I’ve always assumed that they have a substantial holding area at the level of the playing field, accessible from either end of the field, and that they have some sort of large air-lock systems down there to let large groups and equipment into the stadium’s holding areas. You may recall that the doors the spectators go in are raised up quite a bit from ground level on the side facing the water.
Comparing the beloved US curling team to Nate Kaeding? How dare you!
The driver’s name is how the identify the sleds in 2 and 4 person bobsled, or they use the country name (USA 2). Everyone in the sled gets the medal, but pushers are, while not interchangeable, not contributing much once all the team is in the bobsled. The drivers win or lose the medals.
Before the athlete’s march in the opening ceremonies, NBC interviewed some of them in the holding area. It looked to me that they were in the hockey stadium across the street from BC Place. Perhaps the two buildings are connected by an underground access tunnel? Looking at the area on Google Maps, there is no obvious built-in street level connection between the two stadiums.
I’m sure there’s some way to bring in large equipment, but is there really room for a couple thousand athletes to stand around, in order?
I did a google search and found a reference to sliding doors, electronically controlled so that one door must close before the other opens. If the space between was large enough, you could bring the parade of athletes through in groups, and then try to close up the gaps once they’re through.
Clearly, they must have done it somehow. Whoever pulled it off is an unsung logistical hero of the Games.
Can anyone curl, or does it require some type of ice skating expertise? I know that they’re not on skates, but is it as simple as sliding on ice with boat shoes? If some ice maneuvering expertise is required, do skaters or skiers have an advantage, or is it a completely unrelated skill?
Completely unrelated skills. One shoe is teflon-soled - you keep yourself balanced on that foot and propel yourself kinda skateboard-like with the other. It’s not that difficult. If you’re sweeping, you’ve got a lot of weight on the broom as well.
The hard part of curling is not maneuvering on ice. It’s throwing with extreme accuracy, judging whether or not to sweep, and understanding the strategy.
the curling team consist of 4 players (plus an alternate). I haven’t been paying real close attention, but it looks like the skip(?) changes on every throw for each team.
Can anyone throw the stone on the team? Is there a structured rotation?
(Nearly) Every player has a stop watch(?) hanging around their waist, but I haven’t seen it used. To time the stone and its calculate its speed and distance seems to cumbersome to be “on the cuff” Maybe they have done the calculations so much that it comes naturally to them.
The positions are Lead, Second, Third, and Skip. They each throw 2 stones, in that order (in rare cases, a skip might throw third). The skip holds the broom for every shot but his own, when the third does.
Stopwatches are used to measure the speed of the ice, so that you know how much weight you need to throw for a draw or whatever. You won’t see them being used much because they don’t usually time their own shots - they time the other team’s shots.
Typically there is, but I’m not sure if it’s specified in the rules or just done by tradition. They go in order “lead”, “second”, “third” (also called the “vice-skip”) and the “skip”, throwing two rocks each.
The skip is in charge. He usually doesn’t sweep, but he calls the shot he wants and holds his broom so the thrower has something to aim at. It’s his job to read the ice from previous shots, and figure out how much the rock will curl to end up where he wants it. Of the other three players, one is throwing and the other two are sweeping. When it’s the skip’s turn to throw, the vice-skip gives him a target and the lead and second do the sweeping.
But I have seen that shifted around during the Games. The U.S. skip missed some clutch final throws, so they changed the order and had him throwing third. I think he was still in charge, and still calling the strategy for the team, but he threw the fifth and sixth rocks, and his vice skip threw the last two.
So the skip tends to stay behind the “house” except when it is his time to throw? Basically as an on the field captain?
I am still a little confused by the order. They throw two stones apiece, but do they do it like:
L,S,Th,Sk,L,S,Th,Sk
or
L,L,S,S,Th,Th,Sk,Sk
ETA: I think robotarm answered my question on order…thanks
A couple questions I thought up tonight:
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How do those speed skaters know there’s been a false start? They take off and then slow down almost instantly.
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What’s the deal with the “webbing” design on some of the bobsledders pants? At first I thought it was just one’s uniform, but I think I’ve spotted it on both the Russians and Canadians.
Might be anti-burn material. The GB men’s bob crashed out at one point, and despite the material one of them had some really quite bad looking ice burns on his back.
In the house, actually. The house is the area with the rings, between the front line (called the hog line) and the back line (the hack line). The skip calls the shots and normally only sweeps a rock in the house, but on occasions when a rock is too light and really needs sweeping, the skip may go out and join the other two sweepers, so there’s three sweeping. (Not likely to see that happen at the Olympics, because they’re at the top level and an under-thrown rock is rare at their skill level.)
The skip is usually the best shooter on the team, so throws the team’s last two rocks in each end. The lead is usually the most junior, and so throws first.
By the way, there’s a thread going on now that’s dedicated solely to curling, which you might find interesting: Explain curling to me.
The rotation is specified in the rules, to the extent that each player must throw two rocks back-to-back. In other words, you have lead (1&2), second (3&4), third (5&6), and fourth (7&8). No variation is permitted. If you want, for whatever reason, to throw the third rock and the eighth rock for your team, you can’t–it’s against the rules.
With respect to standing in the house and holding the broom, one player must do this for six rocks–all rocks except for the two he/she throws. One other player (the vice-skip) must stand in the house for those two rocks. The other two players never stand in the house. Again, no variation is permitted–you’re not allowed to rotate all four players as skip.
Where variation is permitted, is that the skip and the vice can throw any two rocks that they wish. The most common arrangement is that the vice throws third and the skip fourth, but it isn’t required, and both at club level and in the Olympics we have skips that throw different rocks. When that happens, you have to specify both positions–“Joe is the skip/second on our team.” When the skip throws fourth, it’s considered default so you just say “Joe is our skip”, rather than the more precise “Joe is our skip/fourth”.
- I can’t believe the downhill skiing is so unfair? Does this bother anyone? After reading about yesterday’s Vonn/Mancuso race, I caught this little nugget:
How could the sport, let alone at the Olympic level, simply shrug their shoulders to this kind of inequality? The announcers from the event explained that it’s advantageous to skate early because in the later runs, the snow is already grooved and marked by the previous skaters so that bumps and unevenness develope in the snow that slow down the unfortunate late skiiers.
WTF? The later skiiers seem to be completely pointless. They don’t even have a normal course but one with obstacles. It would be like the 100 meter dash jacking up the track for later runners. I don’t see how this is fair at all, does anyone else?
And 13 more skiiers, 18th place? Why couldn’t they cut the number down to maybe something like 10 so that the disadvantage wouldn’t be greater? From the way Mancuso reacted, it seemed like they snatched the gold medal from her hands, and her time was way slow for what she was capable of. If the slopes are not equal for skiier #1 and #20, wouldn’t a random order be more appropriate? Even the appearance of bias is so bad that our election ballots have randomized the order of the candidates, so it seems a no-brainer for things that actually tear up the slopes physically for later skiiers.
It’s a known issue, but what would you have officials do to even out conditions?
Mass start. It’d make the alpine events waaaaaaaay more entertaining! 
Geez, you think the ski conditions are bad now - wait til you see the run covered in broken bones, lost teeth and blood slicks…
Well like I suggested, a randomized start would at least give everyone an equal chance of getting the early slope.
They could also cut down on the number of skiiers. Apparently there’s like 20-30 people. Or, instead of doing that, stretch out the competition. Have 10 skiiers on one day, 10 on another, that way the snow is generally pretty fresh.
Maybe some kind of ski slope zamboni to tame the slopes after every run? I don’t know if such a thing could be invented. Some guys with shovels evening out the grooves might be an easy fix though that could lead to other problems.