Olympics - Discussion

@albean99 saw this story and it is inspiring. I'm rooting for her and had never heard of her before!

@GuardianAngel I've enjoyed the Olympics much more than I expected to. Hubby agrees with me that COVID has taken a backstage to the incredible feats and skills and personal stories. I am so happy to see Sunisa Lee head off to college - she says it will be freedom compared to being an Olympic athlete, despite being on a gymnastic scholarship. And I applaud Simone Biles for reminding us that overall general health is far more valuable than a gold (or any) medal. Loved that athletes won medals for the first time from the Philippines and Tunisia. I have mixed feelings about so many pro athletes competing for medals - it is their job to be good at what they do.

This is beautiful. Paralympics starts Aug 24th! The CN tower is in Toronto.

The CN Tower and Niagara Falls turned purple last night in support of the #WeThe15 @Paralympics campaign, a new human rights movement representing the world’s 1.2 billion persons with disabilities pic.twitter.com/PnTw7hO6Jj

— Canadian Paralympic Committee (@CDNParalympics) August 20, 2021

https://twitter.com/CDNParalympics

@GuardianAngel That is so cool. Thanks for sharing.

It's Winter Olympics time! Who's watching?

So far I've watched ladies curling, and skating is on right now.

Opening ceremonies are on early tomorrow morning, 6:30 am Eastern. I'm looking forward to that.

We watched a little of the Canadian ladies hockey game with Switzerland and a 5 minute version of the Canadian mixed doubles with Britain. Is that new this time?

@albean99 No. Canadians are the defending champs in mixed double curling.

Sprite wrote:@albean99 No. Canadians are the defending champs in mixed double curling.

Thanks. I heard that watching their match against Switzerland but have no memory of that for some reason. It's pretty interesting and odd all at the same time.

I have the opening ceremonies on right now. Not a fan of all that laser.

I like the mixed relay in the summer games. 4x400

Countries are walking in now, that is always enjoyable.

@GuardianAngel I enjoyed much of the ceremony. Lots of really cool special effects. Not so much all the love and peace propaganda that the Chinese government is pushing. Oh the irony. However, the lighting of the flame??? WTH. I had to replay it half a dozen times. I was watching early this morning after getting off of shift and thought I was nodding off and missing it. Turns out it wasn't much at all. They just stuck one of the torches in the middle of the snowflake and that was it. I was expecting something really cool after all the other stuff and since it was being touted as something spectacular. What a dud.

@Sprite that's how I felt too. Some of the laser at the end with the snowflakes was really cool, so was the part where they were skating and it looked like the snow beneath them was moving with their strides.

Overall, not the best opening ceremonies for me. Keep the politics out of it, it's annoying to hear hypocrisy.

I love all the "Stories of Athletes" CBC shows on our athletes.

We had to rewind to see if we missed lighting the cauldron too, @Sprite. I couldn't figure out where they were hiding it.

I'm happy to see more of the Canadians on our tv this time around but some of them are 5 minute versions. It's during the Olympics that I really miss being able to watch everything, like when we lived in Canada.

Thought the overall opening ceremony was more subdued than in previous years. Didn't care for the Chinese ordering of the March of the Nations - Australia was toward the end! Huh?

And agree with you regarding the lighting of the cauldron - disappointing. Cool fireworks at the end. Music was very good.
Could do without any politics but have to say that President Biden, whom I generally support, started it with the diplomatic boycott.