The 2010 Vancouver Olympics Thread

What?!?! No Olympics thread yet? The travesty!

I'm watching the opening ceremonies right now and I'm pretty excited the aboriginal peoples of Canada are getting the spotlight. It will be hard for the opening ceremonies to overcome the tragedy of this afternoon on the luge track, but it's always exciting to watch the Olympics kick off.

And who will light the torch, hmmmm?

*I'm rooting for anyone BUT Gretzky*

And the grief on the faces of the kids competing for Georgia is a very sad spectacle to witness. What a classy response from both the Georgian team and the spectators at the opening ceremonies.

*continues to talk to herself*

Heh. Had to get the Red Wing reference in there, didn't you?

Brian Boitano. He might as well be Canadian.

How about Michael J. Fox? *grin* Or...um...Jim Carrey? They're Canadian!

All I know is that everytime I see the Atlanta opening ceremony when Muhammed Ali lit the flame, I get a little weepy.

And, everytime people think they know for certain who's lighting the flame, it's someone completely different. Therefore, I put my vote in for....Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

Or the Canadian chick who was trying to sing the US National Anthem, forgot the words, skipped off the rink for a cheat sheet, tried to skip back on the ice and wiped out on her ass while the world laughed. She always shows up on the Best Damn Sports Bloopers shows. Maybe they'll give her a chance to redeem herself.

And then maybe she'll set herself on fire. It could be funny.

Oh, that would be awesome!

I'm going to say...um...well...

Celine Dion. The quarter's in the mail.

And after all that, the big reveal made it to FAILblog. *sigh* It would have been so pretty, even with Gretzky there--BUT, it was redeemed by the cameras' merciless glare on Gretzky's twitching face as he and millions of people around the world realized that...NO, the fourth arm wasn't coming up.

I laughed so hard I didn't even mind Gretzky being there. I figured his wife had placed a bet on the lighting of the torch, and the Great One pulled a few strings to make sure his little woman was able to recoup some of her infamous losses on pro football. The only thing it needed to be absolutely perfect? The faint strains of "Blame Canada" playing in the background while Trey Parker and Matt Stone were busted huddled together under the bleachers, holding a wrench in the middle of the square-wheeled gears of that immobilized arm...

.

Blame Canada! Blame Canada!
For all that hockey hullabaloo
And that bi*ch Anne Murray too!
Blame Canada! Blame Canada!
They're not even a real country anyway...

Click to expand...

The Robin Williams version from the Oscars I'm thinking--you know, the year they lost to Phil Collins and ended up doing a whole episode about it? Just imagine what South Park will do with this??

Other than that, though, I thought the opening ceremonies were really beautiful and well done. If I can manage to survive NBC's bastardized coverage of the Games, I'm looking forward to an interesting couple of weeks.

Smart alec. Synchronized curling indeed!

Speed skating, luge and biathlon--a little bit of ski jumping and some hockey today. Downhill events and practice are postponed due to slush. Luge practice, on the other hand, is going on as scheduled. Most stuff won't start until late afternoon eastern time, so hopefully we'll actually be able to watch a lot in real time tonight--unless NBC gets all scroogish with the coverage as usual.

Me either. I also learned how to stop--by running in to something at the opposite end of the rink and closing my eyes, all the while hoping someone smaller than me didn't get into my way.

*pssst--no, it started at 2 EST. Check NBC, MSNBC, and Universal*