The Glitch Games

[dirtybiker]

And this is what their saying in New Zealand...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/im ... 19#6838551

My take on it is in any competition, when you push to the edges, once in a while you'll fall off.

The people that adapt to conditions best, while still maintaining raged edge to the finish, podium.

[Swoop]

...this wasn't so much a glitch as it was a great response to a rather unintelligent question asked by an NBC reporter of a gold medalist right after he completed the competition...Sven Kramer's great..."name and country please...what?...are you stupid??...lol...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIkgCblj ... r_embedded

...maybe try and pay just a little bit of attention to what you're supposed to be covering...

[Cateyes]

...this wasn't so much a glitch as it was a great response to a rather unintelligent question asked by an NBC reporter of a gold medalist right after he completed the competition...Sven Kramer's great..."name and country please...what?...are you stupid??...lol...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIkgCblj ... r_embedded

...maybe try and pay just a little bit of attention to what you're supposed to be covering...

Well I think both sides are at fault on that one. Speedskating is huge in the Netherlands and that guy is some sort of national hero over there but I never heard of the guy so......It's just as understandable as expecting the Dutch to knowing who some of our hockey stars are.

So I think it was a combination of arrogance on the speedskaters part and ignorance on the reporters part. Given that the Olympics are all about the Athletes the reporter deserves most of the blame. She was right there when he raced so she should have done her homework better.

[eyepop]

i think the reporter needed that info for 'tape identification' (of the raw footage)..

as she says.

[guicho]

Guicho reporting from Vancouver. There are so many glitches and problems that aren't making the news. The level of poor planning that went into making these games so riddled with problems is mind boggling.

VANOC, in their infinite disregard for Vancouverites decided to bring in buses and drivers from places like Miami and California instead of going local. Meanwhile, most cab drivers in town might as well park their cabs because they aren't allowed to stop anywhere people might want to hire a cab or anywhere they want to be dropped off at. Cops are enforcing these no stop rules vigorously, and the fine is more than a good days worth of fares. Meanwhile, some of the drivers brought in to drive the shuttles are getting lost. A shuttle full of angry people trying to get to Cypress ended up at Seymour because the driver didn't know his way around, those people missed the event they paid for. Wouldn't it have made more sense to pay the cabbies to park their cabs and drive shuttles, since they know their way around the area? Shuttles are breaking down because they can't handle the climb, yet just last year, a major shuttle company based in Whistler went bankrupt. Maybe if they had been given the gig instead of an American company they would still be running and employing British Columbians, but I guess that all makes too much good sense for VANOC to even consider.

And just try getting on a skytrain anywhere closer to downtown than Joyce Station. Transit into and out of downtown is already inadequate during peak hours on a normal day. Now add to that all the people that usually drive to work and all the people that are trying to get to the Olympic venues. Anyone who rides transit in this town could have foreseen the problems. My cousin lives in Surrey and works in False Creek. It usually takes him just over half an hour to get to work. These days, he is late unless he leaves at 5 am for a shift beginning at 8:30. Doesn't really matter anyways, because business sucks, only foot traffic past the shop. Regular customers are staying away.

Did you all know that the torch is behind a huge metal link fence? Tourists and locals alike are *bleep* that they can't get anywhere near it to take a photo. VANOC admits that they "underestimated" the extent to which people would want to see it up close and photograph it, so they opened a little gap so people can take pictures through the gap and not have the fence in the picture. Tourists that have gone to other games say part of their collection of games mementos includes a photo next to the flame.

Did you all hear that not only was security breached at the opening ceremonies, but a car in VP Biden's motorcade was rear ended, sending Peggy Fleming to hospital?

I could go on and on. Kelowna, you are lucky to be a nice 4 hour drive from all the madness!

[Cateyes]

Hey couch potato luge experts and the rest of you "it was all his own fault" deniers!

Suck on this for awhile!

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/new ... tler+track

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/new ... luge+death

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/n ... luge+death

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/n ... n+engineer

[Loed]

Hey couch potato luge experts and the rest of you "it was all his own fault" deniers!

Suck on this for awhile!

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/new ... tler+track

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/new ... luge+death

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/n ... luge+death

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/n ... n+engineer

Hey, guess what? Who cares.
He still chose to go down the track that the Olympic committee passed for safety. Scary or not, that's what these *bleep* do. Slide down a track and risk their life EVERY time they do it. *bleep* happens, sad that this one happened at the Olympics(would have been sad anywhere not just Van). This is one of the most dangerous sports for the Olympics though, and they know it. It's sad, but it's his/their own choice.

[Bubalouie]

[RR24K]

Hey couch potato luge experts and the rest of you "it was all his own fault" deniers!

Suck on this for a while!

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/new ... tler+track

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/new ... luge+death

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/n ... luge+death

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/n ... n+engineer

Hey, guess what? Who cares.
He still chose to go down the track that the Olympic committee passed for safety. Scary or not, that's what these *bleep* do. Slide down a track and risk their life EVERY time they do it. *bleep* happens, sad that this one happened at the Olympics(would have been sad anywhere not just Van). This is one of the most dangerous sports for the Olympics though, and they know it. It's sad, but it's his/their own choice.

Governing body for the luge is FIL http://www.fil-luge.org/
They are the ones approve a track or not.

[LoneWolf_53]

And this is what their saying in New Zealand...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/im ... 19#6838551

My take on it is in any competition, when you push to the edges, once in a while you'll fall off.

The people that adapt to conditions best, while still maintaining raged edge to the finish, podium.

Exactly.

I can't help but wonder if some of these critics have ever watched winter sports be they at the Olympics or not?

Seems to me there's always been crashes and injuries when people strap on skis, snow boards, or choose to go down an ice chute on a sled.

Heck all one has to do is listen to the commentators when they speak about the athletes and most have overcome some pretty bad crashes including Maelle Ricker for example who can't even remember the last Olympics.

In other words all you naysayers this is a prime example of where the addage "you play with fire, you might get burnt" is very appropriate.

Want to go down a hill at 140kph then be prepared to accept poo when it happens.

[Bubalouie]

Well said, LoneWolf...

[LoneWolf_53]

As far as Cateyes and his endless links goes it must have gone right over his head that for every story there are opposing arguments and the whole luge thing is no different.

Use Google for a couple of seconds and you can find links that support the track and speeds and that from those who actually use it.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/newsid=45711.html

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=45611.html

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics ... gles_N.htm

One 57yr old guy who gave himself a concussion on the track thinks it's too fast.
If he had any brains he'd not be doing that at his age in the first place but he wanted to set a record for being the oldest competitor and it bit him in the tush now he's pointing fingers. Predictable.

Yes it's a fast track but it was that way from the start and it's been used thousands of times.

Also I can't honestly fault the people who made the decision to choose Whistler instead of Grouse Mountain because the future viability of the thing most certainly has to be taken into consideration and if it was put in the wrong spot I can just hear the naysayers shouting it should have been at Whistler.

In short someone will always *bleep* no matter what decision is made that's simply human nature.

I do happen to feel that the engineer is passing the buck a bit because after reading his story some of what he says comes off kind of lame.

For example he says no one asked for higher walls. Duh......... well maybe that's because they aren't engineers and are paying you to use your expertise and point out problems.

The fact that Whistler is steeper ergo the track faster is something he points to in one sentence then in another he seems to backpedal and say the higher speeds should not be a problem.

I've been of the mind all along that the speeds aren't a problem so long as the rider is kept within the confines of the track and if that means higher walls then the guy should have factored that in and made it a mandatory part of the design.

That's the duty of engineers in that they get the big bucks to make decisions others of us are not qualified to make.

This is the section of his story that I found interesting......

In the traditional discussions about the trade-off between safety for athletes and track visibility for audiences, no one demanded that higher walls than usual be built on the final fast curves, he says.

And no objections arose when it became clear two years ago that the chosen steep terrain had resulted in a faster track than planned. "The track had to be near Whistler, for use after the Olympics. You don't want to ruin an investment," he says. "So the track is on terrain that's a little steep."

Gurgel knew soon after this revision that he had designed a track that is unusually steep and fast. Each of its final four curves makes for speeds of more than 130 km per hour - something never done before. Yet he insists the track is safe for expert use. "The track can take very high speeds. The curves are long. Had this been a dangerous track then there would have been unsteady descents by other competitors, and that wasn't the case, even though many came down much faster than he [Kumaritashvili] did."

While he feels that any death is unacceptable, he points out that this is a dangerous sport and that he cannot guarantee safety.

"This is a racing sport, like Formula One. That means you can't prevent everything that will happen," he says. "The people who do the sport, they have to make their safety their main priority."

[dirtybiker]

Hey couch potato luge experts and the rest of you "it was all his own fault" deniers!

Suck on this for awhile!

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/new ... tler+track

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/new ... luge+death

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/n ... luge+death

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/n ... n+engineer

Hey, guess what? Who cares.
He still chose to go down the track that the Olympic committee passed for safety. Scary or not, that's what these *bleep* do. Slide down a track and risk their life EVERY time they do it. *bleep* happens, sad that this one happened at the Olympics(would have been sad anywhere not just Van). This is one of the most dangerous sports for the Olympics though, and they know it. It's sad, but it's his/their own choice.

Boo, hoo hoo,,I crashed and its the tracks fault..give me a break..take some responsibility for yourself.. I crashed into a wall..Darn wall.. its the wall's fault... Killer Hwy. strikes again... No, another idiot couldn't maintain control of their vehicle.. Careful that Okanagan Lake is a killer..People keep drowning in it!!!!


End Rant!!!!!

[Captain Awesome]

Boo, hoo hoo,,I crashed and its the tracks fault..give me a break..take some responsibility for yourself.. I crashed into a wall..Darn wall.. its the wall's fault... Killer Hwy. strikes again... No, another idiot couldn't maintain control of their vehicle.. Careful that Okanagan Lake is a killer..People keep drowning in it!!!!

To be fair, the guy that died isn't complaining. It's people who try to portray the Olympics in a bad way use him as a political chip, and frankly it's just disgusting. But then again, what do you expect from somebody like Cateyes.

[Al Czervic]

I can fill in for cateyes for a while if you like.

I am just trying to figure out what is left to bash ? Cateye’s seems to have covered it all but perhaps he/she will come back with more. Maybe Team Canada needing a shootout to beat the Swiss can be the fault of Vanoc for not using a Zamboni at GM Place.