Olympics 2018 Pyeongchang

[Neuro]

Let's have all the chatter here.

Personally I have a love-hate relationship with the olympics in that it's always an amazing 2 weeks with some nail-biting excitement, but also that it's slightly unfair with some people lucking into becoming olympic champion when someone else has been dominating for years luck out etc.

Also unfair in that lately they are held in some unusual locations with unusual and unknown conditions where teams luck in or luck out, Sochi was a good example.

And also, at least here in Norway, TV rights are given to channels other than the normal ones with experts who do this year-in, year-out, and you get first-timers commentating etc which can be a disaster and usually is. (The normal XC commentators Post and Bjørn are simply amazing, and I can say that having heard many good commentators like for example Moody and Ryder in MotoGP and others).

[dcpattie]

Also, since the nordic countries are limited to 3-athletes per event its less competitive than the WC. For example, who's faster, the 20th best Norwegian female or the fastest female skier from Panama? Exaggeration - but you get the point.

And then their the IOC who is completely destroying women's athletics!

[Neuro]

True. It's not really about finding the best athletes.

Another thing is the sheer cost of the Olympics. It's way over the top, and usually they will build in a new place.

Even here in Norway where everything is still up from the Lillehammer games, was discarded in favor of a new spot when we applied.

And this was against the will of 2/3 of the population. There's a certain arrogance among sporting organizations, and none more so than IOC.

[trotro]

It is fun to watch but really organizing the Olympics seems to appeal to corrupt politicians who want to cream a lot of the money for themselves.

[tvcrider]

I once really enjoyed watching any Olympic Nordic sport (if they were aired at all by U.S. networks) until 2014 in Sochi.

Initially I knew nothing of the behind the scenes state sponsored cheating by Russian athletes, but I became highly suspicious when the Russian men swept the final 50K event.

I will likely watch the upcoming games, but with a healthy dose of skepticism.

[JeffOYB]

the unification team seems special to me

[Pat]

Do the Olympic venues tend to have challenging courses? I watched the sprint race that was in Slovenia and thought it was a lot of fun to watch because there was a lot of uphill and some real sporty down hills with hard turns. I felt that it was more of an all around skills event than a flatter event -- more of like NASCAR on a road course. So is the 2018 course anything like that?

Also I thought by watching the hill work that the viewer could pick up some good technique points.

Pat

[Neuro]

I found the opening ceremony almost painful this time. Couldn't watch it all.

It reminds me of dictator countries where the people march past their leaders in uniform greeting them, and then in the end the greatest leader of them all appear. It's really old fashioned. Kim Jung Un loved it for sure.