Olympics

Well, some of the old regulars are out there reading.

Must say that I've thoroughly enjoyed the snowboarding at the Olympics.
The men's boarder cross was brilliant, with action all the way. The
women's was perhaps a little less exciting, but just as eventful.

Then the men's halfpipe rocked. Clearly the race has been on for everyone
to learn the double corked 1080, but that final trick on the final run
from Shaun White - that was awesome. It's funny watching the 13-yr old
kid in the Haakonsen videos grow up to be the undisputed Olympic champion.

Dave

--
The only powder to get high on, falls from the sky.
http://www.vpas.org.uk/ - Snowboarding the worlds pow pow.
Donek Sasquatch 162, Prior Pow 181, Burton Canyon 162

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:15:19 +0000 (UTC), Switters
wrote:

Well, some of the old regulars are out there reading.

waves

Must say that I've thoroughly enjoyed the snowboarding at the Olympics.
The men's boarder cross was brilliant, with action all the way. The
women's was perhaps a little less exciting, but just as eventful.

Bugger, missed it fires up iPlayer

Then the men's halfpipe rocked. Clearly the race has been on for everyone
to learn the double corked 1080, but that final trick on the final run
from Shaun White - that was awesome. It's funny watching the 13-yr old
kid in the Haakonsen videos grow up to be the undisputed Olympic champion.

heh
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

On Feb 19, 7:15*am, Switters wrote:
Well, some of the old regulars are out there reading.

Must say that I've thoroughly enjoyed the snowboarding at the Olympics. *
The men's boarder cross was brilliant, with action all the way. *The
women's was perhaps a little less exciting, but just as eventful.

I agree that the men's final was exciting. With the XXs, I felt sorry
for Jacobellis -- would have liked to have seen her at least make the
final. If she's cleanly beaten at that stage, fine, but the way things
turned out was a bit of an anticlimax, IMO.

The snow for the cross seemed to be of poor quality. There were an
awful lot of unprovoked spinouts and falls, I thought. Collisions are
always a risk, of course, but wiping out because of ruts or bumps in
the surface is unfortunate. Some riders had trouble making it through
the *qualifiers* unscathed. Westcott was lucky to survive that stage.

Then the men's halfpipe rocked. *Clearly the race has been on for everyone
to learn the double corked 1080, but that final trick on the final run
from Shaun White - that was awesome. *It's funny watching the 13-yr old
kid in the Haakonsen videos grow up to be the undisputed Olympic champion..

It was smart and gutsy of White to go for broke on his could-have-been
"victory lap." Winning in truly dominating fashion is always more
memorable than easing home with a paint-by-numbers victory. I actually
thought White's X Games final run last month was better -- the Double
McTwist 1260 was smoother -- and he was nearly perfect at the Park
City competition. But there's no question that this second Olympic run
will be the one that remains part of his legend, and of the sport's
lore, for a long time.

Joe Ramirez wrote:

The snow for the cross seemed to be of poor quality. There were an
awful lot of unprovoked spinouts and falls, I thought. Collisions are
always a risk, of course, but wiping out because of ruts or bumps in
the surface is unfortunate. Some riders had trouble making it through
the *qualifiers* unscathed. Westcott was lucky to survive that stage.

Eh, that's racing. The course gets rutted, deal.

Neil

Switters wrote in
:

Well, some of the old regulars are out there reading.

Must say that I've thoroughly enjoyed the snowboarding at the Olympics.

The boarder cross is always a great event. And while I totally
respect the pipe riders I really don't think it belongs in the
Olympics, just like the various figure skating events do not. To
my mind they are not sports as they are scored completely by
judges. At least with things like moguls or ski jump a large
portion of the score is time or distance.

I am also waiting on the || GS this coming weekend. Definitely
pulling for old man Klug!

Mike

On Feb 22, 6:56*pm, "Mike M. Miskulin" wrote:
Switters wrote 3:

Well, some of the old regulars are out there reading.

Must say that I've thoroughly enjoyed the snowboarding at the Olympics.

The boarder cross is always a great event. *And while I totally
respect the pipe riders I really don't think it belongs in the
Olympics, just like the various figure skating events do not.

That's a pretty extreme position, considering that figure skating has
been part of the Winter Olympics from the very beginning. In fact,
figure skating as an Olympic sport actually predates the Winter Games,
since figure skating events first appeared in the Summer Olympics. In
terms of audience appeal, of course, removing figure skating in the
name of sports "purity" would be a devastating blow.

To
my mind they are not sports as they are scored completely by
judges.

So you would cut the halfpipe, all figure skating, and the freestyle
skiing aerials? And from the Summer Olympics, say goodbye to major
sports like gymnastics and diving, plus some minor ones, such as
synchronized swimming? I guess you really don't want many women in the
Olympic audience. But boxing and wrestling would have to go as well, I
think. Judges award the points in those sports too.

On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:56:10 GMT, Mike M. Miskulin wrote:

Switters wrote in
:

Well, some of the old regulars are out there reading.

Must say that I've thoroughly enjoyed the snowboarding at the Olympics.

The boarder cross is always a great event.

One that I really like is the boarder/skier cross tag-team race. Not at
the Olympics yet, but we'll see. :-)

I watched the skier cross event last night, which was bonkers in the
earlier rounds but later rounds were mostly decided by the first man into
the first corner.

At least with things like moguls or ski jump a large
portion of the score is time or distance.

That's something I don't really get with the ski jump - the need to have
"style", in flight and with the mandated telemark style landing.

I am also waiting on the || GS this coming weekend. Definitely
pulling for old man Klug!

Slalom races don't really do anything for me.

Dave

--
The only powder to get high on, falls from the sky.
http://www.vpas.org.uk/ - Snowboarding the worlds pow pow.
Donek Sasquatch 162, Prior Pow 181, Burton Canyon 162

On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:37:06 GMT, Joe Ramirez wrote:

But boxing and wrestling would have to go as well, I
think. Judges award the points in those sports too.

Simple - fight to the death!

Mike M. Miskulin wrote:

I am also waiting on the || GS this coming weekend. Definitely
pulling for old man Klug!

Looking forward to it. Hoping Klug finishes 3rd behind Anderson and Morison.

Neil

Joe Ramirez wrote in :

So you would cut the halfpipe, all figure skating, and the freestyle
skiing aerials? And from the Summer Olympics, say goodbye to major
sports like gymnastics and diving, plus some minor ones, such as
synchronized swimming? I guess you really don't want many women in the
Olympic audience. But boxing and wrestling would have to go as well, I
think. Judges award the points in those sports too.

Boxing has always suffered the 'how could he have scored it ...'
problem. I think it is less so in wrestling as the notions of
takedowns and reversals are, for instance, pretty clear. Perhaps
someday computers can automate the boxing ring.

Yes to all of the above. And again, I'm not taking anything away
from the respective competitors. Would you have ballet dancing
in the olympics? If not, how is it dramattically different than
what passes for the "sport" of figure skating and its many
olympic variations?

I think that any event in which the final 'score' is primarily
given out by a judge(s) based on an evaluation of the
performance (perhaps thats the key word?) just is not a sport.
Again, just my opinion.