The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Is anyone watching? Do you have any sports you particularly like? Is there anything you can't stand?

I'm watching at least a little every night. I have always been huge on the hockey (being old enough to have watched "The Miracle on Ice") but I am really bummed the NFL would not let it's players compete this year. I'm not sure what to expect with the product. I will probably fall in line and watch though. I really enjoy curling and expect to see someone else say they hate it. I'm really down to watch just about all competitions except for the figure skating and ice dancing.

We have been getting pretty thorough coverage here down under, the most focus being on the events Australians are competing such as moguls, snowboarding, aerials which are quite entertaining to watch.

Some of the events have been very dramatic, with the champion favorites seriously challenged and pulling out all stops on their last attempt to win gold, great stuff. Shaun White, Natalie Geisenberger, Maren Lundby, Mikael Kinsbury, incredible, just incredible, I salut you! One notable exception was the huge upset in the mens luge where Felix Loch (who had been dominant the previous three runs) fluffed it halfway through and missed out completely on a medal: again it was very dramatic finale, with underdog David Gleirscher (who barely scraped on to the Austrian team) setting what would end up being the winning time and watching as each following competitor failed to better it, moving into an unexpected medal winning position, and when Felix cocked up, the gold.

I've watched a lot of the snowboarding and some curling to this point. The Winter games aren't quite as enjoyable to me as the Summer games, but there are a few events that I really get into.

I'd be more bummed they didn't let NHL players play.

I've just started watching some, I like the curling - I was actually watching some of the prelims on TV a month or more ago.  One thing I didn't like was watching Shaun White drag the American Flag across the ground while stepping on it after winning a Gold Medal last night.  I get that he was emotional, but it's not like it was his first win.  They tried to turn this into a scripted great video for tv and failed miserably in my opinion.

Good catch

I enjoy women's curling.  Especially when the Scandinavian women's teams are competing.  Lots of close-up tv shots in that sport.

He apologized and didn't realize he was doing it. Did you see him go to his mother? Dude lost it. There is no doubt he appreciated this gold more than the ones when he was a kid. I think we can let him slide.

I watch most everything that Americans are actually "competing" in but I love the snow board races. It's one of the few I can watch without having the USA in a heat.

That and short track speed skating are both really cool.

We sent the most athletes ever to these Winter Olympics and are posting the worst results in over 20 years. Our best event is the snowboard and we are losing ground there as well. I saw one of the skaters who was expected to do very well say he fell to the pressure. Technologically speaking we are far advanced but I can't help but believe we are getting softer as a nation the farther we get away from the greatest generation. If all things were equal .... our grandparents would kick our grandkids' butts.

I think "if all things were equal" doesn't apply.  Our grandparents were brought up with less opportunity, knowledge, etc, so they made up that with work ethic.  Now, generations are brought up with less hardships, but more opportunity and knowledge.  If all things were equal, our grandparents generation would most certainly outperform the current generation just on that alone, you had to be tougher and more dedicated.  The work ethic of old isn't needed in today's generation because...knowledge is power! derp. or there are more opportunities, or the knowledge of the human body shows how work smart instead of work hard.

I can't compare the two, it's like comparing the bronze age to the industrial age.  It's not that far a reach, look at the differences in how we live from our grandparents to present day, and the same applies across sports.

Other countries have the same conveniences but they seem to be getting better. Think complacency has much to do with it? When you look at the number of people in the US versus countries like Norway it is mind boggling. Norway has 5 million to our 321 million. We are 24th if you go by population to medals and Norway, who is leading the medal count, is at the top behind only Liechtenstein who has about 35,000 people and one medal.   

I know locally there is a huge complaint about commitment from kids in youth sports. It gets hard and they quit so coaches are constantly being encouraged to coddle them. I fear for the future.

OMG ... while I was writing this I get notified the Olympic skiers are backing out of the inaugural team event because they don't think they can win. Wow!! Go team USA!

It could also be that other countries emphasize quality of life and have a much stronger social support system so that their college kids don't have to work crap jobs just to feed themselves while their universities are profiting off of them. Places like germany and finland actually pay their students to go to school, have universal health care and strong worker protections.  No wonder they're doing better.

Coud also be those really arent our sports.  My high school had a swim team and basket ball team but no curling or speed skating team.  I bet that was true at your school too. 

My two counterpoints to Hoodie would be that other countries don't have those sports in their education system either and that it is quite common for many world class athletes to be too advanced to play in
high school

I want to go outside the competition itself and ask about the coverage. This is the first time in quite a while where Bob Costas was not heading up the team. I know a number of you don't care for the commentary outside of the lines but I find that a compelling part of sports. This is especially true with something like the Olympics where I am just hearing of many of the athletes. To me, there are two men that I feel excel at painting the picture. They are, in no order, Bob Costas and Bryant Gumbel. I don't feel like I have been getting the quality of commentary that I really expect at this point.

Those countries also have a 65% federal income tax rate.   Bottom line is, that stuff you mentioned ain't free.  Somebody's gotta pay for it.  If you have a job, that somebody is you

We were tops in the last Winter Olympics and currently have less than half the medals of the leader. 29 -12 actually.  We didn't succeed in previous Olympics because we play the sports in school. Oddly ... several of our speed skaters are from Ocala, Fl. That's just south of Gainesville for those of you out of state and is more widely know for training race horses.

One thing I found interesting is the guided tracks they use on the ski jumps. Apparently they have a refrigerated system with ice in the tracks so you can still train in the summer months. Snow is not required.

I always like the stories as well. This Olympics has a different feel but part of that is not having the USA in many of the event finals.

Seems like you aren't the only one to miss Bob.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/winter-olympics/opinion-why-we-miss-bob-costas-at-the-winter-olympics/ar-BBJlVCR?li=BBxU6kX

65% tax rate, universal health care, not having to pay for college or student loans, subsidized public transport, subsidized day care and employment assistance, a decent living wage guarantee, a heck of alot more time off during the year, way less violence in general, not having a gigantic moron asshole as president and a good pension .. that's a fairly decent tradeoff

When are you moving there?

I'd rather bring it here. Just cause you see a hot chick in a ferrari doesn't mean you leave your wife for it .. get your wife a ferrari instead ! .. Shesh.. love the one you're with.

Why are those items such a bad thing?

They aren't but it isn't as rosy as people like to paint it. If it were people would flock there and leave the USA.

I swear we just had someone from Canada complain that their gall bladder surgery is scheduled in 10 months. 10 freaking months! My wife had hers removed a couple of years ago and it only took a week or so to get it scheduled. I can't imagine her going through that pain for 10 weeks let alone 10 months.

Americans' idea of a health care horror story is when someone in another country had to wait several months to get elective surgery.
Everyone else's idea of a health care horror story is when some American has choose between keeping their house or paying for their cancer treatment.

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I don't know that I buy the whole lazy Americans of today explanation for the poor performance at this year's Olympics.  Michael Phelps isn't part of the Greatest Generation, and he rewrote the record books.  Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles aren't part of the Greatest Generation.  Neither are Misty May-Treanor or Kerri Walsh Jennings.

If you look at the records, it's pretty clear that the Americans of today would absolutely smash the Americans of 70 years ago.  They would make them look like bums off the street.  So I hesitate to dismiss all the incredible hard work today's athletes put in.

I bet that's pretty much true for every school in the world. And I wouldn't be surprised if the "pretty much" can be strikken from the previous sentence.

The mix of sports of schools is, although not uniquely American, close to it. To the best of my knowledge there are a few countries that have some tie-in, but very limited compared to the US.

The closest you can get is probably the "Sports Schools" that exist in many other countries that focus on sports. These aren't ordinary schools and "normal" kids don't go there. And the teams still aren't tied to the schools.

Other countries also have sports academies generally structured around the local soccer club.
I know the soccer club i grew up around (FC Porto) not only had youth soccer academies but also basketball, swimming, roller hockey, track and field, billiards, team handball, volleyball, boxing and a bunch of others for both boys and girls. I was on the team handball team as a kid. The main sports complex had much more than just a soccer stadium.

It's just structured differently. The closest american comparison would be the publicly owned green bay packers .. if they had and supported a bunch of other teams like basketball or the packers hockey team.

No doubt the rest of the world is heads and shoulders above us in soccer. Unless we can make our professional teams support and train our youth we will never equal them as our system favors people with money which then allows the parents to hinder any real dynamic growth. We sacrifice development over winning at young ages.

Sounds an awful lot like a rationalization rather than a look at any real empirical data here. The US started off rather slow in the medal counts, but they've picked it up lately. I haven't really looked at the numbers compared to other Winter Olympics, but I'd say now we are pretty much right where we always are. The US has NEVER dominated the Winter Olympics at least not the way they have the Summer Olympics.

We just had our best showing ever in cross-country skiing and men's curling.
The Kids Are All Right.

Don't want to sound oblivious but do anybody really cares about the Winter Olympics anymore ???

We have picked it up lately but are still having people finish much lower than expectations.

They have not dominated in winter like summer but they took 1st in medal counts after Russia was eliminated in 2014 and finished in first in 2010 medal count. We went the most people in history to this Winter and have not met expectations.


Team USA Got Far Fewer Medals Than Expected at the Winter Olympics, According to Leaked Report

http://time.com/5172495/team-usa-olympic-medals-expectations/

Do you think this may change after the USA didn't make the medal round this year, of the NHL will continue to bury their head in the sand and forbid players competing? Not a good look IMO.

I know that they have been good in beating both Sweden & Canada, but seriously who thought Germany could be competing in the gold medal match against the Russians?

I’m kinda interested.  I have always enjoyed the Olympics.

It figures that the first women's curling that I have had a chance to see this Olympics was between Japan and Korea.  There was no hotness to be found.   >:(

One poor Olympics doesn't necessarily signal a decline in the US athletic training program though. If you look at medal counts over the course of the winter Olympics, it's Norway that leads all with the US in second. The reason the US has done better lately is the introduction of a couple new events like snowboarding which the US still dominated this year. I don't really think there was much different about this Winter Olympics other than the fact that a couple of Americans that were expected to do well choked big time. I don't think that's a reflection on the team as a whole. There were just a lot of 4th, 5th and 6th place finishes that could have easily been medals if things fell just a little bit different.

Hey now, Oriental girls are very submissive.   ;D ;D ;D

Asian girls, oriental is a rug.