The OFFICIAL 2014 Winter Olympics Thread

[Gass3268]

Anna Gasser has won the most points today in the Women's Snowboard Slopestyle qualification (even ahead of Torah Bright) !



Gasser is so far the only woman on Earth to complete a so called "Cab Double Cork 900" without falling to the ground:

http://www.fis-ski.com/news-multimedia/videos/video=anna-gasser.html

She has said she will try that trick once again in the Finals. If she completes it, she will basically win the Gold medal !

I didn't even know before today that we had a chance for a Gold medal in Slopestyle ...

Anyway, the 3 Austrian Slopestyle men have to go into the additional Saturday qualification round for 4 open Final slots.

OMG! A fellow Gasser! Go Anna!

Is your real last name Gasser too ?

Yup! It's kinda in my name

[Tender Branson]

Even with Hannes Reichelt out, our Downhill-team is not a "construction site" it seems.

While Bode Miller (USA) won the 1st training yesterday and Matthias Mayer was 3rd, Mayer won the 2nd training today with Miller only 6th. Also Klaus Kröll was 3rd today.

Hopefully this will last until the real race takes place ...

[Tender Branson]

According this graphic Canada will have the most Olympic coverage of any country:

The ORF has at least 430 hours of "live TV coverage" and an additional few hundred hours of analysis coverage.

Web simulcast: Yes

Online coverage: Basically 24/7

First live-TV broadcast: Like Canadian TV, already on Thursday (watched some Slopestyle yesterday)

Networks: ORF 1, ORF Sport+, ORF Radio, ORF Internet

Website: http://sport.orf.at/sotschi2014

Mobile App: Yes -> http://sport.orf.at/stories/2194048

Events on demand: Like Canada, immediately: http://insider.orf.at/stories/sotschi-2014+12984

Opening/Closing ceremony: Live (TV+Stream), also on ATV channel

[Tender Branson]

The opening ceremony just started ...

[Tender Branson]

The Russian national anthem ...

Nice performance by a choir.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

According this graphic Canada will have the most Olympic coverage of any country:

But what else is there to do in Canada, except watching the Olympics? 

[Boris]

According this graphic Canada will have the most Olympic coverage of any country:

But what else is there to do in Canada, except watching the Olympics? 

Especially since they cannot watch their bad to mediocre NHL teams play!

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I'm glad security is tight as a drum....

SOCHI, RUSSIA—Leading up Friday’s opening ceremonies, officials for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi promised low death tolls for the games, assuring that fatalities would be at an acceptable level. “With an international event on this grand of a scale, casualties are inevitable,” said President of Russia Vladimir Putin, boasting that the winter games have had far fewer deaths than organizers anticipated since athletes began arriving in Sochi.

[Platypus]

The Soviet Russian anthem really is special.

More than ready for the proper ceremony to start. *Goes and gets coffee*

[Hatman 🍁]

Apparently NBC isn't even covering it live? lol America. There are 6 networks covering it live here.

[Platypus]

If Australia can cover it live at stupid o'clock...

[Cassius]

The opening ceremony's excellent.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Apparently NBC isn't even covering it live? lol America. There are 6 networks covering it live here.

It's not as if anything notable was likely to happen.  The only "news" out of it was who actually lit the cauldron and I doubt if even 1 in 1000 Americans watching the ceremony tonight will know who they are.  I doubt if even 1 in 1,000,000 will be able to tell you who did it by the time the closing ceremonies happen.  I doubt if even 1 in 1,000,000,000 will care.

[Badger]

Time to spam this thread with awesome

Yeah, right, stupid Canadian hockey pla....OOOOOHHH!!! IT'S CROSBY!! SIIIIIDDDD!! <swoons>


Ahem! Yes, so.....carry on.

[7,052,770]

I'm annoyed that NBC cuts away from the flag/athlete parade for commercials and we miss a few countries...

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'm annoyed that NBC cuts away from the flag/athlete parade for commercials and we miss a few countries...

They're trying to make it fit the timeslot and it's the part of the opening ceremony that has the least interest for most people.

[Hatman 🍁]

I think I speak for most people on this forum at least, that the parade of nations is the best part.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Apparently NBC isn't even covering it live? lol America. There are 6 networks covering it live here.

I just wish we could see it without the edits and the distracting commentary.  It was wonderful even so, but I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't wondering what they weren't showing me - like in London where they edited out the memorial to terror victims.  Apparently this time there were giant animatronic mascots.

[Hatman 🍁]

In slopestyle this morning, USA wins gold, Canada wins a bronze. I think this is a bit of a disappointment for Canada, but I don't care about snowboarding, so I don't know. We often do win medals at brand new events (think of Triathlon, Trampoline, Snowboarding itself, curling (obviously), etc.)

Watching women's hockey right now. Canada is beating up Switzerland right now, 5-0.

[Tender Branson]

Wohoo, 1 day in and already a Silver Medal (only 1.3 seconds after Gold) in the Biathlon 10km Sprint !

Gold went to Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (NOR) who is already 40 years (!!!) old and a legend.

...

Hopefully 2 Gold medals for us tomorrow in Downhill and Slopestyle (women), but I think the latter is more likely (Anna Gasser). I think Bode Miller (USA) or Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR) will win the Downhill.

[Tender Branson]

Daniela Iraschko-Stolz dominated the 1st ski jump training in Sochi today.

That's good news and it means that we could get our first lesbian Gold medalist on Tuesday.

But she still has to beat Sara Takanashi (Japan) who has dominated the whole season so far.

But ... a good sign is that Iraschko-Stolz has already won in Sochi last year during the World Cup.

I think she likes this hill there ...

http://sport.orf.at/sotschi2014/stories/2201091

[Platypus]

Australia's had a lesbian gold medallist since the 50s

---------------

Tomorrow there's a pretty good chance we get the first of the 5 medals we're hoping/aiming for, with Torah Bright in the Slopestyle. She's more a favourite in the halfpipe, but taking on three events with a chance to medal in all three is pretty good.

All three Aussies have made the final of the women's moguls, although none are particularly strong medal chances.

Scotty James kind of bombed the men's slopestyle. Again, it's not his primary event, but he was expected to do better than 16th.

There's a definite hope that we do better than the UK this year, and to do so, things need to fall our way, starting with the women's moguls tonight.

[MaxQue]

In moguls, two canadian sisters ended 1sr and 2nd, which is very impressive (and probably didn't happened often). They had a 3rd sister competing (!), which finished 12th.

[Hatman 🍁]

Canada has 3 medals! More than the US. Will enjoy it while it lasts.

[7,052,770]

Do the team figure skating scores reset for the finals, or do they carry through?  If it's the latter, the US is probably out of contention for anything better than bronze...