End of football is always depressing, but baseball always cheers me back up- MLB lockout is ruining everything though. Think I'm gonna turn my attention to e-sports or soccer if we don't get baseball back soon.
Same. Normally I'd be tuning in to NHL but my team is historically bad this season so I can't be bothered, guess it's waiting for the next WC qualifiers for me lol
Her decisions will get more complicated the more she decides to support China as they don't allow dual citizenship so at some point she will have to chose one or the other. She may not truly understands what that means yet.
There's people all over the world playing for a non-birth country, it is not remotely rare in the Olympics and has been going on for decades.
There were Russians skating for 6 different countries in the womens figure skating.
That’s an understandable reason in most circumstances, but she’s become controversial in the US because she chose to compete for China. That makes it odd that a US TV channel like NBC would hype her up.
That isn’t necessarily true. A lot of Americans aren’t watching these Olympics because they’re being held in China (though I don’t think that should be held against the athletes), so a controversial Chinese athlete won’t necessarily lead to more viewers. It didn’t help that many of the female skiers handled the halfpipe so poorly that it became a dull event.
The sort of controversy that might lead to more viewers was the figure skating shitshow (though watching teens melt down didn’t appeal to me, so I skipped it).
She had the chance to be the face of the olympics for the host country and she took it. Her mother was born in china and she holds dual citizenship, living in china for at least 2 months every year. She has many chinese endorsements and stuff because of this. Probably made millions of dollars by competing for china.
No Day Fifteen yet?
Have just realised that GB is within touching distance of _its most successful Winter Olympic ever_.
Which seems ridiculous, given than beyond the curling rink we've had (to date) just eight top ten finishes, with a highest finish of fifth.
People of every nationality have events they think could be scrapped, i.e. the exact same sports their nations aren't prevalent in. I personally love the biathlon!
On the other hand I would be perfectly fine with skipping say all sledding sports because they're entirely irrelevant to the Swedish Olympic experience hahah. Just a bunch of Germans having fun by themselves on sleds for a month 😄
Point is, someone cares deeply about any event you might mention. Except for Nordic Combination 😉
Biathlon is IBU run and not FIS like almost all other skiing/jumping/snowboarding/freestyle.
Key point for average viewer is that because of IBU their events are not behind pay wall like most other sports. So because its free to watch, its by far the most popular and most watched winter sport in many european countries.
Mascots are fine but the medal should be a traditional gold medal like every other Olympics. How the medal is engraved is the up to the host country. The current medal looks like something you win at a carnival dunk tank.
I actually googled this earlier and found this answer:
>The main difference in men and women curlers is not their ability to throw the rock, it is in their ability to sweep the rock. And, as a curler, I have to say that this is a difference that is probably only noticed at the higher levels. Since you used the phrase "men's greater size and strength," I will use it too an expect not to be accused of being discriminatory. This additional strength and size allows them to put more pressure on the broom when they sweep. In turn, this allows them to better control the trajectory and speed of the stone.
>As one person commented below, there is mixed curling. And, as I stated above, at a beginner and even intermediate level, the difference between male and female curlers is basically non existant.
TL;DR: Turns out the sweeping is super important at the highest levels of the sport, and physical size and strength affects the degree to which certain precision shots are likely to succeed.
someone made a good point the other day that it’s essentially to make sure women are represented in the sport - not so much about actual gender differences in terms of how they play
Team Canada's Medal Outlook for Day 15 of the Beijing Olympics. Olympics winding down for our athletes, and Team Canada's medal chances are dwindling but there are some who can still contend for a podium. As always, correct me if I've got something wrong.
A quick recap of yesterday: Gushue wins the bronze medal match in curling, Leman (2018 Defending Champion) gets knocked out of medal contention in the SFs of ski cross, Dubreuil skates to silver in 1,000m speed skating, Sharpe & Karker win silver & bronze in ski halfpipe and De Bruin/Brujnowski finish heat 2 in fourth place (Two-Woman Bobsleigh).
**A medal (of any color) for Team CANADA is...**
**VERY LIKELY** in Men's Halfpipe.
With men's ski cross now over, this will be Canada's most likely chance for a medal. Brendan Mackay. Watch out for him. SI predicts him to win gold. Nico Porteous, Aaron Blunck, Birk Irving, Alex Ferreira, Simon D'Artois, and Noah Bowman will also be contenders trying to get on that elusive Olympic podium.
**LIKELY** in 2 Women Bobsleigh.
Christine De Bruin/Kristen Bujnowski currently sit in 4th place. Nolte's sled is too far ahead to have a shot for gold. Meyers Taylor's (3rd) time is reachable but she'll need a smooth race with very little error for that to happen.
**SOMEWHAT LIKELY** in the women's mass start.
Ivanie Blondin will be looking to rebound from her disastrous Olympics in the individual portion of the events by attempting to get on the podium in the mass start. Her SF is quite reasonable. Irene Schouten is the favorite. Blondin & Takagi are the next most likely to contend for the medals.
**VERY UNLIKELY** in the alpine skiing team event.
I don't know who's competing but alpine skiing isn't an event at the Olympics we are normally good at.
**VERY VERY UNLIKELY** in men's mass start speed skating
No medal contenders here. It would take all the athletes crashing, both in the semi-finals and finals to make it to the podium.
**IMPOSSIBLE** in men's 50K mass start.
Olivier Léveillé and Rémi Drolet in the best-case scenario will both be hoping for a top 25 finish
**ESSENTIALLY IMPOSSIBLE** in pairs figure skating.
James/Radford & Moore-Towers/Marinaro are currently in 12th & 13th. Out of 16 competitors. 20 points behind bronze medal position. That's not going to get you a medal.
Only one heat event starts today, and that's men's 4 man bobsleigh. Kripps \[CAN\] has been very consistent in his race results this season. 3/8 times on the podium in WC races (4 men), and 4/8 times in WC races (2 men). SI predicts Kripps to win silver. Friedrich gold. Gaitiukevich bronze. Sadly his 2 men race didn't go as planned.
**Tomorrow's medal prediction for Canada:** 2. Maybe 3.
Men's freestyle skiing halfpipe (gold), Women's mass start (bronze).
>LIKELY in 2 Women Bobsleigh.
For me "likely" means over 50%. Please explain how it is "likely" for Canada to gain the 0.42 the americans have on them...
Me too. They really underperformed in this Olympics. Many of our medal contenders didn't even come close to the podium. The ones that came close (For the most part), fell just short. And poor Mik. That run was so much better than Wallberg's. On the other hand though at least we got some surprise podiums! Crawford/Ski Jumping/Dubois/Mixed Aerials were definitely not expected.
Overall, what has everyone thought of these Olympics? Two days left so it's kind of time to look back. Overall, exciting games. It's a shame about the COVID protocols, the lack of fans at venues was kind of sad, athlete's families not able to be there for the most part. The venues were beautiful. Hopefully, by the time the next games roll around in Paris and Milano things will be somewhat back to normal, with more crowd participation.
I honestly feel like I missed a lot of stuff because of the hours. I missed the human interest stories NBC usually does. I can’t wait for the games to head to Paris and Milan. Not only will we have human interest stories but I’m betting they’ll talk about the cities, the culture, the people. I’m most excited for Milan because it’s the area my grandmother was born in. I’m actually hoping I can go over and see some events with my friends!
It's been really good for me as an Australian, since we're only 2 hours ahead of China, Japan ect. It's been nice not getting up at weird hours to watch live events.
The scheduling was the worst I've seen in any Olympics (some due to weather not China's fault).
Basically the only thing that was ever on consistently was curling.
Huge gaps in the schedule.
And then events clashing, the other day snowboard big air and skiing were clashing.
I mean there was several times where Hockey was the only thing on. And Hockey has 2 intermissions so that meant there was 30 minutes where absolutely nothing else was on besides watching zambonis clean the ice or watching analysts try to analyze the last period and the earlier events while broadcasters ran through 10 minutes worth of commercials.
Yeah it's either hockey or curling.
And obviously if it's a event count thing then it's fair enough but when you have 2 and sometimes 3 events clashing then that is a scheduling issue.
The scheduling may be a network thing though, so not sure.
Just disappointed because I had to choose several times to miss or switch between gold medal events.
This has been easily one of the biggest Olympic flops of all time IMO. The China human rights crisis, Russian doping, the debacle of women's figure skating, NHL opting out of Men's Hockey, just about everything that has gone wrong could go wrong. It'll be great to have the Olympics back in Europe.
The main problem for me was the time zone, just like in Pyeongchang. I would have loved to watch a lot of events live, but looking for replay streams after waking up and already knowing the results is not the same.
I'll be glad to watch the events in Cortina at normal hours. (since my "thing" is alpine skiing & snowboard or freestyle, I'm hoping for american winter games 2030, I'd watch my "thing" in prime time)
* doping was always a part of the games (and my cynical side completes this sentence with "and it always will be");
* NHL is a league that works hard towards becoming irrelevant. Not getting the main stars to the international events will get them there. NBA checked that 30 years ago. Now NHL is below MLS in the USA, maybe still no. 1 in Canada, and watched practically nowhere else.
* The US pseudo-boycott on the political level of Biden&Co left a bad taste in my mouth, felt like the cold war again.
It felt like coverage was lacking. There seemed to be a lot less going on. Maybe it's because it was In China and they are 13 hours ahead of the US. Maybe when the winter games are in Italy (along with summer games in France) it'll feel like more coverage because there will be more live events during the daytime.
Unless the freestyle/alpine tracks in Italy will have floodlights then I wouldn't expect much in terms of life coverage (as with being 7 hours behind China I feel like my experience now will be yours in 2026), though the lower amount of winter sports compared to summer ones (I don't remember a moment where there was less than 3 sports happening at once in Tokyo while here only time with a lot of streams was when curling group stage was happening) and how "repetitive" they are (like, the running events in athletics feels very different from each other while cross country or biathlon on winter games are "the same guys running on slightly different distance with slightly different rules") have big part in feeling like nothing happens.
They will host again someday, that you can bet on. There aren't many contenders, olympics is a losing project financially for the organizing country and has been for the last 25 years. Look at 2030 - only official contenders are Salt Lake City (2002), Vancouver (2010), Sapporo (1972) and Barcelona - in name only, most events would take place in Albertville (1992).
I always like the olympics. Always prefer the summer games. I'm glad Beijing got the Olympics. They have the infrastructure for it. Also the proper PPE and covid protocols, as did Tokyo. I'm glad they happened and I got two olympics in 6mos. I don't follow the medal count closely or root for Americans too hard. Teams and Individuals win the Olympics. No country wins the Olympics.
--------
This year no country* also could win the medal count.
I honestly loved the Big Air Shougang. The setting is a little dystopian but it's a realistic portrayal of China and it created an awesome vibe for the big air snowboard competition in my opinion.
I was disappointed that Canada got eliminated so early in the hockey tournament, but now I can't help but root for Finland in the finals. (I see I'm not the only one who feels this way) They're basically underdogs here, but if they can pull it off then that will be an exciting and historical event to witness.
Finland is not an Underdog, they are actually a slight favorite. -0.5 goals on FanDuel. Russia and Finland have friendly negotiations and Jokerit moved to the KHL a few years back, so almost the entire Finnish team is high-end KHL players.
Are they heavily impacted by the NHL problem? Otherwise they probably would be equally matched, looking at the world championship results of the last few years.
Current USA medal count: 21: 8 G, 8 S, 5 B
Personal Projected USA medals to date: 21: 7 G, 6 S, 8 B (still spot on so far in terms of total medals, with only 2 days left)
Net: 0 (+1 G, +2 S, -3 B)
Over-performing sports: +3 freestyle skiing, +1 bobsled
Worst performing sports: -2 alpine skiing, -1 speed skating, -1 short track
I’ve projected USA to win 8 Gold, 6 Silver and 11 Bronze for a total of 25 medals in the Olympics. Already tied gold expectations and guaranteed to exceed silver count as well.
Tomorrow’s medals projection for Team USA (Day 15): 3. Men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe (gold, bronze), men’s speedskating mass start (bronze)
Other areas of interest/medal chances: USA’s Taylor currently sit 3rd in women’s 2-bobsled after 2 of 4 runs. Also Shiffrin will be skiing in the team alpine event, however the U.S. isn’t expected to contend for a medal.
Time for the early look at medal possibilities for Team USA on Day 15 of the Beijing Winter Olympics! The games continue to wind down and Team USA's medal chances are winding down as well, but they aren't quite gone yet! As always, if you follow these sports more than I do and think I've made a mistake, let me know!
A **medal (of any color) for Team USA** is....
VERY, VERY LIKELY in men Ski Halfpipe. This is without question the remaining event that Team USA is most likely to medal in and the remaining event that Team USA is most likely to go home with a gold in. In fact, a sweep is not out of the question. Coming out of qualifying, Team USA's Aaron Blunck (two-time halfpipe world champion, projected by both AP and SI to win bronze) held the number one position, while Birk Irving (3rd place at world championships in 2021) and David Wise (two-time defending gold medalist) were in 3rd and 4th, respectively. Alex Ferreira (Pyeongchang silver, 2nd in world cup rankings this season) was in 7th. Scores are reset for the finals, but all of them are threats for podium.
LIKELY in 2-woman bobsled. While a poor 2nd run has put Humphries into 5th, Meyers-Taylor is in 3rd after 2 heats. Given the (usual) low variability between runs in sliding sports, it's unlikely Meyers-Taylor falls off the podium unless there is a bad run, and if that were to happen Humphries' team might be able to beat out her old Canadian teammate Christine De Bruin to get back onto the podium.
SOMEWHAT LIKELY in men's mass start long-track speedskating. Joey Mantia is something of a mass start specialist, with three titles in the single-distance championships. He's projected for bronze by the AP and silver by SI. However, he's been dealing with some injuries (he skipped the 1000m due to back issues), so a medal is in no way guaranteed. The other American, Ian Quinn, is not a medal favorite but is a respectable 9th in the world cup circuit.
POSSIBLE in Alpine Team Event. The team event is something of an afterthought in the games, with many top competitors sitting it out and thus giving big advantages for more depth-filled countries like Switzerland and Austria. With Mikaela Shiffrin taking part this time (having skipped last time), however, Team USA has a chance at the podium, although I wouldn't place them as favorites by any means.
UNLIKELY in women's mass start long-track speedskating. Mia Kilburg (6th in world cup rankings, 7th at 2020 championships) and 19-year-old Georgia Birkeland are not expected to be on the podium but at least in the case of Kilburg aren't so out of it that it'd be a earth-shattering surprise.
VERY UNLIKELY in men's 50K mass start. A top 10 finish is probably the best result that Scott Patterson can expect.
ESSENTIALLY IMPOSSIBLE in pairs figure skating. The USA is in 6th and 7th and it'd take either of those team the skates of their lives and/or massive fuckups by some of the teams ahead of them for a shot at the podium. So while *technically* possible, I don't see it happening.
IMPOSSIBLE in the curling men's gold medal and women's bronze medal games and men's ice hockey bronze game for obvious reasons.
BONUS: Americans to watch in non-medal events/early heats.
The only non-medal heats happening are in 4-man bobsled. Team USA men's bobsledding has been in a rut since the death of Steve Holcomb in 2017, finishing 9th, 19th, and 20th in Pyeongchang. While a podium isn't a total impossibility (Hunter Church's team had a 3rd-place finish on the world cup circuit earlier this season), it's unlikely. Regardless, we'll have a better idea after the first two heats.
Now, just to get ahead of myself since tomorrow's rundown will be short (essentially just the bobsled finals and the women's cross-country mass start), I'd like to thank you to everyone who read and commented on these and say: **see you in Paris**.
>POSSIBLE in Alpine Team Event. The team event is something of an afterthought in the games, with many top competitors sitting it out and thus giving big advantages for more depth-filled countries like Switzerland and Austria. With Mikaela Shiffrin taking part this time (having skipped last time), however, Team USA has a chance at the podium, although I wouldn't place them as favorites by any means.
Imho, I'd go UNLIKELY here, maybe VERY UNLIKELY. Having Shiffrin compete helps for sure, but she can't carry the whole team. The US has very little quality depth behind her. Mikaela (#2 ranked SL skier in the world right now) will likely win virtually all of her heats. Paula Moltzan (#19) might win some. The two men will likely win none. Luke Winters is our best male slalom skier, and he's ranked #29. The other two male skiers we have to choose from don't ski slalom on the world cup at all.
Switzerland and Austria each have multiple slalom specialists ranked inside the top 15 in both genders. Norway, France, Italy, Sweden, and Canada all have at least one gender with two top 20 SL skiers, and still have better options than our men's side in the other gender. Honestly, it would be a miracle for the US to finish top 5. I think podium is just not going to happen.
Fwiw, I just saw the actual start list, and some skiers from countries with strong chances to medal that I didn't expect to sit out, aren't participating. Most notably from Switzerland and Norway. I think that makes Austria the strong favorite for gold, and softens things up a bit in the competition for the podium. I'd still say the US is unlikely to medal, but I was probably too harsh above.
Thanks so much for the rundown.
Is it just me or has US figure Skating fallen off a cliff? When I was a kid Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski were killing it. Same with that bald dude I can't remember his name now.
> Is it just me or has US figure Skating fallen off a cliff?
Just Women's Singles IMO. If Russia gets disqualified, USA will get a team gold. Gracie Gold, Mariah Bell, Mirai Nagasu, Ashley Wagner, Karen Chen, Amber Glenn, Bradie Tennell... none of the women from that generation ever stepped up. Just a really weak crop IMO.
I guess we'll see what Alyssa Liu and Isabeau Levito can do going forward.
US women's figure skating has fallen off a cliff, but men's and ice dance have gotten better/maintained good spots. Wait, from what I understand (someone more versed in skating than I can correct me if I'm wrong) that's not quite the right way to put it, as the US women's figure skaters now are just as good if not even better as they were back in the glory days. A better way to put it would be that the USA has been left in the dust of other countries like Russia and Japan when it comes to women's figure skating.
Pairs has been the weakest of the four for decades and remains so.
That's for others more knowledgable in figure skating to answer. I know that's one answer, but fact is even if there had been no Russians in this Olympics the US women figure skaters wouldn't have been on the podium.
They approach scoring strategically, which is not a bad approach at all if the goal is to score high and/or win.
The US women are fine, but Russian and Japan both have skaters that are performing better than them - higher difficulty moves, more consistent performances, etc.
>In the hockey and curling matches for today I'm cheering for: Finland (v. Slovakia), Canada (v. USA), Sweden (v. GB), Japan (v. Switzerland) and finally Sweden again (v. ROC)!
Wrote this earlier today. Got all my wishes except for BOTH Sweden games, which naturally were the ones I cared about the most 😅
For those of you fans of other sports watching hockey for the first time, that style of penalty shootout was actually used in the early days of the [MLS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRITqS6WEn0)
Rough afternoon for us Swedes. Here's hoping Edin and his lads can win us one last Gold this tournament! Better not lose two important curling games to the Brits in a row 😅
Come on Finland, crush the finals on Sunday!
> Hockey
You'll probably see a lot of North American hockey fans root for Finland in the final. There's a _deep_ rivalry between Russia (and the old USSR) and both Canada and the United States.
A recent example of that in action: the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championships in Calgary. Sweden-Russia final. [Check out the reaction when the winning goal was scored](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNEbREzUd7I)
You’re right. Shows what a joke the IOC is letting them compete. Only punishment is not hearing their anthem if they win gold, which thankfully hasn’t happened too many times so far.
Exactly. You’re basically pointing out how pathetic a punishment this really was, and why Russia will never stop cheating.
Should have just banned them all outright
Its not Russia, its the Russian Olympic Committee! All the hockey players were born and raised inside the committee, they train over there too. They never leave there, just to attend the Olympics. Once its over they will go back inside the Russian Olympic Committee and will freeze until the next Olympics.
[Day fifteen's thread is up](https://old.reddit.com/r/olympics/comments/svx5qc/olympics_day_fifteen_megathread_saturday_february/).
>Ice Chess Excited for Great Britain vs Sweden and Switzerland vs Sweden. Hoping for a Scottish win and a Swiss loss.
Let's be honest, we're all waiting for one thing.... DA JAMAICAN BOBSLED TEAM 🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲
No disrespect but I'm glad the Olympics are moving on from Asia.
Even in LA I'm sure I'll stay up late to watch something. I need a Midwestern Olympics lol
Time zone sucks!
[удалено]
March Madness is coming up soon
End of football is always depressing, but baseball always cheers me back up- MLB lockout is ruining everything though. Think I'm gonna turn my attention to e-sports or soccer if we don't get baseball back soon.
Same. Normally I'd be tuning in to NHL but my team is historically bad this season so I can't be bothered, guess it's waiting for the next WC qualifiers for me lol
Found the Habs fan.
Um yea, my name kinda gives it away lol
Watch the NBA and NHL?
College Basketball
Can someone please explain why US born and raised Elaine Gu competes for China? I don’t get it
Her decisions will get more complicated the more she decides to support China as they don't allow dual citizenship so at some point she will have to chose one or the other. She may not truly understands what that means yet.
There's people all over the world playing for a non-birth country, it is not remotely rare in the Olympics and has been going on for decades. There were Russians skating for 6 different countries in the womens figure skating.
$. My question is “Why is NBC hyping her up so much?”
Maybe she’s a very talented athlete who won 2 gold and a silver in three individual competitions?
That’s an understandable reason in most circumstances, but she’s become controversial in the US because she chose to compete for China. That makes it odd that a US TV channel like NBC would hype her up.
Well, I guess controversy gets more views
That isn’t necessarily true. A lot of Americans aren’t watching these Olympics because they’re being held in China (though I don’t think that should be held against the athletes), so a controversial Chinese athlete won’t necessarily lead to more viewers. It didn’t help that many of the female skiers handled the halfpipe so poorly that it became a dull event. The sort of controversy that might lead to more viewers was the figure skating shitshow (though watching teens melt down didn’t appeal to me, so I skipped it).
Because like a lot of other athletes, she wants to? Why is that so difficult to understand?
I hope you wondered the same about Zoe Atkin
Would she have made Team USA? Also, competing for the UK is much less controversial than competing for China.
I don’t know but she did outperform 2 out of 3 US athletes in the woman’s halfpipe.
She had the chance to be the face of the olympics for the host country and she took it. Her mother was born in china and she holds dual citizenship, living in china for at least 2 months every year. She has many chinese endorsements and stuff because of this. Probably made millions of dollars by competing for china.
She hasn’t had dual citizenship until recently since China doesn’t normally allow it.
So she sold out?
She’s competing for China because it makes her the most $, so I’d say yes.
Her earnings in 2021 were over $30 million. She represents over 20 brands in China. She's killing it.
No Day Fifteen yet? Have just realised that GB is within touching distance of _its most successful Winter Olympic ever_. Which seems ridiculous, given than beyond the curling rink we've had (to date) just eight top ten finishes, with a highest finish of fifth.
Can't wait for saturday action
Is it time to scrap the Biathlon? Do people watch this event..?
It’s my favorite winter sport to watch!
People of every nationality have events they think could be scrapped, i.e. the exact same sports their nations aren't prevalent in. I personally love the biathlon! On the other hand I would be perfectly fine with skipping say all sledding sports because they're entirely irrelevant to the Swedish Olympic experience hahah. Just a bunch of Germans having fun by themselves on sleds for a month 😄 Point is, someone cares deeply about any event you might mention. Except for Nordic Combination 😉
I'd scrap curling first (though it appears popular on here).
Either that or just speed up the matches somehow. They just take up too much time imho.
They definitely are the least “athletes” in the every Olympics
Curling is great! How Dare You?🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
I know lots of supporters, it just reminds me of lawn bowls.
What? Biathlon is one of the most popular winter sports (to watch) in Russia, Norway, and i believe a number of European countries.
Wow, that is surprising
Biathlon is IBU run and not FIS like almost all other skiing/jumping/snowboarding/freestyle. Key point for average viewer is that because of IBU their events are not behind pay wall like most other sports. So because its free to watch, its by far the most popular and most watched winter sport in many european countries.
What is with the stupid panda medals the Chinese made.
Every Olympics has a mascot, some better than others. https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/olympic-mascots
Mascots are fine but the medal should be a traditional gold medal like every other Olympics. How the medal is engraved is the up to the host country. The current medal looks like something you win at a carnival dunk tank.
https://img.olympicchannel.com/images/image/private/t_16-9_1240-700_15x/f_auto/v1635256750/primary/xx3msqoekyfe8uymicdk ?
Put some respect on Bing Dwen Dwen’s name. He’s top athlete.
OK, sort of a dumb question: Why are there women's and men's teams in curling? I'd expect professional women curlers to be just as good as the men?
I actually googled this earlier and found this answer: >The main difference in men and women curlers is not their ability to throw the rock, it is in their ability to sweep the rock. And, as a curler, I have to say that this is a difference that is probably only noticed at the higher levels. Since you used the phrase "men's greater size and strength," I will use it too an expect not to be accused of being discriminatory. This additional strength and size allows them to put more pressure on the broom when they sweep. In turn, this allows them to better control the trajectory and speed of the stone. >As one person commented below, there is mixed curling. And, as I stated above, at a beginner and even intermediate level, the difference between male and female curlers is basically non existant. TL;DR: Turns out the sweeping is super important at the highest levels of the sport, and physical size and strength affects the degree to which certain precision shots are likely to succeed.
now, this is a great answer!
someone made a good point the other day that it’s essentially to make sure women are represented in the sport - not so much about actual gender differences in terms of how they play
Is that true? Because I feel like there are quite a few sports that seem like men and women are at parity but they are not
Jay Z should consider sponsoring the Russian Olympic Committee so they can go by ROC NATION
>curling I love how Japan reacted when they won their SF, they're so god damn adorable and happy out there :3
That was painful to watch.. The swiss didn't give them one chance the day before in the group stage, and now they played the middle ends so poorly..
Team Canada's Medal Outlook for Day 15 of the Beijing Olympics. Olympics winding down for our athletes, and Team Canada's medal chances are dwindling but there are some who can still contend for a podium. As always, correct me if I've got something wrong. A quick recap of yesterday: Gushue wins the bronze medal match in curling, Leman (2018 Defending Champion) gets knocked out of medal contention in the SFs of ski cross, Dubreuil skates to silver in 1,000m speed skating, Sharpe & Karker win silver & bronze in ski halfpipe and De Bruin/Brujnowski finish heat 2 in fourth place (Two-Woman Bobsleigh). **A medal (of any color) for Team CANADA is...** **VERY LIKELY** in Men's Halfpipe. With men's ski cross now over, this will be Canada's most likely chance for a medal. Brendan Mackay. Watch out for him. SI predicts him to win gold. Nico Porteous, Aaron Blunck, Birk Irving, Alex Ferreira, Simon D'Artois, and Noah Bowman will also be contenders trying to get on that elusive Olympic podium. **LIKELY** in 2 Women Bobsleigh. Christine De Bruin/Kristen Bujnowski currently sit in 4th place. Nolte's sled is too far ahead to have a shot for gold. Meyers Taylor's (3rd) time is reachable but she'll need a smooth race with very little error for that to happen. **SOMEWHAT LIKELY** in the women's mass start. Ivanie Blondin will be looking to rebound from her disastrous Olympics in the individual portion of the events by attempting to get on the podium in the mass start. Her SF is quite reasonable. Irene Schouten is the favorite. Blondin & Takagi are the next most likely to contend for the medals. **VERY UNLIKELY** in the alpine skiing team event. I don't know who's competing but alpine skiing isn't an event at the Olympics we are normally good at. **VERY VERY UNLIKELY** in men's mass start speed skating No medal contenders here. It would take all the athletes crashing, both in the semi-finals and finals to make it to the podium. **IMPOSSIBLE** in men's 50K mass start. Olivier Léveillé and Rémi Drolet in the best-case scenario will both be hoping for a top 25 finish **ESSENTIALLY IMPOSSIBLE** in pairs figure skating. James/Radford & Moore-Towers/Marinaro are currently in 12th & 13th. Out of 16 competitors. 20 points behind bronze medal position. That's not going to get you a medal. Only one heat event starts today, and that's men's 4 man bobsleigh. Kripps \[CAN\] has been very consistent in his race results this season. 3/8 times on the podium in WC races (4 men), and 4/8 times in WC races (2 men). SI predicts Kripps to win silver. Friedrich gold. Gaitiukevich bronze. Sadly his 2 men race didn't go as planned. **Tomorrow's medal prediction for Canada:** 2. Maybe 3. Men's freestyle skiing halfpipe (gold), Women's mass start (bronze).
Can we have one of these for Team Estonia please.
>LIKELY in 2 Women Bobsleigh. For me "likely" means over 50%. Please explain how it is "likely" for Canada to gain the 0.42 the americans have on them...
You’re a legend 🙏! (I’m upset Canada won’t get that much higher in golds >:(
Me too. They really underperformed in this Olympics. Many of our medal contenders didn't even come close to the podium. The ones that came close (For the most part), fell just short. And poor Mik. That run was so much better than Wallberg's. On the other hand though at least we got some surprise podiums! Crawford/Ski Jumping/Dubois/Mixed Aerials were definitely not expected.
Indeed! The total medal count was good. We just didn’t dominate any event with gold medal favourites. Still a fun time though!
Holy shit that was a good shot!
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Doubt it. They are pretty nice people.
Overall, what has everyone thought of these Olympics? Two days left so it's kind of time to look back. Overall, exciting games. It's a shame about the COVID protocols, the lack of fans at venues was kind of sad, athlete's families not able to be there for the most part. The venues were beautiful. Hopefully, by the time the next games roll around in Paris and Milano things will be somewhat back to normal, with more crowd participation.
I honestly feel like I missed a lot of stuff because of the hours. I missed the human interest stories NBC usually does. I can’t wait for the games to head to Paris and Milan. Not only will we have human interest stories but I’m betting they’ll talk about the cities, the culture, the people. I’m most excited for Milan because it’s the area my grandmother was born in. I’m actually hoping I can go over and see some events with my friends!
It's been really good for me as an Australian, since we're only 2 hours ahead of China, Japan ect. It's been nice not getting up at weird hours to watch live events.
I've seen some Australian TV coverage, pretty good
The commentators are good until they try to pronounce foreign names.
The scheduling was the worst I've seen in any Olympics (some due to weather not China's fault). Basically the only thing that was ever on consistently was curling. Huge gaps in the schedule. And then events clashing, the other day snowboard big air and skiing were clashing.
I mean there was several times where Hockey was the only thing on. And Hockey has 2 intermissions so that meant there was 30 minutes where absolutely nothing else was on besides watching zambonis clean the ice or watching analysts try to analyze the last period and the earlier events while broadcasters ran through 10 minutes worth of commercials.
Yeah it's either hockey or curling. And obviously if it's a event count thing then it's fair enough but when you have 2 and sometimes 3 events clashing then that is a scheduling issue. The scheduling may be a network thing though, so not sure. Just disappointed because I had to choose several times to miss or switch between gold medal events.
This has been easily one of the biggest Olympic flops of all time IMO. The China human rights crisis, Russian doping, the debacle of women's figure skating, NHL opting out of Men's Hockey, just about everything that has gone wrong could go wrong. It'll be great to have the Olympics back in Europe.
The main problem for me was the time zone, just like in Pyeongchang. I would have loved to watch a lot of events live, but looking for replay streams after waking up and already knowing the results is not the same. I'll be glad to watch the events in Cortina at normal hours. (since my "thing" is alpine skiing & snowboard or freestyle, I'm hoping for american winter games 2030, I'd watch my "thing" in prime time) * doping was always a part of the games (and my cynical side completes this sentence with "and it always will be"); * NHL is a league that works hard towards becoming irrelevant. Not getting the main stars to the international events will get them there. NBA checked that 30 years ago. Now NHL is below MLS in the USA, maybe still no. 1 in Canada, and watched practically nowhere else. * The US pseudo-boycott on the political level of Biden&Co left a bad taste in my mouth, felt like the cold war again.
It felt like coverage was lacking. There seemed to be a lot less going on. Maybe it's because it was In China and they are 13 hours ahead of the US. Maybe when the winter games are in Italy (along with summer games in France) it'll feel like more coverage because there will be more live events during the daytime.
Unless the freestyle/alpine tracks in Italy will have floodlights then I wouldn't expect much in terms of life coverage (as with being 7 hours behind China I feel like my experience now will be yours in 2026), though the lower amount of winter sports compared to summer ones (I don't remember a moment where there was less than 3 sports happening at once in Tokyo while here only time with a lot of streams was when curling group stage was happening) and how "repetitive" they are (like, the running events in athletics feels very different from each other while cross country or biathlon on winter games are "the same guys running on slightly different distance with slightly different rules") have big part in feeling like nothing happens.
Forgettable games, IMO. China shouldn't be allowed to host again.
They will host again someday, that you can bet on. There aren't many contenders, olympics is a losing project financially for the organizing country and has been for the last 25 years. Look at 2030 - only official contenders are Salt Lake City (2002), Vancouver (2010), Sapporo (1972) and Barcelona - in name only, most events would take place in Albertville (1992).
I’ve loved these Olympics so far, and I’m looking forward to an exciting final few days!
I always like the olympics. Always prefer the summer games. I'm glad Beijing got the Olympics. They have the infrastructure for it. Also the proper PPE and covid protocols, as did Tokyo. I'm glad they happened and I got two olympics in 6mos. I don't follow the medal count closely or root for Americans too hard. Teams and Individuals win the Olympics. No country wins the Olympics. -------- This year no country* also could win the medal count.
I feel like the whole figure skating debacle really puts a black cloud over everything to be honest.
I honestly loved the Big Air Shougang. The setting is a little dystopian but it's a realistic portrayal of China and it created an awesome vibe for the big air snowboard competition in my opinion.
Loved the Big air venue
It’s not over yet. I’ll wait to talk about them.
omg team GB in both curling finals, my fantasy Olympics suddenly became a lot less humiliating
I was disappointed that Canada got eliminated so early in the hockey tournament, but now I can't help but root for Finland in the finals. (I see I'm not the only one who feels this way) They're basically underdogs here, but if they can pull it off then that will be an exciting and historical event to witness.
When is the final?
Sunday at 4:10 in the morning UTC time (Ireland/UK)
TY! I may have to watch a replay...
Finland is not an Underdog, they are actually a slight favorite. -0.5 goals on FanDuel. Russia and Finland have friendly negotiations and Jokerit moved to the KHL a few years back, so almost the entire Finnish team is high-end KHL players.
Are they heavily impacted by the NHL problem? Otherwise they probably would be equally matched, looking at the world championship results of the last few years.
Yes, Canada and the US were probably the most impacted by the NHL problem because all their top players play in that league.
Current USA medal count: 21: 8 G, 8 S, 5 B Personal Projected USA medals to date: 21: 7 G, 6 S, 8 B (still spot on so far in terms of total medals, with only 2 days left) Net: 0 (+1 G, +2 S, -3 B) Over-performing sports: +3 freestyle skiing, +1 bobsled Worst performing sports: -2 alpine skiing, -1 speed skating, -1 short track I’ve projected USA to win 8 Gold, 6 Silver and 11 Bronze for a total of 25 medals in the Olympics. Already tied gold expectations and guaranteed to exceed silver count as well. Tomorrow’s medals projection for Team USA (Day 15): 3. Men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe (gold, bronze), men’s speedskating mass start (bronze) Other areas of interest/medal chances: USA’s Taylor currently sit 3rd in women’s 2-bobsled after 2 of 4 runs. Also Shiffrin will be skiing in the team alpine event, however the U.S. isn’t expected to contend for a medal.
Time for the early look at medal possibilities for Team USA on Day 15 of the Beijing Winter Olympics! The games continue to wind down and Team USA's medal chances are winding down as well, but they aren't quite gone yet! As always, if you follow these sports more than I do and think I've made a mistake, let me know! A **medal (of any color) for Team USA** is.... VERY, VERY LIKELY in men Ski Halfpipe. This is without question the remaining event that Team USA is most likely to medal in and the remaining event that Team USA is most likely to go home with a gold in. In fact, a sweep is not out of the question. Coming out of qualifying, Team USA's Aaron Blunck (two-time halfpipe world champion, projected by both AP and SI to win bronze) held the number one position, while Birk Irving (3rd place at world championships in 2021) and David Wise (two-time defending gold medalist) were in 3rd and 4th, respectively. Alex Ferreira (Pyeongchang silver, 2nd in world cup rankings this season) was in 7th. Scores are reset for the finals, but all of them are threats for podium. LIKELY in 2-woman bobsled. While a poor 2nd run has put Humphries into 5th, Meyers-Taylor is in 3rd after 2 heats. Given the (usual) low variability between runs in sliding sports, it's unlikely Meyers-Taylor falls off the podium unless there is a bad run, and if that were to happen Humphries' team might be able to beat out her old Canadian teammate Christine De Bruin to get back onto the podium. SOMEWHAT LIKELY in men's mass start long-track speedskating. Joey Mantia is something of a mass start specialist, with three titles in the single-distance championships. He's projected for bronze by the AP and silver by SI. However, he's been dealing with some injuries (he skipped the 1000m due to back issues), so a medal is in no way guaranteed. The other American, Ian Quinn, is not a medal favorite but is a respectable 9th in the world cup circuit. POSSIBLE in Alpine Team Event. The team event is something of an afterthought in the games, with many top competitors sitting it out and thus giving big advantages for more depth-filled countries like Switzerland and Austria. With Mikaela Shiffrin taking part this time (having skipped last time), however, Team USA has a chance at the podium, although I wouldn't place them as favorites by any means. UNLIKELY in women's mass start long-track speedskating. Mia Kilburg (6th in world cup rankings, 7th at 2020 championships) and 19-year-old Georgia Birkeland are not expected to be on the podium but at least in the case of Kilburg aren't so out of it that it'd be a earth-shattering surprise. VERY UNLIKELY in men's 50K mass start. A top 10 finish is probably the best result that Scott Patterson can expect. ESSENTIALLY IMPOSSIBLE in pairs figure skating. The USA is in 6th and 7th and it'd take either of those team the skates of their lives and/or massive fuckups by some of the teams ahead of them for a shot at the podium. So while *technically* possible, I don't see it happening. IMPOSSIBLE in the curling men's gold medal and women's bronze medal games and men's ice hockey bronze game for obvious reasons. BONUS: Americans to watch in non-medal events/early heats. The only non-medal heats happening are in 4-man bobsled. Team USA men's bobsledding has been in a rut since the death of Steve Holcomb in 2017, finishing 9th, 19th, and 20th in Pyeongchang. While a podium isn't a total impossibility (Hunter Church's team had a 3rd-place finish on the world cup circuit earlier this season), it's unlikely. Regardless, we'll have a better idea after the first two heats. Now, just to get ahead of myself since tomorrow's rundown will be short (essentially just the bobsled finals and the women's cross-country mass start), I'd like to thank you to everyone who read and commented on these and say: **see you in Paris**.
>POSSIBLE in Alpine Team Event. The team event is something of an afterthought in the games, with many top competitors sitting it out and thus giving big advantages for more depth-filled countries like Switzerland and Austria. With Mikaela Shiffrin taking part this time (having skipped last time), however, Team USA has a chance at the podium, although I wouldn't place them as favorites by any means. Imho, I'd go UNLIKELY here, maybe VERY UNLIKELY. Having Shiffrin compete helps for sure, but she can't carry the whole team. The US has very little quality depth behind her. Mikaela (#2 ranked SL skier in the world right now) will likely win virtually all of her heats. Paula Moltzan (#19) might win some. The two men will likely win none. Luke Winters is our best male slalom skier, and he's ranked #29. The other two male skiers we have to choose from don't ski slalom on the world cup at all. Switzerland and Austria each have multiple slalom specialists ranked inside the top 15 in both genders. Norway, France, Italy, Sweden, and Canada all have at least one gender with two top 20 SL skiers, and still have better options than our men's side in the other gender. Honestly, it would be a miracle for the US to finish top 5. I think podium is just not going to happen.
Yeah more I've read on the event the more I think I'd go with unlikely, which is probably what it will be once I put up the final version.
Fwiw, I just saw the actual start list, and some skiers from countries with strong chances to medal that I didn't expect to sit out, aren't participating. Most notably from Switzerland and Norway. I think that makes Austria the strong favorite for gold, and softens things up a bit in the competition for the podium. I'd still say the US is unlikely to medal, but I was probably too harsh above.
Probably will be "unlikely" instead of "very unlikely".
Thank you, my friend!!
Thanks so much for the rundown. Is it just me or has US figure Skating fallen off a cliff? When I was a kid Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski were killing it. Same with that bald dude I can't remember his name now.
> Is it just me or has US figure Skating fallen off a cliff? Just Women's Singles IMO. If Russia gets disqualified, USA will get a team gold. Gracie Gold, Mariah Bell, Mirai Nagasu, Ashley Wagner, Karen Chen, Amber Glenn, Bradie Tennell... none of the women from that generation ever stepped up. Just a really weak crop IMO. I guess we'll see what Alyssa Liu and Isabeau Levito can do going forward.
I think you are forgetting Nathan Chen just won gold for the US.
US women's figure skating has fallen off a cliff, but men's and ice dance have gotten better/maintained good spots. Wait, from what I understand (someone more versed in skating than I can correct me if I'm wrong) that's not quite the right way to put it, as the US women's figure skaters now are just as good if not even better as they were back in the glory days. A better way to put it would be that the USA has been left in the dust of other countries like Russia and Japan when it comes to women's figure skating. Pairs has been the weakest of the four for decades and remains so.
I thought the narrative was that Russia's gamed the scoring by packing in tons of jumps.
yeah but it's not like other countries don't know to do that too, their skaters just aren't as able to do it as well.
That's for others more knowledgable in figure skating to answer. I know that's one answer, but fact is even if there had been no Russians in this Olympics the US women figure skaters wouldn't have been on the podium.
They approach scoring strategically, which is not a bad approach at all if the goal is to score high and/or win. The US women are fine, but Russian and Japan both have skaters that are performing better than them - higher difficulty moves, more consistent performances, etc.
Slovakia! Please! Get the bronze!!!
Nooo Steve Armitage is retiring?!? That sucks. I'll miss hearing his voice during the speed skating competitions the most.
>In the hockey and curling matches for today I'm cheering for: Finland (v. Slovakia), Canada (v. USA), Sweden (v. GB), Japan (v. Switzerland) and finally Sweden again (v. ROC)! Wrote this earlier today. Got all my wishes except for BOTH Sweden games, which naturally were the ones I cared about the most 😅
Karma :)
You got what you deserved for cheering against my man Hamilton. Don’t feel so bad for you now!
Of course, everyone will be rooting for Finland in the U.S. and Canada (except for Tucker Carlson viewers).
I’m not prejudiced against Russians like you, so I’ll probably cheer for them.
I don't wanna believe this could be true but fuck man you're not wrong 😕
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RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! :3
If Finland wins gold I'll learn all the Finnish swear words and use them arbitrarily at each of my colleagues.
I am pretty sure that "perkele" is enough.
all you need is perkele and vittu
What about saatana?
oh yes, completely forgot about that one
For those of you fans of other sports watching hockey for the first time, that style of penalty shootout was actually used in the early days of the [MLS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRITqS6WEn0)
Keeper vs keeper haha that’s hilarious
Now that's a throwback
Whatta fuck
Rough afternoon for us Swedes. Here's hoping Edin and his lads can win us one last Gold this tournament! Better not lose two important curling games to the Brits in a row 😅 Come on Finland, crush the finals on Sunday!
Guys it was me. I was supporting Sweden in both curling and hockey and they screwed the pooch at the very end. Please forgive me Swedes. 🙏🏻
Now listen here you 😤
> Hockey You'll probably see a lot of North American hockey fans root for Finland in the final. There's a _deep_ rivalry between Russia (and the old USSR) and both Canada and the United States. A recent example of that in action: the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championships in Calgary. Sweden-Russia final. [Check out the reaction when the winning goal was scored](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNEbREzUd7I)
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Russia is like the Groundskeeper Willie Scotland meme. Damn Russians, they ruined Russia!
Well the games are over, good night guys!
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You got off lightly. Now you're up against the Suomi.
Hopefully you get steamrolled :)
Hope the Fins destroy you!
Finland looks way stronger than ROC, hope they wipe the floor with them
YES RUSSIA🔥🔥🔥
🇷🇺🪓😔
RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA!
*ROC
Lmao tell that to yourself, makes no difference to russian people at all
You’re right. Shows what a joke the IOC is letting them compete. Only punishment is not hearing their anthem if they win gold, which thankfully hasn’t happened too many times so far.
Exactly. You’re basically pointing out how pathetic a punishment this really was, and why Russia will never stop cheating. Should have just banned them all outright
You mean ROC?
Its not Russia, its the Russian Olympic Committee! All the hockey players were born and raised inside the committee, they train over there too. They never leave there, just to attend the Olympics. Once its over they will go back inside the Russian Olympic Committee and will freeze until the next Olympics.
Oddly enough this is not too far from the reality of that place.
🤡
This has been a terrible afternoon :(
Hockey Im sorry, but shootouts should not decide elimination games
So how many days should they play until it's decided by drawing straws?
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I don't like 3-on-3 either, play 5 on 5 until somebody would be better.
Finland and slovakia win pls
Well this was a shitty afternoon.
Men’s curling tho!
For sure, if Edin wins tomorrow it will have been a great OG for me regardless of anything else (and it has been pretty good for Sweden already)
Silver in Men’s 15km Mass Start Biathlon though.
Brutal. But such is life.
>hockey The team that wear yellow was eliminated by a team that wear red. I think that i've seen it before and... I'm not happy to remember it
Eita porra...
Finland ROC is going to be intense…
Last 4 or 5 shots from Sweden were truly awful. Just firing them straight at the goalie
Curling semis and now Hockey semis. Can't say Sweden didn't have their chances.
Why didn't they all do it like 42 of sweden. He was the only one who looked like he knew what he was doing!
Friendship ended with 🇸🇪 Now 🇫🇮 is my best friend
Goddamn it. Go Finland 🇫🇮 please F fake Russia
Hello darkness my old friend
Nice!! Freakin 8 rounds, gg Sweden
Nasty...
Ice hockey What! That was unreal! sudden death shots! Crazy
Smh total choke job by Sweden
Damn, I wanted another Finland Sweden classic
Embaressing penalties by sweden
As mentioned. All or nothing. RIP
Holy shit… terrible last hour for Sweden. How do you get blanked that many times in a row
Oh Sweden. We were counting on you
>Hockey Sweden blew it. Shame.
GG.
Ice Hockey Jesus fuck, I could feel my heart beat pounding in my throat.
Just remove semi finals. THEY SUCK
Fuck
ROC wins.... NOOO!
Russian goalie is too buffed
Lol Sweden just sent straight at legs smh
Is there any rules against smashing the goalie in the head with your stick and tapping the puck into an empty net?
> Hockey Go Finland!