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Check out each day's coverage and hot jock in our Olympics
archive
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.
Feb. 20 update: When we posted
this pic but had no idea who he was. In Oklahoma, an
Outsports reader named Michael was also watching, noticed
the guy and decided to track down who he is. Michael wrote
three e-mails to the Slovenian Olympic Committe and finally
got his answer and called me: The jock is
Andrej Jerman, 27, a 6-1,
194-pound downhill skier. Another great mystery solved. (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.) |
Chad Hedrick celebrates speed-skating gold.
(AP via
Long
Beach Press-Telegram)
More Chad Hedrick
(Damian
Strohmeyer/SI)
Taking aim in biathlon
(Official
Torino site)
Jaakko Tallus, Nordic combined(Official
Torino site)
Georg Hettich, Nordic combined gold champ
(Official
Torino site)
Hettich
(Official
Torino site)
Irren Wust, speedskating queen
(Official
Torino site)
Thunder Thighs: Ushiyama of Japan
(Reuters
via official Torino site)
Italian stallion: Stefano Donagrandi
(Official
Torino site)
Off to the races: Justin Warsylewicz of Canada
(Official
Torino site)
Oystein Grodum, Norway
(Official
Torino site)
The golden Chad Hedrick
(Reuters
via official Torino site)
The determined Enrico Fabris of Italy
(AP
via Washington Post)
Antoine Deneriaz, downhill champ of France
(Reuters
via official Torino site)
Totmianina and Marinin, Russian pairs
(Official
Torino site)
Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov, Ukrainian
pairs
(Official
Torino site)
Aganina and Knyazev, Uzbekistan pairs
(Official
Torino site)
Biathlon medalists
(AP
via
Long
Beach Press-Telegram)
Gold medalist Shaun White, center, with silver medalist
Daniel Kass from the United states, left, and bronze
medalist Markku Koski from Finland
(AP
via
Long
Beach Press-Telegram)
Ireen Wust is a hat maven
(AP
via Slam Sports)
High flyers
(Getty
via Yahoo) |
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