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Official opening ceremony this afternoon and I must say I am looking forward to two weeks of winter competition. From what I hear, the venues are excellent and I am sure that the Russian Olympic committee will organise and run a very successful event. We all hope it won't be marred by some lunatic action but let's not talk about that just here.
My own favourite events are the Luge, Skeleton, and Bobsleigh on the bobsleigh run; and the speedskating. I would follow this with Curling after the excitement in 2002 when we beat Switzerland 4 - 3 for gold at Salt Lake City.
Some years ago I saw snowboarding as nothing more than skateboarding on ice. How wrong was I? Ski jumping was the exciting event of the time (remember Eddie the Eagle? ) but compared to todays snowboarders, that is just the long jump on skis.
What are going to be your favourite events to follow???
Pretty well much the same as you Grandad but without the Curling, although one of those 'brush scrubbers' could give me a hand buffing up my kitchen tiles
I watched the opening ceremony and fireworks....very impressive.
LLL, I noted that Canada has sent a team of 220 athletes....looks like you really mean business, and good luck to them.
Our team is only 54 strong, we don't have a reputation for winter sports but the pundits are predicting a good year with between 3 and 7 medals. Good luck to them too.
How much better if the Winter Olympic budget had been spent on something useful for the population. There is so much more that could have been done with so much money.
But that said, the facilities look good and the Opening Ceremony went well. Like you all, I hope and pray that the whole games are not marred by any violence or serious accidents.
Boris,I am sure everyone would agree about the excessive cost of the games and what that $30 billion could have done for the people. We had the same cry's of dissent about the £12 billion spent on the 2012 Olympics, and we know that the people of Brazil are voicing the same opinions. There is always the political argument that the games will generate that much and more in terms of various forms of legacy. I have yet to be convinced about that.
Staging an Olympic Games, winter or summer, seems to give the hosts a challenge to be better than the last.
I will never forget when Canada hosted the Winter Olympics in Calgary Alberta and there was NO SNOW!!! OMG!! There is ALWAYS snow (except for that year).
We hosted the last winter Olympics and I have to admit to feeling extremely proud of Canada for putting on such a wonderful Olympics. And although I worry about the extreme expense of the Olympics it did afford Canada a chance to strut out stuff for the world and show everybody that we are much more than a country covered in snow for lots of the year.
I think there is positive fallout after the Olympicsol in terms of future tourists, opportunities for business, networking that in the long run does benefit the country. I think the same will happen in Russia. I think the Olympics will bring world attention and attention brings revenue from various sources.
I have to say I really loved the opening ceremonies today. Loved the music by Russia's great composers, the ballet and particularly the segment of dance showing all the colourful historic buildings that Russia is famous for. Was beautiful. Will definitely be glued to the TV for the next few weeks watching all the events.
Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping and praying that some militant or terrorist group isn't able to hijack such a wonderful event.
Boris - are you living physically close enough to the Olympics to actually see the buildings and the Olympic landscape and/or actually be able to attend? I was never close enough to go to the Olympics in Canada (but I was watching all that I could on TV)
Second post - as per events that I enjoy - well - all of them. My most favourite events: All the ice skating technical and dance type events, downhill skiing and jumping, curling. I also like the distance and speed skaters, luge and bobsledding too but they're really highly specialized by my way of thinking and I only ever watch these during Olympics.
I know everybody else in Canada is watching Hockey and while I hope Canada wins I'm not sufficient of a fan that I'd watch the games.
Well, I have not the slightest interest in Olympics, over rated, over priced and about the same moral value as the Nobel Prize. I have no idea why any country would want to be the host of such a security nightmare, and as for the drug-ridden "athletes" ..... what a farce.
LLL, apparently the only gold that President Putin wants the Russian team to win is Ice Hockey. A Russia v Canada final would be great....Gooooo Canada
There was also an irony identified by a BBC commentator about the opening ceremony....with all the talk about Russia being anti gay, the programme included a significant amount of music by Tchaikovsky...there is always someone who will spot these things
What I find a little disturbing is that already the Russian people are only being shown what the authorities want them to see, for example the rest of the world saw the failure of one of the snowflakes to transform into an Olympic Ring, but in Russia that failure on the night was replaced by earlier rehearsal footage where it did all go to plan. Now why did they need to do that? It’s normal for something to go wrong or not turn out as expected and everyone accepts that, there is no loss of face, so why show their own people a falsehood, obviously it is being used more as a show of their leaders own prowess and nothing is allowed to mar that illusion of perfection.
I wasn't aware of that H but it would suggest that 'live' broadcasts to the Russian people has a delay to allow such things to be edited out.
I bet they didn't edit out the roller blade skater who fell over. Wouldn't have been so bad but those LED suits they were wearing gave the game away. I suppose he (or she) is now banished to outer Mongolia.
And LLL, Boris identifies his location as Moscow so it would seem unlikely that he is anywhere near Sochi.....unless of course he has gone to the games. No doubt he will look in and tell us.
I was watching when the snowflake didn't turn into a ring. That was sooo sad in light of all the work and rehearsals etc that went into the final ceremony. I thought it was a terrific idea though to have a snowflake turn into Olympic rings.
As for the what is being shown to the rest of Russia - well am not so sure that Canada wouldn't have done the same thing and showed a perfect performance more out of wanting to show Canadians what is was supposed to really look like. I think Canada is spread across 4 or 5 times zones and I live in the west so anything and everything that could happen in a program earlier has plenty of time to be fixed by the time I see it.
Canada is over the top with regard to hockey and I believe does look to Russia as one of the primary competitors. We're also really aware of all the excellent Russian dance skaters too. Right now as I'm watching it is being announced that Russia is in #1 spot for this event and Canada is in #2.
Going to be interesting games! Always enjoy them so am looking forward to an entertaining few weeks of TV watching. I hope Russian TV since the Olympics are being held there also shows a bit of daily Russian life, the country side. The out takes of interest the rest of the world would be interested in seeing - or at least I'm interested in seeing as Russia is on my list of places 'to go to' in the next few years
Ahh H you're SEEING the Olympics before me! Wasn't aware that 2 of the sisters got medals
They actually stopped broadcasting the Olympics here to show a Hockey Game this afternoon but have now resumed showing the different events. Watching the Snow Boarders right now. Can't for the life of me ever see ME doing any other those type jumps ever. Wouldn't/couldn't even come CLOSE! And WOW those guys really hit hard when they don't make a jump well.
As another aside it is snowing sideways again here right now Don't think I'm going to be venturing too far out tomorrow if this snow keeps up. From the looks of it coming down we're going to be in line for a BIG DUMP that will be measured in inches.
***Oooops - I just saw the snow board scores. Not sure if these are the final final scores but seems your guy from the UK is in the lead at this time, followed by the USA in 2nd and Canada in 3rd.
LLL, I don't know what your coverage in Canada is like but the BBC always does a superb job at these events and I can get up to 6 live streams of events not being televised at the time although most are available on the 'red button'.
For the 2012 summer Olympics they went overboard with up to 24 live streams covering EVERY event as it happened. These are available on smartphone, tablet or PC.
You could quite easily spend the whole day watching Sochi 2014
Right now I'm in the old place in the USA. Was taking a 3 week break from the grey (and to get my replacement camera lens - YESSS!!!). I get one main Canadian TV channel here which is covering quite well as in 24/7 however there is always lots of discussion and analysis broadcast about every move every Canadian athlete makes.
A Grandad!! You're like Horus telling me what is going to happen by the end of the day! They have a delay on the broadcasts here so it is like it is happening in real time!
I don't mind in the least and hope you realize I'm just teasing both of you for 'telling' me what I don't yet know!
Just had a thought we need to start getting some BETS going on this! I could be seen as almost clairvoyant and the $$$ we could win wouldn't be bad either
Sorry LLL, didn't mean to spoil things for you. That's why I didn't mention events or contestants. Fortunately Sochi is only 4 hours ahead of us so we have the option to watch most of the events live.
Our medal 'HAUL' is likely to be very small so when I look for other countries to follow I tend towards Canada for all round participation, and Netherlands for, in particular, speed skating.
Then everything that happens on the Ice Slide. It is a superb track with even shaddowless lighting all the way down. We are hoping for some success there but I follow all contestants because I think you have to be crazy to go down there
So starts 17 days of winter sport that I shall be watching with interest. At least the BBC are covering this and I expect their coverage to be very good.
Not too convinced about the 'Entente...
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I've been manually with the remote checking the TV channels here to see if I can see when the closing ceremonies might be on but so far no cigar. The two primary channels that have been broadcasting...
I didn't take this photo but it is a cut and paste of the Costumes or Uniforms worn by German athletes at Sochi. Apparently the myriad of colours is close to the flag of Gay Rights people
Lots of...
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I particularly liked the Canadian uniform when they all walked into the Sochi Stadium during the opening ceremonies. The coat is styled after Hudson Bay blankets where ARE definitely a symbol of...
As this is one of my most favourite competitions in winter Olympics I'm particularly glued to the TV watching. I know absolutely nothing about the sport and always find the names for the jumps cute -...
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She was terrific. Russia should be extremely proud of her. Her skating is excellent. Am sure she will be into multi medals and is giving all the other skaters lots to be concerned about! Terrific...
There is minimal to no news here about the Olympics. I remember in years gone by soon as we'd turn the year (i.e. January of whatever year) we were bombarded with ongoing and non-stop Olympic adverts...
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I know there is lots of politics now surrounding the Olympics and I do enjoy watching the highlights. Don't follow any particular sport but I do like to see the top competitors in the different...
I have probably mentioned that the London Olympics do not fill me with excited anticipation. That said I really DO hope that the miserable weather of late will move away and give us a few fine weeks...
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Olympics :( , couldn't get away from it, just spent the last 4 weeks in the Delux Ibis Budget Hotel at Beaconsfield services working at Eton Dorney 8)
) but compared to todays snowboarders, that is just the long jump on skis.
