XX'th Winter Olymics have begun!

[Haven]

For those that missed it the 20th Winter Olympics were declared open last night in Turin. If you can recieve BBC TV there is a shed load of coverage over this weekend so if you've a bit of free time then sit down in front of the box and watch some sports. There's a full guide of all events showing at the link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/4685730.stm

Having watched the opening ceremony last night it looks like its going to be a very good games indeed with the focus being on a "dope free" olympics and thankfully little sign of advertising or marketting. There are a few very big teams (100+) at the Olympics - the ones I can remember being Holland, Sweden and the USA (I think Switzerland also had a sizeable team) - there were also a lot of 1-3 man teams representing the majority of the nations present.

Other than Curling I wouldn't expect a whole lot from the british team - we have Finley Mickel in the mens downhill as one of our best skiiers but I will be surprised if we see a medal from him. I personally think we should adopt either Sweden or Holland temporarily so that we can support someone wiht a chance of medals ... although I suspect Sweden will take home far more than Holland will (sorry pest).

Oh and if all this snow and ice is just too much for you then there's always France vs Irelanad in the Six Nations championship today

 

[Pestcontrol]

You can simply adopt both! there is little direct competition.

Ice skating is our big strength, apart from that we don't have much beyond the odd snowboarder and a clueless bobbing team. Sweden i suppose is more prominent in the skiing and boarding branch of things.

I've seen the opening too, good show. Pavarotti still does his trick, impressive.

I especially liked that single nigerian contestant. But no Jamaican bobsleigh team.

The US, Canada, Italy and one or two other nations i think were the ones big enough to be competing in ALL 15 disciplines.

 

[DocBot]

yup, I'll be watching this unfortunately, we'll be beaten by the norwegians, as usual :/

but it's nice to watch anyway

 

[BiG D]

Hockey! Hockey!

Ironically enough, Canada never seems to fare real well considering the amount of athletes we send...

 

[T-Bone]

I watched the France-Ireland game today. Was a really good game, especially the second half. Shame that the Irish couldn't follow in our footsteps.

Was a good comeback though.

 

[Haven]

Okay so we're supporting the UK for curling, Sweden for Skiing, Norway for Cross country, Netherlands for speed skating and Canada for hockey ...

Not that we're hedging our bets or anything

 

[DocBot]

I'm supporting sweden for hockey, I'll have you know

 

[BiG D]

Well then, you're going to be disappointed.

 

[Fuzzy Bunny]

Is Elvis Stojko still figure skating?

Also, go Finland.

 

[DocBot]

I guess we'll see what happens...

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

I love to watch bobsleigh. Its great when they SMASH into a corner, thats funny. No but really, Winter Olympics are quite good, all of it. I saw a bit of the hi-speed skating last night, that was alrite. I want to watch the ole ski jump and the cross country as well, love those ones. I hope they havent already been :/

 

[BiG D]

Hockey update:

The Canadian womens hockey team won twice over the weekend, against Italy 16-0 and against Russia 12-0 (I think, anyway, not so clear on the second score...)

 

[DocBot]

whoa, 12-0 against russia? sweden won 3-1... ah well, I'm fairly confident our womens team won't even make it to the finals...

 

[BiG D]

I believe we play you guys next, so we'll see what happens.

That being said, women's hockey is basically Canada vs. USA. None of the other countries really support it, so their teams are pretty weak. Men's hockey is where all the competition is.

 

[DocBot]

sweden just beat canada in the ladies' curling

 

[BiG D]

oh, don't even get me started on curling...

 

[DocBot]

ah, so here's what's happened so far:

the men's team lost to russia 0-5.

the women's team won over USA 3-2. They're going to face Canada in the final....

we've never beaten canada in women's ide hockey... OTOH, we'd never beaten USA eather, before now.

I guess we'll see what happens next

 

[BiG D]

That USA game was a total upset, congrats to you guys, I don't think anyone expected a non USA/Canada final.

Your goalie looks sharp, so it could be very close in the gold medal game as well. We'll see how that goes on Monday.

The mens team lost to russia? What gives? Your team is usually one to be afraid of...

 

[DocBot]

umm, I seriously doubt we'll have much of a chance in the final against you... but, I've just been wrong so who knows...

the catastrophic loss against russia was because most of the players played like crap. I just hope they stop doing that from now on...

 

[BiG D]

Quick hockey update
The Canadian men's hockey team lost twice over the weekend That never happens... But they're guaranteed a spot in the quarter finals anyway, so hopefully they step it up a little then.

Canada is playing Sweden in the women's hockey finals in a couple of hours, I'll miss the game cause I'm at work, someone let me know how it ends