Official Torino 2006 thread

[MHS2002]

From an American perspective, here's what I'll remember about the games:

1. Bode Miller "doing it his way;" 0 for 5
2. Lindsey Jacobellis taking silver on snowboardcross after her fall
3. Sasha Cohen again failing to put two programs together in figure skating
4. Chad Hedrick/Shani Davis speedskating feud
5t. Shaun White "The Flying Tomato" gold in snowboard halfpipe
5t. Joey Cheek donating Olympic winnings ($40,000) to charity

[Hatman 🍁]

Most Memorable Event:
- Hedrick winning the 5000m on the first day

Least Memorable Event:
-Nordic Combined (only sport I didn't watch)

Top Five Stories:
1. American Mens Speed Skating Dominance (3-3-1)
2. Ohno, Ahn, and Lee battling on short track (9 of 12 medals)
3. Bode getting drunk and going 0 for 5 (Freedom Fighter)
4. US Snowboarding Dominance (3-3-1)
5. Ice Hockey let down (Though I had picked Finland in the final)

You're an idiot.

Obviously the biggest story is Cindy Klassen winning five medals.  That's almost as many medals as the entire "dominance" of the US men's speedskating team.

[MHS2002]

The only 'spectacular' Olympics in the last 20 years-Barcelona 1992; Lillehammer 1994; Sydney 2000. Sydney was obviously the best of the three, but Barcelona 'saved' the Olympics.

I only remember starting with Sydney, and my memories of that are very fond. It seemed like the Aussies really cared, and for the most part filled up the stands. Salt Lake was good as well, the last two Olympics have been lacking however.

I think the Athens Olympics had its moments: the shot put at the site of the ancient Olympics is one that comes to mind. It seemed to me like the Greeks were into the Games as well.

IMO, Lillehammer had the best games of recent memory.

[MHS2002]

Most Memorable Event:
- Hedrick winning the 5000m on the first day

Least Memorable Event:
-Nordic Combined (only sport I didn't watch)

Top Five Stories:
1. American Mens Speed Skating Dominance (3-3-1)
2. Ohno, Ahn, and Lee battling on short track (9 of 12 medals)
3. Bode getting drunk and going 0 for 5 (Freedom Fighter)
4. US Snowboarding Dominance (3-3-1)
5. Ice Hockey let down (Though I had picked Finland in the final)

You're an idiot.

Obviously the biggest story is Cindy Klassen winning five medals.  That's almost as many medals as the entire "dominance" of the US men's speedskating team.

Cindy who? She got very little coverage outside of her races on NBC here in the States. I'm sure your list of top five moments would be very different from mine and Jake's (Klassen, most medals ever for Canada, men's hockey failings, men's curling gold, etc). I'm also sure we could argue until we're blue in the face about the best Olympic moments, but it's a matter of perspective.

[Platypus]

Most Memorable Event:
- Hedrick winning the 5000m on the first day

Least Memorable Event:
-Nordic Combined (only sport I didn't watch)

Top Five Stories:
1. American Mens Speed Skating Dominance (3-3-1)
2. Ohno, Ahn, and Lee battling on short track (9 of 12 medals)
3. Bode getting drunk and going 0 for 5 (Freedom Fighter)
4. US Snowboarding Dominance (3-3-1)
5. Ice Hockey let down (Though I had picked Finland in the final)

You're an idiot.

Obviously the biggest story is Cindy Klassen winning five medals.  That's almost as many medals as the entire "dominance" of the US men's speedskating team.

Cindy who? She got very little coverage outside of her races on NBC here in the States. I'm sure your list of top five moments would be very different from mine and Jake's (Klassen, most medals ever for Canada, men's hockey failings, men's curling gold, etc). I'm also sure we could argue until we're blue in the face about the best Olympic moments, but it's a matter of perspective.

Well, really, it's a matter of lack of perspective.

Top 5 for me:

1. Jacobellis's crash
2. Norway's lack of Gold
3. Austria's drug problems
4. Bode Miller getting zilch
5. And, i've got to add this, Alisa Camplin winning a medal just months after knee surgery.

Seriously though, number 5 would be the Italian team winning gold in the team cross country skiing event.

[Hatman 🍁]

Most Memorable Event:
- Hedrick winning the 5000m on the first day

Least Memorable Event:
-Nordic Combined (only sport I didn't watch)

Top Five Stories:
1. American Mens Speed Skating Dominance (3-3-1)
2. Ohno, Ahn, and Lee battling on short track (9 of 12 medals)
3. Bode getting drunk and going 0 for 5 (Freedom Fighter)
4. US Snowboarding Dominance (3-3-1)
5. Ice Hockey let down (Though I had picked Finland in the final)

You're an idiot.

Obviously the biggest story is Cindy Klassen winning five medals.  That's almost as many medals as the entire "dominance" of the US men's speedskating team.

Cindy who? She got very little coverage outside of her races on NBC here in the States. I'm sure your list of top five moments would be very different from mine and Jake's (Klassen, most medals ever for Canada, men's hockey failings, men's curling gold, etc). I'm also sure we could argue until we're blue in the face about the best Olympic moments, but it's a matter of perspective.

Klassen won more medals than anyone else at the 2006 Olympics. That spells out the biggest news story, I don't care what country you are.

But, you did mention the hockey and the curling which were big here. Women's hockey gold was big, also the 14 4th place finishes (grrr) and the fact that an overwhelmingly large majority of our medals went to women. There was also Chandra Crawford, Clara Hughes, and Duff Gibson. Also, the  Jamaican bobsledder who won a medal for Canada, and the former American who won us a medal in skeleton.

[Hatman 🍁]

Also, this was the most amount of medals Canada has won in an Olympics except for 1984 in Los Angeles.

[Jake]

Like MHS said, Klassen got no news coverage here, as such, it certainly wasn't a big event for my view of the games. Women's sports at the Olympics are pitiful anyway, simply because they are so much worse than the men at pretty much everything but figure skating. As such, I didn't watch anything but the 1500m simply to see Friesinger skate.

[Hatman 🍁]

Like MHS said, Klassen got no news coverage here, as such, it certainly wasn't a big event for my view of the games. Women's sports at the Olympics are pitiful anyway, simply because they are so much worse than the men at pretty much everything but figure skating. As such, I didn't watch anything but the 1500m simply to see Friesinger skate.

I know you like to watch men Jake, but some of us like watching women. News coverage in the US does not properly indicated the most memorable events of a games. If they missed Klassen, that's their problem.

[Jake]

Heh, I don't really care what the most memorable event for you was. Seeing how I hardly watched any of Klassen's races, I really cannot recall anything about them besides the fact that she medaled. Now, I can remember Hedrick's celebrations, Cheek's win and donation to charity of his winnings, the Davis-Hedrick fued and medal wins, Ohno, Ahn, and Lee battling for nine medals, and the Gold-Silver for men and women snowboarding. Plus, Bode's comments about not getting drunk "that much". Those are what I remember, from my perspective.

[Hatman 🍁]

Heh, I don't really care what the most memorable event for you was. Seeing how I hardly watched any of Klassen's races, I really cannot recall anything about them besides the fact that she medaled. Now, I can remember Hedrick's celebrations, Cheek's win and donation to charity of his winnings, the Davis-Hedrick fued and medal wins, Ohno, Ahn, and Lee battling for nine medals, and the Gold-Silver for men and women snowboarding. Plus, Bode's comments about not getting drunk "that much". Those are what I remember, from my perspective.

It's not *my* most memorable event, it is *the* most memorable event. Five medals tops anything else, I am sorry. Obviously if you didn't see it, you would not understand.

Ooh, speaking of memorable events, I think the US losing to Sweden in women's hockey has to be up there. I still can't believe that happened.

[Јas]

Um, the most memorable event is obviously the American snowboarding landing on her arse in the women's snowboard cross...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[MHS2002]

Heh, I don't really care what the most memorable event for you was. Seeing how I hardly watched any of Klassen's races, I really cannot recall anything about them besides the fact that she medaled. Now, I can remember Hedrick's celebrations, Cheek's win and donation to charity of his winnings, the Davis-Hedrick fued and medal wins, Ohno, Ahn, and Lee battling for nine medals, and the Gold-Silver for men and women snowboarding. Plus, Bode's comments about not getting drunk "that much". Those are what I remember, from my perspective.

It's not *my* most memorable event, it is *the* most memorable event. Five medals tops anything else, I am sorry. Obviously if you didn't see it, you would not understand.

Ooh, speaking of memorable events, I think the US losing to Sweden in women's hockey has to be up there. I still can't believe that happened.

I'm sure that the Italians (Fabris) and Norwegians (cross country failures) would disagree on what is the most memorable moment. Rarely is there a moment in the Olympics that makes everyone, around the world, take notice. Klassen had the best performance of the Olympics, but that doesn't mean that it is the most memorable around the world. If that were the case, the big story after the Salt Lake Olympics would be Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and his four biathlon golds, but I don't think that lives long in the memory of many sports fans worldwide.

[ATFFL]

Heh, I don't really care what the most memorable event for you was. Seeing how I hardly watched any of Klassen's races, I really cannot recall anything about them besides the fact that she medaled. Now, I can remember Hedrick's celebrations, Cheek's win and donation to charity of his winnings, the Davis-Hedrick fued and medal wins, Ohno, Ahn, and Lee battling for nine medals, and the Gold-Silver for men and women snowboarding. Plus, Bode's comments about not getting drunk "that much". Those are what I remember, from my perspective.

It's not *my* most memorable event, it is *the* most memorable event. Five medals tops anything else, I am sorry. Obviously if you didn't see it, you would not understand.

Ooh, speaking of memorable events, I think the US losing to Sweden in women's hockey has to be up there. I still can't believe that happened.

The most memorable event will be the one they talk about endlessly in 4 years at the next Olympics.  It could even be talked about for years to come (US-Soviet hockey game) or it could be talked about for one year and then forgotten (Lots of stories.)  My bet is the snowboarder hotdogging and falling is mentioned for years to come while the 5 medals does not last that long.

EDIT: Wanted to add that these are the 2 events my students are talking about the most for the Olympic project they have.  Third is the US Men taking bronze in curling.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

To my mind. the most memorable event of Torino 2006 was the deadly glare from the Italian ice dancer after her parter dropped her.

[Akno21]

The only 'spectacular' Olympics in the last 20 years-Barcelona 1992; Lillehammer 1994; Sydney 2000. Sydney was obviously the best of the three, but Barcelona 'saved' the Olympics.

I only remember starting with Sydney, and my memories of that are very fond. It seemed like the Aussies really cared, and for the most part filled up the stands. Salt Lake was good as well, the last two Olympics have been lacking however.

I think the Athens Olympics had its moments: the shot put at the site of the ancient Olympics is one that comes to mind. It seemed to me like the Greeks were into the Games as well.

I just remember seeing lots of empty seats everywhere.

This Olympics will probably go down more in negative history for the USA, in terms of what could have been. Compared with the excitement of 2002, we bombed in figure skating. Hockey was nearly as bad as Nagano, no where near as good as Salt Lake. Bode will take a lot of heat for many months to come, much of it undeserved. Jacobellis will probably be remembered the most, and Leon Lett probably has a large check in the mail made out to her. The Hedrick-Davis feud won't last for very long, because there are Olympic feuds, and then there is Harding-Kerrigan, and if it's not Harding-Kerrigan, it's not going to be remembered. In terms of the marquee events, the Americans failed, but when it comes to Olympics, we don't really remember failure, we'd rather just reminisce about the USA-Soviet hockey game.

[Platypus]

To my mind. the most memorable event of Torino 2006 was the deadly glare from the Italian ice dancer after her parter dropped her.

That was pretty deadly; certainly a contended for the top five.

Re:Klassen-not enough of them were gold. She could have won 10 silver and it wouldn't have been all that memorable. It'd probably be more memorable because of the lack of gold, actually.

[Hatman 🍁]

To my mind. the most memorable event of Torino 2006 was the deadly glare from the Italian ice dancer after her parter dropped her.

That was pretty deadly; certainly a contended for the top five.

Re:Klassen-not enough of them were gold. She could have won 10 silver and it wouldn't have been all that memorable. It'd probably be more memorable because of the lack of gold, actually.

You're just jealous because she got more medals than Australia has in the last two Olympics.

[MHS2002]

To my mind. the most memorable event of Torino 2006 was the deadly glare from the Italian ice dancer after her parter dropped her.

That was pretty deadly; certainly a contended for the top five.

Re:Klassen-not enough of them were gold. She could have won 10 silver and it wouldn't have been all that memorable. It'd probably be more memorable because of the lack of gold, actually.

You're just jealous because she got more medals than Australia has in the last two Olympics.

I wouldn't do that if I were you. Australia is pretty good at the Summer Olympic games.

[Platypus]

To my mind. the most memorable event of Torino 2006 was the deadly glare from the Italian ice dancer after her parter dropped her.

That was pretty deadly; certainly a contended for the top five.

Re:Klassen-not enough of them were gold. She could have won 10 silver and it wouldn't have been all that memorable. It'd probably be more memorable because of the lack of gold, actually.

You're just jealous because she got more medals than Australia has in the last two Olympics.

I certainly hope you've stocked up on enough renditions of "O, Canada" for the year; They will be few and far between whilst Australia's winning 90-odd golds in a couple of weeks.

BTW, the last two olympics are Torino and Athens. I wonder what the results would be if you considered just those two

[Hatman 🍁]

To my mind. the most memorable event of Torino 2006 was the deadly glare from the Italian ice dancer after her parter dropped her.

That was pretty deadly; certainly a contended for the top five.

Re:Klassen-not enough of them were gold. She could have won 10 silver and it wouldn't have been all that memorable. It'd probably be more memorable because of the lack of gold, actually.

You're just jealous because she got more medals than Australia has in the last two Olympics.

I certainly hope you've stocked up on enough renditions of "O, Canada" for the year; They will be few and far between whilst Australia's winning 90-odd golds in a couple of weeks.

BTW, the last two olympics are Torino and Athens. I wonder what the results would be if you considered just those two

Well, we won 36 medals if you combine the two Olympics. I am positive Aussie has as beat there. But, it's not like any of the Summer Olympic events really matter

[Platypus]

To my mind. the most memorable event of Torino 2006 was the deadly glare from the Italian ice dancer after her parter dropped her.

That was pretty deadly; certainly a contended for the top five.

Re:Klassen-not enough of them were gold. She could have won 10 silver and it wouldn't have been all that memorable. It'd probably be more memorable because of the lack of gold, actually.

You're just jealous because she got more medals than Australia has in the last two Olympics.

I certainly hope you've stocked up on enough renditions of "O, Canada" for the year; They will be few and far between whilst Australia's winning 90-odd golds in a couple of weeks.

BTW, the last two olympics are Torino and Athens. I wonder what the results would be if you considered just those two

Well, we won 36 medals if you combine the two Olympics. I am positive Aussie has as beat there. But, it's not like any of the Summer Olympic events really matter

Well, to make it a bit more even, we'll make it the last two winter games as well as Athens.

Athens:

CANADA
3 Gold
6 Silver
3 Bronze

21st Place; 12 medals total; 24 points.

AUSTRALIA
17 Gold
16 Silver
16 Bronze

4th Place; 49 medals total; 99 points.

Salt Lake City:

CANADA
7 Gold
3 Silver
7 Bronze

4th Place; 17 medals total; 34 points.

AUSTRALIA
2 Gold
0 Silver
0 Bronze

15th place; 2 medals total; 6 points.

Torino:

CANADA
7 Gold
10 Silver
7 Bronze

5th Place; 24 medals total; 48 points.

AUSTRALIA
1 Gold
0 Silver
1 Bronze

17th Place; 2 medals total; 4 points.


Total medals:

CANADA
17 Gold
19 Silver
17 Bronze

53 medals total; 106 points total.

AUSTRALIA
20 Gold
16 Silver
17 Bronze

53 medals total; 109 points total.

So really, if you give Canada the benefit of two winter games versus just the one summer games, it's pretty even. But we still win

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

When you consider that over three times as many medals are awarded at the Summer games compared to the Winter Games, you really should add in another Winter Games to make things even.  Torino awarded 84 gold medals while Athens and Sydney awarded 301 each.

[Platypus]

Well, if you wanted to be really accurate about it all, you'd have to include things like sports funding, ski-able slopes and snow coverage, etc; and the fact tat 200 countries compete in the summer games versus 80 in the winter games.

[WMS]

The only 'spectacular' Olympics in the last 20 years-Barcelona 1992; Lillehammer 1994; Sydney 2000. Sydney was obviously the best of the three, but Barcelona 'saved' the Olympics.

Although I disagree that Sydney was the best of the three I have very fond memories of Barcelona 1992 and Lillehammer 1994. I've been saying ever since then that all Summer Olympics should be held in Barcelona and all Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, because those places got it right.