Your PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics anticipation thread!

"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.

have we discussed Robert Johansson yet

amazing stuff on the two man bobsled results

imo Bode Miller is very bad calling skiing. so dry.

yeah his technical info is good but he’s hard to listen to for a long time, v flat

even his technical info is way too 'inside baseball' for me, he's gotta realize 95% of people listening dont know what he's talking about and dumb it down a hair. learn form weir and lipinski.

i love weir & lipinski, they are v good color commentary

whats the snowboarding color guy, i like him the best

but i always picture them rolling their eyes at each other like mean girls in high school when they talk abt other skaters

weir & lipinski i mean

even his technical info is way too 'inside baseball' for me

Miller is flat, but I like the wonkery...there's not nearly enough technical info in TV sports commentary for me. I want less inspiring heroic narratives and more "here is the little technical things that make this person that little bit better than that other person."

i dont disagree, i liked the inside stuff, just feel like he doesnt get it stuff across in an interesting or enlightening way

a little variation in voice would go a long way

the nz skipipe family is fun

Ivett Toth skating to a medley of "Back in Black" and "Thunderstruck" is my idea of absolutely fucking brilliant.

Yes! And Johnny Weir has the full Hunger Games up-do tonight, LOVE IT.

Toth was rad

What about the woman who chose the score from EWS though? And Johnny actually said “Really awkward moments like these are why sometimes I wish everyone just went out there and danced to Swan Lake.” Classic.

https://deadspin.com/bode-miller-is-the-worst-sports-commentator-who-ever-li-1823188620?utm_source=recirculation&utm_medium=recirculation&utm_campaign=wednesdayAM

I freely admit I stopped watching skiing coverage because of his dumb ass.

This part made me laugh and makes listening to him sound more fun than it is:

To hear Miller describe it, the outcome of an event like the women’s downhill—contested last night to his crushing, terminal disdain—has been determined by the time the skiers get out of bed in the morning, and possibly was determined by the time the youngest of them was born. The medal-winning runs happen because of a combination of favorable external conditions and fixed personal attributes over which the skiers have no real control or recourse and into which genuine insight is impossible. The early contestants post good times because they went early and did just enough not to squander advantages that all but guaranteed their spots on the podium, not because they raced brilliantly. The later contestants are wasting everybody’s time, because no matter how well they race the developing course conditions have doomed their efforts. You are watching the rote, bloodless recitation of a script written and published at the dawn of time. It’s like having the games narrated by Anton Chigurh, only without the enlivening possibility that he will murder someone.

matt chilton for the bbc, bombastic as he is, has been great fun. he had a particularly good moment in the esther ledecka race, after he'd been giving her a full-throated commentary all the way down, and she's stunned, in that famous moment we all know now, and she finally approaches the camera and all she can say, with a weird half smile on her face, is "no. no." and chilton, invisible, on voice-over - only we can hear him - replies directly to her, on our behalf: "yes. yes!"

didnt read the article but otm. last night one of the contestants was doing well (i think it was whoever got silver) and he was like "her skis must be running great" taking all credit away from the skier. what an asshat. add all this to his sexist joke about Anna Veith racing poorly cos she got married and i cant see a way he is invited back in 4 years

Big air snowboard qualifiers. Only half watching it tbh - if I miss a 1440 they'll be another one along in a minute...

(It's very slight as sport goes, but entertaining enough. And the second heat did step it up a bit)

Can I be mean & say it wouldnt be the Winter Olympics without Lindsey Vonn crying

sorry

but she always cries!!

heh, I thought the same. I am finding it a bit annoying, but that's the cynic in me. I mean, to cry *all the time*? That can't be right.

She did good though, and it was nice to see she was accepting of winning bronze instead of gold.

yeah, it can't be easy with all the expectations and pressure you put on yourself as well

Big air snowboard qualifiers. Only half watching it tbh - if I miss a 1440 they'll be another one along in a minute...

(It's very slight as sport goes, but entertaining enough. And the second heat did step it up a bit)

― koogs, Wednesday, February 21, 2018 12:28 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

big air is hella lame to me compared to how good it should be. and compared to big air skateboard/bmx

Snowboarding and skiing sports that are about 'tricks' or 'entertainment' instead of speed and have juries to decide the outcome aren't sports and don't deserve to be at the Olympics at all. /controp