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 [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

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:
By [...]

[Read more →]

Last night, Kim Yu-Na’s gold medal capped the rise of Brian Orser as one of the world’s stellar figure-skating coaches.  Outed in 1998 by a partner lawsuit, Orser has since embraced his orientation openly, becoming (among other things) an ambassador for the Outgames. Being out hasn’t hurt his recent career — he remains one of [...]

[Read more →]

OK. I’m not the biggest hockey fan, as previously mentioned in article written by Jim, but even I know when someone does something dumb.
Canada won the gold medal for the third straight Olympics in women’s hockey, beating the U.S., 2-0. That’s awesome. But then the women lost all common sense. Members of the team brought [...]

[Read more →]

Last night, the Winter Games were made to order for TV ratings. Two luscious and photogenic young couples, Canada and U.S.A., duked it out for the gold, while U.S.A. and Russia slugged over the bronze. Re the win, judging looked to be spot on — it was suspect only where the Russians squeaked into 3rd despite [...]

[Read more →]

Johnny Weir continues to be attacked by the big, macho sports media, and this time the attack is coming from Canadians. Claude Mailhot on channel RDS said he thought Weir may have lost points due to his costume and body language; It was a perfectly acceptable observation, and one many have made. Then Alain Goldberg [...]

[Read more →]

Tonight was full of drama at the original dance portion of ice dancing. There was a a lot of folk and country music. What is up with the cowboy-cowgirl costumes. Did they think because this event was in Canada that it would be adored by fans? It felt like a frat Halloween party. Particularly the [...]

[Read more →]

As I read Selena Robert’s SI  smug, judgmental piece about Tiger Woods’ press conference, and noted other media’s smug, judgmental allegations that Tiger aims to hijack some attention from the Vancouver Games, I wondered how many other Americans are getting turned off by the smug, judgmental national attitude that is building around the golfer’s awful fall from his pedestal.
Just as [...]

[Read more →]

Well, that was interesting and all of Canada just breathed a collective sigh of relief.  Team Canada, favored to win the men’s ice hockey gold, needed a shootout goal by Sidney Crosby to survive Switzerland, 3-2. Canada led, 2-0, but gave up two secondthird-period goals. Martin Brodeur stopped all four shots in the shootout to [...]

[Read more →]

The Americans and Canadians disappointed everyone at the pairs figure skating short program. While the Canadians sit sixth and seventh respectively, the Americans sit 10th and 14th. Mistakes befell the an inexperienced American contingent going into this Olympics.
However the teams sitting 1-4 are of no surprise to the skating world. The showdown has been set [...]

[Read more →]

At Fanhouse, sports commentator Jay Mariotti details a history of growing complaints about the dangers of the luge course, going back over many months.  It appears that a whole week of practice wipeouts on the course — an unusual number — didn’t rouse any attention from the IOC or the International Luge Federation or the [...]

[Read more →]

Watching the Opening Ceremonies and was struck by what appeared to be four giant ice penises rising from the stage. Apparently, they are welcome poles of the aboriginal Canadians, or First Nations. Check out the photo below if you think I’m kidding.
This is a rather blah opening so far (we’re about halfway through and the [...]

[Read more →]