Vancouver 2010 Olympics Coverage Daily - Torino 2006

Torino Coverage

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 13:51:42 -0800

Kris Krug, Robert Scales, and Boris Mann are currently on the ground in Torino. We are capturing the feeling here with a series of posts, pictures, and video called "Streets of Torino". Kris and Robert have been handed iMate mobile devices with ComVu's PocketCaster software installed, so you'll see live video appear on the PocketCaster website.

Also, while here, we are putting on a symposium, covering Web 2.0 and the Future of Sport. This will include academics and industry practitioners, and we are inviting interested parties to come and join us. Please register if you will be attending.

The Duff Man! - Olympic Laughs with the Superhero Skeleton-ist Duff Gibson - Olympic Outsider #8

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:42:58 -0800

Torino 2006 Skeleton Gold Medalist athlete Duff Gibson chats with Olympic Outsider host Dave Thorvald about having a beer named after him, life as a Calgary fireman, being Canada's (and the world's) oldest gold medalist, training for technical and speed courses, the Whistler track, athletic challenges and the future of the sport at an Olympic rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery in May 2006.

Download The Duff Man! - Olympic Laughs with the Superhero Skeleton-ist Duff Gibson
(.mp3, 8MB, 9:53)

Press Foibles

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 16:14:14 -0800

I've noticed various errors and ommissions by the big-time media during the Winter Olympics (nowhere near as many as i make of course but ...). Didn't screen caputre ESPN listing Jeremy Wotherspoon as USA but did catch CBC recalling Saku Koivu's days playing for the Czechs (attached .pdf).

Olympic Outsider Podcast #6 - Hockey Tournament Wrap-up with Dave and Dan

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 21:12:13 -0800

Host Dave Thorvald with Dan Funboy wrap up the Men's and Women's hockey tournaments from Torino 2006 in this enhanced podcast with pictures.

Topics include team leadership, puck possession, tactical strategies, tournament surprise teams, and a bit of looking ahead to 2010.

Grab thew show:
Olympic Outsider Episode 6 - Hockey Tournament Wrap-up (m4a)
Olympic Outsider Episode 6 - Hockey Tournament Wrap-up (mp3)

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Olympic Outsider Podcast #5 - Wrapping Up Turin XX Part 1

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 19:39:54 -0800

Olympic Outsider Episode 5 - Wrapping Up XX Part 1

Host Dave Thorvald with Dan Funboy and buddy Lance wrap up the performances of Torino 2006 with emphasis on Team Canada's athletes.

Topics include notable Men's and Women's performances in Luge, Skeleton, Bobsled, Curling, Short-Track Speedskating, Long-track Speedskating, Alpine Skiing, Nordic Skiing, Biathlon, Freestyle Skiing, and Snowboarding. Plus banter on doping measures, police raids, sportsmanship, new sports, and herbal remedies.

This 38:18 long podcast is enhanced with 'chapters' for your listening convenience.

Grab thew show:
Olympic Outsider Episode 5 - Wrapping Up XX Part 1 (m4a)
Olympic Outsider Episode 5 - Wrapping Up XX Part 1 (mp3)

What a lame Vancouver presentation

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:45:01 -0800

That was a painful segment promoting Vancouver. C'mon organizers, that was puzzling, weak, uninteresting and unfocused. Giant fake snow blocks making a stone monument ... huh? We can do better!

and Avril! What happened to the cool punky chick? What's with the Farrah Fawcett hair and froofy look? Looks like the 3rd Olsen twin. Get the handlers away from her! Should have got a BC artist (like DOA but not Bryan Adams) or even Barenaked Ladies (they were classic at SLC). Sam did all right though.

Overall, Ugh. Embarrassing. Vancouver is so much cooler then they showed and this is B.C.'s games, not 'Canada's' per se. Let BC show off, no reason to include shots of Toronto in the cheesy montage.

VANOC clearly needs some folks with artistic sensibilities on staff. Comments?

Security breach in Closing Ceremonies

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:26:22 -0800

What was up with the security breach with the t-shirted guy running upon stage during the Torino Organizing Committes' President's speech? Anyone catch what he said or what was on his t-shirt? Any other security/protest issues of note on the ground?

How The Village People United The World in Torino 2006

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:59:58 -0800

I find it very interesting how the Village People were able to unite the people of the world. I have been watching snippets of the closing ceremonies in Torino but my jaw dropped when the dancers in the stadium started to "break out the moves" when the YMCA song started.

The camera work on the CBC was scanning the crowds and, to my astonishment, people were doing the YMCA moves! Flags from all over the world were being tossed around YMCA excitement. Canada, Italy, USA, Russia, and others were waving their flags to the YMCA. The friggin' YMCA song!

I exclaimed: "See! There is world peace in front of our eyes and everyone is missing it!"

How is this possible? A dance tune has broken down years of suspicion and history in a few seconds? I am forced to conclude, the human race should play the YMCA song all around the world and everyone will be able to put aside their differences and boogie down.

The amazing things we can discover from the Olympics.

Swede Finnish to Torino 2006

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 10:43:36 -0800

Just an early morning note to say that a fine game between neighbors Sweden and Finland provided a fitting end to an Olympics of unknowns and intrigue. Several Vancouver Canucks coming home with medals, as well as a few with injuries.

Overall for Canada, a bit sweet (24 medals including curling and lots of speed skating) and a bit bitter (wither Wotherspoon, Men's hockey, lots of 4th places) but all in all outstanding results abounded.

While CBC's coverage was better than NBC, it wasn't near enough and i am glad i will be in person in Vancouver 2010 and i wish there were more fan-podcasts rather than the corporate pablum-casts rehashing the same schnews.

I spent the last couple of days cross-country skiing, hottubbing and snowboarding (ouch) but will be posting an extended Olympics Outsider wrap-up cast in the next couple of days hopefully with Dan Funboy's loquaicous insight.

I want the raw and the cooked including ads and I am willing to pay for it

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:04:32 -0800

If you watch TV coverage of the Olympics, you see coaches, fans and friends taking videos and photographs of the Olympics. Yet next to none of that is on the web, aargh.

START OF RANT:

Like Arieanna and Boris, I want the raw and the cooked and I am willing to pay for it.

I want the established media's Q&A, high gloss stuff.

I want the raw video, text, photos, audio from the fans, coaches and friends of the athletes.

In other words, I want the everything there is available for the Olympic events I am really interested in.

For example, I am a cross country skier. So for Chandra Crawford's win in cross country ~~pursuit~~sprint (Chandra's CBC web forum):

Olympic Outsider Podcast #4 - Quarter-final Hockey Predictions

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 17:06:37 -0800

Quick wrap-up from the preliminary round of the Men's hockey tournament with Dave Thorvald and Toadler from upstairs. Plus bold predictions for the quarter-final round and a wee bit of history tossed in.

Download Olympic Outsider podcast #4
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Listen in iTunes

Blogaholics: I want more than the media can provide

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 16:20:26 -0800

Wow! Arieanna just wrote an incredible piece outlining how she feels blogging is missing from the Olympics. I'm going to point this out to several people as an example of how we might get a better glimpse into viewers as well as competitors.

Right now we have plenty of coverage of the Olympics. I'm seeing it a lot - I watch the coverage from the Canadian perspective and the US one - watching highlights on both channels to catch different elements of each event. I read the b5 media coverage. I catch snippets here and there over the Internet. But it's very one-sided. It's about the perception of the events - not the participation. From the viewers/commentators, not the athletes, their families, the coaches or the judges.
My understanding of the IOC rules indicates that athletes cannot blog their Olympic experiences. This is just wrong. It's not about granting exclusive media coverage to a multinational network - it's about capturing the event. And for that we need perspective. Right now the coverage is like a picture with giant holes cut in it.
When blogging is banned from certain perspectives, it not only makes me angry and annoyed, but it makes me feel empty. In this instance, I want more than the media can provide. Interviews are not the same thing as blogging. Blogging is a very personal activity - where one person by choice shares their perspective and emotions and pictures and lives. It's not edited and it's not driven in question/answer format.

Read the whole thing: Blogaholics - The Olympics needs perspective

Women's hockey no longer a two-team sport

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 16:06:07 -0800

Chuq von Rospach writes a lot about NHL hockey on his blog. He's put together some notes on Olympic hockey with the same high level of quality:

Over on the women's side -- congratulations to Sweden for knocking the US out of the gold medal game, setting up the first ever international tourney where the US and Canada won't be fighting for the gold medal. This is historic, because it means it's no longer a two-team sport at the elite level -- and that can only improve the sport and interest in it.

Chuq goes on to point to the Vancouver Canucks OpEd stunned reaction to the Canadian men's hockey team loss.

CTV non rights holding media team: Meeting the Murman

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 15:49:29 -0800

One of the great experiences of supporting events at the BC Canada Place here in Torino was meeting the CTV team -- including Murray, Brent, Kevin, and Vicki (apologies if I've missed some people). If you want to get a real sense for how media functions on the ground during such a crazy news period as the Olympics, check out Murray's blog, aka Chopper Murman. These guys are working super hard and going through a lot, and for such a sustained amount of time that the fatigue levels are astounding.

Murray has been doing a fantastic job of chronicling the experience with words and pictures on his blog, which he started right at the beginning of the Torino experience. I like this post about filming a typical Italian family's reaction to the open ceremonies (since non-rights holders can't cover ANY events that take place directly at official Olympic venues). They ended up editing the shots directly at the dinner table -- check out The Opening:

Olympic Notebook for Feb. 19th - Day Eight 'not so Great' but Day Nine 'looking Fine'

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 12:38:48 -0800

Well after the euphoria of Day Seven, Day Eight was a bit of a reality check after a variety of disappointments and underwhelming performances. Day Nine though is shaping up nicely despite the being down 2-0 to Finland after 1 period.

A few notes:

Men's Hockey loses to Suisse

For a loss, oddly this one didn't hurt all that much. Switzerland played their guts out and scored another huge victory. I won't go on cause i blogged live during the game, but the short version is, ... Way to go Switzerland for stepping it up and (with your 2 huge wins) welcome to the big leagues.

Men losing to Finland

Underway now in the second which must be better than the first in which Canada stood around and watched Finland put on a clinic in team play, skill and hustle. I am bit peeved right now so will hold my tongue in anticipation of a spirited comeback.