Looks like South Korea was 90-98% fake snow (depends on source), Sochi was 80% fake snow, and Vancouver turned over 2 million gallons of water into snow (8,000 cubic meters) for the Cypress mountain events (though the events at Whistler had real snow).
Yeah I love the powder for boarding. Hate that icy crap. Sure makes you go fast though.
The snow situation in Vancouver was embarrassing. Usually we have a three to five metre snow depth on our NorthShore Mountains in early February but we had a fluke mild February in 2010. Zero snow and it was all trucked in as you mentioned.
On the plus side, I went to an outdoor taping of the Stephen Colbert show and it was great sitting on the grass in the sunshine listening to him and Bob Costas joke around. There was a giant stuffed moose on the set and the crowd chanted âRide the Mooseâ for every guest until they complied. The best part was to hear all of the Colbert comments when he was not being recorded for tvâŚâŚ
Okay, VPN up and running. I just watched the Canadian team parade in during the opening ceremonies. I like the parade of nations, and that was just about enough of it.
Now on to some ice skating.
Italy has been crushing it so far in the mixed doubles curling
If you want something more entertaining than the Parade of Nations you might want to browse through this account of Stephen Colbertâs activities at the 2010 Olympics. I doubt he will be broadcasting from Beijing for this Olympics! I am in the photo of the crowd of 5,000 people watching The Colbert Report.
Iâm watching curling, and have absolutely no idea whatâs going on. Iâm not even sure what the goal is, let alone how scrubbing ice with a squeegee advances that goal.
Sort of like billiards? But seriously, whatâs the goal?
Get your stones closer to the center of the circle than your opponentsâ. You get a point for each of yours that are closer than your opponents closest stone.
Sweeping gets the stones to move faster (well, slow down slower), which impacts how far it goes and how much it curls (curves).
Itâs a bit like shuffleboard or bocce but played on ice.
As usual, the only womenâs hockey that is competitive is Canada versus the US.
With bocce you donât move your opponentâs ball. That seems to be key in this, hitting the previously placed stones to knock them out of the target.
Thanks, it makes more sense, now
Iâve never played bocce with any actual rules, but when Iâve kinda-sorta played the game, hitting your opponentâs ball (or the target ball) was a strategy that was used.
I never thought I liked commentators, but it turns out watching the Olympics without them is not great. Why canât they have commentators watching the video, even if they canât be in person? I expect this will contribute to low ratings.
What are you trying to watch that doesnât have commentary?
Iâve been watching figure skating on Peacock (itâs the only Olympic sport I really watch) and there is no commentary. I assumed that was all of Peacock but maybe itâs figure skating specific, dunno. Or maybe I need to check my settings?
See if there is a replay of the âprime timeâ version or something. Figure skating is always covered prime time since itâs so popular. Most other event replays will have commentary on them.
Huh, Iâve been watching CBC broadcasts, and everything has commentary. Between the shatter finishing and the scores being announced, they show important bits in slow motion and point out what was right and wrong with each jump, etc.
Upon Googling, MA was correct. Peacock doesnât do commentary in the feeds Iâve been watching, only (at least for now) in the prime time replays.
I actually donât mind the lack of commentary for things like the skeleton or downhill skiing where I can understand whatâs already happening. My husband has had those on a bit. But for things like figure skating or curling or even hockey, I like some context on difficulty or strategy, etc.