Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics

[SignalHillHiker]

Kaetlyn is bringing home a gold. I look forward to the new Kaetlyn Osmond ring road in St. John's. That's our new tradition



Nice, CBC.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

We're a few days in and no one is really following the games in my circles? Is it the same for you?

All of the people in my circles who usually follow are following it.

There's been a narrative this year about people not caring about the Olympics and i'm not sure where that's sprouting up from. It's naturally going to be more difficult for people to feel attached and connected to the events when they're mostly on in the middle of the night. Having three Olympics consecutively in East Asia isn't going to do any favours for that feeling, either; at least not in North America.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

We're a few days in and no one is really following the games in my circles? Is it the same for you?

People are still watching it, but there is definitely less buzz around the Olympics this year it seems. I think the NHL backing out has taken away the #1 thing Canadians care about, and factor in the time difference that JHikka mentioned and there you go. The gaudy Sochi games did seem to leave a bad taste in people's minds a bit too I think.

I'm surprised there isn't more talk about it here to be honest, you would think with serious consideration being given to a 2026 bid, people in Calgary would be excited about it.

[ExcaliburKid]

So Kaetlyn Osmond has lived and trained in the Edmonton area since she was 10 years old, is NL aware of this?

I wish her luck when the individual events for figure skating get going, it would be cool to have a local Olympian bring home a medal...or not, depending on where she (or the media) decides she's from

[ExcaliburKid]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

We're a few days in and no one is really following the games in my circles? Is it the same for you?

I've watched bits and pieces, I enjoyed the mixed doubles curling, speed skating is exciting too.

Like you though, nobody I know is paying much attention to the games at this point

[Acajack]

There is lots of interest in my entourage. My family is into it, and I hear about the games at work and also at my kids' activity milieus (which do not involve sports currently being played in PyeongChang BTW).

Not sure how the level of interest compares to Sochi. Certainly lower than Vancouver - but that's normal.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I believe this is the second Olympic games in my household without cable TV. This means anything we watch is through the Internet only. The time switch makes it difficult. I might try watching some snowboarding and snow cross with my son though. He likes the craziness of a lot of the winter sports.

But I do check the medal standings and read some stories. There's still interest, but maybe it is just because I am older that I care less about it. Too busy with hobbies and work and kids.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by ExcaliburKid

So Kaetlyn Osmond has lived and trained in the Edmonton area since she was 10 years old, is NL aware of this?

I wish her luck when the individual events for figure skating get going, it would be cool to have a local Olympian bring home a medal...or not, depending on where she (or the media) decides she's from

Eh, she spends more than enough time in Marystown for it to still count as some hometown pride. One of my close friends younger sisters is friends with Kaetlyn, they still hang out whenever she's visiting extended family (few times a year).

[TorontoDrew]

I love how the Americans try to rank medals different then the entire planet. Everybody including the Olympic committee ranks nations by the number of gold medals they have, the U.S ranks by total medal count. Either way we ares still leading them in both gold and total medal counts.


Olympic standings as of today.
G S B Total
Germany 5 2 2 9
Netherlands 4 4 2 10
Norway 3 5 3 11
Canada 3 4 3 10
United States 3 1 2 6
France 2 1 2 5
Sweden 2 1 0 3
Austria 2 0 0 2
Italy 1 1 1 3
Korea 1 0 1 2

[WhipperSnapper]

You think Canada ranks medal tallies any differently from the US?

[WhipperSnapper]

What the Americans have done is push for more and more extreme events that they do well in to up their medal count. This has benefited our medal counts too. I say, let them do whatever they please.

It's not a bad move for the IOC either. Take out the X Games before they become serious competition for the winter games.

[geotag277]

I find the CBC coverage to be abysmal this year. Cutting off live events for personal stories. Jumping around every 5 minutes. They even cut off the final final final run of women's slopestyle to cut to another event that was just setting up, and in the process missed the best run of the entire event.

It seems like these hard deadlines for showing events shouldn't necessarily be followed if an event is wrapping up.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

You think Canada ranks medal tallies any differently from the US?

It wouldn't surprise me if many countries used the medal rankings that made their own total appear more favourably.

Pretty sure Canada or at least some Canadians have done this before, and alternatively have argued that either gold medals were more important, or that total medals are more important.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by geotag277

I find the CBC coverage to be abysmal this year. Cutting off live events for personal stories. Jumping around every 5 minutes. They even cut off the final final final run of women's slopestyle to cut to another event that was just setting up, and in the process missed the best run of the entire event.

It seems like these hard deadlines for showing events shouldn't necessarily be followed if an event is wrapping up.

Especially when they can easily delay the start of the next event and given the time difference, most people won't even know.

[MolsonExport]

Rankings by gold medals is the olympic standard. Of course, people also look at rankings by medal counts.

I say, pick the metric that has us beating the Americans

(mostly kidding)

At least it isn't a year of "groan" the podium (Back when we were supposed to own the podium, but did shitty for the first few days, and everyone was bemoaning that fact, and then suddenly we started collecting gold medals)

[WhipperSnapper]

I don't follow the Olympics and similar world sporting event as much as I used to however, Canada has been pretty consistent with tracking by medal count. It's only the winter games which have been golden for us.Even the Vancouver games with a record breaking number of gold are also looked at as having not won the medal count.

[GernB]

The time differential is a killer. I tried to watch the Canada-Finland women's hockey game last nights, but after a 3-0 score and two (? I was half asleep) disallowed goals I gave up.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by geotag277

I find the CBC coverage to be abysmal this year.

Watch online, it's great, in fact I don't know of anybody who does it better. You can make your own schedule. Also it's interesting because you can hear the wild sound before and after events and during breaks. Sometimes the commentators slip up and say a few things they shouldn't.

I don't have cable but I wouldn't want to try and watch that way waiting for something to come on. I just go and find what I want.

Watched Canada/Sui curling. The Swiss look panicked and/or out of shape which was strange.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

You think Canada ranks medal tallies any differently from the US?

I know, it's common knowledge that we rank by number of Golds like the vast majority of participating countries. The convention used by the IOC is to sort by the number of gold medals the athletes from a country have earned. This is what we follow. The U.S likes to go by number because in most Olympics they win the most overall so this way they can almost always claim to be #1.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

I know, it's common knowledge that we rank by number of Golds like the vast majority of participating countries.

Courtesy cbc.ca