2022 Winter Olympic games

[Midred]

Any thoughts on why the Olympic committee would award the winter games to somewhere that rarely has any snow?

[richwwtk]

Much the same reason as FIFA giving the WC to Qatar?

[phantom]

1 hour ago, Midred said:

Any thoughts on why the Olympic committee would award the winter games to somewhere that rarely has any snow?

At the 2022 Winter Olympics, No Snow Is No Problem for the I.O.C.

It’s a sad day when the International Olympic Committee cannot even clear one of the lowest bars for choosing the host city for the Winter Games: snow.

Yes, snow — the element that most would say is crucial for holding events that are contested on it.

But the I.O.C. on Friday still went ahead and chose Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Games, even though the mountains in those Olympic plans have “minimal annual snowfall” and the Games would “rely completely on artificial snow,” according to an I.O.C. evaluation report published in June.

The vote over the only other bid, from Almaty, Kazakhstan, was closer than expected, 44-40. But those tough-minded I.O.C. delegates weren’t wooed by Almaty and its picture-perfect setting or its longstanding tradition of winter sports. Or, of course, by its mountains, which Almaty organizers pointedly — and repeatedly — noted were covered by snow that actually fell from the sky.

While the Almaty bid’s slogan was “Keeping It Real,” Beijing’s could have been, “Keeping It Impractical.”

The skiing competitions will be held in two different areas, one 55 miles from the Chinese capital, the other 100 miles away. There is a plan for a high-speed railway that would cut the travel time there to just under an hour, but no mention of the cost of it in a proposal that was supposed to be transparent. The estimated 1,500 people who will lose their homes for the ski jump and the Olympic Village were apparently dismissed as collateral damage.

The most obvious consequence of Friday’s I.O.C. vote — eliminating the annoying hurdle that the Winter Games host actually has natural snow — is that it has created a precedent for holding a Winter Games almost anywhere. Imagine the possibilities.

A St. Tropez Winter Games. (Grenoble is, after all, just 140 miles away by air.) Slogan: Forget Snow, We’ve Got Sand.

Or Phoenix, where the luge track can run right down the side of the Grand Canyon. (It’s only a few hours away.)

Or Dubai, where the organizers have enough cash to fly everyone to the Alps for the skiing events. Then again, I take that back: People are probably skiing there as you read this, albeit inside a giant building. So bring on the Winter Games! Slogan: Keeping It Completely Indoors.

Already, Beijing gave us a glimpse at an Olympics held not as part of the city, but in a far-off corner of the city, devoid of an atmosphere that would reflect the world’s biggest sporting party. In 2008, the Olympic Park was miles from downtown Beijing. Instead, inside high gates, it was held in a massive Olympic Disney World, with brilliant venues and stunning architecture, but without the buzz and joy of the four Olympics I’d covered before.

Even in that manufactured sporting bubble, though, the organizers couldn’t manufacture real fans. Sure, they said, they had sold all of their tickets to the competitions, but — in a city of nearly 17 million residents — where were all the people?

There were so many empty seats that those organizers had to bring in “cheer squads” to fill stadiums and act happy. And that was for the summer sports. What will happen in 2022, when China is faced with trying to fill seats for winter sports, which have almost no history in that country in the first place?

But then, the I.O.C. obviously isn’t aiming for authenticity. Just bring back those cheer squads, Beijing, this time not in the bright yellow shirts they wore in 2008 but in bright yellow ski parkas that will never be worn again.

I’ll give Beijing this: Its 2008 Olympics were a marketing coup for the companies eager to court China’s 1.3 billion residents. Now how about 2022? There’s even more to be made, considering the huge commercial upside.

Yao Ming, the basketball player who was involved in the Olympic bid, saw the potential. At the news conference after Beijing won the bid, he joked that he might start a winter sports company. An associate on the bid team laughed and said she would join him.

It sounds funny, but it’s not.

There are serious problems — again — to having Beijing play host. In 2008, those who projected that bringing the Games there might open up China saw nothing of the sort. Potential protesters were detained, some sentenced to “re-education through labor.” Websites were blocked. A day after the closing ceremony, thick, yellow pollution returned to the city’s sky. Seven years later, the only use for most of the dusty, unloved venues from 2008 was as a lure for another chance at the Games in 2022.

Yet back to Beijing the world will go — somehow, some way.

The I.O.C. didn’t demand that the Chinese fulfill their promises in 2008, and in the interim the country’s human rights record has gotten worse, not better. It’s hard to expect change this time around.

President Xi Jinping of China, in a video statement before Friday’s vote, said, “We will honor all the commitments.” And something made the I.O.C. actually believe that, even though it had heard that pitch before and been burned by it.

Now Beijing’s second Games will test Thomas Bach, the I.O.C. president, in a way he has not been tested before.

Last fall, he announced that he would include an anti-discrimination clause in future contracts with host cities. But will he stand by that rule, in the face of a Chinese government unwilling to bend to outside influence and the corporate sponsors who have begun to drool?

If Beijing does not follow through on its guarantees, what can Bach do? He could always ask another city to jump in.

How about Boston?

It shot down a chance to host the Summer Games this week, but it does have at least one advantage over Beijing: It snows there in winter.

TAKEN FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES IN 2015: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/01/sports/olympics/at-the-2022-winter-olympics-no-snow-is-no-problem-for-the-ioc.html

[Super]

Looking forward to the curling...

[phantom]

Fair play Eve has been around for ages, great opening game in the pairs earlier

[Maltshoveller]

5 hours ago, Super said:

Looking forward to the curling...

Yeah she is stunning

[phantom]

On 02/02/2022 at 14:53, Super said:

Looking forward to the curling...

 

22 hours ago, Maltshoveller said:

Yeah she is stunning

You will both be pleased to hear that she is one of our flag bearers at Fridays opening ceremony 

[maxjak]

I will definitely be up a 6 AM to watch GB V Czech Rep Curling..........as i suffer from insomnia it will put me, hopefully, into a blissful coma?!   Imagine turning up at the sports hall, and someone enquire's  'What kind of racquet have u got there, in that bag mate"...........reply  "It's actually a broom"    Rivals Croquet as the world's dumbest sport, but at least Croquets not in the Olympics....Yet?

[Maltshoveller]

On 03/02/2022 at 18:08, phantom said:

 

You will both be pleased to hear that she is one of our flag bearers at Fridays opening ceremony 

Gutted she was wearing a mask

[phantom]

On 04/02/2022 at 23:04, Maltshoveller said:

Gutted she was wearing a mask

 

[phantom]

On 02/02/2022 at 14:53, Super said:

Looking forward to the curling...

Won 1, lost 2 so far 

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

On 04/02/2022 at 20:31, maxjak said:

I will definitely be up a 6 AM to watch GB V Czech Rep Curling..........as i suffer from insomnia it will put me, hopefully, into a blissful coma?!   Imagine turning up at the sports hall, and someone enquire's  'What kind of racquet have u got there, in that bag mate"...........reply  "It's actually a broom"    Rivals Croquet as the world's dumbest sport, but at least Croquets not in the Olympics....Yet?

It's better than bowls, though.

[Port Said Red]

On 04/02/2022 at 23:04, Maltshoveller said:

Gutted she was wearing a mask

 

3 hours ago, phantom said:

 

I found the summarising of the womens speedskating strangely interesting this morning. 

 

[phantom]

As curling seems to be our only chance of getting anywhere near a medal, the men only need one more victory, but the women looking like they will have to win both of their remaining games 

[TonyTonyTony]

Anyone else think its a joke ROC are present? Russia have been banned, but allowing them to compete as ROC is a copout. They are still doping, and this week found out apparently doping children. Absolute joke

[TMWANG50]

Good to see a healthy return on the £11.1 million investment Team GB put into winter sports for Bejing....

[Port Said Red]

3 hours ago, TomF said:

That wasn't too good from the GB bobsleigh team! 

I heard the commentators saying that it's a problem with the new version of their equipment, at least in the skeleton and luge. It did make we wonder how much difference you can make to a tea tray on runners, that would **** it up? 

[elhombrecito]

8 hours ago, phantom said:

As curling seems to be our only chance of getting anywhere near a medal, the men only need one more victory, but the women looking like they will have to win both of their remaining games 

They only have to finish in the top four, so I'm fairly certain they could win just one and still progress. Though winning both would of course guarantee going through.

Their remaining games are against the teams in 8th and 10th, so I'd say it's looking good for both the men and women.

[PHILINFRANCE]

1 hour ago, elhombrecito said:

They only have to finish in the top four, so I'm fairly certain they could win just one and still progress. Though winning both would of course guarantee going through.

Their remaining games are against the teams in 8th and 10th, so I'd say it's looking good for both the men and women.

But there is also the very important factor of qualifying first in order to ensure they have the hammer in the last end; in both the semifinal and, should they win that, in the final.

[elhombrecito]

1 minute ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

But there is also the very important factor of qualifying first in order to ensure they have the hammer in the last end; in both the semifinal and, should they win that, in the final.

Hammer in the first end surely. The hammer in all subsequent ends depends entirely on the result of the preceding end.

[Red-Robbo]

8 hours ago, TMWANG50 said:

Good to see a healthy return on the £11.1 million investment Team GB put into winter sports for Bejing....

 

That's chicken feed.  Cycling alone gets £35m. 

[Super]

Good to see the Yanks get dumped out of the Ice Hockey.

[Silvio Dante]

19 hours ago, TonyTonyTony said:

Anyone else think its a joke ROC are present? Russia have been banned, but allowing them to compete as ROC is a copout. They are still doping, and this week found out apparently doping children. Absolute joke

This probably sums it up:

 

[PHILINFRANCE]

13 hours ago, elhombrecito said:

Hammer in the first end surely. The hammer in all subsequent ends depends entirely on the result of the preceding end.

My (typo) mistake, and you are, of course, quite correct.

As you say, the hammer is dependent on the previous end, hence the reason teams sometimes fail to score intententionally in order to have the hammer in the following end.

[phantom]

Looking like a problem for the women curlers now, they have to beat ROC and rely on other results going their way

[TonyTonyTony]

44 minutes ago, phantom said:

Looking like a problem for the women curlers now, they have to beat ROC and rely on other results going their way

No chance. The ROC will have doped their curling stones to make them extra curly

[PHILINFRANCE]

23 hours ago, phantom said:

Looking like a problem for the women curlers now, they have to beat ROC and rely on other results going their way

23 hours ago, TonyTonyTony said:

No chance. The ROC will have doped their curling stones to make them extra curly

All's well that ends well.

The girls beat ROC and go through, thanks to 'draw ranking'. 

[phantom]

1 minute ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

All's well that ends well.

The girls beat ROC and go through, thanks to 'draw ranking'. 

 Very fortunate that Sweden beat South Korea

Getting out of the group was the key, now anything can happen

 

The men's semi final starts at noon

[PHILINFRANCE]

I mentioned in an earlier post that we (Team GB Women's Curling) go through on 'draw ranking', but I didn't really know what it meant.

Apparently, 

Before each match in the competition, each team delivers a single stone and the resulting distance from the centre of the target is measured. 

This Last Stone Draw (LSD) determines which team has the choice of delivering the first or second stone in the opening end of the match.

But an average of all these Last Stone Draw shots is taken in round robin competitions and, if teams finish with an identical record, this is used to decide who goes through.

With Great Britain, Japan and Canada all finishing with a record of five wins and four defeats from their nine matches, GB and Japan progressed to the semi-finals as a result of a better draw shot ranking by the finest of margins. 

How interesting.

 

[Port Said Red]

What a shot that was in the 5th end to take 2.