Hiya, folks! This is allaboutthegames885, and I wanted to jaw with people about the Winter Games taking place in Vancouver starting on the 12th of this month... Unfortunately, nobody had created a thread on the subject, so I took it upon myself to do so... Here you can discuss any aspect of this year's Winter Olympiad that you want, including (but not limited to): the torch run, the opening ceremonies, the events, the athletes, the venues, et cetera... So as long as it's relevant to the topic and not meant to offend anyone, post away!

Had the torch come through my town a few weeks back. Apparently there were protesters decrying the games as a tool of colonialism.

I don't get it. I understand the Olympics as a symbol of humanity, peace, sportsmanship, or orgiastic capitalist excess, but what is the basis behind the idea of colonialism? Rich countries importing athletes from poorer countries, maybe. Does anybody get this?

We will correct our mistake from last olympics and take gold medal from hockey...

Ok, so I haven't managed to grab a lot of attention! I'll have to choose a subtopic that will grab people's interest, and I choose Snowboarding! I'll start by discussing the Superpipe... The Superpipe has always been an event where the athletes evolve or die, meaning that a Snowboarder has to either advance his or her game or simply retire... Case in point, Olympic Gold Medalist, "The Flying Tomato" Shaun White: he was the bee's knees in Torino back in 2006, but then came the discovery of the double-cork (as in 2 corkscrews)... The very face of extreme snowboarding had two options: 1) walk away from the Winter sport he most loves, or 2) fight himself tooth and nail to learn the trick... Fortunately for the sport, its fans, and Team USA Snowboarding, he chose the latter option... His energy drink sponsor, Red Bull, provided him with a special foam pit in the side of a mountain in order to practice the double-cork. After many failed attempts, he perfected the Double McTwist 1260, a move he nicknamed "Whitesnake", which would become the move he would use to earn the highest score ever given at the US Snowboarding Grand Prix... And good thing too, because it would turn out that by this very year, you would have to either have the double-cork in your arsenal, or the ability to increase your amplitude to dizzying heights... At this point in time, the only athlete to have demonstrated both qualities to an exceptional enough degree to wow even the most jaded of spectators is Olympic Gold Medalist, "The Flying Tomato" Shaun White...

Errr. . . Finland? Give me some player names and we'll see. I'm guessing USA wins, because there are Minnesotans on the squad!

I always go with Russia<3 I dont know why....>_>

BTW: IM ALL IN FOR AMERICA STILL!

Finland lol. You need more than a good goaltender to win in hockey.

My affiliation is bovious

We already took silver medals in Torino. =P Sweden won by luck that final.  We have maybe the best goalies in whole world at the moment but I agree that otherwise we are behind Russia, USA, Canada and Sweden. Mikko Koivu is maybe the only really really good player after goalies (Kiprusoff, Bäcström, Niittymäki) but we still have some players that are easily good enough to play in olympics. (Pitkänen, Timonen, S.Koivu, Selänne, T.Ruutu, Filppula, Hagman, Salo etc..)

@Slimebeast: In olympics it is far more important that your team has great teamplay than that your team has pure skill because you have to adapt so fast to play with different players than usually.  We have always went to WC tournaments and olympics as underdog but right after canada we have collected most medals since -90. In olympics goalie is also even more important than usual because when you go to quartelfinals and so on you drop if you lose just one game. If you have great goalie you can win that game even though the opponent is otherwise better. I agree that if Finland would play against Canada ten time we would lose eight of those ten but when you play just one time anything can happen...

Sven Kramer! I'm guessing the Dutch will be unbeatable again when it comes to skating. MAle-skating... I think the women will have a hard time.