Rorshach Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I was watching curling over the weekend. I was extremely disappointed at how tame all of the outfits were. I hope that Norway really outdoes themselves and adds sequins or LEDs to their pants this year. https://www.facebook.com/NOCTP I wouldn't mind that! Still, I don't think I'll have time to watch much curling this year.. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I am saddened to find that this thread is discussing boycott and LGTQ laws, and not discussing Norwegian cross country skiing. Or biathlon. We need a change here. i'll weigh in, since i'm british,and we suck ass norway are my second team on account of family ties. i will take any bet on the norwegian women winning the cross country relay. they are ridiculous and would beat a rest of the world team quite easily. thoroughly expect the norwegians to take 2/3 of all golds in the cross country/biathlon, the women especially at cross country could win all 6 golds. really want bjoerndalen to win another gold before he retires. hope Tora Berger gets back to her form from last year, and expect fourcade v the norwegian men in biathlon for all the medals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Any love for Andrew Musgrave? I don't expect him to do much, honestly, but winning the sprint in the Norwegian Championship does mean he's good. Cross country, I'm a bit nervous about Justyna Kowalczyk. She hasn't been competing for a while, but she is tough! Charlotte Kalla could perhaps also be a threat if she manages the first 7,5k of the 15.. she's not going to win anything that's Classic only. Men's cross country is more up in the air. Wouldn't be surprised to see Northug win something, and I hope Johnsrud Sundby does - he seems like a really nice guy. But I expect the Russians will be strong. Biathlon will be exciting. Hope Tora Berger wins, I like her, but even though Bjørndalen winning would be great, I doubt he'll win anything (perhaps the relay). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Vanessa Mae (yes, the violinist) has qualified to ski for Thailand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fez Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I hadn't been paying much attention to the potential security risks in Sochi, but stuff like this is really starting to get me concerned that something might actually happen: SOCHI, Russia — Russian security officials are hunting down three potential female suicide bombers, one of whom is believed to be in Sochi, where the Winter Olympics will begin next month.Police leaflets seen by an Associated Press reporter at a central Sochi hotel on Tuesday contain warnings about three potential suicide bombers. A police letter said that one of them, Ruzanna Ibragimova, a 22-year-old widow of an Islamic militant, was at large in Sochi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kairparavel Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I didn't realize the geographical proxmity of Sochi to Georgia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Any love for Andrew Musgrave? I don't expect him to do much, honestly, but winning the sprint in the Norwegian Championship does mean he's good. Cross country, I'm a bit nervous about Justyna Kowalczyk. She hasn't been competing for a while, but she is tough! Charlotte Kalla could perhaps also be a threat if she manages the first 7,5k of the 15.. she's not going to win anything that's Classic only. Men's cross country is more up in the air. Wouldn't be surprised to see Northug win something, and I hope Johnsrud Sundby does - he seems like a really nice guy. But I expect the Russians will be strong. Biathlon will be exciting. Hope Tora Berger wins, I like her, but even though Bjørndalen winning would be great, I doubt he'll win anything (perhaps the relay). i think andrew musgrave is a real talent, unfortunately he can't compete with people who have had skis on since they were 2. justyna can't win anything that isn't classic, and Bjoegen always seems to have her number in the major championships. johaug will win the 30, randall may win the sprint, but i'd be surprised if norway don't win at least 4 medals in the womens. the mens is more open but Northug just has to hang around until the last 200m and not do any work until the sprint when he blows everyone else away. norway have sucked so far this season at relays in biathlon but they always seem to put it together at the big events and they must be favorites for all 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamanthaofHodorsfield Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 i'll weigh in, since i'm british,and we suck ass norway are my second team on account of family ties. Indeed, we British suck at pretty much every winter sport. So for Sochi I'm getting behind the Jamaican Bobsled team! :) I'm most looking forward to the Figure Skating though. Julia Lipnitskaia has an amazing routine in the Ladies, and I think she'll place, but with the likes of Kim Yu-na, Mao Asada and Ashley Wagner, I don't think it will be gold. Well, it depends on the Mao and Ashley that show up - when they get it right, they're sublime, but I've also seem them have the skate from hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 i'd dare say that 90% of nations suck at winter sports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamanthaofHodorsfield Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Well yeah, but 90% of nations don't go in with the ridiculous expectations that we tend to put on our Brits. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 i can't say about brits' expectations, but i don't quite see what they'd base them on ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamanthaofHodorsfield Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Exactly my point. Whenever there is any major competition (be it Olympics, Football (especially this!) that has a Brit involved in some way shape or form, there is a general expectation for them to do well, regardless of how capable they are, or how much better their opponent is. Such as the Austrailian Open (tennis), Laura Robsen is just returning from injury, so to me personally, chances are she wasn't going to win the match, but listening to the commentators, jeez louise it was like she wasn't trying and this was travesty for british tennis! And as much as I enjoy watching football, and look forward to the World Cup in Brazil, I'm dreading the build up, because Team England mania goes beyond the ridiculous. I'm surprised previous eliminations from World Cups and Euros etc haven't been followed by a public inquiry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 when it comes to winter olympics, we're rather safe since serbian national team is far from favourite for any single medal and winter sports are not popular overall. when summer olympics come around, the situation changes completely - the public goes on this medal-hungry rampage - djokovic will get the gold, men's water polo team too, both volleyball teams will win a medal, shooting, rowing (as someone who trained rowing, i have no idea where this optimism comes from) and pretty much every team "will win something".then the competition actually starts and most of those hallucinations get exposed for what they are and we end up with a gold in taekwando, a silver and a bronze in shooting and a bronze in men's water polo.not that great a medal haul, but concerning the state of our sports' infrastructure (facilities, funding etc.) nowhere near bad.of course, average fan doesn't see it that way and suddenly our olympic athletes become victims of public abuse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoë Sumra Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 i can't say about brits' expectations, but i don't quite see what they'd base them on ;) We had a period from 1976-84 when GB picked up two men's figure skating golds and an ice dance gold, which "didn't help" in the Winter Olympic sense, and we've been strong in skeleton (especially women's) for eight years ish... but in general I think there's a culture of over-expectation of all sportspeople in the UK. Of course, we wouldn't say that we expect Brits to be best at everything, because that would be boastful, which is a foreign trait... but we expect Brits to be best at everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fez Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 i'd dare say that 90% of nations suck at winter sports. Well yeah, that's why less than half of them even participate (also, training for the events is much more expensive on average). There were 204 nations in the 2012 Summer games, there were 82 in the 2010 Winter games (there are expected to be 90 in the 2014 games). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 The fact that Norway has been a powerhouse in the last 6 Winter games tells you what you need to know about competitiveness and winter sports. Seriously, we have 5 million inhabitants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 The fact that Norway has been a powerhouse in the last 6 Winter games tells you what you need to know about competitiveness and winter sports. Seriously, we have 5 million inhabitants. ... and 2m of snow for 10 months a year. and let's not forget the money required for serious winter sports training ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 The fact that Norway has been a powerhouse in the last 6 Winter games tells you what you need to know about competitiveness and winter sports. Seriously, we have 5 million inhabitants. Uruguay have been a powerhouse in the most popular sport in the world and they're smaller than that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Uruguay have been a powerhouse in the most popular sport in the world and they're smaller than that... Yup. But that's the one sport they do. We are generally between first and third in the "medals won"-tables during Winter Olympics. Uruguay can't really claim anything like that. Put it another way: we're direct competitors with Russia and Germany - consistently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igziabeher Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Personally, I'm not a big winter Olympics fan as most of the "sports" are rich people leisure activities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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