Winter Olympics : Let the Games Begin!

[Silverbirchleaf]

For anything Winter Olympic related.

Meanwhile, things got heated over the curling with the Swedes accusing the Canadians of cheating, and the Canadians getting very sweary in response.

Here’s seen the photo where the Canadian thrower is clearly touching the stone itself rather than the handle after it’s started going over the hog line.

Yes, and I think Clare said last night it's the first individual GB men's gold since Robin Cousins in 1980.
So, it's been a while .

I'm just listening to them discussing the Canada/Sweden controversy. Got very heated!

GB women have started better this morning against Canada (early days though).

That photo is really clear, isn't it? Not sure how they could argue otherwise!

The Swedes were not happy bunnies. And quite rightly so.

Apropos of nothing, I’m really enjoying Chemmy Alcott’s punditry: she comes across as knowledgable, compassionate and quite lyrical at times. I wonder if she’s being groomed as The Future Clare Balding?

edited to add: I am not Chemmy’s mum.

I loved Shun Sato in the teams event, I'm chuffed to bits he made it onto the podium.

Oooh, we’ve got a 4-point lead in the Curling!

It doesn't, does it? Where's the artistry?

When ice skaters have had classical ballet training incorporated into their regime it sticks out a mile. The Russians are a prime example, but of course they aren't competing this time. Same goes for gymnastics floor & beam.

I’m glad it wasn’t just me who thought that. I watched the last few routines, and felt they didn’t tell a story. I know its the Olympics and all that, but it was ‘trick’ followed by ‘filler’. I found the routines quite boring, to be honest.

Soto is on yesterday’s day 7 extra at 3.43 in after the Canadian skier. It was on the opposite channel to the skeleton finals and they then switched to ice hockey before the final group of 4 or 5 that included the winner.

@taxi4ballet I agree that if there is one event where the absence of the Russians is noticeable, it's the figure skating. I said as much to Dh the other day.

The push for more and more tricks in the programmes is taking aways from the artistic side of ot of it- and also, means there is so much room for error.
As last night proved.
It means the highly artistic programmes will never get the points that the ones with all the big jumps get- so the only time they get the plaudits, will be when the big jumpers, fail!

I think floor gymnastics has gone the same way. It’s bouncing and tumbling now

Did anyone see the women's cross country skiing relay? What drama!

The Swedes were the favourites by a huge margin, and were out in the lead but their second leg skier had a terrible fall (full front somersault) and broke a ski in an area with no coaches. She was reduced to scooting along on one ski for several hundred metres until a coach got to her and they dropped to 8th or 9th. Then the team fought back and ended up with silver 🥈

@Lunde Yes, the coach bringing the spare ski also fell over 😅
What a magnificent performance all round, it was brilliant 👏🏻

I think there was a lot of artistry in the 3 medal winners routines , to me the only one who is totally reliant on jumps is Malinin . I said the same after the short programme but someone on here said that Malinin is doing more modern, contemporary dance which does involve throwing yourself to the floor

Yeah that was hilarious when the coach fell

Felt sorry for the poor woman waiting... and waiting for a skier that didn't arrive

There was also a male skier from a minor nation that had the same issue yesterday and one of the other teams gave him a ski

Then the man from Haiti who skied very well and came 79th of 113

Some of these Czech curlers seem easy on the eye 👀

Me too. He’s fab.

I’ve watched a lot of Malinin’s routines and while he’s not as elegantly musical as some of the skaters, I don’t think it would be true to say he lacks artistry. I have really enjoyed a lot of his choreography and interpretation.

Anyone watching the Biathlon? Am really enjoying it, despite never having heard of it before this year.

I really enjoy watching biathlon.

I think there's a huge amount of skill in being able to calm yourself sufficiently to shoot accurately while racing.

Discovery + show the biathlon all through the winter , it’s well worth getting discovery/ tnt through the winter months as the coverage of Biathlon and cross country skiing is excellent .

They've been accused again by the Swiss team

Love the Biathlon - follow it all season

Today's race was amazing with the Norwegian woman clawing back the time on the last lap