Your PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics anticipation thread!

that Luge crash was about as bad as i've ever seen.

What. Is. Shaun. White.

this is amazing

never in doubt lol

wonder if the other dudes hate him. crazy he only did 5 hits compared to their 6.

The documentary the Crash Reel painted White as a coldhearted competitor - ie cut off his friendship with Kevin Pearce when Pearce became a rival

but snowboarding culture is so much abt having fun and broing out that steely-focused competitors stand out & seem like freaks so maybe it’s hard to keep friendships in that world when u decide to be serious about yr career idk

i def get the feeling it’s like winning the only thing that makes him happy? whatever, dudes pretty fkn good at it so whatever works

that being said he does give off a douchey vibe & it is kind of weird to see him really only interact with his “posse” behind the scenes

sorry that was a bit too shaun white .xls than was needed lol

He’s fkn amazing to watch tho. Jesus Christ.

lol i've been looking into this and find myself sympathizing w/shaun white. pretending to be friends with people is terrible; focusing on winning is not. the idea that there's anything special about snowboarding culture does not ring true.

not sure i get douchey vibes completely. just seems like theres something there. hes incredible, no reason he wont be back in 4 years.

Well...there was this, apparently.

https://deadspin.com/here-are-the-penis-pics-that-lena-zawaideh-says-shaun-w-1785367526

ok, that doesn't seem great

yeah there’s also that

btw super not clicking that link

def comes off as a jerk there

btw Ayumu Hirano is a FREAK

Scotty James too 🇦🇺

fuck that was a great final
i love snowboarding

hell yeah. watching it now. this is awesome.

wonder if the other dudes hate him. crazy he only did 5 hits compared to their 6.

― they call me melo gelo (Spottie), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 04:19 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

iirc Hirano's best run only had five as well

was just gonna say. the people doing 6 hits aren't going as high or as long.

the between-heats videos here in england said that shaun had mellowed since losing in sochi. he stepped back a bit then got a new trainer and he's been actively nice to fans and press recently. probably realises that this is his last olympics. the helmet throwing triumphalism was a bit much this morning though (quickly followed by him saying 'can i have that back?')

(does he still skate in the x games? i first noticed him there, i think, when he was 17 ish (oh, internet says snowboard X in 2000, skateboard X in 2003, but the uk coverage was always sketchy))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wwi3E1hrVk

That lovely daft Swiss fella who was mumbling all sorts of wonderful 'for USA, for China, for Korea, for Russia, dot the world!' nonsense before his run...well, he also threw his helmet in celebration (and ended up coming like sixth)

...becoming my Athlete Of The Games in the process

Not helping

https://deadspin.com/shaun-white-brushes-off-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-at-pr-1822988245

man i know i was hating on pairs the other day but now i'm sucked in; figure skating is no question the best of the fake sports

Great gold medal performance in the pairs and Shiffrin begins her rampage with her own.

i am excited for snow cross weee

I was excited for the snowcross but the 10 hours of Olympics I recorded over night didn't contain 1 second of it. It was on the other channel, the one without a published schedule...

Oh, it's on now. From the semi finals at least. So now I know how it finishes..

Is that iron man?

i am excited for snow cross weee

here i make a 'don't eat the yellow snow' post out of the sense of duty which comes from seeing the word 'snow' next to the word 'wee'

lol

snowcross was fun but goddang it was all over in a nanosecond

that's why i'm happy watching all the qualifiers etc: 18 rounds in total, over 4 hours

https://www.pyeongchang2018.com/en/game-time/results/OWG2018/en/snowboard/daily-schedule-date=2018-02-15.htm

still, women's tonight and the ski version on 21 and 23. ski slope and big air (indoors!) to look forward to too.

it’s like snowboarding christmas

but christmas is every year

i said LIKE

what's the controv with the uk skellington bob suits? they look like all the others.

There like the UK cycling skin suits they have ridges sewn into them to improve aerodynamics

UK Sport has taken a very systematic approach to increasing the gold medal tallies it goes something like this.

1)Find an ignored Olympic sport, preferable one that is amateurish.
2) Bring a previously unheard of level of professionalism, sports science and training to it
3) scour suburban comprehensives for kids who embody whatever weird physiological or psychological traits required for the sport
4) bung them lottery money so they can train full time
5) spend previously unheard of amounts of money on optimising the kit to give them an edge

Also in recent years UK sport has targeted women at sports that just equalised their media rallies or were forced to open up to women’s competition.

Skeleton appears to be the red-headed step child of sliding sports, possibly because the big Germans that dominate the rest of the sliders think going down head first is just too crazy and IIRC women’s competition only started at Sochi making it the ideal winter sport for teamGB to carve out a niche.

great post

uk attitude to olympics as exemplified in coverage and social media response is the worst fucking jingoistic nonsense

mind you look at us, a couple of old westminsters carping at this inclusive get-medals-quick scheme. good god, why isn't fives an olympic sport? bring back the bally corinthian spirit

the focus on medals, on gcse results, on statistical supremacy...this is why our country is a shithole

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.