2014 Games in Sochi, Russia

[pretzels]

I would want to sample the other beers available and share with the locals too if I could. What part of the passport is read to get the Canadian beer fridge to open? Who maintains the fridge and is the fridge's reader datalogging the identity of Canadians opening the fridge?

Have been watching coverage here and there in stores, McDonald's and at home. Find myself working off the extra pretzels by wanting to be outside more each day. Funny how that works.

Any athlete managing to survive their competitions should be proud of making it through. Too many crashes on the ski/snow courses with hills-hope for decent recovery support/medical support/rehab.

[yukon]

Shea Weber's shot left his stick, and by the time it hit the net, Canada was able to exhale. For much of the night, Team Canada forced everyone to hold their collective breath while goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis and Latvia played with house money in the men's Olympic hockey quarter-final. Weber's third-period goal was enough to break the tie and help the Canadians escape with a 2-1 victory at Bolshoy Ice Dome on Wednesday.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sochi/canada-sque ... -1.1693967

Now the Olympics are interesting. The US and Canadian Ladies Hockey teams go at it tomorrow and the US/Canadian Men on Friday. The winners go on to the Gold Medal game, the losers to the Bronze medal game.

pretzels on Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:20 am

What part of the passport is read to get the Canadian beer fridge to open? Who maintains the fridge and is the fridge's reader datalogging the identity of Canadians opening the fridge?

The image opens it up. It is scanned and then if it matches a registered passport the door will open for all to enjoy. It's Molson's baby, so I would assume they are maintaining it.

[CielOnTap]

Women's hockey game tomorrow! That's a competition worth watching-9:00 pm Sochi time or 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (we are 9h behind Sochi).

Don't forget the Women's curling matches are on as well!
http://olympics.cbc.ca/schedules-results/day=2014-02-20/index.html

[CielOnTap]

When I put the online feed for the game (no sound on my computer), it was third period and US women's team led with 2 points to Canada's 0. Noticed that game is in overtime (over 14 minutes at this point)tied at 2-2. Wow...

Update: Canada got in a third goal-that's gold for the Women's Hockey team! Teams just did the handshakes after the game. Looks like the medal ceremony is about to start on the ice. Side note: some of the Canadian women played in US schools where they went to study. I don't know which Canadian universities offer hockey scholarships for women.

The gold medal shot:


According to deja vu, this is the FOURTH gold medal for the Canadian women's hockey team-WAY TO PLAY!

[deja vu]

The beer bet is normal between the Canadian PM and the US President when it comes to Olympic and World hocky championships, but someone threw another into the mix in Chicago. This billboard showed up yesterday. Apparently Chicago has a beef with Canadian Singer (if you can call that singing) Justin Beiber, because he walked over the Black Hawks logo in the dressing room. So someone paid for a billboard and threw him into the mix for the Mens semi final match.

Sorry, but you get to keep him a while longer. The Canadians won the match 1-0, so they will play Sweden for Gold and Silver and the US plays Finland for the Bronze medal. Canadian Men's curling did their part and won gold to go with the Ladies Gold Medal.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/winter ... final.html

As if there wasn't enough at stake when Canada take on the USA in the Winter Olympics ice hockey semi-finals on Friday, a cheeky billboard has upped the ante.

A company in Illinois has taken out advertising space suggesting that the loser of Friday's clash will have to 'keep' Justin Bieber.

The Canadian-born pop star lives in California but in light of recent controversies, neither country is particularly keen to have him.

[pretzels]

Bieber is now living in Atlanta but will be selling his California house and buy another one in the state.

Nice weather we're having in the US and Canada--not everyone is watching tv but keeping snow shovels and snow blowers ready for the next clearing.

One more day and the sports hurrah, round 1, will end. Round 2, the Paralympics, will begin in early March.

[yukon]

A really hard disappointing end to the Olympics for the US Mens hockey team. Finland takes the Bronze and the 5-0 loss even makes it tougher for them. A high scoring team until their loss to Canada and then it all seemed to fall apart against the Fins.

[CielOnTap]

Alan Abel's segment, My Russia, on CBC Canada, just covered the story behind the Russian song, Hockey is Not for Cowards. Interesting-the composer sent greetings to Don Cherry, who is on Coach's Corner on Hockey Night in Canada.

I'm watching the video file of the CBC crew just before the Closing Ceremonies. I missed the live broadcast.
http://olympics.cbc.ca/videos/live/video/olympic-daytime-day-34404.html

I understand Canadian men's hockey team won the gold medal in the final match today, a 3-0 game against Sweden.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/sochi2014/hockey/2014/02/23/canada_wins_hockey_gold.html

World Cup 2018 is going to be held in Russia at Fisht Stadium. That will be interesting.

[deja vu]

The other side of the coin was Sweden losing Nicklas Backstrom 2 1/2 hours before the game because of a positive test. Problem is he has been taking it for years, playing in the NHL and internationally at the same time.
The big question is why now, just before this game? The Russian Lab was warned to clean up it's act before the games began and it looks like they may have screwed up badly. Too late for this game, but the Swedes should complain to get at the truth.

http://olympics.cbc.ca/news/article/nic ... -game.html

Nicklas Backstrom was scratched from Sweden's lineup for the men's gold medal hockey game after testing positing for a banned substance at the Sochi Olympics.

"I've got absolutely nothing to hide," Backstrom told reporters. "It was shocking to me and at the same time I'm here right now and I have to deal it.

"I haven't done anything differently in the past seven years and I've been playing internationally all that time.

[CielOnTap]

Anyone who watched Dream High will recognize the opera singer performing for the Pyeongchang part of the 2018 preview-she's [url]Sumi Jo[/url]. She appeared in the drama as giving a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumi_Joyoung aspiring singer a personal singing lesson on stage. Wow! I am expecting that in 2018, K-pop will be heavily featured in tourism and concert promotions. Could Dream High be used as the theme song for 2018? Lyrics would transfer well to sporting aspirations!
I don't recognize the second singer following Sumi Jo.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1970307-olympic-closing-ceremonies-2014-what-to-watch-for-in-final-sochi-event

Some of the biggest Korean entertainers are expected to be part of the program. Na Yoon-Sun, Jo Sumi, Na Yoon Sun (also known as Youn Sun Nah,) Lee Seung-Chul, and Yang Bang-Ean have been confirmed as part of the program. Another tidbit of interesting information on the ceremony is the massive amount of costumes that will be used in the performance. Close to 10,000 costumes are ready to use for the Closing Ceremony.

Third singer I believe is singing Arirang, a Korean folk song. On reality shows with K-pop singers, this is the song the singers teach students in other countries that they visit. The yellow singlets on the youth read "Dream Program." It is a sport outreach initiative: http://pyeongchang2018.org/horizon/eng/page/sub05/sub05_02.asp?hb_Mode=readArticle&hb_BoardManager_ID=BDENAA01&hb_BoardItem_ID=57002

Those snowmen remind me of the snowmen the characters in Winter Sonata made on their date at a park.
http://pyeongchang2018.org/horizon/eng/index.asp

Official news article about the Closing Ceremonies:
http://www.sochi2014.com/en/news-sochi-2014-closing-ceremony-unites-olympic-generations