Winter Olympics

[gurnemanz]

I've been watching something called Big Air ski jumping. I went skiing a couple of times in my youth, barely progressing beyond the nursery slopes and am now due a hip replacement (well, I'm on the NHS list), and my admiration for the feats on show is unbounded. They start by going down a ski jump ramp - backwards - and then leap off to implement a combination of airborne twists and turns so complex that it hard to grasp what is going on. The commentators' esoteric descriptive language doesn't help much. It's a bit different from the curling.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've been watching something called Big Air ski jumping. I went skiing a couple of times in my youth, barely progressing beyond the nursery slopes and am now due a hip replacement (well, I'm on the NHS list), and my admiration for the feats on show is unbounded. They start by going down a ski jump ramp - backwards - and then leap off to implement a combination of airborne twists and turns so complex that it hard to grasp what is going on. The commentators' esoteric descriptive language doesn't help much. It's a bit different from the curling.

I've just been watching this - it is indeed a remarkable example of mind/body co-ordination, showing what humans are capable of, though I do feel this kind of thing to be closer to acrobatics than to sport, and that it sets up unrealistic expectations beyond most people's ambitions. But once you've had your hip replacement, why not give it a try, gurney?

[jayne lee wilson]

Maybe this will help.....

https://www.chillfactore.com/tips-and-tricks/skiing/ski-terminology/

Hugely enjoying the classic downhill, slalom and snowboarding events so far - on at just the right time for me, 0200 -0400 etc....as I sip the brandy-fortified hot chocolate...
Excellent direction - I especially like the high-drone shots of the slalom - you can really get the big picture and the sheer skill...I sit there shaking my head in wonder...

The Womens' Slopestyle the other night was pretty hair-raising....the competitors really are right on the edge....
Mens Downhill Silver Medallist twas Johan Clarey (Fr) ....at the age of 41...so Ibra scoring weekly for Milan in Serie A is not on his own!

[gurnemanz]

I've just been watching this - it is indeed a remarkable example of mind/body co-ordination, showing what humans are capable of, though I do feel this kind of thing to be closer to acrobatics than to sport, and that it sets up unrealistic expectations beyond most people's ambitions. But once you've had your hip replacement, why not give it a try, gurney?

I hope to perfect my quadruple backwards loop.

[Serial_Apologist]

Maybe this will help.....

https://www.chillfactore.com/tips-and-tricks/skiing/ski-terminology/

Hugely enjoying the classic downhill, slalom and snowboarding events so far - on at just the right time for me, 0200 -0400 etc....as I sip the brandy-fortified hot chocolate...

The Womens' Slopestyle the other night was pretty hair-raising....the competitors really are right on the edge....

Ah! - a glissary!

[Serial_Apologist]

I hope to perfect my quadruple backwards loop.

[teamsaint]

Sounds like something Richard Barrett would put on a B side.

[Serial_Apologist]

Sounds like something Richard Barrett would put on a B side.

You mean cannoned in inverted retrograde!

[teamsaint]

You mean cannoned in inverted retrograde!

Now ice dance with a Barrett soundtrack would be a fine thing !!

[RichardB]

Now ice dance with a Barrett soundtrack would be a fine thing!!

I would do anything for love but I won't do that.

On a slightly different subject, we spent last week in Jahorina, one of the venues for the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, because my OH needs her ski fix every winter and junior had his first skiing lessons. I have not yet had my own first skiing lessons, I am planning to have them in hell when it freezes over.

[Serial_Apologist]

The choice of the famous intro to the Tchaikovsky PC 1 as theme music lead me to wonder who is it who decides on the choice: the Olympic Games organising body? Or (ahem) the Chinese government?