Is it just me, or is the Winter Olympics...

[slapmatt]

...great?

You can't beat a bit of skiing in my book and watching that one-man bobsleigh jobbo last night was wicked - those women have bigger balls than I do!

[gideon]

Quite agree, I've always found the winter games more interesting that the main games.

Just seen this on BBC

Brit wins silver in Skeleton

Never heard on the event before, but from the video it appears to be a form of luge for the total insane. Head first and with a much harder to control sled, now this one does require huge balls.

[gbbird]

Must admit i have got quite into it over the last week. And nice to see the young british lady getting silver - if they all look like her i may watch it even more

[dp1]

The Winter Olympics are truly tremendous: luge, skeleton, bobsleigh, ski jump, downhill skiing (sp) all big cojones sports, and I've got well into the short track speed skating. Got to agree, far better than the summer games.

Got to admit I can live without the ice dancing though.

[TeamD]

dp1 said:

Got to admit I can live without the ice dancing though.

Too bloody right, from what I saw of the Nancies in Sequins category yesterday they all ended up on their arse. I thought these were supposed to be the best in the world?

[ATG]

Curling. Discuss.

[xm5er]

ATG said:

Curling. Discuss.

I'd rather watch Careera2's cleaner sweep up.

[mondeoman]

ATG said:

Curling. Discus.

Not the same thing IMHO

[cazzer]

It feels sort of right that we've won a medal in sledging.
I'm looking forward to the snowball fight competition next.

[dp1]

ATG said:

Curling. Discuss.

Loud short scottish woman shouts at everyone to brush quickly in front of a big rock. If she wants it to go faster , why doesn't she just fire it harder.

[cazzer]

And women seem to be very good at curling....
Must be that natural insting to do the sweeping....

[rumpelstiltskin]

That downhill snowboard thing where they fly down the course like ski racers,that was great!and i can't be arsed with all the snowboarding thing,but seeing them racing, instead of piddling around tying themselves in knots in the air then falling into an untidy pile on the snow was exciting.

[simpo two]

I'd like to combine Ice Dance with Curling.

The ice dancers go out and do their stuff; I wait in the wings with a handy supply of curling stones and see if I can hit a moving target

[viper_larry]

rumpelstiltskin said:

That downhill snowboard thing where they fly down the course like ski racers,that was great!and i can't be arsed with all the snowboarding thing,but seeing them racing, instead of piddling around tying themselves in knots in the air then falling into an untidy pile on the snow was exciting.

Snow Board Cross - yes, very exciting to watch and for once featured men NOT in Lycra

[Jaglover]

I prefer the winter olympics to the summer ones, due to the wider range of interesting events. It is just a shame I have been a little busy and haven't seen much of it so far.

[slapmatt]

There tends to be a much higher level of skill involved in winter sports, rather than the brute-force and ignorance approach that is suitable for summer games.

[ATG]

rumpelstiltskin said:

That downhill snowboard thing where they fly down the course like ski racers,that was great!and i can't be arsed with all the snowboarding thing,but seeing them racing, instead of piddling around tying themselves in knots in the air then falling into an untidy pile on the snow was exciting.

It was great to watch, but it seems a bit contrived ... then again all sport is contrived to a greater or lesser extent. What makes me laugh is that they're going quickly enough that they try to stay in a tuck as much as possible and they can even slip stream each other to good advantage ... but they still insist on wearing baggy clothing because they think it looks cool You can clearly see their trousers and jackets flapping in the wind. The mind boggles.

[Jonna_Rex]

Torino probably wasn´t the best choise for the winter olympics, but better luck next time.

[xm5er]

ATG said:

... but they still insist on wearing baggy clothing because they think it looks cool You can clearly see their trousers and jackets flapping in the wind. The mind boggles.

Yeah i noticed that too, silly buggers.

[TonyHetherington]

dp1 said:

ATG said: Curling. Discuss. Loud short scottish woman shouts at everyone to brush quickly in front of a big rock. If she wants it to go faster , why doesn't she just fire it harder.

That's what I thought, but sweeping in a certain way makes the stone curl and so they can end up getting behind a stone which is, seemingly, straight in front of them by curling it round the back. From what I can see, they do it be sweeping across the line of the stone so that one side is of different consistency ice to the other.

HOWEVER, EVERY single shot has sweepers on it, so can it really make that much difference shot to shot? If they do it, apparently yes!