Winter Olympics 2022

Italy won mixed doubles curling gold. 🥇
They won all games to the final, 11 out of 11.

Well, he just went and did it again, so the judges had their hands tied. Gold medal to Ayumu Hirano!

Curling is the coolest winter sport. It's a game of analysis and strategy. Unlike, say, American football, it's actually pretty fun to watch this supposed strategy play out. As opposed to football's "run fast, don't get hit, win" version of strategy, there's cool stuff with rock placement intended for shots you're making in the future. It looks like tons of fun to both play and to watch.

Currently watching China's women's team get trounced by the USA. 6th end right now.

That Van Der Poel world record in the 10,000 was shocking. Yiiiikes.

The figure skating decision was BS. The Olympics used to be tougher on PED's than anybody, but now even baseball takes a harder line on it than they do.

I agree with both viewpoints here. I think that Russia has been softballed for so long that they know they can get away with it. They can't compete under a Russian flag, but they still get to compete. Not really the hardest punishment in the world. That said, this particular case is possibly people manipulating and screwing with her without her consent, and so long as there aren't any more positive tests, I don't really have an opinion on her in particular.

I think that the only way forward now if they want to squash this is to go nuclear and refuse all Russian athletes because of their committee's poor behavior. I hate to say that, as the VAST, VAST majority of Russian athletes are clean and fair, and the amount of collateral damage from the kind of move I'm suggesting is enormous. But the soft behavior that has been taken hasn't really done much to dissuade bad actors.

On a more positive note, has anyone been keeping with Roiseland and the Norwegian biathlon team? Extraordinary work there - Roiseland is on track to be the winningest athlete in winter Olympic history. She is destroying the competition in each race, it's really cool to see.

I am a but worried about her teammate Tandrevold, who has collapsed twice crossing the finish line and has needed medical attention both times. The first time, she blacked out for the entire final lap, and the second time she was in bronze medal position before fading and stumbling across the finish in 14th. It's a little scary to see a major player have such serious health problem.

Does anyone else find it more fun to watch the lower level athletes in a lot of sports? I just turned on the TV for a moment to live figure skating with some Estonian skater, and she doesn't look like some unattainable superhuman. Her jumps are still crazy impressive, mind. I think it is fun to watch the competitors that aren't going for a medal and just get to compete on the Olympic stage.

Not a figure skating expert, but I thought the Japanese girls should have been in 2nd and 3rd. Not sure if the scoring system was changed for more of an emphasis on difficulty over execution, but they just looked a lot cleaner than the other two Russian girls. Don't see how you can be in second place when you fall on your ass. I know they account for the difficulty of the routine but it seems like you should actually have to complete it successfully.

To answer the guys above.
There's a score system that gives you points for every type of jump or combination. If you don't complete the required degrees (like 720° for instance) your jump will be degraded, so considered a 360° one with lower score. If you complete the rotation but then you fall, you'll get the full score for the jump but you'll get a deduction, usually one point, for the fall.

Well, few decades ago figure skating judges decided basing on what they liked more. This sport has music and an artistic aspect too. It's not simply a physical exercise.

Gymnastics does the same things. You can straight up fuck something up but if your difficulty is high you'll still likely have a shot.