Sochi Is Over. Thank God, And Good Riddance.

This x1,000,000

I watched every night and I feel like I missed so much. For such a big event that only happens every four years the coverage was horrendous. I could've gone without 4 different 30 minute local news and jeopardy. They just need to put that shit on hold for 2 weeks and let us actually watch the Olympics.
 
As much as announcers may have sucked really enjoyed men's slope.

Skiercross and men's downhill events took the gnar award IMO.
 
too much focus was put on figure skating and trying to make athletes cry over the death of loved ones. NBC Coverage was terrible.
 
Women's GS was absolutely terrible, some of the biatholon and XC conditions were really bad, and women's slope and men's pipe were bad enough that the shitty conditions directly caused injuries.

I would hope that the Russians would LEARN from THEIR OWN SNOW PATTERNS and from Vancouver, and take the time to build things at more appropriate elevations. So its great that they stored snow, but they could have easily redesigned the courses if the Russian building operations weren't so shoddy.

And i don't think they were a failure, I think we as freeskiing had a particularly good Olympics as it was our debut, and it went very well. Also hockey was great to watch, as was seeing the Jamaicans back. and downhill and skiercross entertained.

It just all seemed so poorly planned from the ground up, even from TV. Why are we hosting winter Olympics in a summer retreat that was pretty small? None of the IOC or countries seem to learn too much from the Olympics that do well, have less injuries, less controversy, and great competition. SLC and Torin were great, but if you look at them logistically they are nothing like Sochi. Even though as a whole I would say the Olympics were "successful", this should still be a lesson to the IOC and hosting countries on what not to do.
 
In what cases did the shitty snow conditions directly cause injuries?

Also if you want to talk about halfpipe conditions or the slope course that wasnt "the russians" building all that shit is contracted out so you can blame the Kiwi company that was responsible for that.
 
really nice write up.

A question I've been dying to know though is, how was the food?
 
the Russians chose the location and chose to hire some park company that was cheaper than Snowpark Technologies, the consensus best pipe builder on earth, because even though they had the budget they didn't want to.

And as for injury due to conditions, look at Lyman, who crashed from the shitty pipe, as well as Yuki Tsubota, who crashed purely from not having enough speed on a jump that did have enough speed for her to hit in the qualifying event.

Its barely an issue at X-games, or at the former Dew Tour, so it should not be an issue at FIS events or even worse the Olympics. I'm not saying we should ski inside, but there needs to be a set standard for conditions in order for competition to begin, and a point where you re schedule or call the event due to conditions.

We should never have skiing in the rain at the top level of skiing, it takes away from the competition, and at that level is dangerous.
 
Lymans injury could have happened in any pipe, I really dont think its safe to say that it was completely that pipes fault. Yuki's injury was definitely due to speed but Sarah burke suffered a broken back at x games doing the exact same trick a few seasons before she passed away.

A huge part of our sport is dealing with the elements, obviously having rain is not ideal but there has been rain, wind, cold, snow, sleet, (insert any variable weather conditions here), at major competitions for as long as skiing has been a sport.
 
global climate change is most certainly changing the amount of rain that falls in the mountains, and the best, most expensive competition needs to start taking that into consideration.
 
Wrong...those skiers knew the conditions and still decided to push themselves. I didn't see Lyman's crash but i did see Yuki's and she obviously knew the speed wasn't where it needed to be and still chanced it.

The conditions were the same for everyone as was the weather. The Olympics are just like any other comp, the best athlete on the course that day took home the gold. It's really that simple.

 
My school is hosting these fake Olympic Games in which you push kids around in small recycling bins.

Apparently it's supposed to represent bobsleigh.
 
Tried watching this years X-games again, honestly found the Olympics a far better slope contest. Those huge ass jumps just did it for me.
 
see in women's GS, it really wasnt. It was drizzling at the beginning so the times were better, then it was pouring and the times collectively got worse. And a shitty pipe can (and did) prevent successful switch tricks and runs. I know they all deal with the same conditions, but some athletes are better built and have better runs for shit weather. It just would have been nice to see the pipe comp in an x-games quality pipe.

But the theme of an unprepared yet still functional Olympics was still evident in much of the slope and pipe conditions.
 
The food was hit or miss, it was hard to get hands on authentic Russian food, but when I did it was awesome. Meat & potatoes and borsht. A lot of outdoor grilling going on in the mountain cluster with the weather being so nice.

The official food at all the venues was hot dogs and pancakes. You got your choice of the Manhattan hot dog (grilled onions & mustard), the Bavaria hot dog (sauerkraut & mustard) or the Brooklyn hot dog (cheese & bacon bits). The only other stand was pancakes, rolled crepe-style, filled with either jam or with cheese & ham. Definitely weird to be eating hot dogs and drinking Coke in Russia.
 
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