I think you’re right, sure I saw this in the snowboard trick-thing events.
Never curl against someone with his name on the back of his shirt, and never, ever curl against someone with his country on the back of his shirt.
Finished the men’s individual luge. It seems to be the most stable of the sliding sports. In skeleton there it looks like their barely in control, and bobsled often has all manner of little bumps and skids, but luge is more in control, to the point where one hard bump can doom a competitor’s chances. A good watch. USA pointed out that Germany dominates this event, and as I’ve yet to see a YouTube video explaining this, I’m always open. I know skating really fast has long been a part of Dutch culture, but I can’t see anything that would make Germany so powerful in this one specific discipline.
Also caught big air, and…yeah, just reinforced my ambivalence toward trying to do tricks on an unyielding plank that both feet are bolted to. Any sport that has to mandate spinning in both directions just doesn’t have enough options. Don’t expect halfpipe to be any better. Might get more enjoyment out of the one with all the “full”-s; they get serious altitude on that one!
Robot Arm - Look, you got any explanations, I’m all ears. Almost everything I’ve heard about hockey bemoaned how hard it is to see the puck and too many fights, and the respect curling gets in most quarters is up there with solo synchronized swimming. I’ve seen three women’s hockey games so far, and they’ve been about as competitive as a Jake Paul fight. I get that everything’s going to get some airtime, but how is an all-American network devoting so many hours to every stage of these competitions? I don’t think it’s good or bad, but it is a mystery.
They don’t explain everything, but there are two main factors for that dominance in luge and bobsled: Germany has four ice tracks, while most competing nations have only one or even none. So the training conditions and the variety of courses give the German athletes a big advantage. Secondly, good old German engineering. We just have the best sled builders and technicians in the world.
If you think German domination of bobsleigh is strange, what about GB’s excellence in skeleton?!
I think that is a matter of tradition. They invented the sport.
I didn’t know that. Usually we invent sports and then get comprehensively outclassed at them.
How unsportmanly!
I know you were joking, but by that measure also all motor sports would be unsportmanly.
Well, you’re doing fine in snooker and darts. Football, also not too bad, at least at the club leagues level. And haven’t you invented about 50% of all modern sports? You can’t succeed in everything.
When I was a kid, we used to get a Canadian TV station, and every once in a while I’d see curling. It was oddly fascinating, largely because I had no idea what the rules were. The announcers would say “and that’s two points for Martin” and I want them to back up so I could try to figure out what had happened.
About twenty years ago, I heard of a club near me that was having an open house. I went, tried it, joined the club, and I’ve been playing ever since. I have a game tonight, in fact.
It’s been interesting to see the popularity growing. My club has a waiting list to join now. The best explanation I have is from my own experience. It’s this quirky sport that people only see on rare occasions, with rules and strategies to learn. Think of all the websites and podcasts that cater to unusual interests; the world has become more accepting of esoteric things recently.
If it’s any consolation, you won’t have to hear or even think about it for the next four years.
Kinda sorta, yeah. Anyone who knows anything about motor sports knows that they are physically very hard and demand great skill, co-ordination, stamina etc., but it’s still a very different game to motor-less sports, since the best possible multi-million tech is absolutely essential to compete, and the greatest driver in the world wouldn’t have a chance without.
A sledding race where the know-how and resources of the implement building team are at least as important if not more so than the skill, strength, stamina etc. of an athlete is different as well. A lesser type of thing, in a way.
That was basically the idea behind the America’s Cup sailing race. It was a test of boat builders and tacticians, as well as sailors. Various criteria have been used during the history of the race series, and with each set of rules the designers and builders looked for advantages and loopholes (and legal challenges).
You could say the same thing about the posh horsy events at the Summer Olympics. If your horse is crap, you ain’t winning, no matter how good a rider you are.
Watched women’s slopestyle for what I believe is the first time. Interesting event, requiring both subtle footwork on the rails and bold tumbles and spins on the jumps. Big accidents are (thankfully) rare, but there’s so much precision required that even a slight miscue can kill a run. This was the first time I saw Eileen Gu in action; she got her first of three medals, a pretty close silver. I hadn’t heard about her before, but as soon as I saw the YouTube stories I was instantly intrigued. I think her decision to compete for China was unusual (she doesn’t sound anything like a Chinese athlete, that’s for sure!), but I don’t fault her for looking to her pocketbook. I would’ve done exactly the same. As the usual gang of useless morons are, predictably, completely up in arms over this “defection”, here’s my response: Here’s how to win her back: 1. Pay up. 2. Stop putting flaming sacks of dog turds into positions of power. That is all.
Also caught the…hold on… (looks up ESPN) Men’s Team Combined. Sorry, have trouble remembering all these events. This involves a downhill run and a slalom run, two disciplines that are far enough apart that I’m not sure which one is more important. It was nice to see Marco Odermatt get on the board after just missing the podium in the downhill, and he even did one spot better than expected (tied with one of the Austrian teams for silver). On the flip side, I’d really hate to be the slalom guy who ends up blowing it after the downhiller has such a great run. If you saw the last five slalomers…particularly the last one…you know what I’m talking about. One big benefit to expanded DVR coverage is that I realize Olympic heartbreakers are a lot more common than I used to think! 
EinsteinsHund - Oh, right! In the opening ceremony, Shaun White mentioned that Germany had four of the sixteen sliding tracks in the world, and I just completely forgot. Thanks.
Robot_Arm - I wouldn’t mind watching one or two curling matches a month. That’s about as much rugby, pickleball, and equestrian as I’m getting from my current cable setup, and it works fine.
Just watched SNL and they had some cameos from the hockey teams. The men got applause. The women got loud extended applause and cheers. The difference was striking. It wasn’t subtle at all. It was like 4-5 times longer for the women.
Just a few more small questions as I continue going through recordings:
I briefly saw the final lap bell for skiathlon and was surprised to see that “Milan Cortina 2026”, along with the logo for that very specific Olympiad, were cast into it. Not paint, not a sticker, the bell was made into that specific shape. This is the first time I’ve ever seen that; even Diamond League uses a plain bell. I want to know what happened to that bell. Obviously they can’t use it in any other event, and while memorabilia can sometimes sell for a decent amount, a bell seems a bit too… well, esoteric. Melt it down and recast it for Los Angeles?
Can anyone explain those (obviously fake) tufts of grass at the bottom of the ski jump and the end of the cross country sprint course? Announcers never even mentioned them once (to my surprise).
There seem to be a lot of world class cold weather athletes who just plain stink up the joint in the Olympics. I trust Bode Miller and Ilia Malinin require no elaboration, and Mikaela Shiffrin nearly got skunked…again. That the greatest women’s slalom skier ever could have a .01 advantage in Team Combined and not even make the podium is insane (easily the most shocking collapse I’ve seen so far). Could it be that the “Favorites Curse” is really just a self-fulfilling prophecy? Few things are more debilitating to a jock’s chances than hiiiighhh expectaaaations, and with a massive quadrennial event having enough pressure inherent in it, that sounds like a recipe for a complete meltdown.
Oh, and I’d like to give a little shout-out to moguls skiers. “Hey, here’s a great idea! Let’s have a steep course completely covered with alternating mounds, forcing them to turn constantly, and there’s a good chance they’re going to break something if they mess up even a tiny bit, BUT WAIT! there should also be a a couple big trick ramps thrown in! And they get scored on four different things, which certainly will not result in any controversy!” Much like trampoline, this requires a very weird set of skills that do not translate to any other discipline, so yeah, all the credit to the fine athletes who take the time to get good at it. 
Those tufts serve different purposes. On the ski jumping hill, they serve to break up the expanse of white so the jumpers have some visual reference to know where they are in relation to the ground. They provide some depth perception. As for the XC sprints, they’re there to give the racers a better idea of where they are relative to their competitors as they close on the finish line.
Paralympics start this coming weekend. I’m a teacher and am showing my classes one short video of a paralympian each day this week to get ready. If we are lucky, I’ll be showing some events in class.
Yes, if the light is “flat” (overcast with no shadows) on snow depth perception can be extremely difficult. I’ve missed significant changes in terrain (whole moguls, steeper pitches) when skiing because everything is just an uninterrupted field of white with no shadows or reference points.Typically I think they use small pieces of spruce branches though, I’m not sure why exactly they went with fake plants instead.