Olympics

[Flying Rabbit]

Weird not to see a thread yet.

Anyone else watching? I'm a junkie when it comes to Winter Olympics. I love that in our modern age, I can literally watch practices, qualifiers and the medal events through the NBC app. I remember back in the day only getting to watch selective programming. When NBC got their cable stuff up and running years ago, I remember staying up to watch curling at like 2am.

What's everyone's favorite events?

[Sterling Bigmouth]

I’m definitely more of a Summer Olympics fan, but I love hockey and the snowboarding events (especially the half pipe since Shaun White is in it). Can kind of get into skiing, speed skating, and some other stuff, but it helps to have prominent Americans in those.

[Iowan]

I love hockey, but I'm pretty chapped that they didn't let NHL players in this time. I still want revenge over Canada for 2010, damn it.

[phungi]

[controversial opinion alert]

if it can't be objectively measured (i.e., time, distance) get it out of the olympic medal category... make it an exhibition, but don't give medals... I know this means no figure skating, gymnastics, half-pipe, but let's be honest, you watch a run/routine, and then wait to see what the judges score... take moguls for example... time is 20% of the score, but "how good you look while doing it" is weighted more... why isn't body posture judged in the luge, or form in the 200-meter butterfly? and don't get me started on any event that requires music... artistic expression, gimme a break...

[/controversial post alert]

[Iowan]

I have a hard time with subjective sports as well. I dig watching skiing and snowboarding because it's fun to do, and I respect the ability of the folks doing it, but I don't get invested in who wins.

[Flying Rabbit]

[controversial opinion alert]

if it can't be objectively measured (i.e., time, distance) get it out of the olympic medal category... make it an exhibition, but don't give medals... I know this means no figure skating, gymnastics, half-pipe, but let's be honest, you watch a run/routine, and then wait to see what the judges score... take moguls for example... time is 20% of the score, but "how good you look while doing it" is weighted more... why isn't body posture judged in the luge, or form in the 200-meter butterfly? and don't get me started on any event that requires music... artistic expression, gimme a break...

[/controversial post alert]

I think Joe Rogan said the same thing recently. It's true, subjectivity is tough when it comes to events like figure-skating or half-pipe snowboarding. There's always that question from non-participants as to whether someone is truly the best or just a judge favorite. I do think that if you're up on certain events you can see who's the best--I remember back in the day when I skated (board, not ice) during the X-games I knew how hard and technical certain tricks were and while some looked easier than others, they were much harder to pull off. So, I'm willing to give some leeway on subjective events. All that said, my favorites are most certainly the ones in which there is a clear winner whether by being faster or some other measurable quality.

[Zip City]

I'm annoyed by the scoring/subjectivity of it, but I'm more annoyed that they seemingly change the scoring rules all the time, such that every time an Olympics comes around, you have to relearn what the heck any numbers mean

[LBRod]

Overtime in the women's hockey gold medal game. Good stuff.

[Flying Rabbit]

I was screaming with each OT goal attempt. What a finish, what a story, what emotion! Redemption for sure.