2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Thread

[grizzaholic]

what's so "jaw dropping" about it?
male pro athletes are always having champagne-soaked celebrations after winning championships and the like.

I just hope that the player driving the zamboni hadn't been drinking too much.
Friends don't let friends drink and zamboni.

They cannot wreck into any other cars. We get it, you don't like drinking and driving. Let it go

[T-Dog]

From what I understand that Olympic Village is the place to be.........although I imagine the summer olympics probably has hotter women....but if someone wants to prove me wrong with tons of pics then I'd be willing to change my mind.

You need to read this article then from 2008.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 582421.ece

Sex and the Olympic city

Tomorrow night thousands of young men and women with the most fit, toned bodies in the world will mingle for the last time before they fly home. What might they get up to?

I am often asked if the Olympic village - the vast restaurant and housing conglomeration that hosts the world's top athletes for the duration of the Games - is the sex-fest it is cracked up to be. My answer is always the same: too right it is. I played my first Games in Barcelona in 1992 and got laid more often in those two and a half weeks than in the rest of my life up to that point. That is to say twice, which may not sound a lot, but for a 21-year-old undergraduate with crooked teeth, it was a minor miracle.

Barcelona was, for many of us Olympic virgins, as much about sex as it was about sport. There were the gorgeous hostesses - there to assist the athletes - in their bright yellow shirts and black skirts; there were the indigenous lovelies who came to watch the competitions. And then there were the female athletes - literally thousands of them - strutting, shimmying, sashaying and jogging around the village, clad in Lycra and exposing yard upon yard of shiny, toned, rippling and unimaginably exotic flesh. Women from all the countries of the world: muscular, virile, athletic and oozing oestrogen. I spent so much time in a state of lust that I could have passed out. Indeed, for all I knew I did pass out - in a place like that how was one to tell the difference between dreamland and reality?

It was not just the guys. The women, too, seemed in thrall to their hormones, throwing around daring glances and dynamite smiles like confetti. No meal or coffee break was complete without a breathless conversation with a lithe long jumper from Cuba or an Amazonian badminton player from Sweden, the mutual longing so evident it was almost comical. It was an effort of will to keep everything in check until competition had finished. But, once we were eliminated from our respective competitions, we lunged at each other like suicidal fencers. There may have been a fair amount of gay sex going on, too - but given the notorious homophobia in sport it was rather more covert.

This sex fest was not limited to Barcelona: the same thing happened in Sydney in 2000, my second Olympics as an athlete, and is happening right here in Beijing, where this time I'm a commentator. I spoke to an Aussie table tennis player this week to check out the village vibe and he launched into the breathless patter common to any Olympic debutant: “It is unbelievable in there; everyone is totally crazy once they are out of their competitions. God knows what it is going to be like this weekend. It is like a world within a world.” A British runner (anonymous again: athletes are not supposed to talk to journalists unaccompanied by a PR type, least of all about sex) said: “The swimmers finished earlier in the week and it was like there was an eruption.”

Ah yes, the swimmers. For some reason the International Olympic Committee insists on bunching the swimming events towards the beginning of the Games with the inevitable consequence that the aquatics folk get going earlier - sexually I mean - than everyone else. So much so that, at the outset of the Sydney Olympics, Jonathan Edwards, a Christian and triple jumper extraordinaire, caused a ripple by telling them publicly to keep a lid on it. Edwards was simply concerned about getting woken up by creaking floorboards, but given his biblical credentials, it became a story about morality. Not that his intervention made a blind bit of difference. There is a famous story from Seoul in 1988 that there were so many used condoms on the roof terrace of the British team's residential block the night after the swimming concluded that the British Olympic Association sent out an edict banning outdoor sex. Here in Beijing, organisers have realised that such prohibitions are about as useful as banning breathing and have, instead, handed out thousands of free condoms to the athletes. If you can't stop 'em, at least make it safe.

Which all begs a question, or possibly many questions. First, and most importantly, how can one get access to the village? The bad news is that you can't, unless, of course, you happen to be an athlete with the relevant accreditation. But secondly, where does this furnace of sexual energy come from? Or, to put it another way, why do sportsmen and women have such explosive libidos? I am not implying, for one moment, that every athlete in Beijing is at it. Just that 99 per cent of them are.

Before we get to that, however, it is worth noting an intriguing dichotomy between the sexes in respect of all this coupling. The chaps who win gold medals - even those as geeky as Michael Phelps - are the principal objects of desire for many female athletes. There is something about sporting success that makes a certain type of woman go crazy - smiling, flirting and sometimes even grabbing at the chaps who have done the business in the pool or on the track. An Olympic gold medal is not merely a route to fame and fortune; it is also a surefire ticket to writhe.

But - and this is the thing - success does not work both ways. Gold-medal winning female athletes are not looked upon by male athletes with any more desire than those who flunked out in the first round. It is sometimes even considered a defect, as if there is something downright unfeminine about all that striving, fist pumping and incontinent sweating. Sport, in this respect, is a reflection of wider society, where male success is a universal desirable whereas female success is sexually ambiguous. I do not condone this phenomenon, merely note it. Not all athletes are finely tuned specimens of perfect physical health, of course. A fair number are smokers, not prepared to give up despite the nagging of coaches and physiologists. At Barcelona, there was an area where the puffers would congregate near the transport mall. At the table tennis events in Beijing, a male player from Serbia and another from Greece have often been out catching a drag during breaks in play.

But let us get back to all the sex going down in the village. One possible explanation centres on the fact that Olympic athletes have to display an unnatural (and, it has to be said, wholly unhealthy) level of self-discipline in the build-up to big competitions. How else is this going to manifest itself than with a volcanic release of pent-up hedonism? It is a common sight to see recently knocked-out athletes gorging on Magnums and McDonald's, swilling alcohol and, of course, shagging like crazy. Sometimes all three at the same time. Yet this can be only a part of the explanation because most of the athletes I know are as up for it before and during competition as they are in the immediate aftermath. It is as if sportsmen and women have a higher base level of sexual energy. But why? Can it be that one of the underlying drivers of sporting greatness is also the very thing that produces an overactive sex drive?

If so, you can bet your Olympic accreditation that testosterone is implicated. Testosterone is the hormone responsible for many of the differences between the sexes and is also a key physiological driver of aggression, competitiveness and virility. This is particularly so with regard to women. The dual effect of testosterone on female sporting performance and sexuality was demonstrated - somewhat sinisterly - during the state-sponsored doping programme in East Germany. An average teenage girl produces around half a milligram of testosterone per day. In the mid-1980s German female athletes were doped with around 30 milligrams of androgenic steroids per day. The effect on sporting performance was breathtaking - East German women dominated the world in swimming and athletics - but it also produced libidos (according to the testimony of the athletes themselves) that spiraled out of control.

This is not to say that the athletes in the village are all on steroids, or that elevated levels of testosterone inevitably lead to lots of sex. It is merely to say that, at a population level, higher naturally occurring levels of testosterone in both genders would provide a powerful explanation for the combination of sporting prowess and sexual potency.

I also think it is significant that, for most athletes, the village is thousands of miles from home. The old “what goes on tour stays on tour” mantra is still alive and kicking, not just in sport but beyond. There is something deepseated in humanity that leads us to play by different rules whenever we leave town, a phenomenon that has caused instances of terrible inhumanity. When it comes to sex, it simply means that those in relationships no longer recognise, or at least ignore, the boundaries of fidelity and honesty that underpin human monogamy. Philosophers call it moral relativism; the rest of us call it hypocrisy.

There is also a Darwinian component to this. Scientists have measured, for example, how male fertility varies with distance from one's habitual partner. And guess what? According to a report in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, a man's sperm count doubles when he spends a lot of time on the road - up from 389 million sperm per ejaculate to 712 million. Which, I am sure you will agree, is a lot of extra sperm.

I suggest that it is the coming together (if you will forgive the expression) of these factors that creates such an explosive sexual cocktail within the security-controlled perimeter of the Olympic village. Not that this is a bad thing. I have always regarded sexual promiscuity - for a single person at least - as a basic human right, even if it is no panacea for happiness or, indeed, anything else. Of course, many athletes will abstain, others may even disapprove. Only one thing is certain: they will never again enter a place quite like the Olympic village. Not, at least, until London 2012.

Olympic romances

Roger Federer and Miroslava Vavrinec: Roger and Miroslava (originally from Slovakia) met at the 2000 Sydney Olympics where they both competed for Switzerland. A year later Vavrinec retired due to a foot injury and since has devotedly supported her man.

Matt Emmons and Katerina (Katy) Kurkova: Shooting stars Katy (Czech) and Matt (US) met in Athens 2004. She consoled him after he fired at the wrong target in his final shot which dropped him from 1st to 8th place. The chemistry was instant and they married in 2007.

Derek Redmond and Sharron Davies: The British swimmer Sharron Davies and athlete Derek Redmond met at the Barcelona Olympics (1992). In 1994 they married and had two children. They divorced in 2000.

Alyson Annan and Carole Thate: Two great international hockey players Alyson Annan (Australia) and Carole Thate (Netherlands) met in Sydney (2000). Their friendship led to a civil partnership in 2005 and they have recently had a son via donated sperm.

The hot gold contenders

Guo Jingjing China's 26-year-old diving diva is the hottest female athlete at the Olympics. But back off, boys - her boyfriend is the Hong Kong business tycoon Kenneth Fok Kai-kong

Usain Bolt The Jamaican sprinter, who celebrated his 22nd birthday yesterday, smashed both 100 metres and 200 metres world records. Let's hope he doesn't do everything at that speed

Silver

Eamon Sullivan Swimmer, aged 22, from Perth, ensures that these Games aren't a complete wash-out for the Aussies

Yelena Isinbayeva The 26-year-old Russian pole-vaulter - “the chick with the stick” - takes the women's silver medal

Bronze

Laure Manaudou French swimmer, aged 21 and 5ft 10in, takes the bronze medal place for women.

Pete Reed British rower and Royal Navy lieutenant, aged 27, 6ft 7in, 100kg, blue eyes - and he's ours.

[JayJ79]

Add on to the fact that I doubt Molson is a sponsor, and they are probably worked up into a frenzy. If the only would have passed around some plastic Coke cups first....

What aboot the Molson Hockey House that was set up for the Olympics?
Not sure what constitutes an "official sponsor", but it sounds like it has the endorsement of a number of officials.

[youtube][/youtube]

[JayJ79]

what's so "jaw dropping" about it?
male pro athletes are always having champagne-soaked celebrations after winning championships and the like.

I just hope that the player driving the zamboni hadn't been drinking too much.
Friends don't let friends drink and zamboni.

They cannot wreck into any other cars. We get it, you don't like drinking and driving. Let it go

No, but there were other people on the ice.
Have you ever been run over by a zamboni?
Let me tell you, it's not a pleasant experience.

[EPJr]

on the ice after beating the US
It involved underage drinking and cigars



http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/IOC-to-investigate-Canadian-women-s-hockey-team-?urn=oly,224338

[grizzaholic]

on the ice after beating the US
It involved underage drinking and cigars



http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/IOC-to-investigate-Canadian-women-s-hockey-team-?urn=oly,224338

Never mind.

They won a game, and a GOLD, give the rules a rest.

[Wedgebuster]

Canadians celebrating with American beer (I loosely use that term to describe Coors Light)?

Coors belongs to Molson/Coors, they are now Canadian.

[Grizalltheway]

on the ice after beating the US
It involved underage drinking and cigars



http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/IOC-to-investigate-Canadian-women-s-hockey-team-?urn=oly,224338

Drinking age up north is 18, so unless any of the players were 17 or younger...

[grizzaholic]

on the ice after beating the US
It involved underage drinking and cigars



http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/IOC-to-investigate-Canadian-women-s-hockey-team-?urn=oly,224338

Drinking age up north is 18, so unless any of the players were 17 or younger...

I read the article and it said in BC it is 19. Weird if you ask me. And I would find it pretty hard to believe that they wouldn't be drinking after a huge win like that. It is a fucking beer. Let it go IOC. They gave Canada a GOLD MEDAL.

[BlueHen86]

on the ice after beating the US
It involved underage drinking and cigars



http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/IOC-to-investigate-Canadian-women-s-hockey-team-?urn=oly,224338

Drinking age up north is 18, so unless any of the players were 17 or younger...

According to the article linked to earleir in the thread, the drinking age in British Columbia is 19.
And there were 18 years olds drinking.

[UNHWildCats]

Drinking age up north is 18, so unless any of the players were 17 or younger...

I read the article and it said in BC it is 19. Weird if you ask me. And I would find it pretty hard to believe that they wouldn't be drinking after a huge win like that. It is a fucking beer. Let it go IOC. They gave Canada a GOLD MEDAL.

Correct only Quebeck and Ontario I believe are 18,,, the rest are 19. and I agree who the fuck cares if they are drinking... for some of them they just reached the greatest moment they will ever have,

[BlueHen86]

Drinking age up north is 18, so unless any of the players were 17 or younger...

I read the article and it said in BC it is 19. Weird if you ask me. And I would find it pretty hard to believe that they wouldn't be drinking after a huge win like that. It is a fucking beer. Let it go IOC. They gave Canada a GOLD MEDAL.

So it's okay to drink if you are underage, as long as you win something first?

Actually, I agree with you. Let it go. If the local authorities want to fine them so be it, but the IOC should let it go. Anything more than a slap on the wrist from the IOC is an overreaction.

[FargoBison]

Add on to the fact that I doubt Molson is a sponsor, and they are probably worked up into a frenzy. If the only would have passed around some plastic Coke cups first....

What aboot the Molson Hockey House that was set up for the Olympics?
Not sure what constitutes an "official sponsor", but it sounds like it has the endorsement of a number of officials.

[youtube][/youtube]

Molson is a big time sponsor of Canadian hockey, but I don't think they give the IOC money. I'm sure they are just like the NCAA....



If they had dumped their Molson into Coke cups the IOC probably would have let it slide.

[grizzaholic]

I read the article and it said in BC it is 19. Weird if you ask me. And I would find it pretty hard to believe that they wouldn't be drinking after a huge win like that. It is a fucking beer. Let it go IOC. They gave Canada a GOLD MEDAL.

So it's okay to drink if you are underage, as long as you win something first?

Actually, I agree with you. Let it go. If the local authorities want to fine them so be it, but the IOC should let it go. Anything more than a slap on the wrist from the IOC is an overreaction.

They are hockey players, I bet they drink. I wasn't telling them to drink, but if they wish to, GO FOR IT.

If they are competing in the olympics I would bet that they can make some decisions on their own behalf, my guess.

Jay isn't here to bitch about drinking and driving and completely derail this thread.

[BlueHen86]

So it's okay to drink if you are underage, as long as you win something first?

Actually, I agree with you. Let it go. If the local authorities want to fine them so be it, but the IOC should let it go. Anything more than a slap on the wrist from the IOC is an overreaction.

They are hockey players, I bet they drink. I wasn't telling them to drink, but if they wish to, GO FOR IT.

If they are competing in the olympics I would bet that they can make some decisions on their own behalf, my guess.

Jay isn't here to bitch about drinking and driving and completely derail this thread.

So you'd be okay with the Chinese Women's Olympic gymnastics team drinking? How about driving? I've heard bad things Oriental women drivers.

[grizzaholic]

They are hockey players, I bet they drink. I wasn't telling them to drink, but if they wish to, GO FOR IT.

If they are competing in the olympics I would bet that they can make some decisions on their own behalf, my guess.

Jay isn't here to bitch about drinking and driving and completely derail this thread.

So you'd be okay with the Chinese Women's Olympic gymnastics team drinking? How about driving? I've heard bad things Oriental women drivers.

I got no problem with the 12 year olds in China drinking. I have heard some horror stories about all the drivers over there, so YEAH, they can drive all they want. Cannot screw up the driving in China any.

And if you match up a Chinese driver, in a Subaru....nothing but bad things will come of it.

[Rob Iola]

I read the article and it said in BC it is 19. Weird if you ask me. And I would find it pretty hard to believe that they wouldn't be drinking after a huge win like that. It is a fucking beer. Let it go IOC. They gave Canada a GOLD MEDAL.

Correct only Quebeck and Ontario I believe are 18,,, the rest are 19. and I agree who the fuck cares if they are drinking... for some of them they just reached the greatest moment they will ever have,

unless, of course, they get a chance to smoke cigars with me...

[grizzaholic]

Correct only Quebeck and Ontario I believe are 18,,, the rest are 19. and I agree who the fuck cares if they are drinking... for some of them they just reached the greatest moment they will ever have,

unless, of course, they get a chance to smoke cigars with me...

Or this guy

[BlueHen86]

Correct only Quebeck and Ontario I believe are 18,,, the rest are 19. and I agree who the fuck cares if they are drinking... for some of them they just reached the greatest moment they will ever have,

unless, of course, they get a chance to smoke cigars with me...

I wonder if they were Cuban cigars. They are legal up there. Might be the only way Cuba gets in to the Winter Olympics.

[93henfan]

1-0 USA over Finland early on goalkeeper mistake. The Fin goalie came out to play it and flipped to one of our guys. Easy goal.

[93henfan]

2-0 pp

Nice pass right across the crease from Stastny to Parise.

[UNHWildCats]

2-0 pp

woohoooooo

[93henfan]

3-0 on another pp goal

[FargoBison]

When it rains it pours!!!

3-0 USA!!

[Rob Iola]

When it rains it pours!!!

3-0 USA!!

Be scared, Canada/Slovokia, be very scared...