Sochi Olympics!!

[Gillipig]

Here in Sweden there are two team sports that are really big, Football and Ice Hockey, all other team sports popularity are very much dependent on how Sweden are fairing at it on a international level, as there's not much of a domestic market (no big leagues and not very high attendance). If we do well internationally they're popular for a bit, but if we don't then no one cares about it. Popular individual sports includes skiing (cross country and alpine) Tennis, Athletics and Golf. Tennis gets HUGE when we have someone who plays in a grand slam final, it becomes about as popular as football is during the world cup which means that basically everyone watch it. Other sports like Harness Racing, Motocross and Formula 1 are also quite popular. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is becoming more and more popular and is starting to fill up the hole that was left behind boxing. Boxing was once the most popular sport in Sweden but nowadays there's not even much interest during the summer olympics. MMA is much more popular.

Sports like Basketball and "Brännboll" (Very similar to Baseball) are played a lot during school days but has very little following in media. Rugby and American Football are also not very big but are not commonly played in schools either.

[JBlombier]

And another gold, silver bronze sweep for the Dutch men on the 10k skating...

[betiko]

Yeah we got a gold in cross country snowboard and in biathlon martin fourcade just missed his 3rd gold medal today... They had to look at the photo finish to determine who was first and who was second vs the norwegian guy on the finish line as they finished with the same timer. This was in mass start so you could determine just on the finish line; if it was sprint with deferred start i guess they both would ve won gold, it would ve been impossible to untie them.

Later today there are 3 french guys in freestyle skiing halfpipe finals. Hope to see a medal there! With a silver we could overtake the chinese on the medal count, haha!

[Lootifer]

4th in Mens ski halfpipe

Best result in years. (we have only ever won one medal - A silver)

[betiko]

4th in Mens ski halfpipe

Best result in years. (we have only ever won one medal - A silver)

To tell the truth this canadian guy deserved the gold, he was the best and didn t manage to finish his run in the finals both times.. So the french should ve been 4th and the the kiwi 5th.
Funny, 3 kiwi bros in male skiing freestyle, and there were 3 canadian sisters in ski freestyle.

[DoomYoshi]

[betiko]

Haha!
I heard that the bobsleights have very different performances depending on the budgets. I don t know, shouldn t everybody have the same material? You can say the same for skis and any material actually... Too bad it s not only about the athlete s performance.

[DoomYoshi]

Haha!
I heard that the bobsleights have very different performances depending on the budgets. I don t know, shouldn t everybody have the same material? You can say the same for skis and any material actually... Too bad it s not only about the athlete s performance.

The only difference between a bobsleigh and a formula 1 car is that a bobsleigh has 2 drivers.

[betiko]

Haha!
I heard that the bobsleights have very different performances depending on the budgets. I don t know, shouldn t everybody have the same material? You can say the same for skis and any material actually... Too bad it s not only about the athlete s performance.

The only difference between a bobsleigh and a formula 1 car is that a bobsleigh has 2 drivers.

Not true, they both have only 1 driver.

On the gay luge both drive though.

[Lootifer]

Speaking of gay luge, holy f*ck that is really some weird shit.

[betiko]

Speaking of gay luge, holy f*ck that is really some weird shit.

The guy underneath basically doesn t see shit and yet controls the direction as well... The guy on top is the main driver and must be freaking out to fall out during the whole ride. Who invented that shit seriously? And what kind of person wakes up one day thinking "i will get involved in being a bottom gay luger at a competitive level"???

[Lootifer]

^^^ my thoughts exactly.

[notyou2]

Do they have to wear those skin tight suits as well????/

On another note
http://www.theonion.com/articles/emergency-crews-attempt-to-rescue-olympic-figure-s,35313/

[notyou2]

In terms of team sports, in france:
1Football; 2rugby; 3basketball/handball pretty much tied. Then any other team sport is veryyyy marginal.
Otherwise tennis/formula1/cycling (even if only the tour de france is really popular, no one follows the rest of the season)/WRC/golf/sailing

Canada is 1. hockey 2. hockey 3. hockey 4. lacrosse 5. competitive drinking

[Donelladan]

I think you forgot swimming in your list for sport in France Betiko, which is way ahead of golf or sailing, ( no idea what WRC is but probably ahead of that stuff too).
And Handball is famous only since couple of years because our national team is winning everything internationnaly, but on a national level I never heard about someone going to see a hanbball match.

[betiko]

I think you forgot swimming in your list for sport in France Betiko, which is way ahead of golf or sailing, ( no idea what WRC is but probably ahead of that stuff too).
And Handball is famous only since couple of years because our national team is winning everything internationnaly, but on a national level I never heard about someone going to see a hanbball match.

handball is popular in france since their first world championship in 1995 with jackson richardson and the "barjots" team; they were very mediatic for the 1996 olympics in france cause we thought we could get a gold medal. then the "costauds" team; then the "experts" team and so on. The french handball league is covered just as much as the french basketball league. PSG has a handball team and has invested a lot in it. France is just the best nation by far of the past 20 years in handball (4 times world champions, 2 times olympic champions and 3 times european champions). This is not a 2 year old phenomenon.

Regarding sailing... you forget all the events that are highly covered, such as the vendée globe, la route du rhum, transat du figaro, volvo ocean race, america's cup, trophée Jules Vernes..... There is nothing much right now at this time of year, and maybe you're not too interested in sailing, but I do think it's an important sport here.

You are right though, swimming is important lately because we have very good swimmers, but this is only covered when there are olympics or world/european championships. that is no way as recurent as big sailing competitions.

And WRc->world rally championship. With Sebastien Loeb winning 9 world championships straigh and last year Sebastien Ogier winning the world championship title that's 10 years straight with french winning the world rally championship. No way swimming is even close to WRC. Sebastien Loeb is the french people's favorite athlete since many years.