Apparently the drones being used at the Olympics are custom built and not very big (250 grams).
I love the drones. They have improved watching the alpine events, dramatically.
Well, if you accept that touching and moving a stone really is an accident, then it seems like the best remedy is to just put things back where they were as if the accident hadn’t happened. I sometimes wonder if there’s a lingering cultural influence. Curling and golf both originated in Scotland. I gather that golf has a similar tradition of playing honorably; if you touch the ball by accident, or some other infraction, you’re supposed to admit it even if no one was around to see it.
Curlers are pretty forgiving about touching or moving a stationary stone, but the rules are stricter about interfering with the stone that’s being delivered. There’s a seldom-used rule about touching a stone as it approaches the house (the target circles painted on the ice). If a sweeper touches the stone after it crosses the near hog line, the correct process is to let the shot play out. The other team then has a choice. They can accept the stones as they ended up, take the touched stone out of play and put everything back where it was, or put things where they think they would have gone if the touch hadn’t happened. So there are occasions where an infraction does result in a benefit to the other team.
I’m surprised because when I went to Morocco they were very explicit that drones are super-duper illegal there, so don’t even pack a handheld toy one.
Most places that ban drones have a means to obtain a permit for specific uses. Likely the photographer for the ceremony had a permit to operate the drone at that event. Just guessing though.
I’m sure the snowboarders all have the Techo music turned up loud enough to drown it out.
I said seldom-used, and then it just happened in the women’s U.S. vs. Italy game.
How do Olympic competitors get their equipment to the games? In particular I am thinking of bobsledders…the bobsleds are not small. I don’t think you just show up to the plane and check one into cargo. Another one are the shooters. How do they ship guns which I think might be a problem walking into an airport with (not to mention problems shipping the gun across international borders).
ETA: Curling too. Seems there are a lot of curling stones. That is a lot of weight to cart to the airport and deal with when flying.
If your country’s Olympic Committee is worth their bribes, they handle most of that - getting clearances from TSA, prepping and delivering things to the various air freight companies, visas, etc.
Stones are provided by the venue. In September, my club turns on the cooling systems and spends a couple weeks gradually building up the ice. Then we take the stones into that room, and let them cool for 72 hours before we put them on the ice. If we didn’t do that, any residual heat would cause them to melt the ice a little bit, and settle into those divots.
I saw somewhere that the stones at the Olympics cost $960 each, so around $16,000 for a full set. They do last a long time, though.
During the ski jumping coverage, the commentator kept talking about how the ‘jury’ might need to lower the starting point for jumpers “for safety and fairness”, because the wind was shifting during the competition and jumpers were landing much further down the landing zone. I can understand how lowering the start would be in the interest of safety, but how in the world is it in the interests of fairness if the entire field isn’t required to start from the same spot? Distance is a large part of the score, so it seems to me that the jumpers benefiting from the favorable winds AND higher starting point are getting a sanctioned advantage. IMO, distance and successful landing - determined by the ‘fall on his ass/not fall on his ass’ metric only - should be the sole scoring criteria.
I think the idea is that as the winds get more favorable, the starting position is lowered. So the advantage some jumpers get from the wind is offset by a disadvantage of a lower starting position. I think that might be what they had in mind.
I think I also heard that the position of the start figures into the scoring formula. So someone starting from a lower gate gets points added to their score to make up for it.
I like the luge/skeleton/bobsled events. What I don’t get is this- what good does it do to holler at the competitors when they’re leaving the starting line? They’re already quite well aware of the need to get a good start, why yell at them?
Another thing I can’t get over is that every sport has its own world circuit. There’s really good money to be made in luging or bobsledding? How lucrative is it?
Yeah, I had just read your post about that, then very shortly after saw it happen! The US gals have done really well… until they came up against Italy. I’m in the 9th end right now… not looking good for them.
The same reason football (soccer) fans cheer for their team and soldiers went into battle shouting, accompanied by loudly played musical instruments : motivation.
Unlike in the US, in other parts of the world sports are not necessarily a business, but rather a passion for the most talented athletes, sometimes in niche sports. Remember that not so long ago, professional athletes were banned from the Olympics. It was just for the honors, but those times are long gone.
Safety and biology, mainly. The men are stronger and ski faster than the women, and it would be dangerous to send women down the same course as the men.
It’s the same in the US too.
Barring a few “big” sports that the athlete can get ad money for most just do it because they love it. I doubt anyone on the US curling team is there to make bank (I dunno though…is there a lot of money in recommending curling stones?). They do it because they have a passion for it. Same as anywhere else.
After this game, the U.S. women’s team is 4-2, with three round-robin games left to play. That gives them a pretty good chance of advancing to the medal round.
The U.S. men are also 4-2, and we already took silver in mixed doubles. It’s been a great Games so far.
This was going to be my answer too. Could it be a bit like the sprint hurdles in athletics? The men have to race over 110m, rather than 100m like the women, because their stride patterns are longer due to (on average) longer legs and faster speed. So, in the downhill etc, with men on average being faster and stronger, the gates need to be further apart and therefore the route/hill wouldn’t necessarily be suitable for both races. Just a guess though.
Huh?
Women are stronger than men, pound for pound, in their lower body (legs).
Men may be stronger overall because they are bigger but, for their size, women are stronger when it comes to leg strength. So, why can’t women make those ski runs?