Sochi Olympic thread

Fattes

Ok so with the 2 big Olympic news stories today it is probably time to start this.

Lyndsey Vonn is now officially withdrawn from Sochi

Rule changes; FIS have announced a rule change for Super Combined qualification which should see Ligity, Fenniger and Zetal qualifying and maybe Bode

Also Irish team announcement the 22nd Jan Conor Lyne confirmed as Male Alpine now skiing to 68 points which is insanely low and had a ski with him on Subday at a night race in Chamonix he is in good form and ready!!

Fattes

A nice pre games video from the British team from their base in Breck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XOyDJEy3YY

hawkwind23

i have to hope Aimee Fuller makes it as she lives nearby in Northern Ireland.
she has a Facebook page , amazing lifestyle the top athletes have, inspiring to my own kids.

Fattes

She will do well! She is a super athlete and gives so much back to the sport!
Also an incredible nice person

Fattes

hawkwind23 Speak of the devil!!

http://t.co/Lz7uJN2Kbu

Fattes

Full Olympic Schedule here, for those of you looking for Skicross it falls under Freestyle events.

http://www.sochi2014.com/en/schedule-and-results

Fattes

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/athletes/julia-mancuso/A-Disarming-Olympian.html

A nice little piece with Jules Mancuso, in the absence of Vonn she will be looking to bring home the Speed medals for the US! She has a habit of performing at the big events

Fattes

BBC Promo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-lsSKOlV0I

Bumped into one of Switzerland's top female hopefuls tonight when out for dinner! The buzz is building!

cormee

Fattes wrote: »

BBC Promo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-lsSKOlV0I

Bumped into one of Switzerland's top female hopefuls tonight when out for dinner! The buzz is building!

It's quite 'epic' - very cheesey, a bit too dark.

I saw it for the first time the other night, it didn't dawn on me for 30 seconds or so what the hell was going on, or what it was about.

Like a promo for Middle Earth as a winter holiday location.

robinph

The Winter Olympics are the games for the proper tough olympians. None of those safe sports of the summer Olympics, serious injury is part and parcel of a large portion of the sports in the winter games, sunburn or a twisted ankle is possibly the biggest danger in the summer.

It's a suitably ominous intro I think for the games, I like it.

Fattes

Anyone notice the skis being carried the wrong way round ha ha

Johnny Bramley the man responsible is a top lad he was at our wedding the coverage will be epic

Fattes

robinph wrote: »

The Winter Olympics are the games for the proper tough olympians. None of those safe sports of the summer Olympics,

There is no sport as dangerous and as cruel as alpine skiing one mistake of a couple of hundreds of a secon can be the difference between a medal and finishing. In the bottom 10 and if it goes wrong, well it is going to hurt

fannymagee

Horrible crash for Thomas Morgenstern on Friday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_n84bvZW_I

He sustained head and lung injuries, but he's making a good recovery and is still hoping to make Sochi. These people are machines!!

tunguska

Fattes wrote: »

BBC Promo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-lsSKOlV0I

Bumped into one of Switzerland's top female hopefuls tonight when out for dinner! The buzz is building!

I like it. Somebody said so already but it resembles something from middle Earth.
Cant wait for the games, just over 3 weeks now. Im even looking forward to the bleedin' opening ceremony...........Anybody any idea of what time over here the events will take place? 4 yrs ago I was up til 5am most nights.

Fattes

tunguska wrote: »

..........Anybody any idea of what time over here the events will take place? 4 yrs ago I was up til 5am most nights.

7am-12 most days

tunguska

BBC schedule:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/winter-olympics/23167836

Fattes

tunguska wrote: »

BBC schedule:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/winter-olympics/23167836

Sad fact the Alpine programme has been the same schedule for every Winter Olympics ever!!

If you want to get into the mood check out the super combined from Wengen that was run today great stuff

tunguska

Fattes wrote: »

If you want to get into the mood check out the super combined from Wengen that was run today great stuff

Yeah Svindal was posting on facebook about it. Ligety numero uno at the moment, Svindal 5th and Bode miller 9th. On bbc 2 sunday at 5:15pm, only 45mins though.

Fattes

I won't ruin it but the French chocked and handed it over with nearly a 2 second lead at the start if the downhill

That said the Lauberhorn is murder! 2.15 + of downhill feel the burn.

Full downhill is on this weekend too

Fattes

So no Simon Dumont on team USA!! Huge news, Chemmy Alcott waiting to see if the BSS will give her a wild card oh &

JAMAICA WE HAVE A BOBSLED TEAM!!

There 2 man sled team have qualified

hawkwind23

5th for Aimee fuller in Canada should see her onto the Olympic team

you could make a movie out of the Jamaican bob team!

tunguska

I see Lolo Jones has made the US Bob sled team. Really happy for her, hope she gets a medal out of it.

Fattes

Brits have announced their team today,

Dave riding and Chemmy Alcott are the only Alpine athletes, Freestyle includes James Woodsy woods, Katie Summerhays, Rowan Chesire and Aimee Fuller

Amazingly no ski cross athletes despite Emily sarsfiel & Pam Thouboune meeting the Olympic standard

stevire

Liking the knowledge you all have Olympic teams, potential here for a tipsters thread for those that like a punt?

Fattes

It appears I am not the only one surprised by Emily sarsfields exclusion!! With Chemmy being granted an exception this could get messy

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/winter-olympics/10592234/British-ski-cross-No-1-Emily-Sarsfield-threatens-legal-action-against-BOA-over-her-non-selection-for-Sochi.html

Fattes

stevire wrote: »

Liking the knowledge you all have Olympic teams, potential here for a tipsters thread for those that like a punt?

I have been asked to write a piece for a web site that I will summary here once published , it's basically an Alpine freestyle event description with some names to watch

prunudo

With my limited knowledge of all the qualifying races and back story I can't understand how they could leave Sarsfeild out over Alcott who is coming back from a broken leg injury.

hawkwind23

Fattes wrote: »

It appears I am not the only one surprised by Emily sarsfields exclusion!! With Chemmy being granted an exception this could get messy

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/winter-olympics/10592234/British-ski-cross-No-1-Emily-Sarsfield-threatens-legal-action-against-BOA-over-her-non-selection-for-Sochi.html

yeah that seemed an odd decision

and sending 4 cross country ?
and only 2 downhill skiers , one who is injured.

seems an odd selection process.

also worth finding out who gets funded for Sochi and how many hangers on there are........

i find at these events that the folk who are dedicated and love their sport are forgot about and self-fund , then when a jolly like the Olympics come up the vultures are out in force.

this selection process seems very unfair

hawkwind23

also worth noting that Sarsfield seems to be the highest rated of any of the athletes going?

Fattes

The BSS has selection criteria far higher than what is actually required by the IOC for olympic qualification. So for example, at the last World Champs there was no British Alpine skiers! Even thought he BSS have a quota they are allowed to enter!

Their requirement for ski cross is Two top-24 finishes during the current Olympic cycle as well as a place inside the top 32 of the world rankings. Sadly for Emily she meet the top 24 finish bit but dropped outside the top 32 just this year. However due to injury and drop out the IOC offered the BSS a place for her and they refused it as they did not meet their criteria! Its bloody weird.

Fattes

With my limited knowledge of all the qualifying races and back story I can't understand how they could leave Sarsfeild out over Alcott who is coming back from a broken leg injury.

Chemmy meet the olympic standard and the BSS standard at one point in this olympic cycle but they gave her an exemption to the criteria in relation to results this year as her 2 races since returning from injury have been cancelled due to weather.

robinph

It is daft to not send everyone that you can and who meets the IOC qualification standards. No reason for National Olympic Committees to set higher qualification standards, unless you have a massive surplus of people who would qualify like Jamacian 100m sprinters.
Send everyone you can, get more people interested in watching the games, get more kids interested in taking up competitive sports, get more people qualifying in a few years time. Simples.

tunguska

Less than 2 weeks now. For me one of the highlights of Vancouver was the ski cross final and Del Bosco's brilliant fightback from a terrible start to be baring down on the gold an silver only to overcook it on one of the last hills.



http://olympic.ca/2014/01/27/ski-cross-athletes-complete-sochi-freestyle-skiing-picture/

hawkwind23

http://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/this-mexican-alpine-skier-wins-best-uniform-award-for-sochi-olympics-621007.html

Mexican Alpine skier , he looks the part anyways

tunguska

Dan snow has a documentary on the history of the winter olympics tomorrow night bbc 2 at 9pm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03t4szg

tunguska

tunguska wrote: »

Dan snow has a documentary on the history of the winter olympics tomorrow night bbc 2 at 9pm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03t4szg

I should take my own heads up........missed this last night, anybody know where I could watch it?

robinph

I only just remembered to set the Tivo for it, not seen it yet though.
Unless you can get the iPlayer through Sky or something your probably out of luck, they do sometime let you stream stuff internationally I think.

tunguska

robinph wrote: »

I only just remembered to set the Tivo for it, not seen it yet though.
Unless you can get the iPlayer through Sky or something your probably out of luck, they do sometime let you stream stuff internationally I think.

No worries Im sure it'll show up somwhere. Less than 1 week to go now........

Fattes

http://www.planetski.eu/news/5754

robinph

I thought they had already dealt with changing the jumps etc to make them safer, seems there is more to fix then.

Fattes

robinph wrote: »

I thought they had already dealt with changing the jumps etc to make them safer, seems there is more to fix then.

Probably more to do with the fact that he probably was not going to medal in slope style have spoken to 3 athletes who have been on the course are regular games and few tour competitors and they have no issues I think those that compete in smaller comps are going to struggle

cormee

Fattes wrote: »

http://www.planetski.eu/news/5754

He actually looks normal with his hair cut, his face is somewhat less punchable. Wonder if he still wears the vacuum formed black gear.

Big pity about Torstein Horgmo, was REALLY looking forward to seeing him perform, and hopefully kick White's butt. He's an incredible boarder. Now with both of them gone I won't have anyone to cheer on, or anyone to hate.

stevire

I backed Max Parrot on Monday at 6/1, 2nd fav now at 4/1 just behind McMorris at 10/3. McLovin broke a rib 10 days ago so wonder how fit and able he is to pull off some of the high risk moves....

Sad to see Horgmo out, not sad to see White gone. Don't think White was a contender for Gold in the Slopestyle imo

cormee

stevire wrote: »

I backed Max Parrot on Monday at 6/1, 2nd fav now at 4/1 just behind McMorris at 10/3. McLovin broke a rib 10 days ago so wonder how fit and able he is to pull off some of the high risk moves....

Sad to see Horgmo out, not sad to see White gone. Don't think White was a contender for Gold in the Slopestyle imo

That's what I was thinking too. He only qualified for slopestyle in the last two competitions held in the past week, really cutting it fine he was. Half-pipe seems to be be his preferred event.

tunguska

You can kind of understand white pulling out over safety concerns. I mean 4 years ago there was a Georgian athlete killed on the luge track which was then subsequently altered to make it safer.

Only two days now........great documentary about the Miracle on ice in Lake placid 1980.

Fattes

http://www.newstalk.ie/mobile/index.php?id=20385

Conor Lyne is going to be the Irish Flag bearer for the opening ceremony at Sochi, I am so happy for an incredible young man who shows so much pride in representing Ireland and has raised the standard for Irish skiing beyond comprehension and is one of the nicest people I have ever meet in snowsports.

So happy for him!

G-Man

Seeing as RTE is not covering it much, is there anywhere I can watch it online..

I can subscribe to eurosport online but its coverage looks pretty poor, just an hour or so of highlights every day.

Down South

G-Man wrote: »

Seeing as RTE is not covering it much, is there anywhere I can watch it online..

I can subscribe to eurosport online but its coverage looks pretty poor, just an hour or so of highlights every day.

BBC are showing quite a bit via TV red button and web

G-Man

Down South wrote: »

BBC are showing quite a bit via TV red button and web

Guess I need a UK ip address for that?

mike2084

G-Man wrote: »

Seeing as RTE is not covering it much, is there anywhere I can watch it online..

I can subscribe to eurosport online but its coverage looks pretty poor, just an hour or so of highlights every day.

Eurosport has lost it's Olympic rights due to the end of the EBU broadcasting contract and also that ends the eurovisionsports.tv site

http://www.olympic.org/content/news/media-resources/manual-news/1999-2009/20091/02/18/ioc-agrees-european-broadcast-rights-contract-for-2014-and-2016-olympic-games/

stevire

Slopestyle qualifiers currently live on BBC, you do need a UK IP however