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2022 Beijing Olympics

neonorchid

Making fresh tracks
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@neonorchid I'm not gonna write this again, but you can read my comment about "ugly coach who made everyone cry with her attitude toward her athlete" in Shiffrin thread. I still think if she wouldn't be Russian noone, and certainly not IOC president, wouldn't spend a second on such "case". But that's just my opinion about this. Not to mention, it's thing between Russian (not even Chinese) coach and Russian (not even Chinese) athlet, pretty much unrelated to China, except that it happened at Olympics held in China. Or do I understand right, that this would be perfectly fine thing, if it would happen in 2026 when Olympics would be in Italy? ;)

We are talking about POSSIBLE doping or about her coach being so nasty to little kid?

Correct, and you made it about Russia asserting your opinion that "none" would care if not for the fact that it was the Russians. I pointed out similar cases involving USA and it's athletes, cases which much more than "a second" were spent on and many cared about.

That said, you are entitled to have and voice your opinion and I respect your doing so even if I do not always agree.
 

Primoz

Skiing the powder
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@neonorchid I really don't get this now. Video you posted before was about "bad coach" who didn't comfort her athlete but was asking why she gave up and didn't fight till end. It has nothing much to do with doping (in first minutes, and then I simply didn't bother to watch forward). And I commented based on that. If some other coach would do that, noone would bother with this, and certainly president of IOC wouldn't be concerned about "bad treatment".
All those doping cases you mentioned had nothing to do with this. They were doping cases not cold unemotional coach who was actually asking proper question. As I wrote in different thread, if someone thinks coach should play parents role to underaged kids at Olympics, they are wrong, and solution is simple. If kids don't deserve adult treatment, forbid Uwhatever kids to compete in adult categories.
As for doping, it was A sample only. It's still long way for her to be convicted doper. And contrary to what you think, it has very little to do with Russia, ROC or Rusada. Samples were sent out in December, yet Swedes were too busy to handle them in 2 months, but they just found time to handle them in. oddle of Olympics.Thibk about timing as you wish, but I have my opinion about this timing.
Yes they supposingly were t marked as urgent, but I'm not sure since when it became standard to handle samples in few months time after you receive them.
But anyway... it takes a while before things are clear and final decision on this will be out. But regardless of that, it's issue concerning different country, different athlete, and has very little to do with "China and their shitshow of Olympics"
 

Tony Storaro

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...apparently you missed my point.

I still don't get if we are talking about the alleged usage of banned substances or about the perceived harsh treatment of Valieva by her coaches. This is getting more and more confusing.
 

Tony Storaro

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Samples were sent out in December, yet Swedes were too busy to handle them in 2 months, but they just found time to handle them in. oddle of Olympics.Thibk about timing as you wish, but I have my opinion about this timing.

They didn't know it was urgent man, guess nobody told them about the coming Olympics.:roflmao::roflmao:
And all of a sudden, just when she won gold, it was OH WAIT...
 

Tony Storaro

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Jenny

Making fresh tracks
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Dec 6, 2015
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4ster

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!
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Gu's going to be just like any other Stanford freshman. Sure, she is!
Yeah, just like Tiger Woods ;)

I have heard very recently that her annual income was {past tense} estimated to be $35Mil, largely Western luxury brands now being sold in China. Now, after the medals, the guesstimates are perhaps TWICE that.
I wanna know where she's paying her income tax?
 

Jwrags

Aka pwdrhnd
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Nov 17, 2015
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Yeah, just like Tiger Woods ;)


I wanna know where she's paying her income tax?
I doubt she will qualify for tuition assistance/scholarships;)
If she did not relinquish her US citizenship, as rumored, then Uncle Sam will be having a little say about her taxes!
 

Muleski

So much better than a pro
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Nov 14, 2015
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This is a pretty neat Instagram post from Warner Nickerson. MS resposted it. So VERY on point. Great job, Team and great post, WCN.

1FA20ABA-F122-41BA-9386-70BF824A422E.png
 

migdriver

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@Primoz, I have heard much the same. I have heard over and over about how wonderful the people were. How well most everything was planned and executed. I did hear some comments that suggest that they felt "walled off" from a lot of the real Beijing. Like some of what might be considered "bad" of offensive was essentially hidden. I don't think that's unique to this OWG's.

I DID hear a lot of frustration about the alpine ski racing. Almost all due to the weather....largely the wind. And how the climate affects snowmaking and course prep. The delays, etc. Some bitching that things were "not fair." Heck, these are outdoor sports and they did their best. I did hear, over and over again that the venues they created....literally out of rock....were just amazing. Which I guess is what's leading to "talk" of it becoming a regular WC venue {that and the size of the Chinese market.}

When my fellow Americans bitch about the weather and the alpine races, I chuckle and say that but for a great tailwind in the Canyon pushing RCS, we might have closed the games with ZERO alpine medals.

No fan of China, politically, economically, etc. But it seems to those who were there for the games, that it was pretty special.
@Tony Storaro this will probably sound super weird to most of you, but I'm not really typical sport fan. To be honest, I would say I'm not sport fan at all. I love sport, and I love skiing, as it's simply big part of my life, and if I couldn't ski anymore, I could probably say, life without skiing is not worth living, but I have been in one or the other role to so many races and competitions, including World championships, but never Olympics, that I honestly don't have any wish to stand there and watch people race.
In these 2 years of covid times and with this related millions of restrictions, I'm much less around WC tour, and to be honest, I don't miss it at all. I miss seeing all those friends I have there, but with most of these guys I'm good enough friend, that we regularly meet also out of ski rooms and race courses, so I catch up with them elsewhere... or I join them on training and get few nice turns between their training gates myself, like I did few weeks ago in Kranjska Gora on some of their last trainings before leaving for Beijing. With less of me being on WC tour, it means I can ski way more myself, and it's certainly not bad thing to have about 70 days on snow by middle of the winter :D
So while I would still like to experience Olympics in some sort of official role, I have no wish to be part of this as spectator. But in all these years, I realized that it's not going to work to do it the way I would want to. I know that my times of athlete, coach or serviceman are long gone, and as photographer, I'm not in right position for such huge event, that agency for which I freelance will pick me over their staffers. Sure there's still 4 years until then and things might change, but I don't really count on that. I'm fine with this, and I don't feel bad because of this (anymore) :)
As a counter point: might be worth doing whatever it takes to influence / prompt your agency to get you credentialed for Italy which may be more geographically similar and covid free like the 94 games.
I was at 94 OWG for CBS - they were the global rights holder for Lillihammer- as on air “ talent” . Both my producer and I had what we characterized as a get out of jail free card credential. Full, all access, unrestricted credentials. It was epic. When not dealing with on air obligations I was free to go to ANY venue and watch events .
Seeing bobsled and luge from trackside was sooo different from seeing it on TV. Terrifying and exciting simultaneously. I watched a X-C relay from the finish and though untill that time could care less abt nordic skiing , quickly got swept up in the excitement surrounded by fanatical Norwegians , Swedes, and others . Ski jumping on large hill? Amazing in the flesh . And so on. And when I’d had enough: wander back to my hotel which was in the cener of the social action in “downtown “ Lillihammer . Oh yeah: all our food/ meals were catered and free in the International Broadcast Center. Though, the Salmon dish of breakfast, lunch, and dinner did wear a bit thin towards the end:)
In contrast to recent OWG , Lillihammer was relatively compact , accessible and definitely not industrial or urban. Though figure Skating was s bit of a road trip away and took planning, the hockey rounds were held in arena in walkable Lillihammer and could walk over and drop in on most games.
Best part though for a mediocre ( read : slooowww) aging ex racer like me was the accessibility to Alpine venues. My daily routine was to get to Hafjell where tech events/ training was held each morning around 9 as sun was coming up and grab a few runs and watch the Swedish women and Italian men run GS and SL standing with the coaches. It was 12 mi or so to Kvitjell ( DH and SG ) but worth the trip to get to slip the course during SG inspection and watch the DH from the start. Funny memory: in the warming hut jst before the start I was in awe of how relaxed most - though not all - guys were… chatty even. Kjetl Amodt and Lasse Kjus even volunteered to help me get my frozen SLR camera functioning again! Damn German engineering.
Point is: it was an amazing experience. Basically, 4 weeks ( we arrived 2 weeks ahead to pre produce some features) of kid in a candy store. And, totally different in terms of atmosphere compared to WC races I’d attended before.
I will agree though: I have no desire to return to OWG as a civilian spectator. Stand in long lines, deal with overbearing rent-a- cop security, pay an arm and a leg for everything, etc BUT , given the right credentials; it can be an amazing experience.
 

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