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Check out each day's coverage and hot jock in our Olympics
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Feb. 13
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  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) |
It takes concentration to curl
(Reuters
via official Torino site)
Cute as six buttons: The pairs figure skating medalists
(Reuters
via official Torino site)
Tatyana Totmiyanina and Maxim Marinin captured Russia's
12th consecutive gold medal in pairs skating.
(Damian
Strohmeyer/SI)
China's Zhang and Zhang overcame disaster to win the
silver
(Damian
Strohmeyer/SI)
These luge dudes rocks
(Reuters
via official Torino site)
Joey Cheek, center, celebrates speedskating gold
(Getty
via official Torino site)
Biathlon babes
(Getty
via official Torino site)
Italian goalie Gunter Hell dons a hemlet with Tom Cruise
from the "Last Samurai
(AP
via
Long
Beach Press-Telegram)
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