The OFFICIAL 2014 Winter Olympics Thread

[Hatman 🍁]

I'll review curling, since only myself and ZuWo are capable of doing so. And he's a dirty Swiss ( ) so, he's obviously biased. Don't let the neutrality fool you!

Obviously, Canada is the best and should medal in both men's and women's. Nothing short of gold will suffice.

Men's:
Canada's team will be represented by the young and brash Brad Jacobs rink from Northern Ontario. They won the Canadian championship (the Brier) back in March, and then won the Olympic Trials in December. They knocked off some of the best teams in the world to do so in both events. At the World Championships, they won a silver medal.



Sweden won the Gold at the Worlds, but they are really hit and miss. Norway never wins gold, but they should medal too. Switzerland won the European Championships in December, so they could medal as well.  The US will likely finish in the bottom 3, with Germany and Russia.


Women

Canada will be represented by the Jennifer Jones rink from Winnipeg. She is a four time Canadian champion, and has been the most consistent women's teams in the world over the last 8 or so years. However, this is her first Olympics. She's also a former world champion, winning in 2008.  She doesn't have the best international record, with just 2 medals in 4 appearances, so she may not do well.



Women's curling is a lot more unpredictable, as their skill levels are more evenly matched. One of the best teams in the world right now is the Eve Muirhead rink from Scotland. They won the Worlds last year, and will be representing Great Britain at the Olympics. However, they lost the European Championships to Sweden, who will also be one the top teams in Sochi. Switzerland is also one of the top teams, and the Russians could be the dark horses, but are inconsistent. Same with China. Again, the US will likely be in the bottom 3 with Korea and Japan.

[Hatman 🍁]

I more or less agree with Hatman's predictions. I would be very surprised if the Canadian men didn't win the gold medal. (Almost) everything is possible for most other teams, though. Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark will definitely compete for the medals, but I wouldn't count out the Chinese or the Russians either.
It's even harder to make a prediction for the women's tournament. The Canadian women's team isn't as dominant as the men's team so Sweden, Scotland, Switzerland, China and Russia are strong contenders for gold as well.

One problem with the Jacobs rink is that they are inconsistent, and untested, really. They had a really good run at the Brier and at the Trials, but haven't done anything else on the Tour.

Brad Jacobs is 7th on the WCT money list, which is higher than any of the other national teams, but by this measure, his rink is clearly not the best in the world. But, perhaps good enough for gold anyways.

WCT money list
7) Jacobs (Canada)
Liu (China)
9) Ulsrud (Norway)
12) Michel (Switzerland)
14) Edin (Sweden)
30) Brewster (Great Britain) [Murdoch is the skip though, but he's listed separately for some reason, in 111th]
36) Stjerne (Denmark)
45) Shuster (USA)
116) Drozdov (Russia)
159) Jahr (Germany)


Women's list
1) Jones (Canada
5) Muirhead (Great Britain
6) Ott (Switzerland)
7) Wang (China)
Sidorova (Russia)
15) Sigfridsson (Sweden)
17) Kim (Korea)
30) Ogasawara (Japan)
51) Brown (USA)
NR) Nielsen (Denmark) - why don't they tour?

From this comparison, the women's field is much more evenly matched than the men's, which makes sense. Interestingly, in the top 6, there are more Swiss teams (3) than Canadian teams (2). Ott is the third ranked Swiss team!

A big caveat with looking at the money rankings is a lot of teams are still good, but don't do much touring. Europe has their own tour, but there isn't much money in it, so a lot of Euro teams aren't that high. Asian teams like to tour Canada, so their rankings are often inflated, as Canada is where they big curling money is.

[Hatman 🍁]

Question to ZuWo, how did Switzerland select its curling teams? I know last time you had a Trials.

[Hatman 🍁]

Question to ZuWo, how did Switzerland select its curling teams? I know last time you had a Trials.

The Swiss Curling Association made a ranking based on the teams' performance at international competitions such as European and World Championships and the World Curling Tour. Last year the best team among the men (Michel) and women (Ott) were selected.

With all the good Swiss teams this year, they should have held a Trials. Right now Ott is the #3 Swiss team on the money list. Michel is #2, I think.

[Hatman 🍁]

Ott is getting old, though. One thing that this year has proved in Canadian curling is that the old guns are starting to lose out, while younger teams are taking over. Look no further than Jacobs winning the Trials.

But also, look at the Scotties provincials. In BC, you have a team right out of juniors knocking off Kelly Scott, in Alberta you have Sweeting defeating Bernard, in Manitoba Chelsea Carey finally wins, in Ontario you have a young team winning (Middaugh didn't even make the playoffs)- not to mention the defending champion Homan rink. Also, the Territories will be represented by the same team that will be representing the Yukon at the Canadian Juniors this year, as they knocked off perennial territorial champion Kerry Galusha.

[Hatman 🍁]

Ahh, I see that turncoat is still at it, is he?

[Hatman 🍁]

http://www.today.com/sochi/jamaican-bobsled-team-heads-sochi-over-120k-fans-its-dream-2D11958894

The Jamaican bobsled team is going to Sochi!!!  Should be fun to see athletes mostly used to a tropical climate try to compete in the bitter cold...

Obviously you have never seen Cool Runnings. Jamaica always sends a bobsled team.

[Hatman 🍁]

She's a good choice, since she wasn't given the captaincy, despite being the captain for the last 2(?) Olympics. And you know, being the best female hockey player ever.

[Hatman 🍁]

You sure like to show off how white your country is

[Hatman 🍁]

It's our game too!

lolno. Stick to baseball.

[Hatman 🍁]

Time to spam this thread with awesome

[Hatman 🍁]

Anyway, I predict 4 Gold medals for Austria, 5 Silver and 3 Bronze.

I predict 20-30 medals for Canada and #4th in medals.

[Hatman 🍁]

First event begins in just over an hour

[Hatman 🍁]

According this graphic Canada will have the most Olympic coverage of any country:

[Hatman 🍁]

Apparently NBC isn't even covering it live? lol America. There are 6 networks covering it live here.

[Hatman 🍁]

I think I speak for most people on this forum at least, that the parade of nations is the best part.

[Hatman 🍁]

In slopestyle this morning, USA wins gold, Canada wins a bronze. I think this is a bit of a disappointment for Canada, but I don't care about snowboarding, so I don't know. We often do win medals at brand new events (think of Triathlon, Trampoline, Snowboarding itself, curling (obviously), etc.)

Watching women's hockey right now. Canada is beating up Switzerland right now, 5-0.

[Hatman 🍁]

Canada has 3 medals! More than the US. Will enjoy it while it lasts.

[Hatman 🍁]

Canada wins a fourth medal, winning silver in the Figure Skating team competition. USA wins bronze, Russia wins gold.

In Slopestyle snowboarding, Spencer Cooper who was favoured to medal finishes last

[Hatman 🍁]

Another gold for Canada, we now lead the medal table (sorted by gold)

However, our men's curling team is doing terrible. They barely got by Germany this morning, and aren't looking very good against Switzerland.

[Hatman 🍁]

Canada wins another gold & silver in moguls, this time in the men's. We nearly swept the medals, as our third skiier finished 4th.

[Hatman 🍁]

The fans that did show up to the curling events aren't very knowledgeable. Cheering for bad shots that "look good" by the Russian team. When the men's team lost, you could almost hear the collective "wait... is the game over.... why are they shaking hands... did we win or lose?" Of course, even in Vancouver the fans weren't knowledgeable. 

[Hatman 🍁]

The fans that did show up to the curling events aren't very knowledgeable. Cheering for bad shots that "look good" by the Russian team. When the men's team lost, you could almost hear the collective "wait... is the game over.... why are they shaking hands... did we win or lose?" Of course, even in Vancouver the fans weren't knowledgeable. 

Quebec TV noticed that, but said it was worst in Torino (people booed when people "missed" the last shot in order to draw and not give the last stone to the opposing them there).

You mean when a team throws their last rock through to maintain last rock advantage if the most they could get is 1 point? I can see why a n00b wouldn't understand that. But I remember from the Torino games that the Italians loved the curling, because it reminded them of Bocce.

Anyways, who's doing the Quebec curling coverage? Guy Hemmings? He's awesome!

[Hatman 🍁]

Apparently, acrobatic skiing is the new Canadian national sport, we won 6 of our 9 medals there (2 in men's moguls, 2 in women's moguls and 2 in women's slopestyle). (The three others are figure skating, speed staking and snowboard).

The fans that did show up to the curling events aren't very knowledgeable. Cheering for bad shots that "look good" by the Russian team. When the men's team lost, you could almost hear the collective "wait... is the game over.... why are they shaking hands... did we win or lose?" Of course, even in Vancouver the fans weren't knowledgeable. 

Quebec TV noticed that, but said it was worst in Torino (people booed when people "missed" the last shot in order to draw and not give the last stone to the opposing them there).

You mean when a team throws their last rock through to maintain last rock advantage if the most they could get is 1 point? I can see why a n00b wouldn't understand that. But I remember from the Torino games that the Italians loved the curling, because it reminded them of Bocce.

Anyways, who's doing the Quebec curling coverage? Guy Hemmings? He's awesome!

Yes, I'm meaning that, Herbie. I understand it's confusing (myself being a confused person at first). But, like in Torino, the crowd knowledge will be much better deeper in the event.

And, yes, it's Guy Hemmings. He is barely known in Quebec, so, I'm very surprised you know him. It's his former curling career? He is retired now, he is a full time teacher, apparently.

Radio-Canada is having duet covarage (CBC probably do the same). Guy Hemmings is the analyst, Justine Boutet is the host (the one doing more general comment). She is a former tennis university player, but is now a sports journalist (and the one usually covering curling news).

How do I know Guy Hemmings? Well, he made it to back to back Brier finals in the late 1990s, around when I first started watching curling religiously. Oh, and there's the fact that I head the Curling Wikiproject on Wikipedia, etc, etc. I also remember curling on the sheet next to him in a tournament a few years back. Sad to hear that he's retired.

Re: Men's curling...

Without having to go on a Google chase, does anyone know what happened to the old curling team from Vancouver? I'm not really up on any of the athletes or anything, but the calibre of the previous team doesn't even seem to compare to the one we've got in Sochi. Did they fail to qualify? Did they retire? I would've thought for sure we could count on a curling gold, but I'm not too optimistic now.

Kevin Martin (the skip.. er captain from 2010) is getting old, and with John Morris leaving the team, they haven't played as well. The current team got really hot at the Olympic Trials, and won, but they aren't a very experienced team, and that's showing. In terms of their World Curling Tour ranking, I don't think they're even in the top 5 in the country, so it's going to be tough for them to win. They can't afford to lose many more games, and they still have to play Norway, which will be tough. Great Britian could give them a challenge as well.

[Hatman 🍁]

Are CBC's protections such that you can't access their content from the US? The CBC coverage on the website is nothing short of perfect.

I agree; you can pull up stats, lineups etc in realtime as an overlay of the video.