Roux

Plus keep in mind he was clearly unable to save Moscow's 2012 bid, which had nothing going for it either and in the end finished dead last in the voting.

I just realized that the OC will be on the one month anniversary of the Haitian eathquake. Given that, they'd probably be insensitive to not say a word in memorium.

That was a little different though b/c it happened in the host country itself.

Does anyone think there'll be some sort of tribute to the victims of the Haitian earthquake, especially since the GG was born in Port-au-Prince? Granted Haiti has never been to the winter games, and hasn't won an Olympic medal in 80 years.

Holy crap, the English announcer sounds like a cliche English speaker talking to a foreigner who doesn't understand, so they simply talk louder and more slowly. "LAAADIES AAAAND GENTLLLEMENNNN"

I think the #2 spot for Canada is reasonable. They're strong in winter sport, though not quite as strong as the Germans, but the home-field advantage will definitely come in handy. Will Korea dominate speed skating like in Torino?

I think Canada's going to win gold, both men & women. I think probably Russia & Finland will duke it out for the men's silver and bronze, and for the women it'll be between USA and Sweden. I don't really follow hockey so these are just hunches. I'll be rooting for China on the women's side, simply b/c sometimes I enjoy rooting for the under-dogs that have no chance.

I wish for Athens and Beijing they just left the signs in only Greek and only Chinese respectively. It'd be more reflective of the host country's culture, plus having 3 languages on on sign is just too much, especially for the countries that have to have the really long names like Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or United States of America. I really like your LCD idea! Have the name in English *splash effect* name in French. Maybe do another spalsh effect and then show the outline of the country, although that probably wouldn't work for countries with disputed borders like India and Pakistan. It wouldn't work really well for Oceanian countries that have a bigillion little islands, but none of them are going to be in the winter Olympics anyway.

They're nice. Very unique I must say. Not 100% sure I like the bouquets or the outfits, but they might grow on me. Also, this is the first time I saw the medals. They're gorgeous!!

They should try to buy the games like they do their athletes. It wouldn't be unprecedanted. But yeah, while there are pros ($$$) and cons (weather, sports tradition, etc.) to Doha's bid, it does all boil down to politics regarding the Middle East.

Totaly! I know the time of year was a problem for the IOC, but surely they could work around that in order to get more favorable weather like they did with Sydney. Doha was probably more capable of hosting the Olympics than Qatar is hosting the World Cup, I'd venture to say.

As I've said before, if cities waited until absolutely every financial, organizational, and social problem was solved before bidding for an Olympics, then there'd be no Olympics. City governments are always going to have a bunch of problems on their hands; that's a part of life. Canada is one of the best countries in the world to live in with one of the highest HDI's. I'm sure the Vancouver games will be splendid!

Sorry Qatar, but you're country's too hot at the time of year the World Cup is held. Just thinking of 100+degree (F) weather is unbearable, this coming from someone who lives in the south-east US.

I think it's probably the same to some extent here in the States, though probably not as low since we do much better than you Brits. Although, I'd venture to say that a lot of Americans don't care so much about that, rather that the USA kicks ass. My mother thought they were going to be in London. No, that's the next summer games. There's a summer games and a winter games. I also had to explain to back in October when Rio won its bid that they pick the host city 7 years in advance.

Hard to say, because they're not really getting that much attention (at least not here in the US.) FIFA does have a bunch of other World Cups though. There's the U-20 and U-17 World Cups which would be an equivalent to the YOG. Yet, THE World Cup is still one of the most prestigious awards in all of sport.