Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics!!

[spottedcatfish]

The Winter Olympics are upon us!! I'm really looking forward to the figure skating and speed skating.

Are you looking forward to a particular event or athlete?

What events are you most looking forward to during the Winter Olympics??

[Mermaid Adriel]

just now I'm watching snowboarding xD but I'd like to see ice skating :)

[Echidna]

Ice Skating. Nothing else.

I always watch olympic iceskaters with awe, because I used to do some figure skating myself and know just how incredibly difficult it is.

Summer Games, I'm only interested in Diving (it's called more appropriately "tower jumping" here), and Synchro Swimming.
Sometimes, I watch normal swimming too, but it's too unartistic to be appealing :jester:

[mermaidtigris]

Definitely Figure skating! I am a figure skater and would love to try ice dancing. Meryl Davis and Charlie White for the gold! :)

[MermanZen]

Even though I'm a Florida Boy I love the figure skating even though I've never got on the ice before

[SeaGlass Siren]

I'm boycotting it.

[AniaR]

I'm boycotting it as well.

[Mary Marine]

Alright, socio-political rant ahead! :soap box:

For how much money Russia spent on the Olympics, $50 Billion, I sure wonder where it all went because it certainly wasn't construction. I assume most of it was spent on bribing the Olympic committee to hold it in Russia instead of the runner up, Austria, which already had, you know, an infrastructure and SNOW. Why Sochi? They could have had it anywhere else in the country, like somewhere with buildings...and snow.

Still, I'm kind of glad the Olympics are in Sochi because the world's eyes are upon Russia, specifically their government. The Russian people are cool, but Putin seems to be trying very hard to create the next great Soviet Union without calling it the Soviet Union (just look at what's going on in Ukraine right now). From what I hear his own people don't like him, his election sounded like a farce. So yeah, the more countries watching, scrutinizing Putin, and wearing rainbow uniforms in protest the better.

End soapbox.

[malinghi]

Yeah, I feel like a hater, but it's pretty hard to get stoked about the Olympics. I don't even have a specific cause- between Russia's corruption, human and civil rights violations, included their treatment of homosexuals, plus the fact that even if it weren't in Russia, the Olympics seem to be all about jingoism and nationalist dick measuring, its pretty easy to find a reason not to watch.

Then again I don't really care about most of those sports and probably wouldn't watch even if there were nothing about the whole thing I objected to, so I'm not sure whether I'm boycotting it or just not watching.

[Mermaid Tula]

The only thing I'm enjoying from the olympics in Sochi this year is all of the issues/problems that have arisen. People trading lightbulbs for door knobs, radiators built up the wall rather than on the floor, water that looks like apple cider and is 'dangerous' to use on the face. The tag Sochiproblems on tumblr is entertaining. I especially like the bathroom with 3 chairs positioned in front of the toilet. Spectator sports are getting pretty stinky now!

[AniaR]

Russia spent more on that weird train thing than Canada spent on the entire Olympics and we managed to have bathroom stalls... lol

[Merman Arion]

Have you watched this??

http://www.upworthy.com/russias-already-won-a-gold-medal-in-the-darkest-part-of-sochis-olympic-games?g=3

So sad :(

[Elle]

Everything here is either very early in the morning or late at night.
TBH I had know idea it had actually started.....I don't watch a lot of tv.

@Arion, that's incredibly sad.

[Anahita]

Huh... I was about to point out that I'm boycotting this Russia BS excuse for an Olympics because everyone is pretending to act like Russia's government behaves like the government of a civilized country, but it's running around doing the same shit to its people that the IR is doing in Iran. Arion's movie already touched on it though (the Iran being in the Second place stand next to Russia).

[Mermaid Jaffa]

We were having a discussion in class, on where Sochi was in Russia... Nobody knew, its not a capital city, not a well known one. Its just some town out in the middle of nowhere. I feel sorry for the visiting athletes, if something were to happen they got no embassy to call on for immediate help. And just up the road over the mountains, is where the fighting is.

[Anahita]

Sochi is kind of historically important... In not a very great way. It's the old capitol of Circassia - Circassia, since I'm guessing no one really knows, was pretty famous during the Ottoman rule for having their women abducted and sold to said Ottomans because they were considered beautiful. It wasn't a very powerful country the way its neighbors Iran, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia were, so it was often subjected to all sorts of abuses like that. I think once the Russians moved in, too, there was a lot of ethnic "cleansing" of the Circassians.

It's important to know these things, because if you don't, you can't fully understand why the region is a mess, and to what level and depth it is. Sochi, I get the feeling, was a political play by Russia, since there's a lot of Circassian rebellion and nationalism going on right now, in the worst way possible.

[Mermaid Cecelia]

......


this is kinda a silly question, and will seem even sillier because y'all are talkin politics and humanities, so...

Since this is happening during Australia's summer, right, what do Australians call these Olympics? Or am I crazy and y'all just call them the Winter Olympics?

[Elle]

......


this is kinda a silly question, and will seem even sillier because y'all are talkin politics and humanities, so...

Since this is happening during Australia's summer, right, what do Australians call these Olympics? Or am I crazy and y'all just call them the Winter Olympics?


We call them the Winter Olympics....and we don't do very well cos we don't have snow here :)
So we have the Olympics and the Winter Olympics.
We also have the Commonwealth Games, which is for countries that are still tied under the U.K.

[Elle]

This was an ad that came out at the beginning of the year (because obviously it's summer here)


http://youtu.be/Uq_Fs_bpSvE

[Sephina]

I'm finding it more fun to follow the reporters and olympians Twitter feeds for the fail that is the Olympic hotels/apartments. I guess that's what Karma does when you take away peoples basic human rights.

[Mermaid Cecelia]

We call them the Winter Olympics....and we don't do very well cos we don't have snow here :)
So we have the Olympics and the Winter Olympics.
We also have the Commonwealth Games, which is for countries that are still tied under the U.K.
Haha thanks so much, I was super curious! And that ad is awesome!!! :D

[Elle]

I just found this.....I felt it needed to be shared



http://youtu.be/-6RID82Ru-k

[Mermaid Cecelia]

I just... Just....




What?

[AniaR]

We have common wealth games too

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[Elle]

We have common wealth games too

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

yeah, they're the same ones :)

[spottedcatfish]

I'm finding it more fun to follow the reporters and olympians Twitter feeds for the fail that is the Olympic hotels/apartments. I guess that's what Karma does when you take away peoples basic human rights.

Me too. it's interesting to see the live coverage of a glimpse of what is going on in Russia and how much work they still had to do for the games. I read article that stated that Russia was planning to do the 2018 games, not the 2014 one!