Olympics

adamg

Active VIP Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2011
Messages
3,441
Reaction score
4,644
Location
S'toon,SK
Thought #1: Ski long jumping should not be an Olympic sport.
Thought #2: It's funny watching the curlers throw the rock, then jump and sweep it themselves.
 

TylerG

Super Mod Geek
Administrator
Moderator
Joined
Nov 7, 2006
Messages
30,265
Reaction score
27,376
Location
Parkland County
Thought #1: Ski long jumping should not be an Olympic sport.
Thought #2: It's funny watching the curlers throw the rock, then jump and sweep it themselves.
Watching the mixed doubles curling were you?
 

Cdnfireman

Active VIP Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2012
Messages
2,726
Reaction score
9,527
Location
Alberta
I support our athletes and wish them the best. However, I can’t imagine a bigger waste of money than building a new set of venues every time. There should be one place in the world set up for each of summer and winter sports. Use the huge amounts of money saved to directly support the athletes.
 

eclipse1966

Active VIP Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
4,599
Reaction score
7,824
Location
Armstrong BC
I support our athletes and wish them the best. However, I can’t imagine a bigger waste of money than building a new set of venues every time. There should be one place in the world set up for each of summer and winter sports. Use the huge amounts of money saved to directly support the athletes.

Greece has been saying this for years to bring them back the summer olympics home especially since they had all the venues built. Unfortunately the boys club doesnt want it as it would eliminate their cushy positions.
 

snopro

Active VIP Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2009
Messages
101,137
Reaction score
89,290
Location
Milo,Alberta
I know the Olympics are expensive however there is a lot of things to take into consideration by moving the venue's around the world:

The venue's. By building these venues the host country now has a huge training advantage for future Olympics geographically and in money savings. Imagine sending your athletes to China per say to train for winter events because that is where the permanent venue choice is?

Future Olympians. How many young kids watch the Olympics in their home country and decide that is what they want to do. This gives them the opportunity to train at home where as because of sheer dollars to enter a sport and train out of country a lot of parents will be deterred by the costs.

TV coverage. Everyone should have the opportunity to watch the Olympics off and on in real time. How many people are watching these Korean Olympics in real time? A very low percentage I can guarantee you. I'm not getting up at 3 am to watch hockey or curling I can tell you that.

A chance to see all the stories about host country culture. Who isn't interested in seeing all the Korean stories about the north and the south? And the story a few days ago on CBC about the reporter visit to the DMZ was very cool. I learned a lot about this division between the countries that I never knew?

Just a few reasons and I'm sure there are more.
 

Cdnfireman

Active VIP Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2012
Messages
2,726
Reaction score
9,527
Location
Alberta
I know the Olympics are expensive however there is a lot of things to take into consideration by moving the venue's around the world:

The venue's. By building these venues the host country now has a huge training advantage for future Olympics geographically and in money savings. Imagine sending your athletes to China per say to train for winter events because that is where the permanent venue choice is?

Future Olympians. How many young kids watch the Olympics in their home country and decide that is what they want to do. This gives them the opportunity to train at home where as because of sheer dollars to enter a sport and train out of country a lot of parents will be deterred by the costs.

TV coverage. Everyone should have the opportunity to watch the Olympics off and on in real time. How many people are watching these Korean Olympics in real time? A very low percentage I can guarantee you. I'm not getting up at 3 am to watch hockey or curling I can tell you that.

A chance to see all the stories about host country culture. Who isn't interested in seeing all the Korean stories about the north and the south? And the story a few days ago on CBC about the reporter visit to the DMZ was very cool. I learned a lot about this division between the countries that I never knew?

Just a few reasons and I'm sure there are more.

Most of these reasons would be offset by the saving of several billion dollars a year spent on building new venues. Each country could get a stipend per athlete and that money would offset travel and training costs. And if you’re the kind of person that enjoys learning about other cultures, you don’t need the olympics for that. Travel or fire up the Internet.
 

niner

Active VIP Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
Messages
7,992
Reaction score
56,992
Location
lacombe
.......
 

Attachments

  • 187C6D49-2895-4985-BD5C-9446A8D904FB.jpg
    187C6D49-2895-4985-BD5C-9446A8D904FB.jpg
    63.3 KB · Views: 208

Caper11

Active VIP Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
Messages
9,483
Reaction score
18,413
Location
Edson,Alberta
I dont think it matters how much money it costs, its the bidding city’s business, not ours. If they cannot afford it don’t bid.

If I understand the history properly, wasn’t it the Calgary games that set the bar for the opening ceremony venue? And now we have a olympic training center, two of them actually.

I think the Olympics is the greatest competition there is! No big money contracts, just pure heart. Look what happened to North and South Korea. They put their conflict aside and became One! Thats a huge deal IMO.

Another example is Team Canada’s Mark McMorris. He had a tragic accident in whistler last spring, he recovered, trained hard and won a metal yesterday.

Go Team
 
Last edited:

eclipse1966

Active VIP Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
4,599
Reaction score
7,824
Location
Armstrong BC
100% agree with you! When Vancouver hosted the Olympics there was a lot of people complaining about it being a waste of money. Granted it costs a lot of money but I have no issues with it as this is the only thing that brings humanity together in a peaceful way to compete without killing one another. After all you don't see people complaining about money spent on bombs, missiles, fighter jets etc etc.

I dont think it matters how much money it costs, its the bidding city’s business, not ours. If they cannot afford it don’t bid.

If I understand the history properly, wasn’t it the Calgary games that set the bar for the opening ceremony venue? And now we have a olympic training center, two of them actually.

I think the Olympics is the greatest competition there is! No big money contracts, just pure heart. Look what happened to North and South Korea. They put their conflict aside and became One! Thats a huge deal IMO.

Another example is Team Canada’s Mark McMorris. He had a tragic accident in whistler last spring, he recovered, trained hard and won a metal yesterday.

Go Team
 

gunner3006

Active VIP Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2014
Messages
11,835
Reaction score
10,091
Location
grande prairie
I was gonna say something on here last night but then I would have to explain why I was watching skate dancing. Cheers to wardrobe malfunctions. Canada is looking real good though.
 

LUCKY 7

Active VIP Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2009
Messages
5,763
Reaction score
9,032
Location
Sparwood
my wifey never said anything about the malfunction to me after watching figure skating. that's strange
 
Top Bottom