2026 Winter Games

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Mendalla

Mendalla

Happy headbanging ape!!
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They're heeeere. Sports start on Wednesday, opening ceremony is on Friday. As always, there's been controversy in the lead-up from issues getting the venues ready to the involvement of ICE in the US security team. But the sports will become the focus on Wednesday, hopefully. Canada usually does well at Winter Games. The reason is pretty obvious looking outside my window. We get a lot of winter. So here's a thread to discuss the highs and lows of yet another Olympics.

FYI, CBC holds the Canadian rights now so coverage of the games, including live and recorded broadcasts of events, will be available all over their various properties, including the Gem streaming service. Games are in Milan-Cortina (jointly hosted by two communities) in Italy, so there's a 6 hour time difference to keep in mind if you're wanting to watch things live. A link to the 2026 Winter Games section on Gem is below.

gem.cbc.ca

The Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games | CBC Gem

Your Olympic destination is on GEM where you can watch the sports events live, the replays, the highlights, the upcoming competitions and more!
gem.cbc.ca gem.cbc.ca
 
The mascots are a pair of cartoon stoats, a Eurasian carnivorous mammal related to our weasels and skunks (in fact, in appearance, they are basically weasels). They are probably best known as the "ermines" whose fur has trimmed royal robes and other garments for centuries. Which is too bad, because they are cute as all heck. Unless you're a rabbit or other prey animal. Then they are terrifying as all hell.

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And we are off. Watched most of the opening ceremonies yesterday. Found it a bit disjointed given how the parade of athletes was spread across multiple sites (a necessity for this games, though, I suppose). Surely Bocelli could have sung something other than "Nessun Dorma". I've grown rather bored of it. His own "Because We Believe" (co-written with David Foster and Foster's daughter), which he sang for the closing in Torino, would work just as well and isn't overused. Still, his voice is still solid so nice to hear him. Surprised they didn't work Matteo Bocelli, his kid, in as well. He's a real chip off the old block.

And just got a breaking news alert that Canada has its first medal. Valerie Maltais took bronze in 3000m speed skating (I probably couldn't even skate 3km, let along speed skate). Even better, home team favourite Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy took the gold with an Olympic record time. Per Wiki, yes, she is related to famed actress Gina Lollobridgida. Gina was her great-aunt but they apparently never met. She's also the cousin of Italy's Minister of Agriculture so seems to be a well-connected family.
 
Got up at 5:20 this morning to watch the men's downhill. Canadian hope Jack Crawford missed the podium, but he freakin' flew off one jump. I think it was 53m. Speeds were around 150kph. Great downhill.
 
It's that paradoxically wonderful two weeks - where we sit on the couch and endlessly watch high performance athletes do pinnacle career events!
We taped the opening ceremonies - watched last night & really enjoyed it. I liked that athletes were participating from a variety of locations, but have to admit the ff button helped a bit with the length of the parade in, although the enthusiasm is fabulous to see. I love the spectacle of the stadium performances. Being in an Italian family, the 'gestures' sequence had us laughing & nodding - but a few were new!! I thought the speeches were excellent too - impressed that they were not the usual blather but largely focused on values. I liked Kirsty Coventry - new IOC chair. But is she really just a year older than my own daughter? Maybe wikipedia is incorrect LOL.
 
Carolla said:
I liked Kirsty Coventry - new IOC chair. But is she really just a year older than my own daughter? Maybe wikipedia is incorrect LOL.
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Could be. I remember her from when she was competing and was a bit surprised when she got the job given she's relatively young as sports execs go.

I am debating whether I should be going "Hell yes, go for it, Lindsey" or "Are you f-ing crazy?" What am I talking about? US skier Lindsey Vonn is competing at her fifth Olympics (she missed a couple for various reasons, or it would her seventh). She had surgery on one knee two years ago. The other is now in a brace after a torn ACL just nine days ago. She did complete two training runs. At 41 and with a raft of various medals in her long career, she could have backed out without shame but looks like she wants one more kick at the can.

 
I am in awe watching these athletes.
The skill, the determination, the years of practice and competition and their willingness to pt it out there.
All are champions. Some will end up on a podium.

I watched the downhill a bit closer, in part due to @chansen 's educating us on skiing.
I couldn't help but think of Qwerty and how much he loved skiing. Miss that guy.

I spent time at my granddaughter's hockey game, just 5 years old, and i think on how those young girls will have leagues to develop in, professional sports, and a well built structure around them. The women competing now didn't. They came up in a sport that was new for women. Thankful for all the groundwork they laid down.
 
I watched snowboard big air yesterday. I am having trouble finding on GEM what is going on and can be watched, as they have all the future events on there,too. My other problem is that I don’t know the terms. I am not a regular Olympics watcher. I remember watching once skier or snowboarder going downhill over lots of “bumps”. “moguls”?
That was nerve wracking. Maybe I find this again this year.
 
Watching moguls makes my knees hurt.

I can ski spring moguls, hot dog style, to this day. Spring moguls are soft and forgiving. The moguls on TV are not. They are rock hard. They eat me alive.

Our club is a hotbed of mogul skiing. We have very good coaching in this area. It's nothing to see our athletes practicing next to a chairlift just rip a backflip in the middle of a moguls run. I can't comprehend doing that.
 
chansen said:
Watching moguls makes my knees hurt.

I can ski spring moguls, hot dog style, to this day. Spring moguls are soft and forgiving. The moguls on TV are not. They are rock hard. They eat me alive.

Our club is a hotbed of mogul skiing. We have very good coaching in this area. It's nothing to see our athletes practicing next to a chairlift just rip a backflip in the middle of a moguls run. I can't comprehend doing that.
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Like a lot of matter ... difficult to take thus I remain part of the unreal ... fringe organizers? There a fuzzy Loci ...
 
just watched the women’s downhill, including the medal presentation. Found that a bit creepy. Do the male athletes get hugged and kissed by those old fellows? You could clearly see that the women were not fond of it.
 
In Canadian Olympic news, the Canadian women's hockey team shut out Switzerland 4-0 in their Olympic debut. Tomorrow they play Czechia. Then on Tuesday comes the big one, the first encounter between Canada and the US, who are the dominant teams in women's hockey. Thursday, the game against Finland that was postponed due to the norovirus outbreak goes.

The men's team arrived in Milan today to begin practices before they play the Czechs on Thursday in their debut. NHL players are back in the men's tournament after a stretch without their presence. With a good number of NHL players coming from outside North America, we and the Americans are not the only ones benefiting from this but it will be most evident in those two teams.
 
Mendalla said:
Damn. Vonn crashed and had to be airlifted. Her teammate Breezy Johnson landed the gold but the probable end of Vonn's career likely makes that a bittersweet victory for the team.

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She wasn’t the only one airlifted out.
Is it really worth it? ACL s are not unimportant parts of the body, especially when going down the hill with 100+kmh.
Don’t they think about life after the career?
 
Mrs.Anteater said:
Don’t they think about life after the career?
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I think a lot of it is motivation. If someone is one of those people for whom competing, for whom being the fastest, highest, strongest is the main motivation, not sure they would think about life after career that way. They would be looking for how to keep competing, maybe get into coaching so they can win by proxy or maybe get into business and be highly driven and competitive there. So an injury, even a career-ender, is an obstacle in the road, not the end of it. That said, I have heard that athletes like that can end up struggling after their athletic career ends because they can't find that competitive edge in another way.
 
What a thorn in the (back) side ... that excessive drive towards wrecking yourself ... best be com Eire ... a quiet soul? With 2 Ayes above the horizon ... get the image? Mud skipper ...
 
I have been enjoying watching the aerial snowboarding stuff. I cannot imagine being perched on the edge of a damn-near vertical slope and proposing to propel myself down it and into the air...
 
I used to imagine trying it. Not the getting air part but the snowboarding. I knew people who snowboarded, skateboarded, surfed, etc so I always felt left out. It was a recipe for instant injury though - not something I was ever built for, for a second. I’d be twisted up on the ground as soon as I started. At least I knew that much. Going sideways downhill, feet locked in - no way. I did try skiing, beginner runs, the bunny-hill. I couldn’t get past “snowploughing”. It was my natural state. My friend’s mom volunteered for the disabled ski association, but my memories of the last ski trip I did, many years ago, with my ‘special’ pass, aren’t great.

I’m looking forward to the sit-skiing for the Paralympics. I want to try that! It’s on my bucket list. It’s expensive though, I think. To rent the sit skis and get lessons.

Abled people can try it - to be inclusive and so that friends can join. Sounds like way more fun for me. Might still be hard on my back at my age, but I’d try it.

@chansen have you tried it?
 
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