February 18th and 19th at the Olympics

Curling pants discussion. Athlete body types. Names for tricks and techniques. Bobsleds. Falls, but getting back up. Just another day at the Olympics.

FEBRUARY 18

Amanda: One of the snowboard commentators on the live feed sounds like an actor from Call the Midwife.

Lisa: Bobsledders have a very different body shape than lugers and skeleton sledders.
I’d wondered why the grooves at the start for luge and skeleton were wider than their sleds. Turns out they are as wide as bobsled tracks.
German sled tipped just at the end.They finished on their side but finished.
You’ve gotta find a replay of the USA vs NOR men’s curling, just to see the Norway pants.
They are AWESOME!

Amanda: I was reading an article yesterday about life in the Olympic Village one of the interviewed athletes said they like to try and guess the person’s sport by their body type.

Lisa: You could definitely do that.

Amanda: Checking it out now!
No, it didn’t load. Pook.
Bah. Lame.
I’ll find it on replay later.

Lisa: I tried googling to get a picture of them. I could only find two bad views on instagram.

Amanda: That’s okay. I will find a way.
Watching the women’s snowboard big air quals, so I have a good idea of where I’ll be and what I’ll see on Friday.
Looks like I’ll have a good view. This is going to be fun!
Half pipe skiing just isn’t as exciting as snowboarding.

Lisa: Johnny Weir – not wearing a sweater tonight.
Woohoo!

Amanda: Yeah, we just tuned in and wow.

Lisa: To be fair, it’s kind of what an ice skating outfit would be if it didn’t have to be skin tight.

Amanda: It’s true. And you should be able to dress true to yourself. As outrageous as that may be.
I hope these arm straps stay up!
Also, he looks like Benedict Cumberbatch.

Lisa: Brett’s not sure about the term “twizzle.”

Amanda: It’s not much stranger than the names for the snowboard tricks.

Lisa: And in figure skating there’s sow cows and lutzes.
There exist Olympic Oreos. But our grocery store didn’t have any so Brett bought regular ones. We’re going to eat this bag so we can justify going to a different store looking for Olympic ones again.

Amanda: Which I think is spelled salchow. I know in snowboarding, the person who creates the trick can name it, which explains some of the silly names. Boarders are no necessarily the most serious of people. And sometimes high. Maybe it’s similar in ice dancing or skating? You do it, you name it or it’s named after you?
I would support looking even before finish the first bag. Also, s’more Oreos are best when frozen. In case you need to know.

Lisa: They had to develop rules for naming gene mutations because the geneticists studying them in fruit flies kept using weird names geneticists talking to human patients couldn’t use for the same mutations in humans and keep a straight face.

Amanda: Yes, salchow was invented by Ulrich Salchow in 1990.
Ha!
An axel is named after Axel Paulsen who created it in 1882.

Lisa: Well there you go.

Amanda: I’ve been to Gangnam. It’s where I stayed with my parents. I didn’t see all the craziness, but I was there.
Also, based on Wikipedia, Lipinski basically disappeared between 2000-2013.

Lisa: Based on Wikipedia I’ve been disappeared since 1978!

Amanda: Ha! To be fair, you’ve never been a nationally public figure.

Lisa: Not that Wikipedia knows about anyway.

Amanda: Or that I know…

Lisa: Me either.

Amanda: Oh well.

Lisa: I like it better that way.

Amanda: Less pressure. More privacy.
Malcolm does not appreciate the hockey whistles and has climbed on my lap for comfort. Time to find another event.

Lisa: I’ve either got hockey or local news here right now for another 20 minutes.

Amanda: He actually scurried out from under the dining room table when I came back in the room and I knew he needed me, so I sat down. I had been putting away laundry. I’ll finish that eventually.

Lisa: It’s so cute when our littles need us.

Amanda: We’ve got some curling on the live feed. Very beginning of the USA v CAN game.
Yes it is.

Lisa: You’re right. Ski half-pipe just isn’t the same. They don’t catch the same air. I wonder why that is.

Amanda: Good question.

FEBRUARY 19

Lisa: A bell lap on a 1.5 lap race is a bit weird. Gun, bell, done.
Two-man bobsled. You want to ask “How often can that happen?!” And the answer would be that the exact same thing happened 20 years ago. Amazing!
Just saw a Canadian skeleton helmet with a moose on it.
This was the first year for ski half-pipe.

Amanda: I thought it was Sochi? Oh well.
500m? That is a short race.
Ha! What was the thing that happened?
Naturally.

Lisa: Tie for gold between Germany and Canada.
Iddo is coloring an Olympic page so that when she goes there she can hold a sign. I’ll send you a picture of it and you can hold it up on your phone for her.

Amanda: Cool!
If you email it to me, I can print out and take photos with it. I’m not bringing my nice camera, just my phone.

Lisa: She’s agreeable to this plan.

Amanda: Excellent!

Lisa: We’ll send a photo of Shimri doing her Olympic trick so she can “do” her trick at the Olympics.

Amanda: I like it!It = the plan

Lisa: Canada driver said he crossed the line and saw that he was in first and was excited and then saw the German team jumping up and down and thought, “Wow, they’re really excited for us.”

Amanda: Ha!

Amanda: The Korean ice dancing pair’s costumes are based on traditional dress and they are lovely.
“Already the beat is important for this music.”
Um, when is it not?

Lisa: Brilliant!
Shimri keeps pointing out excitedly that the half-pipe skiers aren’t falling down.

Amanda: For me, that would be all I ask. Since I’ve never skied in my life.

Lisa: I skied in 6th grade several times. I don’t have a future in it.
I believe half-pipe skiing was an exhibition sport in Sochi.

Amanda: Ah. Ok.

Lisa: The French pair sitting on the couch being very French after Virtue and Moir skate.

Amanda: I had to leave well before the medal contenders skated. But I just got notified that Virtue/Moir won! I’ll try to watch the replay.

Lisa: I liked the brother/sister team from the US. But I’m also partial to Cold Play’s music.

Amanda: I’ll watch their routine too.
This [postponing of the big air competition to a day earlier] is not awesome.

Lisa: Nope. That’s not.
I saw they were changing some of the alpine skiing events due to weather concerns too.

Amanda: Me too. It’s this exact reason I downloaded the app, so I would get notified of changes. I was hoping I wouldn’t. 😔

Lisa: Postponed might be the wrong word for moving it forward a day.
“Rag dolling” in the half pipe is just as bad to watch as it sounds.

Amanda: Yeahhh.
That definitely doesn’t sound good.

Lisa: Watch the “Zamboni” of the half pipe. 8 guys in a backwards flying V going down on the long end of their snowboards to smooth out the bottom of the pipe. Kind of cool looking actually.

Amanda: I’ve seen that!

Lisa: Of course having to do it because a guy rag dolled against the edge of the pipe down into it, not so good.

Amanda: Watching the replay of the last five skaters of the ice dancing. They are currently warming up.
True.

Lisa: I need to go look up the Korean ice dancers you mentioned.
I love the women in the red coats at the tiger ceremonies who shoo the athletes all onto the top tier for the final photo.

Amanda: They’re pretty.

Lisa: Twenty-seven nations have won medals at these Olympics, more than any other winter Olympics.

Amanda: Cool!

Lisa: The Korean ice dancers were beautiful!

Amanda: Quite!
Virtue and Moir were incredible!
My contact for the Olympics is going to try to get us to ski cross. Fingers crossed (heh) that she can get tickets, refund her old ones, and get our driver to change our time!

Lisa: Definitely crossing fingers.
We’re going to email you some photos in the morning for you to take to the Olympics for us.

Amanda: Sounds good!