2014 Winter Olympics Thread- Sochi (spoiler tags for events that haven't aired)

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I can't stop looking at Bob Costas' eye.

yeah me too-at first I thought it was just the angle of the camera through his glasses, but that one eye is definitely drooping

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Maybe they don't have to build all sorts of new stadiums and infrastructures and such was my point. It would require "scaling them down" in some ways I'm sure, but that's my point.

A certain amount of infrastructure is sort of required if you're going to host a few thousand extra people (what is it, 2k-3k competitors for the Winter games, 11k for the Summer games). Then add spectators & support personnel.

I mean, you gotta be able to house 'em, feed 'em, bath 'em, and get 'em from point A to point B.

And how many places even have specialized venues for some of the events?

[Galaxy]

Zdeno Chara's "custom" bed:

Boston Bruins' Zdeno Chara gets 'custom' bed at Sochi Olympics | FOX Sports on MSN

[Galaril]

Having lived overseas for 13 years including Korea I can say if people are ripping the accommodations in this Winter Games wait till they 2018 when they are in Pyeonchang. Shit and Soju literally. LOL.

[JonInMiddleGA]

So earlier tonight I'm talking to my son about Tretiak and he asks me a question that I had to pause & think over:

Who was the greatest non-Canadian (and ultimately non-North American) hockey forward?

I threw out a couple of names, fairly contemporary ones though. Is there a consensus answer to that question?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

So earlier tonight I'm talking to my son about Tretiak and he asks me a question that I had to pause & think over:

Who was the greatest non-Canadian (and ultimately non-North American) hockey forward?

I threw out a couple of names, fairly contemporary ones though. Is there a consensus answer to that question?

Consensus - no I wouldn't think so.

Jagr is the leading point-getter among European forwards in NHL history. Selanne is like 300 points behind him, and Jari Kurri is like 55 behind him.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Consensus - no I wouldn't think so.

Jagr is the leading point-getter among European forwards in NHL history. Selanne is like 300 points behind him, and Jari Kurri is like 55 behind him.

He mentioned Jagr, I kinda froze & threw out Bure's name. Wasn't sure if there was some equivalent to Tretiak that I was just totally blanking on.

[Lathum]

Mogilny early in his career was amazing.

We were really treated to a golden age with Mogilny, Bure, Jagr, Federov, Selane, etc...

[DaddyTorgo]

Bure at his peak maybe talent-wise, but he's not in the Top 25 in career NHL points.

In fact, those 3 I listed were the only Europeans in the Top 25 Career Points.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thanks Lathum, Fedorov's name was one I tried to come up with & totally went blank on.

I really did basically kinda answer the question with a long "Uhhhhh ...."

[DaddyTorgo]

Top 10 all-time Europeans - The Hockey News

[ISiddiqui]

What a fantastic Opening Ceremony!!

[EagleFan]

I would think any of the three from the KLM line could be among the top European forwards.

[SirFozzie]

I know NBC wants to air everything Winter Olympics, but it was a bit bemusing to see them air "The first training session" from the Women's Ski Jumping :/

[SirFozzie]

...and before there was vuvuzelas... there was the Dutch skating fans blowing horns at speed skating (airing on NBCSN now)

[SirFozzie]

Warning, do not go to espn.com for major olympic spoiler:

Spoiler

Sage Kotsenberg wins the first US Gold of the Olympics, winning men's slopestyle

[SirFozzie]

Orange Crush, Netherlands sweeping the podium in Men's 5,000 speed skating.

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Warning, do not go to espn.com for major olympic
spoiler

It's terrible on how the media is spoiling everything. Turn on a news channel, pr open up your browser and go search, or to the news sites, and they spoil it right for you. MSN is really bad.

[cuervo72]

Just stick to MIJB's updates. You might not even get spoiled as to what events are going on.

[Buccaneer]

MIJB's updates and ISiddiqui's cheerleading and you'll be all set.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

It's terrible on how the media is spoiling everything.

Yeah ... God forbid that news outlets covering an event actually provide, you know, news about the event.

[Young Drachma]

People in internet age complaining about internet. News at 11.

[EagleFan]

It wouldn't be hard to link to results with no spoilers so only those who wanted to know the results would find out instead of plastering it on the main page. Sadly common courtesy is no longer a rule to live by.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

It wouldn't be hard to link to results with no spoilers so only those who wanted to know the results would find out instead of plastering it on the main page. Sadly common courtesy is no longer a rule to live by.

That's not common courtesy, that's a disservice to those who wanted the info in as quick & easy a fashion as possible. If something is headline worthy (which is questionable I'll admit) then it belongs in the headline, site visitors shouldn't be forced to make an extra click because people are too f'n stupid to anticipate the presence of so-called spoilers.

For ESPN, it's a matter of competition. The more viewership they can kill, the happier they are. It's not their event after all.

For MSNBC, it's a matter of trying encourage casual viewers by reminding them that some obscure event even exists (and to emphasize that "yes, we're part of this too")

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

That's not common courtesy, that's a disservice to those who wanted the info in as quick & easy a fashion as possible. If something is headline worthy (which is questionable I'll admit) then it belongs in the headline, site visitors shouldn't be forced to make an extra click because people are too f'n stupid to anticipate the presence of so-called spoilers.

For ESPN, it's a matter of competition. The more viewership they can kill, the happier they are. It's not their event after all.

For MSNBC, it's a matter of trying encourage casual viewers by reminding them that some obscure event even exists (and to emphasize that "yes, we're part of this too")

Thankfully this wasn't the prevailing line of thought in 1980.

[EagleFan]

What's stupid is for any entity involved in televising the events spoiling the results. I have seen several results on MSN that means I won't be watching those events later, makes no sense watching a sporting event in which you know the outcome.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

What's stupid is for any entity involved in televising the events spoiling the results. I have seen several results on MSN that means I won't be watching those events later, makes no sense watching a sporting event in which you know the outcome.

+1

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

What's stupid is for any entity involved in televising the events spoiling the results.

But that isn't the typical viewer. These are largely "spectacle" viewers -- especially in the winter games -- watching for the fact that it's on rather than because it's compelling sports.

We fall into a trap of thinking the world (err ... the rest of the country) thinks like us, reality is that we're far from the norm.

[bhlloy]

I think we've had this discussion before in length about sportscenter showing a 2 minute segment on a game - and then displaying the score on the ticker 15 seconds in, but it IS ridiculous when I want to watch highlights on nbcolympics.com of an event and on the right there are three stories about who got gold, silver and bronze.

If you're going to offer the online streams and replays and use it to drive advertising content, surely you can avoid doing that right? That's an instant switch off, no point in watching any more for me.

EDIT - to add the additional annoyance of the twitter feed, which I don't think I can turn off, that tells me the results even in real time ahead of actually getting to see the run (this was very notable during the slopestyle the last couple of nights)

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

MIJB's updates and ISiddiqui's cheerleading and you'll be all set.

Woohoo!! Wait, what?

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

That's not common courtesy, that's a disservice to those who wanted the info in as quick & easy a fashion as possible. If something is headline worthy (which is questionable I'll admit) then it belongs in the headline, site visitors shouldn't be forced to make an extra click because people are too f'n stupid to anticipate the presence of so-called spoilers.

For ESPN, it's a matter of competition. The more viewership they can kill, the happier they are. It's not their event after all.

For MSNBC, it's a matter of trying encourage casual viewers by reminding them that some obscure event even exists (and to emphasize that "yes, we're part of this too")

Indeed. It's NBC's fault for tape delaying events. Don't go on sports websites if you don't want to be spoiled - some folks want to see the results and not wait until they are aired before they can find out what is going on.

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Indeed. It's NBC's fault for tape delaying events. Don't go on sports websites if you don't want to be spoiled - some folks want to see the results and not wait until they are aired before they can find out what is going on.

I agree, NBC sucks with their tape delayed coverage. However, it's plastered all over the MSN homepage and other non-sports sites. I could understand going to ESPN, NBC Sports, ect.

[MIJB#19]

I kid not, today I witness people run for a tv and watch Sven Kramer skate his 5,000 meters. After he finished they knew the gold medal was in the pocket and went on with their normal Saturday afternoon business. The podium sweep was just icing on the cake.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

MIJB's updates and ISiddiqui's cheerleading and you'll be all set.

Hey, I kept my side to the agreement: comments on live events in spoiler tags. I did miss the failing Olympic ring (which did get aired overhere), fwiw.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

I agree, NBC sucks with their tape delayed coverage. However, it's plastered all over the MSN homepage and other non-sports sites. I could understand going to ESPN, NBC Sports, ect.

NBC paid $775m for the U.S. broadcast rights for Sochi alone.
NBC production costs in Sochi are described as "at least $100m"

They've managed to sell $900m in advertising.

All those hits to stories on MSN & the other non-sports sites are to give them more tonnage, extra spots to sell to advertisers. They also add into the heavily hyped figures about how "online traffic for the Olympics is higher than ever", which are then used to sell ads for subsequent years (NBC has the contract through 2020)

[Eaglesfan27]

Watching the Olympics from Grenada tonight, it is striking how different the coverage is in other countries.

[Brownkeg8]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Watching the Olympics from Grenada tonight, it is striking how different the coverage is in other countries.

NBC and our cable company have been in a dispute for several months. They did negotiate a deal with CBC to show American athletes performing.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Watching the Olympics from Grenada tonight, it is striking how different the coverage is in other countries.

I wonder how much the Winter Olympics even register for an equatorial nation. Like for starters, what's a winter.

[stevew]

Dola-
(nice humblebrag)

[MIJB#19]

Spoiler

Nice, my prediction for the 3,000 meters was spot on: 1. Wüst, 2. Sablikova, 3. Graf. Another één-twee-drie would have been nice, but wasn't realistic. Great start to the Games for the Netherlands.

[SirFozzie]

Next time, no dutch speed skaters allowed. Hog all the medals

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

NBC paid $775m for the U.S. broadcast rights for Sochi alone.
NBC production costs in Sochi are described as "at least $100m"

They've managed to sell $900m in advertising.

All those hits to stories on MSN & the other non-sports sites are to give them more tonnage, extra spots to sell to advertisers. They also add into the heavily hyped figures about how "online traffic for the Olympics is higher than ever", which are then used to sell ads for subsequent years (NBC has the contract through 2020)

Oh, I get it's about driving money. Just an annoyance.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The kid wanted to see what was on while we ate lunch so we end up on ski jumping. Announcer says something like "and now for more we go to Randy Moss"

Scared the shit outta me.

As it turned out, this Randy Moss was an old white guy.

[Suicane75]

One of the things I like about the Olympics is that it allows me to imagine I would watch this stuff if there were an organized league. Like, I could imagine watching a season of cross country skiing. I mean, I wouldn't, but I could imagine it.

Also, sexiest Olympics ever.

[sterlingice]

The end of the Skiathalon was awesome

SI

[sterlingice]

My wife and I were talking about this today: I don't have anything against figure skating (or in summer, gymnastics). However, the Olympic presentation just grates on me. Aside from my bi-annual complaint that those two sports take up a disproportional time, the cattiness of announcers is awful and it makes it hard for me to watch them.

We had family in town so I'm going back and forth between the afternoon coverage today and the evening coverage last night in commercials. During the French, who skated pretty well last night, the announcer comes out and says something backhanded about how it was a good skate because normally the guy chokes. Compare that with the guy just calling the Skiathalon. It's an over hour long "boat race" with a sprint to the finish and he spends the air time during the race explaining who some of these people are, what the event are, etc. And then he go all Gus Johnson for the final 5 minutes in the race to the finish. A FIVE MINUTE RACE TO THE FINISH and he's excited as can be about how awesome this is.

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I can't stop looking at Bob Costas' eye.

I haven't seen online: what is up with his eye? It looks like his glasses magnify his eye and one is off.

SI

[Vince, Pt. II]

My guess is pink eye. His left eye was more than halfway closed and looked irritated on opening night.

[JPhillips]

He's said eye infection, but hasn't specified beyond that.

[Julio Riddols]

Bob Costas will never tell the world how intense his face sitting fetish is, but his pink eye says it all.