17 days and the closing ceremonies come to an end

[garry_ludwar@hotmail.com]

i talked to several people while the closing ceremonies on facebook hearing all their comments on it. some loved it because they said it was so canadian and others loathed it because it wasnt more serious.

so im just wondering whats the international take on it and what do you think of canada because of it

Edited March 1, 2010 by GARRY_R _L

[ramjet]

I reckon the closing ceremony is primarily for the competitors and they've been serious for 2 weeks. Who gives a rip anyway? It's a party now that's it over. People are too serious and someone will always need something to gripe about to make theirs lives complete.

Rant over.

[Advantage]

Go Canada, go. 2-3 Awesome game, enjoy today's hangover!

It's been a good couple of weeks, we've been spoilt with the coverage over here as the BBC uses its new channels to make this Olympics very easy to view without overkill spreading through the network. Been watching the Alpine stuff and the sliding - and obviously last night's hockey... Loved it.

[Paul C]

Have never had any interest in snow sports other than watching the occasional skier cartwheel into the orange nets.

But this years ski-cross was incredible veiwing, much better than watching a string of people taking it in turns to beat the clock down some slope.

Ace stuff!

[Kimbers]

I agree with paul, the Ski Cross was amazing!! I also loved the Speed Skating! Wow, when 4-6 go for it it's amazingly exciting!

I thought I'd hate the Winter olympics but ended up even watching Curling on Saturday morning!

[esprit350]

funny that, because as a skier I find ski cross uninspiring. it does not do it for me looks so slow and the course used at the games was not skier freindly at all the berms were too high, so killed too much speed, give me a good slalom race any day or aerials or moguls

[red vtec]

I got the impression it was a 2 week jolly for BBC staff. We sent more BBC staff than Team GB.

What the F56k does Matthew, sorry Sir Matthew Pinsent know about snow sports? and that old dog Sue Barker (pun intended), she was Sh!t at Tennis let alone presenting. Nice work if you can get it.

And yes I like skiing etc I am a very experienced skier.

Oh joy we have the world cup to look forward to next ( I hate Football )

[Paul C]

as a skier I find ski cross uninspiring.

But i'm not a skier, so i am limited to what i enjoy watching the most!

I find time trails of anything incredibly boring, be it on wheels, ski's whetever. Someone punching their guts out only to have look at some clock at the end, or wait for the last runner is never the same as head to head competition IMO.

The grand national would be a very boring and drawn affair out if 40 or so runners each did the course seperately and then had several rounds after that based on their best times. I'm well glad the winter olympics has something thats fun to watch for someone outside of the sport. It's certainly the most time i've ever spent watching it, and anyone i have spoken to has only the ski cross to talk about, to be fair the cotswolds are not full of skiers though.

[Quicker]

I am in a 'unique' situation - my wife and I are Canadians, moved to Austin, TX about 10yrs back. Both kids born since then are of course US. So, my boy wore a US Team jersey at his hockey pratice on Sunday just before the game and then we ended up cheering for different sides all game long!

It was good drama to see the Canada / US plot and to see both women and men teams win gold.

I tried to explain it to my US freinds - a country with only 33 million people (smaller than California) 4 million of them watched the TV show where the Team Canada players were named....

I thought the closing ceremonies were perfect! of course, my US friends don't always get my humor....

Edited March 1, 2010 by Quikr

[garry_ludwar@hotmail.com]

well thats just it people dont understand how canadians can laugh at ourselves, like having a mime raise the last late arm.

or the way we apologize for everything even tho its 90% toungue in cheek

"sry we won gold ill get it bronzed"

"sry we arent the giant frozen tundra you thought"

[wookiecj]

It’s very easy to forget that Canada is a much younger country than China/Italy et al and as such does not have quite the same depth of cultural history to draw on when showcasing their country in an opening ceremony spectacular. That said, I think that the Canadian opening, and closing, ceremonies showed off all the positive aspects of Canadian life and their heritage with a real sense of humour which put the whole games in perspective. I personally thought that they were both very well executed and that Canadians should be justifiably proud of them. The electro-mechanical, hydraulic, lighting, projection and physical effects were stunning from start to finish. Although a show of that scale is almost bound to have the odd ‘glitch’ they were unfortunate that theirs happened with one of the torch arms. It’s a tribute to the planners that, with a wry sense of humour, they incorporated references to it in the closing ceremony. I much appreciated that ‘human’ touch.

The only slightly sour note for me was the ‘own the podium’ slogan. I appreciate that it was meant to be motivational but it seemed to be in the same vein as Atlanta’s ‘second place is first of the losers’ (thereby implying that all American non-gold winners were losers which, strangely enough, my American friends seemed to have a lot of trouble taking on board. I’m not sure if they were suffering from a sense of humour failure or an inability to process ideas to a logical conclusion!).

I'm not a skier, or any sort of athlete really but I much prefer the Winter Olympics to the Summer ones. I managed to watch all of the BBC coverage (courtesy of my sky+ recorder) and I thought that it was fabulous.

Being an old fart, it has taken me a long time, probably 10 years or so, to come to terms with snowboarding in all of its different forms. At the outset it seemed like just a bunch of yahoo a*seholes whooping it up in stupid clothes. You only need to think back to Lindsey Jacobellis showboating herself into losing a surefire Gold medal in Turin 2006 by demonstrating:- A. her immaturity, B. her 'Americaness' and C. her lack of appreciation of what it takes to be an Olympian to see what I mean. Initially the sport was probably driven along by the clothing sponsors rather than any organisation which had a true interest in athleticism. Now, as the sport itself becomes more mature, it can hold its head up with the other 'disciplines' requiring just as much dedication skill and courage while presenting itself as a truly worthwhile spectator sport.... (personal note... I still think that the clothing is a problem, but as I said I'm an old fart so what do I know?).

The snowboard-cross, skier-cross, half pipe, moguls and freestyle competitions were truly awesome and superbly covered with the zip wire cameras which I'm sure will do a lot to engage the interest of the younger generation in future Winter Olympics.

I was actually on the phone to a mate in America when Canada won the ice hockey final and didn’t have the heart to tell him that the right team won and I was supporting Canada anyway.

I think that the games have done an enormous amount to enrich the lives of Canadians by convincing themselves, and the rest of the world, that they don’t have anything to say ‘sorry’ for, except to make a humorous point……. Well done Canada.

Oh, and red vtec, Pinsent is an Olympian… that’s all you need to know…

[red vtec]

Oh, and red vtec, Pinsent is an Olympian… that’s all you need to know…

Cool, maybe he can sort me a ticket for 2012 after all the free loaders have had theirs.

[wookiecj]

Cool, maybe he can sort me a ticket for 2012 after all the free loaders have had theirs.

I'm presuming that you'll want to go to the 58 football matches which start on Wed 25th July 2012.....

No problem, you can have the one which he was going to get for me. I dislike football even more than you do... Oh no you don't.... oh yes I do! (..... thread degenerates into a Pantomime routine .....)