I thought the Russian just left her routine, she wasn't in sink with the music, it was more show with jumps and spins? Guess it worked for her if that's the case.

Putin probably upped the ante with money and threats :D

Cheating bastards.

Uh oh, the freak show coming up.

That's crazy that they said that Korean skater is one of the richest female athletes in the world. She donated $100,000 to the tsunami relief.

Ski cross and snowboard cross are both awesome. Those seem like things they could play much more of on TV here.

The people are in direct competition with each instead of the clock and they really have to do be skilled to maintain speed while going over jumps, through turns, and avoiding/passing people. Plus it is a lot like Super Mario Kart.

I thought I heard that...Where did she get all that money?

Taxpayers?

Since when did a small country become so rich?

It must be our money filtered down through the ranks. :D

I guess just from winnings and sponsors?

good point.

Not to debate your point on pride, but have you watched Finland or Sweden? Finland is about as North American as you can get, and Sweden isn't far behind. Finland/Russia was the best example of that. Good defense, great goaltending, and Finland in particular is pretty physical.

/quickly ducks out of thread before someone posts a score...

I heard it's through endorsements in SK companies. Evidently she's hit rock star status in SK likened only to those of the Beetles back in the day (globally).

But if you're the richest female athlete in the world, is $100K really all that much? It might mean more if they reported that it ws X% of her income or something.

Who? I suspect you mean the commentator... The tweener....

I think I can appreciate anything that's head-to-head, and had limited judging. Judges are like NFL officials, too much opportunity to persuade.

How would one describe the European style of hockey?

Finesse, offensive-minded, and in some ways less team oriented... the general take on it is that since international rinks are wider than NHL rinks, you can't be as aggressive and cover the full width of the ice... going for the big hit or taking out someone along the boards puts you too far out of position.

Also, the NHL used to have a two line pass rule, where the puck couldn't cross both the blue line and center line on the same pass... international rules have never had that (as far as I know). So, in the NHL, you had to work the puck up the ice through each zone, where as international play had more breakaways and big plays. Finland used to use what they called the torpedo, always looking for the long pass out of the defensive zone in order to get behind the defense (basically why hockey and soccer have offsides).

When Russia played Finland, Russia got down a couple of goals and quite working for goals... they started looking for the big play (iced the puck 4 times at the end of the game looking for a breakaway instead of working the puck into the zone so they could pull the goalie). They tried to rely on their individual skill instead of working the puck deep and getting goals by screening the goalie and fighting for rebounds, which is the more North American way to do it.

Team USA is a great example of the NA way... despite all of their offensive talent, they're also pretty physical, many of their goals have been scored within ~3 feet of the net, and they play really well as a team. Several Olympic teams are adapting that style as they've figured out how to be more aggressive with the forecheck while not risking the middle of the ice (and of course since the top teams are mostly made up of NHL players).

Didn't know that about the different size drinks that is interestin lots of simolilarties to another sport I shall not name pop up in this post.