Thinking about the winter Olympics prior to the 80s. I bet the 'Cold War' Ice Hockey matches between Russia and the US were a blood bath and ace to watch.
The US was not at the same level as Canada or the Soviets until the mid to late 80s (this is why the 1980 Miracle on Ice was such a miracle). Canadian players made up 90% of the NHL until the last decade, the NHL being the premier hockey league in the world. Canadian players now make up about 50% of the NHL and the Americans are now at 20-25%.
But the Cold War did make hockey into a battleground. Until the 1960s, there was no realistic competition for Canada and until then Canada just sent a local team that had won a national competition to international play. Then the Soviets decided they wanted to dominate sport and hockey was one of their goals. In the 60s the Soviets won most international competitions and Canada realized they couldn't just send an amateur team if they wanted to win.
The issue with the Olympics and the IIHF is that they didn't allow professionals to play and all of Canada's best players were professionals in the NHL. So they tried for a while to use University players in a national team but they still couldn't beat the Soviets. The Olympics was closed to professional athletes so Canada tried to change the rules at the IIHF to at least allow professional players at other international competitions. The issue was the Soviets were professionals but they were skirting the rules by turning their full-time paid hockey players into KGB agents. So officially their hockey players' day-jobs were KGB agents but they did nothing but play hockey.
The IIHF relented for one competition allowing Canada to put 5 professionals on the team. Canada nearly won that tournament so the IIHF cancelled that accommodation so Canada couldn't send any professionals in the future. They wanted Europeans amateur athletes to remain competitive for more exciting tournaments.
That was the backdrop to the first and most famous Cold War hockey tournament set up in 1972 called the 1972 Summit. This was a friendly competition between Canada's professional players and the Soviet national team in a 7-game series, half played in Canada an the latter half in Moscow. Everyone predicted the Soviets would be destroyed and that did not turn out to be the case and in the end Canada won in game 7 with a very famous goal in the last 30 seconds.
There was a lot of Cold War politics surrounding the series. When the Soviets arrived in Canada, a man living in Montreal tried to sue the Soviet Union for crushing his car during the Soviet invasion of Hungary to put down a revolution against the communist party. He won the court case and the court ordered that the Soviet hockey equipment be held as collateral for damages to his car. One of the Canadian hockey organizers paid out of this own pocket to release the Soviet equipment before the game.
When the series shifted to Moscow, the Soviets did their best to put the Canadian team at disadvantage. They did things like trying to force the players' wives to stay at separate hotels and feeding the players' wives sub-standard food. The Canadian players had arranged to send beer and steak from home while in Moscow. The beer went missing and the steaks were cut in half. During games the Russians sometimes refused to light up the red light after Canada scored a goal.
Even then the Russians were famous for bending and breaking rules :)
Then there's the controversy of a Canadian player deliberately gunning down a Russian player.
After that close call, it was realized the Soviets had a competitive team and future match ups between Canada and the Soviets were very exciting match ups with a little extra at stake due to Cold War politics. The professionals met in tournaments called Canada Cups. Canada lost one and there was talk (as now) that slapping together a team of pros that don't normally play together a few weeks before a tournament was not going to be good enough against a Soviet national team that played together all the time. These days, all countries suffer the same problem as the best players usually end up in the NHL, causing the same problem for everybody's national team.
Every good Canadian knows this history, as I am sure many Russians who are not too old yet.
Can barely believe that Michael Johnson's 400m WR has gone - I considered that record almost untouchable until another Bolt came along - which to be fair, Van Niekerk looks like he has a similar talent.
I think Bolt would have done a 9.6x if he'd had a better start. Probably the worst start I've ever seen him have in a major final.
It's been fascinating to watch the world records get broke. The BBC athletic pundits keep banging on about Michael Johnson's record being broken like they are banging a drum. It would not be funny, but as you may be aware Michael Johnson is one of those pundits. At some point I expect him to jump out his seat tossing everything on the floor shouting 'allright FFS!!! dont keep rubbing it in!!'.
2nd in the tables. I bet it would be less if the Russians had a full team. Still half the team banned and still in forth, that's not bad.
I wonder if to stem the problems of the Russians and the apathy towards the Olympics if after the Paralympics they need a no rules RoidLimpics, either that or the Paraletics where all contestants must compete with at least 10 pints in them. Either that or they could divide up the competitors in to strengths like they do in boxing. For example, 100meters "Heavy Weight" where competitors must imbibe 25 units of alcohol at least 2 hours before the race start.
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Watched a bit of the cycling last night. Love the elimination event in the omnium - go Laura!
Enjoyed the mens' points race too (didn't catch any of the other mens' omnium events) although that pile-up caused by Cavendish's error looked a bit nasty. Still, it didn't stop the Italian he clattered into from winning.
I'm watching the BMXing. It's one of those sports that I think "I could do that!" But in reality I'd probably have fallen off and broken my arm before the first turn!
I'm watching the BMXing. It's one of those sports that I think "I could do that!" But in reality I'd probably have fallen off and broken my arm before the first turn!
I don't watch that sort of thing now because when I do it reminds me of what "could" have been. I'm an idiot, I've blown so many of life's chances :))
The silly thing anybody usually does at olympics: watching a final of a sport you've never seen before on TV or never practised, no idea about the game rules, but watching it like it's the Champions League final.
In my case, this afternoon, the female badminton final. Spain got the gold! :)>-
Second, awesome, and I thought the estimations we would get 4th were exaggerated. I hope this energies the British isles.
Just watching the closing ceremony and Japan are doing their bit. How did the Prime-Minister of Japan introduce himself. Well, he was being driven in a car in Tokyo. He looked at his watch and and went oh Sh*t the Olympics!!. Then turned in to Super Mario. Drilled a massive hole though the earth put a pipe in it and jumped inside. The pipe then came up in the Rio stadium and Mario shot out. Mario then exploded leaving the president there on top of a green pipe in the Olympic stadium.
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The US was not at the same level as Canada or the Soviets until the mid to late 80s (this is why the 1980 Miracle on Ice was such a miracle). Canadian players made up 90% of the NHL until the last decade, the NHL being the premier hockey league in the world. Canadian players now make up about 50% of the NHL and the Americans are now at 20-25%.
But the Cold War did make hockey into a battleground. Until the 1960s, there was no realistic competition for Canada and until then Canada just sent a local team that had won a national competition to international play. Then the Soviets decided they wanted to dominate sport and hockey was one of their goals. In the 60s the Soviets won most international competitions and Canada realized they couldn't just send an amateur team if they wanted to win.
The issue with the Olympics and the IIHF is that they didn't allow professionals to play and all of Canada's best players were professionals in the NHL. So they tried for a while to use University players in a national team but they still couldn't beat the Soviets. The Olympics was closed to professional athletes so Canada tried to change the rules at the IIHF to at least allow professional players at other international competitions. The issue was the Soviets were professionals but they were skirting the rules by turning their full-time paid hockey players into KGB agents. So officially their hockey players' day-jobs were KGB agents but they did nothing but play hockey.
The IIHF relented for one competition allowing Canada to put 5 professionals on the team. Canada nearly won that tournament so the IIHF cancelled that accommodation so Canada couldn't send any professionals in the future. They wanted Europeans amateur athletes to remain competitive for more exciting tournaments.
That was the backdrop to the first and most famous Cold War hockey tournament set up in 1972 called the 1972 Summit. This was a friendly competition between Canada's professional players and the Soviet national team in a 7-game series, half played in Canada an the latter half in Moscow. Everyone predicted the Soviets would be destroyed and that did not turn out to be the case and in the end Canada won in game 7 with a very famous goal in the last 30 seconds.
There was a lot of Cold War politics surrounding the series. When the Soviets arrived in Canada, a man living in Montreal tried to sue the Soviet Union for crushing his car during the Soviet invasion of Hungary to put down a revolution against the communist party. He won the court case and the court ordered that the Soviet hockey equipment be held as collateral for damages to his car. One of the Canadian hockey organizers paid out of this own pocket to release the Soviet equipment before the game.
When the series shifted to Moscow, the Soviets did their best to put the Canadian team at disadvantage. They did things like trying to force the players' wives to stay at separate hotels and feeding the players' wives sub-standard food. The Canadian players had arranged to send beer and steak from home while in Moscow. The beer went missing and the steaks were cut in half. During games the Russians sometimes refused to light up the red light after Canada scored a goal.
Even then the Russians were famous for bending and breaking rules :)
Then there's the controversy of a Canadian player deliberately gunning down a Russian player.
After that close call, it was realized the Soviets had a competitive team and future match ups between Canada and the Soviets were very exciting match ups with a little extra at stake due to Cold War politics. The professionals met in tournaments called Canada Cups. Canada lost one and there was talk (as now) that slapping together a team of pros that don't normally play together a few weeks before a tournament was not going to be good enough against a Soviet national team that played together all the time. These days, all countries suffer the same problem as the best players usually end up in the NHL, causing the same problem for everybody's national team.
Every good Canadian knows this history, as I am sure many Russians who are not too old yet.
Write games in C using Z88DK and SP1
I think Bolt would have done a 9.6x if he'd had a better start. Probably the worst start I've ever seen him have in a major final.
2nd in the tables. I bet it would be less if the Russians had a full team. Still half the team banned and still in forth, that's not bad.
I wonder if to stem the problems of the Russians and the apathy towards the Olympics if after the Paralympics they need a no rules RoidLimpics, either that or the Paraletics where all contestants must compete with at least 10 pints in them. Either that or they could divide up the competitors in to strengths like they do in boxing. For example, 100meters "Heavy Weight" where competitors must imbibe 25 units of alcohol at least 2 hours before the race start.
:
Enjoyed the mens' points race too (didn't catch any of the other mens' omnium events) although that pile-up caused by Cavendish's error looked a bit nasty. Still, it didn't stop the Italian he clattered into from winning.
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I don't watch that sort of thing now because when I do it reminds me of what "could" have been. I'm an idiot, I've blown so many of life's chances :))
In my case, this afternoon, the female badminton final. Spain got the gold! :)>-
Just watching the closing ceremony and Japan are doing their bit. How did the Prime-Minister of Japan introduce himself. Well, he was being driven in a car in Tokyo. He looked at his watch and and went oh Sh*t the Olympics!!. Then turned in to Super Mario. Drilled a massive hole though the earth put a pipe in it and jumped inside. The pipe then came up in the Rio stadium and Mario shot out. Mario then exploded leaving the president there on top of a green pipe in the Olympic stadium.