Tag: olympics

I’m actually following the Olympics vicariously this year!

Not watching any of the events, but: we’re ahead of the People’s Republic of China, which pleases me greatly.  Also, I am hearing that American Simone Biles is well on her way to mega-Olympic stardom in the field of gymnastics this year, which maybe I will try to catch if I can. It’s nice to be present for once-in-a-generation athletes, which Ms. Biles apparently is.  Besides, the team apparently kicked Russia’s zhopa today, which also pleases me greatly. Can’t say I miss the Cold War, but the international sporting events were more entertaining when we were up against countries worth humiliating.

Great. We’re going to have an entry in the Olympics city selection, after all.

This is awful. Can the decision be appealed?

Seriously, having the Olympics is a boondoggle these days. An expensive, annoying boondoggle. I’d be just as happy if it stayed out of the USA for a while. Besides: it’s no fun without the Soviets to beat.

Two-Fisted Second World Adventure Tales! #Merica #murica #sochi #olympics

Via USA Today:

Bring home the gold, Johnny. Just… have it assayed first, OK?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

I think that it’s adorable that plucky little Russia is hosting the Olympics, really.

I know that a lot of people are mocking them for their pretensions along those lines, but you have to remember: Second World nations like Russia have a ceiling for expectations, as it were.  You simply have to take that ceiling into account.  They certainly mean well, or at least they mean something…

sochi

Moe Lane

Concerns over Americans’ safety at Sochi Winter games. #olympics

I find this simultaneously depressing and confusing:

The Wall Street Journal reports that the State Department is “telling American athletes competing in the upcoming Sochi Winter Olympics to avoid wearing team gear outside the games’ venues amid growing concerns over terrorist threats in the Russian resort town.”

According to the Washington Post, the FBI thinks the Russians aren’t listening to their suggestions or accepting their help: “David Rubincam, who served as the FBI’s top representative in Moscow from May 2011 to October 2012, said the Russians have been reluctant to accept American aid in securing Sochi and are suspicious of the offers of assistance.”

Continue reading Concerns over Americans’ safety at Sochi Winter games. #olympics

NBC interviews Evander Holyfield by accident.

Personally, I think that it’s just funny: the show needed some man-in-the-street shots, Holyfield happened to be there (for the Olympics, presumably: the man is an Olympic medalist), nobody noticed it until Holyfield pointed it out.  I’m getting the impression that Holyfield himself found it funny to be incognito, as it were.  Or perhaps just relaxing.  Not that I’ll ever know what it’s like to be a former heavyweight champion, of course.

Via Ace of Spades Headlines.

#rsrh Piers Morgan unhelpfully stomps all over Romney Olympic “gaffe” narrative.

If Morgan thought that the Left was going to scream at him before, well…

[CNN anchor Brooke] Baldwin asked Morgan for his thought on Romney saying that he found London’s lack of security preparation for the Olympics “disconcerting.” Morgan said he thought Romney was correct.

“It’s no secret over here that for the last three weeks the security around the Olympics has been a shambles,” said Morgan. “The outside firm they got in to run it has been all over the place – they didn’t have enough people and the army had to be drafted in. So, Mitt Romney was only saying exactly what has been happening.”

For those who don’t speak British English, calling something a ‘shambles’ may be a bit more pointed than American English speakers might realize: I’m not sure that Piers Morgan meant to compare the situation to a Elizabethan era butcher’s shop… but I’m not sure that he didn’t mean to do that, either.

Moe Lane

PS: Just saw this. See Jim Geraghty for more shamble-worthy Olympic problems.