Winter Olympics 2018

[Christy]

Is anyone else excited? I love the Olympics in general--I'm just a sucker for all of it--but since the Winter Olympics have the alpine skiing events, I'm hugely excited for this. We have so much talent on the women's side! Will Lindsey win? Will Mikaela beat her nerves?

I was very sorry to see the 3 (!!) crashes last weekend for what had been our very deep women's speed team, and it's heartbreaking for poor Jackie Wiles to sustain such a bad injury right before the Olympics (she's had some very good results and even a podium this year).

Our men's team on the other hand...:( Ted did finally get his first podium in 3 years at the last GS so maybe he'll be a good comeback story?

 

[Jilly]

Can't wait. I even ordered cable at the condo this year because of the Olympics. Also I've heard that because of the time difference lots of things will be "prime time viewing" and not at 5am!! Well at least for those of us in the east!!

 

[Christy]

They seem to be on at a reasonable hour here too--men's downhill live streams at 6 pm Saturday!

 

[Jilly]

Well that was the hockey I found out. Opening ceremonies live start at 5:30am!!

 

[Christy]

I bet the primetime coverage of the Opening Ceremony is good enough. That might be the one thing I don't need to see every second of.

 

[newboots]

I am stoked! I loved having Olympics ads during the Super Bowl, although in one of them, it said something like "Friday 5 pm, Opening Ceremonies, Saturday 2 pm, Men's Downhill, Thursday 6 pm, Mikaela!"

I mean, we are all excited about Mikaela, but . . . really? Is she her own event?
(days/times were invented for this post)

 

[Christy]

That's a lot of pressure on her.

 

[Randi M.]

Curled up on the sofa with the fam, watching the first day’s coverage right now. So excited.

 

[kiki]

I understand
But it seems so wasteful and non-environmentally sensitive...

 

[Liquid Yellow]

I do wish Team GB could be a bit better.

 

[Christy]

I do wish Team GB could be a bit better.

Dave Ryding is my dark horse for the slalom. Not for gold, but maybe bronze. I'd love to see him do well and the Olympics have a way of surprising us like that.

 

[Powgirl]

So excited for our hometown (Silverthorne) boy, Red Gerard...he really nailed it!

 

[Little Lightning]

So excited for our hometown (Silverthorne) boy, Red Gerard...he really nailed it!

Only 17, family built their own park in their backyard. https://www.instagram.com/redsbackyard/?utm_source=ig_embed

 

[Little Lightning]

https://slate.com/culture/2018/02/r...tes-first-gold-medal-at-the-winter-games.html

 

[Randi M.]

Did you know that there are many fewer events for women at the Olympics, especially in ski jumping? One Russian coach said that ski jumping is “inappropriate” for women “from a medical point of view.” Infuriating.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thinkprogress.org/gender-equality-olympics-3afc68e45226/amp/

 

[newboots]

Aak. I "liked" it but don't like it. Here's another quote from that article:

"As recently as 2014, a Russian ski jumping coach said that ski jumping wasn’t appropriate for women because 'women have another purpose—to have children, to do housework, to create hearth and home.'"

Later, the author theorizes that there might be many fewer ski jumping events for women because elite female ski jumpers often jump farther than elite men! I suggest clicking on @Randi M. 's link. A worthwhile read.

 

[DeeSki]

Thanks for posting @Randi M. That article is well worth reading. I hadn’t even realized there was no Nordic Combined event for women. I live in Germany and that event is huge. Basically they love cross-country skiing and they love ski jumping so the combination gets a ton of coverage. I’d say the only event that gets more coverage is Biathlon. I’m sure that not having a women’s Nordic Combined event and fewer women’s events across the board also has a negative effect on women athlete’s ability to obtain funding and sponsorship, leading to that whole negative spiral of claims that people aren’t interested in watching women’s sports therefore more valuable prizes/sponsorship aren’t justifiable when in fact nobody knows what people want to watch because they don’t get the chance to see women’s events. Then you get all the hand-wringing about teenage girls dropping out of sports .....

 

[Christy]

Oh my gosh. The women's team Nordic Sprint. I might have cried a little. And that was some of the best call/commentary I've heard in a long time. If you didn't get to see it it is well worth googling the video of the finish.

 

[Jenny]

Totally exciting! I thought the commentator was going to explode!

 

[VickiK]

It was awesome. I got teary too.