# Winter Olympics



## ABbuggin (Feb 11, 2010)

They are starting tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to the skeleton sledding and long jump ski. What are you looking forward to?

BTW, does anybody know what time the opening ceremony is? Can't seem to find that info on the web.


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## Orin (Feb 12, 2010)

I find it amazing that there is so much money, time and energy in even the most minor sports and the entire bug hobby isn't even a blip on the map. For 99.9999999% of people these complex creatures pale in comparison to watching someone else stand on two boards and go down a hill.

The ceremonies will begin on Friday, February 12, 2010 at 6:00 pm PST.


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## Kruszakus (Feb 12, 2010)

Poland has not won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in over 30 years... So I hope, that our Justyna Kowalczyk will beat the snot out of everyone  

Where the money goes in sports is a bemusing thing. Poland sucks at soccer, we really do. We have a horrible team - just ask Tier. Yet most money goes to fund new stadiums, most sponsors pay for our lousy soccer teams, and most sport-dedicated sites in Poland drool over soccer. Now, Tier could also say something about our track &amp; field team, which excelled at the last Athletic World Championships (two golds, one world record, 8 medals in total) - and there's barely any money invested in that.

I really find it bemusing, that people would watch mediocrity, and reiterate "maybe next time" each time the team can't make it out of it's group, or even qualify for FIFA championships, rather than see successful athletes snatch gold medals at the Olympics and other major events.

BTW - Who is rooting for Evan Lysacek in men's figure skating?


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## Kruszakus (Feb 12, 2010)

This is horrible...  

Nodar Kumaritashvili, a luger from Georgia died after a training accident. This is just unbelievable... I'm speechless.


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## Rick (Feb 12, 2010)

Kruszakus said:


> This is horrible...  Nodar Kumaritashvili, a luger from Georgia died after a training accident. This is just unbelievable... I'm speechless.


Yep. Just saw it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/12/n...s_n_460474.html

Heres a vid. It probably will be pulled due to copyright issues:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1QMM_D-gWg

Seems they have had a lot of problems with this course.


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## Emile.Wilson (Feb 12, 2010)

wow, i live in vancouver, its totally nuts here, Cant even explain


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## Kruszakus (Feb 13, 2010)

Adam Malysz has just claimed the silver medal in the normal hill ski jumping contest!


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## idolomantis (Feb 13, 2010)

Obviously Sven Kramer won olympic gold @ skating. wasn't expecting a different outcome to be honest.


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## Rick (Feb 14, 2010)

Emile said:


> wow, i live in vancouver, its totally nuts here, Cant even explain


Are you going to watch any of it in person?


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## Emile.Wilson (Feb 15, 2010)

Rick said:


> Are you going to watch any of it in person?


Trying to get some tickets for switzerland vs hockey in mens hockey, but they are like 500 bucks a ticket.

Did you guys see the riot that started here?

thats like 1 block away from my friends house


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## Rick (Feb 15, 2010)

Emile said:


> Trying to get some tickets for switzerland vs hockey in mens hockey, but they are like 500 bucks a ticket.Did you guys see the riot that started here?


That is insane pricing on tickets.


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## Emile.Wilson (Feb 15, 2010)

Rick said:


> That is insane pricing on tickets.


yeah for the gold medal hockey its like 2400 for a seat, and if canada gets to play at gold, they will dramatically rise.


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## Emile.Wilson (Feb 16, 2010)

Canadas mens hockey team just destroyed norway hehehe


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## sbugir (Feb 17, 2010)

Wow...Australia has a medal! Yay!

Russia didn't win gold in Pairs Skating, apparently it's the first time ever.


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## yen_saw (Feb 18, 2010)

Kruszakus said:


> Poland has not won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in over 30 years... So I hope, that our Justyna Kowalczyk will beat the snot out of everyone &lt;img src="http://mantidforum.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/&lt;#EMO_DIR#&gt;/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="  " border="0" alt="smile.gif" /&gt;
> 
> Where the money goes in sports is a bemusing thing. Poland sucks at soccer, we really do. We have a horrible team - just ask Tier. Yet most money goes to fund new stadiums, most sponsors pay for our lousy soccer teams, and most sport-dedicated sites in Poland drool over soccer. Now, Tier could also say something about our track &amp; field team, which excelled at the last Athletic World Championships (two golds, one world record, 8 medals in total) - and there's barely any money invested in that.
> 
> ...


Your government is doing the same as most other contries did. The reason is that soccer is the most popular sports in the world where big $$$$ are made and funded by all the big sponsor companies. If you think Poland is suck at soccer, try a country like Malaysia. Yet they spent big $$$ every year inviting premier league soccer giants like Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, etc to kick the ball around. Is that going to improve the standard of Malaysia soccer.... I don't think so.


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## sbugir (Feb 18, 2010)

Yeah! Torah Bright won gold for women's snowboarding. WOOT! Go Aussies!


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## Kruszakus (Feb 21, 2010)

Yen - that's why I hope, that after winning more and more medals at the Olympics, more money will be invested in sports other that soccer.

Yesterday Adam Malysz, being 32 years old, claimed his second silver medal in Vancouver - I must say, I was extatic about it like never before! Who would have thought, that he would out-jump all those Austrian and Finnish stalwarts  Everybody was counting him out before the Olympics - everyone though that this would be between Ammann and Schlierenzauer, and one of the remaining Austrian jumpers would have to settle down for a bronze medal. Who cares about gold medals, when you have a champion of the old, coming out of being just a sentiment, and delivering such a performance  Malysz is my hero, those two silver medals were sweeter than any gold medal performances I've witnessed.


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## sbugir (Feb 21, 2010)

Kruszakus said:


> Yen - that's why I hope, that after winning more and more medals at the Olympics, more money will be invested in sports other that soccer.
> 
> Yesterday Adam Malysz, being 32 years old, claimed his second silver medal in Vancouver - I must say, I was extatic about it like never before! Who would have thought, that he would out-jump all those Austrian and Finnish stalwarts  Everybody was counting him out before the Olympics - everyone though that this would be between Ammann and Schlierenzauer, and one of the remaining Austrian jumpers would have to settle down for a bronze medal. Who cares about gold medals, when you have a champion of the old, coming out of being just a sentiment, and delivering such a performance  Malysz is my hero, those two silver medals were sweeter than any gold medal performances I've witnessed.


That was pretty damn amazing...


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## Emile.Wilson (Feb 21, 2010)

Rick said:


> &lt;!--quoteo(post=126044:date=Feb 15 2010, 01:02 AM:name=Emile)--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE (Emile @ Feb 15 2010, 01:02 AM) &lt;a href="index.php?act=findpost&amp;pid=126044"&gt;&lt;{POST_SNAPBACK}&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--quotec--&gt;Trying to get some tickets for switzerland vs hockey in mens hockey, but they are like 500 bucks a ticket.
> 
> Did you guys see the riot that started here?
> 
> &lt;a href="


My uncle got tickets for curling for us, it was fun.


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## PhilinYuma (Feb 22, 2010)

yen_saw said:


> Your government is doing the same as most other contries did. The reason is that soccer is the most popular sports in the world where big $$ are made and funded by all the big sponsor companies. If you think Poland is suck at soccer, try a country like Malaysia. Yet they spent big $$ every year inviting premier league soccer giants like Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, etc to kick the ball around. Is that going to improve the standard of Malaysia soccer.... I don't think so.


Somehow, I missed your post Yen. So far as I know, Premier football (soccer!) teams in England and other European countries are supported entirely by their own revenue. Each year, the bottom three teams are kicked out of the league to be replaced by the top three teams from other leagues, and loss of Premier status means a tremendous loss in gate income, so teams continue to bid and pay extravagantly for the best players in Europe. With Europe in recession, this is not a business model for the times. Manchester United issued a bond issue last month to help pay off the debt incurred by it's American owner, who had to borrow to buy the club, valued at $1.8 billion, and the value of the bond has dropped 10% in less than a few weeks. The total indebtedness of England's 20 Premier teams has been estimated at $3,100,000,000 (hope I got the zeros right! 3.1 billion) debt.

I was reading today that it is possible that Portsmouth won't even last out the season, if they cannot come up with beween 22 and 26 million dollars. Perhaps, next year, the Malaysian soccer teams will be playing the U.S. ladies championship soccer teams!

*Go Gunners*_*!*_


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## idolomantis (Feb 22, 2010)

Emile said:


> My uncle got tickets for curling for us, it was fun.


Curling is so lame but so hilarious.

And OH  YEAH Holland DOMINATES speed skating :clap:


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## sbugir (Feb 28, 2010)

GO Canada! 1-0 !!!


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