All you sport-lovers on Ironworks -- and yeah, the optimist in me hopes that all of you regulars will respond with full enthusiasm -- will probably know that the Winter Olympics are currently on their way in Torino, Italy. Why, the first medals have already been given out. Not that any of you know of him, or you would have to have seen Jay Leno's show when he was a guest there, but Chad Hedrick has secured America's first gold medal by winning the 5000 meters in the men's speed skating event.

I'm proud to say that up until the last race the Dutchies were in silver and bronze position, but the Italians here (are there any?!) will be happy to hear that Enrico Fabris managed to push Carl Verheijen back into fourth place. Sven Kramer (only 19 years old, and skating his very first Olympic Games - also world record holder on the 5000 meters) did win silver medal though. Kudo's to him!!

I haven't followed other sports (only know that Sweden beat Russia in the women's ice hockey tournament with 3 to 1). Any sports you guys are watching?

<font color=skyblue>I really enjoyed Opening Ceramonies last night. My wife and I are mostly interested in the figure skating. Summer games, we were into the gymnastics. </font>

There's womens icehockey as well ????

Are they wearing full body protection are those cute minidresses like the figure skaters ?

Canada got a gold in moguls. Go go Canada. ;)

They are getting ready to play Italy in womens hockey. I fear for the Italians. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

If they're women is undoubtedly debatable, my friend. They're most likely toothless old hags with scars all over their bodies.

(hopes he doesn't insult anyone here) :D

No, they don't look that bad. Women paid to work out and engage in physical exercise tend not to be that bad looking as a rule, especially if they wear as much padding as they do.

It wasn't that bad for them... only 16-0. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I did even know they had medal events this early... I thought they were all usually later on.

How stupid is mogul skiing? I was watching some of it last night. I mean, of course I appreciate the skill and athleticism required and all that, but really, it's silly! It's like the organisers got together and were all 'we need more events! The summer games are killing us!' 'Uh, how about more skiing things, you know, we could have, like, mounds of snow! And jumps! All in one!' 'Woah, jumps, AND mounds. Yeah, the punters will love that!'* [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img]

<font size=1>*Disclaimer: I couldn't be less interested in the actual tradition of moguls, so please do not feel the need to let me know. I'm sure it has a proud and noble history, probably one of the founding events in the popular winter olympics of ancient times.</font>

Want to know what's worse but in the summer games? Synchronized diving. Biathlon always struck me as a weird sport too.

What's with this relay speed skating or whatever? They push off each other as they make changes? That just seems like a weird 'sport'.

It is all about the touching. ;)

Aelia you are just mad because you lost. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

Too bad.

"The Mughal Empire, (Persian: شاهان مغول) was an empire that at its greatest territorial extent ruled parts of what is today Afghanistan, Baluchistan and most of the Indian Subcontinent between 1526 and 1857. The empire was founded by the Timurid leader Babur in 1526, when he defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans at the First Battle of Panipat. "Mughal" is the Persian word for "Mongol". The religion of the Mughals was Islam.

The empire was largely conquered by Sher Shah during the time of Humayun, but under Akbar it grew considerably, and continued to grow until the end of Aurangzeb's rule. Jahangir, the son of Akbar, ruled the empire between (1605-1627). In October 1627, Shah Jahan, son of Jahangir, "succeeded to the throne", where he "inherited a vast and rich empire" in India; and "at mid-century this was perhaps the greatest empire in the world". The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, commissioned between (1630 - 1653), the Taj Mahal, in Agra, India.

After Aurangzeb died in 1707, the empire started a slow and steady decline in actual power, although it maintained all the trappings of power in the Indian subcontinent for another 150 years. In 1739 it was defeated by an army from Persia led by Nadir Shah. In 1756 an army of Ahmad Shah took Delhi again. The British Empire finally dissolved it in 1857, immediately prior to which it existed only at the sufferance of the British East India Company.

To the subject of the Mughals origins, the Mughal people were created through a series of interracial marriages. When the Mongolians of north west asia took the subcontinent and middle east in its vast empire, there was much marrige between the Mongols and central asians in particular the Persians. The Mughals are derived from this unique mesh of different peoples, although they adopted the culture of their ancestral Persians, which is evident in their religious practices, customs, architecture and language; and they still retained many physical attributes from their other ancestral half, which also helped to cement new customs and traditions."
Thanks Wiki!

Wow, anyone else marvel at the fact Canada trounced, flounced, and deboned the Russian women's hockey team 12-0 today?

Interesting, Sir D... but what does it have to do with skiing down bumps on a hill?

Oh I know!! Especially when one of the divers is really short and one is really tall. Although we tend to get medals in that so I shouldn't complain too much ;)

LOL Mack - I knew we had some chick in the final but when I discovered how ridiculous the event was it was still the heats, so [img]tongue.gif[/img] ;)

Um, yes thank you, Sir D. Of course when I posted my disclaimer I couldn't have anticipated how thoroughly useful the information you've provided would be [img]graemlins/uhoh1.gif[/img]

Mens Candian hockey team are not looking good. Italy scored on them. ;)

And how many times did the Canadians score on them ?

I just don't know what's going on with them Canucks... first, the women give up a goal in their third game (outscoring opponents 36-1 over 3), and then Marty Brodeur gets scored on... TWICE!... in the men's first game.

[img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

It's going to be a rough Olympics for the Canadians, for sure...

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#009999">7, Italy scored 3 times. The men have to pull up there socks if they want to keep up with the Women's team. As well a 7-3 win over Italy could have been a loss if they were playing Sweeden, US, or even Finland.

Nice to see Beckie get a silver in the relay, after her disappointing 6th place finish in Cross country skiing, in the singles event, she seemed pretty disappointed about that place.</font>

[ 02-15-2006, 10:58 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Bad news for the Czechs... and the Senators. Dominik Hasek injured himself in their opener... might be gone for the olympics depending on what happened.

That increases the chances for pretty much everyone else.

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#009999">Thank You Norway!!! For your great sportsmanship. An excellent article here on how Norwegian coach Bjornar Haakensmoen allowed Canadians Sara Renner and Beckie Scott to win silver, likely costing his team a medal. That is the spirit of the olympics. </font>

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists...44142-sun.html

[ 02-15-2006, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Agreed. Good sportsmanship is a pleasure to see.

The most important thing to be good at target shooting is to control your breating, being able to control your pulse is also good. Doing those two things tend to make it hard to be able to ski fast.

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#009999">The men losing today to Russia 2-0 is not getting me down at all.

We got 2 gold, 2 silver, and advanced to the gold medal round in men's curling. So in perspective the men losing hockey should be nothing. I would say they even deserved to lose, and CBC deserves it as well for not doing a better job of covering other sports. The CBC will make it seem a big deal as it is the only sport they seem to be covering. </font>

I heard alot of people mentioning that, Pritchke, and I agree. Hockey, while our national sport, and a vital part of our culture, is not all the games.

I tend to dislike the "high glory" sports like Football, Hockey and Baseball, if only for the fact everyone pays attention to they and not the other sports.

Canada and the US are both out. I'd expected Canada to go all the way, now i hope Finland can pull off a stunt. It's more likely the Czechs will be king of the hill again though.

Canada? Hah... we can't score if our lives depended on it.

So what is the deal. We get any medal?

Not for hockey no. If we made it to the semis, we would have had a chance for bronze, but no dice.

Well that is just not right. Lets have a rematch? [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

What I saw during this tournament made me frustrated. In case anyone remembers, in 1998, we tried to construct the best "team" possible, rather than the best players. This is the reason for my favorite Olympian, Rob Zamuner (who, you ask? Exactly.) In Salt Lake, we tried something different: we got the best players, regardless of how they would mesh. We won. In the World Cup, we did the same thing. We won. This time, we went with the exact same lineup. Blake has been brutal this season, Pronger can no longer skate at an international level, McCabe is godawful defensively, and Bertuzzi is a cream puff with no edge at all. Pat Quinn has demonstrated that he can't raise a mediocre team to greatness.

Pat Quinn needs to be removed. Pronger, Blake are too old, McCabe sucks. Bertuzzi should be enforcing for the mob. Go Finland go.

[img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img]

On the other hand, great day for Canada. 4 medals, 2 silver, 2 gold AND we're assured of at least silver in men's curling. BTW, Duff Gibson, the gent who won gold in men's skeleton works out at my gym. :D

I agree, the team choices were brutal. It felt like, to me anyways, they were making the team with players who had past success rather than present success. McCabe, I agree... no. Nash was questionable due to his lack of a season so far. Bertuzzi is just brutal this season. I do disagree with your assessment of Pronger though. At the time he was selected it was a sure choice, but at the moment he has a broken toe (or is it foot? Can't remember) that he's been skating on, even before the olympic break. I think he should have pulled out of the tournament and had Phaneuf come in who, as far as I know, is injury free and skating well. Pronger's only 31... how's that old? ;)
Other Olympic news, good job for Cindy Klassen, 4 medals so far!

I was half hoping he'd bluecollar some of the other team's players, but alas, no. All for the best though, after the scandal about Moore I'm not surprised people aren't happy with him. Also, he probably wasn't getting "it" on, if you catch my drift. Chain a dog up if you want, but don't expect him to tear out someone's leg if he does.

He's old because of the amount of surgery he's had. Even though you hear so much about it in the press, it really is a long process. I think the fact that he had gigantic reconstructive surgery on his wrist (at one point he was seriously considering retirement) coupled with the lockout, where he didn't play, really hurt him. The Chris Pronger of today is a shell of his former self (the fact that he would play 30 minutes a game on any team now just tells you how amazing he was.) I haven't noticed it in the many (great) Battles of Alberta this year, but he really did look...slow during the Olympics. That may have involved his foot, and the distraction probably counts for something. But that pass he made with 30 seconds left sort of summed up his tournament. He didn't look comfortable, whether it was his injury or something else, who knows. The number of his passes that went off opponents, and the number of battles he lost down low...just not characteristic.

I should point out (yeah, I'm from Calgary and he rocks,) that Dion Phaneuf totally negated Ovechkin during the World Juniors two years ago. Also, I met the guy at a club, which counts for huge props. :D Even still, I think Boyle or Phillips (the other two names mentioned by Team Canada,) would have been superior to McCabe. I came away thinking that the goal drought wasn't because of the forwards - it was the defense. One thing that not many commentators touch on, but is true from my experience, is that goals tend to come from sustained pressure. Defence are crucial to that, and the number of times I'd see McCabe or Blake miss a puck at the blueline...

The best part about Klassen is that she hasn't skated her best event yet!

I was half hoping he'd bluecollar some of the other team's players, but alas, no. All for the best though, after the scandal about Moore I'm not surprised people aren't happy with him. Also, he probably wasn't getting "it" on, if you catch my drift. Chain a dog up if you want, but don't expect him to tear out someone's leg if he does. </font>[/QUOTE]He really seems to be playing scared. It's very rare for me to be screaming at my TV for someone to hit someone else, but I found that with him during the Olympics. It's like he has no idea where the line is anymore, and he's terrified of crossing it. Did you see the Iginla hit on Markov on the first shift? Bertuzzi could have done that 3 or 4 times, and he weighs 30 lbs more than Iginla, but he didn't. I would feel sorry for the guy, but I feel more sorry for Steve Moore.

Talk to any Oil fan and they'll tell you that him and/or Stoll have been the team mvp's this season. He's turned Bergeron into a true top 4, maybe top 2 dman in about a month. It's only been recently that his play has diminished, and I think it's because of injury.
But, we're going off an a tangent here, this is Olympic discussion not NHL discussion. ;)

Fair enough. So as I see it, we're probably in line to get 22 or 23 medals, which is (of course) a new high. I can see 2 golds remaining (4-man bobsled and curling.) That's pretty good, well on our way to the goal of being the best in Vancouver.

I'm not saying he's a bad player, far from it, he just was during the Olympics. He's been way better with the Oilers this year. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

If only we could get results like this in Beijing...
I swear, Pronger and Bergeron have been like a second goalie for us. Not that it's helped much. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

The difference being that in Beijing, the other countries really bring their resources to bear. China, Australia, USA, Russia, they all put huge focus on Beijing. We're really an also ran in the summer olympics, as it's not really well supported in Canada.

The one thing that kind of annoys me is the sports we do well in don't get as many medals. I mean, the Norwegians have more medals, but if you took away cross-country skiing, what would they have? There's like 10-11 Nordic skiing medals, but only one for hockey. Of course, not like we're winning it. :(

well, remember one thing:

our women kicked the tails (and every other available body part) of all the other countries put together for Women's hockey. I say bring on the 2010 Winter Olympics. Canada will lick its wounds and improve in the figure skating, men's hockey, and ice dancing, AND the revamped lineup for women's hockey will hold court and find all the other countries guilty of trying to step to us. The sentence: a natural +censored+ whoopin'!