orangeman

I'm in Beijing now, 15 minutes from the hockey venue. I took this job a few years ago with visions of seeing Team Canada play. Now....I'll be lucky if I get to see a bobsled session. I've been waiting years for this moment, for the whole Olympics to be in the city I'm living in, and it's just poof, gone. I'll watch it in my living room like I could have done from anywhere in the world. I know this might be controversial, but screw covid.

I'm not too familiar with mixed curling, but I'd imagine Morris/Homan are the favourites here. They were both in Pyeongchang and Morris is a double Olympic gold medalist (in mens and mixed doubles). While Homan flamed out in Korea, she's won multiple national and world medals. I think Einarson and Jacobs will challenge them, though. But who knows, this is a very unpredictable event that isn't really competed by most of these curlers. I really look forward to watching over the holidays.

Gotta love throwing stones with a cigarette in his mouth. I can understand why this wasn't an Olympic sport until the 90s now.

Congrats to for making it in the doubles curling. Maybe all the other curling teams will suddenly fall down on the final stone and Australia will sneak in for the win!

Following the Roar of the Rings, or whatever it's called now, the Tim Hortons because it's Canada and curling so of course it's Tim Hortons Curling Trials. Just hoping Canada can redeem itself from the embarrassment of Pyeongchang. For that reason, I'm rooting for any rink that has an Olympic gold medal in their pocket: Jones on the women's side and Jacobs or Gushue on the men's. They all look to make the playoffs now. I don't want to root against anyone, but I watched Koe in person at the semi-finals in 2018 and he looked completely confused. Obviously he does have great international performances under his belt, and 4th at the Olympics isn't anything to sneeze at. I look forward to hopefully seeing some curling live here in Beijing this February, but the Ice Cube is limited to 2000 spectators, so I doubt a mere mortal like me will be able to get tickets. Then again it's curling, but China is not terrible so we'll see.

Jennifer Abel announces retirement. https://www.tsn.ca/canadian-diver-jennifer-abel-announces-retirement-1.1725119

Canada's hockey jerseys:

Looks cool. I always like the simple designs.

Canada unveils its hockey jerseys. https://www.tsn.ca/hockey-canada-unveils-new-men-s-women-s-olympic-and-paralympic-hockey-jerseys-1.1725406

Can't believe Canada beat Mexico in World Cup qualifying. Now Canada sits atop of the pool with 6 more games to go in the new year. Looking good, but not counting any eggs yet.

I appreciate it, and we will see. The reality is, sponsors get a certain amount of tickets and with the lower capacity that basically takes care of that. I fear that the announcement earlier that residents could attend was just PR, and in reality it'll just be a chosen few from the elite. Just an example here: I recently went to the newly opened Universal Studios here in Beijing (awesome, btw!). All VIP and fast track passes have been bought up for the next 6 months, as far as it goes. Every day it moves, the next day in 6 months is sold out before it hits the app. It's the same for travel tickets and special event tickets here all the time. I actually like living here non-covid times, but this is one of the most frustrating things. I thought the Olympics would be different since it's overseen by an international organization. We'll see.

The Ice Cube (formerly Water Cube) where curling will take place will only be at 20% capacity, or 1000 spectators. https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/beijings-ice-cube-capacity-capped-20-covid-19-measure-2021-11-11/ We can expect the rest of the indoor venues to be the same, I guess. Having lived in Beijing during Covid this doesn't make much sense to me because everything here is usually business as usual, except with masks and health code. I don't know why for the Olympics in particular we suddenly have to reduce capacity. It's disappointing because, as with everything in China, it was already going to be hard to get tickets because everything is always snatched up by large companies right away and you basically have to be a local to understand how to get them (i.e. air, train and sporting events). Now we know it'll be impossible. Very disappointing because a big part of the reason I stayed here this year was for the Olympics. Now we're sure we won't be able to attend, and there will be no atmosphere, we'll just watch at home like I could have done anywhere. I live so close to most of the Beijing venues, I had dreams of scooter over to catch a hockey game before hopping to catch some speed skating. Very sad now. Having said that, Beijing is experiencing a "mild" outbreak again so things are getting crazy. Probably due to the Olympics, a new policy is going into effect tomorrow where you cannot enter Beijing if you've been anywhere that has even 1 case in the last 14 days. You also cannot go to any city with a land border or a port (i.e. Shanghai or Guangzhou). https://www.reuters.com/world/china/beijing-city-tightens-covid-guidance-travel-chinese-areas-with-overland-ports-2021-11-14/ So basically we are locked into Beijing until after the Olympics at least. Now I know how the residents of Tokyo felt. You suffer due to hosting, but you get nothing in return. Even as a huge Olympic fan, it stings. It probably stings more as a fan.

Most international or "international" schools in China have a state-sanctioned VPN worked into their campus wifi. It's based in HK and still blocks some sensitive materials, but it's fine for all social media and almost everything you'd use everyday. The weird thing is, the one I use blocks the CBC, but not any American news sites I've tried. Anyway, I'd imagine the Olympic Village will have something similar and then NOCs will provide VPNs for athletes as well. As a side note: This site is blocked for me in China without a VPN. I guess that makes it cool.

The Ice Cube (formerly Water Cube) where curling will take place will only be at 20% capacity, or 1000 spectators. https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/beijings-ice-cube-capacity-capped-20-covid-19-measure-2021-11-11/ We can expect the rest of the indoor venues to be the same, I guess. Having lived in Beijing during Covid this doesn't make much sense to me because everything here is usually business as usual, except with masks and health code. I don't know why for the Olympics in particular we suddenly have to reduce capacity. It's disappointing because, as with everything in China, it was already going to be hard to get tickets because everything is always snatched up by large companies right away and you basically have to be a local to understand how to get them (i.e. air, train and sporting events). Now we know it'll be impossible. Very disappointing because a big part of the reason I stayed here this year was for the Olympics. Now we're sure we won't be able to attend, and there will be no atmosphere, we'll just watch at home like I could have done anywhere. I live so close to most of the Beijing venues, I had dreams of scootering over to catch a hockey game before hopping to catch some speed skating. Very sad now. Having said that, Beijing is experiencing a "mild" outbreak again so things are getting crazy. Probably due to the Olympics, a new policy is going into effect tomorrow where you cannot enter Beijing if you've been anywhere that has even 1 case in the last 14 days. You also cannot go to any city with a land border or a port (i.e. Shanghai or Guangzhou). So basically we are locked into Beijing until after the Olympics at least. Now I know how the residents of Tokyo felt. You suffer due to hosting, but you get nothing in return. Even as a huge Olympic fan, it stings. It probably stings more as a fan.

I live very close to the Shougang Big Air venue here in Beijing. I visited it a couple of weeks ago. It's in a park created from a reclaimed industrial area. There's a nice brew-pub there I went to a few times without realizing an actual venue was right there. It's an Olympic park with various Olympic offices and broadcasting centers. It's quite nice, but I wonder how it'll read on TV. As others have seen from the stock photos here, it is still quite industrial looking with what looks like nuclear reactors right next to the hill. It's cool post-industrial in person, but we'll see how it comes off on TV. There's a nice Chinese building in front of it, too. I'm not sure what it is, if it's related to the venue. I couldn't get too close because things are still under construction, covid and general Chinese security.

Great for MacNeil but I don't know how McKeon didn't win this.

Haha, came here to say this. No, I had to turn it off and go out. So, yes, it is me.

Really busy at work these days, but finally had time to tune into the Paralympics, turned on the swimming. Had the pleasure just now of watching Canadians get 5th, 4th and 4th. Maybe it's not the Canadian athletes. Maybe it's me.

Nordic and alpine skiers haven't been medal producers for Canada at the Olympics for a very long time, so I'm not concerned about them dampening our medals in 2022. Short track is concerning, but there are some good athletes. While Canada is rebuilding there a bit, the rest of the world is catching up. It used to be South Korea, China and Canada with some stars from the USA mixed in. Now Russia, Netherlands, Italy and several other European countries are very competitive and there just isn't room for everyone on every podium. The same could be said for curling. The growth of the sport worldwide is great, and exactly what inclusion at the Olympics is supposed to do. But it also means Canada isn't as dominant as before. Having said that, since 1998 (the first time curling was a sport, the first time women's hockey was included and NHL players came to the Olympics), Canada got at least 3 medals out of those four events each time with at least a gold until 2018. In 2014 they got all 4 gold, in 2018 they got a silver and a bronze. Mixed curling gave us another gold, but it was by far our worst showing ever in those events (and I've said this before, but I was there in person to see it! With an American friend! AHHH!). They're going to have to do better that 2018 to keep Canada up there. In the early 2000s Canada hoarded speed skating medals. When that declined, freestyle took over. Freestyle and snowboarding will have to do more heavy lifting as figure skating declines. Short track got 5 medals (1G) and 3 (1G) at the last two Olympics respectively. I think they can get thereabouts again. Speed skating may have a pick up with young talent. Sliding sports will decline from 2018, likely. In sum, I expect less than 2018 but if hockey and curling perform again, we could see 3 medals (1G) turn into 5 golds which would turn things around dramatically.