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This is an archive collection of entries from  my main personal blog, My Mundane Mid-Life.

This collection of entries is from the Category "Olympics".

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Rockstar Curling?

OK... saw this today... and it just FEELS like it's something out of The Onion... but... could it be true?

Somebody is floating the idea of a reality show that can actually produce - as a winner - an Olympian.

So... what kind of sport would work for that? How about... curling!

Now, it has turned into a American Idol reality thing with five male and five female slots to produce the entries to the Olympic tryouts.

The cool thing, that was unfortunately false, is that at one time they were talking about "closet curlers" that are rockstars would be involved - specifically John Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen. How cool would that have been? How cool would it have been for those guys to expose more people to the sport?

posted at 01:32 PM | Link | Olympics | Care to comment? | § |

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Strong women

Torino 2006
After watching the Canadian Women's Hockey team beat Italy 14-0, I'm convinced they could possibly beat the Chicago Wolves.

posted at 01:32 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Friday, February 10, 2006

XX Games open

Torino 2006
The games are open.

I love HDTV.

Why American 70's/80's music to march the teams into the stadium?

Did Luciano Pavarotti actually sing or was it tape? He sure wasn't straining at all. There wasn't enough close-ups for a definitive answer.

posted at 11:04 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

100 days

Torino 2006
Just 100 days until the XX Olympic Winter Games in Torino (or is it Turin?) Italy (February 10, 2006).

posted at 08:51 AM | Link | Olympics § |

Saturday, March 09, 2002

Paralympics

Paralympics Salt Lake 2002
Olympic Update...
Huh??? Yep, I totally forgot about these games! I'm watching the Opening Ceremonies are on NBC right now. The rest of the games are going to be on A&E at 6pm EST each night this week.

posted at 01:15 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Sunday, February 24, 2002

SLC Day 17

Salt Lake 2002
Olympic Update...

IT'S OVER... the closing ceremonies just wrapped, and I'm still feeling melancholy about it. I know I don't participate, but I'm just sad to see it end. Again I found myself yelling at the TV to get the NBC commentators to STFU! I want to watch and listen to the ceremonies. (I think we lost the whole concept of the dinosaurs because of the talking and commercials.) I'm also still trying to figure out who the hell invited Christina Aguilera to sing at the ceremonies... Seeing fireworks all over the Wasatch valley was pretty cool, and I hope that all the neon paint that they sprayed all over the ice at the arena isn't permanent - I wouldn't want to wear a leather coat (like Team USA) only to get paint all over it!

Last medal update - nothing in Women's 30 km Cross Country. Canada just outplayed USA in Hockey, beating us 5-2. They get the Gold, we get the Silver. Could have been because the ice guys at the E Center were Canadian and before the Olympics they burried a Cannadian coin at center ice. I don't know, maybe we should protest...

Total Medals for the US 34!!!. (Germany was in 1st with 35). Very cool.

One of these years I gotta make it to an Olympics...

posted at 10:14 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Saturday, February 23, 2002

SLC Day 16

Salt Lake 2002
Olympic Update...

The 46-year drought of no medals in bobsledding is over for the US after taking both Silver and Bronze in Four Man Bobsled! Russia won the Bronze medal in Ice Hockey after beating Belarus 7-2. Of course, Russia complained yesterday about the refereeing in yesterday's game against the US and now the International Ice Hockey Federation is pissed-off about the comments that were made by the Russians. Great... let's keep stirring that pot...

Hmmm... somewhere, there's a South Korean feeling like justice was served (though a bt late)... Apolo Anton Ohno was disqualified for a collision with Japanese skater Satoru Terao on the next-to-last turn in a preliminary heat in the Men's Short Track 500m Speed Skating. Ohno had another chance for a medal in the Men's Short Track 5000m Relay, but Rusty Smith clipped a lane marker and fell with 26 laps to go and Team USA finished 4th. We didn't qualify in Ladies 1000m Short Track Speed Skating. Nothing in Ladies 5000m Speed Skating. And if it's Cross-Country skiing, you know that we didn't win anything in Men's 50 km Cross-Country Skiing. Nothing in Men's Slalom (Bode Miller fell twice and finished 25th).

posted at 11:13 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Friday, February 22, 2002

SLC Day 15

Salt Lake 2002
Olympic Update...
OK, first off, the Russians are still pissed and think the games are pretty nearly corrupt with judging problems. They were still threatening on leaving the games when President Putin finally had to say no, we are not leaving. Makes me think that emotions are a bit high in Salt Lake. Russia has always been a powerhouse in the Olympics, and maybe the 14 medals (5 Gold) isn't a good showing, and gee, their athletes' performances couldn't be the problem - oh, no... it must be a conspiracy against them... so let's file a protest against the judging in Women's Figure Skating... Viktor Mamotov, the head of the Russian delegation in Salt Lake City, said, "We filed the protest last night because we think the judging was biased. Canadian pairs skaters were awarded their gold medals. Now that subjective judging harmed us, we want the same for Slutskaya." As Jay Leno would say - "Shaaddduuupppp!". The ISU denied the protest.

USA Men's Hockey beat (barely) Russia 3-2 to advance to the Gold Medal round. USA was leading 3-0 after 2 periods when Russia scored just 11 seconds into the 3rd and then again just 3:10 later. USA looked absolutely stunned, like they didn't know who was on the ice - like it was a totally different team they were playing against. They looked bad, like they were struggling. They looked so good during the first two periods. Man, I wonder if this is going to piss off the Russians some more... All of this on the 22nd Anniversary (to the day) of Team USA beating Russia in Lake Placid in the "Miracle on Ice"...

Things are looking pretty good for the USA in Four Man Bobsled (sorry, I just can't get myself to say bobsleigh) after two runs - they're in First with two more runs tomorrow.

The rest, well, not so good. Nothing in Ladies Giant Slalom. Nothing in the Men's Nordic Combined Sprint 7.5km. Nothing in Men's 10,000m Speed Skating, though I did see somebody (forgot who) who forgot where they were and just changed lanes because he thought he forgot to do it, then realized that, no, he wasn't supposed to be in the lane with the other guy so he changed back. Weird. Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands set a Olympic and World record with 12:58.92 - the first skater to break the 13-minute "barrier". And Canada lost to Norway 6-5 in an upset in the finals for Men's Curling.

This evening was a non-medal event - the Skating Exhibition with all of the winners. Nice to see everybody just skating for the hell of it without the pressure of competing.

When watching this, you realize that the Olympics are finally winding down.

posted at 10:31 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Thursday, February 21, 2002

SLC Day 14

Salt Lake 2002
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.

posted at 10:45 PM | Link | Olympics § |
Radiation Therapy Chauffeur™ duty

Well, I can see that this will start getting old very fast. Took Dad for his first radiation treatment. Just another 30-some to go. I asked Dr. Emami something we've never talked about - how far "down" does Dad's tumor go? He showed me a diagram that he produced for the radiology computer showing the radiation areas. It shows the tumor in his throat which looks pretty substantial, and must be about 3cm tall. The thing that got me was that there are 2 tumors down in the lungs that are being radiated as well. I didn't expect it. Well, yes I did - after I saw how dad was drawn on with blue markers by Jack and Leela yesterday. I wasn't ready for this. I'm just stunned. I don't know what I should read into this. So maybe this time I'm spending with Dad driving him back and forth isn't so bad after all.

The world has turned upside down this afternoon. First I hear that kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearlis dead - at least he looks that way on a videotape that the US has. And I'm sorry, but I don't trust the Pakistani police to find everybody involved. I saw a show on DirecTV the other day, I think it was on the WorldLink channel, called "Karachi Kops". Let's just say it wasn't as good as Fox's "Cops" and it sure was suspiciously edited. I don't trust these guys.

Then I hear that the US Olympic Committee has turned over all of fthe evidence they have to the FBI on death threats against Apolo Anton Ohno. It started after his first race, and after the disqualification of Kim Dong-Sung last night, the death threats apparently really escalated. Jeez. Oh, and there's increased security around the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia because of a possible attack. It's not over - a US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed in about 120 miles northeast of Mindanao in the Philippines with 12 aboard. This is all part of the war against terrorism - this time it's Abu Sayyaf, an offshoot of al Qaeda. What the hell is going on today?!?!?

posted at 04:45 PM | Link | Family § |

Wednesday, February 20, 2002

SLC Day 13

Salt Lake 2002
Olympic Update...
SKELETON - gotta be my most favorite Olympic sport! Going headfirst at 80 mph down a bobsled track! Yes! That's my kind of sport! Now, it hasn't been in the Olympics since 1948, but this is primed for those X-Games types. In Men's Skeleton Jim Shea won Gold!. Very touching - he had his Grandfather's picture in his helmet (His grandfather was a Gold Medal Speed Skater and his dad was also in the Olympics, making this the first time in Olympic history where 3 generations in one family were Olympians). In Women's Skeleton Tristan Gale won Gold and Lea Ann Parsley won Silver! Great day for the sport and a great day for Sledding Medals for USA.. Too bad that's it for Skeleton - I want to see more!

In Ladies 1500m Speed Skating Jennifer Rodriquez won Bronze, and Chris Witty came in fourth. In the Men's 1500m Short Track Speed Skating, well, Apolo Anton Ohno won Gold - only after Kim Dong-Sung of South Korea - who crossed the line first - was disqualified for something called "crosstracking" and interfering with Ohno. Great - another skating controversy. In Men's Hockey Play-offs Quarterfinals, USA shutout Germany 5-0. The real upset in Hockey today was unbeaten Sweden being beaten by Belarus 4-3.

Today's downsides - nothing in Ladies Short Track 3000m Relay Finals, nothing in Ladies Slalom, nothing in Men's 4x7.5 km Biathlon Relay (but Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Noway won his 4th Gold Medal of the games) . In Women's Curling Semifinal USA loses to Switzerland 9-4. Nuts. But I think we might still be in a Bronze medal hunt.

posted at 10:31 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

SLC Day 12

Salt Lake 2002
Olympic Update...
Wow, not many negatives today, and a whole lot of cool things... On the negative side, we didn't even qualify for Men's Cross-Country Sprint or Women's Cross-Country Sprint. No action today for the Women's Curling team, who will play in a semifinal tomorrow against Switzerland. In Men's Freestyle Skiing Aerials Joe Pack got Silver. In Women's Ice Hockey Play-offs Semifinals, USA shutout Sweden 4-0. The Swedish goaltender Kim Martin is only 15 years old! (She turns 16 on Feb 28.) In Men's 1500m Speed Skating Derek Parra wins Gold (over Jochem Uytdehaage, who beat Derek at 5000m on Feb 9) and sets a new World and Olympic Record of 1:43.95! Now, Women's Bobsled (or Bobsleigh) was way cool tonight. First off, it's the first ever Women's Bobsled in the Olympics. Then you have a lot of "soap opera" going on with the USA team, specifically with Sled 1 (one of the NBC commentators said it's like a sausage - you know you like it, but you just don't want to know how it all came together!) Well, Sled 1 of Jean Racine and Gea Johnson (who had a bad hamstring) finished 5th. But, Sled 2 with Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers won Gold!!! That's the first Gold ever in Women's Bobsled, the first Bobsled gold (men or women) for USA since 1948, and Vonetta Flowers became the first African American ever to win a Gold Medal. How cool is that?!?!? Then to end the night, in Ladies Figure Skating Short Program, Michelle Kwan is in first, Sasha Cohen is in third, and Sarah Hughes is in fourth. All-in-all, not a bad day for USA.

posted at 10:16 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Monday, February 18, 2002

SLC Day 11

Salt Lake 2002
Time for an Olympic update... (I'm still trying to figure out how I started this and why I'm keeping it up... )

OK, well, let's see the not so good news... Team K120 Ski Jumping - 11th place. Women's Aerials Freestyle Skiing - 14th & 17th. Women's 4x7.5 km Relay Biathlon - 15th (LAST). The Men lost in curling against Great Britain 7-6 and are now in a three-way tie for 7th. Ice Dancing - 11th (Gee... the French took Gold... who would have thought...)

On the plus-side, the Women's curling team whipped Norway 11-2, who conceded after 7 ends. The women are now in Third Place going into the medal rounds. Men's Hockey beat Belarus 8-1 and advance to their medal rounds.

posted at 09:51 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Sunday, February 17, 2002

SLC Day 10

Salt Lake 2002
Just watched Jamie Sale and David Pelletier get their gold medals for Pairs Figure Skating tonight after Ice Dancing Original Dance Program (yech). I thought it was really cool that they walked out with Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. And I actually heard Anton say that this was "a good decision".

No medals in Ladies' Super-G, Two-Man Bobsleigh (when did it go from Bobsled to Bobsleigh?), Men's 4x10 km Relay Cross-Country Skiing, or Men's Nordic Combined Team 4x5 km Relay. Now in Women's Curling, USA beat Great Britain 6-5, and are now tied for Third. The men just lost to Finland 6-4, and are still tied for 7th.

In Ladies 1000m Speed Skating, Chris Witty set a new World Record (1:13.83) and won Gold and Jennifer Rodriguez won Bronze.

posted at 10:32 PM | Link | Olympics § |
Updates from yesterday

Salt Lake 2002
Ouch! The crash in the last turn of the Men 1000 m Short Track Speed Skating Finals last night was pretty cool (if you can call it that). It was won by the only guy still standing - Australian Steven Bradbury. Apolo Anton Ohno had the presence of mind to slide over the line to get a silver. Joey Cheek got a Bronze in the 1000m Long Track Speed Skating - Kip Carpenter came in 4th, Nick Pearson came in 6th, and Casey FitzRandolph came in 7th (that seems like a lot of people - there were 44 people participating - popular event?)

HEY! The Men's Hockey Team didn't win! OK, it was a tie with Russia - 2-2. If it wasn't for Brett Hull scoring with 4:30 left in the third, it would have been very disappointing. Russia outshot us 35-25. Didn't think it was going to turn into a tie.

posted at 08:28 AM | Link | Olympics § |

Saturday, February 16, 2002

Wolves on TV

Salt Lake 2002
Carol & I went over to Chelby & Damian's tonight for dinner and to watch the Chicago Wolves on CLTV. The Wolves lost to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins 2-1, with all of the goals coming in the first period. Boy, this one was nasty. We were at the game when the Penguins came to town last month. It was ugly then and it was ugly tonight.

So, in-between periods or when there were breaks, we kept flipping over to Olympic hockey to watch Chicago Wolves goaltender Pasi Nurminen in net for Finland in the game against Belarus. Finland won 8-1. Not a lot of shots on goal - Nurminen stopped 20 of 21. The one goal was on a Belarus power play.

Why does it seem that I've been leaving friend's houses when the Short Track Speed Skating has been on this week? I wanted to see this, especially tonight when I heard the there was a four-person pile-up in the last lap in the Men 1000 m Finals. I'm watching curling now (The Men lost to Denmark 9-7 in an extra end (they're in 7th place now), and the women won against Russia 11-4 and won against Germany 7-6 and are now tied for 4th), and I don't think I can stay up and watch the Men's Hockey tonight...

posted at 10:48 PM | Link | Olympics § |
SLC Day 9

Salt Lake 2002
Daron Rahlves finished 8th and Thomas Vonn finished 9th in Men's Super-G. Jay Hakkinen finished 13th in Men's 12.5 km Pursuit Biathlon. USA beat Russia 11-4 in Women's Round Robin Session 8 of Curling. Team USA, consisting of Todd Lodwick, Matt Dayton, Johnny Spillane, and Bill Demong, finished third in the Team K90 of Nordic Combined. Team USA shutout Finland 5-0 in Women's Ice Hockey! Goalie Sara DeCosta now has two shutouts in a row.

posted at 02:05 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Friday, February 15, 2002

Team USA Hockey

Salt Lake 2002
The NHL players are finally in Salt Lake and watching hockey has turned even more interesting - probably because USA shutout Finland 6-0!

posted at 11:46 PM | Link | Olympics § |
SLC Day 8

Salt Lake 2002
Silver (Mark Grimmette & Brian Martin) & Bronze (Chris Thorpe & Clay Ives) in Luge Doubles!

No medal in Women's Parallel Giant Slalom Snowboarding, but Chris Klug got a Bronze in Men's Parallel Giant Slalom Snowbaording. And Klug actually had a liver transplant about 19 months ago!!! That's just nuts for any athlete, to be able to survive and handle an severe illness and transplant surgery, but excel at your sport and then get a medal at the Olympics?!?!? (OK, I'm stretching my beliefs on Snowboarding being an Olympic sport here.)

Men's Curling whipped France 8-3 earlier today.

posted at 02:46 PM | Link | Olympics § |
OLYMPIC NEWS CONFERENCE

Salt Lake 2002
Kevan Gosper IOC VP introduced everybody and moderated the news conference. Ottavio Cinquanta ISU President - they had information and evidence to have a meeting after skating last night. They debated the situation, and produced one decision, one deliberation. The decision - suspended the French figure skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne immediately because of enough evidence that was responsible of misconduct. The deliberation - basically, what to do - to have the result of the pairs of Canada and Russia made "equal". The deliberation information was turned over to the IOC. Jacques Rogge IOC President - there was an Executive Committee meeting this morning, and a Gold medal will be given to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. In general, they just had very short announcements, and went quickly to a Q & A session. Of course, the majority of the questions were related to either about if there was going to be additional investigations (and apparently there will be) and if the IOC & ISU think the games, the sport, oh, just about everything is going to be or is damaged because of this.

The medals are supposed to be presented after the last figure skating event, which should be the Ladies Free Skate on February 21.

posted at 12:10 PM | Link | Olympics § |
Court of Arbitration for Sport

Salt Lake 2002
The IOC and ISU is having a news conference in the next few minutes - this is a big deal for the Olympics. The Canadians asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to require the nine judges who scored the competition to testify before an arbitration committee. My guess is that the IOC & ISU didn't exactly like being pressured like that. There's rumors flying around that the French judge has left Salt Lake City.

posted at 11:52 AM | Link | Olympics § |

Thursday, February 14, 2002

SLC Day 7

Salt Lake 2002
USA Women's Hockey!!! Whooo hooo!!!! They go on to the medal round (with Canada, Sweden, & Finland) after a 12-1 whipping of China! "Veteran" Cammi Granato (from Maywood, IL) had a hat trick. China had only 10 shots on goal (USA had 71!)

I feel like I dropped into "commentator mode" for Olympic results...

Nothing for USA Ladies Speed Skating 500m. Chris Witty finished 14th.

Men's Curling - Well, it was a win over Switzerland 6-2, but we're 2-3 in 7th place. Doesn't look good for the men. The women lost to Denmark 9-4, and had a 2-2 record tied for 5th going into tonight's match with Switzerland, and it's not looking good there either. Looking at the "athletes" that participate in this game make me think that this is the "bowling" of the Winter Games - the people just look like bowlers.

USA best was 15th (Kris Freeman) in Men's Cross-Country Skiing 10 km Free Pursuit.

USA best in Ladies' Combined Downhill was 6th (Lindsey Kildow)

Hmmm. one USA (Chris Klug - 11th) made it out of the qualifying round in Men's Snowboarding PGS (that's parallel giant slalom to us uninitiated).

Well, it's evening so that must mean figure skating...Men's Figure Skating Free Skate is tonight... there was a few times I thought I was watching a Saturday Night Live sketch with the way the guys were falling. Russian Evgeni Plushenko almost landed the first quad-triple-triple in history. While watching him do a combination, Scott Hamilton called him "sick and twisted" in jest! He wound up in 1st. Well, I thought Timothy Goebel (from Evanston, IL) looked great to my untrained eye - there was a problem with a triple-axel, but he hit a quad late in his program. I thought he was a little better than the marks he got. Put him into 2nd with two skaters to go - Alexander Abt from Russia - who actually fell, and stepped out of a few things and whose marks were all over the place putting him in 4th, and finally another Russian Alexei Yagudin finishes up the program. And finishes without any "fire", but the program was good. The wait for Goebel has got to be a killer. I mean, he eventually knows he's going to get a medal - that's got a be a relief of sorts, but not knowing what kind of medal has to be a bit hairy. Must be my imagination, but there seemed to be a delay getting the marks up. He get's 4 6.0's for Presentation, the most for a man in the Olympics. So he get's the Gold, Plushenko gets Silver, and our Timothy Goebel gets a bronze!

posted at 10:56 PM | Link | Olympics § |
Luge Fantasy Camp

The Today Show just did a piece on a Luge Fantasy Camp! Now that looks great! They started the teaching process slowly, understanding the start, then the actually went out to the track and started half-way down, and eventually working their way up the hill. One of the students wiped-out and had a mild concussion! This looks like a great time!

posted at 08:38 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Wednesday, February 13, 2002

Zamboni Fantasy Camp

The Today Show just did a piece on Zamboni Fantasy Camp - a 2-day camp Utah Olympic Oval in SLC where they're setting records in Speed Skating! How cool would that be?!?!? At 4,675 feet in altitude, there's less room between water molecules, making the ice denser & "slicker".

posted at 08:43 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Tuesday, February 12, 2002

SLC Day 5

Salt Lake 2002
I'm turning into a curmudgeon. I just can't seem to tolerate these X-Game-type "sports" in the Olympics. At least they put it into its own category - "Freestyle Skiing". They're showing today's Men's Moguls on TV now. Yes, I see how hard it is to do these things (I mean, Johnny Moseley was just fantastic), but they're just not Olympic sports, you know what I mean? (Travis Mayer got a Silver, though, and Moseley got knocked to 4th.) Between this junk and the Figure Skating Judging fiasco last night, my "curmudgeonness" is just getting tweaked-up a notch... and now the conspiracy theorists are coming out of the woodwork, saying that there was "collaboration" between the French and Russian judges. Canada has requested an investigation (or an ISU "internal assessment")

Looks like Picabo Street has made it into retirement successfully. She finished 16th in Women's Downhill, just 1.61 seconds behind the leader and behind 11th place Jonna Mendes and 12th place Kirsten Clark. A very nice career. Too bad we didn't have a good showing for your sendoff.

USA Women's Hockey team kicked butt in a 10-0 whipping of Germany.

Hey! More speed skating medals in the Men's 500m! Casey FitzRandolph got a Gold (with his 34.42 Olympic Record run yesterday) and Kip Carpenter got a Bronze.

Poor Todd Eldredge. He's 30 years old and he was all over the ice - and not in a good way. As I'm writing this, he's in 9th, behind Michael Weiss, who's in 8th, and Timothy Goebel who's still in 3rd. Another "old guy" is Elvis Stojko from Canada - he's 7th. Leading is Alexei Yagudin from (gee) Russia.

Whooo hoooo! Another Curling Win! This Time it's the USA Women over Sweden 6-5. We're in second place after two games (we're 2-0!) The men are tied for forth (1-1 after two games)

posted at 08:30 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Monday, February 11, 2002

Wrong Call

Salt Lake 2002
Wrong!!! Wrong!!! Wrong!!! WRONG!!! This is why I hate judged sports! What kind of crap is this in Pairs Figure Skating?!?!? Those damn Canadians (Jamie Sale and David Pelletier) skated their asses off, even after colliding hard with the damn Russians (Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze) during the warm-ups! Screw those damn judges! Just because ONE judge doesn't give them a First Place ordinal??? And the NBC commentators talk about "being embarrassed for the sport". This is just damned wrong. And earlier we SWEEP the medals in that crappy X-Games Men's Snowboarding Halfpipe. Gee, whaddya know? It's a damned judged event! NO WONDER I don't like this! So whoopdeedoo. I REALLY felt for the Canadians. I can't get over this. They DESERVED it. Now the damn Russians retain their "dynasty".

posted at 11:23 PM | Link | Olympics § |
SLC Day 4

Salt Lake 2002
You know, even though I love downhill, Biathlon is pretty cool, too. You really have to be in great shape to ski at altitude, then do it for 20km, and oh, yeah, carry a rifle to stop and shoot - calmly at targets the size of quarters at 50 meters! And the event I'm watching now, 20 km Individual Men Biathlon has 87 people entered!

Watched a piece of the Women's Preliminary Ice Hockey, with Canada and Kazakhstan. Canada won 7-0 (I mean, Kazakhstan? Are they a threat?) Canada out-shot them 66-11, 5 of the goals were on power plays. That means that the Kazakhstan goalie stopped 59 shots! I find it interesting that the women wear full-face cages on the helmets to protect their faces, and of course, the guys don't.

No coverage on Curling today. Bummer. Such an odd sport, I feel that I need to watch. Right now the US is tied with Canada, Finland & Germany for first. Whoa! It's going to be on MSNBC in a few minutes! Cool! (US v Sweden) and CNBC has US v Canada tonight! OK, this is looking better...

And somebody better be covering Men's Singles Luge! We missed a medal, but I want to see that. (50 entries in that event with one Did Not Finish and one Did Not Start (gotta wonder about that one...)). Instead , they'll probably air that crappy X-Game Snowboarding "sport" (and I use that term loosely). Guess they're showing Luge in-between sessions at Pairs Figure Skating. OK, gotta watch that, too...

We got 500m Speed Skating, and whooo hooo! We're in First and Third Place after the first race. No new world record yet. That's also being broadcast tonight.

posted at 04:06 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Sunday, February 10, 2002

Downhill

Salt Lake 2002
Ahhh... my most favorite Winter Olympic sport is on... ooops... second most favorite - Downhill. No prissy snowboarding X-Games crap. Downhill. Speed. Danger. That's a sport...

posted at 08:43 PM | Link | Olympics § |

Saturday, February 09, 2002

SLC Day 2 - Part III

Salt Lake 2002
OK, the US is tied with Austria with two medals, leading all countries after Day 1. I'm still getting the feel of the NBC coverage. I'm really pissed at the way they handled coverage of the first Medal Ceremonies tonight. In short - Bob Costas didn't know what was going on and since they had more Nordic Combined Ski Jumping today (was cancelled yesterday because of the weather), they went to that instead. Wouldn't a Field Producer have a clue on what was happening? At least show the first Medal Ceremony - the entire ceremony - so that we've got and idea of what's going on, then show just the individual ceremonies on the other nights. They showed Dave Mathews performing later tonight from the same damn stage without cutting away during a song. Just pissed me off. And what's with Chinese figure skaters? How can an entire team exceed in throws and at the same time nobody knows how to spin? If it was just one group, you would overlook it. But three separate pairs? Nice coaching!

posted at 11:39 PM | Link | Olympics § |
SLC Day 2 - Part II

Salt Lake 2002
Somebody needs to test the water that they make the ice from at the Utah Olympic Oval for Men's 5000m Speed Skating. Wow. 6:17.98, a new World and Olympic record in one of the heats (Derek Parra of the US), only to see his record go up in smoke minutes later as he's beat by Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands with a 6:14.66!

posted at 04:03 PM | Link | Olympics § |
SLC Day 2 - Part I

Salt Lake 2002
I guess the Olympics have officially started - Stefania Belmondo of Italy claimed the first gold of the games, winning the women's 15 km cross-country skiing event. Let's see how the rest of the events play out.

posted at 11:40 AM | Link | Olympics § |

Friday, February 08, 2002

SLC Day 1 - Opening Ceremonies

Salt Lake 2002
Opening Ceremonies are over, the games have been declared open. Great to see/hear Jim McKay at the Olympics. I don't ever remember a commentator being "loaned" from one network to another to act as a correspondent. Unfortunately, Jim didn't fit in really well. I think that his time has unfortunately passed. VERY emotional watching the WTC flag being brought into the Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium. Dead silence - a reverence that I didn't expect. And then the National Anthem by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir started off quietly, hauntingly, adding to the moment, eventually building to a great crescendo. A very good tribute to September 11 (it couldn't be ignored) without taking away from the Olympic spirit of the games. I thought the entertainment was good. Loved the Native American pieces. How cool is it to have George the 43rd declare the games open from the middle of the US athletes instead of some podium or private box?! (Even cooler is later watching figure skater Sasha Cohen handing the president her cell phone for him to say a few words to her friends or family!) Having Mike Eruzione and the rest of the 1980 gold medal-winning U.S. hockey team do the lighting of the cauldron was a good choice (I think). Is the cauldron water-cooled? I thought I saw water pouring down the insides of the glass. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!...

UPDATE: Yep, that's water in the Olympic cauldron - the cauldron was made by WET DESIGNS, the guys that made the fountains in front of Bellagio in Las Vegas! The Washington Post had what I thought was an even-handed review of the Opening Ceremony coverage.

posted at 11:51 PM | Link | Olympics § |
Anticipation

Salt Lake 2002
Just three hours away from the 2002 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. Actually, I can't wait. I've spent time in and around Salt Lake City, and I really wanted to go to this Olympics, but it just wasn't meant to be. I love all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding the ceremonies. And an actual benefit of unemployment? Being able to watch the MSNBC/CNBC live coverage during the day! OK, it's a little lame, but I have to put some kind of positive spin on the situation! I mean, I'm not a graphic designer/web designer getting a great job after such a long "vacation" (read: unemployment).

posted at 03:56 PM | Link | Olympics § |

 

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This Blog was last updated Friday December 18, 2009 13:03:12 CDT (-06:00 GMT)
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