Intparent, I am starting a piggy bank. 
I think the IOC needs to get its head out of the sand and get a dedicated cohort of host cities… That would solve quite a few issues…
@sushiritto - How can you possibly suggest that Curling isn’t an athletic endeavor? I broke a sweat just watching it on TV.
“Closing ceremony- triumph of the LED tech .” - Mr. B.
Agree. Look at these photos from Rio not even 2 years after. What a waste. Not only for a country that could have spent the $$ in other areas but just not a good use of resources on a crowded, polluted planet. It’s really sad and disgraceful. As much as I enjoy a lot about the Olympics, I really detest this aspect.
You didn’t answer the comments about why it would be less of a sport than archery or shooting. Heck, a Russian who won a medal this time got kicked out for doping. I actually thought it was more work than I’d expected when I watched it. The rock is heavy, it requires precise eye hand coordination, and the sweepers look like they are working pretty hard sometimes. It also is strategic and requires an eye for angles & physics. It is obscure — but not a “non-sport”. And nobody made you watch it if you don’t like it…
@BunsenBurner I’d like to see a city on each continent take turns. Maybe one city for summer & one for winter. (Although not sure Africa could host winter…), I think climate change will make it harder to host the winter games in the future. Certainly winter sport athletes like the cross country skiers are having some challenges in some of their historic World Cup venues with warner temps and less snow already.
This is a Winter Olympics thread. Archery and shooting are irrelevant. I don’t consider Curling a sport and it’s certainly not worthy of Olympics status. And comparing Curling to other events won’t change my mind.
The rock is heavy? Maybe, depends on how much one can lift. It’s between 38-44 lbs, but the participants slide them on ice. They don’t pick them up and throw them.
As for hand-eye coordination, Curling is considered low in that regard. I just looked it up.
http://www.espn.com/espn/page2/sportSkills?sort=handEye
http://www.topendsports.com/fitness/sports-coordination.htm
Again, low hand-eye coordination, low aerobics, low strength required. And I had no idea a Russian Curler was caught using PED’s. Wow, to me that’s just tragic in a comedic sense.
But Beijing did summer and is now doing winter, using a lot of the same facilities. Not many cities can do that. Salt Lake probably could, but not sure those summer Olympians want to do track and field at 6000 ft.
The venues in Salt Lake City would be closer to 4500 feet. But IMO, SLC’s miserable summers should put an end to that idea.
By the time the summer Olympics get to Los Angeles in 2028, they’ll probably have added surfing and hiking and craft beer brewing, and maybe we’ll get some venues down in San Diego. It seems like half the summer athletes train around here anyway!
Apropos of nothing, am I the only one who wondered why Blythe Danner was coaching the female Russian ice skaters? DH claims he didn’t see the resemblance but with that blond hair I thought the coach really looked like the actress.
With regard to curling, I have to mention that in my never-ending attempt to devise ridiculous ECs that could make an applicant seem unique to admissions staffers, I came up with “rutabaga curling.” Then I discovered that it actually exists! But it is a gateway activity to curling.
“By the time the summer Olympics get to Los Angeles in 2028, they’ll probably have added surfing”
You’ll be getting surfing at the 2020 Olympics.
And skateboarding. And baseball/softball, karate, and sports climbing.
Zagitova won the entire thing by 1.3 points. If Medvedeva and Zagitova had put the same number of jumps in the first half and the same number of jumps in the second half of the long programs, Medvedeva would have won by 0.5 points as her first two jumps in the long program were a combined 18.5 points and she would have had 1.85 bonus points if she had put them in the second half.
Interesting article about why cities don’t want to host the games. Apparently Paris and LA were the only cities to bid for the 2024 games, so the IOC made the decision to give the 2024 games to Paris and went ahead and awarded LA the 2028 games because they were afraid that no one would bid on them later.
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/23/17008910/2018-winter-olympics-host-stadiums-cost-pyeongchang
The beauty of the Olympic Games is that there is likely to be something for everyone to enjoy. I don’t know many people who love every event but most people enjoy more than one. To argue that a particular event isn’t a sport is silly, in my opinion. Clearly the IOC disagrees with you, otherwise it wouldn’t be in the Olympics.
@tutumom2001 maybe she couldn’t do that or it didn’t go with the music? Or her coach was favoring the younger? Lots of things but it was close. They are both fantastic and there is always next season.
A nice gallery of Tara’s and Johnny’s outfits:
https://sports.yahoo.com/tara-lipinski-johnny-weir-outfit-slideshow-wp-012544948.html
Back in the day, men wore clothes, not “outfits”.
That is still the case. 