[Hiker Boy]

Anyone else have a problem with the way medals are awarded in the Olympics? Seems to me it's a little unfair for speed skaters to have multiple chances at getting medals from races which have very little distances differentiating themselves...yet athletes like hockey players have to play multiple games in order to win one medal. I see the same thing happening in the summer games with some track and swimming events...the soccer, basketball players have to work much harder and only get one crack at a medal.

[Allison]

I don't know about that one, but I'm watching the NBC coverage and I'm really happy to see they have retooled the ice skating scoring system after the Canadians almost got hosed in SLC.

[Sore Feet]

Speaking of Hockey, anyone see the Canadian ladies prison rape the Italian women today? 16-0, Ouch. Bit of a demoralizer.

[gyngve]

[Allison]

[touron]

The media hypes up the medal count. "Going for the gold", what country has the most of this and that . But sometimes it's the single medal winner that gets the most remembrance, like the US-Soviet hockey match. For the rest of us, there is Gold Medal Flour, which can usually be garnered in an hour or so, with little training.

[sten]

[sten]

[Allison]

Yay, those Chinese that tried the quad thow and she fell HARD and they had to stop but then they went again and skated kinda lamely got the silver. They totally deserved it for getting in there and having no fear. EDIT: Let's just call it Turin, like always. They didn't call it Mockba, did they? Sounds way pretentious to call it Torino, IMHO.

[kleet]

[Ed the Biped]

What chaps my ass even more are "sports" where the winners are determined entirely by judges, basically not much more than opinion polls. It's almost entirely subjective. Figure skating, the "half pipe", ballroom dancing, sychronized swimming, any acrobatic nonsense, etc. may be impressive physical endevors but IMO they are not sports. At least with speed skating and Xcountry skiing they have to actuallly beat someone to win a medal. And don't get me started on car racing, which is on par with pro wrestling, celebrity poker and the iron chef.

[MtnGoat]

the chinese skaters were impressive as heck. watching her take that really bad fall and then get right back on her (unsteady) feet was amazing. guts. i tired quicky of the snotty woman taking part in the announcing, and her snide comments about this nationality vs that nationality and calling jumps 'tricks'.

[gyngve]

[polecatjoe]

Speed skaters, like runners, skiers, pole vaulters, etc., have a number of heats they must advance through in order to reach the finals. They don't get to just go out and run that one race for the medal. Also, different length races require different training and ability. It's hard as Hell to get to one Olympic final; my hat is off to anybody who makes it to five, much less wins them. Maybe there should be medals for individual skills for team sports like there are for gymnastics, like 3-point shooting in basketball or precision goal shots for hockey.

[kiliki]