45 GMT -5
I don't like that American guy with the baseball cap. You can't curl in a baseball cap! You may wear a tam o'shanter, if absolutely necessary. You just mad because USA won and Canada lost! I just want to make this known, this post was based off the first day of mixed doubles where canada lost to norway, and not the tragedy that happened last night. |
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Post by Lord Lucan on Feb 9, 2018 14:19:00 GMT -5
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Post by Lord Lucan on Feb 9, 2018 18:25:29 GMT -5
I’m not against it, but the World Cup of Hockey seems superfluous to me given the long preexisting Ice Hockey World Championships and Olympic hockey. I don’t like the idea of the first being promoted at the expense of, or in lieu of, the last.
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Post by ganews on Feb 9, 2018 22:05:57 GMT -5
Why are (did) the opening ceremonies take place in an empty stadium?
ETA OK, when Korea marched in there were finally spectators. But the place seemed completely silent and empty up to that point.
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Post by Lord Lucan on Feb 10, 2018 0:15:57 GMT -5
I’ve always appreciated biathalon; it’s kind of a strange sport.  |
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Post by Pastafarian on Feb 10, 2018 0:23:52 GMT -5
As a curling aficionado, I have to say that I don't think I like the 2-man (technically, 1-man & 1-woman) version too much. I don't like that American guy with the baseball cap. You can't curl in a baseball cap! You may wear a tam o'shanter, if absolutely necessary.  |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Feb 10, 2018 2:57:47 GMT -5
Why are (did) the opening ceremonies take place in an empty stadium? ETA OK, when Korea marched in there were finally spectators. But the place seemed completely silent and empty up to that point. It wasn't. It's just the lower section the cameras were catching was where the athletes were assigned to sit. So, it was empty until the athletes came in. Well, NBC's Opening Ceremony coverage wasn't horrible? It was still "And here's Team USA and some other people!" and a lot of cultural ignorance. It didn't feel quite as egregious as in past years. Maybe I was in a more charitable mood since I was able to watch it uncut on their website earlier in the day. They did still cut segments of it during the primetime airing in order to make room for commercials. Sigh. Otherwise, I enjoyed the Opening Ceremony. The Olympic Rings being done by drones was definitely a "You are in Korea in 2018" moment. And I enjoyed the pyrotechnics and fireworks near the end. Some great costumes, too. I don't have much hope that NBC's primetime coverage will be treated like an actual sporting event. Especially since they announced they will actually be airing events live. That just gives them the excuse to make the primetime coverage even more stuffed with gauzy athlete profiles and sob stories. Because "hey, if you wanted to see the sports, you should have watched it live. You bastards have been complaining about tape delay for years! You want the competition live? Go for it!" I mean, yes, we want you to air the events live. But would it kill you to actually show a real sporting event in primetime, to give the mass audience a feel for the genuine competition? Also, Korea is 16 hours ahead of me. So, primetime, evening competitions in Korea will literally be in in the middle of the night here. The Opening Ceremony live stream started here at 4am. I guess I can stream the replays of the events when I get to work. Oh well. Day 1 was fun. Also, I'd really love to visit South Korea. Friends of mine went last year and said Seoul was one of the most amazing cities they'd ever been to. And these people are million-mile members of several airlines. Gotta save up some money. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Feb 10, 2018 14:02:28 GMT -5
I’ve always appreciated biathalon; it’s kind of a strange sport. I LOVE biathlon. It's my favorite of the winter olympic sports. It's basically ski assassins! That's so foxy! |
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Post by Lord Lucan on Feb 10, 2018 14:45:21 GMT -5
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Post by ganews on Feb 10, 2018 15:43:50 GMT -5
Not to get all Roy Batty's Pet Dove on getting mad about commercials, but: It angers me that Paralympians get only 1% of actual televised coverage (pretty sure it's actually 0% but I'm leaving the door open for anything I've missed) but are crassly mentioned in 99% of commercials. |
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Post by The Spice Weasel on Feb 10, 2018 15:57:41 GMT -5
I’ve always appreciated biathalon; it’s kind of a strange sport. I LOVE biathlon. It's my favorite of the winter olympic sports. It's basically ski assassins! That's so foxy! Indeed. I already have my first Olympic crush. Hard to beat Italian Biathletes. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Feb 10, 2018 16:21:03 GMT -5
Indeed. I already have my first Olympic crush. Hard to beat Italian Biathletes. I KNOW, RIGHT? Forza! Forza! (I don't like their outfits this time as much as in previous years, though...) The French ones are pretty delish, too. I still have a lingering crush on the Fourcade brothers since Sochi! FULL DISCLOSURE: Even though we named our cat Hegle after Emil Hegle Svendsen, I am not a fan of his. We just liked his name. I don't want anyone thinking I'm some weirdo Svendsen fan or something. |
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Post by ganews on Feb 10, 2018 22:13:11 GMT -5
Watching Women's Biathlon on NBC Sports Network, and the screen split in half to show the figure skating footage being broadcast at the same time on NBC. "Are you suuuuuure you don't want to watch figure skating instead?" Yes I'm sure, dammit!
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Crash Test Dumbass
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Feb 10, 2018 22:20:13 GMT -5
Watching Women's Biathlon on NBC Sports Network, and the screen split in half to show the figure skating footage being broadcast at the same time on NBC. "Are you suuuuuure you don't want to watch figure skating instead?" Yes I'm sure, dammit! NBC is known to fuck up the Olympics every single time, with extended hagiographies of the athletes and talking over (or outright skipping) other countries and focusing only on one or two events because only weirdos want to watch biathlons or curling or fencing while REAL AMERICANS want to watch gymnastics or skating or whatever, and everybody knows how terrible they are, and yet for some reason* they keep getting the contracts renewed and will show the Olympics terribly for the rest of our natural lives. * money |
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Post by ganews on Feb 10, 2018 22:49:08 GMT -5
Watching Women's Biathlon on NBC Sports Network, and the screen split in half to show the figure skating footage being broadcast at the same time on NBC. "Are you suuuuuure you don't want to watch figure skating instead?" Yes I'm sure, dammit! NBC is known to fuck up the Olympics every single time, with extended hagiographies of the athletes and talking over (or outright skipping) other countries and focusing only on one or two events because only weirdos want to watch biathlons or curling or fencing while REAL AMERICANS want to watch gymnastics or skating or whatever, and everybody knows how terrible they are, and yet for some reason* they keep getting the contracts renewed and will show the Olympics terribly for the rest of our natural lives. * moneyI remember setting my TV/VCR timer to record fencing in 2004. Then years later when they started live-streaming on YouTube it was so great. Now of course they stream from their own website and it's fairly crummy. Fun fact: yesterday when I googled "opening ceremonies" to find their streaming site, the first four hits at least were to cbssports.com. |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Feb 10, 2018 23:45:27 GMT -5
Watching Women's Biathlon on NBC Sports Network, and the screen split in half to show the figure skating footage being broadcast at the same time on NBC. "Are you suuuuuure you don't want to watch figure skating instead?" Yes I'm sure, dammit! NBC is known to fuck up the Olympics every single time, with extended hagiographies of the athletes and talking over (or outright skipping) other countries and focusing only on one or two events because only weirdos want to watch biathlons or curling or fencing while REAL AMERICANS want to watch gymnastics or skating or whatever, and everybody knows how terrible they are, and yet for some reason* they keep getting the contracts renewed and will show the Olympics terribly for the rest of our natural lives. * moneyWhat drives me batty especially about the gymnastics coverage in the Summer Olympics is that they still don't treat it like an actual competition. And you'd barely know there are athletes from other countries competing. And this isn't just in the women's gymnastics where the USA athletes actually do dominate the field. I will never forget the coverage of the Men's events in 2016 when NBC essentially ignored the existence of Kohei Uchimura, widely considered the best male gymnast of all time, the reigning All Around Champion and the favorite to win the All Around again. (Which he did.) He won the silver medal in 2008, the Gold medal in 2012 and was the overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal in 2016. This guy won basically every event for 8 straight years and you'd never know it if you only watched NBC's coverage. This wasn't just 2016. This happened in 2012, too. One of the only times they showed him competing that year, he was so far ahead of the field that he downgraded his routine to make it less risky. Which the NBC announcers treated as the most insulting thing of all time. "How dare he!?" It was shocking. It made me wonder if NBC would have bothered to air Nadia Comaneci if they had aired those Olympics. Here's how the 2016 Men's All Around went. First three rounds: An American is kinda in the hunt, we'll show only the Americans. Second three rounds: Americans are out of it, we'll come back for the final event. Final apparatus: Oooh, nail biter, what will happen...... Hey, this Japanese guy came from behind for a shocking win? How the hell did that happen?!?!? HE'S THE BEST GYMNAST IN THE WORLD!!!!! It was pitiful. At least with the Figure Skating they have Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir doing the commentating. These people actually understand skating and are excited about watching non-Americans compete. Unfortunately, Terry Gannon is also on the commentating team. He is a big "rah rah USA!" guy who knows nothing about figure skating. But Tara and Johnny are not about "rah rah". They are critical and will explain why things are bad when they are bad. Even if they are talking about Americans. Tonight, Terry Gannon was all "rah rah Team USA! They have a chance in the team event, right?" And there was silence from Tara and Johnny. "Sure" one of them finally offered. Terry Gannon was all, "Ooh, great job from the USA woman!" and Tara and Johnny interrupted and said, "Yeah, but she is nowhere near the levels of the top international skaters". It is damned refreshing. Hopefully it will make the Figure Skating more watchable than the Gymnastics coverage was. |
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