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Gangwon

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Gangwon last won the day on December 17 2012

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About Gangwon

  • Birthday 02/22/1984

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  1. It would kill interest around the world, especially those out of the time zone. No one wants to go to the same place over and over again, and no one wants to see the same backdrop on tv over and over again. The Olympics captures the attention of the world because of the global romanticism mentioned above, not just because of the sporting competition. The IOC is better off just downsizing the the Olympics and ensuring they are distributed around the world. And why would Switzerland be the ideal backdrop for the Winter Games? They didn't found the Olympics. They're just another regular country, like everyone else.
  2. From the comforts of my couch and television, the Pyeongchang Olympics came across to me as one of a smaller, intimate Games. There's probably a few reasons I felt that: 1) The smaller mountains in Pyeongchang compared to the Alps or Rockies just made the Olympics feel smaller and cozier. It was a nice contrast to some of the more imposing ice-capped mountains of Turin or Vancouver or Sochi. The mountains I saw on television every day right before the start of events coverage gave off a serene, non-threatening feel, one more in tune with the people, venues and village, rather than the type of mountain that towers over human civilization. 2) The town and resort was smaller. It's what I imagine Lillehammer or Lake Placid must have felt like (or at least the 21st century version of it). Even though the ice events took place in Gangneung, the fact that the Games were centered around the mountain cluster of Pyeongchang/Alpensia meant the Games gave off a small town resort vibe. The village was the Olympics, and the Olympics was the village. 3) No NHL hockey players. This may be a Canadian-centric point of view, but it seemed like ever since Nagano 1998, the NHL hockey players took center stage at the Winter Olympics. Professional athletes, multi-millionaires, millions of fans and followers. I generally love NHL players at the Olympics, but fact remains that circumstances led to them not coming to Korea for 2018. The absence of NHLers made the Games feel more down to earth, like the way they used to be before the Winter Olympics grew in size. 4) The Games felt compact. Pyeongchang and Gangneung are so close in distance that going back and forth never feels like you are going on a day trip. Maybe it was the ease of my television transporting me from one event in Pyeongchang to another event in Gangneung in a matter of a blink of an eye, but having personally taken the actual commute in the past, I can imagine how the athletes and spectators must have felt taking the short drive from one to the other. All of this gave me the feel of the 2018 Games being a throwback to the past. The Winter Games as a whole are undeniably getting larger and larger over time, a trend which will surely continue into the future. I was too young to truly appreciate Lillehammer, and I wasn't around for Lake Placid. It was nice to experience the feel of a smaller Winter Games at least once in my lifetime. If places like Beijing, Calgary, Munich and Denver are the wave of future hosts, I'll always have the memory of Pyeongchang giving the smaller Winter Games type of setting one last hurrah.
  3. Nope. France is in decline as a winter nation. They will never be a top winter nation performer again, because it's not 1965 anymore and now there are other nations France must compete against. The problem is France can't compete with the newer and now better winter nations. For how much you hyped up France being such a great winter nation, I was very disappointed with the French performance in Pyeongchang. They were completely irrelevant in skating races and in sliding sports. Basically, irrelevant in everything except snow sports. Korea has already surpassed France as a winter nation performer, as the results from 2018 show once again. France's day in the sun is over. France may no longer be a winter nation performer, but the world is happy to use your beautiful mountains for an Olympics in the future (but you must pay for it yourself). Even if France is becoming more and more irrelevant among winter nations performers, the rest of the world is still happy to win all the medals in front of a French crowd with Chamonix in the background. You are no longer a top winter nation performer, but at least you will always have beautiful mountains to look at. The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang are now over, and it was a happy success. I know that just eats you up inside, as you were hoping for a failure for 7 years now. But because it's over, I've no more reason to speak with you, so adieu and farewell!
  4. Yes you personally, but as a whole, we don't care about biathlon in America and Canada. And well, everywhere else in the world!
  5. I feel the same too. I've seen others raise the "not logistically ideal" argument, but the way the IOC dealt with the bidding process the last few years (along with FIFA's decision to give Qatar a winter World Cup) leads me to believe that the IOC will roll with the times and adapt as needed. If a spread out Stockholm-Are bid is the only way for Sweden to host, and if they are up against opposition as weak as the 2022 candidates in the future, then I could see the IOC giving Sweden the Games. Is Stockholm-Are ideal from a compact point of view? Probably not. Is it doable? I don't see why not. And from a marketing/romantic point of view, it's way more attractive than splitting the Winter Games in two countries like Sweden/Switzerland even if (and I don't know if this is true) you can fly between the two countries faster than you can bus from Stockholm-Are. Just one of those things where the IOC will suck it up for two weeks, but they get to have an attractive "Sweden 20XX" Games go into the history books, knowing no one will care about the minor details about logistics decades later.
  6. Medals on home soil still counts. It still brings the locals to the events. And France couldn't win a sliding medal in Albertville, so maybe something is wrong with France as a winter nation if it can't even win a sliding medal on home soil. Yeah, I don't watch biathlon because it's boring and nobody in North America cares about the sport. The rest of the world doesn't care about biathlon either. Only Europe. Nobody else watches biathlon and nobody else cares. TV networks don't even bother to show it on prime time, if at all. Biathlon is a regional sport, not an international one. Koreans in Pyeongchang don't have to apologize for not spending their hard earned money to watch something they or the rest of the world don't care about. They're still attending other events, like skating and snowboarding. Those are international sports, because everyone does it. Lol Europe is not the heart of winter sports. Maybe 20 years ago, but not anymore. In Europe, Germany and Norway are real winter nations with real fervor, but France is not a real winter nation. France is not a winter power, and it's not an all-around winter nation either. France only medals in snow sports. They only medal in the same sports all the time. If France was such a winter nation, where are their ice medals? Where are their sliding medals? Why don't they ever do anything in speed skating? Short track? Hockey? Curling? Bobsled? Skeleton? It would be funny looking back at those posts you made when Annecy was still bidding in 2011. About how Korea could only ever medal in speed skating and short track, and how they sucked at everything else. Funny how things turn out, as now Korea has now medalled in sliding, in curling... and snowboarding! A snow sport medal for a country with no snow! France had a 70 year head start in winter sports, and now it's not even as good as Korea! Your problem is you are stuck in 1990 and the old world order. Maybe in 20 years France will be as obsolete in winter sports as the Soviet Union and East Germany are today. Doesn't matter why people want to host. They don't need to please you, because they can live without your praise.
  7. Meh. Their loss. I was hoping for Munich 2022, and I'd still love to see a Winter Games in Germany or Sweden or Switzerland next... but hey, if they don't want to bid, I'm more than happy to have the Games go to Calgary next. Or USA or back to Japan. And eventually South America. I just don't see things as grim as you portray.
  8. 27 medals is pretty incredible. I'm more than happy with the Canadian performances these Games. It's always great to break an old record!
  9. Good for Germany! Hope they can take the gold, but I won't be holding my breath.
  10. Oh well, too bad for you. Sounds like sour grapes. If Europe doesn't want to bid or host, that's their problem. Just means more Winter Games for everyone else!
  11. Well said. Looking at number of empty seats is the stupidest way to determine the success of the Winter Olympics in Korea. Legacy in new horizons doesn't mean being inspired by winter sports in Day 1, buying tickets on Day 2 and filling the seats on Day 10. Legacy is measured by the state of winter sports 20, 30 years from now. It's pretty cool to see how far Korea has come even since first bidding for the Winter Olympics in 2003. Purely a short track nation at the time, 15 years later speed skating and figure skating are also part of the sporting landscape. Yuna-babies are propping up over the country, and I wouldn't be surprised to see their real Olympic impact beginning from 2022 or 2026 onwards. And with Korea now having won its first ever curling medal, I can see curling being the next big winter thing in Korea. And who would've ever thought a Korean would win gold in a non-skating sport so soon? It happened in skeleton, and now Korea will have a sliding centre to call its own after the Games. Big change from even 10 years ago. And the crowds look good to me. The skating venues are packed, as expected. The locals have embraced their curling team and their hockey team in the stands, even though everyone knew their hockey team was never expected to contend, and even though games not involving Korea weren't all well attended. Some of the snowboarding events were well attended, no doubt helped by the locals adopting Chloe Kim as one of their own. I haven't watched any biathlon so I can't speak to the crowds there, but no one in the world cares about biathlon so I don't blame anyone for not attending biathlon events. Biathlon is a joke in North America, Asia, Australia, well, everywhere except Europe. Overall, I'm not sure how anyone would expect much more in terms of attendance, given the circumstances and location of the Games. From what I've seen and heard, I'll remember Pyeongchang as a Games with friendly people, great weather including a mix of lots of snowfall in the first week and later sunny skies in the second week, a small intimate setting not seen in the Winter Olympics since the 1990's, and great sporting competition. All without the catastrophe of Sochi or any other major scandal. It's just about what you can expect for a Winter Olympics in a new horizon.
  12. Hi Tulsa, long time no see. Great Games, eh? Pyeongchang revived my interest in the Games after Sochi killed it. Hope you're enjoying the Olympics from your mountaintop in Annecy. Lol.
  13. The Korean womens' skipper, Kim Eun-Jung, is adorable. Very cool to see the Korean womens team emerge to be a darling of the Games and an unexpected medal contender.
  14. 42 years since Germany last medalled in hockey. Would be pretty cool to see them on the podium. Now's as good a chance as any.
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