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The XXII Sochi Winter Olympic Games / Ski And Skate Against Hate
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Winterblink
Member
Just once I want to see someone do a program of figure skating to a loop of makin' bacon pancakes.
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
Do we get an extra medal if we get 1,2,3,4?
It's the track and field running of the winter olympics, I mean yes it's boring but at the same it's just weird that nobody else seems to care.
In Korea. You read it here first.
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
We could have but sadly we can only get 1 team pursuit medal
In Korea the Koreans will have topped their team to snatch some back . They have a lot of people out on the ice, feels like they'll do better than one gold.
Pathetic when the 'standard issue' is better than the result of a four year multi million dollar project.
That would be incredibly sad. Medal counts are unfairly tilted towards individual sports. Team sports get screwed over.
It's certainly been a wonder structure insofar as it has made the rest of the world wonder what the hell has been going on with Norway's skis.
It'll be interesting to follow the rest of the competitions now if Norway's horrible material conditions have improved. Mind you, I didn't think Petter was looking all that hot today if that was him on good skis, but we'll see I guess..
Team sports don't really get 'screwed' because in a way nothing is easier for favorites to win than team sports. There are plenty of matches to warm you up, even a loss is acceptable, and the structure of a match ensures you won't lose on a split second wrong judgement, like in so many other sports where that one mistake is all it take to ruin any chances at medals.
Also it would be misguided to give otherwise widely exposed team sports more focus in olympic games.
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
Right, but when the US just throws 5000 athletes at an Olympic event It's totally deserved when they get the overall medal count win.
Quality over quantity.
I doubt these results will ever be beaten. It's a perfect storm situation for NED:
-Oval at sea level.
-The Dutch peaking at the right time and having a very deep team right now.
-The US bombing hard (the russian men also)
-The once very powerful german and canadian women teams falling from the face of the earth.
-The asian sprinters being much weaker than in past games (except for Lee).
Well I was talking in respect to medal counts
You have to admit that countries that are strong in individual sports(like the Netherlands in skating or Norway in skiing) have a decisive advantage in medal counts over countries that are strong in team sports like Canada.
CriginsMcJuggs
Member
[Ice Dancing]Those Futurama feels
Well I was talking in respect to medal counts
You have to admit that countries that are strong in individual sports(like the Netherlands in skating or Norway in skiing) have a decisive advantage in medal counts over countries that are strong in team sports like Canada.
Canada swept the xtreme sports so it's not like one country is only stuck with team sports.
That's not my point -_-
My point is if you want to win the medal count, you can ignore team sports and focus on the individual sports and win comfortably.
Well I wasn't really arguing against any particular point, just saying there's no reason to change the way team sports work in the olympics, and there's no reason to say a nation is less likely to get many medals because they're good at team sports.
Never thought about this, but yeah this could play a part (though the fact that the sport is really only big in the Netherlands means that the Dutch athletes train all across the world anyway). Also weird to see Pechstein still being the main skater for Germany, what the hell's up with that German neighbors.
Well I never said that either.
All I'm saying is that the Olympics, when it comes to medal count, is incredibly tilted towards individual sports.
Not to pick on the Netherlands, but I find it stupid that they can be atop the medal standings thanks to just one sport.
The Americans mostly train at altitude in Salt Lake and they had their training camp at altitude in Collalbo, which seems to be a really weird idea. The Dutch are used to ice with less glide.
Pechstein was suspended for doping during the 2010 Games. She's back to prove a point but I'm not sure anyone care. Apparenlty, even her german teammates hate her.
I kind of agree, but it's not as ridiculous as e.g. swimming where one person can win six medals. Just like in normal running, sprinting is a very different discipline than long distances. The number of distances/medals is legit (though the 500/1000m and 5000/10000m often has a similar field, so you could lower the number a bit). It's just that there are only a few countries (and one really) with a commercial skating scene.
Edit: also, what happens this year is really unique, normally the Netherlands dangles somewhere around number 12 on the medal standings, getting just a few medals at skating.
Mighty Chin
Banned
What an amazing three by China.
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