THE WINTER OLYMPICS - SOCHI 2014

[Grandad]

I enjoyed the curling in 2002 when Rhona Martin lead her team to gold. Our girls will play off tomorrow against Switzerland for a bronze, then on Friday the boys will play Canada for the gold.

An exciting finish in prospect and if the girls got a bronze and the boys got silver that would equal our best result since 1924.

GO TEAM GB

PS: It is curling I am talking about of course....

[LovelyLadyLux]

I wasn't able to watch the game. Still in the USA and they don't particularly care about Canada curling but the score was close so am sure it was a good game. Quite an interesting combo of strategy & skill. Some of the skips are really good in planning out what they're going to do.

I remember curling from the days of slapper brooms. They had to really slap the ice as they 'swept' with the brooms going back and forth. Now they're scrubbing more with the brooms.

I find that sometimes what the women's teams are doing isn't followed as closely as some of the men's games. Curling has a big following and there are curling rinks everywhere in Canada. Quite a popular sport.

[LovelyLadyLux]

WOOOHOOO Canadian women's hockey team beat the USA women's team!! That is a BIGGIE as far as Canada is concerned!

[Grandad]

Well done Canada, fifth in the medal table at the moment and only just behind Russia on fewer bronzes. Well done your curling ladies, Jennifer Jones is fantastic and the team played 11 won 11, can't do better than that.

Our boys play Canada for the gold this pm. Tough match but they can do it

If we had a curling rink nearby I think I would give it a go, a bit like bowls, any age can play.....as long as you can get up after launching a stone

[LovelyLadyLux]

Lots of curling rinks in BC. Dead serious game for most that play to the extent they have specific times that they'll label Time A to Time B is the FUN League time. You definitely do not want to curl "for fun" and then find out you've got yourself into a serious league!

[Grandad]

Well done to your men curlers. We didn't stand a chance and conceded defeat after the eighth end. Canada now third in the table.

GO CANADA

[LovelyLadyLux]

Seems on winning the Gold the Men's Curling team then took the 'thumping and whooping and whistling' and acting out rather non-Canadian (in that usually we're pretty passive and quiet). Guess they were pretty happy with the win. I saw somewhere online the new style "Curling Hats" that are being worn....the latest in fashionable style in Canada

[Grandad]

LLL, your men curlers played a great game and are obviously canny tacticians. But it pains me to say that even before the match our commentator said that they were not TOO popular and had gained a reputation for being bombastic and arrogant. I might have expected those sort of comments about Americans (not all I might add but some), but not Canadians.

[Grandad]

Everone has got the curling bug

[LovelyLadyLux]

Actually Grandad the more I'm reading about 'our' guys the more I'm reading that they were LOUD, BRASS, ARROGANT and all in all VERY UN-Canadian!! They must've been listening to the Americans!!!

Seriously it has caused something of a talk here cause we're really not known for our 'loud-ness' or the kind of verbal shenanigans this team was up.

I think you're being kind in saying Bombastic! Am sure that somebody will be putting a 'word in an ear'...........NOT UNLESS this is the newest latest version of what it is like to be Canadian (definitely hope not).

[Grandad]

A bit of over exuberance really I expect LLL, but it had obviously been noticed by others and not just the GB commentators.....

Can't take anything away from both your curling teams and it was interesting to see the same three nations on the podium for both men and ladies, Canada, GB and Sweden.....

Closing ceremony tomorrow and I must say I have enjoyed watching many of the events and from where we are sitting, Russia has conducted an excellent Winter Olympics. Well done to them.

[LovelyLadyLux]

It has been a good Olympics and so far (knock on wood) there have not been away terror attacks or anything untoward that has been brought to public attention. I admit to some apprehension at the start of the Games that there was going to be 'something' that would happen that would totally tar the entire event.

I'm aware of all the fighting, politics, protests etc that are going on in the world but I make the choice not to relate that to the Olympics and try and enjoy the Olympics for the sheer sport aspect of it. Lots of the athletes are pretty young and have put so much of their lives on hold just to compete in their chosen event.

On the other hand re: athletes in some sports it is pretty hard to take that you're 'over the hill' by 20!!

All in all this has been a good Olympics. Russia did well and now the move is to Brazil for the summer of 2016.

[Grandad]

The closing ceremony was amazing, and brilliant, and beautiful

Spoiled only, in my opinion for UK viewers, by Hazel Irvines' insistence on talking over everything that was going on when no commentary was necessary, and then talking over the speeches when they were available as sub titles. Will she and others, and the BBC never learn?

I watched a lot of the events and really enjoyed the excellent TV presentation particularly as we had 6 streams to choose from. Canada did really well LLL finishing third in the medals table.

Russia reputedly spent £30bn on staging the games. More than the GNP of many countries. Pyongchang has apparently budgeted £7bn for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Still a vast sum but rather more in proportion particularly if the games leave some legacy for the people of Korea.

[Kiya]

Grandad I agree with you it was an amazing closing ceremony & I'm glad I watched it although I didn't watch many of the games but some

And I was glad of her talk over as we did not have sub titles here

[Grandad]

Kiya, subtitles are not automatic, you just switch them on with your remote......they are available to all..

We like Hazel and she is very good on the snooker but her constant talk over got on our nerves....just not necessary.

It was good to see the organisers poking fun at themselves when they delayed the opening of the fifth Olympic ring, similar to what happened by accident in the opening ceremony....great sense of humour

[LovelyLadyLux]

Did anybody know that the paraOlympics are now being held at Sochi? Just saw something about it today. Never realized that Olympics for the disabled are held just after the regular Olympics.

Kinda wonder why this wasn't mentioned and why the Olympics were officially 'closed' if the ParaOlympics were then going to be held?

[Grandad]

The Paralympics always follow the main able bodied Olympics, summer and winter LLL.
IN 2012 the Paralympics were given extensive coverage in the UK and the wider world. I think it is rather sad that the Paralympics in Sochi have received virtually no coverage except when one of our disabled athletes wins a medal.
People with disabilities compete against the odds and deserve more recognition. One of our partially sighted skiers (5% vision) won our first ever paralympic gold. She did get some limited coverage but other events have not been covered at all.:-(

[LovelyLadyLux]

Hmmm - never realized. Not sure why I never realized this before either. I wish they would cover more of the events of the Para Olympics and cover them publically too. I see them as just as important as the regular Olympics.

[Grandad]

Far too late I found that we did have a TV channel covering the paralympics. I saw some of the closing ceremony during which they aired some highlights. I was humbled to see a skier with just one leg and one arm; and another with NO ARMS..... they all deserve a medal....such courage to overcome extreme disability. Total respect....

[LovelyLadyLux]

There has been, to my knowledge, NO Coverage here at all of the Paralympics/Para Olympics. Am disappointed that they are not covered at least a little bit as I do believe these people are athletes too and are overcoming more obstacle than their healthy athlete counterparts. I realize the Malaysian Airline crisis/situation/mystery (not quite sure what exactly to call it) is at the forefront of all TV shows here but the Paralympics have been going on for awhile and I truly believe these athletes deserve PUBLIC/MEDIA recognition too.