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Olympic Winter Games Officially Open

pmrules said:
hockeyfan1 said:
Canada wins silver in the Men's 1000M Speedskating event, as Deny Morrison comes in second to the Netherland's Stephan Groothuis, who finished just a tad ahead of Morrison to win the gold.

The Netherland's Michel Mulder wins the bronze.

Source:  Sportsnet
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The bigger story here is one of true Canadian pride.  Apparently Deny Morrisson didn't even qualify for the finals as he fell in his qualifying round.  Another Canadian who did qualify, Gilmour Junio, gave up his spot for the good of the team. 

That's true Canadian Olympic spirit!
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Junio's gesture rates a perfect score.  Definitely the Olympic spirit example of team cohesion & looking out for each other.

Way to go, Gilmore!
 
GB won a gold in the women's skeleton.

I think those lot are certified insane. 120km/h head first down a hill.
 
Another silver medal added to Canada's medal tally yesterday, as Patrick Chan finished second to Japan's Yvzuru Hanyu, in the Men's Figure Skating event.

Chan had a chance at the gold particularly with the decision of Russia's Evgeni Plushenko's to withdraw himself from continuuing in the tournament.  Plushenko
withdrew for "medical reasons" during the warm-up skate.  With the absence of
Plushenko, Chan had the opportunity to claim the top spot, but a few errors plus
Hanyu's near-perfect skate in the short-program  a day earlier, sealed shut any
notions for gold victory.

Bronze medal went to Kazakhistan's Denis Ten.

For more:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/chan-falters-in-performance-earns-silver/
 
A silver for Canada's Dominique Maltais in the Women's Snowboard cross.  Maltais redeemed herself here at these Sochi Games after her disappointing 20th place finish in 2010 Vancouver.

This is not an easy sport as several competitors fell in attempting to complete their runs, most notably, Russia's Maria Kommissarova who injured her spine and required emergency (but successful) surgery.

If not for the American Lindsey Jacobelli's exit in the semi-final, Maltais may not have advanced to win silver.  Some good luck played a part here (at the expense of Jacobelli). 

Anyway, congrats to Maltais on making good on her promise to come away with a medal here.

Gold went to the Czech Republic Eva Semkova, while France's Chloe Trespeuch won bronze.

More:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/maltais-wins-silver-in-snowboard-cross/
 
Canada's Jan Hudec won the bronze in the Men's Super-G (Alpine skiing) along with American Bode Miler who also sported the same time result as Hudec.


It's worth noting that Hudec's bronze medal win was twenty years in the making, as it's been that long since a Canadian skier last won a medal of any kind in an Olympics Downhill orAlpine event. Certainly there was sigh of relief heard amongst Canada's ski teams.

Gold went to Norway's Kjetil Jansrud, while Andrew Weibrecht of the U.S. won the silver.

Source: Sportsnet

 
Chaulk up another medal for Canadian skater Deny Morrison, as he won the bronze in the Men's 1500M Speedskating event.

Gold went to Zbigniew Brodka of Poland, while the bronze was won by the Netherlands'  Koen Verweij.

Source:  CBC Sports
 
Well, it looked a lot like Scott Moir & Tessa Virtue were headed for gold in the Ice Dance event.  Or at least it seemed that way to those watching, but, not even the couples' perfect skate could propel them to first place on the podium, as Americans White & Davis captured the top spot, and thus the gold medal.

Not that the two couples are strangers to each other, they're
not -- they share the same training place as well as the same
coach -- it's just that a silver didn't seem justified when the
Canadians set a world record in the free skate portion of the Ice Dance  event.

Judging lapses?  'Fixed' up? Again?  Figure skating, particularly the Ice Dance has long been fraught with controversy and Canadian skaters have seen their fair share of that.

Anyway,  congratulations to Scott Molr & Tessa Virtue, (gold medallist in Vancouver 2010), on making good on their promise to give n gold medal performance.  Unfortunately, they had to settle for second-best.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/ice-dance-judging-sparks-controversy/
 
hockeyfan1 said:
Well, it looked a lot like Scott Moir & Tessa Virtue were headed for gold in the Ice Dance event.  Or at least it seemed that way to those watching, but, not even the couples' perfect skate could propel them to first place on the podium, as Americans White & Davis captured the top spot, and thus the gold medal.

Not that the two couples are stranger to each other, they're not -- they share
the same training place as well as the same coach -- it's just that a silver didn't
seem justified when the Canadians set a world record in the free skate
portion of the Ice Dance  event.

Judging lapses?  'Fixed' up? Again?  Figur skating, particular
the Ice Dance has long been fraught with controversy and Canadian skaters have seen their fair share of that.

Anyway,  congratulations to Scott Molr & Tessa Virtue, (gold medallist in Vancouver 2010), on making good on their promise to give n gold medal performance.  Unfortunately, they had to settle for second-best.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/ice-dance-judging-sparks-controversy/
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They lost to the same couple that has beat them every event the past two years, hardly a stitch up.

They performed beautifully, but the American's are even better.
 
WhatIfGodWasALeaf said:
They lost to the same couple that has beat them every event the past two years, hardly a stitch up.

They performed beautifully, but the American's are even better.
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Yeah, it's so funny how they don't get gold and some Canadians are up in arms with nonsense like, "They didn't win silver, they lost gold", coaching controversies, and what-have-you.

My wife watched both, the Canadians and Americans, and said the Americans deserved it.  As good as the Canadians were, the Americans were just better.

*Both my wife and I are Canadians, so there's no bias here towards the Americans.
 
I think the fact that there were articles that came out last week that stated the American and Russian judges were in cahoots to fix the competition makes people question it a bit more....Well that and the fact that it happened just a short time ago.

Pardon people for questioning a sport with notorious fixed judging. Heck, Elvis Stojko says the Canadians should of taken the first portion of the competition....mind you, and he admits it, that he's Canadian.

But, I mean, your wife said it so it must be  ;)
 
AvroArrow said:
WhatIfGodWasALeaf said:
They lost to the same couple that has beat them every event the past two years, hardly a stitch up.

They performed beautifully, but the American's are even better.
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Yeah, it's so funny how they don't get gold and some Canadians are up in arms with nonsense like, "They didn't win silver, they lost gold", coaching controversies, and what-have-you.

My wife watched both, the Canadians and Americans, and said the Americans deserved it.  As good as the Canadians were, the Americans were just better.

*Both my wife and I are Canadians, so there's no bias here towards the Americans.
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Well I think a lot of people genuinely believed it.  I forget which skate it was of theirs, but they were deducted marks for a certain portion while the guy who invented that particular section of ice dance (I forget the name of the "move" for lack of a better word) tweeted that he didn't understand why they would have been deducted for what they did.  So it's not just Canadians (that guy is European I believe).

I know nothing about figure skating though so I have absolutely no idea.  Also, unless anyone here is serious about figure skating I don't know how we could possibly judge who deserved it more.  How would I know what are considered good/bad/deductions/etc?
 
My daughter who is a figure skater said that the first portion of the competition should of went to the Canadians with the 2nd going to the Americans. This would of apparently evened out the scores quite a bit. She wasn't necessarily upset that the Americans won, just that she felt it was closer than the scores reflected.

You can see my expertise as I'm not even sure what each portion is called.
 
I think it sort of says it all about the nature of Ice Dancing as a "sport" if people watching it can't tell who won.
 
Nik the Trik said:
I think it sort of says it all about the nature of Ice Dancing as a "sport" if people watching it can't tell who won.
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I'm sure those that are educated in the sport have a lot better idea of who won. I mean it's similar to ski jumping, gymnastics and many other 'judged' sports.
 
If you need makeup, a hair stylist, jewellery, a pretty costume, and music to compete, you aren't playing a sport.  There's some major physical and technical skill involved that I can appreciate, but the pageantry is just so silly.  Cut that stuff out already, Ice Dance.  You aren't fooling anybody.

The real scandal here is that the Ice Dance wastes valuable ice time that could be spent playing hockey.  And yeah, I'm looking at you, too, Curling.  ;D
 
Stickytape said:
If you need makeup, a hair stylist, jewellery, a pretty costume, and music to compete, you aren't playing a sport.  There's some major physical and technical skill involved that I can appreciate, but the pageantry is just so silly.  Cut that stuff out already, Ice Dance.  You aren't fooling anybody.

The real scandal here is that the Ice Dance wastes valuable ice time that could be spent playing hockey.  And yeah, I'm looking at you, too, Curling.  ;D
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Nahhh I'm fine with curling...I'm looking at you woman's Russian Skip.
 
Stickytape said:
If you need makeup, a hair stylist, jewellery, a pretty costume, and music to compete, you aren't playing a sport.  There's some major physical and technical skill involved that I can appreciate, but the pageantry is just so silly.  Cut that stuff out already, Ice Dance.  You aren't fooling anybody.

The real scandal here is that the Ice Dance wastes valuable ice time that could be spent playing hockey.  And yeah, I'm looking at you, too, Curling.  ;D
Click to expand...

I don't think you're going to want to be playing hockey on a curling rink...
 
Potvin29 said:
Stickytape said:
If you need makeup, a hair stylist, jewellery, a pretty costume, and music to compete, you aren't playing a sport.  There's some major physical and technical skill involved that I can appreciate, but the pageantry is just so silly.  Cut that stuff out already, Ice Dance.  You aren't fooling anybody.

The real scandal here is that the Ice Dance wastes valuable ice time that could be spent playing hockey.  And yeah, I'm looking at you, too, Curling.  ;D
Click to expand...

I don't think you're going to want to be playing hockey on a curling rink...
Click to expand...

It would make things a little more interesting, though, wouldn't it?
 
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