[GDT] February 18 General Thread

[formulate]

Silver for the Women's short track relay team!

Eerily similar to 2010 where the Koreans were DQd bumping Canada up into silver, this time around it was China penalized, moving the Canadians up a peg. Korea takes the gold and Italy the bronze.

Nice way to end a very tough Olympic games for Marianne St-Gelais, and a pretty bittersweet day for the short track team as a whole

[Kelekin]

Good job on the silver I slept in and regret reading the first three pages of complaining...

Excited for bobsleigh and ski halfpipe!

P.S. - SBX didn't used to have six riders, it used to be four and was much less ridiculous. I don't know why they thought six was a good idea on this course.

[19Yzerman19]

Ski pipe qualis are on and Calgary's own Noah Bowman put down a surprise 80.40. Because of how snowy it's been the pipe is quite slow, so that might be enough to put him in finals.

[psyang]

Great to hear. My wife and daughter rode the lift up with Noah at COP during the world cup there this year. We know nothing of ski pipe, but have been cheering for him ever since.

[19Yzerman19]

J-Bone just sent it, 91.40. First in qualis so far, and in finals for sure. That's two Canadians who have a good shot at making it in so far, with Mike Riddle still to go. If all goes well, we should have three. Too early to be sure though.

[19Yzerman19]

Riddle with 82.2, which again is hopefully good enough to get him through to finals. Should be.

[Kelekin]

This is getting brutal.

[Kelekin]

Women's Bobsleigh Run 1 has begun. Canada 1 leads off, with a track record.

[OutOfTheCube]

Man these Olympics have been bad after the first couple days. Silver is only fun when another Canadian won the gold (those moguls events).

And come on Hamelin, stay on your feet.

[FFR]

The American's run was crazy. I know nothing about bobsled (but love watching it) but it certainly looked like a much bumpier ride all the way down. Must have had crazy speed!

[Kelekin]

Yeah, I've very rarely ever seen that happen. It -has- happened before, but very rarely are you able to maintain that much speed and keep getting better when you're making driving mistakes like that.

[CgyFlamesftw]

Canadian woman have a flawless and great push run in bobsleigh, yet are behind the Americans bumpy run?? How the hell does that work, do they all have similar sleighs or what.

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by CgyFlamesftw

Canadian woman have a flawless and great push run in bobsleigh, yet are behind the Americans bumpy run?? How the hell does that work, do they all have similar sleighs or what.

No, the sleds are very different from each other. Design counts for a bit and set up before the race counts for a lot.

[bossy22]

The American's got BMW to design their sleds. They're using more Carbon fiber to make it lighter and more aerodynamic because they can shape it better. Because the sled is lighter they can add a ballast that they can move depending on the course. Essentially they spent millions developing the best sled.

[craigwd]

Paula Walker's loads are poetry in motion.

[Looch City]

Bobsleighs cost $80-100k and the blades alone upto $10k?

[craigwd]

Bob fans will remember the last time Brazil raced in the World Cup in Winterberg. Scariest thing I've ever seen in the sport. I hope they do better this time around.

[19Yzerman19]

Halfpipe update: three Canadians are in the finals.



Justin Dorey sits in first place after qualifying with a 91. If he can put down the same run, it should be good enough for a medal. There are a few major threats, including the favourite David Wise and Kevin Rolland, as well as Benoit Valentin who was really going for it in qualis.

Mike Riddle also made it through in 6th spot. He's perfectly capable of putting down a run in the high 80's, and could land on the podium. It's conceivable that Canada gets two medals out of this event. It's not super likely, but it's not a crazy longshot either.

Noah Bowman also made finals in 7th position, but doesn't really have the tricks to contend for the podium unless a lot of top skiers fail to put runs down.

With the way the pipe is (read: terrible; it's under vert and very soft, exactly what you don't want) and with the weather variability (it's been snowing on and off and a lot of guys are having trouble with speed), who knows what could happen. Torin Yater-Wallace, for my money the best pipe skier in the world, fell on both runs and failed to make finals, opening the door for others.

Final starts at 10:30 am our time, in just over an hour.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by bossy22

The American's got BMW to design their sleds. They're using more Carbon fiber to make it lighter and more aerodynamic because they can shape it better. Because the sled is lighter they can add a ballast that they can move depending on the course. Essentially they spent millions developing the best sled.

I don't understand how that's fair. Isn't that like racing a Civic against a Lamborghini?

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by craigwd

Paula Walker's loads are poetry in motion.

That just sounds awful