Vancouver Opening Ceremonies, What to Expect?

[Winnow]

The Canadians are getting a shot at hosting the Olympics in Vancouver (2000 homeless in that city, one of highest in Canada)

What should we expect from the opening ceremonies?

-Eskimo parka parades with ice fishing themes?
-synchronized snow mobile maneuvers to the shrill sound of Geddy Lee's vocals?
-color tuques handed out to the crowd that form the shape of beer cans?

I'm curious what the Canadians will do to celebrate their heritage!

[miir]

Hmm, 2k homeless in a city of nearly 3 million.
I hear that Phoenix has nearly 3k homelss and a population of 1.5 million.
That doesn't even put them in the top 30 in the US.

[Funkmasterr]

Hmm, 2k homeless in a city of nearly 3 million.
I hear that Phoenix has nearly 3k homelss and a population of 1.5 million.
That doesn't even put them in the top 30 in the US.

hay, fuck you budday1

[Winnow]

Hmm, 2k homeless in a city of nearly 3 million.
I hear that Phoenix has nearly 3k homelss and a population of 1.5 million.
That doesn't even put them in the top 30 in the US.

Being homeless in Phoenix is like living in paradise. It's never cold and during the summer you can just hang out in the shade under a palm tree!

[Sylvus]

Being homeless in Phoenix is like living in paradise. It's never cold and during the summer you can just hang out in the shade under a palm tree!

I'd rather be homeless somewhere like New Orleans, where it'd be easier to panhandle with all the people on the street celebrating their sports championships...

[Funkmasterr]

Being homeless in Phoenix is like living in paradise. It's never cold and during the summer you can just hang out in the shade under a palm tree!

I'd rather be homeless somewhere like New Orleans, where it'd be easier to panhandle with all the people on the street celebrating their sports championships...

[miir]

HAHA!!!
OMFG!

[Funkmasterr]

P.S. - Sylvus, every time you say something like that it makes it harder for me to detest you. Please stop.

[Winnow]

I'm sure homeless jokes are very popular these days in Michigan!

[Funkmasterr]

OH that's FUCKED UP SON!

[Winnow]

Sunday, February 07, 2010 8:28:30 PM


Winter missing in Vancouver as Games approach

By john wawrow, AP Sports Writer


VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — As Olympians arrive by the day, the Winter Games seem to be missing something. Namely, winter.

There's more snow in D.C., as in District of Columbia, than B.C., or British Columbia.

Vancouver Olympic officials have touted these as "The Green Games," but Mother Nature might be taking that to an extreme. Some Vancouverites are now referring to them as "The Brown Games," given the muddy conditions at Cypress Mountain.

"When I got off the airplane it was like, 'What's this green grass doing here? This is the Winter Olympics,'" U.S. speedskater Trevor Marsicano said Sunday, recalling his reaction after flying in last week from Milwaukee, Wis. "For me it's nice, because I'm used to, like, zero-degrees. This is awesome."

Trouble is, with opening ceremonies only five days away, the above-freezing temperatures in Vancouver — it got above 50 on Saturday — continue to raise concerns for other sports, particularly snowboarding and freestyle skiing, two events being held on the mountain overlooking the city.

The biggest test comes Monday, when freestyle moguls training sessions are scheduled to begin. Those sessions will provide the first onsite test after organizers spent much of the past few weeks hauling in snow by helicopter and by truck.

Although organizers have stressed the courses on Cypress are almost complete, they did announce Sunday that they've pushed back training sessions on the parallel giant slalom snowboarding course by two days. The event begins Feb. 26.

Training on the halfpipe was cut earlier from five to three days.

"The forecast is looking positive this week, and we'll hopeful see some colder temperatures," Tim Gayda, vice president for sport for the Vancouver organizing committee said Saturday.

The outlook, however, still appears as gray as the clouds that hung over the city and clung to the North Shore Mountains for most of Sunday.

An intermittent drizzle fell on Vancouver, and temperatures hovered around 40. It was colder on Cypress, with temperatures in the 30s, with a light rain.

The long-range forecast has temperatures dropping to as low as 19 on Wednesday, and a light snowfall projected for Saturday. And yet there are chances of daytime showers for much of this week, too.

It's even relatively warm in Whistler, where numerous events — including Alpine skiing, bobsled and biathlon — will be held in the mountain-locked community two hours north of Vancouver. The forecast for this week has temperatures hovering at the freezing mark.

In Vancouver, along the city streets and gardens, crocuses are starting to sprout and apple blossoms are starting to bud on trees, making for an unusual sight for a Winter Games host city.

The warm temperatures are somewhat unseasonable even for Vancouver, which like Seattle to the south is warmed by the Pacific currents and traditionally enjoys a mild year-round climate.

What is unusual is the lack of snow on the North Shore Mountains, which have experienced one of the warmest months of January on record.

This is not the first time a Winter Olympics has faced a lack of snow.

In 1998, Nagano had major concerns about a lack of snow in the months before the games, only to see some events canceled and spectators stranded by heavy snow during the Olympics. In 1988 in Calgary, bobsled competition was postponed when ice on the track melted.

According to the International Olympic Committee, the 1964 Innsbruck Games also faced a lack of snow. The Austrian army rushed to the rescue, carving out 20,000 blocks of ice from the mountainside and transporting it to the luge and bobsled tracks. They also carried 1.4 million cubic feet of snow to the Alpine ski slopes.

Canada having trouble with snow? A sure sign of global warming!

[Canelek]

Hahahaha! Nice Sylvus!

I hear Vancouver is very nice. I should really get around for getting my passport.

I think I will skip the poutine though!

[Boogahz]

Not such a good start

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancou ... &type=lgns

Olympic luger from Georgia dies after crash
By TIM REYNOLDS AND TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writers

WHISTLER, British Columbia (AP)—It took only three seconds.

Sliding faster than ever in his life, 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili had one turn left in his final Olympic training run. Flirting with 90 mph on a $100 million track pushing speed to the outer limits, the luger from the republic of Georgia tilted his head slightly forward as his sled climbed the high-banked wall.

His last move.

Kumaritashvili lost control, crashing into the wall entering the final straightaway. His body went airborne, arms and legs flailing over the opposite side of the track, his upper body smashing into an unpadded steel pole as his sled continued skidding down the track. It all took just 48.9 seconds, start to crash.

...

[Xatrei]

Haven't really been paying terribly close attention, but it's been on in the background while I've been doing other stuff. It's seems OK, but nothing has really grabbed my attention or wowed me. The giant ice totems are kind of cool. China ruined opening ceremonies for everyone else forever. At least until some country decides to spend a few hundred million bucks on one.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Nelly Furtado made this Opening Ceremony.

She had quite the dumper!

[Leonaerd]

My favorite part was that the mechanically disabled ice totem happened to be in front of the wheelchair bound torch bearer.

[Winnow]

Men's downhill postponed by slush

Only one of six planned training runs has been completed

The men's downhill event at the Vancouver Olympics is planned for Monday after officials postponed the race due to slushy conditions hours before it was scheduled to begin.

Rather than take a chance Saturday and try to see if the weather improved, organizers called off the first Alpine race at the Olympics shortly after 4 a.m. local time, about 7½ hours before it was scheduled to start.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) did not announce a start time for Monday, a day in which no medal races were on the original schedule.

Repeated snow, rain, fog and too-warm temperatures have turned the Olympic slopes into a soft, mushy mess too dangerous to be used for high-speed skiing. The first women's event, the super-combined, was supposed to be Sunday, and the decision to postpone that was made Friday.

FIS, the governing body for skiing, said snow and rain throughout Friday night, along with expected mild temperatures during the day Saturday, made for poor skiing conditions. Highs on the course were expected to be in the 40s, and a mix of rain, sleet and snow was likely.

Officials will likely try to get women's training in Sunday.

With its location close to the Pacific Ocean, bad weather has always been an issue in Whistler.

For three consecutive years in the mid-1990s, the World Cup ski circuit came to the Canadian resort and failed to get a single race off. It wasn't just a case of calling off a particular downhill or super-G; entire weekends had to be scrapped. Eventually, Whistler was removed from the World Cup circuit.

Mother Nature proved to be a problem again this time. Only one of six training runs for men and women has been completed as planned.

The opening men's downhill training session on Wednesday was abandoned after thick fog prevented half the field from starting their runs. Then a shortened men's session was completed Thursday and Friday's session called off.

Only two skiers _ one of whom crashed _ started the opening women's training on Thursday before it too was abandoned. Lucia Recchia of Italy made it safely down Franz's Run but the No. 2 starter, Stacey Cook of Mammoth Calif., lost control and slammed into the safety netting at high speed.

Women's training sessions on Friday and Saturday also were called off.

Rules require that at least one complete training session be held before any downhill or super-combined race, meaning the women still need to get a practice run in.

Weather problems are nothing new to Alpine events at the Olympics _ or skiing in general _ which is why off-days are built into the program to accommodate rescheduling.

At the 2006 Turin Games, the women's combined was split over two days and the women's super-G was postponed by 24 hours. The men's super-G in Sestriere was delayed for hours due to heavy snowfall. Back at the 1984 Sarajevo Games, the men's and women's downhill races were postponed until after the giant slalom events, and some events were postponed at the 1998 Nagano Games, too.

Sounds like a great place to hold the Winter Olympics!

[Gzette]

global warming !!!

[Spang]

I liked the whales.

[miir]

Was 15 degrees in downtown Vancouver yesterday.



That's like 60 American degrees!

[Kilmoll the Sexy]

And Ohio and the rest of the midwest has been 10-20 degrees under normal temperatures for the last 3 months straight. Oh yea....we also have over 2 feet of snow this month and more coming. At least we can say that even winter wants out of Canada.

[miir]

The Canadian midwest has had a pretty brutal winter as well. The east coast has been hit by a couple of wicked storms.
In Toronto, I doubt we've gotten more than 2-3 inches of snow in total this winter. My backyard was green into December and there's no accumulation at all.

[Psyloche]

I went in to work once last week, fuck yeah Fed Gov't schedule in DC!

[Animalor]

We've had a pretty tame winter in the Ottawa area this year. Other parts of the country are not getting off this easy.

Frankly I wish we would have a big snow-dump or two. This one has been pretty lame thus far.

[miir]

Frankly I wish we would have a big snow-dump or two

No kidding, I love snow!
We haven't gotten a single big sotrm this winter.
I've been able to do all my snow clearing with a broom.

[Winnow]

How are those Olympics going up there hosers?



At least it snowed!

[Winnow]

Canadian Citizenship Test:

http://www.v-soul.com/onlinetest/

good luck!

[miir]

Man, we've been cleanin up the past few days.

12 Golds, 24 total is definately not too shabby.

[VariaVespasa]

13 gold now! Woohoo!

[Animalor]

14 golds for Canada! WOO Gratz men's hockey team!!

[miir]

How are those Olympics going up there hosers?

Can't complain.
Took home more golds than the US, including mens hockey.
Not bad considering we have one tenth the population of the US.

I also heard that 14 golds is a new winter Olympic record.

[Vetiria]

Good games for both countries. 37 overall medals for the US is also a record for the winter Olympics.

[Kaldaur]

What a game!

[Winnow]

Grats to Canada on the Hockey Gold Medal.

Great game. I was glued to my TV the entire time. It's rare to see a game where the players determine the outcome these days.

Ever see a population map of Canada? It looks like the entire population of Canada is staging for an invasion with 90% of Canada's Population living within 100 miles of the U.S. border. What's interesting is that you see this long thin line of heavy Canadian population along the boarder but on the U.S. side there's almost no one on our northern border in the middle of the country (North Dakota,Montana etc). I'm concerned that the Cannucks with disguise themselves as Moose and pull a "Red" Dawn on us!

On a more serious note, the Olympic games turned out well. Nice job!

[Animalor]

The start of the closing ceremonies were genious. Making fun of the malfunctionning pillar from the opening ceremonies, FINALY raising it up with the others and bringing back Lemay Doan to light her pillar was just a fantastic show.

While I've always been proud of my country, I am a bit more-so after the last 2 weeks.

[Forthe]

I was especially proud when I read stories complaining about the excessive drinking\partying and the stories about the women's hockey team partying after they won gold.

While the games were on the opposite side of the country these stories really brought it home for this newf .

The Canada-US game was awesome and nerve wracking but crushing the Russians was my favorite moment. The scariest pre-game matchup was awe inspiring, every other game Team Canada tried their best to stress me out.