Showing posts with label 2014 at 03:09AM. Show all posts

Monday, 10 February 2014

Two Women From The U.S. Curling Team Taught Us How To Curl And It Is Super Hard

You have no idea.

Last week Ann Swisshelm (left), the 2014 U.S. women's Olympic curling team's “lead,” and newcomer Sarah Anderson (right), an alternate for the 2014 squad, visited the BuzzFeed office and took us to a local curling club to teach us more about the sport. Like many casual fans, we assumed we could immediately pick it up and dominate. We were very wrong.

Macey J. Foronda / BuzzFeed

To begin with, curling is a deceptively athletically demanding sport. Since it relies so heavily on balance, players must have complete control of their body, along with a strong core and great flexibility. This lunge, which none of us could do, is just a warm-up.

After stretching, we learned how to push off the blocks with the curling equivalent of training wheels to help with balance.

For right-handed curlers, the right foot is used to push off and the left foot is used to slide and guide the body down the ice. Ideally, this is accomplished in one powerful fluid motion.

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Sunday, 9 February 2014

No, A Man Wasn’t Killed Due To The Sochi Olympic Ring Fail

The rumor that the technical specialist reportedly responsible for the fail was stabbed to death was – surprise, surprise – untrue.

So yesterday this story began to circulate around the Internet.

Via dailycurrant.com

The man responsible for operating the Olympic Rings during last night's Winter Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Russia was found dead today. According to local reports the body of T. Borris Avdeyev was found his hotel room early this morning with multiple stab wounds. Avdeyev was a technical specialist responsible for the Olympic Ring spectacle, which embarrassingly malfunctioned last night. Five animatronic snowflakes were supposed to transform into Olympic Rings. The first four functioned properly but the fifth snowflake failed to change shape. Although his body was badly mangled and the wounds were consistent with a struggle, so far officials say they don't suspect foul play.

While the mishap was undoubtedly embarrassing, those sharing the story (over 16,000 times on Facebook and Twitter thus far), hadn't spotted that it originated on The Daily Currant – which is a satirical news site.

It's previously fooled social media users with this story, among others.

Via dailycurrant.com

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Team USA Sweeps Gold In Snowboard Slopestyle Debut

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Javier Soriano / Getty

Snowboard slopestyle was introduced this year for the first time as an Olympic event and it turns out that Team USA is pretty darn good at it. On Saturday, Sage Kotsenburg surprised everyone by capturing gold in the men's event, earning the first medal of the Olympics.

And less than 24 hours later, Jamie Anderson — who was the favorite coming in — won gold in the women's event, giving Team USA two gold medals in the inauguration of the sport.