2022 Winter Olympics

I usually watch a good chunk of the Winter Olympics.
I have figures of the 2010 mascots above my computer.
I just am not concerned this year…

Maybe it’s the location, maybe it’s the Pandy, maybe it’s the lack of NHL players in Hockey, maybe just a combination of all those. I’m just not that worried this year.

Now if the push to embrace returning to former sites where all new infrastructure isn’t needed, or is treated as a winning sales point for the bid, and Vancouver does get picked to host again in 2030. then yhea, i’ll be right back on that horse.

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I enjoy watching the Winter Olympics and all their super zippy sports. The skiing, the snowboarding, the speed skating, the luge… I find them all to be great fun.

And then, when I inevitably get overwhelmed by all the ridiculous speeds and over anxious from the many dangerous mid-air twirls, I switch over to the much more relaxing (though often obnoxiously loud) curling. I find all the slowly sliding rocks oddly soothing.

Paralympic Games Winter GIF by International Paralympic Committee

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Love the Olympics!

Hockey, curling, biathlon, speed skating, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, etc. About the only one I don’t care to watch is figure skating. It’s just hard watching it all when there are so many events on several different channels and some get repeated.

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I just can’t get excited for the Olympics since it went to the alternating schedule. It seems like it’s always on now.

As for it being hosted in China, I can only say that China █████████ ████ ████ ██ am ██, █████ ███. Best █ ███ ████ ███ ██ ████ █████ ██ ███████ country █████ ████! ████ █████ free speech ████ █ ██ are ███ ██ sucks ███ ███.

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Watched 2/3rds of the USA-Canada women’s hockey game (it was late, and I got tired). First period was really competitive, but the USA fell apart in the 2nd period. Hopefully they can get their sh!t together if/when they face Canada in the gold medal game.

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I haven’t followed the Olympics in a long time. However, I’m curious as to whether they still have Sandra Bezic covering figure skating. Back when I still followed figure skating, I despised her commentary and her Canuck jingoism. Give me Dick Button (who may have helped make Dr. Forrester a scientist) any day.

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Currently (at least in the US) it’s Tim Gannon, Tara Lipinski, and Johnny Weir who provide figure skating commentary for the Olympics (I have no idea who covers the various competitions).

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I found a gif of the Chinese speed skater who pushed the puck into a Canadian skater’s skate, causing her to crash.

That is some sneaky, next level sh*t there; took me about five watches to be absolutely sure it was the Chinese skater who did it, not the fellow Canadian (who, by the way, was DQed for allegedly causing the crash).

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And shocking absolutely no one I’m sure, one of the Russian figure skaters (they have not yet been named so I don’t know which discipline they perform) has tested positive for a performance enhancing substance. This skater, whomever they are, participated in the team event that Russia won. My guess is, this is the “legal complication” that delayed the awarding of the medals in the team event. Now I’m wondering if they’ll either have to award no points in whatever category the skater performed in and see if that changes who wins, or if they’re just going to negate the Russian win altogether and just give it to the US (we came in second). If they negate the score, I think that bumps Russia to second overall in the standings and we’d still win. I’m making a lot of assumptions of course, largely because I have no idea who participated in the team event aside from the 15 year old girl (who was absolutely breathtaking on the ice, I might add). I guess it all depends on who the skater was as to what will happen.

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That would be Kamila Valieva, and from what I’ve read, it was in fact her who tested positive. But whatever she tested positive for wasn’t a performance enhancing drug. I’m not sure what it was though. Best guess so far is that it’s some kind of “puberty blockers/weight loss drugs” that are meant to stunt growth. And because of her age, she’s not really considered “competent”, for lack of a better word, to “understand and appreciate the prohibitions against conduct contained in the Code (of the World Anti-Doping Agency)”.

In short, depending on how the IOC rules, Russia might get off with little more than a warning.

So says the article, anyway.

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Wow. Shocking. Russia likely won’t be punished for breaking the rules. Just like they were “banned” because of performance enhancing drugs but all their athletes were allowed to participate without representing Russia while still wearing Russia’s colors and still being trained in Russia and probably still pulling the same shady stuff they always have pulled.

The IOC should just admit that all they care about is the money and being treated like royalty and that it’s never been about the sports. I thought I couldn’t care less about these Olympics but my feelings about them are getting steadily worse.

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I think if that’s the way they were going to go they’d have already made the decision, but the IOC HAS to be aware of how bad these Olympics are making them look, especially with regard to the Russians in general. I think they’re really weighing the possibility of stripping the medal from the Russians and possibly prohibiting Valieva from performing in the women’s program. Not to mention it calls Valieva’s two teammates into question; of all the women in figure skating, ONLY the Russians are having their women do quads. Top female skaters from all the other countries all say they are incapable of performing quads, and are actively questioning how the Russians ARE capable of it. The IOC is working pretty closely with the international skating federation on this, last I heard, so they may be stricter with this than they otherwise would have been simply because of Russia’s bad history with doping. But I guess we’ll see.

Anyways, Nathan Chen won gold in the men’s program; how about that, huh?

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“Performance enhancing drugs” in figure skating (at least back when I still followed it) were always something lame like taking a cough syrup that shared an ingredient with some prohibited substance. Perhaps this has changed since then, but probably not.

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The drug she tested positive for is a heart medication that allegedly helps with blood flow and oxygenation, and therefore endurance. Since I find it highly unlikely that a 15 year old figure skater would have heart issues, it becomes fairly clear that the medication was to aid her ability to skate. What is in question is whether she KNEW it was illegal and took it anyway, or if she just trustingly took a “supplement” her trainer handed her and didn’t know it was a banned substance.

ETA: if it was the latter, that could explain why it’s taking the IOC and the international skating federation so long to come to a decision on her status at the Olympics. And whether they’re going to strip Russia of the gold medal in the team event. She falls under the World Doping Agency’s “Protected Person” category because she’s a minor under the age of 16, which provides protections for minors who may not realize that whatever they’re taking is banned. But there’s also the issue of, this isn’t the first time Russia’s been caught doping; the IOC already nominally banned them from competing AS Russia in the Olympics (although IMO that’s just lip service to the idea since they can still compete in the Olympics; I think they should’ve allowed the athletes to compete, but under the Olympic flag rather than anything else personally); allowing leniency in this particular case is more questionable than it would be otherwise, because that could just give Russia more incentive to continue trying to dope their athletes to see how far they can push it. It might be better to, in this case, make an example of the situation by stripping Russia of the gold medal and prohibiting Valieva from participating in the women’s individual event for this Olympics only. She’s young; she can always skate in the next Olympics.

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Sorry, I was outside grilling bratwurst. Are the Olympics over? Did America win?

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Nope; so far Austria’s in the lead, but we’ve got another… checks calendar ten or so days.

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I just don’t understand the game of Olympics. Every time I turn it on people are doing different things, and the American team keeps changing members.

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It’s a game of “do all the cold things well.” I do few things well when I’m cold, which is why I’m on the couch and not an athlete.

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Skeleton is absolutely insane and exhilarating. I’m digging it!

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A freight train to the edge that sport. It acts so unbridled and uncontrolled. Obviously there’s a method to it and between Skeleton and Bobsled they are their own kind of Olympic entertainment. I dig it too!

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