In these Olympics, Canadians only paid attention to Canada

reply to post by Pamie


You obviously missed the point of the closing ceremonies. There are many people in the world who think we do live in egloos and the whole country is one big frozen rock all of the time. A friend of mine is a border guard at the Detroit/Windsor crossing and he told me about this time a couple of Americans drove up with skis on the roof and while he was clearing them they asked how far they had to go to hit some snow. Meanwhile it's August in Southern Ontario.

So he told them in all seriousness to just keep going East on the 401 until Toronto and then take the 400 North and if they head about 10 North of Timmins they might get lucky.

They thanked whole hardidly for his directions and were pumped to get some skiing done

I hope they enjoyed their scenic drive and we always wondered how far they got before they realized he was kidding.

Canada is a beautiful country with beautiful people. I was happy to see them show pride in their country. It didn't offend me at all. Canadians have a lot to be proud of. This year's games were amazing. Thank you, Canada!

Aside from the death of an athlete, the awful un-winterlike weather, CTV's juvenile coverage, the ugly indoor venue of the opening/closing ceremonies, the second rate annoying and boring musical acts and the Canadian's self-centered American like "Own the Podium" slogan, the games were perfect.

As for the guy who wrote the article, I think his local Costco must have run out of cases of Twinkies.

This is standard protocol. Wherever the Olympics are held, the host nation will focus most of its resources and energy into showing events and achievements earned by their own country. The media will give priority to events where their country stands to win over others. Just the way things go.

reply to post by DEEZNUTZ


Surely that's an urban myth, alongside the "this is a lighthouse, your call" story?

I say that because I've heard that story in least a dozen incarnations, referencing every border crossing in Southern Ontario.

reply to post by vox2442


Surely it's not as well. We had visitors driving up from Cali to come and spend a week camping with us in Algonquin Park during August. They brought with them every item of winter gear they could pack in their camper.

Maybe they were playing it safe. Regardless, all of it stayed packed the whole time.

The article is filled with lies and half-truths. I saw lots of Olympic rings at all venues. I saw all of the athletes that he said were not covered. That's just a crock of, well you know. I also saw the big sign that said "Investigate 9/11." I'm surprised he didn't write anything about that.

Funny, when the bomb went off at Atlanta there wasn't half the bad press Canada is getting from around the world. Crazy world we live in.

Why does he not mention Apolo Ohno's bad sportsmanship? And Bjoerndalen? We've known all about him for years yet this dork probably thinks this is his first Olympics.

About the tickets. You could buy tickets on the street outside the venues so all that about not being able to buy tickets is BS. Scalpers were left alone. No problem getting tix as long as you had the cash. Heck, tickets are still available for some events! I guess buddy didn't look hard enough. Typical yellow journalism. Haha too funny.

www.canada.com...

[edit on 5-3-2010 by TheComte]

Originally posted by masqua
reply to post by vox2442

 

Surely it's not as well. We had visitors driving up from Cali to come and spend a week camping with us in Algonquin Park during August. They brought with them every item of winter gear they could pack in their camper.

Maybe they were playing it safe.

Regardless, all of it stayed packed the whole time.

My sister went up there with her class for a Natural Engineering program. They were to stay there during the first week of August. It snowed 2cm the first night they stayed.

..It happens

[edit on 5/3/2010 by InnerTruths]

reply to post by vox2442


I'm afraid not. I used to sail on the Lake Freighters and once we pulled into Toledo for the first coal trip of the season to the SOO. It was late March and there was just little chunks of ice left in the harbours and a bit in the rivers. Lake Erie was ice free. We get tied up and are getting ready to load and I'm going over the loading plan with the ship loader and he asked me how we made it here on time. I asked what do you mean? He said "Well you must have had to beat through a lot of ice to get here". He thought Canada's side of the Lake would be solid ice.

Another time I was surfing in La Jolla, Calif. I got talking to these guys and they were asking where I was from and I said LOndon, ONt about 2 hours from detroit. One guy asked me if it was snowing when I left. Meanwhile it's the summer. At first I thought that they were just yanking my chain but the sad thing is he was serious.



Back on topic, our Olympics are getting some bad press especially from Britain. I ask this question, is it wrong to be proud of our Country? Is it wrong to wear our team colours and cheer on our team?

I seem to remember watching tons of events where Canadians weren't in the contention but the crowds were just as loud cheering for the athletes that were still fighting it out. The people were just out to have a good time. What's wrong with that? It was something our city and province and country and world/friends got to come to one area and share a common purpose which was having a good time and enjoying the experience.

It's a once in a lifetime experience and one I'll always remember and so will those that partook.

A tragedy happened and unfortunately it will happen again. A lot of these sports are high speed events and the Olympics are suppose to be the skils test for those athletes. 1000's of other runs happened before that happened and we need to learn and move on.

Another article I saw compared his death to the Hostage taking and deaths at Munich? Are some of these journalists serious?

I think Britain press is giving the Vancouver2010 games some bad press because they know these games set a high bar for future games and they are worried the Summer Games there won't be embraced the same way our people did ours.


Russia is just mad we stomped them in Men's Hockey. When they lost to the US I told my GF jockingly that this was done on purpose to make the DVD sales better for the "Gold Medal Men's Momentus battle to the top" or something like that

[edit on 5-3-2010 by DEEZNUTZ]

Yeah, why doesn't he compare the accident to the last time a similar accident happened in the Olympics? 1964 Innsbruck another luge athlete died during a training run. Oh, and same Olympics a skiier died also during a training run.

It's a tragedy what happened. No question. I feel bad for his family. I wish it wouldn't have happened in Vancouver. But, the sport is a fast one. It's inherently dangerous. The point is, this isn't the first time nor will it be the last that an athlete will die during Olympics.

And before anyone spouts off the lie about not allowing training time to other countries, they followed the IOC rules just like all hosts previous to these Games. No different.

lol. What a crock. Classic example of double standard. When our streets are flooded with our national memoribilia, its okay but when you do it its prejudice!!

American streets are ALWAYS filled with flags, people here arent so patriotic and it was so nice to see everyone wrapped in flags, yes many foreign flags!!

On my first event there I was wrapped in my Norwegian flag and then eventually felt bad. So for the next trips I made my sCANADAnavian flag!! Seen as my profile. On the back I made a ATS logo but I dont think I got on TV. I am Norwegian but also Canadian and I value both. There were a suprising amount of Norwegians there and I had a blast!!! The hot blonde vikings sure like to celebrate

The gold medal game couldnt have been more emotional. Everything so loud you couldnt hear then a last second goal and I have never heard it so quiet... no complaints just silence. Then Crosby and my Iggy score and everyone EXPLODES!! Thankfully I have a lot of pictures and couple videos!

Will never forget this experience! I am so lucky to be able to see such an events in my country!!

I must say I enjoyed the opening ceremonies even though NBC kept saying how it didn't compare with China because China spent so much more money blah, blah blah. . Like who really gives a damn it's the winter Olympics.

I was also very pleased when Canada finally got their first gold medal in Canada and then the most of the games.

The Nazi comments were unnecessary.

Now that the guy brought it up I have to admit I didn't see many Olympic symbols, but then I just figured it was NBC's television coverage which was total crap and ended up turning me off from the games except for a couple events. I'll leave it up to people who were there to judge how many Olympic symbols there were.

They had those red Canadian mittens, did they have the Olympic symbols on them?

The most bothersome thing for me. The mens downhill event has been my favorite event since Franz Klammer won the gold in Innsbruck in 1976. Even back then ABC's coverage was phenomenal compared to NBC's today that showed us about a half dozen racers and didn't even bother to show the speed on the screen.

I realize that the Dave Murray course isn't that spectacular in terms of speed but not bothering showing speed for comparison as well as bobsled and other speed events sucked. I waited 4 years to watch a downhill and I don't know how many starters their were, but I suspect I saw less than 10 percent of racers. They just cherry picked those with the best times as well as a crash or two then went on to crap about personal stories not only of athletes but the commentators. That's like an Indy 500 and showing only the last lap, pretty much makes for a boring event.

Just inexcusable in the age of technology, thus we had to shield ourselves from the internet so it wouldn't ruin watching the races a half a day later on NBC. I certainly hope that ESPN gets the next Olympics so we can actually see it & perhaps live if we choose.

In retrospect I should of ordered cable becasse we don't get Canadian tv on satellite or I could have put up an antenna.

I live less than 80 miles from Vancouver BC in the U.S. and I would of loved to have gone to an event or two. Tickets being for Canadians only during the first sales made them difficult to get and a more than a little expensive. Lots of stories on the local news about people spending thousands & learning they were counterfeit. As the only tickets were on the Secondary market.

Anyway I'm happy for Canada, but just wanted to comment as an American who's almost a Vancouver local.


Edit to add - the comment on page one about the woman in the picture. Her teeth are really not that bad - she's just smiling a bit too big. The problem I see is, she looks more like a man as far as bone structure of the face & skull. This person either was a man at one time or has used male hormones.

[edit on 5-3-2010 by verylowfrequency]

Originally posted by verylowfrequency
Lots of stories on the local news about people spending thousands & learning they were counterfeit. As the only tickets were on the Secondary market.

As there are at every Olympics. That doesn't mean it's Canadians who are doing the counterfeiting. One scam during China brought in millions.

Originally posted by verylowfrequency
Edit to add - the comment on page one about the woman in the picture. Her teeth are really not that bad - she's just smiling a bit too big. The problem I see is, she looks more like a man as far as bone structure of the face & skull. This person either was a man at one time or has used male hormones.

"Was a man", LOL I have to say that's pretty rude. Considering she's been in Olympics since 1996 I doubt she's using male hormones. They would have caught her by now, no? Ok, so she's not as beautiful as American figure skater Johnny Wier. You got us there. But we don't go around calling him a girl. Oh yeah, we did, but they were French Canadian so English Canada should get a pass on that one.

Not everyone wins multiple medals in both Summer and Winter Games. Actually, no one does, except Clara Hughes, the one and only.

The Olympics turned out great.

The little skit with the mime at the closing ceremonies was a classy touch.

Good job!

Also I was glad to see that somehow or another you all kept those BC cops from tasering and killing visitors at the Vancouver Airport. They were too busy making lude comments to them at the Olympic Village moonlighting as guards.




What I do see in Canada having been away for a couple of decades (besides a short stint back in the 80.s) is a scary form of nationalism. This has always resided in the background though.

Alberta and Saskatchewan had active eugenics programs back in the day.



[edit on 5-3-2010 by whiteraven]

it was the first time I was ever patriotic in my life! What a party is right, BUTTTTT the reason we all had flags on, is that was what was there to buy! They all had little olympic emblems on them, but that was our options.

that guy needs a life.

We were SOOOOO loving and happy to EVERYONE, didn't
matter what age or race or country, we were hugging and high fiving the world! it was friggin awesome!!!!

The bar I watched the hockey game in was full of americans, and I said, don't worry that we won, because you'll have one of the best times of your life, and they said, "we KNOW, we are Glad you won, because this is so great!"

it wasn't team canada, or america, it was team WORLD, all in love with each other, and having an excuse to show it!

BEST VIBES EVER, NON STOP!!!

I cried tears of joy walking down those streets for nearly the whole 2 weeks straight!

reply to post by whiteraven


Oh, yeah! The cops were awesome too! They were right in on the party. They never power tripped, they turned a blind eye as much as possible, and they only did their job of protecting us from the occasional drunken looser guy bugging us.

Our cops don't bug us, they make sure obnoxiuos drunks DON'T bug us .... I was so proud of them too!

A bit of sporting patriotism is okay, but "Oh Canada" is a terrible national anthem. Instantly forgettable.

Oh, and the closing ceremony was embarrassing. William Shatner talking about pissing in the snow. You must have cringed. Truly sad.

And considering Vancouver is 51% Asian, we didn't see a lot of Asian faces...

But the blue-eyed robot turd called the PM got to to stand next to Gretsky a lot.

Word is that the British press was merely honing its skills for the London Olympics...a few practice runs, as it were.

Well, said reporter can kiss me proud Canadian arse....er...arm.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ee4a6bec41e9.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by verylowfrequency


My kids have several pieces of "olympic" clothing from these games.

The Olympic logo is on all of them. Even the one that has "CANUCK" on the front.

They LOVE the Mascots this time. And I mean LOVE. That Miga causes my five year old to go into fits of "its cuuuuuuuuuutttttteeeeee" and flutter her eyelashes.

reply to post by rizla


If you didn't see Asian faces faces it is mostly because you don't know what a 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation North American Asian looks like.

That "Asian" figure encompasses the sub-continent as well. And Pakistan, etc.

[edit on 2010/3/5 by Aeons]