When
Torino, Italy, was chosen to host the 2006 Winter Olympics
seven years ago, I was a freshman student-athlete at the
University of Utah in Salt Lake City, a place itself buzzing
with construction and Olympic excitement.
The Winter Olympics have
fascinated me for years, perhaps because I grew up in a
winter climate and because the Olympics represent the
pinnacle of my sport, cross-country skiing. In 2002, it was
a thrill to be living in an Olympic host city and to watch
the events held on courses where I'd raced and trained and
knew which sections of each hill hurt the most. Watching the
races live, I could see the best in the world were hurting
on those sections too, and it made me believe that someday I
could have a shot at the Olympic Games. That's what the
Olympics do. They challenge everyone to seek their
potential. And every once and a while, for someone
somewhere, that idea transcends sport.
Four years ago at the Olympic trials, I did not have a
realistic chance at making the team, but I was for the first
time close to the action. Two of my college teammates made
the Salt Lake Olympics, and it gave the rest of us a good
idea of what it would take to get to Torino. In early
January, a dozen of my college and high school teammates
competed in their nations' Olympic trials and I know just
how exciting and heartbreaking that experience can be. Out
of all of them, only one --
Torin Koos -- qualified for Torino. Some might wait
four more years when they'll have another chance, and
others, like I did after college, might decide that life has
other things to offer.
Indeed, the Olympic dream has been lived by many more
athletes that haven't made an Olympic team than by the few
elites who have. And that, in the end, is one of the reasons
why the Olympics are so interesting.
For more
than eight decades, the world’s greatest winter athletes
have huddled together in a resort town every four years
(except for 1940 and 1944) to compete for Olympic glory. At
the first Winter Games in 1924 in Chamonix, France, just
258 athletes (11 women, 247 men)
from 16 nations participated. Since then, the Games have
grown a hundred times larger in all respects, adding seven
sports and swelling to 2,500 athletes.
The Winter
Olympics from Torino, Italy, can be viewed on NBC and it
cable networks starting Feb. 10. Because the Winter Games
are a little peculiar, one can more fully enjoy them if they
know what’s really going on. Therefore, the following is my
admittedly biased preview of what to expect during the XX
Winter Olympics.
Opening
Ceremonies
Giorgio
and Alberto? Don’t miss this party. Oh, the pageantry,
the culture, the fireworks, and the bullshit. Generally, the
opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympic Games are
overly sentimental and often tacky. But this time maybe
there’s hope. The Italians are a stylish, fashion-conscious
people and they’ve announced that Giorgio Armani will take
part in the opening ceremonies. According to the
awkwardly-translated official
Torino
2006 web site, Mr. Armani “will stylistically take
care of the protocol moment in which the Italian flag will
appear,” which I gather, translated further, means that he’s
gonna gay it up a little and get the party started.
Here’s
another description of the opening ceremonies taken from the
site: “Rhythm,
Passion and Speed are the foundation stones
of the Ceremonies; these three elements find their perfect
synthesis in these icons, developed to join the artistic
segments with a single creative element.” What?!?
When to
tune in: Feb. 10
Watchability: 9. Highlights include the parade of
nations and the lighting of the torch.
How to
make $$ off your friends: I derive much excitement out
of trying to predict who will light the torch at each
Olympic Games. You’ll remember that all 20 or so of the
Miracle on Ice guys lit the torch in Salt Lake City. At
least I remember -- I won $5 on that bet. My money this time
around is on retired alpine skiing great Alberto Tomba. If
you’re the betting type, freshly retired cross-country skier
and Torino-area local Stefania
Belmondo would be my underdog pick. Either way, the
torch lighting will be a spectacle, as Torino has erected
the tallest cauldron in Olympic history. Standing at 187
feet, the cauldron is composed of five outer tubes, plus an
inner sixth tube that will rise from the base and light a
12-foot methane gas fueled flame that will burn for the 16
days of the Games.
In my
recollection, the best torch ceremony to date occurred in
Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994 when a torchbearer in a silver
lycra suit carried with him the flaming torch as he soared,
at night, off the 120-meter jumping hill.
“The
following presentation of NBC sports is designed
specifically for people who don’t like to watch sports.”
This announcement at the start of NBC’s coverage will
probably be drowned out by the John Williams music, but I’m
certain the network is obliged to issue it somewhere. Every
four years I anxiously await the opportunity to watch the
Winter Olympics, only to become frustrated by what I’m
actually allowed to see on television. Because NBC has spent
so much money on the rights to broadcast the Olympics, they
feel the need to create something even better than the
actual sports. Stop doing that!
As an
Olympic TV viewer, my ideal broadcast would include a live
feed coming into my television from each of the eight
venues. Bob Costas would throw in his two cents before each
event, or if something big was happening he might say
something like, “now we are switching over to the ski
jumping venue,” and I would enjoy an uninterrupted view of
the, well, the actual events, ideally.
Alas, NBC
will provide no such coverage. They will cut it up, splice
in melodramatic vignettes, over-saturate me with figure
skating, and tape delay it all for prime time. NBC does this
because I, as a true fan of the Olympics, am not their
target audience. Someone like me wants to watch the
Olympics, so therefore I’m going to watch them anyway, no
matter how much extra crap I have to sit through. The actual
target audience is the non-sports fan -- the millions of
Americans who have tuned in to view their regularly
scheduled sitcom and, upon discovering that an obscure
winter sports festival has monopolized the airways, will
only be coaxed into not changing the channel if there is an
immediate and sustained display of drama, tragedy, Katie
Couric or Matt Lauer, or pure and utter American domination.
The only
redeeming quality of NBC’s coverage is that they use their
sister networks (CNBC and MSNBC) to broadcast some events in
their entirety. Turn to CNBC and MSNBC for live hockey
games, curling matches and, God willing, a cross-country ski
or biathlon race. Please. Just one?
Torino
official website quote of the day: (again, taken from a
description of the Opening Ceremonies) “Thanks to an
experimental technology that generates a red flame up to 2
meters long, the Sparks of Passion will evoke with their own
charge of energy the world of myths and, at the same time
the look of cartoons, infecting the stadium public and
television viewers all over the world.” What?!?
You
might be interested to know:
the Olympic Flame was first lit at the Winter Games in 1952
in Oslo.
You also
might be interested to know:
The 1956 Games held in
Cortina, Italy, were the first to be televised and the last
at which the figure skating competitions were held outdoors.
Out Athletes
Due to
athletes’ requests, the rooms in the Olympic Village have
been designed to look and feel like closets. A
disheartening Olympic statistic is the number of openly gay
Olympic athletes. In Athens, just 11 out of about 9,000
Summer Olympians were out. In Salt Lake City in 2002 there
were none. At this point I’m not aware of any headed to
Torino.
The typical
explanation for why athletes don’t come out is that they’re
afraid to lose sponsorship money. Though conventional wisdom
says this reasoning makes sense, I’m skeptical, even if we
were talking about big time pro sports like the NFL or MLB.
But in the Winter Olympics, this reasoning is ridiculous.
First of all, only a very small percentage of Winter Olympic
athletes make good money from their sport. I’d bet an openly
gay athlete stands to make more money from a sponsor
desperate to market to GLBT people than they’d stand to lose
from the minor sponsor they’re afraid would dump them for
being gay. And besides, does anyone really care if winter
Olympic athletes are gay? The media hardly pay attention to
any of these athletes except for two weeks out of every four
years.
The truth
is, the fear of coming out is no different for a closeted
gay athlete than it is for any other gay person. It’s tough
to come out, but millions of people do it successfully all
the time. I wonder if athletes aren’t taking an easy way out
by using sports and sponsorship money as an excuse to hide
their sexuality. Everyone has their own reasons, right or
wrong, for being out, but I don’t think we’re waiting for
society to change before we can have openly gay athletes.
We’re only waiting for more gay athletes who aren’t afraid
of being themselves to come out and set an example.
You Call That
a Sport?
I
consider myself an avid fan of the Olympics, and I have to
admit that it’s putting it nicely to call some of the winter
events obscure. If you’re uncertain about how to approach
the Winter Olympic Games (and Sports), don’t fret. You are
not expected to take all of these sports seriously. In fact,
eight out of the 16 sports are not even sports at all. The
sports and games featured in the Winter Olympics actually
fall into the four following categories (* indicates a
sport/activity that has been included in every Winter
Olympics):
-Sports:
Alpine Skiing*, Biathlon*, Cross-Country Skiing*, Figure
Skating*, Ice Hockey*, Nordic Combined, Short Track, Speed
Skating*
-Sports,
I guess: Bobsleigh*, Freestyle Skiing (moguls), Ski
Jumping, Snowboarding (slalom events)
-Competitive
winter activities: Curling*, Luge
-“Competitive winter activities” and “sports, I guess” that
belong in the X Games: Freestyle Skiing (Aerials),
Skeleton, Snowboarding (half pipe)
Undoubtedly, I’ve offended some readers with these
classifications, so let me elaborate. To determine whether
an athletic competition is actually a sport, I use the
following criteria:
-It has to
be athletic.
-It has to be competitive (i.e. popular enough to attract a
wide field of talent).
-It has to have a real history in several countries.
-A reasonable portion of the population must have adequate
access to the sport.
But at the
end of the day the medals for curling and skeleton are just
as golden as those for skiing and speed skating, so I’ll
move on -- for now.
Figure Skating
Go
figure. Skating would be a yawn without Kwan: Olympic
silver (1998) and bronze (2002) medalist Michelle Kwan has
been hampered this season by a lingering hip injury and poor
performances in pre-Olympic competitions. In January, Kwan
skipped the U.S. National Championships, generally regarded
as the Olympic trials, citing a new groin injury, a decision
that caused her to forfeit the chance to win a record 10th
U.S. national title.
Fortunately, Kwan was still named to the 3-woman Olympic
squad via the same petition process that allowed injured
skater Nancy Kerrigan to skate in Lillehammer in 1994 (and,
incidentally, kept the then 13 year old Kwan off the team).
I can’t
help but fear this is end of something. To put it bluntly
for Kwan, it’s now or never. In the last two Olympics, Kwan
was upset by where-are-they-now skaters 15-year-old Tara
Lipinski and 16-year-old Sarah Hughes. The favorites in
Torino appear to be American Sasha Cohen and veteran Russian
skater Irina Slutskaya.
Which
brings up another issue. Where have all the veteran skaters
gone? I remember when skaters used to have careers—I mean
careers that lasted at least into their 20s. In the days of
Hamilton, Boitano, Witt, Stojko and Eldredge, the sport
rewarded skaters who’d had time to develop experience and
style, not teenagers who win their first medal and rush off
to the pros before they have a chance to grow up. At 25, an
age at which skaters used to be considered experienced, Kwan
now seems ancient.
Making
matters worse for the sport are the stuffy administrators,
who seem in panic mode. To make up for slouching interest in
their sport, the national and international governing bodies
of skating are promoting sillier and sillier exhibition
events and rushing to change rules in a vain attempt to
rescue the sport. As a result, skaters retire earlier from
Olympic level competition and the programs of those who stay
seem to resemble more of a checklist of required elements
than a creative athletic performance.
But all
hope is not lost. Skating still will be the most popular
event for viewers, which means maybe we were
never watching for the creativity or athleticism in the
first place. I know why I watch. It’s because of the
anticipation that at any moment a skater might wipe out in
the middle of a quadruple axel, be knee-capped, get screwed
over by a French judge in a fur coat, or that we might get
through another full year without one of the men coming out
of the closet. I mean, it’s mesmerizing.
"So it
had been, so it is, and so it always will be!": This
line, actually taken from Russia's national anthem, might be
a good description of the Russian figure skating team's
Olympic medal prospects. Russian skaters, who won 3 of the 4
gold medals at the 1994 and 1998 Olympics and 2 of 4 in
2002, swept all 4 top podium spots at the European
Championships in January. It's not unthinkable that they
could achieve the same feat in Torino.
Yevgeny Plushenko is such a heavy favorite going into the
Olympic men's competition that it would be a bigger story if
he doesn't win a gold medal than if he does. But if
Plushenko falters, look for Swiss skater Stéphane Lambiel,
the 2005 World Champion, to have the best shot at taking
advantage of the opportunity.
Remarkably, no Russian woman has ever won an individual
medal in skating. But 2002 silver medalist Irina Slutskaya
seems a heavy favorite to overcome that drought. The
Russians are also favored to win the Ice Dancing and Pairs
competitions. If you're hoping to hear the Star Spangled
Banner, the best chances lie with Sasha Cohen, Michelle
Kwan, or the American Ice Dancing pair of Ben Agosto and
Tanith Belbin, who became an American citizen on Dec. 31
When to
tune in: constantly. NBC will likely show more
non-competition figure skating coverage --including
practices, exhibition events, story pieces, interviews, and
behind the scenes specials --than they will coverage of any
other sports’ actual competition.
Watchability: You don’t have a choice
Further
Analysis: The men chosen to skate for the U.S.A. in
Torino are Johnny Weir (left), Evan Lysacek, and Matthew
Savoie. Who??? All three are Olympic rookies, but you'll
know them well by the time the free skate rolls around on
Feb. 16. They're solid, hungry, competitive skaters and we
can expect to see at least one of them on the podium. Pay
special attention to Weir, who's as eccentric off the ice as
he is when performing for the judges. My two favorite things
out of his mouth so far have been his descriptions of two
previous costumes he wore, which he compared to an "icicle
on coke" and a "Care Bear on acid." The stuffy Olympic
figure skating people are going to love this guy!
Further
Analysis II: Regrettably, a new scoring system will be
used in Torino. You’ll remember that in Salt Lake City, the
Canadian pair of Sale/Pelltier got screwed over (and became
wildly famous) when a corrupt French judge ranked them
second behind the Russian team despite the Canadians’
apparently superior performance. After much discussion and
reform the rules have now been changed and judges will post
their marks anonymously. Wait. What???? You mean that to
protect the competition from corrupt judges, their marks
will remain anonymous? Call me crazy, but I think that’s
precisely the opposite direction from where the scoring
system ought to be headed. Figure skating needs more
transparency, not less.
Free the
jailed drugged up winter athletes! You thought the
drinking laws were rough in Salt Lake City. Athletes caught
in Italy with performance-enhancing drugs could actually
serve jail time. Italy’s federal law that mandates a jail
sentence for the use or distribution of controlled
substances has caused a lot of bickering between the IOC,
who has requested that Italy suspend this law for the
duration of the Games, and the Italian government, who quite
rightly doesn’t care what the IOC thinks.
There are
actually two issues at stake here: the punishment of
cheating athletes and the sovereignty of Italy, the latter
being slightly more important. As a rule, I would probably
stop short of advocating jail time for drug cheats, but at a
more serious level I don’t think the IOC should be able to
strong arm a government into changing a federal law for two
weeks, just to protect cheating athletes. Bring your passion
to Italy, boys and girls, but leave the testosterone shots
and EPO at home.
Tonya
Harding update. I have to admit that I get a slight rush
when I come across a little news paragraph that mentions
what the troubled former skater is up to now. In case you
haven’t been paying attention, in the last six years Harding
has been arrested for domestic abuse (hitting her boyfriend
in the face with a hub cap), was evicted from her home for
not paying rent, and has made a career transition into
professional and celebrity boxing.
After doing
a little research I was delighted to discover that Harding
is undefeated in her celebrity boxing matches, including the
famous 2002 match against Paula Jones. Her record in
professional matches is closer to .500. Back in January 2005
she told the Boston Globe: “I'm going to start back skating
and teaching. I want to box. I want to do movies,
commercials, endorsements -- you name it, as long as it's in
good taste and kids can look at it and watch it.” Oh, honey,
good taste? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
You
might be interested to know: The Winter Olympics have
never been held in the southern hemisphere.
Alpine Skiing
Mooooo.
The most talked about Alpine skier right now is Bode Miller,
who, at 28, is at the same time anti-social and painfully
outspoken. When he races it’s thrilling, but when he speaks
almost everyone -- from skiing officials to his sponsors and
fellow athletes-- cringes. So far this year Miller has
threatened to quit the sport (because he dislikes the media
attention), has admitted to skiing drunk, and has very
publicly criticized doping regulations, for being too
strict.
Nevertheless, Miller is good for the sport, and so is his
rivalry with US Ski Team teammate Darin Rhalves. Rhalves, in
fact, has skied better than Miller so far this year, and
both could strike gold in Torino.
In other
alpine news, American Lindsey Kildow won a cow at a World
Cup downhill race in France in December. Weird, right? And
she kept it! Imagine the shipping costs. Anyway, Kildow, 21,
is best at the high speed events and has a shot at medaling
in the downhill and/or combined. Joining her to take on the
always-good Austrians and 2002 gold medalist Janica Kostelic
is American hopeful Julia Mancuso.
Watchability: 10. If you watch this event enough you’ll
begin to appreciate the high speeds and technical difficulty
of these courses, which is hard to grasp on a TV screen.
When to
tune in: The showcase event is the downhill. Men: Feb.
12. Women: Feb. 15
Further
Analysis: The USA took home just two of 30 Alpine skiing
medals in Salt Lake City (both silver, both Miller’s), but
this 2006 U.S. team has the best shot in decades at
producing a breakout performance.
Freestyle
Skiing
You
saw this coming. It has been noted by the occasional fan
of moguls skiing and/or college football that Jeremy Bloom
(left) is hot. Bloom, University of Colorado punt returner
cum World Cup Freestyle Skiing Champion, lost his
NCAA eligibility after taking money from ski sponsors. Bloom
was ninth in the moguls in Salt Lake City in 2002, but last
season won six straight competitions on his way to claiming
the World Cup title, making him a medal favorite in Torino.
If Bloom does win, the celebration will have to be short, as
he plans to be at the NFL scouting combine just a week
later.
When to
tune in: Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Watchability: 10. Unfortunately for NBC, Bloom doesn’t
have the
come-back-from-devastating-tragedy-to-overcome-unthinkable-obstacles
kind of story that attracts viewers who don’t like watching
sports. But he’s cute, American, and favored to win the gold
medal so NBC will allow us to see this event.
Further
Analysis: You can always see more of Bloom
on his
website.
You
might be interested to know: The Winter Games were held
in the same year as the Summer Games until 1994.
All About the
Medals
Oh,
Canada (and Oh, Germany). The medal count was originally
created by the media to measure pure and utter American
domination, and it serves this purpose very well in the
Summer Olympics. However, the United States usually
struggles to rank among the Top 5 countries in the Winter
Olympic medal count.
History
will be working against the USA in Torino. In the last three
Winter Olympics since 1994, the host country has taken home
an average of 40% more medals than they did in the previous
Games. Additionally, the host of the previous Games took
home 40% less medals in the next Games than they did in the
year they hosted (with the exception of Norway, which seems
to remain remarkably consistent wherever the Games are
held). Here’s a look at the trends experienced by host
countries since the 90s:
Host
Country Medals
previous Games Medals at home Medals
next Games
Albertville, FRA 2
9 5
Lillehammer, NOR 20
26 25
Nagano,
JAP 5
10 2
Salt Lake
City 13
34 ???
Torino, ITA
12
???
Based on
this historical data I’ve made predictions regarding the
final medal count in Torino. Note that I’ve given a slight
advantage to Canada due to strong pre-Olympic performances
(notably in hockey and cross-country skiing) and the fact
that they are building toward hosting the 2010 Winter
Olympics in Vancouver. The Winter Games seem blessed with
international parity, but if there is a hint of domination
it comes from Germany, which has led the medal count in the
past two Winter Games, and I suspect will do the same in
Torino. Here are my predictions:
Country Total Medals
Germany 35
Norway 25
Canada 20
USA 20
Italy 16
Russia 15
Ice Hockey
I think
I’ve heard of that one: The only “mainstream” sport
included in the Winter Olympics is known around the world as
ice hockey. I consider hockey a mainstream sport for three
reasons: 1) the average American might have participated as
a player or fan while growing up; 2) hockey is regularly
featured on a legitimate television channel; and 3) many
players in many countries can make a living in the sport.
The same cannot be said about any other Winter Olympic sport
or competitive activity.
North
American face-off: All signs indicate that we’ll be
treated to a fantastic Olympic hockey tournament. In 2002,
both the American men and women’s teams won the silver
medal. That is, they lost their perspective gold medal games
to the Canadians. It’s best to approach these Games
expecting to see some really good hockey rather than
anticipating gold from the Americans. Canada, frankly, is
better. But this is Olympic hockey and Americans of all
people should know it ain't over until the final buzzer. A
gold medal rematch between the U.S. and Canada for both men
and would be a thrill, especially given that the rivalry
will likely continue at least four more years to 2010 when
Vancouver hosts the Games.
If you’re
only interested in American gold medals -- sadly, a lot of
people are -- the U.S. women have the best shot. Though they
are 2-8 versus Canada in exhibition matches this winter, the
U.S. won the final pre-Olympic meeting on Jan. 1 as well as
the World Championships last April.
The
Canadian men, however, look tough to beat, despite some
curious omissions on their roster. Mario Lemieux, Steve
Yzerman, Paul Kariya, Eric Lindros, and goaltender Ed
Belfour all are not returning to the Canadian Olympic squad.
Regrettably, also left off the team was the NHL’s top draft
pick, the scrappy 18-year-old, Sidney Crosby, who’s fun to
watch. He’s also fun to watch play hockey. Crosby will
likely be an Olympic star in 2010, when he’s more
experienced and the Candians find themselves the home team.
Meanwhile, Crosby fans can follow him all winter with the
Pittsburg Penguins. And there’s always his web site:
www.Crosby87.com. (yes, the 87 refers to his birth
year. Oh, Canada, oh.)
When to
tune in: Every day of the Games, except Feb. 23. Women’s
gold medal game is Feb. 20, the men play for gold on Feb.
26. I’d get myself to a good sports bar starting Feb. 11 --
these hockey games are going to be good.
Watchability: 10 (remember, you’ll not see much coverage
on NBC, but full games can be viewed on CNBC and MSNBC)
Best
movie to watch to get you in the Olympic spirit:
Miracle
Skeleton
Way
to go U.S.A. On the eve of the Games, a dark cloud hangs
over the competitive winter activity known as skeleton. For
clarification, skeleton is the one where the competitor
slides down the ice head first, not be confused with luge,
where the competitor slides feet first (details, details).
As noted earlier, skeleton is on my list of competitive
winter activities that the IOC should graciously donate to
the X Games and be done with.
The main
problem I have with skeleton is that it’s not competitive
enough. How many of you tried skeleton when you were a kid
(perhaps in the Little League off-season)? That’s right, no
one. That’s because to compete in skeleton you have to live
near a skeleton track, of which there are not yet even four
in North America (Calgary, Lake Placid, Salt Lake City, and
soon to be Vancouver). Furthermore, unlike luge and
bobsleigh, skeleton has no history to save it from its
inherent obscurity. The good news is that it helps the U.S.
in its quest for pure and utter domination -- the U.S. has
won every skeleton gold medal since the sport was added to
the Olympics in 2002.
Anyway, the
reason skeleton is getting any attention at all right now is
because the head coach of the U.S. team, Tim Nardiello, has
been suspended for accusations of sexual harassment. If
Americans like anything more than sports, it’s sex scandals.
According to the New York Times, two female and one male
member of the U.S. skeleton team claim that the coach told
them -- while they were in the starting gate! --
that their “legs should not be spread apart, unless I am
between them,” apparently in an attempt to help the
competitor picture how they should lie on the sled. To be
evenhanded, the coach and some team members coming to his
defense argue that the accusations are false and have been
concocted by spiteful athletes who were left off of the
Olympic team. An arbitrator ruled that Nardiello was
improperly dismissed and ordered him reinstated, but the
USOC said he was not going to Torino because if "improper
interactions."
Watchability: 2.
Further
Analysis: Wait a second. The athlete was sitting at the
top of the run, about to go down a twisting sheet of ice at
70 miles per hour, and this coach tells them to imagine him
lying between their legs? Thanks coach, now I’m ready! I
assume that since this competitive winter activity isn’t
very athletic, it must be very mentally and technically
demanding. So it must require a certain amount of focus,
especially in the tense seconds before a run. My point is
that even if the coach’s comments weren’t blatantly sexual
in nature, he ought to be canned anyway -- for bad coaching.
Cross-Country
Skiing
The
fittest winter athletes. The closest the Americans got
to a cross-country skiing medal in Salt Lake City four years
ago was a fifth-place finish in the men’s relay. At best,
they have an outside chance at improving on that in Torino,
but you shouldn’t watch this sport for nationalistic motives
anyway. The physical performances delivered by the top
athletes are impressive enough and, due to the strength of
competition from Scandinavian and European athletes, the
match-ups in Torino should come down to the wire.
If you want
someone in real contention to root for, look no further than
our northern neighbors. The Canadian ski team is having the
best pre-Olympic season in recent memory, led by Beckie
Scott, who won Canada’s first Olympic XC skiing gold medal
in 2002 after the two Russians who crossed the line ahead of
her were disqualified for failing their drug tests. It took
Scott over two years to be awarded her gold medal. This time
around she deserves to hear Oh, Canada on the right
day.
Watchability: Please, NBC, please. If I sit through all
the figure skating and the commercials will you show me just
a few ski races?
When to
tune in: The main event is likely to be the men’s 4x10k
relay held on Feb. 19. In each of the three Olympics since
and including 1994, Norway and Italy have battled it out in
the relay, deciding the forty-kilometer race only in the
final sprint. Interestingly, Italy won that first match-up
on Norwegian snow in 1994, by less than a boot length.
Norway could have sweet revenge if they can take this one on
the Italians’ home course.
Also
exciting for spectators is the sprint competition, where the
athletes race head to head over a 1-kilometer course in
elimination style rounds. The U.S. and Canada could sneak
someone onto the podium in this event. Both the men and
women’s sprints are on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
Speed Skating
A date
with destiny? Speed skater Chad Hedrick qualified for
five Olympic events, making him eligible to repeat Eric
Heiden’s feat of five gold medals in the same Olympics. Not
likely. But Hedrick, who set the 10,000-meter world record
the US Olympic Trials, is almost as dominating as he is
confident. All five of his events in Torino should be a
pleasure to watch, and he should come home with a few medals
of various color. Other Americans in contention include
Derek Parra, Joey Cheek, Shani Davis, Jennifer Rodriguez,
and Chris Witty. This U.S. team looks pretty good.
When to
tune in: Catch it when you can. Speed skating is spaced
out across the two week Games.
Watchability: 10. If you like big legs and tight racing
suits, don’t miss it. Speedskating is a beautiful sport to
watch and we should be allowed by NBC to see plenty of it.
Related:
Read Ryan's coming out story
Is curling a sport? Have your say
Feb. 6,
2006
