Despite there being about 80 million more Americans than in 1980, the number of people who watched Canada beat the United States in overtime for the Olympic gold medal on Sunday was 20% below the number who watched the U.S.-Soviet Union semifinal game in Lake Placid, and even 15% below the U.S.-Finland gold-medal game that same year; And people even knew the outcome of the Soviet Union game before it happened. That’s pretty surprising to me. Whereas those 1980 games featured a bunch of no-names, this game had NHL superstars. But I guess it reflects the deterioration of interest in hockey. Still, it was the most-watched hockey game in 30 years.

In Canada, it was the most-watched TV program ever with 80% of Canadians seeing at least part of the game. From MediaWeek:

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• By Cyd Zeigler jr.

Thanks to a reader for this shot of members of the U.S. bobsled team shirtless and flexing. I notice that some of the gold-medal four-man team are pictured. I am not sure when or where the photo was taken, by the photographer has our thanks. The full photo: [Read more →]

• By Jim Buzinski

Vancouver’s final medal count shows the unhappy Russians way down the list, with just 15 medals.   But there’s more to their grumbling than sour grapes — way more.  A little analysis shows an interesting picture of wins leveraged by political shifts.

The Russian government is unhappy because it is remembering the “good old days” of the Cold War, 1949-1989.  This was when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were going head to head in sports, with each one avid to pile up the most Olympic medals and demonstrate its “superiority.” 

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• By Patricia Nell Warren

It’s always fun for us to look at our stats and see what drove people to our site. Sometimes it’s very revealing. Over the last two weeks, the top search term that drove people to Outsports: ‘Scott Lago.’ He’s the American snowboarder who was sent home after some racy pics (right) surfaced of him, a girl and his (ahem) medal.

After that, the top search terms are for our boy Johnny Weir. In fact, ‘Johnny Weir’ beat out ‘Johnny Weir gay‘ but just a couple hundred searches. It’s not a big surprise: Few sites have covered Johnny and his sexuality more than we have, and this blog was no exception. The fourth most searched term was ‘Evan Lysacek gay.’ You can’t blame people for searching that term after those outfits he wore. ‘Evan Lysacek’ was a distant 16th in search term popularity for us.

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• By Cyd Zeigler jr.

The Winter Olympic games have come to a close, and I got to thinking about Pride House today. How was it? How did they do? Did it have the impact the organizers said it would? We heard bits and pieces about “great parties” and a “fun space,” but we heard of only one Winter Olympian - a straight Canadian skeleton racer (are they Skeletors?) - who ventured there.

I think the presence of Pride House was a good thing. If nothing else, it was a starting point for the mainstream media to talk about gay issues in sports. I wondered what kind of impact Pride House would really have. Would any gay athletes show up there? Does renting a conference room and calling it gay really move sports or the Olympics forward? The Toronto Star answered over the weekend: No and no.

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• By Cyd Zeigler jr.

Whether you think Canada (14 golds) or the USA (37 total) gets the moral victory in the final medal count, there is one thing we can all agree on: Russia did not own the podium. And Russia’s president is pretty bitter about it.

A day after the Vancouver Games, and four years before the Winter Olympics are to be hosted by Sochi, Russia, President Medvedev is calling for the resignations of everyone involved with training Russian Olympic athletes. [Read more →]

• By Ryan Quinn

Someone had mentioned this to me a few days ago but I couldn’t believe it. Then I saw the story for myself: The native-inspired logo for the 2010 Olympics actually represents death. NPR spoke to Peter Irniq, an expert on the stacks of rocks that inspired the logo:

“It’s a symbol of the fact that someone may have, um, committed suicide or someone may have murdered somebody at that spot,” he says.

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• By Cyd Zeigler jr.

Now, now, the headline is deliberately provocative, and a play on what I wrote for the Opening Ceremonies, which got our friends in the North so indignant.

I have them on tape, so haven’t started watching, but I did see that they spoofed the torch malfunction. Use this as your Closing Ceremonies thread, and I await to see what Jimmy D. says, that scurvy-riddled weasel.© [Read more →]

• By Jim Buzinski

Congratulations to Team Canada for its stirring, pulsating, dramatic 3-2 overtime win over the U.S. to win the Olympic hockey gold. The game winner was scored by Sidney Crosby, who beat the superb Ryan Miller in goal. It was hockey at its best.

I had no real rooting interest, but was glad when the U.S. tied it with 24.4 seconds left in regulation on a goal by Zach Parise. It meant the game would go into OT. I imagine Canadians everywhere went into shock on Parise’s goal. [Read more →]

• By Jim Buzinski

We’re trying out a new feature on Outsports for the U.S.-Canada gold medal hockey game: Chat with other readers! Check back here at 2:30pmET for pregame chatting with other Outsporters, and then watch the game while chatting with them! You can set an email reminder for the chat after the jump.
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• By Cyd Zeigler jr.

This is the moment when OVF (Olympic viewer fatigue) sets in. To get some relief from the non-stop explosive action — bobsled, slalom, hockey — I buried myself in the  less-explosive-but-oh-so-engrossing medal games for men’s curling. The packed house, and the high energy in it, told more about how this sport is caroming its way out of oblivion and onto the world stage. I had my curling glossary handy so I’d know what the hell they were talking about.

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• By Patricia Nell Warren

So, I asked our Canadian correspondent Jimmy D. and Hockey Kid in Minnesota, Mikey, to write a point-counterpoint to the gold medal U.S.-Canada hockey game. Jimmy was game, but Mikey unfortunately was too busy. So then I asked Jimmy to write as if he was interviewing Mikey.

He obliged, but I told him what he sent might have too many inside jokes (he and Mikey are friends in addition to being fellow hockey players), and that only those familiar with Mikey’s blog would get some of the references. Jimmy then sent me about a dozen messages badgering me to change my mind (or more like “beavering” me, him being Canadian), so I figured I would relent for Jimmy’s many fans. The photos below are an artist’s rendering of Jimmy and Mikey. [Read more →]

• By Jim Buzinski

After all the squawking Candians made us suffer through about how they would win the medal count, after Russia’s posturing about their goal of 40 medals in these Olympics, it’s the good guys who will win this Winter Olympics medal count. The United States of America will come away not only with its first Winter Olympics medal championship since my grandmother was 5, but a record for the most medals ever at the Winter Olympics. The previous record for medals on the snow and ice was 36, set by Germany in 2002.

With this performance, this United States team is arguably the greatest Winter Olympics team of all time. The U.S. scored medals all over the Olympics, from hockey to figure skating to speed skating to skiing and bobsled. Kudos to all of the American athletes for taking Canada’s million-dollar “own the podium” campaign and owning it for themselves! U-S-A! U-S-A!

• By Cyd Zeigler jr.

Apolo Ohno’s 8th career medal last night gave the US delegation their 34th medal of these Games, tying the most ever won by the US. The previous US record was set on home soil in 2002. It appears the US will win the medal count for only the second time in a Winter Olympics (first time was in Lake Placid in 1932).

But there are still two days of competition remaining. With silver medals representing the worst-case scenarios in men’s hockey and men’s speed skating team pursuit, the US will leave Vancouver with at least 36 medals, tying Germany (2002) for the most medals ever at a single Winter Olympics. [Read more →]

• By Ryan Quinn

Who knows what the final score will be, but the U.S. men’s hockey team leads Finland, 6-0, after 13 minutes of play. It’s absurd. How do you say “quitting, choking dogs” in Finnish?

Update: The final was U.S., 6-1, which sets up a gold-medal showdown against Canada. Team Frozen North led Slovakia, 3-0, then allowed two third-period goals and had to hold on in the final frantic seconds for the win.

• By Jim Buzinski

Norway’s Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset won a silver medal as part of the men’s 4×10 cross-country relay, but that’s mainly because teammate Petter Northug skated an insane last leg that pulled his team from sixth to second.

Via Sports Illustrated, we learn that Hjelmeset blames too much porn for his lousy effort. From the Vancouver 2010 quote sheet: [Read more →]

• By Jim Buzinski