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Summer vs Winter Olympics

post #1 of 41
2/9/06 at 2:57pm
Thread Starter 
With the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics taking place tomorrow in Torino, Italy, I was curious as to which Olympic games you prefer? Summer or Winter? Also, what's your favorite sport to watch?

I like both Olympics, and I try and watch as much as I can, but I find myself more drawn to the Winter Games. They seem more exciting to me overall. I love to watch the hockey, skiiing, and skating (especially the speed skating). And, God help me, I got into the sport of curling in the past couple of years, so I'll be watching that as well. For the Summer games, I mainly watch the gymnastics and the swimming events.

It will be interesting to see what this year's coverage is like, as NBC is promising coverage of ALL of the sports in some capacity (even curling), with the assistance of some cable channels. I also know that they'll be doing a tape delay on events so that they can show them at prime time each night, so I'll have to avoid seeing the scores beforehand.

Thoughts?
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post #2 of 41
2/9/06 at 3:06pm
I like the summer olympics more, but I tend to watch the winter games a lot more than I should.

Snowboarding, bobsled, and luge are my favorites.
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post #3 of 41
2/9/06 at 3:11pm
I like the Winter Olympics. It has guns.
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post #4 of 41
2/9/06 at 3:13pm
So does summer, with the addition of bows!
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post #5 of 41
2/9/06 at 3:17pm
I like the Winter Games better because the venues always feel more epic to me. You've got huge snow-capped mountains, less-metropolitan host cities -- it has an old-fashioned feel to it.
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post #6 of 41
2/9/06 at 3:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson
I like the Winter Games better because the venues always feel more epic to me. You've got huge snow-capped mountains, less-metropolitan host cities -- it has an old-fashioned feel to it.
Well said. I think you've hit on something that I'd never realized there, and I totally agree. The sense of scale in the Winter Olympics is much more grandiose. The athletes have to travel all over to reach their respective competitions (different ski runs, sled runs, biathlon routes), whereas the Summer Olympics all seem to take place in a smaller Olympic village.

Torino is supposed to be beautiful too. I look forward to seeing it.
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post #7 of 41
2/9/06 at 3:55pm
I can't wait until the first donut medals are handed out.
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post #8 of 41
2/9/06 at 4:03pm
Anybody remember the year every Olympic event was available through pay-per-view?
That went over as well as the XFL.
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post #9 of 41
2/9/06 at 4:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark
Anybody remember the year every Olympic event was available through pay-per-view?
That went over as well as the XFL.
If I remember correctly, that happened in the late 80s, early 90s. Pay per view had something like 3 channels that you paid a package price for and you'd be able to watch everything for 2 weeks. The package was some huge fee, like $300 or so. They took a major bath on it.
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post #10 of 41
2/9/06 at 5:37pm
Summer has fencing, thus I must go with Summer.

Well that, Judo, Karate and Boxing.
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post #11 of 41
2/9/06 at 5:53pm
The only event the Summer Olympics have that I really enjoy is Soccer.

Other than that, I'm all about Winter.
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post #12 of 41
2/9/06 at 6:05pm
Olympic hockey rules. Last go-round, I spent hours sitting with a buddy of mine at a sports bar watching it. So much more fast-paced that the NHL variety, and the NHL players seemed to enjoy their liberation.
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post #13 of 41
2/10/06 at 8:12am
Love the biathlon, it is easily one of my favorite sports. I'd like to echo the earlier sentiment about the epic and natural setting for the Winters being a huge appeal for me. As someone who lives out West, I find myself doing a lot of cross country skiing and snowboarding, so these Olympics really appeal to me more than, say, watching someone run around a track. The basic quality of interacting with the elements really does it for me.
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post #14 of 41
2/10/06 at 4:51pm
olympic hockey is amazing and by far my favorite event. out of all of the big sports it's the only one that's actually more exciting then it's actual league. baseball sucks because major leaguers can't play in it and basketball is a total joke. canada will reign supreme again!
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post #15 of 41
2/11/06 at 11:00am
It's all about the curling.
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post #16 of 41
2/11/06 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tcjsavannah
It's all about the curling.

Actually dont laugh. The province I am from in Canada(Newfoundland) the team that is representing the country is from here. It is also very rare for many Newfoundlanders to represent the country in the Olympics or pro sports. We are pretty small only like 600 000 people on the whole island. LOL so for us as lame as it sounds curling is pretty big this year. GOOOOOOOOOOOO Team Gushue.
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post #17 of 41
2/13/06 at 12:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wease
Actually dont laugh. The province I am from in Canada(Newfoundland) the team that is representing the country is from here. It is also very rare for many Newfoundlanders to represent the country in the Olympics or pro sports. We are pretty small only like 600 000 people on the whole island. LOL so for us as lame as it sounds curling is pretty big this year. GOOOOOOOOOOOO Team Gushue.
Dude, I'm totally serious. I only wish it got more tv coverage on the Olympics. Better than all the figure skating crap.
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post #18 of 41
2/13/06 at 12:34am
All I've been able to see so far is women's hockey.

Meaning that's all they seem to be showing during the day when I've been able to watch.
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post #19 of 41
2/13/06 at 12:42am
Hockey is just about the only event that gets shown live. Thats why we always see it on during the day thanks to something like a six hour time difference(I think).
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post #20 of 41
2/13/06 at 12:45am
Yeah, most of the other events are either daytime there or getting saved for prime time on NBC (or both). But it'd be nice to see some taped coverage instead of every last second of Finland versus Germany in women's hockey.
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post #21 of 41
2/13/06 at 1:12am
You guys are totally missing out then and I guess us Canadians are lucky. CBC's Olympic coverage is fantastic. It shows a great variety of events.

Tcjsavannah where curling is pretty big here we will see all of teams Canada's games from beginning to end plus the medal round even if they dont make it. The best part of CBC's coverage though is that even they definately concentrate on Canadian teams they do still recognize other countries are actually competing.

NBC is just brutal its as if only one country is over there. I know you need to show more American content on an American channel but it would be nice from time to time before an event starts to not see a profile on an American athlete in the event they are showing who they hype up to actually be a medal contender even when they really are not. Then act disappointed when that athlete inevitably loses.
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post #22 of 41
2/13/06 at 2:33am
Id say NBC isnt quite so terrible about it as they have been in years past. Especially in events were they know Americans have no real chance. Though I guess you need some tragic circumstance to warrant an actual profile complete with inspiration music since I havent seen the first profile that didnt involve someones intense personal pain. I get that they like to show how the atheletes have triumphs over adversity and all to be there but it seems like the way NBC sells it their isnt a person in the olympics that doesnt have a despressing life.
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post #23 of 41
2/13/06 at 1:05pm
Thread Starter 
I watched the Olympics during the afternoon yesterday when they were mainly covering the men's and women's cross-country skiing events. Even though the Americans involved had no real chance of winning, the coverage was excellent that NBC did. They covered it like they would if a major American athlete were in contention, and it was fun to watch the Estonian woman and the Russian man win. Granted, they do weigh more heavily on the coverage when Americans are involved, but it seems more even this year. I'm sick of all of the Kwan coverage though.
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post #24 of 41
2/13/06 at 2:20pm
I dont know maybe this year is a little better. I havent seen too much of NBC seeing I have been basically sticking to CBC but it seems everytime I flick the channel to the NBC feed its about some American. Maybe it has been better but past years have just kinda turned me off. I guess I will just have to watch a little more of their feed to see for my self.
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post #25 of 41
2/15/06 at 6:05pm
it's time for the olympic commitee to chop the women's hockey. if baseball and softball can't be a part of the olympics then women's hockey shouldn't either. it's a 2 team sport. it's pretty pathetic. in 3 games canada have outscored their opponents 36-1. canada is something like 120-0-2 against every country besides america and the yanks are 60-0-2 against teams minus canada. it's almost as bad as the pairs figure skating where russia never loses.
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post #26 of 41
2/15/06 at 6:20pm
The primetime coverage on NBC has been a mess. The camera framing is way off and very few graphics actually fit the screen. And the graphics that do fit are so small you can't read them. My uneducated guess is that the widescreen HD feed is being used and it looks like shit on my old-fashioned 27-inch TV.
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post #27 of 41
2/15/06 at 6:52pm
Yes, widescreen HD graphics are being intergrated this year, but even on a large set the numbers are too small.

They'll get it figured out by the next set of games.
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post #28 of 41
2/15/06 at 7:12pm
http://www.shortflip.com/article/The...mpics-160.html
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post #29 of 41
2/15/06 at 11:57pm
I cant belive the American men's hockey team could only manage a tie versus Latvia. I know they arent exactly gold medal material(ranked sixth of the twelve teams I believe) but that just seems a little sad, especially when Latvia seemed ecstatic just to have scored their first goal at all.

They played a good first and third period but that second one was really terrible. As my hometown teams goalie, I feel like I should defend John Grahame by saying he got no support thanks to too many penalties and two of the goals were on powerplays, but I geuss thats leaves the one relatively easy save he just plan missed.
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post #30 of 41
2/16/06 at 9:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thalasi
I cant belive the American men's hockey team could only manage a tie versus Latvia.
Believe it or not, nobody here thought of it either. This year our team (Latvia, that is) seemed pretty weak and missing some very important players. I think the only thing that can prevent them from losing all the other games is a team spirit. Otherwise, they are screwed.
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post #31 of 41
2/16/06 at 10:21am
Weird.
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post #32 of 41
2/18/06 at 2:59pm
Anyone catch the Canada vs Switzerland upset today in mens hockey? Gerber made 49 saves for the shutout, though I think Canada was robbed of that one goal that was reviewed and taken away. I missed most of the first period but the second two seemed to be rittled with penalties on both sides as have been nearly all the games Ive seen so far in the Olympics. It seems like far more time is spent in penalties than in normal NHL play. The announcers seemed to say it was because many of these players arent used to playing together but that doesnt really make any sense to me, slashing is still slashing no matter who else is on your team.
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post #33 of 41
2/18/06 at 9:17pm
It is definitely the winter olympics for me. I love the cross-country skiing, biathlon, snowboarding...The US sucks at coverage usually, but I was pretty happy with the quality of NBC 's coverage of the women's xc relay and men's biathlon.
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post #34 of 41
2/18/06 at 9:20pm
Women's gymnastics trumps all in my book.
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post #35 of 41
2/21/06 at 1:29pm
And a big congratulations to the girl snowboarder who decided to hotdog at the end of the race and crashed, costing her the gold medal. Way to prove the point that Americans are arrogant assholes, moron.
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post #36 of 41
2/22/06 at 2:30am
Winter wins.

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post #37 of 41
2/22/06 at 2:49am
Amen.
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post #38 of 41
2/22/06 at 2:50am
Winter Olympics: Sasha Cohen

Summer Olympics: No Sasha Cohen.

Winter Oympics wins.

Thanks for the lovely photo Fabfunk.
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post #39 of 41
2/22/06 at 4:57pm
You saw this too?

Yeah, the AIM Today story linking to this image was a little much though:

Quote:
"Super Sexy Sasha Cohen: Oh, Sasha ... if only nude figure skatings was an Olympic event."
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post #40 of 41
2/22/06 at 10:00pm
The U.S. and Canada both out of medal contention already. NBC can't like that. They're already having ratings problems other than on cable and the internet which still don't seem to count much overall.

Even though I wanted Slovakia to keep their winning streak going, I can't say I'm sorry to see Jagr continuing deeper into the tournament. I'd love to see a Russia vs the Czech Republic game. Ovechkin and Jagr are probably the two most exciting players around these days.

Even without a North American representative, I'll still be following these games where I can.
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post #41 of 41
2/22/06 at 10:02pm
Figure skating won't even get them out of this ratings divebomb.
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