Cav's Place

I could have written another comment about the Olympic Truce being violated and the lack of any real action taken against the culprits, even when the resolution was supposedly adopted by consensus, but I did that in 2024 and little has changed, so now that the 2026 Winter Olympics have formally started, I just want to say that it still seems really wrong that some competitions begin before the opening ceremony. And no, the fact that no medal events take place until the day after doesn’t count, because if that’d be the deciding factor, then the opening ceremony of many other major events in all sorts of sports would take place just before the final, or the finals in case there’s also one for third place.
I’ll leave aside the official training rounds, since those who play early in other major competitions will also train before the formal start, though such training may not be so specifically listed on the schedule, but when I see that the actual competition for mixed doubles curling, women’s ice hockey and team figure skating, as well as the qualifying round for men’s snowboard big air begins before the opening ceremony, something just isn’t right. It’s like those sports, those who participate in them, and maybe even their fans, spectators and viewers, are somehow considered less worthy. And typically the period during which an edition of the Olympics takes place is listed as between the date of the opening ceremony and that of the closing ceremony, which is something that you can now even see at the top of every page on the official site, so as far as public awareness goes, those early events may not really “register” as part of that edition, which on top of most probably having notable negative effects on the training schedule and fitness, and likely also the mental state, of the athletes involved, I’m sure also has an impact on the number of viewers and spectators.