Winter Olympics

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I think that this is the poll that Saber was talking about. Problem with that poll was with the demographics. Rather than question people who would normally watch a sport to determine popularity, they questioned people who never watched any sports at all. That tended to skew the results and elevate all the figure skating categories. Just look at "air shows" coming in ahead of boxing, track and field, Arena Football, and NHL Hockey. Something isn't right with this poll. Plus, it's almost 15 years old. NASCAR has soared in popularity over the last 10 years.

I even tried to Google "National Sports Study II", and I get nothing.

 

Thanks Hack. Yeah, those numbers seem to be off by a great deal. Especially considering the 4 of the top 6 selections involve some form of ice skating. I think there's another factor at work here as well. When we consider sport fans, there are far more men than women. However, women DO tend to watch (and enjoy) sports like figure skating. Assuming that this poll includes an equal proportion of men and women, it is factoring the women's preference into account. Which is fine, except that it doesn't take into account that while most women would prefer to watch figure skating over virtually any other sport, they are more likely to watch no sporting event at all.

I'll use my wife and myself as an example. My wife certainly does prefer figure skating over football, whereas I prefer football over figure skating. However, the number of skating events she will watch in the course of the year, is far, far, smaller than the number of football games I will watch. So yeah, she likes figure skating more, but that doesn't mean she is more likely to watch figure skating, simply because they are so rarely televised. In fact, given the frequency in which football is televised, she probably watches much more football in the course of a year, even though it is far from her favorite sport.

 

The US has 7 gold medals in these olympics (and a total medal count of 17), Norway has 2 gold with a total count of 18. If you watch the medal statistics you will see that there's a lot more nations with lots of medals this winter compared to previous olympics. While we Norwegians (at least some of us sports fanatics ) almost consider this olympics to a "failure" with only 2 gold (compared to 10/26 (gold/total) in 94, 10/25 in 98 and 13/25 in 02), we also have to admit that there's a lot more competition from a lot more countries now.

And I have to add that our gold medals this year comes from skii jumping and super g, and not classic Norwegian events such as cross country or biathlon.

 

When you consider the relative failures that the big name American Olympians have been (Michelle Kwan, Bodie Miller, Apolo Aton Ohno, and that snowboard girl who tried to hot dog and lost a gold medal), this Olympiad has been a smashing success for the US. We've never gotten this many medals before in an Winter Olympics outside the US.

I also have to stand in awe a bit when I look at the performances of Norway, Austria and Germany and place their population and size in relation to countries like the US and Russia. Just imagine if Austria and Germany were still one nation (that's not meant as a political statement, just an idle musing).

My big heartburn with the games comes from the way that NBC is presenting the coverage in prime time. There has to be a solution to the time differential and timely coverage. To me, it's just lame to stay up to watch events that've been over for hours, that I could find the outcome of by looking on the web...but that are still sold to me by plastic faced announcers as "live". The events are even cut and spliced to insure that I'll stick around to see the outcome of the most interesting thing they're covering that night. I feel like they're treating me like it's 1982.

I hope whoever covers the next Olympics will do a better and more creative job of bringing me the televised events.

 

Well Apollo has won a medal, hasn't he? I know he hasn't produced multiple medals that he was predicted to, but anytime you leave an Olympics with hardware, it has to be considered a success.

Kwan never should have made the Olympic team. She hasn't been healthy enough to skate in a year, and while I admire her determination in trying to get a gold medal, the truth of it is that she has had her opportunities and failed. Add to the fact that she pulled out early in the Olympics, and with plenty of time for a replacement to arrive in Torino means no harm was done in the long run.

Bode Miller is another story. I have never seen such hype surrounding an athlete and have said athlete fall so far short of delivering the goods. And I think he is done now. He was scheduled to compete in five events, and I think all five events have finished at this point. No medals. Not even a measly bronze to come home with. If you're going to talk the talk, then you have to walk the walk. You can't talk smack and then fail to medal in a single event.

Finally, the next Winter Olympics will be done in prime time (and live) for you and me Hack, as well as everyone else living in North and South America, as the 2010 site is in Vancouver. All the premier events will be done in the evening. The Europeans will have to stay up late to get the results. Of course, the lesser events will be done in the afternoon, which will be primetime in Europe, so they'll get somthing. I will at least say that Europe is preferable to say, the 2008 Olympics in China, where there will be a time differential of about 16 hours instead of the 5 or 6 we are currently suffering through.

 

To the Scandinavians, why is that the Danes are so much behind in sports in general - I am not sure, but I guess that can be applied to the summer games as well, although I could be wrong - compared to Norway and Sweden? I know their population is smaller and everything, but is there any other reason? Are they "softer" or something? I heard Swedes say they are more cheerful and less tough. Might be a reason to fail at sports.
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EDIT:

Haha, Russia beat the US yesterday and eliminated Canada today in Ice Hockey. Most likely the Czech will run over Sweden, and I am hoping Russia will beat the Finns as well - I am still pissed at what they have done to Jaromir Jágr - to make an all Slavic final. Then the Czechs might be content enough to get silver.

[ February 23, 2006, 00:19: Message edited by: Svyatoslav ]

 

My money is on Finland. They have been playing like madmen. Teemu Selanne is playing superbly.

Shame about Canada! These ice rinks are certainlky bigger that the rinks in the NHL, but it's really not an excuse, everybody has to deal with that after all. Still, shame to see a side like that go out.

Come on Finland!

 

I think it's going to be Sweden - Finland in the finals myself. The NHL is loosing quality, rapidly, and teams that have players from that league exclusively will not get far.

 

So much for the "superiority" of the NHL -- both Canada and the U.S. bumped. Professional athletes are TOTALLY out of touch with reality and I hope this will snap them around, if only for a few minutes.

That said, as a Canadian allow me to say that I was EXTREMELY torqued off that Todd Bertuzzi was permitted to represent my country -- he's an idiot, and I thought that long before the Canadians got eliminated, and I would still have thought that even if we had won with Todd having scored 1000 goals. I don't want people like that saying they represent me, and because I live in a free country I can say that!

 

LKD,

I don't think the US team is that great - I am not an expert on hockey, but thats what I hear - but my friend said the Canadian team was the best - the Czechs being slightly after. So I think it is more a matter of ****ting their pants when the game is for real, than that they are superestimated. After all, they got beaten by Russia, which has a great team as well.
Why don't you like this Todd guy?

 

Another embarassing example of Western ethnocentrism on my part, Svy -- I thought everyone know about this bugger. During an NHL game a few years ago he took a full fledged, uncalled for, utterly cheap swing with his stick at the head of another player. Gave the other guy a concussion, put the guy out of play for months (at the least) and generally angered most Canadians by bringing the national sort into disrepute.

The attack was so flagrant and so obviously not just an accident that happened in the heat of the moment in a rough sport that he ended up being criminally charged (though not convicted, IIRC). He was also suspended for months on end by the NHL. He's a thug, a bully, and I repudiate him with all my soul. Having him represent Canada was a disgrace -- to exaggerate a smidge, it was like having O.J. Simpson represent the US at a sporting event. IMHO, Todd Bertuzzi represents nothing of what makes Canada a great nation.

As for having a great team, obviously neither Canada or the U.S. had one. But I'll bet that those players they fielded make a LOT more money than the players fielded by the other countries. The proof is in the medal-less pudding; those idiots don't deserve their obscene salaries.

 

Huh? Isn't that what you all love most about ice hockey? All the big fights?

 

No, the fights are not what most of us Canucks like, we like the speed and skill involved in the game.

But this wasn't even a fight -- a fight in hockey means 2 guys dropping their sticks and gloves, each getting a good grip on the front of the others' shirt, and then, toe to toe, eye to eye, they punch each other until a ref or teammates can pull them apart. Bertuzzi skated up behind another player (the name escapes me), drew back his stick, and clocked the unsuspecting fellow in the skull like a Rogue sneak attacking with a bastard sword. That attack was, IMHO, criminal, and could have done serious and lasting damage to the victim. It was no accident. It was CERTAINLY not a fight.

 

Oh damn, we were humiliated. I knew Russian match would be a tough one, but I thought the Czechs would have it easy...All Nordic final.

 

Shooting and skiing is a military combination and biathlon has its origins in Norweigan military training and as its popularity grew it became a serious sport and made it to the olympics. It's quite entertaining to watch and after the Finnish doping scandal in Nordic Skiing I have found it to be a lot more interesting.

To me the Winter Olympics are probably the most important sports event and there are very few disciplines that I'm not at all interested in, but then I am a Finn.

In any case the Winter Olympics do have disciplines that are completely foreign to some countries but Americans certainly qualify as hosts since they do very well in many different disciplines.

 

LKD, it was McSorely with the stick thing and that was quite a few years back. Bertuzzi punched a guy in the back of head while basically jumping on his back and driving his head into the ice.

And the larger ice isn't a great excuse.... I will blame the coaching though. Only Quinn could screw up a rooster like that one.

 

We Koreans have six gold medals...and they're all from speed skating(not much for variety, eh?)