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>> current entries >> newer entries >> older entries Thank you, Vancouver - 2/28/10  The Olympic flame finally went out in Vancouver, but not before Catriona LeMay Doan finally got to light hers, which malfunctioned during the opening ceremonies. I'm not sure that we needed a mime, but it was a cute bit and I'm glad they did it.I took the last couple days off from this blog - I'm really most interested in the skating, and all the other events that kept going started to blur together. But I still watched. I hadn't seen parallel downhill or team synchronized speed skating before and both were interesting - especially the latter when a German woman slid over the finish line like she was sliding into homeplate. Apolo Ohno was disqualified from one race but won another medal in a team relay. Today's hockey final was exciting even for non-fans like me, and I'm glad it was USA vs. Canada, as the Olympics should be non-political. Kudos to Canada for that win, and for the huge win that these Olympics were.  Despite opening with tragedy and a number of glitches along the way, these were great games all around and by all accounts, Vancouver did a terrific job hosting them. Some of my most memorable takeaways include Norway's curling pants, Joannie Rochette and Petra Majdic's triumphs over their own personal but very different tragedies, and Yao Bin coming back to coach Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo to a gold medal 30 years after he & Luan Bo were literally laughed off the ice in Lake Placid. Anyone gutsy enough to even attempt Olympic pairs skating after learning from photographs deserves every victory they get, and I'm sure this was the sweetest.A number of other wins and losses will stick with us all, and I congratulate every athlete from the medal winners to those who finished last. Thanks to all of them for a great time these past couple weeks. Begrudging gratitude to NBC too for bringing the games to us. Even with delayed broadcasts and the often lousy job they did, at least we got to watch. Thanks especially to those of you who have read these little paragraphs, particularly those who have commented or let me know you were here. I'll keep this blog going in some fashion, but it'll likely revert to irregular timing and subject matter now. And if you only show up here for Olympics, see you for Sochi. Update Just when I was feeling all warm & forgiving, NBC messed with us westies once again by cutting off our closing ceremonies to air their dopey new show "The Marriage Ref". It was the ultimate slap in the face after two weeks of slaps for those of us with the misfortune of living in the same time zone the Olympics took place. Photos: Getty Images  Poise & perfection, splats & stogies - 2/25/10  Joannie Rochette has become the poster girl for these Olympics, and she cemented her story and herself into everyone's memories once again tonight by winning the bronze in the long program. It's Canada's first ladies' medal since 1988.The top placements didn't change from the short program the other night: South Korea's Yu-Na Kim came out on top with a flawless skate that set a new world record of 228.56 points, shattering her own previous world record of 210. Her rival Mao Asada of Japan also set a new record by landing two triple axels, but later she fumbled and had to settle for silver. She does however win my award for best costume of the night.    16-year-old Mirai Nagasu, also in red & black, placed fourth. Her teamie Rachael Flatt finished seventh. It was only the second time since 1952 that an American woman didn't win a medal. If all this is too much grace and perfection for you, not to worry. Like the short program, there were blade grabs aplenty, but unlike the other night, there were also some bounces. These are Canada's Cynthia Phaneuf, Australia's Cheltzie Lee, and Italy's Carolina Kostner hitting the ice. Elena Gedevanishvili of Georgia also went down.     You may have noticed I haven't mentioned hockey much here. That's because I don't care about it, but this was different. The Canadian women won the gold medal today and after the medal ceremony, they celebrated on the ice with beer, champagne and cigars. They caught some flak for it (maybe when the pics hit the web), and they have since issued an apology.Photos: ZumaPress (Lee); Canwest (Phaneuf); Getty Images (all others) Crashtacular - 2/24/10  Lydia Lassila of Australia had a better day than some, winning the gold in women's aerials with a bunch of twisty-turny-flippy moves high in the air. Xu Mengtao of China wasn't so lucky: she crashed after her flippy-twisty thingy. I can't even pretend to follow or understand what they do, but it's fun to watch.. well, when you could see them through the fog, that is.But it was a crashy day for lots of Olympians today. In the qualifiers for the men's 500 meter short track tonight, one guy fell over just after starting - much like most of us would do if given the chance. Apolo Ohno won the heat, like he does. Far less humorous was the horrific bobsled crash of Cathleen Martini of Germany, a favorite to win. Her partner/brake(wo)man Remy Logsch jumped or was thrown out of the sled when they hit a wall. Martini's helmed was visibly jammed into the wall, and she flipped over with the sled. Canadian teams won gold and silver, and USA won bronze.    Lindsey Vonn crashed again today too, this time in the giant slalom. She flew into and was entangled in the nets, and broke a pinky finger in the fall. Teamie Julie Mancuso had already started her run down the course and was flagged to stop until Vonn had been carted off. Mancuso finished 18th on her redo, and cried. Wait.. what? They're flying down the hill at freeway speeds in super thick fog, and they let two of them on the course at the same time? That's nuts. But not as nuts as the soap opera fallout that ensued, building on Mancuso's comments about Vonn's popularity a few days ago. Mancuso has since deleted these tweets, likely to protect her image and/or to avoid a fine from the Olympic Committee: "i was flagged in gs, that is bullshit! well now its time to use that anger and fight scond run!!" "that yellow flag in the GS was such... I just want to scream. I'm really miffed. Anyway, gotta take that energy and focus it for 2nd run." Maybe she's not aware of website caches: once something hits the interwebs, it never completely goes away. They both have another chance tomorrow.  Possibly the worst day was had by speed skater Ryan Bedford, who was talked into this new hairdo by teammate Chad Hedrick. Supposedly they'd both planned to do the shave 'n patriotic dye job together, but Hedrick backed out after Bedford got his new look. Bedford said "We weren't really thinking that it would end up like this. I'm the one who gets to look weird."Photos: Getty Images (Lassila, Xu, Martini); US Presswire (Vonn); AP (Bedford) Turkey leg competition - 2/23/10  Dick Button said today on the Universal Sports skating talk show that all this blade grabbing and the positions they enable remind him of Thanksgiving dinner, when you pull and twist the leg off the turkey. I couldn't think of much else tonight watching the women's short program.But all joking aside (for now), the highlight of the night was easily Canada's Joannie Rochette, whose mom died just a couple days ago. Naturally NBC played up the tragedy and they will again Thursday, and I was worried when the audience cheered for her when she stepped on the ice: they almost made her cry before she started to skate, at a time when she needed full concentration. But she not only rose to the occasion, she excelled, and she ended up in third place. She received a standing ovation after her skate, in a truly touching moment. South Korea's Yu-Na Kim finished first with a James Bond theme that managed to be stylish and not too gimmicky. Japan's Mao Asada was second, with the only triple axel of the night, which she made look effortless along with everything else she did. America's Rachael Flatt finished fourth, continuing her overachiever status which includes being newly accepted to Stanford, and bringing her advanced placement calculus homework to Vancouver.    None of them did or wore anything too crazy, and I was equally pleased and disappointed that nobody bounced (at least not the skaters NBC showed us). I was equally fascinated and discouraged by the everlasting blade and boot grabs. These are Japan's Miko Ando, Finland's Laura Lepisto, and Switzerland's Sarah Meier's versions.    More turkey legs blade grabs came from Canada's Cynthia Phaneuf, Japan's Akiko Suzuki, and Italy's Carolina Kostner.    If you think I'm carrying this too far, consider that for other than the top placers who had multiple shots around the web to pick from, these were by far the easiest pics to find. Here we have Russia's Alena Leonova, Hungary's Julia Sebestyen, and another of Carolina Kostner, showing the technique in close-up. They're flexible, we get it already.    The rest of the day's events included a cross-country commentator who screamed the finish like the reporter who covered the Hindenburg explosion, more yelling for women's ski-cross, and snow finally returned to the Winter Games. The men's giant slalom had swooshy blue markers in the snow around the gates, which looked like cheating somehow. And Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer was in gold medal position towards the end of the grueling 10,000 meter race when his coach yelled at him to change lanes. He did, but he wasn't supposed to, and he was disqualified.. oops. Photos: AP (Rochette, Flatt); Getty Images (all others) Twizzle this - 2/22/10  Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir won Canada's first gold in tonight's ice dance final, with traditional balletic costumes, great imaginative lifts, and Mahler. They were simply exquisite.The silver went to Americans Meryl Davis & Charlie White, who NBC had largely overlooked until they knocked everyone's socks off with their original dance. Tonight they skated superbly to Phantom, in appropriate costumes, and did a lot of moves like this one that made you wonder how they did them. As for the rest of them, once again I ask what was that?    Russia's Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin won bronze with excellent skating to a repeat of "Requiem for a Dream" which a French team also used earlier. She forgot to do her hair and he forgot to get his costume finished. Their mismatched outfits did have bonus rope handles which they used for some lifts and spins. Despite all the hype, America's Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto failed to medal. They skated to an operatic "Ave Maria" and were also mismatched: she wore roomie Johnny Weir's style, and he was in late-stage Elvis.  Now it gets weird. Italy's Federica Faiella & Massimo Scali had grandma & grandpa outfits to skate their nice but boring program, which included ugly boy-lifts like this one. France's Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder were both in black but by the end, she was in silver sparklies. I didn't notice how that happened.The get-ups of the night were Jana Khokhlova & Sergei Novitski who skated to Stravinsky's "Firebird" and took the theme just a bit too literally. France's Natalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat were also mismatched: he was supposed to be a clock, or something.. I'm not sure about her. Another mismatch from UK's John & Sinead Kerr: she in bridal white and he in torn t-shirt & jeans. They skated to Linkin Park (with original vocals) which was a nice change from orchestral muzak. They too joined the girl-lifts-boy club, and they too looked dopey doing it.    I didn't see much else today or tonight, but no need: the free dance was plenty. Photos: Canadian Press (Virtue/Moir); Getty Images (all others) What was that? - 2/21/10  Big ups to Bode Miller who finally got the gold medal that's eluded him for so long when he won the men's super combined today! The Olympic debut of ski-cross was fun but I'm sorry Daron Rahlves crashed, and the men's & women's biathlons were great when they stopped to shoot: the NBC graphics made it look like a wacky video game.Lots more events took place and lots more medals were awarded, but I'm getting a little burnt out on all this ice, snow and speed, and only a dozen or so of you are reading, so I'm not going to bother with all the results. I'm still watching, but not keeping track so much of who does what. Now on to the What Was That Department: the ice dancing original dance was tonight, and it required a country/folk or ethnic theme. Now that they've finally allowed music with vocals in competition, I'm thinking it wasn't such a good idea after all. Nobody bounced like so many did on this one in Torino, but it was a very bizarre scene. Canada's Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir took the lead with a flamenco number, complete with tappy-heel music that did not go with their gliding skates. Russia's Oksana Dominina & Maxim Shabalin did their controversy-laden aboriginal number, complete with plastic leaves, Ugg skates for him, and tampon skirts for both.. France's Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat did a cowboy number - she repeated France's can can skirt from earlier, and he wore what looked like chaps over denim diapers    America's Charlie White & Meryl Davis did an Indian number that looked great to me, complete with appropriate hand & arm movements, and the multi-armed look of Vishnu, Ganesh, etc.. UK's Sinead & John Kerr looked ridiculous skating to Johnny Cash in Daisy Dukes.. America's Tanith Belbin & Agosto Benjamin wore extremely elaborate outfits for a Moldavian folk dance.    The free dance is tomorrow, and the outrageous costume meter should go into the red. Photos: AP (Bode); Getty Images (ice dance) / 'tampon skirts' © strawbrykiwicake We're into Week 2 - 2/20/10  I was expecting ice dance tonight but it doesn't pick up again til tomorrow. I did enjoy watching the two-man bobsleds zooming down the track at 90mph though. Other than the crashes, and there were a couple of bad ones, it looks like it'd be the most fun of all these sports.It wasn't a good day for NBC's stars: Shani Davis settled for silver in the 1,500 speed skate, behind Mark Tuitert of the Netherlands, with Norway's Havard Bokko winning the bronze. Lindsey Vonn settled for bronze in women's Super G, behind Austria's Andrea Fischbacher and Tina Maze of Slovenia. And Apolo Ohno barely got bronze in the 1,500 short track, behind Lee Jung-su and Lee Ho-suk of South Korea. It was Ohno's seventh career Olympic medal, so he's now passed Bonnie Blair for the most winter medals won by an American - and he still has two more races to come. Later he tweeted "Others might remember winning or losing; I remember the journey." Hmm, it seems to me he's more than happy to remember winning, when he does.  Sweden's Marcus Hellner won the mens' 30km cross country pursuit and celebrated amid the near-dead bodies that littered the finish line. The King of Sweden was also there, looking like any other old guy in the crowd wearing a knit cap. And Simon Ammann of Switzerland won a record fourth individual ski jumping medal when he got the gold for flying off the "large hill" - yep, that's the technical term for it.I don't want to just run stats and winners here, but that's about all we had today. Tomorrow the sequins and feathers come back, along with our fun. Photos: Imago (bobsled); Reuters (cross country) NBC Fail - 2/19/10  Right on the heels of the Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien fiasco, you'd think NBC would have put a little more effort into doing a professional job of producing their Olympic coverage. The network's made a huge deal of losing $200-250 million (the figure varies) on the Games, yet the ratings have been excellent. They even beat the unbeatable "American Idol" on Wednesday - something no other show's been able to do in 222 episodes. Visa highlighted their Vancouver sponsorship in their February 3 earnings call as one of two major expenses (the other being the upcoming FIFA World Cup), and anyone who's been watching knows Visa paid NBC for a lot of commercial time.And yet NBC has failed in so many ways to give us quality coverage. The worst offense is keeping the West Coast on the standard primetime three-hour delay, when it's all but impossible to avoid hearing results ahead of time, especially if you try to use Twitter or Facebook. Sports used to be the one thing Westies could watch live, but no longer - and the Games are taking place in our timezone! Why couldn't they give us a 5pm feed of the 8pm airing on USA, MSNBC, CNBC or Universal Sports? They use all those channels for hockey and curling during the day. Even weekend daytime coverage is three hours stale. That wouldn't fly with football, basketball or baseball, so how do they get away with it here? They spend an enormous amount of time rehashing prior events and airing over-produced sappy back stories instead of showing us competitions, and they only mention a handful of athletes out of the 2,600-plus who are there. They dwell on their favorites going in and even if they lose, they continue to dwell on them for days afterward. Tonight we had ice dancing commentary from Sandra Bezic, who was a huge improvement over the figure skating yack all week. Granted she got a bit too chatty at times, but she actually explained how the competition works, what to look for, the skaters' backgrounds and individual strengths & weaknesses. She even had complex diagrams! Quite a change from Scott Hamilton cheering a landing or grunting a fall, which is about all he does anymore. Don't even mention the skiing guys.. they have yet to explain the difference between slalom, giant slalom and super G, and WTF is "the weasel"? Yet they talked about how it's warmer and the snow is softer at the bottom of the course for every skier. Mostly I just wish they'd stop shouting all the time. So come on NBC, and step it up! There's a week left to salvage this mess and satisfy your viewers. Graphic: Mitch Canter, @studionashvegas Tango! - 2/19/10  Speaking of ice dance, Russians Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin won the compulsory dance segment tonight, performing the same tango steps in the same pattern as all the couples, but with a lot more flair and essence of tango. They wore gifts from First Nations in the kiss 'n cry area, apparently having reached a settlement about their controversial aboriginal costumes for the original dance coming up tomorrow Sunday.NBC darlings Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto finished fourth, behind Canadians Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir and fellow Americans Meryl Davis & Charlie White. In typical fashion, NBC took advantage of last week's luge tragedy by featuring 15-year-old Allison Reed and her partner Otar Japaridze who are not medal contenders, and who were skating for Georgia. Reed lives in New Jersey and has never been to Georgia. Her brother and sister also skated tonight (although NBC didn't show them) - they skated for Japan. Something may be very wrong with the Olympics country system, but the Reed family sure knows how to work it. Many think the compulsory dance is dull, but I like being able to see side-by-side comparisons of the same thing. It makes for easier armchair judging, and illustrates the technical training these skaters have under their sequined belts. They dropped the compulsory figures that gave figure skaters their name, largely because many of the best skaters couldn't do them well, but ice dancers are still expected to know their basics.  Also today, Bode Miller won silver in the men's super G, finishing 0.28 seconds behind Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal. The US men's curling team won their first match, after kicking their skip and (former) driving force John Shuster off the team. Canada's Jon Montgomery won the men's skeleton and Amy Williams of UK won the women's.Finally, snowboarder Scotty Lago headed home (possibly by request) after apologizing to the US Olympic Committee and the US Ski and Snowboard Association for these pics published by TMZ of him letting a barfly lick his bronze medal and give him a simulated BJ with it on a crowded street. Maybe next week he'll hire Tiger Woods to write a public apology for him, and she'll hire a lawyer. Photos: New York Times (ice dance); Splashnewsonline/TMZ (bronze BJ) Special edition: the medals - 2/19/10  The Torino medals were weird with their big hole in the middle, but these Vancouver jobs don't even look finished with their wavy design. It's been bugging me, so I looked into it a bit.For a start, the gold ones aren't solid gold: they're plated with about 6 grams of gold, which is a couple hundred bucks worth as of this morning. There are also a bunch of recycled computer and TV parts in them all, 6.8 metric tons worth for the 615 that were made.  But what's up with that wavy design? They look like a bad first project in shop class. Well, it turns out that's meant to represent the ocean waves, drifting snow, and mountain landscapes of the Vancouver area and Canada in general.They were designed by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian aboriginal artist, and industrial designer Omer Arbel, and each medal is unique. The surface design of each is a small section of two large works representing orcas in traditional native style. You would need to put all the medals together to see the complete artwork. That's kind of cool, but the wave form still looks dopey and unfinished to me. Still, it's what they stand for that matters to those who win them.. and of course how many of which color are won by which country seems to be all that matters to the media.    What would Brian Boitano do? - 2/18/10  He would win of course, and that's what American Evan Lysacek did tonight in a stunning, elegant performance. Dick Button may be missing from the commentators' table but his record remains intact, as Russia's Evgeni Plushenko failed to repeat his gold. Plushenko had harder jumps, but Button called it earlier today by saying that he can do the jumps, but he lands them "like a sledgehammer". Oh Dick, how we miss you at rinkside.We got to see the top 12 skaters and they ran the gamut from Broadway to kooky & annoying to dull music, from carnival face paint to a Czech nerd outfit, to Charlie Chaplin with a broken lace. Nobunari Oda stopped mid-routine and left the ice to repair it, reminiscent of Tonya Harding but without the tears, then picked up right where he left off.  We had no less than five bounces, including this one by bronze medalist Daisuke Takahashi of Japan, which just goes to show that bouncers can go home with medals. I have no idea what he was wearing, or why.Plushenko demonstrated the quintessential poor loser's spirit by saying "If the Olympic champion doesn't know how to jump a quad, I dont know. Now it's not men's figure skating, now it's dancing." Shut up and go home.    The Another 2 Cents ripoff award goes to Johnny Weir, who not only had a costume that won't be outdone by any of the women (though it might by the ice dancers), but he skated a beautiful and flawless routine that was only one skunked spin shy of perfection, yet he only placed sixth. Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland placed fourth, landing two quadruple jumps, albeit a bit wobbly. But he's the hands-down winning spinner: it might not look like much here, but you should see it in action. Elsewhere around Vancouver, Julia Mancuso got another silver medal, this time in the women's super combined (I'm not even sure what that means) behind Germany's Maria Riesch. Lindsey Vonn crashed. Australia's Torah Bright won the women's halfpipe, but they really should do theirs before the guys, as they all looked rather wimpy following Shaun White, Louie Vito, and the rest of the fly guys last night. Hockey, curling, and speed skating carry on unabated.  But the best story of the day was in women's cross country, where Slovenia's Petra Majdic skiied her way to a bronze medal after crashing down a gulley during practice yesterday. The fall broke four ribs and punctured a lung, along with breaking both her poles and one ski tip. She went straight back to hospital after receiving her medal, saying "Today this is not a bronze. This is like a gold medal, with little diamonds in it." That's what the Olympics are all about.Photos: Getty Images / Title: those South Park guys Butt pushing - 2/17/10  Batons are boring and nothing's boring about a short track relay race: they trade off by shoving each other's butts, while skating in a herd at very high speeds in extremely close proximity. It's a chaotic crazy sport to watch and always exciting, as it was tonight in the qualifiers for the men's 5,000 relay. The final isn't until February 26.It was a big day for favorites. Lindsey Vonn became the first American woman to win gold in the women's downhill, and Shani Davis and Shaun White both repeated their gold medals: Shani in the men's 1,000 meter speed skate and Shaun in the snowboard halfpipe.. I should say high above the halfpipe, since that's where he works.  White wowed the crowd once again with his competition runs but even more with his victory lap and his trademark Double McTwist 1260. And despite his fame, success, wealth ($10 million a year), and his private, personal halfpipe training ground, White seems to have remained a down-to-earth regular kid. Congrats to all of today's winners and losers alike.. they've all got what it takes to inspire and make us cheer.Photos: Getty Images (short track); Reuters (Shaun White) Pink tassels - 2/16/10  Actually there was just a single pink tassel, but it was enough. More on that in a minute.The guys put on a good show tonight for their short program. There were some missed jumps and a few bounces, but overall they did well and there were even some interesting music selections thrown in with the usual muzak, including Beatles, Irving Berlin and Jimi Hendrix. American Evan Lysacek lived up to his reputation and performed beautifully but it was only good enough to finish second, even with this blade grab. His teamie Johnny Weir was as "flamboyant" as ever, with his pink tassel and matching ruffle & corset laces. (That's the press's constant word for him - apparently they're afraid to say "flaming" or even "gay"). PETA can relax now as he left the fur outfit at home, and he did better than he usually does, skating a very nice program, but it was only good enough for sixth place. Russia's Evgeni Plushenko finished first, like he does.   Japan's Daisuke Takahashi and Nobunari Oda came in third and fourth. Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel placed fifth, with some of the most incredible spins I've ever seen. Weir wasn't the only one with an outrageous costume tonight: some of them had some very peculiar looks that would have seemed at home in the wacky world of ice dancing fashions. Belgium's Kevin van der Perren wore a kind of cool skeleton suit, but Italy's Samuel Contesti looked ridiculous in this hillbilly getup - all it was missing was a rope Jethro belt. Czech Tomas Verner wore a Greek sailor suit, and bounced in it.    Also today, snowboard crosser Lindsey Jacobellis missed a gate and failed to finish her race.. she really shouldn't have done that hotshot move at the finish line four years ago, or she'd have that gold medal to enjoy now.  And in other fashion news, have you seen any curling action yet? It's always the oddest sport in this series of odd winter sports, and Norway's been giving it a stylish spin of their own. You can pick up a pair of these pants for your very own for $90 from Loudmouth Golf of Sonoma, CA - this is one of their conservative styles.Photos: AP (skating); Gannett (curling) China breaks tradition - 2/15/10  The skate of the night in the pairs final was from this Chinese duo, Qing Pang & Jian Tong, who did a flawless and beautiful routine, but they had to settle for silver since they didn't have a stellar short program yesterday. The gold went to their married teammates, Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao (below), competing in their fourth and final Olympics, thus ending the Russian dynasty and tradition of winning this competition - they'd done so since 1960. The bronze went to the German pair Robin Szolkowy & Aliona Savchenko, who fortunately ditched the clown suits tonight.It was quite a night for the girl throwing competition, with lots of dopey blade-holding by all, and no less than seven bounces on the primetime coverage. Even the winners had a near disaster when Shen Xue slid sloppily down out of a lift instead of the usual graceful dismount. But most of the costumes were appropriate and not over glitzy, although several of them looked to be wearing practice outfits. The music selections were mostly uninspired, with resurrections of chestnuts like "The Impossible Dream", "The Way We Were" and "Love Story".. yawn.  Thanks to the failure of three Zambonis at the speed skating rink, we were able to see a couple of the lesser pairs, which made a nice change. Their out-of-synch spins and badly-landed jumps are good to see once in awhile, just to remind us how damn hard all this is.Continued jeers to the NBC commentators, who continue to blather on about required elements and the new scoring system, without ever explaining either; instead they just keep repeating the top skaters' backstories over & over. During the final skate by Xue & Hongbo, they were practically silent other than two loud grunts from Scott Hamilton and a loud gasp by whoever the awful female commentator is. We're still denied the best skating commentator by far, Dick Button, who talks to and for us when he's there, but this time he's relegated to a few corny minutes with Bob Costas at the studio fireplace. Elsewhere today & tonight we had the insanity of snowboard cross, cross-country skiing, and men's downhill. I don't know if they didn't show much of the downhill or if it was on when I wasn't around, but I sure didn't see much of it. I was glad Bode Miller medaled though, even if bronze. A bit of speed skating and women's luge finally showed up on the late night coverage, between commercials. Photos: Getty Images Throw that girl - 2/14/10  Today we had cross country skiing with an exciting finish to the Nordic combined, more luge, more moguls, and more speed skating, but the main event was the kick-off of figure skating, with the pairs short program. Germany's Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy placed second in these ridiculous clown get-ups, just behind China's formerly-retired Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao, and just ahead of Russia's Yuko Kavaguti & Alexander Smirnov.The girl-throwing comp (as I call it) is always hugely impressive, with the skaters doing just about everything singles do now, along with overhead lifts while spinning across the ice, throws, entwined pretzel spins, and synchronization. We had at least two bounces, a Russian guy and a Canadian girl, and those are always fun. Personally, I liked the Chinese pair Qing Pang & Jian Tong and their peacock outfits. I thought they had a beautiful routine that was better than the top placers, but what do I know? Lots of the girls are grabbing their skate blade in the death spiral now.. the first time was kind of cool but then it started coming along in every routine and started looking like a tiresome gimmick.  It was a nice refreshing change when buckets of flowers and teddy bears didn't come pouring onto the ice after each routine, with little girls buzzing around to pick them up so the skater(s) can ignore them. Maybe that stuff has been banned, as it would only take a stray leaf or detached button eye to send someone crashing to the ice along with their Olympic hopes.The human interest piece of the night was that the guy from one American pair is dating the girl from the other, and they had to compete against each other on Valentine's Day.. that's about as non-romantic as it gets. I missed having Dick Button at rinkside, with his unique combination of solid know-how, his razor sharp wit, and his no-nonsense delivery. Here's hoping he shows up later for more than just a fireside cameo with snazzy footwear. Photos: Getty Images Big air - 2/13/10  Pink-haired Shannon Bahrke got some during the women's moguls, enough to earn her the bronze medal behind fellow American Hannah Kearney and Canada's Jennifer Heil in the first full day of competition. The moguls were almost too foggy to see, a few of the girls crashed, and my knees hurt just watching them.Men's luge took place as scheduled. They adjusted the wall where Nodar Kumaritashvili crashed and died, and shortened the course in hopes of slowing down its flyers, but they still zoomed down at 88-90 mph and several crashed. Nodar's teammate Levan Gureshidze withdrew from the competition, too upset to race after the death of his friend. NBC shifted their luge coverage from late night to primetime in what was likely a ratings ploy.  Switzerland's Simon Ammann won the first gold of the games, in ski jumping. Speed skating started today but favorites Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick didn't do well. The day's highlight came from short track speed skating, which is always exciting to watch, and The Apolo Ohno Show made its official debut. If you want a serious drinking game, just take a swig whenever his name's mentioned.Korean skaters were 1-2-3 near the end of the race when two of them suddenly went down, surprising the heck out of me and probably anyone else watching. Lee Jung-Su won the race, Ohno got silver, and fellow American/Olympic rookie JR Celski won bronze. If the Koreans hadn't crashed, Ohno would have been fourth but instead, his profile got even bigger tonight as he tied Bonnie Blair for the most winter medals won, with six. I guess he got this one fair and square but I'm not as big a fan as I was four years ago. He still has the best name in sports though. Photos: AP The games are open - 2/12/10  Opening Ceremonies weren't as jaw-droppingly stupendous as some, but Vancouver put on a great show with a lot of Canadian performers and national pride, stunning effects, a flame fail, and some sadness.The Ceremonies were dedicated to Nodar Kumaritashvili, and the athletes' procession into the stadium turned bittersweet when his Georgia teammates marched in. The show included a big focus on Canada's aboriginal people with some beautiful traditional costumes, and the First Nations dancers kept at it for more than an hour as the athletes arrived. Most of the performance pieces revolved around Canada's natural beauty - of which it has a lot.   One big performance combined punk rock fiddlers and tap dancers in tartans.   The show stoppers were aerialist dancer Thomas Saulgrain performing high above the crowd to a rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now", and k.d. lang singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". But the stadium floor was the big star, providing 3-D image effects to all the themes and performances - it was often a show in itself.   As expected, Wayne Gretzky was the final torch bearer. He was joined by Rick Hansen, Steve Nash and Catriona Le May Doan for a planned four-way flame lighting but the cauldron apparatus malfunctioned, and they all stood around looking at each other for awhile until three of the four supports finally rose out of the floor and they lit the arena flame. Gretzky then rode across town in a truck to light the outdoor flame, and the games are underway. Photos: Getty Images A tragic start - 2/12/10  Sadly, 21-year-old Georgia luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed today in a practice run from injuries sustained in this spectacular crash.Kumaritashvili crashed into a metal pole at full speed near the bottom of the luge course. The tragic event doesn't bode well for the games, coming just hours before the Opening Ceremonies. It's sure to leave a black cloud over everything, and will likely take some of the joy out of the Ceremonies. Luge is one of the fastest Olympic sports, reaching speeds of 80-90 mph, and the Vancouver track is said to be especially fast. It's easy to forget how dangerous some of these sports really are, since the incredibly well-trained and practiced athletes tend to make them all look easy and fun. My sincere condolences to Nodar's family, friends and teammates. Photo: Parks/Getty The countdown is on - 2/12/10  The XXI Olympic Winter Games are finally here. The flame is making its way through Vancouver on its way to the first-ever indoor Opening Ceremonies tonight. They'll be spectacular of course.Unfortunately those of us who live in the timezone they'll take place will have to wait three hours to see them, as usual. Even as NBC keeps crying about how they're going to lose $250 million on these games, TV networks have yet to catch on that they should air live events live for all. As the next two weeks unfold, chances are a lot of westies will just skip the primetime broadcasts since results will have long been known. There will be online venues to watch some events, if you can find your way through the countless ads, popups and redirects to find them. While the press is touting favorites, like they do, the best stories to come out of the Olympics are always the ones nobody saw coming. And these games have already got controversies: there will be no women's ski jump event since "the sport is not yet developed enough" - ooookay; there's no snow at one of the venues, Cypress Mountain; and so far 30 athletes have already been booted for doping. But we'll find our fun where we can, and there should be a lot of it over the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping to do a daily update here of some sort, but since I've been working up to 12 hours a day recently, I can't make any promises. |
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