Olympics 2010 - Feb. 12 to 28 Official Olympics thread, everything Olympics goes here

[Natalka]

I'm wondering whether anyone here is going to any events this year; have you been to the Olympics in the past, and where? ... things like that.
Do you have any specific memories from past Olympics you want to share?
Do you watch a lot of the events on TV? Which are your faves? Do you have any Olympics merchandise - past or present?
Are the Olympics important to you and why?

My fave thing to watch is the opening ceremonies of any Olympics - how they include cultural traditions from the host country, the stories they interpret, etc. That includes the parade of athletes; it's interesting to watch them (and love to see what each country is wearing!).
Fave sports to watch are hockey, figure and speed skating, curling - and bits and pieces of pretty much all the others!

The first winter Olympics I remember is 1968, Grenoble, France, with Nancy Greene getting gold and silver in skiing.
1972 Sapporo, Japan - figure skater Karen Magnussen getting Canada's only medal of the games
1976 Innsbruck, Austria - skier Kathy Kreiner and skaters Toller Cranston and US Dorothy Hamill.
1980 Lake Placid, US - the Crazy Canucks mens' ski team -
1984 Sarajevo, Bosnia - Gaetan Boucher in speedskating; Brian Orser, figure skating; British ice dancers Torvill and Dean getting first perfect marks ever; East Germany's Katarina Witt's gold in figure skating
1988 Calgary - Eddie the Eagle, Jamaican bobsleigh team; Brian Orser and Elizabeth Manley in figure skating
1992 Albertville, France - Myriam Bedard, biathlon; Karrin-Lee Gartner, skiing; figure skaters Brasseur and Eisler
1994 Lillehammer, Norway - crazy Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan stuff, but Ukraine's Oksana Baiul got gold in figure skating; Canada did great in many events, Elvis Stojko should've gotten gold, not silver!
1998 Nagano, Japan - amazing gold in curling for Sandra Schmirler's rink; speed skating's Catriona LeMay-Doan; US figure skaters Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan
2002 Salt Lake City, US - figure skating judging scandal, Sale and Pelletier; both men's and women's hockey win gold; lots of other Canadian medals.
2006 Torino, Italy - speedskater Cindy Klassen - five medals!


http://www.vancouver2010.com/

[Lynn49]

Nice thread, Natalka, Sweetie!

Like you, I enjoy watching the opening and closing ceremonies, and particularly the parade of athletes in their outfits. I'm truly disappointed with what I've seen as the offerings for our athletes this year...perhaps they'll look better all together, but that
knitted sweater looks like something a granny would knit (not this granny!) for a grandkid who'd be made fun of at school if he or she wore it! Those went out in the 70s!
The mittens were a hit...wish I had found a pair...

As for the sports, I must admit I enjoy the summer Olypics more, but I do enjoy the skiing and figure skating...and the final game of hockey...but I will watch the other sports and hope they're enough of a diversion to make me forget it's February and that there's snow outside here, too. Thank goodness it's been so mild here lately that the wretched stuff has actually been melting! hah!
Take THAT stupid snow! {{snow}}

I hope our atletes do themselves proud and the judging, particularly for the ice-skating is fair.

[VeeVee]

I love the Olympics! Its must be such an amazing feeling to train so hard and have the opportunity to represent your country in front of the world!
My HR lady and her husband are taking there two kids (7 and 10) for 6 days. She said she would bring me back a souvenir lol

[freebiehunter]

This is our first Olympics and I can't wait! We have tickets to the closing ceremonies I think it will be an amazing show. We also plan to try to watch the torch as it passes through town!

Now for the most amazing part....my daughter who is 10 is dancing in the opening ceremonies for the Paraympics March 12th. She's one of around 400 juniors and they have already been rehersing every weekend. It's exhausting but VERY exciting. She is not allowed to talk about what they are doing at all - very top secret - but it sounds like they have several roles during the night. Ofcourse, I have tickets to that too!

I'd like to say that the schools out here are doing a great job of creating hype and awareness with the kids. They are centering projects around the topics of the games and the athletes and having 'Olympic show and tell' and 'Olympic spirit days'. I'm impressed with the community support.

[Natalka]

freebiehunter - that's so great that you get to go, and your daughter gets to dance for the Paralympics opening!
I was teaching elementary school at the time of the '88 Olympics, and we were given TONS of wonderful material to work with in our classroom, really well done/planned from an education/curriculum perspective, and it was lots of fun to use!

[Psychojo213]

I'll be cheering on (from home) an old high school friend who will be competing in the Paralympics. She is legally blind and she skiis cross-country and the biathlon. We always joke about them giving a gun to a blind girl ...they actually use special rifles that sight by sound.

[23edge]

I'll be watching on tv only... from Ontario. Go Canada Go... favorite thing to watch? Figure skating

[Gratuit]

Great memories of Kathy Kreiner 18, from our home town of Timmins On winning the Gold Medal in the Giant Slalom at the Innsbruck Games in 1976.

[Alixana]

I'll be watching in the comfort of my own home. It's gonna be hell for me for those two weeks cause it already takes me almost an hour to get to down town where I work using public transit. When the Olympic starts, they said to be prepared for at least 2 hours commuting on the skytrain.

I also grew up watching summer olympics, and this is only the 2nd winter olympics 8 will be following. My favorite memory is still the lighting of the torch in Barcelona, 1988. That archer was amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSA9x...=youtube_gdata

What if he missed?

[greentires4me]

Yes...when I saw the first bid to get tickets with that draw to be one of so many people to get tickets to the events I jumped at it...they aren't too shabby tickets either...they are in the middle of everything they aren't at the end where you couldn't see the event going on...but its definitely going to a be a frosty feeling sitting there. I am definately going to have to brave the local transit with my dad...I thought that it would be or might be the only chance I have in my life time to see the Olympics as well as my dad's. Even the flame comes through the town on February 8th. I am excited yet at the same time I am unhappy that they have cut the funding to most social areas of the provincial government to pay for the Olympics. Which meant its been very hard to obtain a job after college in the Social Services area.

I took picture of my tickets I received with the letter and free book of spectators guide.



Too bad we didn't get the Summer Olympics think about how much more we have benefited from that...at least they would have kept most of the things they built after the fact.

[tommygunn]

My favorite memory is still the lighting of the torch in Barcelona, 1988. That archer was amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSA9x...=youtube_gdata

What if he missed?

It was 1992 actually. And he did miss.. he was ordered by organizers to overshoot the cauldron for fear he'd fall short and it'd land in the grandstand. The cauldron was lit from a valve opened at the base..

[Natalka]

Snow trouble! Well, no surprise, really....

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...n-no-snow.html

[Lynn49]

It was 1992 actually. And he did miss.. he was ordered by organizers to overshoot the cauldron for fear he'd fall short and it'd land in the grandstand. The cauldron was lit from a valve opened at the base..

You've shattered my...my...remembering of that!
Please say it isn't so!!

[YesI'mcheap]

Yes...when I saw the first bid to get tickets with that draw to be one of so many people to get tickets to the events I jumped at it...they aren't too shabby tickets either...they are in the middle of everything they aren't at the end where you couldn't see the event going on...but its definitely going to a be a frosty feeling sitting there. I am definately going to have to brave the local transit with my dad...I thought that it would be or might be the only chance I have in my life time to see the Olympics as well as my dad's. Even the flame comes through the town on February 8th. I am excited yet at the same time I am unhappy that they have cut the funding to most social areas of the provincial government to pay for the Olympics. Which meant its been very hard to obtain a job after college in the Social Services area.

I took picture of my tickets I received with the letter and free book of spectators guide.



Too bad we didn't get the Summer Olympics think about how much more we have benefited from that...at least they would have kept most of the things they built after the fact.

Here is a song about the cuts I found it when looking for the theme song.http://geoffberner.com/Olympicstheme/.

[Natalka]

Clara Hughes, speedskater, will carry the Canadian at the opening ceremonies.
http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic..._237710YI.html

I'm most curious as to who will be doing the final leg with the torch, and light the stadium flame.
Who would you like to see as the final torchbearer? My first choice would be Wayne Gretzky.

For KIDS - educational site with info and activities on Olympics
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/olympics/