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Feb. 16
action
 Asking
the question:
Memo to the news media: Grow up. There is nothing wrong with
asking an athlete about his sexual orientation, though the
timing does matter.
A stir was
caused at the men's figure skating when in the
post-competition interviews, American Johnny Weir was
questioned about an online Chicago Tribune poll that asked
if people cared if he was gay or not (93% said no).
"I think
it's funny that people care," Weir said. "I don't have a
problem people saying anything. People could say let's poll
about Bode Miller, let's poll about Michelle Kwan being a
lesbian or something like that. It's not a big deal. Who I
sleep with doesn't affect what I'm doing on the ice or what
I'm doing in a press conference."
A great
response, especially since all the stories I saw said that
Weir was not fazed by the question. But several columnists
wrote in a state of indignation that the question was even
asked (one weirdly said the poll was homophobic). It was the
old "who cares about their private lives" angle.
Except
these same columnists regularly write about a male athlete's
wife or girlfriend or a female's husband or boyfriend, let
alone all the profiles we read or see involving their kids.
Doing such stories clearly says, without using the words:
This athlete is a heterosexual. They aren't called "human
interest" stories for nothing.
But when it
comes to the orientation of a possible gay athlete, these
same journalists get all hot and bothered about privacy. I
agree that asking Weir a question about the Tribune poll
right after he skated was bad timing since his performance
on ice was the issue. It was like asking a pitcher in a
World Series about his married life right after Game 7.
However, I could find no record of anyone asking Weir in the
days and weeks leading up to the event: Are you gay? It's a
simple question and one that, given Weir's high profile and
visibility, is appropriate (and one I will ask if Weir
consents to an interview). I would bet that 99% of the
public who saw Weir in an interview would assume he's gay
anyway, so why avoid the pink elephant in the center of the
room?
He could
decline to answer or say it's private, and that's a
perfectly acceptable response. He certainly seems
comfortable with the question, since he answered a similar
query on his blog (where he controls what questions get
printed). Inquiring about it is not stepping over some kind
of line, and that reaction by some shows the
uncomfortableness that still exists in the mainstream over
the issue.
There was
at least one exception, Dan Wetzel of Yahoo, who
wrote a charming column about Weir (disclosure: I was
quoted in the column). I imagine that Weir would get a kick
out of it. "I am less convinced Wilt Chamberlain was
straight than I am that Johnny Weir is not," wrote Wetzel,
who managed to address the issue with humor and an obvious
affection for Weir. "Perhaps, we will have gotten to the
point where closets, if there are any, no longer matter.
Although, judging by the Weir phenomenon, I think mainstream
America is closer than ever," Wetzel wrote. "Either way,
here's hoping Johnny Weir, whatever he is, hasn't changed
one single bit."
When I do
interviews with mainstream outlets I almost always ask the
reporter if he or she is gay. I have never been denied an
answer or had someone respond with indignation. Their answer
allows me to understand their depth of knowledge about the
issue of gays in sports, and is not invading their privacy.
Asking a question is not offensive; after all, a cardinal
rule of journalism is: never assume. (Jim
Buzinski)
Here's
my take on Johnny Weir's sexuality. My guess is, he's
gay as balloons and he keeps coming out to us in just about
every media interview he does. To come out, you don't have
to call a press conference and say to the world, "Yep, I'm
gay." I think if you got Johnny to talk off the record he'd
probably say, "Are you an idiot? Did you not see the outfits
I've been wearing? Did you not see me on NBC? What, do I
have to spell it out for you?" Just because he hasn't said
the words doesn't mean he hasn't told us.
Weir seems completely
comfortable with everyone else talking about his sexuality.
He just isn't interested in talking about it. He's much more
interested in shopping, listening to Christina Aguilera and
trying on sunglasses. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Weir
falls short: Johnny Weir is a diva, after all. How else
to explain Weir’s drop from second to fifth and medal-less
at the men’s figure skating? Weir blamed his performance on
the bus schedule being changed, causing him to get to the
arena later than he wanted. Then he flopped.
"I missed the bus. They
changed the schedule," Weir said. "It was every 10 minutes.
Today it was every half-hour. I was late getting here and
never caught up. I never felt comfortable in this building.
I didn't feel my inner peace, I didn't feel my aura. That’s
why I was so scared. Inside I was black."
Unfortunately, this is how
divas react -- change one thing and they can fall apart. To
be clear, Weir did not arrive late. He arrived at the
arena 40 minutes before his skate; he usually gets there 30
minutes earlier. "A half hour means putting my outfit on,
peeing twice and adjusting my skates," he said. "The costume
is hard to get into. I have to squeeze myself in like a
sausage." This is why I love Weir; the guy's hilarious even
when explaining a screwup.
In the end, though, Weir was
like many 21 year olds who can make mistakes by careless
inattention. I would have thought someone in his position
would have an army making sure everything was taken care of,
especially the bus schedule. “It was never brought to my
attention [the bus schedule] would be changed,” Weir said.
“I guess it’s my fault because I didn’t bother to ask.”
Weir said the only lesson he
learned at the Games was to stay in a hotel the next time.
(Jim
Buzinski)
He'll
be back:
Too bad Johnny didn't medal, but fourth or fifth is what I
predicted for him before the Games started. I did let
myself get my hopes up after Tuesday, but Johnny is not yet
at the level of Stephane Lambiel (although this was far from
Stephane's best, and Stephane's program totally does not
showcase what he does well -- his short was better for
that).
On a good
day, Johnny's mental strength gives him the edge over Jeff
Buttle, but yesterday was not a good day. Johnny's got more
developing to do as a skater and I am confident that all
good things will come to him in time. Alexei Yagudin, too,
was fifth in his first Olympics and he won his next ones. (Lorrie
Kim)
Men’s
free skate:
I
overestimated my understanding of the new scoring system
heading into Thursday’s Free Skate. I know, Johnny Weir
wasn’t at his best, he didn’t feel his aura, and he was
black inside, but at least he stayed on his feet. “The
program was just down,” said NBC’s Dick Button. Weir
two-footed a jump and skipped the double part of a
triple-double combination, but other than that the worst
that could be said was that he lacked the spark that was
present in Tuesday’s short program. Meanwhile, the both the
eventual silver and bronze medalists fell during their
programs and ended with a much higher score than Weir. I’m
not suggesting a bias in the judging, but it seemed that
Weir’s downfall was not a routine that fell apart but one
that included elements that didn’t even give him a chance.
“I don’t deserve a medal tonight. I don’t expect to get
one,” Weir said after he skated. As for talk that missing a
bus from the Olympic Village was to blame for his mediocre
performance, I think that’s crap, and I’d bet Weir does too.
He wasn’t late for anything. And anyway, it’s the Olympics,
there’s a lot going on. It’s a rare thing when a
pre-competition routine goes perfectly. That’s something
you’ve just got to adapt to.
My
thoughts on the other top competitors:
Evgeni
Plushenko (RUS)
– He owns the new scoring system. Plushenko frontloads his
programs with jumps, his specialty, and then fills the
remaining time with relatively easy spins and footwork
elements. This is not a criticism. Plushenko is a smart
skater and knows his strengths and weaknesses. After all,
this strategy yielded him a gold medal by a previously
unthinkable margin. In four years I think we’ll see a lot
more of the “artistic” skaters showing up with programs
modeled after Plushenko’s.
 Stephane
Lambiel (SUI)
– Awesome spins! But, honey, what were you wearing? Orange
and blue sleeves under a tiger print vest? At what point did
you decide that was a good idea? Lambiel attacks the
artistic elements in a way that is fun to watch, and it was
great to see his show of emotion on the podium.
Jeffrey
Buttle (CAN)
– I thought Buttle’s short program was a little silly, but
he went big tonight and it’s fun to see that this new
scoring system allows for big comebacks.
Evan
Lysacek (USA)
– Speaking of big comebacks. Lysacek came back from crushing
disappointment in the short program to set a personal best
score in the free skate. I agreed with Dick Button’s comment
immediately after Lysacek’s program. “Good for him. Good for
him. Good for him.” Now go eat something! Lysacek is
potential hottie material, he’s just little on the skinny
side.
Brian
Joubert (FRA)
– Thank God 007 didn’t show up tonight. Joubert’s free skate
was infinitely better than his short program. But whatever
the judges thought, I rank him the hottest skater.
(Ryan
Quinn)
NBC
dubs Weir a diva.
I loved the chyron at the bottom of the TV screen as Johnny
Weir skated out onto the ice: "NBCOLYMPICS.COM / PHOTOS:
Fashion diva Johnny Weird and his outrageous style".
Just as priceless was Weir wearing a teal Mickey Mouse
sweatshirt before he skated. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
 Hot
jock of the day. How could you not love the first-ever
gold medallist for Snowboard Cross? From Farmington, Maine,
a four-square-mile town of 7,000 people two hours north of
Portland I visited many times as a kid,
Seth Wescott seems
incredibly genuine, incredibly patriotic and it was such a
pleasure to watch him take the stadium and listen to the
Star-Spangled Banner. What a neat, and cute, guy. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
 Ice
dancing's sex symbol.
Bulgarian
Ivan Dinev's unofficial fan site claims: "This is a site
dedicated to the one and only Ivan Dinev - the S E X S Y M B
O L of the ice dancing!" I'm not sure about THE sex symbol,
but he's up there. For my money, THE sex symbol would have
to be France's
Brian Joubert (right). There are pics of Brian flying
all over the Internet –
plenty shirtless (and some wet and shirtless) and even at
least one nude! (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Mr.
Roboto.
Watching gold medal skater Yevgeni Plushenko was like
watching a robot go through the motions on the ice. He was
good to watch, no question. But, just a little dull. As Bode
Miller and Johnny Weir have proven, you don't have to be fun
and engaging to win a gold medal. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Almost
a gay character.
Michal Novotny, a Czech snowboard-crosser, is one letter off
(Michael) from the character that Hal Sparks played in Queer
As Folk. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
I
hope you didn't miss snowboard cross.
When I first heard about Snowboard Cross I thought, "Oh God,
here's another lame sport with no business in the Olympics
simply designed to attract young viewers." I was wrong. The
sport is one of the few timed events in the Winter Olympics
where you actually have a mano-a-mano race. It's exciting
and fitting to watch athletes racing side-by-side, not
simply against a clock, as they race for the gold. I say
kudos to the IOC for including this sport, and I look
forward to watching it going forward. My bet is, NBC will
start airing this sport throughout its winter-sports
coverage going forward.
Bob
Costas kept touting the sport all night. His funniest line
wasn't meant to be. With a tone as dead as Michelle Kwan's
Olympic hopes: "We head back to Bardonecchia for more of the
spectacular adrenaline that is snowboard cross." (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Passion
lives here:
Snowboard Cross is awesome! The elimination format, crowded
heats, banked turns and big bumps make this event very
spectator friendly. And now the USA is 3 for 3 in
snowboarding. Friday the ladies look to make it four.
While
other venues have been stuck with empty seats, the outdoor
stands overlooking the snowboarding courses are jam packed.
Snowboarding got off to a shaky start when it debuted at the
Winter Olympics in 1998 and was overshadowed by the
distraction of a medalist’s positive marijuana test. For
eight years there has been no shortage of detractors trying
to make a case that snowboarding is a bad fit for the
Olympics. But that argument has run out of steam. The
popularity of the Winter Games in general seems to have
dipped, but snowboarding thrives. In many ways, snowboarding
is a perfect Olympic fit. It’s accessible to anyone, the
Olympic gold medal represents the pinnacle of achievement in
the sport, and it’s internationally popular. The USA might
be dominating the medals in Torino, but interest and talent
in snowboarding is not concentrated in North America. Among
the top 16 finishers in the Snowboard Cross, twelve
different nations and four continents were represented. Not
only is snowboarding here to stay, it might just be the wake
up call that the IOC needs to adapt the Olympic games to the
21st century.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Losing
my religion: With NBC's constant harping on "family
values" around the athletes, I wondered when the network was
going to do the God thing. After all, Torino (Turin to the
Anglos) is the home of the famous Shroud of Turin.
For many centuries this artifact has been hyped by the
Catholic Church as the actual piece of linen that was
wrapped around Jesus for his burial -- allegedly it retains
a ghostly imprint of his corpse. Scientists who examine
it are deeply divided over its authenticity, with some
insisting that it is a hoax dating from the 14th century.
Others insist that the linen is really 2000 years old, with
an image on it that can't be explained. Many Christians --
Protestants as well as Catholics -- believe in the Shroud.
Wednesday night, amid the men's luge doubles and women's
downhill, NBC finally did the God thing. The network aired
an entire segment about the U.S. bobsled team's visit to
the Roman Catholic cathedral where the Shroud is kept. The
push man on the bobsled, Brock Kreitzburg, is a Protestant
minister, and the team was supposedly there as a spontaneous
demonstration of support for him. They looked very
impressive in their big red team jackets.
Actually, according to a
wire-service story in the Akron Beacon Journal, "Kreitzburg
is a rising TV star and this visit was a scripted job to
enhance his image." The script called for Kreitzburg
to tutor his buddies on the Shroud.
To the cameras, Kreitzburg testified glowingly to the
Shroud's authenticity. One of the team, being
interviewed, said he felt much better knowing that the rear
guy on the sled was a man of God who was praying for them to
win.
So NBC is reminding us (in case any Americans had
forgotten) that God is always on our side, in war and peace
and definitely at the Olympics. God's performance in Torino
is mixed, though. He's doing OK for our women. But our
highly touted men continue to disappoint, with Jeremy Bloom
and the luge doubles team stumbling out of the medals. In
men's ice hockey, the best the U.S. could do was tie
Latvia. Bobsled events are still ahead. If we don't take
the men's gold there, America had better forget about God
and start praying to other deities.
Meanwhile, Catholics and Protestants are one up at the
Games. Indeed, NBC informed us that local church
authorities briefly considered the idea of displaying the
Shroud during the Games, but finally decided they
wouldn't. In other touristic segments, NBC also contrived
to mention the old synagogues in Turin -- a big Jewish
ghetto was located there in medieval times. So all the
basic religions that matter to U.S. TV viewers have gotten
their strokes.
With this kind of U.S. media spin on the Winter Games, it's
not surprising that any GLBT athletes on the slopes of
Torino are either ignored by the news crews, or
are compelled to keep a discreet profile. It's possible
that the spectacle of 11 out athletes at the Summer
Games became something that the U.S. conservative
establishment doesn't want to repeat.
(Patricia Nell Warren)
Returned
Medals Table:
Congratulations to Russia for being the first country to
lead the Returned Medals Table, a new feature I’ve
created to track tarnished medals. Russian biathlete Olga
Pyleva became the first athlete in Torino to test positive
for a banned substance and will be stripped of the silver
medal she won in Monday’s 15K. Pyleva won both a gold and
bronze medal in the Salt Lake City Olympics and was
considered a medal favorite in today’s 7.5K competition. In
2002 seven athletes were caught doping, including two
Russian cross-country skiers, also female. The IOC has upped
the number of samples being tested at these Games by 72%.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Skeleton:
The
bodies from the luge events were cleared from the track to
make way for the next event at the $93 million track in
Cesana Pariol -- Skeleton! I used to defend all Olympic
sports simply because they were in the Olympics and I think
the Olympics are cool. But I find myself less sympathetic to
the plight of these so-called athletes. In the context of
modern sports, luge and skeleton are wasteful. Not only are
competitions held at venues that are astonishingly expensive
to build and maintain, but access to these venues is
limited. Vancouver is building just the fourth track in all
of North America. Furthermore, the purpose of the sport is
unclear. The competitors push off at the top, get into an
aerodynamic position and hold it to the finish at the
bottom, where they are timed to the thousandth of a second.
Do I care who makes it down a few thousandths faster than
the next guy? Nope.
But I do
care about the future of the Olympic Games. I worry that the
Olympics, especially the Winter Games, are losing their
relevancy in the eyes of potential athletes and spectators.
Luge and skeleton are not legitimate sports and therefore
jeopardize the legitimacy of the Olympics in general. Get
‘em out of there!
(Ryan
Quinn)
XC
Skiing:
Kristina
Smigun of Estonia, who I did not expect to dominate these
Olympic races, distanced herself from a trio of Norwegians
to claim gold in the Women’s 10K classic. Smigun is now 2
for 2 and Norway is still without gold in their strongest
winter sport.
Canada’s
Sara Renner had a strong 8th place finish but
Beckie Scott, a Canadian medal favorite, was disqualified
for leaving the course and not re-entering at the same
point, an honest but uncommon mistake. To be spectator
friendly and to allow for starting lanes, lap lanes, and
finish lanes, the layout of a cross-country ski stadium
often requires the careful study of a map just to figure out
where you’re supposed to be. Scott, already a silver
medalist at these Games, accidentally skied into the finish
lane instead of taking the lap lane two-thirds of the way
through the race. Realizing her mistake, she cut back over
to the proper lane and was on her way. Although she gained
no shortcut advantage, the rule states that she should have
backtracked to the start of the lanes before cutting over to
the lap lane. She didn’t find out that she’d been
disqualified until she finished the race.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Feb. 15
action
The
Bloom bursts … I'm officially
tired of hearing NBC and other outlets pump up the big
"stars" of the Olympics. The U.S. stars, except for Shaun
White, have all choked. Do you think that would deter NBC
from continuing to put the biggest names on pedestals? Nope.
This is how Bob Costas introduced the moguls.
Jeremy
Bloom, who was a star return man at the University of
Colorado and hopes to play in the NFL next season, headlines
the deep U.S. team." And that was already knowing that Bloom
choked and placed sixth in his event.
…
but still gets my vote. I've got
to hand it to Bloom, though. He had an incredible reaction
after not locking up a medal before he moves to the NFL.
"I'm so
happy for the guys who did well," Bloom said, "and Toby
getting a medal for the U.S., and, you know, I've had a
great career with a lot of wins. I didn't come here for a
medal, I came here for the experience, and I've had an
absolutely amazing time. I look forward to what's next in my
future in 11 days from today. And, you know, there's
sunshine, the sun comes up tomorrow."
That's
Jeremy Bloom – this generation's version of Annie.
It's been a
wonderful four-year affair I've had with Bloom since I first
saw him four years ago in Salt Lake City. His wide eyes and
adorable face captured my heart then, and his body has kept
my attention ever since. His willingness to honestly answer
a
few questions of mine early last year (after his King of
the Hard Wood victory) impressed me, and I hope he has all
of his dreams come true in the NFL.
And, when
he's in New York City for the draft, I just want him to know
that Dan has agreed to let Jeremy be my freebie. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
It
is about winning:
I am getting sick of high-profile Olympians who flame out,
then claim winning a medal isn’t that big of a deal anyway.
We have seen it twice already with Bode Miller and we saw it
Wednesday when moguls favorite Jeremy Bloom messed up and
finished sixth.
"It
really isn't about winning the medal for me," Bloom
insisted. "I came here to accomplish my goals. I didn't come
here to win any certain color medals. I was so close, you
know."
What
utter B.S.
Miller and Bloom garnered tons of attention, which they did
nothing to stop, because they were considered solid medal
favorites. They loved and sought the attention and used it
to make themselves more marketable. Then when they failed in
their goal, they basically shrug and try and act like just
competing was important. That’s certainly not the message
one gets when going to Bloom’s website, and Nike didn’t set
up their Bode site just to have him compete.
This
is one more reason why Johnny Weir kicks both their asses. I
loved what he said when asked about competing: "I'm not
going to be the shiny, sparkly, flower-holding figure skater
that sits here and says I'm going to do my best today and if
I don't, then I'll go home and train really hard next time.
That's not me. I'm going to be really angry if I skate bad
and I'll probably say crazy things.” Weir gets it – at the
elite level, like it or not, it is about winning. (Jim
Buzinski)
Some
perspective:
Are our
superstar athletes chokers, or did the American media get it
wrong by trying to write the script of these Games ahead of
time? I think it’s been both, but the main problem is that
American spectators don’t care about Olympic sports except
for during the Games. And even then, Americans are only
interested in gold. In popular mainstream team sports --NFL,
NBA, MLB, NHL -- one team always wins and the other team
loses.
It’s a
mistake to approach the Olympics in the same way. The
Olympics consist mostly of individual sports where there
isn’t one winner and one loser. There are many of both.
Nevertheless the expectations of American fans, NBC and
American advertisers have tried to define Olympic
entertainment by the same standards that we hold for our
year-round mainstream sports. The result is Bode Miller vs.
The World; Jeremy Bloom vs. The World; Michelle Kwan vs. The
World and two lesser medals haunting her past. If
this is how you watch the Olympics and you find them
disappointing, it’s no wonder you’re not interested. You’ve
not only missed the point, you’re missing some pretty sweet
sporting events.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Moguls
 beauties.
While Jeremy is the cat's meow, I was pretty impressed with
all of the beautiful faces that took to the moguls on
Wendesday. And, it was cool to discover personal Web sites
for many of them: Russia's Ruslan Sharifullin; silver
medallist
Mikko Ronkainen from Finland;
Travis Cabral and
Travis Mayer from the U.S; Canada's
Alexandre Bilodeau
and gold medalist
Dale Begg-Smith from Australia. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Hot
Jock of the day. It would be easy to pick Jeremy Bloom
for this honor, but we have a feeling we'll be seeing more
of him returning kicks for the Indianapolis Colts next
season. Instead, we're going with the fourth-place finisher
in the men's moguls event,
Marc-Andre Moreau (right),
24, who goes 5-10 and 177 pounds. Besides his cute smile,
anyone who can twist and turn like a moguls skier gets our
full endorsement. On his website, he says he has an
"uncommon ability to absorb big
bumps." Our kind of man. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
“If
I won a medal, I’d probably pee.” These words, of
course, are from Johnny Weir, speaking to commentator Mary
Carillo of Olympic Ice on the USA channel. Carillo sat down
over cappuccino and chocolates at an Italian Café with Weir
and his mother (bless her heart) for a two-day segment
called “He’s Here, He’s Weir.” Hmmm. (Later on NBC, in
describing Weir, Scott Hamilton said: "I'm here, I'm Weir.'
Here's Johnny!" Sense a trend?)
Weir has
been a revelation in a sport that until now didn’t seem to
know how to deal with the obvious: some of these guys are
gay. Because of Weir’s “eat it” attitude toward critics, he
single handedly has made progress. But don’t celebrate
prematurely. I still consider figure skating the most
homophobic sport in the Games. Granted, sexual orientation
isn’t often confronted in other sports, but that’s no
excuse. Figure skating hasn’t just ignored its
responsibility to confront homophobia, it silently
discourages openly gay athletes. It doesn’t take an insider
to know this. Just count the number of publicly out skaters,
zero, and then factor in the accounts of many skaters who
feared that judges might dock them for being or seeming gay
(see “No
one out in gayest sport”).
I was
appalled when NBC commentator Sandra Bezic made remarks
during Matt Savoie’s short program that seemed to imply that
he should be rewarded for his simple, masculine presence,
which she praised through the roof. Savoie does wear a
simple outfit and his body language on the ice is about as
masculine as it comes in this sport. But Bezic, who was in
rare bitchy form Tuesday night (she called one skater’s
footwork “trite”), came very close to saying outright that
Savoie was a nice alternative to all the other fags out
there in silly costumes. I can only assume the same
sentiment holds true for some judges.
Johnny
Weir seems to have transcended this double standard, and
good for him. But between the figure skating establishment’s
deep fear of openly gay athletes and the new, overly complex
scoring system, the men’s figure skating event occasionally
feels more like a homophobic math meet.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Johnny
Weir pop-up video: Thanks to
Towleroad.com for pointing us to
Malcontent's pop-up video version of Johnny Weir's interview
on NBC Tuesday night. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
 Hot
jock II: I also liked Italian speed skater Enrico Fabris,
(right) who stands 6-2 and weighs 165. He led his team past
the U.S. in the team sprint. Off the ice, Fabris studies
science and the environment and is taking university courses
over the Internet. He is also a self-taught electrical
guitarist and plays mostly rock and metal music.
(Jim
Buzinski)
What
a dumb event:
The
singles luge competitions have concluded and in case you
thought the idiocy was over, you’re wrong. Wednesday, we
were treated to two runs of doubles luge. This event
is so strange and unnecessary that it’s not even homoerotic.
But it’s not the man-on-man action that bothers me (though
these aren’t exactly cute couples). What happens when I see
doubles luge is that I feel mocked. Here you start with a
completely ridiculous event -- luge -- and to the idiocy of
a man sliding down a twisting sheet of ice you add a second
man stacked on top of the first to create a separate event.
And then the winners are awarded an Olympic gold medal. The
same Olympic gold medal that speed skaters and cross-country
skiers receive. Since the IOC won’t remove luge from the
Olympic program, they should at least vote to make the
medals for luge a little smaller than those for some other
events. But that, I suppose, would send us down a whole new
slippery slope.
In case
you missed it, American doubles luge hopefuls Mark Grimmette
and Brian Martin crashed on their first run and did not
finish. Unbelievable. The event was won by the Linger
brothers of Austria.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Idol
crushing Torino. While NBC was celebrating some solid
numbers for its opening ceremonies broadcast, it has been
all downhill (and not just skiing) since. On Tuesday night,
Fox's American Idol crushed NBC's Olympics coverage, 27
million viewers to 16 million, according to Nielsen. I'm not
remotely surprised. The Winter Olympics highlight marginal
sport after marginal sport; and, the failures of the big
names can't be helping NBC. Meanwhile, Fox has possibly its
most talented group ever of 24 finalists for AI. Maybe it
was just all of the Olympics fans watching the Westminster
Dog Show on USA. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
What's
eating Bode? Nobody can know what's going on in Bode
Miller's mind but Bode. But as a writer, I can't help
wondering what is eating at him, after he blew the men's
combined yesterday. To the TV crews, as he trudged away
from the course with his skis over his shoulder, he was
dismissive of the disqualification for straddling a gate,
shrugging, "I've done it before." But not at the Olympics.
As one commentator already remarked, Bode would be forgiven
every attitude if he was winning. He got away with the
partyboy stuff at Salt Lake, having the psych advantage
of playing on his home court. But in Europe, under the cold
stares of European and Asian skiers who keep themselves on a
tighter rein, he has gone into meltdown.
It's easy for fans and commentators to be judgmental about
a high-profile athlete in this situation. Is it the
pressure? The pressure even got to super-cool Johnny Weir,
who fessed up to it in his post-program interview. In
Bode's case, all those tons of purple velvet in the mantle
of "almost the greatest American skier" must have a crushing
weight. Is is the beer and babes thing? Is it something
else that nobody has a clue about?
Embarrassingly NBC has continued to air their little
Bodemercials, which were obviously filmed before the Games
when the U.S. media assumed that Bode was going to kick
ass. But major-media commentators have their knives out for
Bode now. There's a very pointed analysis on Bode's
"career suicide" at
MSNBC.
Of course the men's Alpine schedule still has events ahead,
with Super G next. Bode may get mad at himself yet, and
turn things around.
Amid all the soap-opera around skiing, the U.S. women's
hockey team have been quietly doing their job -- undefeated
so far. They had a close call with Finland, but pulled out
5 goals in the last period, and are now are slated to play
Sweden in the semifinals on Friday. If they whack Sweden,
they may face Canada in a final showdown hoped for by many
fans. My Toronto friend Heather and I will have an really
interesting time on the phone, watching that one.
Okay, so Canada and the U.S. have been the women's hockey
teams to beat at Torino. But so far both teams have been
careful not to get careless and take themselves for
granted.
(Patricia Nell Warren)
Woman’s
Downhill:
After
horrendous crashes marred the training runs earlier this
week, the women’s downhill event was finally contested under
flat light conditions. Michaela Dorfmeister ended Austria’s
downhill drought and claimed gold by nearly half a second.
Martina Schild of Switzerland skied to silver and Sweden’s
Anja Paerson ended the day with a bronze medal.
The top
US finish was turned in by Julia Mancuso, who was 7th.
But the big story of the day was an American who finished 8th.
Before an Olympic event some athletes might worry about
whether they’ve drank enough water, worked out the soreness
from the last race, or picked the right skis. Lindsey Kildow
had to worry about whether she’d be released from the
hospital in time to start the women’s downhill. Kildow
suffered an ugly spill on a training run Monday and was air
lifted off the mountain and to a hospital in Torino. That
she was even on the starting list is incredible. But to
attack the run with enough confidence to yield a Top 10
finish is phenomenal. Good for Kildow for climbing back on
the horse so quickly. That sort of determination will get
her a medal someday.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Short
Track:
The
American and Canadian men each won their semifinal heats in
the 5,000-metere relay (aka the one where they grab
each others’ asses) and will meet in the highly competitive
A Final along with very strong teams from Korea and China.
That final will take place on Feb. 25.
Apolo
Anton Ohno won his heat and Rusty Smith placed second in
his, which qualifies them both for the quarterfinals on
Saturday evening. Both Canadians also won their heats and
will move through to the quarterfinals. The semis and finals
will also be run Saturday night.
In the
only event awarding medals tonight, Canada’s Anouk
Leblanc-Boucher claimed a silver in the women’s 500 meters.
Meng Wang of China won the gold.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Speed
Skating – Team pursuit:
Chad
Hedrick lost his bid for 5 medals at these games, but got
his American team into the C Final, which will be held on
Thursday. They will skate against Russia. In the women’s C
Final, Jennifer Rodriguez will lead the American women
against the team from the Netherlands.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Spamalot:
Dale Begg-Smith, winner of the gold in moguls, can drive
around with his gold medal in his $300,000 Lamborghini.
The
Australian, who also lives in Vancouver, is worth $40
million from an Internet pop-up ad company he founded,
Bloomberg News reports, a figure he denies. He is called
“The Spam Man” in Australia. The official website of the
Olympics said he drives a $300,000 Lamborghini.
Begg-Smith
refused to discuss details of the company at his post-race
news conference, Bloomberg said. He said stories of his
fortune were exaggerated. “The company is nowhere near as
big as people make it out to be,” said Begg-Smith, who said
he flew economy from Australia to Italy.
“It
is complicated. It is technology for companies to monitor ad
campaigns. I don't do anything that pops up. I just make
software," he said, refusing to even give the name of his
company.
The
Age, an Australian paper,
gave more details: Two main companies called
AdsCPM and CPM Media appear to be associated with spam,
pop-up/under ads, spyware and adware. The companies make
money by skimming a small percentage off each time an ad
scores a hit or is directed to a client's site.
"I
don't know where you guys get your numbers from," he told
the Age. "I make a decent living, not millions of millions
of dollars like some people like to say." (Jim
Buzinski)
Feb. 14
action
 Why
Johnny Weir rocks:
Cyd and I agree that American figure skater Johnny Weir is
our favorite Olympic athlete. We love his outspokenness and
the fact that he is comfortable with who he is.
While there
are
no publicly out skaters in Torino, Weir isn't even
trying to fool anyone ("His being obviously gay -- without
actually coming out -- doesn't bother me," one Outsports
poster wrote) and in his interview last night on NBC he took
great delight in tweaking the establishment. As he walked
out of the arena Tuesday night, he looked at the camera
seductively, then shimmied his shoulders while throwing his
head back. If Weir, 21, is not gay, then neither are we.
Here is Weir unplugged on NBC:
"I know
that a lot of people, especially the more Republican-style
people, are very afraid of what I mean to the sport and what
I'm going to say, what kind of revolutionary, crazy things
are going to come out of my mouth. Good for them, they
should be scared.
"I'm not a
good, little figure skater that goes to bed at 8:30 every
night and gets up at 6:30, eats my three meals and goes to
bed again. [in the background, playing on his car radio, as
he's driving in the piece, swear to God, is 'What a Girl
Wants, What a Girl Needs']. I'm a real person. I do real
things.
"I'm not
going to be the shiny, sparkly, flower-holding figure skater
that sits here and says I'm going to do my best today and if
I don't, then I'll go home and train really hard next time.
That's not me. I'm going to be really angry if I skate bad
and I'll probably say crazy things. That's how I rock it.
"I'm not
for everybody. There are going to be people that like you
and people that hate you. There's nothing I can do. I don't
think I'm a diva or pompous enough to be in the position of
acting like a diva, but I like things the way I like them to
be. It's really my own game and my own agenda and to live my
life as happy as I can be.
"I'm not
out there to be a puppet for anyone. … For now, my critics
can eat it. I want people to remember me as someone that
pushed the envelope, pushed the boundaries of the [he makes
an air quotes move with his hands] 'United States figure
skating establishment.' … I'm happy with who Johnny Weir
is."
All we can
say is: You go, girl! (Jim
Buzinski)
Like,
dislike:
Weir is getting somewhat of a mixed reaction from Outsports
readers. Our photographer Brent is a fan:"It's hard to
imagine anyone more gay without a PFLAG mom introduction, a
float under his feet, and a "Priscilla Queen of the Desert"
soundtrack. … He may not think of himself as a true diva,
but he's right about many thinking he's a deviant.
"To
nail his performance while in the middle of the
some-love-me-some-hate-me intensity of the Olympics is his
personal triumph. And one he'll be able to carry his whole
life proudly, whether it's the heavy metal of an Olympic
winner, or just the metallic glitter of the outfits he
chooses to wear. Johnny, you're wearing rather nicely with
me."
But
Kick on the
message board was blunt: "While I enjoy the fact that he says exactly what he likes to
say and what he wants, he simply comes across as an
unlikable bitch."
Medal
hunting:
Weir is second heading into Thursday's long program, but the
gold medal is all but awarded to Russian Evgeni Plushenko,
who has a commanding lead after the short program. For
Plushenko to lose would be the equivalent of Tiger Woods
blowing a six-shot lead on the final day of the Masters; it
ain't going to happen. "... If he falls three times maybe,
just maybe someone can squeeze by," Weir said.
"It's
over, it's done, it's Valentine's Day and I can go buy
myself a rose and some chocolate," Weir added after his
beautiful skate as the Swan, complete with a red-gloved hand
that served as his beak. "He's comfortable in his own skin,"
wrote Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "And his
own feathers."
(Jim
Buzinski)
Clean
freak:
Weir had complained about the drabness of his Olympic
Village accommodation, and he reiterated it to reporters on
Tuesday. "It's drab and it's dirty, no matter how many times
I mop the floor," Weir said. "I mopped it and it's still
dirty." (Jim
Buzinski)
Meow!:
I love listening to Dick Button do skating commentary. He's
the Simon Cowell of NBC's team. "He's more like a soccer
player trying to do a tap dance," Button said of one
competitor. He dissed Swiss skater Stephane Lambiel by
saying, "That costume looks like a distant cousin to my
dining room curtain." (Jim
Buzinski)
"Quad
toe, triple toe, aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!" I think Howard Dean has taken over the soul of Scott
Hamilton. NBC's figure skating play-by-play guy is getting
awfully excited by some of the stunts these athletes are
pulling on the ice. And I'm just tired of hearing the same
skating terms from him over and over again. Double axel, toe
loop, Salchow. Please, Scott, just shut up and let us watch.
(Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
 Hot
jock of the day:
Kevin Van Der Perren (right) is a figure skater from
Belgium, and he now has my heart. His fauxhawk couldn't have
been more quaffed (I couldn't decide if it was gay or just
metrosexual), and I had to wonder if the
"exit" on the back of his black leather outfit should
have said "enter." (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
What's
in your wallet?
If I didn't have a Visa card, I'd go get one. Visa's "Life
Takes Practice" ad with cross-country inline skaters with
their shirts off is the most homoerotic commercial I've seen
these Olympics. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
USA
fourth again, Germany slides up the medal count:
After
four trips down the Cesana Pariol luge run that claimed five
casualties in the woman’s singles event, it was Germany that
swept all three spots on the medal podium. Team USA’s
Courtney Zablocki finished 4th, just 0.392
seconds out of the medals. Tony Benshoof, the top American
in the men’s comptetion, was also 4th. The German
sweep helped to bring Germany’s medal count to seven by the
end of Day 4. Norway has the most medals (11) followed by
Russia (nine), and the USA and Germany tied with seven
medals. The USA, however, has the most gold -- five.
(Ryan
Quinn)
No
glove, no love:
From our good friend Andy Towle on his
Towleroad blog:
"This 100% mink Jetstream Deluxe Fur
Penis Muffler made in the 60's and endorsed by the U.S.
Olympic Committee,
is for sale on eBay. Somehow I can't see Jeremy Bloom or
Bode Miller taking to the slopes in this, but the
fashionable Johnny Weir on the other hand..."
Chokers?
Good thing NBC spent all that money promoting Bode Miller.
He's 0-for-2 with three events to go. Good thing they put
Apolo Anton Ohno on a pedestal; he blew it in his first
race. Good thing they pumped up Michelle Kwan's quest for
the gold; she won't even take the ice in Turin. Now,
wouldn't it have been better to tell more stories about
these "lesser" athletes who are winning medals than these
people who have given us nothing to cheer about? (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Alpine
skiing – men’s combined:
It was a
dramatic -- and ultimately triumphant -- day for Americans
in the Alpine combined event. The day started off well when
the famous but underperforming Bode Miller won the downhill
portion of the three-part race. Then Miller was disqualified
after video replays showed that he straddled a gate in his
first slalom run. The error wasn’t visible in real time to
the naked eye and Miller himself said he didn’t realize he’d
missed the gate, but the slow motion replays clearly showed
his right ski on the wrong side of the pole. At the time of
his disqualification Miller was in first place with a lead
of almost a full second over Austrian Benjamin Raich, who
would later be disqualified himself for skiing off course in
the second slalom run.
Meanwhile, American Ted Ligety turned the fastest second run
time, bumping him up from 22nd place and into the
medal hunt. With an even more impressive third run, Ligety
completed the upset to clinch the gold medal. This of course
is the best thing that could have happened for American
skiing. The attention on the U.S. Ski Team, and particularly
Bode Miller, has been unfocused and distracting all season.
Maybe now we can concentrate on winning races instead of
gossiping about whether Miller stayed out too late, drank
too much, or chose the wrong skis.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Surprise
winners and their priceless reactions:
It was very neat to watch Ligety win the gold in the men's
combined ski event. As his friends jumped the barriers and
tackled him in the snow, with his hot-pink goggles, his
parents crying in the stands, I got a little choked up by
the incredible emotion that he and his supporters were
showing. I also thought it was GREAT to see Ivica Kostelic
of Croatia so enthusiastic after he clinched a medal (he
ended up with the silver). I don't remember ever seeing an
athlete so ecstatic without finishing first. Once he had
clinched the silver, he was seen with his sister, also a
skier, crying with joy. Very cool, and a lot nicer than
seeing Bode Miller win the event, I must say.
The
favorite in the event had been Benjamin Raich, who seemed
pretty cool. He was disqualified for clipping a flag while
leading the pack on his last run. He's also gorgeous. Check
out
Benni's Web site, where you can find some nice pictures
of him and even his e-mail! (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Sisters
are doing it for themselves: I hope the grinches in FIS have
been watching, to see the display of skill, guts, toughness
and can-do that women put on at Torino. These are the old
gentlemen who have kept women out of ski jumping because
they're afraid the impact of landing will damage women's
delicate innards. Indeed, women have had to battle their
way past this old protectiveness to get into most sports.
First there was the incredible halfpipe finals, with all
the women reaching for more air and bigger tricks than
ever. Torah Bright of Australia did tricks that even the
guys don't do. In her final ride, Kelly Clark went off the
charts with enormous air -- almost as high as Shaun White --
before she wiped out on her final landing and finished 4th.
The commentators were beside themselves with excitement,
declaring that -- medal or no medal -- she had raised the
bar for years to come. Nobody was protecting these women
from possibly breaking their backs or cracking their skulls
against the edge of the pipe.
Next came the pairs finals. Let's face it -- pairs skating
may have this genteel facade, but underneath it's pure Roman
circus. Everybody always holds their breath for the woman.
It's the woman who gets lifted and thrown; nobody protects
her from the risk of severe, possible fatal, injury during a
fall. You could feel the tension in the whole place as
Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin took the ice. The
image of her terrible fall two years ago had sunk deep in
the sport's collective mind -- her skull almost split open
against the ice. Would it happen again?
But it was clear, as they unreeled their program, that
Totmianina and her partner had put the past behind them, not
only mentally and emotionally, but artistically, as she went
high and confident on a dizzying one-handed lift. The gold
medal was well deserved.
As if this wasn't enough, Dan Zhang had a terrible fall as
she and Hao Zhang attempted a throw quadruple salchow. The
music stopped and she crippled off the ice, bent over in
agony. The image was all the more horrible because of her
slight, fragile-looking build. But after a couple of
minutes she pulled herself together. The current rules
allow for a program to be resumed with a medical okay, so
the two Zhangs went back on the ice and picked up where they
left off. Dan Zhang was a bit shaky on a couple of
landings, but the otherwise brilliant performance brought
the whole place to its feet with a wild ovation. Even the
hard-boiled commentators were beside themselves with
excitement as the Zhangs took the silver.
Afterwards it was amazing to see the two pairs of victorious
gladiators on the podium together, having won through their
pain and risk. It was one of those unforgettable evenings
that people go to the Olympics to see.
Yes, folks, women are tough. Yet it's amazing how ouchy our
culture still is, about the "delicacy" of women athletes.
The Torino media are surrounding injured women Olympians
with obsessive flurries of attention -- skier Lindsey Kildow
and her crash, for instance -- while injured men get carted
off the course with an air of "whatever." In another
demonstration of toughness, Kildow is out of the hospital
and declares her intention to race today.
It's time for the silliness to stop. I hope the voting
members of FIS are reading all these loud-and-clear
messages, and vote "yes" on women's ski jumping in May.
(Patricia Nell Warren)
In
the wake of Cheney shooting, U.S. men off target.
The top
10 men in Tuesday’s 10K biathlon race combined to hit 96 of
100 targets. That’s pretty damn accurate when you take into
account heavy breathing and a heart rate of about 170 beats
per minute. The 10K “sprint” is a format that favors faster
skiers over better shooters and should have been perfect for
American Jay Hakkinen, who skied to 10th place in
the 20k race Saturday, despite missing 3 of 20 targets. But
skiing advantage or not, in the Olympics you still have to
shoot well. Hakkinen missed a whopping 6 of 10 targets
Tuesday—more than the top ten finishers combined—and
finished in 80th place. I can only assume
Hakkinen’s gun sight was bumped out of alignment, which can
happen if you fall or as you take the gun on and off your
back.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Exhausting:
I really enjoyed watching the biathlon, a sport I barely
understand. These guys really go all out and have to be in
amazing shape. It's also tiring. The winner,
Germany's
Sven Fischer, crossed the finish line, then collapsed as he
tried to get back his breath. (Check out this
great AP photo from the Washington Post). He still
lay there minutes later as another skier crossed and had to
avoid hitting Fischer. (Jim
Buzinski)
Silver
for Canada, U.S. continues to ski dismally:
Swedes Lina Andersson
and Anna Dahlberg
grabbed cross country gold in the women’s sprint
relay, a new Olympic event, just ahead of North American
hopefuls Beckie Scott and Sara
Renner of Canada. In the sprint relay, teams of two athletes
alternate laps around a 1.3K course, each skiing 3 times.
The Norwegians were once again shut out of the medals as
Aino Kaisa Saarinen
and Virpi Kuitunen
of Finland skied to bronze. The US pair, made up of Wendy
Wagner and Kikkan Randall were last in the ten-team final.
Both Scott and
Renner of Canada skied wonderfully in the months leading up
to the Olympics and came to Torino expecting to win
individual medals. Tuesday’s team silver may have been a big
step in that direction, relieving some of their medal
pressure and allowing them to relax and ski even faster in
the upcoming races.
In a
much closer men’s sprint relay, Sweden made it a golden
sweep when anchor leg skier Bjoern Lind sprinted from behind
to overtake Norwegian Tor Arne Hetland just before the
finish line. The Russian team of Ivan Alypov and Vassili
Rotchev took the bronze.
Canadians Devon Kershaw and George Grey and the American
team of Chris Cook/Andy Newell were 6th and 7th
respectively in the semi-finals, not good enough to qualify
them for the final.
The U.S. Ski Team has skied consistently mediocre in Torino,
placing in the 40s and 50s in the pursuit and in the lower
half of the sprint relay results. Admittedly, their best
events are yet to come, leaving some hope that there’ll be
something to get excited about. The American men will have
the best shot at top-ten finish in Friday’s 15K classic race
as well as the 50K Freestyle race on February 26. Both the
men and the women have an outside shot at top-ten finishes
in the sprint race on Feb. 22, where anything can happen.
Norway also is not meeting the high expectations they
carried into these Games -- though, as a perennial favorite,
they had more at stake in the first place. Norway’s Marit
Bjorgen, widely believed to be the best female skier in the
world, dropped out of the pursuit race Sunday and had only
enough energy to finish fourth in the sprint relay.
Meanwhile, all four cross-country gold medals awarded so far
have been mild upsets. Parity is certainly expected in a
sport where innumerable variables weigh differently each day
on the competitors, but Norway in particular seems to be
underperforming, which must be drawing some harsh criticism
from their ski-crazed fans back home.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Feb. 13
action
 Hottie
of the day:
Contributor Ryan Quinn disagreed with my choice of Nordic
combined medalist Felix Gottwald (see weekend notes below)
as the weekend's hottest jock. "Too skinny," he said. Ryan,
a
cross-country ski stud himself while at the
University of Utah, looked indoors and found American speed
skater Kip Carpenter (right) as his choice for Monday.
On
Carpenter's website, he tells us he is 5-10 and 168
pounds. He has a 39-inch chest and huge 24-inch thighs,
befitting a speed skater (those guys look awesome in their
tight suits). Carpenter, 26, says he met the love of his
life two years ago, Ingeborg Kemper of Holland, whom he
calls "my super hot." "I love you sweetheart," he writes
on his site. Love, or lust?
(Jim
Buzinski) (For more Kip Carpenter photos check his
website.)
Nordic
confused:
As Patricia Nell Warren pointed out, the size of elite ski
jumping athletes is deceiving on TV. In their loose
suits made of thick semi-porous fabric, which helps collect
air beneath the jumper so that he can soar farther, they
look pretty average in build, if on the slim side. But look
at the stats NBC shows as each jumper sits at the top of the
jump. 5-8, 126 lbs.; 6' feet, 145; 5-10, 132 lbs.
When
I was living in Salt Lake City in the years running up to
the 2002 Olympics, we would often run into ski jumpers and
Nordic combined athletes at parties. They did not appear to
eat and avoided drinking anything but the occasional light
beer. I mean, I'd need more than a beer to inspire me to
jump of that jump! I had no close friends who were ski
jumpers, but my sense is that eating disorders permeate the
sport much like is the case with jockeys in horse racing.
The
advantage of having a slight figure in jumping sets up an
interesting and oft-ignored contrast in the sport of Nordic
Combined, where the athlete takes two jumps in the morning
and then races over the cross-country ski trails in the
afternoon. The start of the cross-country ski portion is
staggered, based on how each athlete scored in the jumping,
so that the best jumpers start first and the first one to
cross the finish line wins. But the only thing similar
between ski jumping and cross-country skiing is that your
toes are strapped to a board and your heels are loose.
The
physiology, strength and endurance requirements of each
event are vastly different. The result is that Nordic
Combined athletes have bodies that are too heavy for jumping
and too weak for skiing, and that means neither the jumping
nor skiing is spectacular by Olympic standards. I know that
the night before I had to ski a 15k I didn't shy away from a
huge meal. I can't imagine trying to balance the caloric
intake necessary for endurance skiing with the pressure to
be waif-thin for jumping. The two events work against each
other. Maybe this is why we called the Nordic Combined
athletes "Nordic Confused."
(Ryan
Quinn)
Globalization:
Stop the presses! NBC actually did a profile feature on an
Asian person at the Winter Olympics whose first name isn't
Michelle – and it is even someone who isn't competing. Yao
Bin was a failed former pairs skater himself and is now a
highly successful coach for China. Yao's pairs did
incredibly well, finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in
the final standings. One of the pairs, Zhang & Zhang, showed
incredible heart, opting to continue their routine after the
female of the pair took a nasty fall and hit her knees hard
on the ice. They finished second, and you have to wonder if
they could have taken the crown if she hadn't fallen.
(Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Paging
Carson Kressley: Oh, those men's skating outfits. It's
hard to believe none of these guys are openly gay. It's even
harder to believe that the judges would penalize a skater
for being out (something Rudy Galindo has claimed). With the
way some of these guys move and shimmer in the light, it's
like they're auditioning for "The Village People on Ice."
(Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Dress
code:
What's up with the snowboarders looking like they're wearing
their grandpa's painter outfit? What's the reason to wear
all that bulky crap when you're twisting and turning above
the half-pipe? Although perhaps not their official style,
it would seem more beneficial for them to have a tighter
outfit. (Brent
Mullins)
Figure
Skating – Pairs:
Tatiana Totmianina and Mxim
Marinin of Russia, whose performance matched their music
better than any other pair, were an easy decision for the
first gold medal handed out for figure skating at these
Games. The Russians may only have had their B game on
Monday (even though they skated technically clean), but
their B game still trumps the A game of any other pair.
Chinese duos earned the next three positions. The silver
went to Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang (who aren’t related), which
earned them the performance of the night after Dan Zhang
landed hard on her left knee while attempting to complete a
throw quad sow cow. Zhang/Zhang had to stop their
performance, but quickly returned to the ice and hammered
out a beautiful and gutsy routine. The bronze was awarded to
Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao. The American pair of Rena Inoue
and John Baldwin, who landed the historic throw triple axel
in the short program but could not land it cleanly on
Monday, moved down one position to finish 7th.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Button hook:
"See that sitting position? That's terrible," he says,
watching some pairs skaters try out a death spiral. "If she
sticks her can out as if she's -- pardon the expression --
going to the toilet, that's really terrible." So said NBC
analyst Dick Button to a
Washington Post reporter while watching pairs figure
skating practice last week. He also told the Post one
high-ranking woman used to skate with her arms so close to
her sides it was like she was making "armpit farts."
Speed
Skating – Men’s 500 meters:
American Joey Cheek was the fastest man in the fastest
skating race of these Olympics, crushing the men’s field by
a combined margin of 0.65 seconds in an event that is
usually decided by only hundredths. Team USA now has won two
straight gold medals in men’s speed skating. Chad Hedrick
won gold in the 5,000 meters on Saturday. Cheek did not
threaten the world or Olympic records on Torino’s slow ice,
but he was the only competitor to go under 35 seconds, which
he did in both of his attempts. The final results are
determined by adding together the times from two 500 meter
attempts, where the racer starts once each from the inner
and outer lanes. Dmitry Dorofeyev of Russia won the silver
medal and Korea’s Kang Seok Lee skated to bronze.
The 500
is one of the most technical races because it lasts only 35
seconds and the difference between first and 20th
is less than a second. To win, the skater must not only be
fast, but must skate the perfect race in both attempts.
Skaters often stumble in the start or on the corners as they
try furiously to gain time with every stride. Unfortunately,
even the slightest stumble can cost you the race. American
favorite and Olympic gold medalist and record holder Casey
Fitzrandolph caught an inside edge at 50m, slipped briefly,
and wound up in 12th despite a clean second run.
2002 Olympic bronze medalist (and Outsports’ hottie of the
day) Kip Carpenter also had a fantastic second run that was
not enough to offset a beleaguered first attempt. Carpenter
first registered a false start on his first run, then
slipped in the restart and lost even more time when he had
to give way to Lee of Korea on the back stretch as the
skaters switched lanes (according to skating rules, the
skater on the outside has the right of way).
(Ryan
Quinn)
Cheeky:
Speedskating gold medalist Joey Cheek is lighting up my
gaydar like a sparkler on Pride Day. After his first race,
he threw his arms up, with the "Surprise-!!"
look on his face, then clapping his hands in that
"Happy Hands" gay way, then putting his tongue out while he
gives the Royal Way ... hitting the Gay Trifecta!
Someone just needs to ask him if he has a boyfriend...not a
friend that's a boy: (Brent
Mullins)
Snowboard
– Women’s halfpipe:
. It was
the chicks’ turn to “drop into the pipe.” By the time they
came out the other side the American women found themselves
in exactly the same medal positions as the American dudes
did Sunday. Hannah Teter’s first run was good enough for
gold. Gretchen Bleiler had to come from third position on
her final run to win the silver. But the performance of the
day came from Kelly Clark, who may have turned in the most
spectacular halfpipe run in woman’s snowboarding history
except for an unfortunate fall on the very last trick, a
front side 900. Clark finished 4th. Of her
victory, Teter said: “My strategy was just to really chill
out.” In boarder speak, that’s a golden strategy.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Torino
rolls on, with drama enough for any soap. Tears for Kwan, cheers for Americans finishing 1-2 in
men's and women's halfpipe. Bode Miller partying and messing
around with new skis, which may have cost him the downhill
gold. It's the ultimate reality show. But some American TV
viewers aren't buying it. The number of viewers for the
opening ceremonies was 22.8 million, down from 2002. On
Saturday viewers bounced back to 23.6 million -- but it was
still below the 29.4 million of Salt Lake's second night.
What's
going on? Are Americans tired of sports soap? Not if you
look at the recent Super Bowl, which pulled 90.7 million
viewers, the most-watched Super Bowl since 1996. Is it NBC
programming's fault? They making the Games kinda hard to
find -- you have to jump around to several channels, and
prime time goes well into the night. Or are Americans simply
withdrawing deeper into isolation, losing interest in
international sport and focusing obsessively only on events
within our own embattled borders?
I'm
wondering what the viewership of GLBT people is --
especially since it's all between the lines for us. What
percentage of Outsports visitors are watching steadily?
If some
U.S. men have disappointed, women are giving us some great
moments. The U.S. women's hockey team two up so far.
Teter's and Bleiler's scintillating 1-2 in the women's
halfpipe. And looking beyond our own parochial borders, the
lightning victory of a young Dutch unknown, Ireen Wust, in
women's 3000-meter speedskating.
(Patricia Nell Warren)
NBC
had great stop-action stuff with the mogul runs, somehow
capturing stills of just the body of the skier flying over
the jump to do their acrobatics, while telestrating the
things they were doing.
They also did a great job with the night shots of the ski
jumping -- showing different angles on the replay with great
lighting. They just could have used little snippets of them
out of their helmets and
spongy suits. (Brent
Mullins)
First
Weekend / Feb. 10-12
Tomato
shines, Bode and Rahlves flop: Shaun White, the
snowboarding dude with the long red hair, is called the
"Flying Tomato." He was all sauce as he came from behind in
the men's halfpipe to capture the gold medal. "It's insane.
I'm overwhelmed right now," said White, who wrapped himself
in the American flag and shared a good cry with his family.
He tried to tell teammate Danny Kass that he really wasn't
crying. "It was just tears. It wasn't crying. And it wasn't
my fault. The family came up and their eyes were just beet
red. Yeah, that's what happened. It wasn't my fault." NBC
did a nice profile of White and I liked when he said the
great thing about family is that they still love you even if
you screw up on the snowboard.
"We are gonna
get babes with this!" White told NBC's Bob Costas. White
added that he was hoping to meet skater Sasha Cohen, saying
friends have asked, " 'Do you think Sasha will be digging
gold medals?' It couldn't hurt."
In the men's
downhill, Bode Miller (who is the Terrell Owens of the
Olympics in his ability to get media attention) finished
fifth, while prerace favorite Daron Rahlves stunk it up to
finish 10th. France's Antoine Deneriaz, hurt most of last
year, pulled a stunner by winning the gold. Austria's
Michael Walchhofer was second and Switzerland's Bruno Kernen
was third.
The Americans,
for some reasons, switched skis at the last minute, which
had an impact. After Miller's weak run on a pair of new
skis, Rahlves ditched them and wore his old pair. He might
as well have skied on tennis rackets for as well as he did.
(Jim Buzinski)
Great
TV: The absolute coolest thing I've seen in NBC's
coverage was the use of a "simul-cam," which superimposed
the downhill runs of Deneriasz and Walchhofer. One frame
showed them tied, then they ran the tape of them going over
a major hill. Deneriasz stayed low to the ground, while
Walchhofer soared 6 feet above him, limbs akimbo. When they
both land, Deneriasz has pulled ahead and he held the lead
to win the gold. Terrific stuff. (Jim
Buzinski)
 The
weekend's hottest jock: It's hard to beat Austria's
Felix Gottwald, who won the silver medal in the Nordic
combined (ski jumping and cross country). Of course, he has
a
website (hope your German is good). Like many
Austrian athletes, Gottwald, 30, serves in the military, in
the sports division, as a way to be a full-time jock. Sounds
like most U.S. Division I college football and basketball
players. I wonder whether Gottwald majors in basket
weaving or the psychology of sport.
"Felix attracts
the most attention from the women," his coach said in 1998.
"He's the ladies man on our team." The "ladies man" is still
single eight years later, according to his website. He says
he dreams of his own home and family, but are we to assume
he wants a fraulein?. Now, any American jock who had
pictures
like this, would automatically be assumed to be a
"Brokeback" kind of guy, but being a European it's possible
Felix is just one sharp metrosexual (my Gaydar always goes
haywire in Europe). I have become a huge Nordic combined
fan! (Jim
Buzinski)
 The
sport of nerds: I mean nerd in the cute sense, but
watching ski jumping is watching a bunch of 5-10, 135-pound
guys who look like they took up the sport on a dare from the
cool jocks in high school to prove they were tough. The
"normal hill event" was won by Norway's
Lars Bystoel (pictured), who was disqualified from one
jump in the qualifying round because he had put a piece of
tape over a sponsor on his ski-jump suit. And you thought
the NFL was anal about uniforms. Simon Ammann, the total
cuite from Switzerland who won both events in the 2002
Games, finished well out of the running. (Jim
Buzinski)
I'm
always intrigued by what the broadcast commentators decline
to talk about. Like the anorexic look of the ski jumpers as
they qualified Saturday. What gay jock would view them as
eye candy? You could practically see their bones through
the ski outfits. Jumpers have discovered that they fly
farther if they make like birds and go for low weight and
skinny build, so some of these male athletes reportedly
operate on eating disorders. I have to wonder why steroids
are illegal for athletes but eating disorders are not, when
both can be equally destructive to health.
(Patricia Nell
Warren)
Ohno
slides out of medal contention: Short track speedskating,
aka roller derby on ice, was again interesting as American
Apolo Anton Ohno
slipped in the semifinals and failed to reach the medal
round. South Korean Ahn Hyun-soo won the gold, while
teammate Lee Ho-suk claimed the silver. Four years ago, Ohno
unwittingly created an international incident when a South
Korean skater was DQed after bumping him in the final. The
Koreans had blamed Ohno for the accident and got all bent
out of shape about it, so what happened Sunday likely
gladdened souls in Seoul. (Jim
Buzinski)
Cross-Country
Skiing, Men's 30K pursuit. The opening event in
men's cross country was a spectacular race that saw 20
skiers battle in a tight pack until the last kilometer.
Russian Eugeni Dementiev, who never led the race until the
final meters, outsprinted three others to snag surprise
gold. But the big story of the race was the performance of
Norwegian Frode Estil, who overcame a fall and some
equipment trouble in the opening seconds of the mass start
race. Estil left the stadium in dead last but skied back
into the pack and was right there to sprint for silver at
the end. Obviously, Estil, who was the defending Olympic
champion in this event, skied an amazing race, but a lot of
credit is due to his Norwegian compatriots who went
immediately to the front of the pack to slow it down after
Estil's fall so that he could catch up. To top off an
already incredible race, Pietro Piller Cottrer of Italy
outsprinted teammate Giorgio di Centa to give the home
country a medal.
Italy has been crazy about
cross-country skiing since 1994 when Italy upset Norway in
the men's 4x10K relay. Evidence of the Italians' passion for
the sport was clear in the opening ceremonies when the four
members of that '94 relay team were among the final torch
bearers. The celebrated final torchbearer was Torino area
local Stefania Belmondo, who became the first cross-country
skier ever to light an Olympic cauldron. Both Italy and
Norway are off to a great start. Stay tuned: There are
plenty more rivalry-driven races to come. (Ryan
Quinn. Ryan was a cross-country skier for the University
of Utah)
Figure
skating - Pairs short program. History was made
Saturday in the Figure Skating pairs short program when the
American pair of Rena Inuoe and John Baldwin landed the
first ever throw triple axel. Not only did they land it, but
they executed it perfectly. Before the competition NBC
commentator Dick Button said that they had been landing the
difficult jump 20% of the time in practice. Twenty percent??
When I heard that I thought for sure they would
either reduce it to a double for the competition or be so
nervous trying it that Inuoe would end up sliding across the
ice on her butt. They proved me very wrong with a
go-big-or-go-home routine that set them up in 6th place
ahead of Monday's final free skate. Maybe this new scoring
system is going to be better for the sport after all.
(Ryan Quinn)
Who's
wearing the pants in that pair? All
the talk about the new scoring system in figure skating has
overshadowed another new rule change that may be equally as
important. For the first time the female competitor is
allowed to wear pants instead of the flimsy little skirts
that were mandatory until now. Now, I have nothing against
flimsy little skirts, but how untraditional of the skating
establishment, which usually seems to be living in the
1950s. What if little girls watching from home want to play
sports in pants now? Anyway, of all the pairs that NBC
showed on Saturday (which was not all of them) only
two glided out on the ice with both the man and woman in
pants: the Russian pair of Totmianina/Marinin and the
Chinese pair of Pang/Tong. They were rewarded for their
boldness. The two-pants pairs now sit in 1st and 4th places
respectively.
If the Torinoese were out on
Saturday night, they weren't at the figure skating venue.
The arena looked at least a third empty on Saturday. I know
from trying to get tickets in Salt Lake City that the figure
skating events are expensive, but figure skating always
seems to sell out somehow. I wonder if interest in figure
skating in Italy is down or if the first day of pairs
competition was just overpriced. In any case, I imagine that
the free skate, where the medals are awarded, will be sold
out. (Ryan Quinn)
Ladies
freestyle moguls. I was unimpressed by the ladies
moguls completion. The Americans, deep in talent as a team,
seemed to choke as a team. And I never got a strong feeling
of competitiveness out of any of the other competitors or
the competition as a whole. Most of the girls had clearly
spent time on their make-up and hair, though! The only
athlete who seemed to go for the gold was Canada's Jennifer
Heil, who secured the first playing of Oh Canada at these
Games. Good for her. To the others: It's the Olympics
ladies! What are you saving it for? Compete! (Ryan
Quinn)
Speed
Skating, men's 5,000 meters. An emotional Chad
Hedrick is 1 for 1 in his attempt at five Olympic speed
skating medals in Torino. The Texan, a former inline skating
world champion, skated a gutsy 5,000 meters in 6 minutes, 14
seconds to give the United States it's first gold medal.
Between Hedrick's attempt to dominate these Games and the
presence of the always-good Dutch skaters (you can't miss 'em,
they're the ones in bright orange), we're in for a treat at
the speed skating events, even if this ice is "slow."
Reports from skaters have said that the ice is softer and
dirtier than that seen in Salt Lake City, which has been the
site of many current world records and has become known as
the "world's fastest ice." Many things effect the speed of
ice, including the elevation of the venue, the temperature,
temperature changes, and humidity. Interestingly, Hedrick
seems to think that this slower, softer ice favors him
because he believes he's the stronger, fitter skater in the
field. On hard and fast ice like in Salt Lake City, finesse
skaters have a better shot at catching the power horses like
Hedrick. (Ryan
Quinn)
Early
wake up: The first medals of the XX Winter Olympic Games
were awarded for the men's 20K Biathlon event. Biathlon
combines cross country skiing and rifle shooting. The
athletes carry the .22 rifle -- which weighs between 7-10
pounds -- on their back while they ski laps, stopping to
shoot five targets after each lap. For every miss, a full
minute is added to the athlete's time.
With such
severe time penalties, shooting ruled the day and favored
the German Michael Greis, who missed only 1 of 20 targets.
The silver medal went to Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway,
who was the day's fastest skier but missed 2 targets and
missed the gold by only 16 seconds. In exciting fashion,
Norwegian compatriot Halvard Hanevold surged in the final
stretch to move into the bronze medal position by just 8
tenths of a second.
It was also
an historic race for the United States, as Jay Hakkinen
finished 10th in a race where no American has ever been in
the top ten. It's interesting to note that Hakkinen was the
second faster skier of the day (not counting his 3 shooting
misses), which bodes well for the upcoming sprint and
pursuit races, which favor the better skiers over the
shooters.
And
finally, kudos to the USA channel for showing the Biathlon
race live. There is a god! The network was rewarded in
ratings when I hauled myself out of bed and onto the couch
to catch the 7 a.m. start. (Ryan
Quinn)
Be
careful: It was interesting hear that Greis, getting a
post-race drink, made sure he drank from a sealed container.
We were told it was to avoid his drink being spiked and him
being disqualified after his drug test. "It's been known to
happen," one of the NBC announcers said. (Jim
Buzinski)
Why
aren't we No. 1? I find it hard to believe that in a
sport that uses guns, like the biathlon, that the U.S,
doesn't win every medal. (Jim
Buzinski)
A
weak opening:
Jim Allen's merciless review of the opening
ceremonies says it all. Since the Italians practically
invented theater, I expected more of them.
Yes, on to the competition, where American athletes were
under extreme pressure to deliver after their medals sweep
in Salt Lake 2002. It's a given that the home team does
better when the Olympics are held in their own country.
Even Spain, never high on the all-time medals count, won
tons of medals when the Summer Games came to Barcelona! But
in the U.S. this psychological phenomenon gets translated by
the media as "American athletes are the greatest on earth."
So in Torino our egos are bound to get clipped in some
events. Athletes are human, and don't necessarily share the
inflated political aims of the governments that send them to
the Games, and the media who fluff them and hope to cash in
on their performances. They have their own inner battles to
fight, as Michelle Kwan and Hannah Kearny obviously did.
The first weekend was a mixed bag, with Shaun White and Chad
Hedrick going gold as expected, Hannah Kearny and Bode
Miller going bust, and Kwan sadly withdrawing. On other
fronts, our women's hockey team iced the Swiss, 6-0, and our
figure-skating pair Inoue and Baldwin made history by
sticking the first throw triple axel in Olympic history,
though they're only 6th in the standing with the long
program still ahead. Kwan's withdrawal opens the door for
Emily Hughes to take her shot.
Olympic skiing is the last holdout of inequality for women,
with females still barred from jumping and Nordic combined,
on grounds that it is "unhealthy" for them. The NBC
folks could even have fluffed the fact that women
jumpers' international drive for acceptance is
being spearheaded from the United States, through
the federation
Women's Ski Jumping USA, based in Park City, Utah.
Some of the best female jumpers in the world are Americans
-- the Kelly Clarks of their sport. And some can already
fly almost as far as men, because they are lower weight and
lighter build. In May, FIS will decide whether women can
ask the IOC for inclusion in Vancouver 2010. So far,
NBC has failed to mention this sideline drama, though it has
been headlined by other media before the Games.
I always watch the Games over the telephone with my Toronto
friend and sports buddy Heather Chamberlain. Via satellite,
as the days pass, we share cups of coffee and glasses of
wine whilst engaging in some very friendly Canadian-U.S.
rivalry.
(Patricia Nell Warren)
 Opening
ceremony hottie: By acclamation among the group I was
watching with, a Slovenian athlete was the hands-down pick
as the hottest athlete (see picture from NBC's coverage
right ). We never did catch his name. Of the athletes in
Torino, 38% of women, but based on NBC's coverage of the
parade of nations, you would have thought it was more than
half. The cameras lingered on every blond-hair Scandinavian
babe, while we saw fleeting glimpses of most men. Based on
the disco music that blared for each country, we know a gay
guy picked the music, but NBC either used straight guys or
lesbians as their camerapeople. (Jim
Buzinski)
I've
been a huge Olympics fan since Carl Lewis captured my
imagination in the '84 Games. But something has been lost.
It's just doesn't feel as special as it once did. I blame it
on the decision to move the Winter Olympics away from the
Summer Games. I miss the time when we had "Olympic years,"
and the event has lost some of its luster because that is
gone.
After about two hours of the opening ceremonies, I just
couldn't take it anymore. How much of that do we really
need? People in gold lame' unitards swishing around,
racecars doing donuts, 8-year-old girls singing falsetto. I
mean, wouldn't 90 minutes do the trick? NBC had four hours
of it Friday night and I just couldn't sit through more than
half of it.
The opening ceremony did have its moments, though. When the
couple of hundred people on stage created a giant skier, it
grabbed the attention of everyone in the room I was in. And
no matter how cynical I might have gotten last night, it was
cool to see those giant, lighted rings rise up and form the
Olympic rings.
It's mildly entertaining to see all of the teams from Virgin
Islands, Bermuda and the rest of the Caribbean. And it's
cool to see. But, once the parade of nations is past, I
couldn't care less that there is someone from a country
whose all-time low temperature is in the 40s. Still, it
would be cool to see one of the Caribbean or African
athletes win a medal. What the heck could the Austrians say
about losing to someone from Ethiopia? (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.) |
Notebook
