Your PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics anticipation thread!

All well and good

But that routine just there was incredible

And there's lots of things that make ye a suitable tbf

> UK Sport has taken a very systematic approach to increasing the gold medal tallies

you say that, but women's bob has been running since 2002 when we got bronze, silver in 2006, gold in 2010 and 2014. that's 8, maybe 16, years for other countries to notice and do something about it.

> scour suburban comprehensives

they all seem posh to me.

St Michael's Preparatory School - posh

born in Cambridge and brought up in Bath, being educated at Hayesfield School Technology College, Beechen Cliff School and the University of Bath. Her father is a professor of chemistry at the University of Bath - posh

participated in equestrian sports, particularly eventing - posh

University of Bath seems to be a common thread

i hope laura deas is better prepared than http://www.lauradeas.co.uk/

TBF I based my selection criteria on my knowledge of track cycling.

I think the Winter Olympics always plays second fiddle in the eyes of the administrators, so there isn’t the same focus on getting and maintaining an edge.

I’m not sure there are many countries that plough as much state/lottery money into Olympic sport.

lol I swear I didn't know how to answer this and it told me that my best fit is the luge (followed by bobsled)

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/winter-olympics-quiz/

Just finished watching the men's figure skating and my god, Yuzuru Hanyu is an actual alien.

How did he do THAT after three months off recovering from an ankle injury? It's unreal.

Am sad for my boy Julian Yee, did really well in his Olympic debut but missed out on qualifying for tmr's free skate by one spot. :/

Hanyu was something straight out of Fantasia, my god. Like a fairytale prince. Wow wow wow.

I felt sad for Chen, how lonely & weird it must be when you can’t stop your nerves & then sitting on camera forever with no words, ugh
I hope he got to have a good cry or receive a hug

yeah it was painful to watch. The pressure on him must have been insane, poor kid.

Hanyu has 5 quads planned for tmr. O_O I remember no one put on two clean runs at Sochi, I wonder if he'll manage it this time. Even without Chen, between Hanyu, Javi, Shoma, and Jin, it feels like a much more competitive field this year.

lol I swear I didn't know how to answer this and it told me that my best fit is the luge (followed by bobsled)

i for one support tombot's seemingly fated journey to the 2022 winter olympics in beijing

good luck buddy you're gonna need it

i got freestyle skiing which uh seems optimistic at best

i got figure skating

ilx winter sports cru UNITE

i'll warn you now i am not gonna be a pretty sight in lycra

Had to miss last night's coverage due to higher purposes (ie Black Panther) so running the morning catchup now at work. Yipes at the sound of what happened to Chen.

i’m putting together a routine to Bertie Higgins Key Largo its gonna be LIT

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTjy71fVxcTv9Fca2ds4ltppCt30mJ0_5Hpm_7dvn3kFIcCr1sDuQ

The OAR badges amuse me, they are like the plain cigarette packaging of logos

The design of the OAR kits is much better than the standard Russian Winter Olympics ones in most years but it doesn’t look like you can buy them anywhere.

The kits appear to vary per event - the American snowboard cross team wasn't wearing the NASA style kit the slope style and half pipe team were.

Loved those stripey bottoms the Italians were wearing, usefully distinctive.

i've always had a soft spot for the russian kits - all those paisleys everywhere, they've been reliably bonkers compared to other countries

The Ester Ledecka story is awesome. I need to go back and watch the super-g now

Well done Mr Atkins for having been born in Birmingham, meaning UK get a second medal.

Elise Christie aka Paula Radcliffe on Ice.

The Ester Ledecka story is awesome. I need to go back and watch the super-g now

― El Tomboto, Sunday, 18 February 2018 2:03 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ILX doesn’t seem have a lot of love for alpine skiiing but the course for downhill and super-g has produced some reallly good racing.

who the fuck are these bell-ends doing commentary on the ski-ing on bbc1 right now? For a man brought up on the patrician tones of Barry Davies, this is hard to stomach

"This guy loves skiing... like the Colonel loves chicken"

"He couldn't look any more American... look at him, he looks awesome"

If you keen the freestyle bros. They are on again and should shut up.

i sorta.. like him ツ)_/¯

i think his bombast suits the events and he is v knowledgable. maybe it's that something as relatively esoteric as super-g is getting the same scorchingly breathless treatment as, say an FA cup final from the commentator

Fourcade reverses Sochi and a nation rejoices

Can't get enough of people's reactions of Ester Ledecká's gold medal run. Including her own reaction: https://www.nbcolympics.com/video/ester-ledecka-i-dont-know-what-happened

I hope she does great in snowboarding too.

After the luge and skeleton those bobsleighs look like juggernauts going down that course.

Ed and Tim, the extreme commentators, are a lot of the reason I enjoy those things. They must do 10 hours of commentary every day.

(They got chastised last time and have toned it down slightly)

I can watch low-key Canadian announcers talk about curling as teams go insane all day.

i really liked the team that was doing all the snowboarding commentary (names escape me), but I don't really like the color-guy for the freesytle skiing, he's a bit dull? idk.

Here was Elizabeth Swaney's...interesting run down the half pipe in the women's Freestyle Skiing #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/4SpsDTPPrI

— Tomasz Mortimer (@TMortimerFtbl) February 19, 2018

the fuck was that

apparently the field was not that deep so she qualified for the olympics without ever actually winning or podiuming any of the leadup events - basically just by not-quite-losing

weird

lol

bunch of reasons to do it: to get instagram famous---infamous, if you will---or to party in the olympic village or find a mate there or just to say "lol I was an olympic athlete"

kind of a good idea!

details here

https://sports.yahoo.com/bad-american-skier-games-system-make-olympics-070235305.html

that woman sounds like an entitled sociopath from hell

the commentator is doing a beautiful job

"dropping in trying to get in to the right wall for a nice
just getting up to the top of the wall
going for these paths
a safety grab you'll see there
opting for another just breezing up to the top of the wall
showing the judge she can make it down this halfpipe clean"

she paid for her trip herself & she isnt technically hurting anyone so idk

carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre Olympic halfpipe skier

that was hilarious to me.

the new 'big air' competition was so bad, cant believe that got approved to be an olympic sport. the jump isnt even as high as the slopestyle jumps!

VG I was referring to the details further down in the article where she got on the Hungary team via some ancestry.com crap, ran for governor of california, etc.

oh yeah that was pretty O_o

no way this lady sounds awesome

Croatia has by far the coolest looking bobsleigh livery

Commentator does read out at least two other competitions she's been in.

Eddie the eagle still dines out on his ski jumping...

Bah, keep missing Scotland the UK in the curling.