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I'm not sure how big a winter sports fans you others are, but once again the American coverage of the Olympics just fucking blows!!!!! Personally I really like some of the events. Sat & Sun I thought I might actually get to watch some of the games AS THEY TOOK PLACE. Instead they show some stuff for about 2 hrs and then show some gay ass sitcoms for half the day, like fucking ALF reruns or something. And then when they do show an event at the end of the day, they show the medal winners (if they're not american) and they show the token american athletes. There was one guy who finished the Downhill on sunday on 1-ski, and they didn't even show it during the prime time coverage. Not to mention that the fucking announcer for the downhill kept commenting how the drop out of the starthouse was a 75degree slope and some of the racers would be pulling 15Gs thru the turns?????? 75 degrees would be a freefall, and a 15G turn would put the guy in a puddle in his boots. ITs a 75 Percent Grade you fucking NBC Dipshits, way different thing. And finally, BOB COSTIS is a total Dumbass, and knows nothing about these sports, so why the hell is he the main commentator.....
By the way the 2 halfpipe competitions where pretty cool, man the male competitors where just catching MAJOR air.
Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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after they have allowed " pros " to be included in olympics, ive lost ALL interest in it, and the fact that the americans involved with the o-lymp-ic Kommity have fucked so many things up since " TV " money became the " big issue ", the fact that we ( read americans ) needed to " invent " new games so that we could win a medal is just total bull-shit. Where else in the world do they ride a " half-pipe ", or even know what the fuck one is??? and its not just snow boarding, ( which is something that i find VERY COOL, BUT IT'S NOT AN o-lymp-ic event.) " pro beach volleyball " WHAT THE FUCK????? HOW many more do you want.
And, about Bob Costas....
Fall of 1987, twins playing the tigers in ALCS...our pal bob.." The twins have no chance whatsoever against a veteran tiger team, no one on there team has been to a playoff game, or a world series. they will be eliminated in three games strait."
FUCK THIS GUY AND JACK BUCK, TIM McGRAW,AND THE REST OF THOSE FUCKS THAT ALL LOOKED LIKE BRAIN-DEAD-PILES-OF-SHIT, WHEN WE WON IT ALL...NOT ONCE BUT TWICE IN FIVE FUCKING YEARS!!!!!
OH, AND ONE MORE THING....
ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE COLOR BLUE OF OUR BERETS CHANGE TO A LITTLE LIGHTER HUGE....
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Granted the winter events have always been smaller, and tend to favor countries that actually have cold climates. I do disagree about your take on the snowboarding though. Snowboarding IS popular and a ton of Europeans compete in the non-olymipic events. They've been at the top for periods of time, its just timing that this time that we have three good boarders who actually competed. Unfortunatly the riders who really dominate the sport wont compete in the Olympics cause its governed by the FIS. Two of the top riders now are not American, and these 3 guys who won yesterday couldn't touch them. We didn't sweep in Nagano, male or female. Half-pipe and snowboard racing was around for years prior to it being allowed in the olympics, and Europeans, and some from down-under have been involve for almost as long as the orginized events have. Why is it not a olympic event, cause its new???? The original olympics didn't evem have winter sports at all. "Invent it to win medals"?????? What about Tommy Moe, Pekabo Street, Bill Johnson, The Mahre Twins, Diana Roffe.... Just to name a few. And even though he didn't win sunday, Darren something-or-other did win the world Championships last year (Downhill)...... And this year a MN hometown girl that I skied with at Buck Hill is a Favorite in the womens Slalom, Kristina Koznik...
I agree the pro factor is a bit contentious (although other countries had always been sending their pro-level athletes, it was the USA who made the distinction). But it only affected hockey and ice skateing in the winter games. These arn't Pro skiers and snowboarders though (or bobsleders, luge, x-c skiers, ski-jumpers and the like). They compete at the same level and against the same groups as they always have, the World Cup level. Which is team based (with the exception of snowboarding here, they're more individual based than team). Sure they're allowed a little more sponsorship, and some more flexibility in endorsments nowadays. But shit, before that these people (not these people age wise, but world cup athletes historically, especially the American teams) had barely enough to live off of. However, I'm not gonna agrue with you about your apparent disgust with sports man, I don't think your wrong in the least about most of the nansie-pansies who play the different pro games. I guess I tend to ignore their antics cause I do still like the games themselves........
Overall I'm not suprised by the coverage, its always sucked. This is the one time when I wish that I had a Satalite system that could pick up Canadian or European TV, cause they're getting like 5-10hrs of live coverage per day. The primetime is just to overview the days events.......
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Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
I don't know about the political ramifications of the berets, but man are they gay looking......
However, money grubbing companies like Nike, and Reebok didn't want the American contract, so we had to go to Canada to get our uniforms designed and made......... An thats what we got, gay berets.......
Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
it has only been in the last 10 years that we have FINALY broke into the same level at which the europeans can compete in " classic " winter events..... c.c.ski/ski-jump/downhill/luge/bobsled/etc...and we still suck at the latter two...
it just seems to me that the games have been " americanized ", for a multiple of reasons, MONEY being the main driving force. You know.. TV money... that is one of the main reason that pro sports are so fucked up, and you can see that it is doing the same shit to the olympics. the main focus is about attaining sponsorship monies after the games.... its just bullshit.
i guess that i have a hard time with the whole " new " games in both the summer and winter...
quote:Originally posted by cramer: it has only been in the last 10 years that we have FINALY broke into the same level at which the europeans can compete in " classic " winter events..... c.c.ski/ski-jump/downhill/luge/bobsled/etc...and we still suck at the latter two...
This is not true at all of sking (alpine not nordic). We may not have dominated the sport but we've been highly competitive in the world cup for the past 30-40yrs.
As I said before though, I realize I'm prob the only visitor of this forum who really really likes the winter games. Just thought Id see if anyone else had something to say......
Cheers all
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Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Besides being as gay as they can be, the berets have USA in lowercase. IT'S SUPPOSE TO BE IN UPPERCASE, LIKE YOU'RE YELLING IT, YOU FUCKING MORONS!! U - S - A ! Posts: 620 | Registered: Oct 2000
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" world cup " is NOT olympic, right??? and there is a HUGE difference between 3rd place and 12th place. i guess just like everything else " competitive " is from a point of view...
and there have been many an athlete who have been outstanding in world cup events, that have not done shit in olympic compitition.
and picabo street...... wasnt it 16th this year?? We didnt have anyone better than her???? she acctually " made " the team on her current ability?? I dont fucking think so...perhaps for 2006 we can get eric hiden back on the ice, and hey, i know, lets get Billy johnson back out there... so joe, who was allowed to be on the olympic team because ole billy couldnt get it done??? ( due to a massive crash in training )
perhaps we can get mary lou retton and bruce jenner back out there too, because they won something once.... and what about carl lewis??? what is he doing now???
This shit is so stupid. There once was a time that I would have given my left nut to go watch the olympics, but not after the the USOC FUCKED THINGS UP. Athletes are gods...what fucking ever... nice fucking berets....
quote:Originally posted by cramer: " world cup " is NOT olympic, right??? and there is a HUGE difference between 3rd place and 12th place. i guess just like everything else " competitive " is from a point of view...
Essentially NO difference between the two. The only difference is that the World Cup is every year, Olympics is only every 4. Its the same exact teams & competitors. There aren't a bunch of better competitors who come out of the woodwork to compete in the Olympics that arn't a constant presence in the World Cup (with the exception of the more resent "Dream Team" scenarios in Hockey/tennis/basketball). I would argue that the World Cup is a more accurate judge of abilities (talking sking here). In the World Cup, its not just one event, you have to preform at a world class level over time to continually qualify for the next event, its a point system, that allows little mistakes. With the Olympics, sure you have to be a world class skier to qualify, but many a fluke has occured that has resulted in a Medal for someone who's NOT the dominant skier (see Bill Johnson). Its just 1-race vs. a season of races. Vice versa - everyone has their bad days. So the U.S. skier Darren ???? won the world cup championships last year, is that any less of a accomplishment than the olympics, I guess I don't think so.
quote: and picabo street...... wasnt it 16th this year?? We didnt have anyone better than her???? she acctually " made " the team on her current ability??
No Picaboo did not make the team on her ability "this year". 3/4 of the Team is based on World/National circuit points. This is the three other girls in the DH, one was having a great run and fell, the other two place 11 & 12, they were all ranked higher than Picaboo, they're just not in the national spotlight. 1/4 of the team can be picked by "Coaches Discretion", in this case Picaboo. She was retiring, so its mostly respect and nostalgia. Did she have the capability to win, definitly. She was two lengths in front of the winner for the top 1/3rd of the course. She got in the backseat a little and it cost her. Plus the snowconditions where very unusual for all DH'ers yesterday, very soft (they were actually adding water to the snow there cause Utah snow has such low H2O content which doesn't make for good racing snow).....
"A big difference between 3rd and 12th?????? " Less than a second and a half. Its a sport of hundreths and tenths of seconds sometimes between 1st and 10th. Does that mean that the 10th place finisher has no business competing???? Not at all.
Bill Johnson was ranked 63rd NATIONALLY (who knows what the world ranking was) when he crashed (it was a race too, not training). He was never even close to being a contender, he was just trying to regain something for himself. No-one over 30 has ever even made the U.S. team......
You said we've only been competitive for 10yrs in sking, I just said that was B.S. Theres only been 1 olympics since our last medal in the DH (tommy moe Gold-1994). Hey these are tough sports that get no attention here in the U.S. Sking is a national passtime in places like Austria, Germany, & Italy, its no suprise that they typically produce MORE dominant skiers. We certainly get world class dominant skiers, just not the #'s that come from europe. Its just not as popular here, therefor not as much a priority in the U.S. I couldn't even get a ski team started at Rosemount/Eagan when I was in H.S., cause "Its not a spectator sport, so there's no revenue" WTF????? We were basically the only school district in the Twin Cities w/out a ski team. That certainly didn't stop me, but I would have had more training if I'd also had that opportunity.
Hey like I said Im just as disgusted by the Oly committee, and the pomp and flash and crap surrounding the Olypics (and fucking NBC). I just don't think it has anything to do with the athletes and they don't really deserve to be knocked or protrayed as not giving their best.........
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Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
for not being any different, thanks for the clarification and explination between the two.
The whole " im on my way out so give me another shot" is total bull-shit. my opinion. but why should our athletes be any different when compared to hiring practices in our government." we need another ( fill in the blank with any race or breed ) so the most qualified person gets overlooked... perfect.
then you bring up judging...i wasnt even going to bring up all the history of bullshit having to do with judges...
your " no ski team " thing... we had one when i was in school...and there was about ten people involved, and two instructors...they could not find people interested in it... how can they justify the monies spent on this?? im sorry that you feel as tho you were slighted because of this... just like everyone says to me about EVERYTHING:
GET OVER IT. IT DOES NOT MATTER.
since your so good at quoting my ass, please put in fucking quotes where i stated that our athletes were not giving there best..... i did say that in many years past, our best was not close... remember the jamaican bobsled team???? some of our competitors have not even passed the pre-lims to get to the medal round...
hey joe, NBC sucks, i agree, but as far as the rest of this shit goes we have different points of view, if you want to continue this.. mail me direct.
posted
Well I apologize if I misquoted you in any way. But I think you just did the same thing to me.
Where did I mention “Judged” events??? I used the word judge, but you may have taken that out of context
You totally spun my comments on HS ski teams. I’m in no way jilted or in need of “GETTING OVER IT” Hey I raced at a competitive level prior to HS, and during HS raced USSA at a level few others get the opportunity to do. My point was that the difference in the popularity in sking between the U.S. and Europe is the primary reason why the European community produces MORE top-shelf skiers. Its not that we don’t produce some of the same caliber, but we loose a lot more to other more “Popular” American sports. If there was a DH ski team when you were there, that may be. But it didn’t exist the whole time I went to Rosemont. The cost argument is total Bullshit. Much cheaper sport than most, Hill time and gates, only cost, which could have been heavily supplemented by fundraisers (the little candy bars and such). 90% of the rest of the TC schools were able to have them. So what # of students have to be interested to make it worthwhile???? 14, 20, 42, 153 ???????
I guess I didn’t understand your comment about Olympics not being the World Cup, my bad. I thought you were saying that some better class of athletes show up just for the Olympics. The Olympics are basically just another event at the World Cup level. The sking at both is governed by the FIS.
As far as Picaboo, I don’t know if this is what your implying, but it wasn’t a exception just for her. The U.S. A-Teams coach has that discretion for every Olympics. Despite your comparison to govt. hiring practices, the U.S. Ski Team has absolutely NO affiliation with the U.S. Govt. Unlike European/Eastern Block teams who are largely Govt. subsidized. Another reason why they end up with more top-shelf athletes. (Not that I support this).
A side not just to digress this topic a little more. I’ve worked for all levels of govt. I’m white, upper-middle class, and reasonably qualified for the positions I’ve had. I’ve yet to work with a uneducated, unqualified, minority. Hmmmmmmm, how do you explain that?????????????? :P
I also don’t get how your saying we’re not or haven’t been that competitive. How could our WHOLE team possibly make it thru the qualifiers of every event. That’s just not even logical or realistic. Because we’re America does that somehow mean that ALL our athletes are somehow ALWAYS supposed to win everything ??? (you may not be saying this, but that’s kinda what Ive gotten) We’ve ALWAYS been in the top 5 or at the absolute WORST top 10 (and I don’t think its been that bad) in total medals. This is slightly in part to our ability to send large teams w/ lots of competitors for each event, but certainly not wholely due to that. But we do pretty good against some programs that are arguable much better than the training/funds than ours……
Bode Miller-Silver-Mens Combined Downhill- RIGHT ON……. And he almost bit-it the Downhill leg.
Gold - Silver - Bronze = Total Germany 4 6 2 12 U S A 3 5 2 10 Austria 1 1 7 9 Norway 5 3 0 8 Russia 1 2 2 5 Finland 2 1 1 4 France 1 1 1 3 Italy 2 1 0 3 Switzerland 2 0 1 3 Canada 0 1 1 2
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Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Bode Miller -Silver- Mens Combined Downhill- RIGHT ON……. And he almost bit-it the Downhill leg AND his 1st Slalom run. Then he had a SMOKIN 2nd slalom run and made up 2+ seconds, a HUGE MARGIN in ski racing.....
Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Can’t believe I totally missed this thread until this morning… While I won’t comment on the USA ski team. I do think that snowboarding has been dominated in past years by Europeans. The USA is a total hotbed for snowboarding currently and that is probably why we have so many entries (metals).
NBC does suck ass with the coverage this time around. I have satellite with a lot of channels and I can’t find the Olympics on any channel besides NBC & CNBC. The coverage on CNBC has been better because they are on all day and show the non highlighted sports more. Steve and I actually watched some women’s curling a couple nights ago and they almost carried the whole match live (we won with the last rock/stone or whatever). They are also carrying most of the hockey games.
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Probably for no more then 10-15 minutes total. Come on both teams are from St. Paul.
Posts: 5484 | From: St. Paul, Mn | Registered: Apr 2002
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I didn't say that Europeans DOMINATE snowboarding. (EDIT= Actually you DID say it, I got confused there, responding to a misquote that wasn't, carryon) I said they're highly involved and are as competitive as the U.S. That being said, there are a fair # of riders who are at the top of the sport and likely could of smoked Ross Powers, and some of them arn't from the U.S. But you will never see the best of the best like Terje, Daniel Franck, Matt Hammer, Ingemar Backman, and many others who could definitely take the gold. Its highly likely that if Terje had competed in the pipe the US would have one less gold medal, he's like the Jordan of halfpipe riding, no one can touch him. Unfourtunately, he is vehemently opposed to the Olympics and will probably never compete. Ingemar Backman boosted 45 FEET out of the Riksgransen quarterpipe when he won it in 98 and I believe that this is the highest anyone has ever gotten on any equipment. He's one of those guys who has an uncanny ability to spring off the lip but, like Terje, Backman will never compete. As for the US, Shawn White is only 15 years old and one of the best skaters and snowboarders around, in a few years he'll probably be the best in the world but you won't see him in the Olympics.
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Posts: 2469 | From: Anchorage, AK | Registered: Oct 2001
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and some of the racers would be pulling 15Gs thru the turns?????? 75 degrees would be a freefall, and a 15G turn would put the guy in a puddle in his boots. ITs a 75 Percent Grade you fucking NBC Dipshits, way different thing. And finally, BOB COSTIS is a total Dumbass, and knows nothing about these sports, so why the hell is he the main commentator.....
