2018 Winter Olympics Thread

[The AD]

Fuck yeah! I’ve done a couple of curling sessions in my life and it is really fun. Going to a “Learn to Curl” class next week with my wife too.

I actually have a curling club a 5 minute walk from my house. I think it's fun, but you basically need to be a member of the club to curl and I don't think I'm ready for that kind of curling commitment!

[weibo]

That's more nipple than I'm used to on CBC Sports. I expect that on the regular shows but not too much on live tv.

[4matic]

Nice nip. Heathy lady.

[Flyoverland Captive]

Nice nip. Heathy lady.

Is the nip like one of those turkey “done” things that pop up indicating readiness?

[huckbucket]

Let's hope that nip slip represents progression in women's figure skating ...

[Kenny Satch]

I will forever refer to her as Papanipplis

[hatchgreenchile]

they fucking suck.

Exhibit A. The commentary is hilarious.
Nice act. Can't make the US team so goes to Hungary and proceeds to ride the 22' pipe like a creek gully.

https://sports.yahoo.com/bad-america...070235305.html

[Name Redacted]

I wanted to punch that announcer after the 93rd time he said something about how PROGRESSIVE this years women are and how much PROGRESSION the women have made this year. guy couldnt shut the fuck up about it. Meanwhile, I was wondering that exact same thing. I have shlep friends who can do 720s off jumps 1/2 that size. Olympic men are doing triple flip 1440s?!?

This was qualifying, hopefully it gets stepped up at least a little for the finals.

Name one women's snow sport where the women are better than the men. They took the "Blue Dragon" out of the women's DH course for example. Hockey? nope. Oh, yeah, figure skating!

Get over it, the ladies aren't throwing down as much as men, but the lead qualifiers were at least throwing cork 9's. That way better than the last olympics. You guys should watch the last place finisher in W's Halfpipe though. Basically scammed her way into the olympics. Pretty funny.


On another topic though, doping in curling? Of course it makes sense! If I was watching stones slide on ice all day I'd be on dope too!

[zartagen]

Exhibit A. The commentary is hilarious.
Nice act. Can't make the US team so goes to Hungary and proceeds to ride the 22' pipe like a creek gully.

https://sports.yahoo.com/bad-america...070235305.html

What in the fuck? Why? That's just embarrassing.

[Name Redacted]

Elizabeth Swaney - pretty funny/weird story actually. Seems like she would have picked up SOME skills along the way, like anything. But nope, she specialized in scamming the system.

So how did Swaney find herself in that halfpipe?

Well, if showing up is 80 percent of life, showing up for ladies’ halfpipe qualifiers must be at least 80 percent when it comes to making the Olympics.

As Jason Blevins of the Denver Post explains, the international field for ladies’ halfpipe is not exceedingly deep. Qualifying for the Olympics involves recording a certain number of top-30 finishes in qualifying events and many of these events don’t even feature 30 people.

So Swaney burned up the globe, attending qualifiers in places like China, South Korea, Italy, Canada and New Zealand. After initially representing Venezuela in these events, Swaney claimed Hungarian ties through her grandparents. And thanks to a system of quotas, she eventually qualified for the Olympics, despite never attempting a single trick above the deck. Her best finish was 13th out of 15 competitors in China when most of the good freestyle skiers were competing at the same time in the United States.

“She would compete in them consistently over the last couple years and sometimes girls would crash so she would not end up dead last,” FIS judge Steele Spence told the Denver Post. “There are going to be changes to world cup quotas and qualifying to be eligible for the Olympics. Those things are in the works so technically you need to qualify up through the system.”

Swaney is an interesting character. She graduated from Cal-Berkeley where she was on the crew team and tried to run for governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger when she was only 19 years old. She later went to Harvard for a graduate degree in design and works in the Bay Area as a recruiter for software engineers.

While she attempted to crowdfund for her Olympic experience, efforts on GoFundMe and RallyMe raised a total of zero dollars. And yet she found her way to South Korea anyway.

The most natural parallels to Swaney are Mexico’s German Madrazo and Tonga’s Pita Taufatofua. Neither had a great deal of experience with cross-country skiing but drew cheers after completing the course waaay behind the winners last week. It’s hard to slam Swaney while Madrazo and Taufatofua are being celebrated for their efforts across the globe.

[From_the_NEK]

Mind blowing that after 4 runs down a 1.3km icy track, that two bobsled teams have the exact same time to win gold medals.

[NW_SKIER]

My brother went to Stanford. He would insist that the problem likely stems from her schooling at Cal.

[The AD]

Oh, yeah, figure skating!

Nope, the men are better at that, too.

[Name Redacted]

Nope, the men are better at that, too.

Well the women look better doing it, and that's all I'm saying. Wardrobe malfunction FTW!

[The AD]

Elizabeth Swaney - pretty funny/weird story actually. Seems like she would have picked up SOME skills along the way, like anything. But nope, she specialized in scamming the system.

Not sure I'd call it a scam. Seems like she used a flawed system to her advantage and I can't really fault her for that. She got a very nice front row seat to all the action, that's for sure.

[Name Redacted]

Not sure I'd call it a scam. Seems like she used a flawed system to her advantage and I can't really fault her for that. She got a very nice front row seat to all the action, that's for sure.

Haha, fair enough semantic warrior. She definitely put her time in traveling to events all over the world to compete. Like I said, you would think she would have picked up something along the way. I've seen kids from TX ski the pipe with more technique.

[hatchgreenchile]

She definitely put her time in traveling to events all over the world to compete.

She sure traveled, but she didn't do any competing.
What a sham.

[The AD]

What this probably demonstrates is that women's (skiing) halfpipe doesn't belong in the Olympics at this point. There just aren't enough elite athletes competing to justify its existence. It exists simply due to politics. At this point there really can't be a men's event without a women's equivalent regardless of the level of competitiveness.

But I'll stick to my assertion that her competing is neither a scam nor a sham. She played by the established rules and qualified. That's not how I'd want to make it to the Olympics, but to each his/her own.

[mcski]

Not sure I'd call it a scam. Seems like she used a flawed system to her advantage and I can't really fault her for that. She got a very nice front row seat to all the action, that's for sure.

Long live Eddy the Eagle. Same thing. Maybe she'll get a movie or a talk show. So far I'm ok with this. Is she cute?

[Name Redacted]

Just saw this the other day:

I guess dreams do come true.

[srsosbso]

It’s hard to slam Swaney while Madrazo and Taufatofua are being celebrated for their efforts across the globe.

Interesting point...

Somehow it seems different... but I can't put my finger on why.

[srsosbso]

What this probably demonstrates is that women's (skiing) halfpipe doesn't belong in the Olympics at this point. There just aren't enough elite athletes competing to justify its existence.

Some folks have made the same point about women's hockey. There are really only two genuinely competitive teams, Canada and the USA, and it's been that way for years.

[huckbucket]

What this probably demonstrates is that women's (skiing) halfpipe doesn't belong in the Olympics at this point. There just aren't enough elite athletes competing to justify its existence. It exists simply due to politics. At this point there really can't be a men's event without a women's equivalent regardless of the level of competitiveness.

But I'll stick to my assertion that her competing is neither a scam nor a sham. She played by the established rules and qualified. That's not how I'd want to make it to the Olympics, but to each his/her own.

Of course it's a scam. She knows she's incapable of competing at the same level as her peers and found a back door to get on a big stage for her own benefit. What's more, she's clearly not embarrassed by it. It's pathetic and reeks of self-promotion which is the antithesis of what the olympics are supposed to be about. Looks like she tried skeleton first ....

[Name Redacted]

Of course it's a scam. She knows she's incapable of competing at the same level as her peers and found a back door to get on a big stage for her own benefit. What's more, she's clearly not embarrassed by it. It's pathetic and reeks of self-promotion which is the antithesis of what the olympics are supposed to be about. Looks like she tried skeleton first ....

Talk about padding a resume..

[The AD]

She knows she's incapable of competing at the same level as her peers and found a back door to get on a big stage for her own benefit.

Fair enough, but there are plenty of Olympic athletes who know they have no chance of medaling. And I think sports are inherently self-centered. Who's benefit is Shaun White out there competing for other than his own?

It is impressive she has the money to travel all over the world entering halfpipe comps and still has enough money to afford fake tits, but that's another story...