Winter Olympics

I love the Winter Olympics!  They are much more entertaining to me than Summer.  My favorite sport is figure skating.  The pairs competition will start tomorrow, Valentine's day.  So exciting!

I thought the opening ceremony was very well done.  It was tough since there was a definite dark cloud in the air due to the loss of of the luger from Georgia.  So tragic.  It makes you more aware of just how very dangerous some of these sports are.

Tonight I'm watching the speed skating....loved seeing Apollo Ohno winning his 6th medal!  And his teammate won bronze when he almost died just six short months ago!


So is anyone else planning on watching consistently?  What are your favorite sports, and who are your favorite athletes in the games?

I'll be watching the Olympics, too! though I prefer the Summer Olympics, I'll still watch the winter ones. I want to watch some ice skating and hockey, I'll just have to figure out when they're on!

I also know I'll be watching snowboarding, since my sister is a Shaun White fan

I just saw this commercial during the Olympics. I love this.

The tv is on constantly at my house. It is so exciting to watch the athletes live out their dreams and put all of their hard work of training into practise. My favourite events are the speed skating and bobsled. My parents will be watching the hockey (of course) so I'll watch too.
Go Canada!

I love that commercial too Rob! So cute! And true, I'm sure.

yay canada got a gold!

That skiing was exciting last night! Great for the Canadian!

I've been watching. I thought I wouldn't get to see the opening ceremonies since Erin was having a sleepover birthday party that night, but with them not starting until 9 I got to watch most of it. In the process of getting ready for the party, I found season 3 of LH which has been missing for almost a year (packed away in a box for the move and not found until Friday). Yay!

I like watching most of the winter sports. Can't wait to watch snowboard cross. I hope Apollo Ohno get another gold. Men's moguls was pretty exciting last night.

We're HUGE Olympics fans here!! I love both winter and summer. I love watching Apolo Ohno, and am looking forward to seeing native Minnesotan, Lindsey Vonn, ski in a couple of days. The figure skating is exciting as well. But as with gymnastics in the summer Olympics, the judging for figure skating is totally pathetic and most times unfair. It drives me crazy. It's been especially brutal for ice dancing in the past two Olympics. I don't understand why the judges are so incompetent, and cannot judge fairly.

Can you tell I'm a little "passionate" where the judging is concerned? LOL! It's just gotten really old.........................

Lori wrote:

I've been watching. I thought I wouldn't get to see the opening ceremonies since Erin was having a sleepover birthday party that night, but with them not starting until 9 I got to watch most of it. In the process of getting ready for the party, I found season 3 of LH which has been missing for almost a year (packed away in a box for the move and not found until Friday). Yay!

I like watching most of the winter sports. Can't wait to watch snowboard cross. I hope Apollo Ohno get another gold. Men's moguls was pretty exciting last night.

Cool that you found your LH dvd set in the process of the party! It really does take a good year or two in a new home before you feel like everything is 'uncovered'. I hope Apollo wins another gold too!! He skates again Wednesday night.

Teresa wrote:

We're HUGE Olympics fans here!! I love both winter and summer. I love watching Apolo Ohno, and am looking forward to seeing native Minnesotan, Lindsey Vonn, ski in a couple of days. The figure skating is exciting as well. But as with gymnastics in the summer Olympics, the judging for figure skating is totally pathetic and most times unfair. It drives me crazy. It's been especially brutal for ice dancing in the past two Olympics. I don't understand why the judges are so incompetent, and cannot judge fairly.

Can you tell I'm a little "passionate" where the judging is concerned? LOL! It's just gotten really old.........................

Neat that Lindsey Vonn is from Minnesota! Oh, I totally agree about the figure skating scoring....it has never been fair and I don't see how the new judging system has improved anything. I hate it---I miss seeing the 5.8's and the occasional 6.0's! The pairs long program starts in 20 minutes!!

Did anybody just watch the skiiing? Exciting!

Yep---that was awesome! Nice to see Bode Miller win the bronze!


Finally, the figure skating is on! Oh wait, I spoke too soon---they showed one pairs couple and now they're going to snowboarding. This is the thing I HATE about the Olympics---you never know when anything is going to be on exactly! How late do they think I can stay up?!?! Looks like my dvr is going to be getting a work-out.

Hmmm, well I have to admit, that snowboarding was pretty exciting!! Go USA!! Have I said yet that I LOVE the winter Olympics?!

Snowboarding was very exciting. It was great that Scott Westcott was able to come from behind and win gold.

That was amazing Lori! I love how the announcers were like "Scott Weston falling way behind and out of medal contention." They should know by now that anything can happen!! Good for him!!

Wow, Evan Lysacek was awesome tonight!! I am hoping he beats Plushenko Thursday night! He's going to need the quad though.

What a shame about Lindsey Jacobellis in the snowboarding though.

Goodness, I am losing an awful lot of sleep over this Olympics!

Me, too! It's almost midnight. I'm on my way to bed shortly.
My heart broke tonight for Jeremy Abbott. I thought he would be a medal contender for figure skating. His nerves just got the best of him. Evan was fantastic, and I thought that the score was much too low for Johnny Weir. I don't think that Evan necessarily needs the quad to win. He's such a beautiful skater, and his footwork is awesome!

Amy wrote:

What a shame about Lindsey Jacobellis in the snowboarding though.

That was a shame. I wonder if she'll be back next Olympics.

Evan was good. He just might be able to beat Plushenko.

If they were judging it on hair style alone, Evan would definitely win. LOL!!

Teresa wrote:

Me, too! It's almost midnight. I'm on my way to bed shortly.
My heart broke tonight for Jeremy Abbott. I thought he would be a medal contender for figure skating. His nerves just got the best of him. Evan was fantastic, and I thought that the score was much too low for Johnny Weir. I don't think that Evan necessarily needs the quad to win. He's such a beautiful skater, and his footwork is awesome!

I thought they were too low for Johnny too. I love watching Johnny skate and I find him entertaining. The best thing he ever did was switch to his Russian coach. He is about as 'unpolitically correct' as they come as far as with the media, but that's part of what I like about him. He's such a free spirit. That had to be the most flambouyant costume he's worn yet though, I'd say! I felt terrible for Jeremy too Teresa....his program was really cool and it was just so sad to see it fall apart like that. He'll be a front-runner for the next olympics though. And think about the poor guys who have a long program all ready prepared, and don't get to perform it. That has to be heart breaking right there.

Lori wrote:

Amy wrote:

What a shame about Lindsey Jacobellis in the snowboarding though.

That was a shame. I wonder if she'll be back next Olympics.

Evan was good. He just might be able to beat Plushenko.

Lindsey sure does have a great attitude. Impressive. She's pretty young I think, so I can see her coming back for another Olympics. I hope so! What's sad is that she really did a great job recovering from that bobble---I thought she would have gone down, but she controlled it. Until she ran into the flag, of course. It just showed what strength and determination she has.

And I agree...Evan isn't far off from Plushenko, even though Yvgeny had the quad triple combo. As Paul Wylie was saying this morning, on the Today Show, his 'transitions' are much better than Plushenko's...he's a much more fluid skater. And it used to be that Plushenko had all the 'passion' in his skating, but Evan has totally found that. Kristi Yamaguchi said it's all going to come down to who is most trained, and that is Evan. I was pretty surprised with some of even the youngest skaters coming through on their artistry last night. I just know how important the technical merit is to the judges, and if Plushenko nails everything, including the quad triple, I think Evan could be in trouble. It's going to be tight, that's for sure! Can't wait for tomorrow!

I don't think sometimes they judge fairly.on some sports........

Oh, they don't. Some of the judging is totally absurd for gymnastics and figure skating.

They better judge fairly tomorrow evening for the men's long program.................or else!!!!!!!!!!!

Amy, saying that Johnny Weir is a "free spirit" is putting it mildly. LOL! I love his attitude, but wish he would "control" his love for Russia. I have no problem with him loving the Russian culture, his coach is Russian, but last night he was speaking Russian while waiting for his score, and it kind of bugged me. He makes it a point, ALL THE TIME, to let everyone know how much he loves Russia. My husband is like, "Well why don't you move there." I've been a fan of Johnny's for a few years now, but he tends to go a little overboard with things. He really is a drama queen, and he likes it that way. I was really upset with his score last night. He did a great job.

I couldn't agree more Teresa. Yeah---LOL---go ahead and move there Johnny----see if you like it as well as the good ol' U.S of A!

I didn't realize he was speaking in Russian when he was waiting for his scores! Yeah, that's just a bit overkill.

Have you watched any of the "Be Good Johnny Weir" on Encore (or Sundance channel, not sure). We're getting a bunch of channels for free right now for just a short while (a promo). I'm certainly learning a lot about him! Hard to believe he didn't even start skating until he was 12 years old! Talk about natural talent right there.

The commentators were saying they thought the judging was excellent last night (which commentators are usually very vocal if the judging is NOT fair, so I assume they know what they're talking about). So I have high hopes about fair judging for the most part, but I do know that Johnny isn't as 'well-liked' in general as some of the other top skaters. He's pretty much knocked the skating world on it's axis and the IFSC doesn't particularly appreciate that.

I have heard of Johnny's show, but don't get those channels. His coach gives him pep talks in Russian right before he skates. They showed it last night right before he skated out onto the ice. Then, he continued while he sat on the bench with his coach, waiting for his score.

I heard the announcers say that the judging was good last night as well, so we'll see. In the past, it's been the ice dancing that has been the worst.

Amy wrote:

I do know that Johnny isn't as 'well-liked' in general as some of the other top skaters. He's pretty much knocked the skating world on it's axis and the IFSC doesn't particularly appreciate that.

What don't people like about Johnny? Just a personality thing? I know he came under fire for wearing fur recently.