Winter Olympics 2018

[Cleoriff]

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

[jonsie]

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..... 

[viridis]

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.

[Cleoriff]

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.

[Glory1]

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.

[Cleoriff]

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....

[welshsteve76]

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

[Cleoriff]

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...

[Anonymous]

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?

[Cleoriff]

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@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?

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