topic Re: Winter Olympics 2018 in Off-Topic

Winter Olympics 2018

Cleoriff — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 13:06:38 GMT

I am just watching the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Pretty impressive really.

They will be taking place from 9th-23rd February

During the opening speeches, a few comments were made about 'keeping it clean'

This is to do with the banning of 47 Russian athletes by the IOC after the doping scandal in Sochi 2014

Russia appealed against the decision but the ban was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sports who issued the final statement just hours before the opening ceremony

Despite the ban 169 Russians will compete as 'Independents'. If they win an event the Olympic Anthem will be played

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42999126

Anyway despite all that, I will be looking forward to some good clean sport over the next two weeks.

Bring it on

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

jonsie — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 15:18:51 GMT

To be honest @Cleoriff I have never been a great fan of the Winter Olympics. However I will be watching how the combined Korean fare. That will be interesting both sportingly and politically.

I enjoy maybe skiing events more than any but tend to watch the highlights on the news. Saying that, being stuck at home for the coming months, just maybe I will be catching some of it during the boring days. That's if everyone leaves me be.....

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

viridis — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 15:31:42 GMT

Definitely a positive the united Korea team.
The entire globe has spent years looking in at this unbalanced northern lunatic, this is a definite improvement.
I hope their athletes can take home some medals and a bit of the old Olympic spirit.

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

Cleoriff — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 18:01:47 GMT

Certainly not the same enjoyment as the summer Olympics but I will watch some of it.

(Even though we don't have the same chance of a medal as some of the other countries) ..

I enjoy watching the ice skating disciplines as well as the bob sleigh events.

Certainly a lot of bonhomie between the united Korean teams and officials in todays opening event.

I expect a lot of medals to be won by the Russians who entered as Independents.

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

Glory1 — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 21:20:22 GMT

I am over the moon at the united Korean team - was absolutely gobsmacked when I heard about it on the news.

Obviously I am old enough to remember the Korean War, though I was quite young at the time and had just started school. We (children) were issued with dog tags just like our soldiers. I can't remember why exactly as it was so long ago but it made some sense at the time.

So I am delighted that the North and South have united for the first time in over 65 years. It gives hope to a troubled, divided country. Why the lunatic in the North has done this I am, being a cynic, suspicious of but hope it brings the two sides closer. After all they are all Koreans.

Though I'm not a watcher of the Olympics I will watch them.

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

Cleoriff — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 21:42:37 GMT

Although on the evening news they mentioned that the opening ceremony was NOT shown on TV in North Korea.

Kim Jong-un sent his sister to the ceremony and she was the one who performed the 'historic handshake' with the leader of South Korea.Still I suppose it was a gesture.

Here's hoping the unity doesn't end when the games do....

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

welshsteve76 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 10:00:13 GMT

The Skiing is probably the only thing I enjoy watching, although curling is proving a good watch. Love the skiing though. Downhill, Giant Slalom, Super-G and Slalom mainly. Not a fan of the other stuff.

Reminds me though of playing EPYX's Winter Games on the Commodore 64 all those years ago. Loved that game

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

Cleoriff — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 10:16:50 GMT

I like the skating (figure and speed skating) the bobsleigh and skeleton. My other half likes the curling. He plays bowls so it's the nearest he gets to it...

I do like watching some of the skiing, though as there is no British interest, I'm not glued to it

Not surprised to see one of the Russian Curling team testing positive for drugs.

I questioned the morality of allowing 168 Russians to take part as independents. After the state sponsored drug scandal in Sochi... I felt a ban was a ban. They should never been allowed to take part. The IOC needs to grow a pair and make a stance on this...

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 12:19:05 GMT

I don’t do tv so I don’t get to see this stuff, but I did manage to catch the 2 man bobsleigh dead heat yesterday.. which looked like fun. Was great to see the German guy rushing to congratulate the Canadian team.

Have the NK / SK team competed yet?

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

Cleoriff — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 13:02:50 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
I don’t do tv so I don’t get to see this stuff, but I did manage to catch the 2 man bobsleigh dead heat yesterday.. which looked like fun. Was great to see the German guy rushing to congratulate the Canadian team.

Have the NK / SK team competed yet?

Not sure @Anonymous. I have been flicking between channels and different sites (due to the reveals of the 2018 F1 cars ):smileyvery-happy:

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

jonsie — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 02:50:00 GMT

From what I've read the only actual combined team was the women's ice hockey team and to date have only played two games. One was a warm up game with someone or other but I do remember they lost 3-1 which was hardly of great surprise as they had only practised together for a few days and given the language barrier I would think practice would have been very difficult! The only game I think they have played in the Olympics was a thrashing by Switzerland 8-0.

I've absolutely no idea if the ice hockey is straight knock-out or whether it's the same as football and there are group stages? I also believe there are North Korean Olympians competing as individuals.

The only bits of these Olympics I have watched are on News clips as I've had zero interest to be honest.

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

Glory1 — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 06:13:43 GMT

@jonsie is there a language barrier? I thought North and South both spoke Korean like East and West Germany, pre-reunification, spoke German. Of course, I could be totally wrong 🤔

Must admit like you I've only caught snippets on the news as I'm not really interested in the Olympics; not to mention recording as much as I do there is so much else to watch 😊

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

welshsteve76 — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 09:01:35 GMT

@jonsiewrote:
From what I've read the only actual combined team was the women's ice hockey team and to date have only played two games. One was a warm up game with someone or other but I do remember they lost 3-1 ...

It was against Sweden if I remember.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post taht I do enjoy also watching bobsleigh, luge and skeleton. It's the figure skating, and all the snowboard and slopestyle stuff I don't like.

I do like another event I've not seen yet. That skiing one with all the bumps Mogul skiing I think it's called.

I don't think it's an olympic event, but the world cup race where they race each other in the slalom is pretty cool.

Re: Winter Olympics 2018

Cleoriff — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 09:10:55 GMT

The GB womens curling team has knocked out the world champions Canada to get into the semi finals

Spead skater Elise Christie had another disaster and is now out...That lass seems plagued with bad luck. First Sochi and now here....