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Winter Olympics anyone?


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I simply can't let politics cloud my appreciation of the accomplishments of the Olympic athletes. They have worked their asses off to get there. Ugly history aside, they deserve their moment.

No denying that! And it seems those who know think the stadiums, racetracks and all are great ... but still, it all raises so many questions, I just can't totally shut up.

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... They put a lot of thought into the whole opening ceremony history of Russia ...

I loved the part about the Gulag and about ethnic cleansing and its valued tradition from tsarism to present ... as for the "thought", its gist was likely: some dude built Petersburg ... some other dude built Sochi.

Y'know, they didn't put the part about the genocide of the Native Americans, centuries of slavery, or the Vietnam War in the Atlanta opening ceremonies either. And the London ceremonies somehow completely missed that brutality of British colonialism thing too.

Anyway, I've decided to boycott all opening ceremonies (and the terrible history lesson they provide - shame on them for trying to have a mildly entertaining show!) and, tough as it is, to try to just pay attention to sports during the Olympics.

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I don't know if Atlanta or London did this kind of "history lesson" opening though? If they had and were flawed in a likewise fashion and if I'd been around, rest assured I'd have been of the very same opinion! Not that I really care, I've little interest in all the money-making crap surrounding these huge international sports events ... even less so since they seem to rely more and more on corrupt regimes. After all, it should be about sport, shouldn't it?

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Thrilled that the women are ski jumping.

The American women all come out of Park City, UT where they have an Olympic training center [5 minutes from where my kids live] and are able to train all year long.

Have visited there a number of times...have seen people going off the jumps from the highway even in the summer months.

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The excuse used by the US speed skating team that their "super secret" suits are the reason for no medals is embarrassing. Their World Cup suits were proven to produce no better performance. Now the reason given is the team practiced on "hard ice" immediately before the Olympics and were not prepared for Sochi's "soft ice".

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My wife is into women's figure skating, so I watched the long program yesterday. It seemed to me that the young Russian skater who finished first received highly inflated scores. This morning I read:

One of the nine judges who picked a young Russian skater over two more refined competitors for the Olympic gold medal Thursday night was suspended for a year for trying to fix an event at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

And another is the wife of the former president and current general director of the Russian figure skating federation. Another Olympics, another huge skating controversy involving the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Once the Russian hockey team was eliminated from medal consideration, I figured Putin would drop the hammer.

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The Russian lady who won certainly skated well and deserved to be in the medals, but beyond that I'd have to see all the judges scorecards and understand the scoring better to know if anything was amiss - isn't this why they drop the high and low scores to get to the final results? The figure skating scores certainly seemed no more subjective than the various extreme skiing and snow boarding events.

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The Russian lady who won certainly skated well and deserved to be in the medals, but beyond that I'd have to see all the judges scorecards and understand the scoring better to know if anything was amiss - isn't this why they drop the high and low scores to get to the final results? The figure skating scores certainly seemed no more subjective than the various extreme skiing and snow boarding events.

She did skate well but, as the N. Y. Times pointed out today, she received a score of 149.95. Her previous high score was 131.63, recorded last month. Quite a leap.

And how do you allow someone who's been suspended for trying to fix results to ever judge again?

And to allow the wife of the former president and current general director of the Russian figure skating federation to judge the final program when Russians are skating seems questionable, at the very least. I'd say it's more than questionable.

But in Russia, you play by Putin's rules or it's prison camp.

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Stick a fork in it.....done for 4 years.

My kids live in Park City UT, where 34 USA Olympic team members live and train [with numerous medal winners among them], so Olympic fever ran wild there especially my granddaughter.

I enjoyed the men & women's hockey tournament, despite USA men's disappointing end, and a smattering of others things.

No opening or closing ceremony stuff....couldn't care less.

Adios!

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I thought the Olympics were fantastic.

Few jumps for you if you can view them where you are:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/26290746

LOVED the new events, like snowboard cross

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/26230380

Great women's events in some of these - and the commentators on snowboard cross were just brilliant:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/26215442

Ski cross gave us the most brilliant photo finish in sporting history

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/26269430

Lots more to pick through at the BBC website if you can access it. I have never done any sport on snow or ice but I love it. Except curling.


One of the few GB medals was in another new event, snowboard slopestyle:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/26106600

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