Olympic Update...
Still mourning the fact that Skeleton was only one day. It just looks so cool... same for Jimmy Shea's helmet...

Crazy news day, though. The Russians are threatening to pull out of the Olympics and possibly the 2004 Athens Summer due to judging improprieties (the Pairs Figure Skating debacle) as well as in protest over Cross Country Skier Larissa Lazutina being disqualified for having high levels of performance-boosting hemoglobin. The team leader said “This is a scandal. They are specifically hunting out Russian sportsmen”. Right after the Russian Press Conference, South Korea announced it is threatening pulling out of the Olympics and possibly the 2004 Athens Summer Games because of the DQ to their skater Kim Dong-Sung last night in favor of "the crowd favorite" Apolo Ohno. They are threatening to sue the Australian judge in US court and have hired a Salt lake City law firm. (It's the same Australian judge from Ohno's other race that he won Silver after the big wipe-out and the Australian skater breezes to Gold.) Jeez.

The big deal of the Night - Ladies Free Skating. Oh, man. Sarah Hughes skated her ass off tonight! I thought she was great! Fell into first place with her skate! Sasha Cohen - well, not so good - she fell. Then Michelle Kwan - wow, she fell, too, but never gave up. I'm looking at the board - it's Hughes-Kwan-Cohen on the board when Russia's Irina Slutskaya comes out to skate. Wasn't clean, but no falls and maybe not as technically difficult as the others. Oh, man. This is actually suspenseful! Her marks go up - they look high. Then when the Ordinals come up they cut to the locker room to see a screaming Sarah Hughes and her coach! So the final is Hughes/Gold-Slutskaya/Silver-Kwan/Bronze! Cohen finished fourth. Boy, I wonder if this is going to piss-off the Russians some more. Slutskaya looks pissed. Michaelle looks like she wants to cry. Bad. Or maybe hide somewhere. Sarah just looked so damn happy in the medal ceremony! Slutskaya didn't look as pissed on the stand - she actually looked happy.

Bode Miller won his second Silver Medal, this time in Men's Giant Slalom (he was 7th after his first run). He's the first USA man to medal in Giant Slalom.

We finished 13th (LAST) in Women's Cross-Country 4x5 km Relay. The Women's Curling team lost to Canada 9-5 in the Bronze Medal Game. No medal. Bummer - I was hoping that USA would get something in Curling. Great Britain won in an upset. The Women's Hockey team Lost to Canada 3-2 in the Gold Medal Game, breaking a 35-game winning streak. (Sweden beat Finland 2-1 in the Bronze Medal Game.) I thought Team USA looked pressured during the game. Things were looking a little chippy and they were just all over the ice - I'm not sure how much under control they were.