Vancouver / Whistler 2010 Winter Olympics Thread
First run of the finals done… Shaun killed it with 46-something points. The level of riding is just insane. Four years ago any of the top five runs would have been good for gold. Let’s see if Shaun pulls out his Double McTwist 1260 on his final run.
Shaun White is the god of snowboarding, bloody amazing!
Talk about no pressure.
Every minute was exciting!
A job well done by all!
Shaun absolutely killed his final run with 48-something points. Peetu Piroinen for silver and Scotty Lago for bronze.
That was just amazing to watch! Awesome! 
Shaun White is the god of snowboarding, bloody amazing!
Talk about no pressure.
Every minute was exciting!
A job well done by all!
Shaun is the man!! 
I missed the last couple of runs! I’ll have to watch them online or tonight!. Had the TV going in my office, but had a class of kids. They were wondering why I kept leaving them. Managed to catch a replay of Shaun though. Crazy Man!
I’m watching the replay now on Foxtel, haven’t seen Shaun White out yet. Some of these guys are just goin nuts.
Changing the topic slightly, does anyone have any clue what the go is with all the olympians and their terrible mo’s!?
Totally amazing! so many good runs and then Shaun just steps it up a couple more gears. Too good!
Snowboard: Australia’s Bright wins women’s halfpipe
Feb 18, 2010
Vancouver (AFP) - A proud Torah Bright won Australia’s first gold of the Vancouver Games in women’s halfpipe Thursday, ending long-standing American domination of the sport.
Her score of 45.00 points was enough to beat 2006 champion Hannah Teter’s 42.4 and her US teammate and 2002 gold medallist Kelly Clark, who posted 42.2.
“I was standing up there, and was like ‘there’s nothing I can do now, whatever will be, will be,’” she said as she recalled how she felt going into her second run.
“Standing up top, I saw all my family and friends, they’re having fun. So I thought, I’m going to have fun. I had no idea my parents were here. I thought they were back home in Australia,” added the 23-year-old.
“I love it. I should have known they were going to come,” said Bright, fifth in Turin and currently eighth in the World Cup standings.
“I was over at the house that the family had yesterday. They (parents) weren’t there. But I found out they were hiding in a closet when I was there.
“I’m just so excited that I was able to put down that second run tonight. When I was standing up top I was like ‘well, you know I did fall on that first run but all I can do is put that behind me and just go and do it,’” she said.
Bright, who notched just 5.9 points in her first run of the final and went first in her second run as a result, heaped the pressure on everyone else in the field and none of the riders was able to respond.
In an error-strewn final, almost all of the boarders failed to match their qualifying scores in front of more than 3,500 spectators under the lights on Cypress Mountain.
Bright’s win was only Australia’s second medal of these Games and followed men’s moguls silver for Dale Begg-Smith in freestyle skiing.
It was the country’s first Olympic medal in snowboarding and she got a call from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd soon after.
“He was just really lovely,” she said.
Silver medallist Teter called it an amazing night.
“It was crazy to be part of such a good show,” she said.
Salt Lake City gold medallist Kelly Clark said: “I’m so happy to walk away with this medal (bronze) tonight. I had fallen on my first run and to finish with a medal it’s incredible.”
A strong Chinese contingent, currently dominating the World Cup standings, entered the final with high hopes and Liu Jiayu finished just outside the medals. Her team-mate Sun Zhifeng was seventh.
Highly fancied US snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, silver medallist in Turin, only managed a top score 14.7 after falling both times.
Spain’s Queralt Castellet was injured during training after qualifying for the final and could not compete.
The United States had taken every Olympic gold in men’s and women’s halfpipe since the 1998 Nagano Games until Bright’s win.
US star Shaun White took gold in the men’s competition Wednesday.
Source: vancouver2010.com
Apparently Scotty Lago was asked to leave the Olympics. He was done with competing anyway, but he held a medal underneath his waistline and had a girl kiss it - a photo was taken and posted online. He was then asked to leave, but weither he was KICKED OUT or went out on his own is both being reported.
That’s crazy…
News article here.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia –Scotty Lago was kicked out of the Winter Olympics. Which was not as reported when statements said Lago left on his own.
Do not believe the line given by the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA), or the words of United States Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky, who said: “Scotty left on his own accord. He wasn’t forced to leave.” Lago, the bronze medalist in halfpipe, was forced to leave, two sources close to him told Yahoo! Sports, and did so only to prevent himself from getting kicked out of future Olympics.
Once the photos of Lago surfaced on TMZ.com, the USSA, in an effort to avoid USOC intervention, came to him with two options, according to sources: go home quietly or go through a trial process and risk getting formally ejected. Lago, not wanting to hurt any future Olympic chance, chose to return home instead of staying until the Closing Ceremony.
Here is a Link to the photos that got Lago in trouble.
Lago had issued an apology to the USSA on Friday morning when informed the pictures existed, he apologized for the lapse in judgment and said he was thankful for the opportunity to compete in the Olympics. It was not enough. “He did something pretty foolish, but it’s nothing illegal,” Lago’s father, Michael, said from his New Hampshire home. “No one’s hurt. That’s really all that matters to me.”
Athletes were warned repeatedly heading into the Vancouver Games to conduct themselves well, particularly with cell phone cameras everywhere. Whether Lago broke any formal code of conduct is unknown yet. The USSA’s code has a rule that: “USSA members shall maintain high standards of moral and ethical conduct, which includes self-control and responsible behavior, consideration for the physical and emotional well-being of others, and courtesy and good manners.”
Lago planned on staying in Vancouver to watch hockey and hang out with halfpipe teammates Louie Vito and Greg Bretz. Plus he planned to soak in an Olympic experience with exponentially more meaning thanks to his bronze medal.
Lago had got caught in the moment – and a compromising place. He hadn’t slept for 36 hours, had countless TV appearances, media hits and all of the other Olympic duties calling. He fulfilled them, and honored his friends Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis, both that where headed to be on the USA Men’s Halfpipe team and even medal contenders before injuries left them unable to compete.
Lack of sleep is no excuse, of course. Lago owned up to it. And the USSA could have accepted the apology and let Lago move on. Only it didn’t, the power of the Olympic committee forcing a rash decision.
“This was about one incident,” USSA spokesman Tom Kelly said, and it was an incident that earned Scotty Lago millions of new fans. He was an American kid celebrating the way an American kid should.
Source: examiner.com
Torah’s Gold Medal
TEAM CANADA TAKES GOLD IN THE MEN’S HOCKEY
ancouver (AFP) - Sidney Crosby scored the winner in overtime as Canada won the Olympic title Sunday, beating the United States 3-2 to become the first host nation to capture men’s hockey gold in 30 years.
Crosby got the winning goal 7:40 into the overtime period, taking a pass from Jarome Iginla and sliding a shot under the pads of US goaltender Ryan Miller.
“It doesn’t even feel real. It feels like a dream,” said Crosby as Canada clinched a record eighth Olympic men’s hockey gold.
“Our team worked really hard in regulation time and they got that one by us in the end. But we came out in overtime and this is just an unbelievable feeling.”
Canadian forward Patrick Marleau added: “It is unbelievable. I have never felt something like this before. As far as hockey goes it is the best moment I have ever had.”
Crosby was held off the scoresheet for most of the tournament but he has a knack for scoring dramatic goals. Earlier in the tournament he scored the game winner in a shootout as Canada beat Switzerland 3-2 in the preliminary round.
Jonathan Toews and Corey Perry had earlier given Canada a 2-0 lead before the US fought back, equalising with just 24 seconds left in regulation time.
Roberto Luongo was superb in goal, making 34 stops for Canada who became the first host to win an Olympic final since the US triumphed at Lake Placid in 1980.
Ryan Kesler and Zac Parise scored for the US who suffered their first loss of the tournament after five straight wins.
“It is devastating,” said US defenceman Jack Johnson. “We were one goal shy of a gold medal. It is the biggest game any of us have ever played in. Nothing we did before compares to this. You lose the silver you don’t win it.”
Canada had a 2-1 lead in the third and looked headed for victory but the US clawed back with Parise scoring his dramatic late leveller to send the final into sudden-death overtime.
Over 10 million Canadians were expected to watch the game on TV while, inside the arena, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was joined by Hollywood actors Vince Vaughn, Michael J. Fox and William Shatner as well as singers Michael Buble and Neil Young.
Crowds began forming outside the Canada Hockey Place arena four hours before the highly-anticiplated showdown between the two best teams in the tournament.
The game lived up to its billing as the teams traded chances throughout, and both goalies Luongo and Miller had to be at the top of their games.
It was a battle between Canada’s potent scoring attack and the American defence anchored by Miller.
Forward Toews opened the scoring with just over seven minutes left in the first period beating Miller after picking up a rebound.
Mike Richards stole the puck from defenceman Brian Rafalski at the side of the US goal and took the first shot but it bounced right to Toews. It was the first goal of the tournament for Toews to go with seven assists.
Forward Perry picked up a loose puck and wristed it past Miller in the second period to make it 2-0 for Canada.
Ryan Getzlaf started the play by carrying the puck into the US zone. He tried to backhand a pass to Patrick Marleau but it hit a skate and Perry picked it up and easily beat Miller.
Kessler scored on a tip in just over four minutes later to cut the Canadians lead to one goal. Luongo got a piece of it but not enough as it trickled in to make it 2-1, setting the stage for Parise’s game tieing goal.
Finland beat Slovakia for the bronze on Saturday.
Source: vancouver2010.com
Torah’s Gold Medal
should have been blieler instead of clark…at least the singing would stop. she is so much more fun to watch…and happy even in defeat!
The Olympics is starting all again here in Whistler but still nowhere near as busy, nobody care about the Para-Olympics :(
kinda depressing