Vancouver 2010: LET THE THREAD BEGIN!
 

Did anybody see the opening ceremony last night? Whaddya think?

ETA 02.13: This thread isn't JUST about the ceremony of course: Post anything about the competition, the ads, NBC's coverage, the poor luger who was killed: anything @ all!

The whales were my favorite part!!!!!

And I am so excited that the Visa "Go World" commercials are back!!! The one about Dan Jansen made me teary eyed....talking about how in 88 his sister Jane died right before his race and he didn't win the gold like he promised to her that he would. Then it shows him winning in 94 and taking the victory lap with his baby daughter named after his sister. Awww!

I love the Olympics and am actually going for part of it later on this week. I am so excited :)

I only saw part of it, when all the teams were coming in. My God, a large percentage of those athletes are extremely attractive!

That's the one downside of the winter Olympics as compared to the summer games: you don't get to see a lot of naked pecs, everybody's too bundled up :s: (maybe the figure skaters, but they have a dress code)

I loved the whales! It ticks me off that a lot of the media is complaining about the gaffe with the cauldron, when the rest of the ceremony went without a hitch! Beautiful job, but I would have liked to see more tribute done for the luger, like a montage of his accomplishments (although I understand that would have really short timing given the events).

I also loved the whales, and all of the water scenes... I thought the 'tap' dancing was overdone and way too long... perhaps I don't understand the history of it enough ... I felt so bad when at the very last second they had trouble with the torch... but it ended up so beautiful and unique...

Back in the Nancy Kerrington, Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boutano days I used to follow the skating competitions like the nationals and worlds every weekend... I didn't see any this year..... does anyone know if they were on ? or did I just miss them...

I saw the ladies' nationals and part of the exhibition. Trouble is, I work a lot of weekends and if they don't have the competitions in prime time I don't get to see them. Between the Kerrigan era and the turn of the millennium they showed a lot of nationals and worlds in prime time, the men and pairs as well as the ladies, as well as a ton of events for professionals, but after Y2K the market for televised skating got oversaturated and now everything but the ladies event is considered the Not Ready for Prime Time* (*Except for the Olympics) Players. And to be honest, I'd much rather watch the guys: they're technically stronger, have a little more personality (Johnny Weir ROCKS!) and you get a wider variety of music choices (rock-n-roll, kick-butt movie themes), while the women are more cookie-cutter and tend more toward slow dreamy classical or classical-sounding music. (Remember Surya Bonaly, that big black French girl skater back in the early 90s? She'da been great if they let her use music like the Ride of the Valkyries; but nooooo, they had to shoehorn her into the damn dainty-poo Swan Lake/Four Seasons mold)

Alina Adams, a TV skating producer who's written a series of cozy mysteries with skating backgrounds, said in one of the books that the men are really more popular. I think she's right

I was just talking about this with my family. I'm from Vancouver and really enjoyed the ceremonies.

But we are all So curious as to what other people thinkabout the ceremony and about our city. Really interested in what people have to say!!

My favorite part of the Opening Ceremonies was kd lang singing "Hallelujah". My goodness that was awesome. I had goose bumps. Here is a safe link to the video of her performance last night if anyone wants to see it. She has such a perfectly pure and beautiful voice.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/***...ony+hallelujah

I loved the whales too.

I'm sooooooooooooo excited for the Olympics!! I cannot wait for snowboarding, figure skating, alpine skiing, and speed skating. Mostly I'm just excited to watch snowboarding & speed skating. I was just watching Apolo in the semis and I was hiding behind the couch, I was getting very stressed out, lol. So you can guess where I'll be hiding during snowboading too, haha!!

It's very sad about Nodar Kumaritashvili though. I don't think I will ever forgot what happened to him..:(

Breath taking city, would like to visit.

I'm really excited about Shaun White, seeing him flying brings me so much hope and happiness. He was born with TOF, the same cardiac defect my son was born with.

I didn't know Shaun White has a heart defect. I love him..I can't wait for snowboarding.

He endured two open heart surgeries when he was a baby to correct the defect. Tetralogy of Fallot is the name of the congenital heart defect.

Everytime I see him performing it brings tears of emotion, knowing that my baby boy can have a life with no limitations.

Same here, can't wait for snowboarding. I believe is Wednesday.

I'm excited for snowboarding too! So much fun to watch. Love shaun white!

Was outside in vancouver on the beach in a tank top and flip flops with sunscreen on.. Vancouver Winter olympics hahah.

Oh wow, I did not know that. I hope your son can have a life with no limitations.

Big Congrats To Canada!!!!!!

Really enjoying the "show"...Apollo's race was awesome at the end! and the girls moguls....

I switched over to Amazing Race between 7 & 8 (central time) last night. The team that won the leg, their prize was a trip to Vancouver. Yes, I know this was taped in advance, but if it was me I'd have second thoughts about taking the skeleton ride at the Whistler Sliding Centre (a k a the track where the luge guy was killed) :eek:

Loved Apolo's race, too. I also watched some women's hockey on CNBC. Wow, they are amazing!

Congrats Canada on your first home turf gold.... that was awesome !

I would love to see the couple from China do well tonight... I miss the old scoring though...

So far everything has been so exciting... and very good back stories...

Note to Bob Costas.. please dye your hair a little lighter...:D

I second that with the Chinese. And yeah, I don't see this new scoring system. Back story: after allegations of vote-trading in the pairs and dance events @ the Salt Lake games 8 years ago, the old deduct-from-a-maximum-of-6 scoring system was ditched in favor of the current add-more-points-for-every-move system. (I swear before the new points system was implemented I NEVER saw any skater do that "Juan Marichal wind-up high-kick" spiral position; now they all do it, and I don't think it looks all that good.) They didn't need to throw out the "6" system; all they had to do, if you ask me (IANA figure skater or involved in the sport in any way beyond spectating; if anybody out there is so involved and can tell me why what I'm about to suggest isn't such a good idea, I welcome your comments), was 1. not select the judges until immediately before the event begins (making sure that no nation would have more than one judge) and 2. select a different group of judges for each phase of the competition.

I can't get this song off of my brain, just wanted to be sure it was on all of yours.... ;)

It's s s s such a perfect day y y y...
I'm so o o o glad I spent it with you....

Pair skating: Yay China!

Did they show the men's downhill in prime time last night?? I got home a little late and caught most of the figure skating, but all I saw of the downhill was Bode Miller discussing his performance on the late-night recap show. I made a point of sitting up pretty late watching the prime-time rerun, but all I saw there was speedskating, luge and snowboard-cross. I can't believe they wouldn't show the downhill, that's one of the big events in any winter Os

They didn't show it after that? My dvr accidently recorded it again..

:rofl: I was thinking the same thing the other night! Dang, Bob, "Just For Men" much?:devil:

:yay: Way to go Chinese pair skaters...

More power to you if it did. After our local news, NBC had a half-hour highlights show starting a little after 11:30 (central time) because the figure skating final ran up until about 11; then after the highlights show I saw the 500-meter long-track men's speedskating (where they were having the problems with the Zambonis and had to hold up part of the competition) and the first couple of rounds of women's luge. I assumed that might have been the prime-time repeat (I saw the same show the previous night and caught some of the pairs short programs that I missed), but maybe it was just an overflow show and the prime-time rerun came on later?

They showed the men's downhill right at the beginning of the show last night.

I am really bummed out for Lindsey Jacobellis.....

Lindsey Jacobellis fell again. I can't believe it.

Just an FYI... I went onto the NBC site and they have banner results without spoiler alerts........... I accidently saw the Jacobellis results a couple hours ago........ be careful...

AAA! My friend just called and told me someone cancelled and now they have an extra ticket to the Finland- Belarus men's olympic hockey game tomorrow and it's mine!! I'm so excited!! I don't even have to pay for it! It's most exciting since I'm half Finnish! What LUCK!!

My niece and sil are going to that game too, have fun :D

Score !!! have a good time...

Spoilerized for those who want to see it tonight:

>Lindsey Vonn & Julia Mancuso 1-2 in women's downhill YEAH!<

Shaun White!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shani Davis!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lindsey Vonn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What A Great Night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Usa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay Lindsey, you did it!!!

Luge doubles! Think of it: two guys (actually, women can participate too, but rarely do and never have in the Olympics) in skin-tight suits and one lies down on top of the other! ::dirty mind:: Wouldn't you just love to know what they're thinking as they rocket down the course @ 80+ mph ?? :s: ;) :devil:

Fashion: What team outfits do you like the best? I like the Japanese speedskaters in shiny gold and black

Partial result (spoilerized):

>Lindsey Vonn leads after the downhill part of the supercombined, but somebody could give her a run for her medal in the slalom<

HIJACK: When did they start calling it "supercombined"? Even the current edition of David Wallechinsky's Olympic reference book still calls it "Alpine combined" END HIJACK

ETA later afternoon (again spoilerized):

>Maria Reisch of Germany gold, Julia Mancuso silver. Lindsey Vonn didn't finish the slalom<

Poor Lindsey. But she already has a gold, and has another chance to medal again. Watching Men's Figure Skating now. I <3 Johnny & Evan!!

OMG EVAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!! I started crying when he won, lol!!