The Games

[bungeejumper]

Damn right. I'll freely admit that sporting contests of any sort don't raise even the faintest twitch of enthusiasm in me - I must be the only person in the country who didn't watch a single moment of the London Olympics. (I was camping in rural France that summer, where the local papers were all complaining about how butch and how unsportingly violent the female British boxers were.)

But face it, people, winter sports are just not ever going to lose their privileged, non-mass-market image. It's all just a huge jolly for the international Sasha set. And an off-season jamboree for the upmarket hotels. I hope it's at least cheap to televise?

BJ

[Slarti]

Damn right. I'll freely admit that sporting contests of any sort don't raise even the faintest twitch of enthusiasm in me - I must be the only person in the country who didn't watch a single moment of the London Olympics.

This household actively avoided them.

Though if we hear of any major wipeouts with the ski or toboggan events, we will probably have a look for a laugh.

Slarti

[bungeejumper]

AND we've also just discovered that the posh 'athlete' that's been picked to wave our flag is also mega pumped too.

Pumped? Wow, so it's true, then. Radio does have the best pictures after all.

BJ

[UncleIan]

Excellent! Great to see sports that don't get much air time (if you don't have eurosport), and athletes at the top of their game from all over the world competing together. While I'm not "pumped" for it (chance would be..etc.etc), I'm glad it's on and will definitely make an effort to see lots of it.

Added bonus is it cheeses off curmudgeons.

[bungeejumper]

While I'm not "pumped" for it (chance would be..etc.etc), I'm glad it's on and will definitely make an effort to see lots of it.

Added bonus is it cheeses off curmudgeons.

Most of it will be happening at three in the morning, which is at least some small comfort, I suppose? Although the commentator blathering will be going on 24/7 on all channels, and the evening news will become a no-go area unless you can view it on catch-up. ("Plucky Imelda-Anne Trippington-Thicke from Thetford was being brave-faced last night after tangling her shoelaces on the downhill tea-tray run, which robbed her of her tin medal for the third Winter Olympics in succession.")

Still, it'll be nice to see a different set of drug disqualifications going on this year. Not boring at all. And they tell me the North Korean shooting and skiing pursuit team is planning something very special.

BJ

[AleisterCrowley]

North Korean shooting and skiing pursuit team aka the border guards...

[Rhyd6]

Thanks AC at least that made me smile I'm not a fan of the Olympics, OH reckons they should just put the names of all the athletes into a hat and pull them out for various games, ie champion ice skater trying their hand at slalom or other such events, might make it a bit more fun to watch.

R6

[bungeejumper]

North Korean shooting and skiing pursuit team aka the border guards...

Ed Zackerly. Some of them will be so quick down those hills, they'll be down to the ferry port and away before the comrades have had time to pull their boots on.

BJ

[didds]

But face it, people, winter sports are just not ever going to lose their privileged, non-mass-market image.

BJ

That's somewhat unfair across the board.

they are "privileged, non-mass market" fayre in Engkland and (maybe) Wales and NI cos we don't get enough snow and conditions and infrastructure to make it "everyman's" thing.

If you live half way up a mountain in a country that is snow and ice for several months on end several feet/metres deep its a fact of life and ecery man does it.

Just cos the Brits don't do it hugely doesn't mean its irrelevant over all.

"We" don't play as a general rule Grid Iron aka American Football really here. But I don't see people suggesting AF is a ridicuclous concept etc. Ditto baseball. ditto Aussie Rules. ditto pelota. Ditto male netball.

didds

[bungeejumper]

That's somewhat unfair across the board. They are "privileged, non-mass market" fayre in Engkland and (maybe) Wales and NI cos we don't get enough snow and conditions and infrastructure to make it "everyman's" thing.

If you live half way up a mountain in a country that is snow and ice for several months on end several feet/metres deep its a fact of life and ecery man does it.Just cos the Brits don't do it hugely doesn't mean its irrelevant over all.

Absolutely, I completely agree with you. I used to live in Berlin, where just about everybody had a pair of ice skates and anybody with a bashed old car could get down to Munich for a weekend's skiing, no big deal. But what's that got to do with splatter-blasting the UK TV media for two weeks with this stuff?

"We" don't play as a general rule Grid Iron aka American Football really here. But I don't see people suggesting AF is a ridicuclous concept etc. Ditto baseball. ditto Aussie Rules. ditto pelota. Ditto male netball.

See above. If Americans worship what we would call rounders, and if we British worship what the yanks would call 15-a-side football for wimps, all we're agreeing is that the TV appeal reflects the national sports and preferences. You'll have noticed that American football doesn't get much airtime here, and that snooker doesn't excite the US programme schedulers. To expect anything else would be a bit daft.

Anyway, I'm not against them showing this yawny stuff on the telly. But could they please keep it down to a couple of channels? Puhleeze?

BJ

[panamagold]

My two favourite sports to participate in and spectate are Downhill skiing and Baseball. Though my proficiency levels have plummeted, with age, in the participating side of things in both sports I still thoroughly enjoy them.
In the 2014 W O's I became hooked on that Scotish priveliged persons event of curling and have already watched Korea shafting the USA. Bring on the Downhill.

[Howard]

Here we go again. 87 ways of sliding around this time, by 'dedicated' overgrown freakishly athletic children.

We'll hear about the crowd. The atmosphere. How brilliant it all is. The magic. The history....even making history. the heartbreak. The joy. The....the....oh God, I can't go on.

Look, in reality, it's a load of balls.

I thought you were writing about football up to this point. I think some people watch that on TV too?

Howard

[didds]

Anyway, I'm not against them showing this yawny stuff on the telly. But could they please keep it down to a couple of channels? Puhleeze?

BJ

Ah - I get your nusance now. We don;t have a TV/license, so I'm missing the fact that its happening in this regard.

Personally I'd rather TV show some real sport, some real drama and decently written comedy rather than what appears to be when I stay at my mum's a non-stop stream of soap operas. I might even buy a TV license again then!

didds

[bungeejumper]

Personally I'd rather TV show some real sport, some real drama and decently written comedy rather than what appears to be when I stay at my mum's a non-stop stream of soap operas. I might even buy a TV license again then!

Unaccustomed as I am to giving credit where it's due, the Beeb does seem to be restraining its hand reasonably well at the moment. The ten o-clock news is keeping its slidey-sports-business coverage down to two or three minutes a night, and although both BBC2 and BBC4 are larding their schedules with the stuff, the latter doesn't seem to be overdoing it during the peak periods.

Maybe it's because we haven't been racking up too many medals? Still, my mate says his dog is getting into the spirit of things. He just lies there on the carpet, delivering one curler after another.

BJ

[bungeejumper]

Hold the front page, and hide your children's eyes, people. Nipple alert, nipple alert. French skater has wardrobe malfunction in mid-dance, and suddenly every red-top paper in the land is featuring pixelled-out images of the poor woman's pink half inch as she struggles to keep her nerve and stay in the competition.

She did, too, by all accounts. Bravo, Madame, and never mind the slavering pigs in the editorial departments. So now we have incontrovertible proof that Olympic athletes look pretty much the same as other people do when their top coverings come off. Phwooar, what a scorcher. Whatever next?

(zzzzzzzzzzzzz.............)

BJ

[Rhyd6]

Must admit I'm not a great fan of winter sports but Laura Deas who won Bronze for the skeleton bob is local so we were all in the pub cheering her on. The girl done good I certainly wouldn't like to go hurling down a mountain on a tea tray though even now I do like to drag the old sledge out when we have a decent amount of snow. Don't know why but I don't seem to bounce as easily these days

R6

[UncleIan]

I've found this Olympics most entertaining so far. I've been impressed by the biathlon, mesmerised by the curling, and enjoyed most of the going fast down a hill events, particularly the snowboard cross. It's great!

[UncleIan]

If you don't actually live in a freezing country, one wonders how you actually get good at something like the skellington tea tray thing?

I mean, I don't know of a single track in the UK.

Born with a silver spoon up one's bottom I suspect.

Aye, like every good pub bore, perfectly happy to pontificate on something you know little about.
I don't know much either, and I'm sure examples can be found to support or refute the silver spoon hypothesis. I know one of the GB female skiers works at McDonalds, pretty sure they don't have spoons, let alone silver ones. On the other hand, Lizzie Yarnold went to a prep school and was head girl at her gals grammar. I've no idea which is more prevalent, though listening to interviews with many of them I haven't noticed too many posho accents.

As for facilities, yeah, funnily enough there's no permanent bobsleigh track in the UK, there's a start track in Bath they can use to practice their starts apparently, but that's it. So yeah, to practice skeleton or bobsleigh or luge you need to give up a lot of family and work time.

[UncleIan]

I need to think of the sacrifice they're making.

Or admire their skill.

Or just ignore and it'll go away soon enough.

[skewwy]

Could watch Curling for hours. Love it. It is amazing to watch and it builds tension like nothing else.

Should be on more