Monday, February 13, 2006

Olympic Oldies - oro!...

Well the Winter Olympics are well under way…anyone watching it regularly, or just bits on the news? Nice to see that Team GB bagged the first medal, and gold at that! The Mens' Curling from 1924! Eighty two years on the IOC agreed to look into the matter after the Glasgow Herald filed a claim on behalf of the families of the team...but at least the current team has started well (I like the 'roundel' they use as the target) and the Women Curlers (???) are starting their Olympic title defense with winning ways too.

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None of this is really my thing except for the ice-hockey, the 2nd best sport on the planet...I wonder will Canada ever produce another Wayne Gretzky, one of my heros from the 1980's(pictured)? However, as the usual suspects take the lead (and most of the top ten positions) in the medals table it’s nice to see South Korea with 3 medals already...doesn’t that make you think we are doing SOMETHING wrong? Shouldn’t we be trying a little harder: is it funding? Is it skill? Where are we going wrong? Whatever, we’re not lacking confidence: check out the position of the medal table here...loud and proud!

S.O.

11 comments:

Lucy said...

I prefer the winter olympics to the regular, more drama and speed!( oh and snow )

Span Ows said...

Hi Lucy, yes you're probably right; I think that the 'normal' Olympics could be condensed into 1 day if you only included the events I was interested in! (Sprints, relays erm...ermm, hang on I'm sure there's more!)

Gavin Corder said...

Gretzky IS GOD!

We are in a frenzy of ice hockey this end!

Span Ows said...

Indeed Gavin. He was with the Edmonton OOOOOOOilers when I first came across him in 1981, I was living near Toronto and supported the Maple Leafs...GOD!! that's a quarter of a century ago!!! Jeeezz!!

Gavin Corder said...

What is it with the British media. I was listening to Frighting Talk at the w/e - they were slagging it off.

What is wrong with them? Ice hockey has to be the most exciting game ever. If for no other reason than that the players go as fast as the ball in other more pedestrian sports!

The down side is I've had to purchase a neckguard, box (the JJB sport variety would no longer suffice apparently, I don't think his parts have changed - just his horizons...), stick and blade, and elbows.

The expense!

I've even promised to get my skates out this half term....now I'm a non-smoker and all that...

Gavin Corder said...

Freudian slip - Fighting not Frighting.

Gavin Corder said...
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flyingfinn said...

Finland for gold in the hockey.

Span Ows said...

That would be good Finny, do they have a good chance or is that optimistic patriotism on your part!

Gavin, I didn't realise you'd ventured into the ice side of skates. It will be very expensive...first piece of equipment I 'should' have got was a helmet as I zoomed out onto the ice and feel backwards so hard the whole place turned to look at winced!

Anyone who doesn't like ice-hockey AT ALL is either a sport-not-like-type-person or a wuss...or both...:-)

RPM said...

One of the things that I find funny about the winter Olympics is the fact that they are not global.
Think about countries like mine (Portugal) where the winter is not that intense. There is no snow and all winter sports are not that common.
When the Winter Olympics come you basically find athletes from a limited number of countries. That goes against all of what the Olympics stand for. I understand your appreciation and interest on the winter version of them but must defend that the real Olympics are the summer ones. Besides the fact that every country has at least one athlete there, they’ve got history behind them. Wouldn’t you agree?

Span Ows said...

o pândego - yes I would agree, maybe the name Winter OLYMPICS is a bit 'wrong' but when you think of some of the sports in the summer Olympics it seems that quality is lost for quantity. The Olympics were just the running/ jumping/ throwing events etc to find the strongest/ fastest etc and I would be happy if it were still the same. Having football, tennis, baseball etc as Olympic events is a complete farce.