|
Check out each day's coverage and hot jock in our Olympics
archive
Feb. 18-19
action
  Hero
and hot jock: Joey Cheek, 26, has emerged as one of the
great stars of the Games, not just for winning medals (a
gold and silver) but for donating his prize money to a
group that helps refugee children play sports. "I think
we've had eight or nine companies or individuals match my
original $25,000, and it looks like we're over a quarter of
a million dollars donated -- and more keeps coming in,'' he
said. "I'm much more proud of that than winning a gold
medal.'' A true champion and a terrific guy (yeah, he's
pretty hot, too).
Cheek is a
self-described geek who grew up to be a jock. When asked why
he didn't keep some of the prize money, he said, "I would
probably just blow it on something stupid." In an era when
so many athletes are self-obsessed, how refreshing to see
someone who realizes there is a larger world out there. As
out photog Brent said: Although he has none of the PR/celeb
experience of Sharon Stone, when she stood up and challenged
the rich at Davos to buy mosquito nets for Africa, clearly
he's got the golden soul to match his medal.
Cheek is going
back to college this fall, and when asked who he would like
to have breakfast with, dead or alive, said JFK. ("He seemed
like a pretty amazing character. I think he was running the
country at a pretty amazing time. And I'd probably have eggs
benedict."). Cheek says he wants to be president when he
grows up. He has my vote. (Jim
Buzinski)
 Is
this a race thing?:
By winning the 1,000-meter speed skating race Saturday night
Shani Davis became the first African-American individual
gold medalist in Winter Olympic history. But the attention
has not been on Davis breaking a racial barrier. At least
not on the surface. After Davis won, NBC showed the most
awkward interview with a gold medalist I’ve ever seen.
Stone-faced and refusing to make eye contact, Davis said,
“I’m pretty happy about it.” Pause. “Is that it?” Melissa
Stark asked. “Yeah.” Longer pause. “Are you angry, Shani?”
Davis said he wasn’t angry, but it was clear there was more
going on than an emotional champion at a loss for words.
Davis did open up a bit more after the medal ceremony on
Sunday, saying, “I can’t be too excited …. I’ve got one more
distance…I’m gonna try to do it again.” He added that he
loves kids and hoped to “push them beyond their realm to try
something different.”
But Davis has rubbed people the wrong way, keeping himself
at a distance from U.S. Speed Skating and from his teammates
in Torino. It’s hard not to wonder how much of this has to
do with race, but in the context of this ego-driven US speed
skating team, it’s even harder to analyze. Davis is the
loner on the team, but it’s impossible to tell if his
isolation has been imposed by himself or by the speed
skating establishment.
"He is going his own way," said Eric Heiden, one of the U.S.
coaches. "He is not a team player." Heiden, of course, is as
egotistical and unforgiving as any of them. Heiden is
internationally famous for winning five gold medals in 1980
in Lake Placid, but he childishly refused to take part in
the 2002 Opening Ceremonies in Salt Lake City because he
hadn’t been chosen to be the final torch bearer. And Chad
Hedrick, who also has a gold medal at these Games but was
sixth behind Davis on Saturday, said, when asked about
Davis’s victory, “I’m happy for Joey [Cheek, silver
medalist].”
So are these guys prima donnas or just assholes? I want to
root for Davis. I want to think that there are some young
African-American kids out there watching who are inspired to
give winter sports a try because of what Davis has
accomplished. But I don’t think any kids should be watching
the immaturity on display from Heiden, Davis and Hedrick. In
the meantime, I’m more likely to root for Joey Cheek, who’s
donated to charity the $40,000 he’s earned from winning his
silver and gold medals and who is big enough to maintain
friendships with both Davis and Hedrick. (Ryan
Quinn)
Racism
and Homophobia: We're not alone in complaining about
bias at Torino. Anybody who doubts that racism is rampant in
winter sports should follow the hateful thread in a
landslide of Shani Davis postings to message boards during
the last few days. The anti's are boiling over at Shani not
just because they think he's selfish, but because he's
black. Some toxic postings that I saw can be found at
MSNBC
and
Shani Davis' website as well as black activist
Keith Boykin's site at.
At the 1968 Summer Games, two African American athletes
expressed open defiance, raising black-power fists on the
podium. The U.S., under the pretense that "there should be
no politicking at the Olympics," punished the two by kicking
them off the team. No politics at the Games? Who were they
kidding? Today the battleground is more behind the scenes,
but no less bitter -- Shani Davis's mother spent years
locking horns with entrenched white interests who were
unhappy at the emergence of a talented black in speed
skating.
In 1968 black athletes had a courageous show of public
support from some white Olympians who risked USOC reprisal
for sticking their necks out. But in 2006 that kind of
courage and high-mindedness seems to be lacking among many
prominent whites in winter sports. Which is possibly why
Shani Davis feels that he doesn't owe Chad Hedrick a damn
thing.
Within the racist thread, there's a homophobic thread. Davis
is not only called an "unpatriotic n-" for his decision on
the team pursuit -- he has also been labeled a "mama's boy."
As Hedrick and Davis meet again in upcoming events, there
may be more fireworks on the race front, judging by the
expression on Shani's and Chad's faces after the 1,000 meter
Saturday night. Meanwhile, Shani Davis did win his gold and
MSNBC columnist Mike Celizic calls him the first real
"Olympic hero". for the U.S. at Torino.
Not so Johnny Weir. Gleefully nasty "anti-sissy" media
attacks on him redoubled after he missed getting in the
medals. One wonders how the media would have dealt with
Weir's sexual orientation if he HAD won the gold. (Patricia
Nell Warren)
 10K
extravaganza. It was funny and cool to hear how
intensely interested in the 10K cross-country relay the
people of Italy and Norway have been for more than a decade.
The previous three Olympic men's 10K relay races had all
been decided by less than a half of a second between the two
teams of these two countries. NBC had been pumping this
event as one of the premiere events of the Olympics, and
they put their money where their mouth was by dedicating
more than an hour of their prime time coverage Sunday to the
race. In the end, it was Christian Zorzi, with his red-dyed
hair (he has bleached it in the past), grabbing an Italian
flag from the crowd and waving it proudly as he crossed the
finish line. A little bit of premature celebrating, to be
sure – but, unlike Lindsey Jacobellis, he did not
disappoint. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Italy’s
big day: It’s hard for anyone accustomed to sports in
America to understand the significance of the Italians
claiming gold in the men’s 4x10K cross-country relay. But
NBC let us in on a taste of it when they aired the jubilant
medal ceremony that included thousands of Italians loudly
signing their national anthem. Even with the 6-10 hour time
difference, I bet we all were in bed before that party even
started to break up. The picture is a screen capture from
NBC of two of the Italians after the race doing what they do
best -- kiss. (Ryan
Quinn)
The
Great Race: On Saturday I happened to catch an awesome
33-minute documentary on NBC about the historic 1994 10K
between Norway and Italy. The Italians won the gold before
150,000 screaming Norwegians. There were great interviews,
pathos and heartache and jubilation and some wonderful
footage. You
can download a copy for $1.99 via Google video. Well
worth it. (Jim
Buzinski)
Al
Roker tops Matt Lauer:
How the hell did we miss this one? Last week, The Today Show
personalities Matt Lauer and Al Roker donned lycra outfits
and tried their hands (or asses) at doubles luge. Here are a
couple parts of an exchange between Roker, Lauer and
Instructor:
Reach in and grab those handles.
Lauer (to Roker):
Can you feel them? (Then screaming) That's not the handle!!
Moments later:
Lauer (to
Instructor):
As the bottom guy, what do I need to know?
Instructor:
You just follow Al.
Moments later:
Roker:
It's good to be on top! (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
I
want more curling. I was headed to a registration party
for my football league Sunday night, but I just couldn't
take my eyes off of the U.S.-Britain. curling match. The
sport certainly doesn't demand the athleticism of any of the
other sports in the Olympics (or anywhere else on TV, for
that matter). But that didn't take away from how engaging
this shuffleboard-on-ice was for me. No doubt people will be
debating whether curling is a sport or not. I don’t care. I
found myself watching the curling and skipping the hockey.
And I understood why curling is so popular in Canada. Plus, as one
Outsports poster wrote: "Some of these curling players
are just SO nice to look at. Curling studs: who would've
thunk it?" (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Twizzle
fo’ shizzle: I
approached the Ice Dancing competition expecting the worst.
Usually, all the performances look the same to me and the
facial expressions are revoltingly over the top. But the
thrills and spills on the ice Sunday night were awesome.
Three of the last five pairs to skate bit it hard and it was
priceless how they struggled to maintain their theatrical
expressions while tripping over each other. Pure comedy.
What really made the night, though, was when Dick Button
actually said, in response to a discussion about a footwork
move called the twizzle, “There’s no shizzle in that
twizz-izzle.” I love him. (Ryan
Quinn)
Alpine
skiers are a strange breed:
The first thing Janica Kostelic
said when she won the gold medal in the women’s Alpine
Combined event was, “My brother’s medal means more than my
medals.” It was indeed a cool moment when her brother, Ivica
Kostelic, won silver in the men’s Combined last week and
celebrated as if he’d struck gold.
But Janica Kostelic’s apathy
toward her own success, as presented in an NBC segment,
rivals the silly statements made by Bode Miller. Kostelic is
the most decorated skier currently competing, she’s come
back from 11 knee surgeries, is a national hero and
celebrity in Croatia -- and claims she doesn’t think she’s
special? As a competitor I just can’t relate to these
people. And I can’t tell if they’re egotistical to the point
of delusion or merely insecure. Is it possible that they
genuinely don’t care about their success? I don’t buy it.
In other skiing news, the Bode Miller highlight of the Games
came on Saturday as he made a spectacular recovery after
hitting a Super-G gate. Did you see that!? Miller’s
direct hit blew the gate apart, knocked him off course, and
twisted his body around more than 90 degrees. But for an
impossible second or two Miller rode straight downhill on
one leg, with the other ski bumping and scraping behind him.
Amazingly, he stayed upright and came to a stop on two feet.
That’s athleticism. (Ryan
Quinn)
Ski
Jumping: The
Austrians held a ski jumping clinic on the large hill on
Saturday night. With graceful style and jumps that soared as
long as 140 meters, the favored Finns didn’t stand a chance.
Congrats to the Austrians for seizing the day. Now go eat
something! (Ryan
Quinn) (Aside from Jim Buzinski: But you have to
admit the two Austrians who finished 1-2 jumping up and
hugging each other at the bottom of the hill was pretty darn
cute. They are roomies).
Running
makes you look guilty:
It was a bizarre drama similar
to that of the Greek sprinters who crashed a motorcycle
while avoiding a drug test in the hours leading up to the
2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. On Sunday, Austrian
doctor Walther Mayer, who is banned from the Olympics
through 2010 for his involvement in blood doping at the 2002
Winter Games, crashed his car into an Italian police barrier
hours after he was spotted at the house where Austrian
biathletes and xc skiers are staying. His presence there had
prompted the first ever raid on Olympic athletes by
authorities searching for doping substances. It’s unclear
whether illegal substances were found, but one athlete was
seen throwing a bag of syringes out a window and two
biathletes have been kicked off the Austrian team because
they decided to leave the Games after the raid. (Ryan
Quinn)
What
do Norway and the USA have in common? They are producing
more choke jobs than medals in Torino. In the men’s and
women’s xc skiing relays, Norway was entirely out of the
medals, which hasn’t happened for two decades. In the men’s
biathlon pursuit, two Norwegians started in silver and
bronze positions but fell out of medal contention on the
last shooting stop. They had to rely on compatriot Ole Einar
Bjoerndalen, who came out of 12th place to finish
with the silver. Norway still does not have a gold medal in
xc skiing or biathlon, unthinkable to those who follow the
sports. But despite all the talk about Norway and the USA
not living up to expectations they are still ranked second
and third in the medal count. (Ryan
Quinn)
Snow:
It was neat to watch the snow fall in Torino on Sunday. It
really liked like a "winter wonderland," not just a set
backdrop for a bunch of sporting events. Reminded me of how
much I love watching football when the white stuff is
falling. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
A
shameless plug: What was now-retired Pittsburgh Steelers
running back Jerome Bettis doing in NBC''s Torino
studio with Bob Costas? Discussing the finer points of ice
dancing? Putting Bettis on one scale and three ski jumpers
on another and seeing who weighs more? No, after some
chit-chat, Costas got down to business and announced that
Bettis would be joining NBC as part of its Sunday night
football telecasts this fall. I smelled it a mile away. NBC
is the last-place network and needs all the promotion it can
get, even it means discussing a sport that won't start for
eight months. (Jim
Buzinski) |
Cristian Zorzi leads team Italy to xc gold
(SI.com)
Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are second going into the
final night of ice dancing
(SI.com)
Adam Pengilly,
skeleton, U.K.
Italy's Christian Borgaetello celebrates coring their
third goal against Germany
Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt celebrates his skiing gold
(AP via Long Beach Press-Telegram)
Korea's Lee Kang-seok races during the Winter Olympics
men's 1,000 meter speed skating
(AP via Long Beach Press-Telegram)
Marianne Timmer of the Netherlands wins speed skating
gold
(NBC
Olympics)
Watanabe and Kido skate for Japan in ice dancing
(NBC
Olympics)
Apolo Anton Ahno is happy with a short track bronze
(NBC
Olympics) |
|
