I haven't heard hardly a peep about the winter olympics this year. I've seen few commercials and blurbs but nothing compared to the Global Freakout that was the summer olympics. The winter olympics got a ton of press 4 years ago when they were in Torino. Why is Vancouver getting the shaft?

Sponsor Message:


Lone Star Rod & Rifle Texas' home for fine rifles, shotguns, handguns, and fly fishing gear.

Winter Olympics went down the hill whenever snowboarding became an olympic event.

There was just something pure about a dude sliding a big ole rock towards a bulls-eye as fellow teammates swept a path towards other rocks to knock them out of said bulls-eye.

or some dude or dudette going all james bond and skiing a trail and stopping in the middle of it to shoot some targets.

I figure there aren't enough emotional stories about people in third world countries overcoming adversity. The world doesn't want to hear about affluent Americans and Scandinavians.

Sponsor Message:


Lone Star Rod & Rifle Texas' home for fine rifles, shotguns, handguns, and fly fishing gear.

I'm excited for the Olympics. Not as much as the summer games, but excited anyway. There is just something about watching athletes from your country compete with others from around the world that brings out the patriotism and pride in me. I always get chills seeing our team walk in the opening ceremony and thinking we are the best damn country on this planet.

I'm pumped. Hockey, skiing, speed skating, and yes, even snowboarding (I'm amazed by that ability).

I don't like all the artsy stuff at the opening ceremonies, but I do like the athletes parading in, as well as the lighting of the torch.

[This message has been edited by Hey Nav (edited 2/11/2010 7:53p).]

Human interest stories and excessive figure skating.

Curling

0bama killed the buzz of being a proud American. He'd rather hock his Socialist agenda, than encourage American victory.

I'm waiting on his "Interview"/infomercial, right before the Opening Ceremony... I'm wonder if his Saturday Speech will be condescending and hate filled... or if you'll find it deep down, to offer an olive branch to all Americans...

^
Olympics

They're boring and mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. A HUGE waste of money.

quote:

---

They're boring and mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. A HUGE waste of money.

---

I bet there are many young athletes and their families that would disagree with you.

love the olympics...and love those "hotties" on the US curling team

well....nevermind, upon a little research, these are definitely NOT the same girls of the US curling team of 4 years ago

Bikini Volleyball works for the summer Olympics, why not Bikini Curling?

quote:

---

Human interest stories and excessive figure skating.

---

That is exactly correct. At least the first part. They spend far too much time on the human side of it at the expense of the sports themselves. They also spend too much time on the U.S. teams -- it's nice to see the whole event instead of just the U.S. excerpts.

I grew up on Wide World of Sports. That was real sports coverage. When they covered a skiing event, they covered the whole event instead of showing just the U.S. participants and spending the rest of the time on background information about them.

The Olympics are the most overrated sports show on tv. Well, nearly. At least they beat out tv wrestling.

I tend to agree that the Olympics have done too much on the "human interest" side. Mainly, because I just can't relate to these people.

I myself am a fan of the Olympics though, Winter and Summer.

I like sports and competition. While I can't imagine watching most of the sports in either the Winter or Summer Olympics month to month or year to year, once every four years I like seeing the festival of sports, the variety.

I wish they'd cut a lot of the background noise out, but I'll be watching the Olympics.

quote:

---

I bet there are many young athletes and their families that would disagree with you.

---

Of course they don't, they're at the teet.

The Olympics doesn't make the cities that sponsor it any money in the long run. Thus, a waste of the monies expended.

[This message has been edited by BigRobSA (edited 2/12/2010 7:20a).]

The Winter Olympics are in a country no one cares about and consist mostly of sports no one cares about. That said, I will still keep tabs on it because, like others have said, I'm a fan of the Olympics in general.

I bet the media in the U.S. is still pissed that the IOC didn't award the Obamas - I mean Chicago - with the 2016 Summer Games.

The bigger question is what do luge guys do between Olympics?

The winter Olympics have never had as much interest as the Summer Olympics since so many fewer countries participate and the less historical significance of the winter olympics.

However, this year's olympics seem to have even less interest than before. I think it's due to NBC's financial problems precluding their ability to market them as much as before. Also, because they've poisoned the well with all of their human interest stories crowding out the actual sporting aspect of it.

Really?
I have seen all sorts of Buzz about it.
Look at google.com's page today.

BTW-You might want to check out Svetlana Sleptsova and Olga Medvedtseva in the biathlon.

Svetlana

At one event this is what her "back side" said...


Olga

Another bad thing about the W.O., in general, white-people sports... played by white people, and the chicks have no asses...even in spandex.

BOORAH!

There it is. White people sports.

Sponsor Message:


Lone Star Rod & Rifle Texas' home for fine rifles, shotguns, handguns, and fly fishing gear.

Que?
White people?
Dude...so 1988...

Speed skater Shani Davis


Apollo Ono


Ben Agosto


Simon Cho


Jennifer Rodriguez

The olympics in general lost some of their signifigance once the whole "east vs. west" theme was destroyed with the fall of communism in eastern Europe. The sports and athletes got better after that. I think the winter olympics loses out some because not that many people can relate to winter sports when they live where they cannot be practiced by the majority of the people.

Here is a quote from an Olympic Snowboarder:

Graham Watanabe told reporters Wednesday that his second Olympic appearance was like "Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth I somehow tame it and ride it to the sky and clouds and sunshine and rainbows,"

Now I know Olympics do drug testing for performance enhancing drugs but they must not do testing for acid.


Also I hate sports where the judges have so much input. That is why I don't watch diving in the Olympics. I watch gymanstics but for other reasons.

its hard to get excited when there is no snow

Winter Olympics ... zzzz (except for Hockey)

Bring on the baseball bats and French Judges.

Jim '85
West Side 311
Steers and Queers, no place but Austin.

Not sure where this thread was moved from, but I think the lack of buzz is because we all spend too much time on texags, the majority of the patronage of which is from Texas, which has little to no interest in winter sports. It's still getting plenty of buzz in the northern part of the country.

The confusion might be that it's not getting as much buzz as the SUMMER Olympics do. That would be more accurate.

jq2122...

"The Winter Olympics are in a country no one cares about..."

...no one ? ...in your circle? ...your state?...your country?...all other northern hemisphere countries?....
Hmmm...do you know where the country is, exactly? ...what DOES make you care about a country?...

Debi Thomas, American figure skater and physician, was the 1986 World champion and 1988 Olympic bronze medalist in Calgary, (in the country "no one cares about" ); the day after her bronze medal performance, she apologized on Good Morning America to the American people for coming in 3rd. Tell me more about a country, whom, I assume you DO care about, whose athlete APOLOGIZES,for a bronze medal finish...speaks volumes.

BigRob SA-hope you read above about Debi Thomas, awesome US figure skater, artist and athlete. Hmmm, what's her American ethnicity?

[This message has been edited by really? (edited 2/12/2010 5:23p).]

Wow, you know an awfully lot about the history of Canadian athletics.

I wonder why...I guess you're on to me goblu.

...but more important...the facts speak for themselves, don't they?

Wasn't disputing the post. I love the winter Olympics.