I don't think it's searching, Jon. It's front page of ESPN.com or Yahoo stuff. Or ESPN radio updates.

Admittedly, I have no idea how you quantify long term value depreciation here, particularly when you're seeing a short term ratings boost versus four years ago.

That said, on an anecdotal basis, I know of three folks who did not watch the coverage last night because they heard during the day how the downhill finished, an event most would probably rank in their top five for winter Olympic viewing.

Wow- what a shot in the Norway-Canada match. He knocked out 3 Canadian stones in one hit, turning what looked really dangerous for them into a blank frame.

SI

{shrug} I figured that went without saying I guess.

US is in some trouble in curling. The breaks are going Germany's way.

Where / when is this 850 hours of coverage? Near as I can tell from my local guide, a fair chunk of it is Universal Sports, an SD simulcast digital station that is essentially an "ESPN-NEWS" for the Olympics, running updates on what already occurred rather than actually showing events. And they can brag about 850 hours all they want, when 6-8PM is showing only women's hockey on one channel, they aren't covering much.

Likely another large chunk will be making heavier use of CNBC once Men's hockey starts today, but we've just had so many events missed or juggled already.

I've been on every one of my usual sites today, same as normal. Including ESPN.com, 4 different newspaper sites, and my portal that aggregrates headlines.

I can tell you that Janikowski became the highest paid kicker, that Pat Summitt kicked a freshman PG out of practice yesterday (first player kicked out in three years), that Jair Jurjens is having an MRI done on his shoulder, that the Athens-Clarke County government is going to be asked to spend $54m in SPLOST money to enlarge the local convention facility, and that Fulton Co. GA has gotten a judge to approve them banning liquor sales in strip clubs. I've been on FOFC, I've been on Facebook, I've both emailed & called people relating to work. In short, my normal routine.

But as far as the Olympics go, other than knowing that some ski event was bumped due to weather again, I couldn't tell you jack. Well, that and there was some apparently spectacular shot in the Norway-Canada hockey matchup (although except for looking up the cable schedule earlier I wouldn't have known whether that referred to men's or women's hockey & I'm still not 100% sure even then).

How hard is it to miss this stuff again?

wasn't hard yesterday. probably aren't as many medal-events today

Also, it's still morning out here.

The only events scheduled for this morning were the Curling prelim matches, the ski race which got postponed and a cross country race which is underway.

Triple freakin' dola...

The women's snowboard cross final is at 2:40 local time this afternoon. If Jacobellis wins that you, I bet you won't have to look far to find her glowing face on your normal web stops.

Is she one of the blondes from the opening night interviews?

Likely. Curly hair, the one who busted while hotdogging it 4 years ago.

US-Swiss set to drop the puck.

Does Norway have any NHL players?

Sort of. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen played for Columbus, moved to Philadelphia at the start of the season, and was just traded to Detroit a week or two ago. Detroit demoted him to their AHL club after the trade.

The curling action was pretty exciting today, particularly Canada-Norway. They went into extra innings (ends?) and Canada won on the hammer, sliding a stone past 3 Norwegian blockers for the point.

SI

SI...come on...get the lingo right...extra ends and guards, not blockers!!!

:)

DOLA...I look forward to seeing the curling later tonight as it looked like CAN had the game under control early but must have stumbled/or NOR woke up later on.

Hey look everyone, I made a video!

Hey, I'm working on it. It's been 4 years since I've seen curling so I'm having to relearn a bit.


Norway had a couple of great shots to keep Canada at bay and Canada had two costly errors.

SI

Women's curling starting now, streaming live on nbcolympics.com

SI

So NBC's website won't be showing a live stream of the women's snowboard cross (looks like they're only showing hockey and curling streams), anyone got a good recommendation?

edit: nevermind, found a Eurosport one.

The official website (vancouver2010.com) lists all the websites that are allowed to live broadcast. It seems NBC is the only tv channel allowed to broadcast over the 'net to USA viewers. You could try any of the others, but you'll never know you get past the IP checks...

edit: heh, looks like you found your solution already. ;)

btw, I just noticed the untraditional way the Vancouver 2010 website lists medal winning countries in. The traditional way is to order by gold, then silver, then bronze, but they list countries by total medals.

Gold ML!!

German Eurosport flaked out on me but Romanian Eurosport is holding up well.


I prefer the non-traditional/American method adding gold/silver/bronze together.

I'd appreciate a pm from somebody that has a stream for the snowboard cross final :)

Hmm, the way they have it is the way I remember the lists being in the past. First sort is total medals, then they go to gold, then silver, then bronze.

Great stuff Maple Leafs

Huh - I always remember gold first, in every country I've ever read a paper in. :D

Interesting, so apparently there are different standards for how to list the medals. I mean, there's no 'right' way to order, but knowing which company is responsible for the stats tracking it's surprising to me they changed their own standards.

Yeah, to be clear, it is listed as:

Gold Silver Bronze Total

but the sort order is how I described it.

Good win by the American hockey team although they did get sloppy in the defensive end. Ryan Miller had a good game and I think he'll have to carry this team if they have any hopes of medaling.

Sorry, EF27.

I need to remember to stay out of this thread if people are going to be posting results of stuff that will be aired later on in primetime.

I think that's probably the best solution. In Canada, most stuff is airing live on one of 3 channels. I haven't been following NBC's coverage, and I have no idea if they have been doing the live stuff, what has aired, what is 'off limits'.

Snowcross was really fun to watch. Very happy with the ending

USA/Japan curling match on CNBC is a good one. Now in the 9th end.

I wouldn't read too much into it. For a team that just had one day of practice together and had a choppy ice surface, they played well. Canada has line combos/pairings that are used to playing together.

Basically a borderline NHL player and that is it.

He isn't even playing in the game against Canada...family emergency.

Also, Patrick Thoresen played for the Oilers and the Flyers from 2006-08.

His moment of fame in the NHL came from an injury, which was initially thought to be a "ruptured testicle", but tests showed no rupture. Nevertheless, that's still gotta hurt.

I haven't watched much of the Olympics yet, but every time I do, I keep hearing the commentators talking about Whistler and Whistler and Whistler like it's supposed to mean something to me. "Now we head to Whistler..." "Let's go back to Whistler..." "Today at Whistler..." I think these people just like saying "Whistler." I like saying "dicksissle," but you don't see me dropping that word every chance I get.

Dicksissle.

You going to tell that to Kris Kristofferson?

SI

Fricking Direct TV... you would have thought their search for "sports -> hockey" would include the Olympic games on CNBC. I missed the first 2 periods of the Canada game because of that. Only found out the game was on by pure luck when an article I read on line had a link to the schedule.

Getzlaf and Perry seem to be playing really well in the 3rd period. Bit surprised Canada hasn't scored more against possibly the weakest team in the competition.

Nice rip by Heatley off the post.

Women's snowcross is kind of hilarious - girls wiping out behind the coverage and apparently not even finishing. 1 qualifying for the semis while faceplanting and sliding the last 50 feet on her face.

Snowboardcross (or however the fuck you spell it) is one of those sports that I only remember during the Olympics and always makes me wish I liked snow more. That looks like a hell of a lot of fun, and if I was 20 years younger, I would adore it like Totino's pizzas and Cocoa Pebbles.

It is the rare winter olympics sport that I would actually like to play rather than watch.

Unfortunately, I don't even like to walk outside when it's snowing, let alone play in it.

That sucked for Jacobellis.

What do you think the chances are of getting Jim or Mark to drop their football projects and code a snowboardcross sim? That could be huge. For me.

Well, that's one athlete who hasn't been having some good Olympicses.

EDIT: Olympi? What the heck is the plural of "Olympics?"

I sort of like Olympicses, whether or not it's correct. Or maybe Olympixi.

Snowboard cross is definitely pretty awesome to watch. Makes me wish I was 16 again. I'll have to settle for living vicariously through my children.

Those pants the Norwegian curling team wears are so awesome. They could teach the figure skaters something about how to dress.

I'm confused. You live in the US, right? And NBC paid a bafillion dollars to broadcast an Olympics that was being held on the same continent. Clearly they must be broadcasting the events live, and not (to use a humorlessly extreme example) spending all their time showing bullshit human interest stories and viking snowboarders. Dick Ebersol is way smarter than that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, just tune in to NBC.

Heh, you obviously haven't followed the criticism of NBC's coverage. They are showing a lot of events on tape delay including the snow boarding races so that the most "popular" sports will be in prime time each evening. I still enjoyed the snow boarding even knowing who was going to win, but I'll stay out of this thread until it is later in the evening for now on, as Canadian TV is of course doing a much better job of showing things live.

pretty sure maple leafs was intending sarcasm

Holy Crap, flaming goth...

We were flipping back and forth between the Norway-Canada and US-Germany match in curling today and you could tell which spot on the ice the Norwegians were at just by seeing a glimpse or two of the pants the next team over was wearing.

Speaking of Olympic fashion- what was up with the Italian with the overalls and playing the country music?

Oh, and Johnny Weir looks like a woman. But if I remember right from the last Olympics, he's an idiot and a jerk.

SI

Re-reading it, I think you are right.

Love that I get both CBC and the NBC channels. Feeds from both countries.

BTW, what time and channel does the Russia hockey game start?

Poor guy in wacky skeleton. He looked good but Hamilton kept crapping on him "Well, he did good. For him. Now, let's get back to the big kids."

SI

Ugh. I liked the pairs a lot better. It's like Hamilton, the PBP guy, and that annoying woman were served notes to not talk until after the presentation. And they did that. For one night.

SI

Is flaming goth the US team's theme?

Man, these commentators suck. And that skeleton outfit was AWESOME. It made me feel, like, 90% less gay to be watching this.

I've been going in and out on the NBC coverage tonight. Did I miss the 500m Women's Speed Skating Final or is that still coming up?

Wait? We get something good coming up? I hope so.

I've been in and out, too, but I haven't seen it yet.

SI

Didn't see that guy skate but I will agree on the commentators. They need to seriously SFTU.

Let them finish and then if you want to point out areas that you think may cost points do so then (but don't sound like a nit-picky little know-it-all bitch while doing so).

Can someone photoshop a Crosby, Stills, and Nash album cover with Crosby, Iginla, and Nash instead? ;) What a line!

A pitcher's duel is going on in men's curling, Norway lead USA 2-1 in the seventh inning.

Love the anti-corporate attitude of the IOC on its athletes:

Gleason at the Games: Miller's mask might need new paint job

Turns out my DVR was wrong or they chose to move it late. It will be in the late night coverage now.

I keep thinking Russia is wearing pants with the all bright-red uniforms.

Oh man, it's the Norwegians and their pants again.

SI

The Canadians with another win today, crushing the Germans so they forfeit after 9 ends. The Canadian skip (Martin) is great. Of course, on TSN, the shot of the match is brought to you by Tom Horton's.

US is in the 10th with a 5-4 lead but the Norwegians have the hammer so that's really bad news to just have a 1 point lead.

France-China is in the same boat. France just missed a shot to get a point and take a 5-4 lead, instead handing the lead to China but they get the hammer in the 10th end.

SI

The USA and Norway can't decide it in regulation so they're going to extra ends, tied 5-5. However, the US got back the all-important hammer.

SI

USA-Norway going to extras. There's no commentator and I have no idea how extra innings work in this, but it's fun stuff.

I'd love to try playing this sport one day, I wonder how far from southern SC I'd have to go to find a place where people go curling.

Near as I can tell from the extra ends in the Canada match earlier today, it's like baseball. Whoever is ahead at the end of the end wins. If they tie, then it goes to another end.

China-France with another potential extra end game. Down to 3 stones each. I have both games open in separate tabs and just go to whichever has something going on, muting the sound as applicable.

SI

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F5JE20100216


At least it isn't Scotland (yeah, I know, they are part of the Great Britain team in the Olympics). Imagine if the hockey teams had this design?


What channel is this on?

I'm watching this online on nbcolympics.com. Go to sports -> curling and they have links on the bottom.

SI

WOW! China-France came down to one awesome shot! They deserved that standing ovation the crowd gave them

SI

Oh man. Brutal loss for the US. They had it all lined up and missed what probably was an easy shot (according to my untrained eye).

SI

Damn, a foot less on that last throw and the US would've won, now they're 0-2 after the first day.

Very hard to get a read on this Russian team. The offensive firepower is obviously there and they looked awesome in the first period but since then they have taken their foot off the gas and defensively they have been very frail and have turned it over a bunch. I think they will have to score six or seven to beat Canada or Sweden and it will come down to how well the goalies play. But with this offense they probably could do that.

So the US was 0-3 in curling on the day despite being able to win all 3?

I think I reached my max curling watching ability after watching the majority of USA/Germany.

I was checking out betting sites to see how they thought the US team stacked up compared to the others, apparently we're in the middle of the pack in the men's and slightly worse than that in the women's.

personal recap of last day/night :

- The Biathlon was great, well done by Ferry who is just a specialist in the pursuit race. Too bad the canadian had that 30 second penalty, had a good run.

- the 500M decicion between the south korean and german Jenny Wolf was intense, incredible 2nd heat by both.

- Hockey : US team looked good, but the swiss team held their ground as well, good showing by both squads.
Russia-Latvia was highly entertaining, loved the latvian´s spirit of "fuck it, we a re just going all out regardless" that made for a great game offering the russians a bit more space than desireable if you are latvian ;)

- women hockey :Seriously, the talent gap is ridiculous between some of the teams. The US could have scored 20+ if they wanted to yesterday.

- curling men : Good start fro the germans all in all, i agree that canada-norway was pretty damn great.

-snowboard women : The course was clearly a bit too difficult for them judging from the number of (often unprompted) falls and blunders, hardly any close finishes.

Yeah, this is a sport that seems to have gotten included in the olympics WAY too early. There just are not enough world class teams to hold a world class tournament. Basically, its the US and Canada, and nothing else.

Gosh, those tape delays sure are killing NBC's ratings.

Monday night was up 19% over same night Torino.

As this article puts it, as long as Americans are winning then American viewers will tune in to watch.

The first four days average is the highest Winter Olympics not held in the US since '94 (fueled by Harding-Kerrigan).

Women's curling live online right now. US-Germany tied at 1 after 4 ends. Japan up 3-2 on Canada in the 4th end. There are also 2 other matches that I'm not watching currently.

SI

HEY, NBC! BRING BACK THE TRIPLECAST!

This curling is just to much of a clusterfuck for my liking. One minute the announcers are saying the US is all but guaranteed to steal a point and a minute later Germany puts up a 3 spot. I'm still try to figure out the strategy in this game.

This might take the cake as the most unpredictable game out there.

Are the announcers guaranteeing points like that? It's like an NFL guy saying "well, the Pats are up by 14 with 2 minutes left, looks like they'll win this game." Yeah, a large percentage of the time they'll win but there's still the chance they can lose.

Think chess...on ice.

I think the problem is that NBC's curling play-by-play guy doesn't grasp the permutations of differing strategies. He called out, "Great shot!" more than once yesterday during the Germany-US game. Don Duguid, the Canadian color guy, would subtly interject that it wasn't as great a shot as the play-by-play guy thought it was. I think Duguid was actually getting a bit annoyed with the play-by-play guy's commentary.

Actually, what it really brings to mind is some sort of billiards on ice. It's simple geometry but you need to execute, there's some shot trickery needed, and when you start introducing more elements than hit one ball into a second ball, things get a lot more complex.

SI

I thought Musburger was on ABC/ESPN?

This is why I keep watching the Canadian matches. I was trying to explain this to some people last night. The American announcers are treating the audience not just as neophytes- which is ok because we are- but with the same 3rd grade level intelligence that brings us Madden saying stuff like "If you want to win, you have to score more points than the other team".

However, the Canadian broadcasts doesn't have as much talking. They don't just say stuff to fill time. However, usually what they say is quite insightful and I tend to learn something. Even if it's a little over my head, I can retain it for use later.

SI

regarding the ongoing women´s downhill be told that it is both fucked up and speactacular.
I mean, that track might be more difficult than the men´s track, 4 real jumps with 2 of them leading into curves, a few really nasty turns and a ton of "unsteady" passages.

One of the Americans didnt do so well;) I leave it at that for those of you waiting to see this tape delayed. Pretty crappy when this isnt a live event on major TV. Streaming just sucks for the most part.

Man... oh man...