OT: PyeongChang 2018 Olympics

[rboomercat90]

Laurie Blouin grabs silver in Women's Snowboarding Slopestyle.

I thought they handed the American woman the gold medal in this event. She scored an 83 on her first run where she not only clearly made a conservative run but actually looked disappointed in herself at the end of the run. Commentators made the point several times during the run that she was bailing out on what she looked like she was planning to do. In any event there was no way her run was 10 points better than the second place Norwegian girl in the first round. With the way the weather conditions were it was unlikely anybody was going to better that score in the second round and nobody did.

I hate these events that are so heavily dependant on judges.

 

[Frank the Tank]

Pretty amazing considering she was taken off on a stretcher yesterday after that brutal fall.

The course conditions were abysmal for this event. I would be pretty upset if four years of training came down to poor wind conditions and a compromised run schedule. I guess a win's a win.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I thought they handed the American woman the gold medal in this event. She scored an 83 on her first run where she not only clearly made a conservative run but actually looked disappointed in herself at the end of the run. Commentators made the point several times during the run that she was bailing out on what she looked like she was planning to do. In any event there was no way her run was 10 points better than the second place Norwegian girl in the first round. With the way the weather conditions were it was unlikely anybody was going to better that score in the second round and nobody did.

I hate these events that are so heavily dependant on judges.

Didn't a Canadian male do exactly the same thing a day earlier winning the silver medal by cutting out the hardest jumps and just running a clean program? They said that was his strategy.

I'll say what I say every Olympics as well. Some of these newer events are so risky and so many serious injuries occurring. is there a point at which it comes to gladiator type sports. Every other athlete your hearing about in these events came back from a broken leg, collapsed lung, near paralysis, near death etc. I think its time to dial back on some of the crazy in some of these disciplines. The courses and expectations in some of these sports is way too dangerous. On one of the events every snowboarder I watched couldn't clear one of the jumps, couldn't get enough speed and just slammed into the hill after an aerial jump. Its crazy.

If I was a parent of one of these kids I would be terrified and just a little pissed off that these events and disciplines are maiming the competitors.

take a look at this, its incredibly risky.

The most dangerous Winter Olympic sports

The IOC responds by pencilling in ever more high risk winter Olympic "extreme" events every olympics. Its bloodsport.

 

[rboomercat90]

Didn't a Canadian male do exactly the same thing a day earlier winning the silver medal by cutting out the hardest jumps and just running a clean program? They said that was his strategy.

I'll say what I say every Olympics as well. Some of these newer events are so risky and so many serious injuries occurring. is there a point at which it comes to gladiator type sports. Every other athlete your hearing about in these events came back from a broken leg, collapsed lung, near paralysis, near death etc. I think its time to dial back on some of the crazy in some of these disciplines. The courses and expectations in some of these sports is way too dangerous. On one of the events every snowboarder I watched couldn't clear one of the jumps, couldn't get enough speed and just slammed into the hill after an aerial jump. Its crazy.

Could be. I didn’t watch the men’s event so I can’t comment. Sounds like pretty much the same thing.

My issue wasn’t that this girl won but that they deemed her run to be 10 points better than anybody else in that run when it looked like the Norwegian woman was actually better. They gave the girl with the reputation a score they knew wouldn’t be caught by anybody in the second round because of the weather. This being an event that’s only been won by Americans for both men’s and women’s.

 

[Cloned]

Could be. I didn’t watch the men’s event so I can’t comment. Sounds like pretty much the same thing.

My issue wasn’t that this girl won but that they deemed her run to be 10 points better than anybody else in that run when it looked like the Norwegian woman was actually better. They gave the girl with the reputation a score they knew wouldn’t be caught by anybody in the second round because of the weather. This being an event that’s only been won by Americans for both men’s and women’s.

All judged sports have that bias.

Virtue and Moir could skate the worst program and they'd likely still place at least 2nd.

 

[nabob]

Didn't a Canadian male do exactly the same thing a day earlier winning the silver medal by cutting out the hardest jumps and just running a clean program? They said that was his strategy.

I'll say what I say every Olympics as well. Some of these newer events are so risky and so many serious injuries occurring. is there a point at which it comes to gladiator type sports. Every other athlete your hearing about in these events came back from a broken leg, collapsed lung, near paralysis, near death etc. I think its time to dial back on some of the crazy in some of these disciplines. The courses and expectations in some of these sports is way too dangerous. On one of the events every snowboarder I watched couldn't clear one of the jumps, couldn't get enough speed and just slammed into the hill after an aerial jump. Its crazy.

If I was a parent of one of these kids I would be terrified and just a little pissed off that these events and disciplines are maiming the competitors.

take a look at this, its incredibly risky.

The most dangerous Winter Olympic sports

The IOC responds by pencilling in ever more high risk winter Olympic "extreme" events every olympics. Its bloodsport.

Oh geezus. "bloodsport"?

Would you rather bubble wrapping became an Olympic sport?

Maybe just water everything right down and give everyone who competes the same medal, so that no one tries to push themselves too hard and then no one will get hurt.

Seeing the best athletes in the world is what the Olympics is about. These events are no different that the World Cup events and the events that these athletes do all year, every year. This isn't about the IOC, it's about the evolution of sports to keep up with the ever evolving abilities of athletes.

 

[nabob]

All judged sports have that bias.

Virtue and Moir could skate the worst program and they'd likely still place at least 2nd.

Almost as hard to tell in some judged events what was good/bad as it is to determine what goalie interference is in the NHL. They both have obvious biases.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Oh geezus. "bloodsport"?

Would you rather bubble wrapping became an Olympic sport?

Maybe just water everything right down and give everyone who competes the same medal, so that no one tries to push themselves too hard and then no one will get hurt.

Seeing the best athletes in the world is what the Olympics is about. These events are no different that the World Cup events and the events that these athletes do all year, every year. This isn't about the IOC, it's about the evolution of sports to keep up with the ever evolving abilities of athletes.

It is different. extreme winter Olympic sports has raised the bar on risk and so that such events as slopestyle have an almost 50% chance of injury of competitors. Many serious injuries. Did you even look at the link?

How is it acceptable that competing in an event results in anywhere from a 35-50% chance of injury?

The most dangerous Olympic sports were formerly things like Hockey, Bobsledding, and downhill. The injuries from these new sports is way more severe and pronounced. Nor are the injuries required, or at all related to "ever evolving abilities of athletes" I was unaware that a human has evolved to be able to fly when he/she is 70 feet in the air and doomed to crash land on a solid surface because they didn't hit their jump right. Expecially in slopestyle indeed the risks have very much to do with exactly how the course is designed. Most of these events would be safer just with less elevation in the jumps.

Nor are the Olympics about seeing the best athletes. How many things can you be wrong on in one post? Wait, the NHL didn't go, right?

The concern, expressed by almost every medical body in the world is that these extreme events are being legitimized by the Olympics and at young athletes peril and life long suffering. All those broken bones, limbs, joints impacts worse as one ages. We haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg on how much disability all these extreme sports cause.

The Olympic ideal involves sporting competition further to increasing interest in activities that further public health. For instance every time Canada has hosted an Olympics is to engage the public in activities, to further participation in activities for the supposed benefit of public health. Not wrapping people in bubble wrap, but not sending them home in traction either..

 

[soothsayer]

I just read that there's a contingent of lunatics complaining about the "insensetivity" to black berry alergies in the Peter Rabbit movie, and the studio issued a formal apology. Holy f*** just kill me already.

Anyways, the women's snowboarding slopestyle was an abomination. 4 years ago the ladies were doing 1080s. This year the top run, if you can call it a top run, featured a 720. The conditions were awful, which only exacerbated the ladies' strange and confusing lack of sport progression in snowboarding, especially when compared to the men. It was a feat for one of the athletes to simply finish the damn run. It was totally unfair for the organizers to force the competion to proceed in such awful (insanely windy) conditions. The olympics is about the highest level of competition, but forcing the contest in such conditions only embarassed women snowboarding in the main and dragged it back a decade. And I don't think I'm exagerating here.

 

[Drivesaitl]

^I watched for an hour and not one was able to finish the run. Every other one that I saw crash landed. An abomination certainly. Totally dependent on the course and the conditions. A compounding factor is women running the same courses as men and trying to clear the same jumps to make it to land safely. Which all the ones I saw were unable to do. Trying to match up to men the women will try the hardest jumps, hardest stunts but often to their peril. The vast majority of women competing in this discipline suffer serious injuries.

 

[SomeDudeOTI]

The wind conditions in that slope boarding were ridiculous, no way they should have run that event.

 

[VainGretzky]

Been watching Olympics since 1972 I remember falling was a major disappointment Ski competitions skating so on , now I guess completing a course or routine is worth a medal now , technology is destroying sports lazy generations and not seeing the cream rise to the top anymore , full credit for those who train hard for these sports but a lot of the worlds best missed the boat and are on twitter or facebook looking for likes.

 

[Cerebral]

Gold for Kingsbury!

 

[nabob]

Been watching Olympics since 1972 I remember falling was a major disappointment Ski competitions skating so on , now I guess completing a course or routine is worth a medal now , technology is destroying sports lazy generations and not seeing the cream rise to the top anymore , full credit for those who train hard for these sports but a lot of the worlds best missed the boat and are on twitter or facebook looking for likes.

Happens in every sport. Take our Canadian tennis darling for example. Hell I'm pretty sure that Eberle cared more about social media likes than he did fans cheering him at the games last year.

 

[Drivesaitl]

More on the absolute idiocy of having the Slopestyle Womens competition run in windy, unpredictable conditions;

Slopestyle event takes place despite windy conditions

Keeping in mind that this is the next Olympics after the epidemic of serious injuries in the last Olympic Slopestyle completion in Sochi.

ZERO competitors finished both runs and only 5 competitors managed to finish any of the runs in their two attempts meaning that 25 competitors had 2 runs at max and there were only 5 finishes all day with the highest run counting. Meaning that if you actually managed to even finish either one of your runs on the course there was a good chance you were on the podium.

Organizers criticized for allowing slopestyle final to go ahead despite high winds | Sports| German football and major international sports news | DW | 12.02.2018

The event should be retitled Olympic crash test landing triage event

Virtually every competitor did not want the event to run on the day under the wind conditions and raised their concerns with their associations, the media etc. All the competitors after the event wanted to talk more about how wrong it was to run the event, and that they pressured into competing, than the actual results.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Next, the FIS is out of their minds. They were in favor of the Slopestyle (the most dangerous competition by a mile going ahead and had cancelled the Mens downhill and the Womens Giant Slalom event. Both of those events were deemed too dangerous to go ahead. Basically every pundit wondering why the Women's Slopestyle event was green lighted in conditions that were deemed to dangerous for other events that typically feature only half the amount of injuries if that.

 

[bucks_oil]

Been watching Olympics since 1972 I remember falling was a major disappointment Ski competitions skating so on , now I guess completing a course or routine is worth a medal now , technology is destroying sports lazy generations and not seeing the cream rise to the top anymore , full credit for those who train hard for these sports but a lot of the worlds best missed the boat and are on twitter or facebook looking for likes.

Jeebuz... this is such an angry old man post and has like... zero... basis in reality.

I'm a GenXer and even I can admit that this snowboarding sport that WE invented has been completely revolutionized by this next generation of tweeters, likers and vbloggers. In my opinion, you should be ashamed of your post.

1) Weather is still a thing... if you don't get that, you've never "caught air"
2) The technology in snowboarding hasn't changed all that much. I have boards in my garage dating back to 1989... round-about 1998, the progression of the technology leveled off. Boards are maybe a little lighter & have a variety of camber patterns to choose from (but traditional camber is still highly regarded), but the rest is mostly gimmick.
3) The tricks these kids can pull off nowadays are beyond what was even imagined in snowboarding's first heyday. There is a reason legends like Craig Kelly (may he RIP) and Jeremy Jones took to the backcountry during their athletic "prime", the trick progression accelerated so quickly, that if you weren't learning inversions in your teens, it wasn't happening. These guys progressed the sport, but that progression overtook them and led to what you are seeing today.
4) I've snowboarded for 30 years and I am a very athletic male. These girls, even with their disappointing runs, are doing tricks I could never dream of.

Shame on you.

 

[Drivesaitl]

^I do agree very much with this. (-minus the shame on you dig, that part is unnecessary)The problem is not the athletes. Its a combination of course and conditions that are untenable and in which few of the world class competitors could finish the course and ZERO of them were able to do anything close to their established routine. due to the course and conditions.

To me its truly crazy how dedicated these athletes are in these hi risk disciplines and they train endlessly and put themselves at continual risk learning.

While what they accomplish is certainly worthy of all my respect I still express concern about the dangers inherent.

But yeah, these athletes are truly amazing, and when you have a lot of them saying its too dangerous or that they are pulling out due to danger its time for the suits to start payng attention to that and listening to the athletes who know better about the risks than anybody else.

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

When does mens' hockey start up?

 

[Hockey Nightmare]

When does mens' hockey start up?

Yeah, I can't wait to see the Spengler Cup part 2

 

[VainGretzky]

I guess weather had a lot to do with all the men dropping in the moguls too right ? Excuses for everything Lol sport quality is dropping same as competitive drive as well it's all the don't count scores and everyone wins trophy sjw society Canada won gold in team figure skating with a solid 8 falls lol . Sorry falls used to be a rarity on the higher world rank athletes now it's a gold medal.

 

[Arpeggio]

I guess weather had a lot to do with all the men dropping in the moguls too right ? Excuses for everything Lol sport quality is dropping same as competitive drive as well it's all the don't count scores and everyone wins trophy sjw society Canada won gold in team figure skating with a solid 8 falls lol . Sorry falls used to be a rarity on the higher world rank athletes now it's a gold medal.

You're so out of touch lol.

Also I just watched the men's moguls final, basically no one fell.

 

[VainGretzky]

You're so out of touch lol.

Also I just watched the men's moguls final, basically no one fell.

Really 2 of the final 6 fell and the leader in the 12 man qualification final fell you're right about out of touch wrong person. And you either lie or did not watch it lmao

 

[Frank the Tank]

I guess weather had a lot to do with all the men dropping in the moguls too right ? Excuses for everything Lol sport quality is dropping same as competitive drive as well it's all the don't count scores and everyone wins trophy sjw society Canada won gold in team figure skating with a solid 8 falls lol . Sorry falls used to be a rarity on the higher world rank athletes now it's a gold medal.

Why drag generational politics into this thread?

Take the time to compare routines from 20-30 years ago and now, and one would be shocked by the difference in quality. One can argue the merits of rewarding a conservative, mistake-free routine vs. ambitious with mistakes, but the quality of the athletes and their routines have improved over the decades.

 

[Arpeggio]

Really 2 of the final 6 fell and the leader in the 12 man qualification final fell you're right about out of touch wrong person. And you either lie or did not watch it lmao

3 people? Oh wow what a generation of losers. It's almost like when athletes are testing the limits of what's humanly possible they fall sometimes. The trick Kingsbury did on his first jump would've been unheard of 20 years ago. The snowboarder that just won bronze for Canada almost died on a mountain a year ago, and before that he broke his femur doing a trick that, again, would've been impossible even ten years ago. Must've been doing it for the likes.