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Posts posted by Faster

  1. 1 hour ago, intoronto said:

    It was re-purposed, but it can be returned back into the oval without it costing too much. 

    Unfortunately the Richmond Oval will never be an oval again. It cannot meet ISU requirements now because of the same geological concerns that meant VANOC and Richmond had to spend an extra couple of million to stabilize the foundations between 2005 and 2008 when it opened. 

    As for ski jumping. As far as I've read the plan is to use Whistler for ski jumping and nordic combined and use Canmore for cross country and biathlon. Similar plan is in place for the other FIS events with Nakiska being used for snowboarding and freestyle skiing and alpine being at Lake Louis. As far as I know the IOC and FIS have already said this plan would be acceptable. I also believe that Edmonton is seriously being considered for one of the ice hockey venues.

  2. 17 minutes ago, nykfan845 said:

    Against Morocco's issues, these are minor. Probably why the tide is tilted towards the joint bid.

    I certainly hope you are right, because FIFA needs a stable host without issues in 2026. Plus World Cup games an hour away. I am a lot more hopeful than I was a couple of days ago considering what has shifted in CONCACAF. But we never anticipated Russia/Qatar. I remember the night before a lot of people thinking it would be Spain/Portugal and USA. So....

  3. On 9/26/2017 at 1:07 PM, Nacre said:

    Korea and Japan have both been strangely poor performing tourist destinations for a long, long time. I don't really understand it, but maybe the growth of Chinese tourism will change it.

    Winter sports facilities tend to do a little better than summer facilities. Ski resorts and ice skating rinks have a reasonable chance of earning their keep in operations costs. The bobsledding track is the only thing doomed to be a white elephant.

    It depends on if Korea is serious about being a sliding country or just invested in the sport for the home Olympics. Canada wasn't a sliding country in 1988 and look at Canada now. Lots of people would have said looking at Calgary that it would be a white elephant and in 4 years time there will be three tracks in Asia relatively close together. Enough to make it worth the World Cup trip, just like having Lake Placid, Park City, Calgary and Vancouver make it worth the trip now.

  4. 5 hours ago, ofan said:

    To leave with no medals was pathetic. I stand by my original belief that Rachel Homan is a flake, who performs well domestically but chokes every single damn time on the international stage. The winner take all trials to decide the representatives in curling needs to change IMO.

    The defending World Champion and only women's team to go undefeated (against a stronger field) to win those World Championships is not a choker internationally. She has made the playoffs at ever WC she has been to and only ever lost to the eventual World Champion. 

  5. It is hard to gauge because a lot of peoples opinions are tied to how ones own country did. (Canadians in general view Atlanta very fondly for instance but not Sydney or Athens). But the Olympics were low-key and nice. CBC's coverage wasn't the greatest. They've lost a lot of sports commentator talent due to cut-backs, lay-offs and retirements. So what was left wasn't always the greatest.

    The crushing disappointment of curling is hard to take. Especially since it wasn't like these were surprise low-ranked Canadian teams Homan is the defending World Champion and Koe is a two-time World Champion with 2 Olympic Gold Medalist on his team. It wasn't like the women's teams in 2002, 2006 and 2010 where skips past their prime got hot at the trials. I think Curling Canada put way too mush pressure on the teams and they cracked. Not allowing Homan to bring her natural alternate in Cheryl Kreviazuk (and yes she is related to the singer) and supplanting her natural coach with Rene Sonneburg was not a good choice. 

    Add in Alex Harvery. If that guy had been Norwegian or German or Finnish he'd have 4 medals. He's Canadian and walked away with nothing. Also the equipment issues with bobsleigh was a little disappointing. You'd think OTP would have helped fund the team properly.

    Getting so close to 30 medals and coming up short. And I know Canada did really well, but the misses were just so bad. Thankfully so much of the team that won medals are young. There is a lot of potential still across freestyle skiing, short track and snowboarding. 

    Beijing will be an interesting comparison. Hopefully they will tone things down a bit. But China's performance was shockingly bad for them. So we might be in for another Russia but with the brains to not get caught.


  6. 8 hours ago, The Tower Bridge Fox said:


    So now that Eve Muirheads British team are to have a bronze medal match my feeling are that when its this tough any medal is good!!!!!

    Both British teams looked like silver or gold medle material through out the round robin

    kyel smiths British team looked on cours to qualify but and I still can't believe after winning 5 matches they didn't.

    But I can't help feeling especially after seeing Dave muroch on TV today that team GB has wasted experience at this winter games!!!

    If David Murdoch feels a bit miffed that he wasn't able to attempt tp equal his teams  Brilliant silver, and with Canada out possible go for the gold

    I think I would agree with Him.

    this is not to take anything away from kyel smiths team who are clearly medle contenders for the next winter games.

    Do we really have to wait four years? to see more curlling on TV

    I only have to wait about a week.

  7. Still having trouble comparing the relative performances because of how many more events are being contested now compared to Lillehammer in 1994. 34 events have been added and Canada performs well in the new events. 

    As a percentage of Olympic champions Pyeongchang stands third at 9.80% and third for total medals on offer at 8.82%. Obviously there is a lot more medals to come, but even in a most optimistic 12 golds and 30 medals, it only bumps those percentages up into 2nd place behind the performances in Vancouver. With potentially no hockey or curling gold (traditional) the number of gold won is impressive. But still. 

    The biggest improvement I see is that for the first time Canada is producing athletes that win multiple medals across multiple Olympics outside of short track speed skating. It really started with le May Doan. Also another big criticism of Canadian athletes in the past is that they peak too early. In these Olympics you've had a fair number of athletes (Serwa and Leman in the last day and a half, Bloeman etc.) peak at the Olympics and turn those peaks into gold medals. Something that was missing before when Canada had an army of strong freestyle skiers that never got it done at the Olympics. I mean there have been misses there too, but damn it is nice.

  8. On 2/21/2018 at 1:20 PM, Gangwon said:

    What's a realistic medal tally prediction at this point?  10 golds and 25 medals?

    Just from predicted medals left.

    Alex Harvey - 50km Classic

    Men's Curling

    Men's Hockey (I think a medal is in the bag now with a semi-final against Germany)

    Kaitlyn Osmond - Ladies Figure Skating

    Samual Girard - 500m Short Track (would have to get through a very tough quarter-final) (4th place in the fastest 500m in history, also first time since Nagano that a Canadian didn''t medal in that race)

    1000m Short Track - all 3 Canadians are potential medalist (Silver medal in one of the most enjoyable races I've seen in awhile)

    5000m Relay (got a medal, but they should have won, Hamelin cost Canada the gold)

    Men's Big Air - lots of predictions of two medals.

    Vincent d'Haitre - 1000m speed skating (if he's recovered from the ankle injury)

    Ivanie Blondin - mass start

    Not Predicted but a good chance at a medal.

    4-man bobsleigh

    Ladies Ski Cross (3 Canadians were the three top qualifiers) (I guess I could have put this in predicted but Simmerling was injuried and not selected, but 2 medals)