[brendanp]

Originally Posted by Mahratta

Let's not get ahead of ourselves with the men's hockey medal here...

Maybe this statement will be more warranted after tonight (let's hope so)

they'll have to choke pretty bad if they don't get a medal at all, gold will be tough.

[sew12]

Originally Posted by brendanp

they'll have to choke pretty bad if they don't get a medal at all, gold will be tough.

Are you forgetting the last Olympics?

7th place. Not even close to the podium.

[Lois]

Originally Posted by britb

Anyone feel like we should have more medals by now? It seems like a lot fo events are falling short of expectations.

I'm happy with Canada's performance. Canada doesn't invest as much money into their athletes as other countries - for example: in Korea they're given a life-long salary if they win a gold medal. But whether or not we should be funding our athletes more is an entirely different issue.

I have more of a problem with the announcers consistently overhyping our some of our athletes. The perfect example is Patrick Chan, while I think he's a great skater, prior to his actual performance CBC kept on describing him as a shoe-in for the podium. This puts even more pressure on the athletes and when they fail to meet these high expectations people get frustrated. People fail to realize that Patrick was injured prior to the Olympics and he was sick with H1N1. He's a young figure skater in his first Olympic game - placing 5th in the world is a pretty good accomplishment.

The athletes are put under tremendous pressure. The Olympics are obviously going to produce some anxiety and moderate amounts of anxiety improve performance. With all of the 'Own the Podium' garbage, overhyping of athletes, pressure from the home-town crowd, I think it's understandable that some Canadian favourites have buckled under the pressure.

Regardless of the number of medals, our country has done a good job so far. I'm proud of all of our athletes. Go Canada!

Edit: Groves just won a Silver in 1500m. Congrats!

[manu]

anyone else watching canada vs. USA hockey?? So intense

[brendanp]

Originally Posted by sew12

Are you forgetting the last Olympics?

7th place. Not even close to the podium.

they have a lot of different players this year, so they should do better, even though they lost tonight. so close to a comeback at the end.

[Lois]

Tessa and Scott were fabulous. And they didn't have to wear any silly outfits to impress the judges either! : )

[smshlyxlhl]

Anyone here from Vancouver? cuz I am !!! Lonely in On. - - !

[Cassanova]

Originally Posted by _Luu_

Did anyone watch the long program for men's figure skating? How did Patrick Chan get 160 (which is up there), yet:

1) He didn't attempt any quads, whereas most did.
2) He fell twice.
3) There were a handful who didn't fall and pulled great performances, and still got less points than that.

Rigged, anyone?

This was controversial but you have to realize that Chan got most of his marks for technicality. Chan has footwork that not many can compete with, his performance was brilliant... without the falls. His mark were surprising and a tad bit high but he lost points where it mattered for his slips and falls.

and only like 2 people did the quad successfully. the quad isn't everything and to pull it perfectly is ridiculous.

skating has its flaws, but its not rigged. It's not like soccer where you can pay the referees to call the match in ones favor.

And yes some skaters do perform better than others but there so many little details that people overlook. Where and when you perform your triple-toe twist can give you extra points, even if you fall. It has to be choreographed really well as well. God there are so many things they look at.... Chan nailed all those little things if he nailed his jumps he would be on the podium.

[sew12]

I think you really have to understand the finer technical points of figure skating to understand why skaters got scored the way they did. Its obvious if someone is really amazing or really bad and they get really high or low but when it comes to most of the skaters who seem to skate well you probably need to understand technical details to understand the scoring.

Anyone watch Joannie Rochette skate last night? She did amazing considering the cirumstances and stands in 3rd after the short program, she could hit the podium and I'm really crossing my fingers for her that she does. Honestly like many others (including the commentators) I was in tears after that performance. My heart is broken for her and for her to have the strength to do that, and do it so well after her personal tradegy is amazing. Best of luck to her in the free skate.

Barring some disaster Yu-Na Kim will take the Gold but I'd love to see Joannie score the Silver or Bronze medal.

On another note I'm annoyed I'll be home around 5 so I'll miss the Women's 5000 m at 4 pm. I really wanted to watch all the races and see Clara Hughes skate. Crossing my fingers for a Gold for Canada. I think Clara can do it, she's amazing. Presumably Sablikova of Czech Republic will be one of her biggest competitors in this event. Clara's truly skilled though, where you see many skaters start to fatigue as the races goes on Clara seems to remain strong and go faster as she skates more. Catorina Le May Doan was talking about it when she did the 3000 m which teammate Groves placed in, the 3000 m is too short for Clara really, she gets better towards the end and then its over, with the 5000 she can really do her thing. She even does 10 000 m but they don't have a Women's 10 000 m in the Olympics, just a Men's one, presumably too few female skaters are into it, I know Hughes and Sablikova do it but don't know too many others. Only 15 qualified for it on the Men's side even for yesterday's race. Anyway I'll have to have good thoughts for Clara while I'm on the bus ride home and hope to catch a replay of her race.

Clara Hughes if you don't know was our flag bearer at these games for the Opening Ceremony and is the only athlete in the world to have won multiple medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, and one of only 4 or 5 to medal at both games period.

[syan9184]

Yea I did.
When they finally got to group 5 and 6 I was very excited.
Since I am from a Korean background I was cheering for Yu Na kim.
But I was very impressed with Joannie's performance. When she finished, I was on my feet clapping.
Even if she does not win a medal, she's still a winner for having so much strength to even perform despite her tragic loss. If she can perform like she did last night in the free skate tomorrow, she will definitely win either a silver or a bronze!

Originally Posted by sew12

I think you really have to understand the finer technical points of figure skating to understand why skaters got scored the way they did. Its obvious if someone is really amazing or really bad and they get really high or low but when it comes to most of the skaters who seem to skate well you probably need to understand technical details to understand the scoring.

Anyone watch Joannie Rochette skate last night? She did amazing considering the cirumstances and stands in 3rd after the short program, she could hit the podium and I'm really crossing my fingers for her that she does. Honestly like many others (including the commentators) I was in tears after that performance. My heart is broken for her and for her to have the strength to do that, and do it so well after her personal tradegy is amazing. Best of luck to her in the free skate.

Barring some disaster Yu-Na Kim will take the Gold but I'd love to see Joannie score the Silver or Bronze medal.

On another note I'm annoyed I'll be home around 5 so I'll miss the Women's 5000 m at 4 pm. I really wanted to watch all the races and see Clara Hughes skate. Crossing my fingers for a Gold for Canada. I think Clara can do it, she's amazing. Presumably Sablikova of Czech Republic will be one of her biggest competitors in this event. Clara's truly skilled though, where you see many skaters start to fatigue as the races goes on Clara seems to remain strong and go faster as she skates more. Catorina Le May Doan was talking about it when she did the 3000 m which teammate Groves placed in, the 3000 m is too short for Clara really, she gets better towards the end and then its over, with the 5000 she can really do her thing. She even does 10 000 m but they don't have a Women's 10 000 m in the Olympics, just a Men's one, presumably too few female skaters are into it, I know Hughes and Sablikova do it but don't know too many others. Only 15 qualified for it on the Men's side even for yesterday's race. Anyway I'll have to have good thoughts for Clara while I'm on the bus ride home and hope to catch a replay of her race.

Clara Hughes if you don't know was our flag bearer at these games for the Opening Ceremony and is the only athlete in the world to have won multiple medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, and one of only 4 or 5 to medal at both games period.

[JeffB]

You may be able to catch Clara Hughes' race. She is in the 5th pairing so you will also get the advantage of the ice cleaning after the 4th pairing.

[Cassanova]

dont forget the biggest game in a long time


Canada vs. Russia

[reeves]

No medal for Russia!

[Entropy]

In Soviet Russia, Russia beats Canada 7:3!

[sew12]

Originally Posted by JeffB

You may be able to catch Clara Hughes' race. She is in the 5th pairing so you will also get the advantage of the ice cleaning after the 4th pairing.

I actually made it home just in time to see Clara skate. Was nice.

That was a tough race though, Clara, Sablikova and the German girl all killed it one after the other.

Clara takes 2 seconds off the Oval record, German girl takes an additional 4 seconds off and then Sablikova even beats that.

Very nice way to end an excellent Olympic career, and modest to boot. After her race the interviewer was all "can we call you the greatest Canadian athlete" or something to that effect and she was like no way, there's so many great athletes in this Country etc. Then when Brian Williams interviewed her in the prime time segment and they showed a clip of people praising her she was still so humble and grateful for all the support.