Reeeaaalllyyy late to the conversation. Speed skates do have 2 edges, but they are thinner than hockey…

Do the tracks always go one way? I'd hope they rotate.

Speed skating is an anti-clockwise sport (as is running and cycling I note, I wonder if there's a reason for that).

Normal ice skates are cut both ways, so they have two edges, one on each side. Speed skates…

All on for Saturday at in Akl. Styris is firing; Guptill won't fail, I expect. We could…

Reading the Cricinfo summary, the quote of the day so far is this;

Perhaps only Elizabeth Taylor could match Australia for sheer number of partnerships cut down in their prime.

Holy crap, that was rad.

It really, really was.

@rickeyre: #cricket Tonight's win is, of course, just the start of New Zealand's vengeance over John Howard.

Heh.

An ACB v NZC battle was only ever going to have one winner.

But it’ll be fascinating to see what the Asian Bloc makes of him

Hadyn,
Would it've killed you to mention this?

Just quietly, just seethingly, ragingly, furiously, loathingly-albeit quietly, can someone please tell me why the hell NZ supported capitulated on John Howard's candidacy for the ICC (and don't dare tell me it's politics, he was rejected by the voters of Australia and…

New Zealand has a community of curlers, I've been led to believe on the basis of Mainland cheese ads. I'd like to give it a try!

The ski sports were another disappointment. Wonderful to watch, as always, but there were problems. The record warmth meant that the snow…

Actually, I used to share an office with a dutch bloke who'd been a competitive speed skater in his youth. He reckoned that one of their training regimes was to line up at one side of a field, crouch down, then basically hop forward in a crouch until they got…

Indoor bowls combined with housework

Lolnui. Bill Bailey's take:

what's the practical application for this? someone on a frozen lake needs a flagon of cider deliverd accurately! ok!

I'm talking speedskating rather than cycling. Crazy builds.

Actually, I used to share an office with a dutch bloke who'd been a competitive speed skater in his youth. He reckoned that one of their training regimes was to line up at one side of a field, crouch down, then basically…

Curling, you say?

Lolz.

Here's a goodie from Tom Scott.

And Canuck-turned-Kiwi Diana Wichtel summed it up best not long after the 2nd Gulf War exposed the cultural gap between the US & Canada (my emphasis):

I've long since got used to the fact that my native land is a running joke,…

Hadyn,
Would it've killed you to mention this?

They don't play cricket at the Winter Olympics. Unless... Russia 2014!

Curling, you say?

Now THAT is comedy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvEUurB1nKI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNIqArJj8Eo

It does seem like the surprise hit of the games coverage was women's curling, thanks in no small part to the MILF-y appeal (and not only to the chaps, I gather from Emma Hart's tweets) of some of the competitors.

I'm glad you mentioned that. The women's curling I found…

More of that and less curling which always seemed to be on when I was watching, sometimes on three channels at a time

Wasn't that weird. I thought about halfway through that they might as well rename the winter olympics "Curling, Biathlon and some other sports." Or even "Curling, etc."

It does seem like the surprise hit of the games coverage was women's curling, thanks in no small part to the MILF-y appeal (and not only to the chaps, I gather from Emma…

Depends on the discipline. Serious roadies, fair enough, but mountainbiking uses a surprising amount of upper body strength.

I reckon. Even just riding a windy, bumpy suburban park path feels like good upper-body exercise to me.

I like how I've worked out a few of those that link to places…

Or like someone's cut up pictures of various different people and mixed up the torsos and the lower bodies... waify emo kids above the waist, rugby players below.

Depends on the discipline. Serious roadies, fair enough, but mountainbiking uses a surprising amount of upper body strength. Competitive MTB'ers tend to…

Another random thought: cyclists and speed skaters tend to look like dinosaurs, with huge legs and rather disporportionately small arms.

Or like someone's cut up pictures of various different people and mixed up the torsos and the lower bodies... waify emo kids above the waist, rugby players below.

George, cycling is actually a closer analogue to speed skating than running...

That is true, but African and Carribean countries aren't strong in cycling yet, unfortunately (South Africa excepted, and Rwanda is giving it a lot).

Another random thought: cyclists and speed skaters tend to look like dinosaurs, with huge…

@BlairMacca, I'm picking that being a former international snowboarder (5th at the US open Snowboarding champs) probably indicates Hayley Holt has a little knowledge of winter sport. Whether that makes her a good sports reporter is a different issue...

Ouch, sorry stupidity on my part. I'm not big up on…

The Austrians like to lead and dictate..

and

The Koreans like it from the rear

Mostly. There were too many athletes in the finals who seemed to slow down early, sliding across the line rather than giving it everything. Many of them were saving something in reserve for other events, and this indicates to…

If you didn't actually watch the screen you could be excused to think that Finland and Slovakia were never in possession of the puck.

Ironically, the Canadian team has just as many tricky names. Toews sounds nothing like it's written. And half of them are froggy names a'how.

Oh and who knews long-distance x-country skiing was so exciting? Both the womens' 30k and the mens' 50…

The sky hockey was painful, having to sit through the commentator who seemed to be British, and just making up hockey terms as he went along.

Not only that, but in the customary fashion of British commentators in all sports they a) kept asking strings of inane pre-emptive questions instead…

thank to it being on sky I saw more of the winter olympics than i did of the summer ones.

The complete opposite for me. I don't know why I never went to the Sky/Prime website. I suppose because it was usually during work and I guessed (incorrectly) that Sky…

thank to it being on sky I saw more of the winter olympics than i did of the summer ones.

I think it's just the nature of the various sports, but while I adore the Summer, the Winter Olympics leaves me cold.

Also, for me, it seemed like whenever I was at home there was always something on SS1 or SS2. Mainly skeleton/luge/bobsleigh/hockey.

An hour long daily highlights of all the sports, including the NZ competitors would have been good. The dribble between their various commentators interspersed with occasional clips of sports, not so much.

Maybe it would have worked better if it had…

But I've got a deep love in my heart for any event that ends up with people dancing around giant inflatable beavers.

They’ve always been massively different in NZ.

It was also very nice of them not to play replays of the most exixiting opening to the super 14 in years...

Oh and anyone who cannot afford sky…