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Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

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Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

Quote of the olympics:

"That's a massive 11 inches" by the lady doing to the USA/CCCP women's curling match.
 
Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

We do fine in the summer shooting events. I say the fact that we never fought a decent war with the Canadians after that dustup in 1812 that involved skiing back and forth across a frozen Lake Champlain, like all the Scandanavian countries did.
 
Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

Biddco said:
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This is either really sad or hilarious based on how much of a masochist you are.
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She's French. It's hilarious.

EDIT: Also, I'll admit I would have turned the Russia/Slovakia game off at the start of OT last night if there wasn't the possibility of a shootout. I think the NHL has it right. If you're playing for points, just have a shootout and be done with it. If you're playing to advance in a playoff, then play it out.
 
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Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

bronconick said:
We do fine in the summer shooting events. I say the fact that we never fought a decent war with the Canadians after that dustup in 1812 that involved skiing back and forth across a frozen Lake Champlain, like all the Scandanavian countries did.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/shooting/news/story?id=1864883

Cross firing isn't doing fine. Not once, not never. Same with firing too many shots in a position, as Anti did that year, costing him gold.
 
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Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

hockeyplayer1015 said:
Not so much with biathlon. Unfortunately, shooting in the US is looked down upon (in many areas), mainly by the Mothers of America, as being too dangerous at young ages. So instead of properly training the youth to have a great respect for firearms, we basically tell them that they are dangerous and to never use them. That, and the stringent testing for lead contamination has shut down many indoor ranges, causing shooting programs to fold. This, along with cross country skiing not being real popular (not a ton of organized areas with a trail, really), means not many people can be prospective biathlon athletes.

Luckilly, I was brought up in a family that hunts, or has a family background in hunting, and was taught at a young age to shoot. This has helped me become a major supporter of shooting, and has sparked my interest/involvement in competitive precision shooting, where I shoot on an NCAA team. Now if I can become a solid cross country skiier... look out 2018.;)
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I've been shooting guns since I was fairly young too, I guess that goes along with growing up on a farm. I've just never been accurate! :p
 
Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

hockeyplayer1015 said:
Not so much with biathlon. Unfortunately, shooting in the US is looked down upon (in many areas), mainly by the Mothers of America, as being too dangerous at young ages. So instead of properly training the youth to have a great respect for firearms, we basically tell them that they are dangerous and to never use them. That, and the stringent testing for lead contamination has shut down many indoor ranges, causing shooting programs to fold. This, along with cross country skiing not being real popular (not a ton of organized areas with a trail, really), means not many people can be prospective biathlon athletes.
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Gun culture, along with safety and appropriate use, is huge in these parts (Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland). There are 3 ranges within a 10 minute drive of where I work. Skiing... not so much.

OTOH, all through the northeast skiing is ubiquitous and even cross-country is huge, but guns and hunting have unfortunate Deliverance associations. Part of that is just urbanization -- the only people with guns in the cities are drug dealers. Part of it is political-cultural -- you can't infer an NRA member's political affiliation in the south, but you sure can in the north.

You need an intersection of the two cultures, and for whatever reason (wealth, geography, education, ethnic cultural roots, pure historical accident) they're practically an inverse relation in the US. In Northern Europe, OTOH, even though the level of gun ownership is lower than the US (something you can say about every country except Switzerland and Israel -- in other words, every country without an effective citizen militia), biathlon isn't some sort of bizarre cult activity.

I'm surprised the Swiss and Austrians don't rival the Scandanavians. They must just not have enough "flat."

VERY cool sport, though. Interesting that the real skill isn't the shooting -- at that level, they're all amazing and can nail every target every time -- but reducing your heartrate off the sprints so you don't shake. It's basically a biofeedback event.
 
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Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

Kepler said:
Gun culture, along with safety and appropriate use, is huge in these parts (Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland). Skiing... not so much.

You need an intersection of the two cultures, and for whatever reason (wealth, geography, education, ethnic cultural roots, pure historical accident) they're practically an inverse relation in the US. In Northern Europe, OTOH, even though the level of gun ownership is lower than the US (something you can say about every country except Switzerland and Israel -- in other words, every country without an effective citizen militia), biathlon isn't some sort of bizarre cult activity.

I'm surprised the Swiss and Austrians don't rival the Scandanavians. They must just not have enough "flat."
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It seems like there should be some areas where this intersection occurs in the US. Places like Michigan-Wisconsin-Minnesota and even North Dakota and Montana seem like good candidates. Maybe the cross-country skiing side of it isn't there. Actually, my guess is that the group of people in the upper midwest that owns guns is the same group that has snowmobiles, ice shacks and ATV's, not cross country skis. While the group in the upper midwest that cross-country skis isn't very high on gun ownership.
 
Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

US women's curling gets another chance to show our Skip's lack of shotmaking ability!

even up into the 10th.
 
Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

WeWantMore said:
I agree with that to a point I guess. Why do we suck (comparatively) at ski jumping and biathlon then?
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Liability. Dartmouth used to produce U.S. ski jumpers regularly. Then the college tore down the ski jump when the insurance company refused to cover it any longer (probably because drunken frat boys were going down it on lunch trays).

You can still see where it used to be, though.
 
Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

bigblue_dl said:
It seems like there should be some areas where this intersection occurs in the US. Places like Michigan-Wisconsin-Minnesota and even North Dakota and Montana seem like good candidates. Maybe the cross-country skiing side of it isn't there. Actually, my guess is that the group of people in the upper midwest that owns guns is the same group that has snowmobiles, ice shacks and ATV's, not cross country skis. While the group in the upper midwest that cross-country skis isn't very high on gun ownership.
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Likely scenario, as the two hobbies aren't real close in nature.

Had I known about the fact National Sports Academy (Prep school in Lake Placid) had a biathlon program around my sophmore year of HS, I likely would have gone to NSA to begin biathlon, as I would have had a head start in competitive shooting in HS. I can't help but think what could have been...
 
Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

bigblue_dl said:
It seems like there should be some areas where this intersection occurs in the US. Places like Michigan-Wisconsin-Minnesota and even North Dakota and Montana seem like good candidates. Maybe the cross-country skiing side of it isn't there. Actually, my guess is that the group of people in the upper midwest that owns guns is the same group that has snowmobiles, ice shacks and ATV's, not cross country skis. While the group in the upper midwest that cross-country skis isn't very high on gun ownership.
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I would think the intersection is probably the same as midwestern/western hockey country: Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado. You need a strong hunting culture plus cross-country, and you also need money (Olympians are as expensive to produce as race horses). It's mostly a case of "pick any two."

The Canucks aren't any good either, and that's an entire nation of ice fishermen. I don't really think of them as hunters, though. If there was a ski-and-harpoon event, the Inuit would clean up.

Maybe's it's just the reason there are very few decent European baseball players. It's just not part of the fabric, "Red Dawn" to the contrary. :p
 
Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.

WAIT, are you telling me that a team from the US won a curling match?
 
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