Excitement is building in the lead-up to the Olympics. I don't want to bore those readers with no interest in winter sports, but inevitably I am going to be blogging about the Games a LOT. I'll be focusing on the events themselves (especially the ones I'm going to!); the cultural events (although I'm hearing that it's going to be difficult to get in to the free concerts and parties); the buzz around town due to the invasion by athletes, supporters and media from all over the world; disruptions to traffic and other aspects of daily life; and my reaction to foreign media coverage of Vancouver (please send me links to any examples you spot in your local media!)
If you're not interested in any of the above, please come back in March! :)
Oh, and you still have a week to enter the pool. Choose the country (or countries) you think will get the most medal points per head of population (3 medal points for a gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze). Predict the final medal count as a tie-breaker.
Entries so far:
Cath: Canada: 8 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze.
Cath: GB (purely out of a sense of obligation): 2 silver, 1 bronze
Bob: Finland: 1 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze
Alyssa: Germany: 10 gold, 14 silver, 5 bronze
Chall: Sweden: 3 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze
Nina: Canada: 7 gold, 6 silver, 3 bronze
Friday, February 5, 2010
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I am so excited! I can't believe how negative people are - it is going to be GREAT to have this huge event within walking distance. Seriously! OK, so there are some difficulties anticipated. I don't imagine we will be able to frequent our usual restaurants for example, between the number of visitors and the removal of street parking. However, overall WAHOO!
ReplyDeleteI will have to spectate via your blog for the last week. I am being banished to a conference in Florida, and I just know there will be no beach time to make up for it.
Ihanaa suomea!!!!!
ReplyDelete*ahem*
The Beast says he doesn't care, but he's an Aussie. I wouldn't care, except for my decade in Finland.
Mermaid, maybe they're just enjoying the last couple of weeks of being miserable with no effort. "This is all because of the damn Olympics" has been such a knee-jerk reaction to EVERYTHING bad that's happened in Vancouver / BC / Canada for so long that a) it's obscuring the actual valid criticisms and b) they're really going to struggle to find something else to complain about when this is all over!
ReplyDeleteI am soooooooooooo excited and I wish everyone else would just either hide themselves in their living rooms for the duration or come out and join the party.
Bob, surely there's some excitement building in Germany? They have a good team, although I think Alyssa's medal count prediction is a wee bit optimistic!
I haven't noticed any excitement, but I could easily have missed it.
ReplyDeleteIf you see any suspected Finns again, shout "hemohes" at them. They might start swearing at you, but it'll be a confirmation of nationality.
Cath: if you shout that, don't be surprised if they either look sheepishly to the ground and then start swearing about someone else, or just rush you.
ReplyDeleteIt's a very very very sensitive thing... their view of themselves was quite shattered for a time. Especially since you know that they are good in their own right on skiis..... no need really.
WHAT!!!!! You have readers that don't care about winter sports? AND you want them BACK????? Why?
ReplyDeleteChall, thank you for the advice! Don't worry though, I know better than to say things I don't understand in foreign languages!
ReplyDeleteSM, LOL! Growing up in England, where other than the ice dancing the winter Olympics are very much a minority interest (although I always watched), I do understand that there are lots of people, especially from countries with no tradition of winter sports, who just don't care!
I am so pumped! I am heading out to Vancouver tomorrow and will be volunteering at Pacific Coliseum! YAY!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for your take on the Winter Olympics Cath!
ReplyDeleteAlso, can I put my prediction for number of medals here?
If so, my guess for the U.S. is: 10 gold, 8 silver, and 8 bronze
X-ine, good for you! That's awesome! I hope you have a blast (but have enough down time to post about your experiences). If you meet any rabidly anti-Olympics people who give you any grief, please realise a) there are genuine reasons why they are upset; there has been a lot of mismanagement and heavy handedness by VANOC; but b) the people who are actively trying to disrupt the Games don't speak for all of us. The silent majority of people who are pro-Games are coming out of the woodwork, as evidenced by the recent proliferation of Canadian flags in people's windows and flying from their cars!
ReplyDeleteThis morning my ride to work was full of tourists taking photos, out-of-province license plates, people in official team and media jackets... the excitement is building.
Elizabeth, thanks for joining the pool! I'll post a final list of everyone's predictions on Friday when the games begin.
New Zealand 0 Gold 0 Silver 0 Bronze
ReplyDeleteAustralia 0 Gold 1 Silver 1 Bronze
-antipodean
Thanks for playing! That does seem a bit on the pessimistic side though - I thought both countries had some good skiers and snowboarders?
ReplyDeleteI looked at everybody else's guesses and figured there were no medals left. But seriously I'm not being pessimistic.
ReplyDeleteNZ has had one olympic winter silver ever.
Australia has tended to pick up a gold medal recently (3 Gold 3 bronze in total). One of these golds was because everybody fell over in the speed skating in the semi-final and then everybody fell over again in the final. Our plucky hero was far enough behind everybody else in both races that he missed the pile-up. It's now entered the vernacular as "doing a Bradbury".
-antipodean
LOL! I remember that.
ReplyDeleteI guess my judgement of your winter sports prowess might be biased by the vast number of people from Australia and New Zealand who work at Whistler, Sun Peaks, and our other local ski resorts.
USA: 10 Gold, 8 Silver, 6 Bronze
ReplyDeleteI really only care about the hockey, though I noticed there is not a single Islander on the entire American team.
Do you have players on other teams, though? Luongo's the only Canuck who's made the Canadian team, but the Sedins will be playing for Sweden, Kesler for the US, and Salo for Finland (I my have missed some!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining the pool! See, now you have a reason to get (a little bit) excited!
I'm obviously cheering for Canada and I think we'll do better than Turin so I'm going with 27 medals. 10 Gold 15 Silver and 2 bronze...
ReplyDeleteOWN THE PODIUM! WOOOOOOOOOOO!
ReplyDeleteThe head coach of the Islanders is an assistant coach on the US Men's Hockey Team. Um, yay?
ReplyDeleteHere is the roster of Islander players on Olympic teams:
Mark Streit - Team Swiss
Yep, that's it. One.
Dude, that sucks!
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the ones I listed above, the Canucks also have Demitra (Czech republic), Hansen (Denmark) and Ehrhoff (Germany). It makes the games that Canada's not in a bit more relevant to me!
Muh Ha!
ReplyDeleteI am a mere bronze medal away from picking two countries exactly.
Dale Begg-Smith wins silver for Australia in the Moguls.
-antipodean
Yeah, he had an excellent run and some people are saying he should have won (the problem of sports with a subjective component!)
ReplyDeleteMind you, he's really a Canadian... ;)
Can't say I'm a huge fan of any sport where the judges completely decide the outcome and/or the competitors are required to wear glitter/makeup/fake-tan.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, in order to underline my expertise in all Winter Olympic sports questions, I would also like to predict that Malawi will get 0 Gold 0 Silver and 0 Bronze medals.
-antipodean