The XXIV Olympic Winter Games Thread

[zCommander]

On 2/5/2022 at 12:19 PM, abdcskins said:

 

But there is nowhere on the planet with lots of snow anymore.

 

You must knot know the planet I take it. I have been to Norway. It is a nice country too 

 

Where is it snowing in Norway now?

Norwegian Ski Resorts - Current Snow Comparison

Ski Resort Report	Last Snow	7 Day
Hallingskarvet	-	80cm - 32in
Haukelifjell Skisenter	-	119cm- 47in

 

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by zCommander

[abdcskins]

I have heard of Norway. I have never been but I have been to Finland.

 

If they want to host the winter Olympics in Scandinavian countries every time then fine. As long as there are mountain slopes challenging enough for the skiing events, I don't know the criteria. The more I think of it the better that sounds. I know they have been in Oslo before.

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by abdcskins

[China]

Well, I think it is a point well taken that where they're currently holding the winter olympics is ridiculous.  When I was watching the Downhill skiing event earlier they remarked that it was being held in a place where they have annual snowfall of less than 3 inches, and that the snow for the events was entirely man-made.  They literally had to pump millions of gallons of water to make enough snow.  Ridiculous.

[tshile]

Kind of tired of the complaining. For whatever reason people are complaining a lot more this year. And mostly about things that usually exist (time delay, xgames type sports) 

 

i was raised to believe the Olympics are important. A sense of national pride and a time to come together. Most people I know aren’t watching any of it. Makes me sad. 

[Captain Wiggles]

Oh people are always gonna **** about something. The important thing is that we all can come together and laugh at luge crashes. 

 

 

[China]

‘I have no more tears’: Beijing’s Winter Olympics hit by athlete complaints

 

On the eve of the Winter Olympics, China promised the world a “streamlined, safe and most splendid” Games. But just two days into the event organisers are facing a litany of complaints from athletes and countries on multiple fronts.

 

The Swedes have suggested that the conditions in the mountains are perilously cold. A Polish skater says she was living in fear in a Beijing isolation ward and has “cried until I have no more tears”. The Finns have claimed an ice hockey player is being kept in Covid quarantine for no reason. And the Germans? They are frustrated that there is no hot food at the downhill skiing.

 

Athletes were always going to face difficulties in Beijing, given they are in a “closed loop” system that forbids them from leaving the village except to train, compete or go home. However, a growing number are now expressing frustration and anguish with other aspects of their Winter Olympic experience.

 

Plummeting temperatures are usually a given at the Games, but the Swedish delegation are urging cross-country skiing events to be held earlier in the day after one athlete, Frida Karlsson, was seen shaking and close to collapse at the end of the women’s 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon.

 

Under the rules of the International Ski Federation (FIS), competitions are stopped from taking place when temperatures are below -20c. When Karlsson competed on Saturday, temperatures at the National Cross-Country Centre in the mountains of Zhangjiakou, 130 miles north-west of Beijing, were -13C – but with windchill it was far colder.

 

“We have the cold limits but I do not know if they also measure the wind effect,” the Swedish team boss Anders Bystroem told reporters. “If FIS says it’s -17 degrees and it’s windy, and it’s -35 degrees with the wind chill, what do you do then?”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Destino]

Gu won gold.  Hate to see it.

[ixcuincle]

Canada up 1-0 on the US in women's hockey. USA network for those insomniacs or night owls.

[Fergasun]

5 hours ago, Destino said:

Gu won gold.  Hate to see it.

I am conflicted about this. 

 

We were watching the big air event and I heard the announcers say, "Born in San Francisco, her mother decided she would compete for China."  Emotionally, as an American, it felt like its a slap in the face.  At the same time, its her choice.  If she had the dream and foresight years ago to be the Shaun White of China... good for her.  We in the West should see this as progress that China has middle class consumer power.  

 

I wish in America we had more ways to understand the average people of differerent countries and thus those countries.  I think they probably naturally feel the same strong way about us... ie. a bunch of common misunderstandings and stereotypes.  

 

 

[Destino]

4 hours ago, Fergasun said:

I am conflicted about this. 

 

We were watching the big air event and I heard the announcers say, "Born in San Francisco, her mother decided she would compete for China."  Emotionally, as an American, it felt like its a slap in the face.  At the same time, its her choice.  If she had the dream and foresight years ago to be the Shaun White of China... good for her.  We in the West should see this as progress that China has middle class consumer power.  

 

I wish in America we had more ways to understand the average people of differerent countries and thus those countries.  I think they probably naturally feel the same strong way about us... ie. a bunch of common misunderstandings and stereotypes.  

 

 

 

Im not conflicted at all.  I don’t hate her, but I'm not rooting for China.  I’m not rooting for any Chinese athlete to win, even if she has a good PR team that tricked the American media into thinking rooting for China is somehow noble.  
 

It would be like rooting for the cowboys…. If the cowboys were a dystopian nightmare currently engaged in multiple cultural genocides.  No thanks.  

[Corcaigh]

You can admire the grift.
 

Is marketed as the Chinese Snow Princess.

She lives mostly in San Francisco.

She is attending Stanford.

Got Chinese citizenship (but apparently has not renounced Us citizenship which is a requirement)

The starting price for her to endorse a (Chinese) brand is $2M each.

 

She should be a professor in the marketing course on the Stanford MBA

 

[Fergasun]

I did some more research.  Nothing should take away from her athletic talent and ability.  

 

According to a paywalled article from the Economist, she was sponsored in her mothers country since the age of 9 by a businessman.  She has already modeled.  This makes sense as to why she would choose to represent them.  At the same time, repping that country means you have to toe the literal party line.  

 

Look at what happened to Peng Shuai-- the tennis player.  I would love to watch Enes Kanter debate Yao Ming regarding the Uyghurs.  When Kanter called out Yao, his response was "Come visit...".   It's not a free, open and transparent society.  That colors everything we in America perceive.  

 

Commercial ventures have a motive to keep the consumer base happy, NBC would normally do a ton of promotion about a US-born athlete like Gu. In fact, I bet they barely cover the fact that her decision is controversial because it would open up negative perceptions about the hosts. Nothing has been said about her American father.  I don't know what it takes to emigrate to America from China, but it's probably not cheap.

 

Thinking about this makes my head hurt, because it is more about the government than people.  

[PleaseBlitz]

 

 

[Destino]

I watched the female skiers with rifles yesterday, and it really does seem like the most random of sports.  It’s like watching a training facility operated by a James Bond villain.

 

 

[Captain Wiggles]

I always liked the biathlon. Them little German rifles they use are pretty cool. Though I feel it'd be far more entertaining if Aquavit was somehow involved. 

 

 

 

[PleaseBlitz]

I love biathlon. Let’s push humans to their physical limit, then judge them on their fine motor skills. It’s brilliant. 
 

And would be even better if aquavit where heavily involved. 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Underrated group to hate on Twietnam: white knights for when a female athlete ****s the bed. 
 

 

[Captain Wiggles]

Why did the Chinese build the ski ramp in front of nuclear cooling towers? 

[zCommander]

27 minutes ago, Captain Wiggles said:

Why did the Chinese build the ski ramp in front of nuclear cooling towers? 

 

It provides power to the snow flakes.

 

[tshile]

Oh wow shiffrin melted down

i hate when they put them on camera like that. 

[Barry.Randolphe]

I am going to let NBC know I am available to console her

[China]

So I'm watching the snowboard half-pipe and I can't help but notice the huge discrepancy in what the men and women do.  The women were struggling to do 540s and 720s, barely getting any height above the lip, and yet in the qualifiers I'm seeing the men getting huge air and doing 1440s and I even saw a 1620.  I'm surprised as I don't think this large a difference between men and women is seen in some of the other events.

Edited February 9, 2022 by China

[PokerPacker]

2 hours ago, China said:

So I'm watching the snowboard half-pipe and I can't help but notice the huge discrepancy in what the men and women do.  The women were struggling to do 540s and 720s, barely getting any height above the lip, and yet in the qualifiers I'm seeing the men getting huge air and doing 1440s and I even saw a 1620.  I'm surprised as I don't think this large a difference between men and women is seen in some of the other events.

I watched the women's half-pipe 4 years ago, and one of the women really impressed me (I think she won gold).  I said to myself that her performance was good enough to compete with the men.

Then the men's half-pipe started up and they were all clearly better.

[Spaceman Spiff]

On 2/8/2022 at 4:06 AM, Destino said:

 

It would be like rooting for the cowboys…. If the cowboys were a dystopian nightmare currently engaged in multiple cultural genocides.  No thanks.  

 

Are they not?

 

22 hours ago, Corcaigh said:

You can admire the grift.
 

Is marketed as the Chinese Snow Princess.

She lives mostly in San Francisco.

She is attending Stanford.

Got Chinese citizenship (but apparently has not renounced Us citizenship which is a requirement)

The starting price for her to endorse a (Chinese) brand is $2M each.

 

She should be a professor in the marketing course on the Stanford MBA

 

 

Grift is a great word for her.

 

I'd heard of her before the games, didn't know much about her.  Saw this article:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/dan-wolken/2022/02/08/chinese-american-eileen-gu-enters-culture-war-consciousness-gold/6701680001/

 

Quote

But we don’t live in that world. And so Gu – who was born in the United States, lives in San Francisco and will attend college at Stanford this fall – now enters a new reality where millions of her countrymen and women who did not care about her citizenship on Monday will wake up Tuesday asking why she competes for the country where her mother was born and not her own.

They will scrutinize her words, call her a traitor, lob racist insults, tell her to stay in China and root for her to fail. She will almost certainly be culture war fodder on Fox News for days, but she will not find safe harbor on either the political left or right. The consequences of the choice she made in 2019, which nobody outside this niche sport would have known or cared about, will be evident in ways that even a young woman as intelligent and self-aware as Gu may not fully understand.

 

All valid points, but whatever.  That's the Olympics though, no one cares about half this **** until we're told to.  Especially the Winter Olympics with ultra niche, winter X games sports.  It's not our fault that no one had heard of her until a few weeks ago, but that doesn't mean we can't have opinions.

 

I agree with @tshile, the Olympics used to mean something.  I used to get excited about them but this year I can honestly say I haven't watched a second of them.  That may change here, but as I've gotten older priorities have switched around a bit.  

 

But I think the Gu thing ties in a bit somehow with what @tshile was saying.  A sense of national pride and a time to come together, that's what the Olympics were about.  But in a time like this people confuse national pride with jingoism.  I mean, it's like Kenny Powers said, "I honestly just feel that America is the best country and all the other countries aren't as good. That used to be called patriotism."

 

Jokes aside, there hasn't been a time where I've been alive where a "time to come together" has been such a vile thought to some people.  That goes for here in this country as well as worldwide.  I'm guilty of it, too...part of the reason I'm not watching this year is cause they're in China.  And while that shouldn't be a real reason not to watch (laziness and overall disinterest are the main reasons) it certainly isn't making me want to tune in.

 

But back to Gu, people don't know how to feel about her because they don't know how to feel about themselves right now.  I mean, it's obvious she doesn't know how she feels about herself:

 

 

Quote

“I definitely feel as though I’m just as American as I am Chinese,” she said. “I’m American when I’m in the U.S. and Chinese when I’m in China and I’ve been outspoken about my gratitude to both the U.S. and China for making me the person that I am.

“I don’t feel as though I’m taking advantage of one or the other because both have been incredibly supportive of me and continue to be supportive of me because they understand that my mission is to use sport as a force for unity, to use it as a form to foster interconnection between countries and not use it as a divisive force. So that benefits everyone, and if you disagree with that, I feel like it’s someone else’s problem.”

 

 

Okay.  I mean, you're on skis for a week in a winter X games thing that no one really cares about outside of these two weeks and she's thinks she's fostering interconnection between countries and not to use it as a divisive force.  

 

She thinks she benefits everyone?  What a ****ing brat, the hubris is enormous.  And of course it's not her problem, it's OURS.  Typical 18 year old, not taking any responsibility and delusions of grandeur.

 

Quote

“I’m an 18-year-old girl out here living my best life,” she said. “Like, I’m having a great time. It doesn’t matter if other people are happy or not because I feel as though I’m doing my best enjoying the entire process and using my voice to create as much positive change as I can for the voices who will listen to me in an area that is personal and relevant to myself.”

 

First of all, anyone who says they're "out here living my best life" can go get ****ed.

 

And what the **** does "using my voice to create as much positive change as I can for the voices who will listen to me in an area that is personal and relevant to myself," even mean?  I've read that 5 times in a row and I feel like I'm about to have a seizure.  Is this the type that Stanford lets in?  

 

Quote

She continued, “I know I have a good heart and I know my reasons for making the decisions I do are based on a greater common interest and something that I feel like is for the greater good. So if other people don’t really believe that’s where I’m coming from, that just reflects they don’t have the empathy to empathize with a good heart, perhaps because they don’t share the same kind of morals that I do. And in that sense, I’m not going to waste my time trying to placate people who are one, uneducated, and two, probably never going to experience the kind of joy and gratitude and just love that I have the great fortune to experience on a daily basis. If people don’t believe me and if people don’t like me, that’s their loss. They’re never going to win the Olympics.”

Besides the last line, which doesn’t exactly make the case for empathy, you can see where she’s coming from. The world has bigger problems than which flag an 18-year-old skier you never heard of until this week competes under.

But Gu is also going to have to learn to live in a new world of cynicism. When she says she’s careful about the brands she chooses to work with, that she wants them to “inspire positive social change” and “care about women in society” while aligning with China, it’s impossible to avoid the hypocrisy. When Gu sidesteps a question about Peng Shuai’s attendance Tuesday by saying she’s “grateful that she’s happy and healthy and out here doing her thing again,” it’s just more propaganda.

 

Can she get on a higher horse?  People that don't share the morals that she does?  Not trying to placate to the uneducated?  Jesus Christ, what a ****ing brat.

 

Pointing out hypocrisy isn't always the best arguing tactic but it is a good one here, and whoever wrote this for the USA Today is correct.  It's not cynicism to point out how this brat wants to "inspire positive change" and "care about women in society" and whatever other social justice warrior stuff she's into.  I don't have a problem with the SJW stuff if you REALLY MEAN it and walk the line but she's got some ****ing balls on her to stand on the platform for China and accept a gold medal while preaching that ****.  

 

**** that ****, China can have her.  I'm sure we'll be accepting her with open arms when her country ****cans her in a few years because she did something against the status quo.

 

19 hours ago, Fergasun said:

Thinking about this makes my head hurt, because it is more about the government than people.  

 

It is, but when it's a place like China it can't be helped.

[tshile]

I’ve been avoiding the gu stuff. 
 

She made a decision at 19. which is young to make a life altering decision - which obviously this is. That’s real young. Most people can’t figure out what major to chase in college at 19. 
 

i don’t like it. But I’m not gonna waste my time criticizing her. Especially when it can’t be undone.

 

but I won’t celebrate her at all. If an American company puts her on their commercials it will be off-putting for me towards that brand. 
 

i don’t want to hear her story. I’m not going to read these articles about her. I won’t watch tv segments about her. She decided to be with the Chinese so - get the **** off my screen and go be with the Chinese then. 
 

don’t have to be nasty, vile and childish about it. 
 

but it’s ok to think she should **** right off to the Chinese media and marketing scene, and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. 

7 hours ago, China said:

So I'm watching the snowboard half-pipe and I can't help but notice the huge discrepancy in what the men and women do.  The women were struggling to do 540s and 720s, barely getting any height above the lip, and yet in the qualifiers I'm seeing the men getting huge air and doing 1440s and I even saw a 1620.  I'm surprised as I don't think this large a difference between men and women is seen in some of the other events.

Yeah… I mean it’s sort of evident everywhere. 
 

the men run the luge about 10 mph faster (which would be like 15% faster). The big air competitions with skis isn’t even close - might as well be different sports.  Men figure skaters get way higher and can do way more. 
 

we separate the genders for a reason. If we didn’t there’d be hardly any (if any?) women gold medalists. 
 

i mean what competition do women exceed in over men? Only something like curling even strikes me as potentially being a level playing field from the start …

Edited February 9, 2022 by tshile