Sports

No Winter Olympics is complete without hot discussion of costumes on figure skaters! As I watched the pairs short program yesterday, I was pleased to see Ukraine's Volosozhar and Morozov step away from the conventional duds… into those electric blue spandex suits. Some reviewers thought they were ridiculous — but I say they were a […]

Out lax captain Andrew McIntosh When Oneonta State University lacrosse player Andrew McIntosh contacted Outsports a couple weeks ago, it was to thank us for all of the coming-out stories we had featured on the site. Today, his story joins the list. It continues to surprise me how welcoming so many college sports programs are […]

Snowboarder Nate Holland doesn’t like the tighter pants some other ‘boarders are sportin’, bro. He like totally thinks that abandoning his baggy jeans would be like a total sell-out, dude. “I think the problem we have now is the emo look,” he told the New York Times, “and people trying to use that as an […]

A week after burying his son Brendan, USA hockey GM Brian Burke was in Vancouver talking about his temporary team and the loss of his son. “Your kids are supposed to bury you,” Burke said. “You’re not supposed to bury them. … The saddest thing about it is his future was so bright. The sky […]

As expected, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo were crowned the Olympics Pairs Champions, the first skating gold medal ever for China. But nobody showed up to compete. The Germans fell, the Russians fell. But the big surprise tonight was their teammates Pang Qing and Tong Jian moving up from fourth to second place with a […]

In watching the men’s biathlon, it was hard to miss Austrian Dominik Landertinger. The 22-year-old stands 6-2 and weighs 165 pounds. On his website, the member of the Austrian military says his hobbies are "cycling, good music, cool cars, my XBOX360." Photos: In watching the men’s biathlon, it was hard to miss Austrian Dominik Landertinger. […]

Snowboarder Scotty Lago shares that he was “sweating balls” in his team-issue sweater during the Opening Ceremonies. Cross-country skier Simi Hamilton declares his bib No. 69 is a sign of good luck. And dueling updates from Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek seem to indicate that their rivalry extends to the realm of social networking. Apolo […]

The men’s 15km cross-country freestyle was an edge-of-the-seater, with several skiiers almost sprinting over the last couple of kms. Their extreme efforts seemed almost surreal amid the dream-like beauty of Northwest forest all muffled in deep snow. Dario Cologna of Switzerland (photo) won with a powerful finish, and looked surprisingly fresh as he talked with […]

Someone at the U.S. Olympic Committee has a sense of humor: U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir has a roommate in Vancouver, and it’s a woman. And not just any woman, but Tanith Belbin, the ex-girlfriend of Weir’s U.S. teammate Evan Lysacek. Weir and Belbin each wanted single rooms, but none were available. At least we […]

Sometimes when history is made it is so obviously overdue that it overshadows itself with larger questions. An article posted on Vancouver's official Olympic Web site points out that history will be made today when French pairs skaters Yannick Bonheur and Vanessa James step on the ice to skate their short program. The reason? Both […]

I hope San Francisco gay curlers Patrick Tabuchi and Matthew David are having a good time in Vancouver. I caught the SF Examiner story about them just before the Games. No, they're not competing…just watching. But they're teachers at the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club, and this org has quintupled its membership in the […]

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 […]

I asked a friend of mine, who is gay and who competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics and who is a member of the National Guard, why he thought there were so few out athletes in Vancouver. His reply was so interesting and articulate, I asked him if I could post it here. He is […]

Chad Conley called me from Vancouver all breathless. “You must make Felix Loch your hot jock,” he said. He then began describing the physical attributes of Loch in terms a bit too graphic for this blog. Then I watched Loch, a 20-year-old German, win the gold in the men’s luge, and saw that Chad was […]

Chad Conley is a former elite competitive figure skater for Canada. He is in Vancouver and wrote this for Outsports. By Chad Conley Imagine being 21. Imagine following in the footsteps of your father and uncle. Imagine barely qualifying an Olympic spot for your country in a sport dominated by men 10 years older, with […]

The men’s event begins on Tuesday in Vancouver with the short program and ends on Thursday with the free. The men’s competition may be quite a bit different than you’re used to this time around, if only because of the unusual number of veterans and heavy-hitters vying for gold. In Nagano, Salt Lake City and […]

With a little planning and the right connections at the immigration office of your choice, you too could be an Olympian! It was apparent from the single-athlete nations represented in last night’s Opening Ceremonies that if you want to be an Olympian and you happen to be from a country that has no snow, no […]

One of the storylines to be played out on the ice in the next couple weeks is the rivalry between ultra-fem figure skater Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek, who pushes a masculine, macho image. The defending World Champion (despite finishing third at the U.S. Championships last year) is 24 and was born in Chicago; He […]

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 […]

A competitor has died after injuries sustained in a shocking crash near the base of the Luge course. Nodar Kumaritashvili, of Georgia, was on the track for a training run when his sled slammed into the inside of a final curve and he went airbourne over the ice and concrete wall. NBColympics reports that the […]