Olympic Thoughts - Part 2

As the Boom Roasted Sport resident Olympics fan, it falls to me to provide some thoughts on the events.

So while Dave was busy trying to get Lindsey Jacobellis' hotel room number so her could console her, I was actually watching the games.

Here are a few thoughts....

- Let's start with Miss Jacobellis. I really feel bad for her this time. In 2006, at the Torino games, she hot-dogged her way out of a gold medal. Going into the last jump of the snowboard cross final she had a huge lead. There was crazy separation between her and the nearest competitor. Like, Jerry Rice behind the Chargers defense in Super Bowl XXIX separation. She comes off the last jump, hits an unnecessary method in the air, and falls. She was able to get up and salvage a silver medal though.

This time, during the semifinals she came off a jump, landed unbalanced, and while trying to right herself, bumped one of the other competitors, and ended up hitting one of the gates that are out of bounds. Instantly DQ'ed. To make matters worse she had to go right back up the hill and compete in the consolation race to settle positions five through eight. She won that race easily, but they don't give medals for fifth place.

- The Harry Potter/Napoleon Dynamite mash-up (Simon Ammann of Switzerland) completed his sweep of the long and short hill ski-jumping gold medals. It has now been done only four times in Olympic history, and he has done it twice.

- I'm sick of curling. Yeah, I said it. Especially the men's curling. They look less like athletes than that fat bobsled driver on the U.S. two man team. The women...I can watch a little more. Has anyone else noticed the disproportionate number of hot women on the various curling teams? Wow. Oh, and that Danish girl who did all of the crying the other day? Apparently posing topless helped her get over it.

- And finally, some words on hockey. The men's game on Sunday night between the U.S. and Canada was incredible. The last six minutes of the game were thrilling. It was tense and exciting, which is exactly what you want sports to be. That being said, the U.S. needs to give most of the credit for this win to goalie Ryan Miller. He stopped 42 shots while under constant pressure. He was sensational. On the flip side, Old Man Brodeur picked the wrong day to have a bad game between the pipes. Consequently, he has probably seen his last action of these games. It will be the Roberto Luongo show now.

Now, the U.S. winning was a mild upset, but because it occurred near the 30th anniversary of the "Miracle on Ice" there were inevitable comparisons made. It's not even close. What happened in 1980 would be like the College of Charleston basketball team beating the Los Angeles Lakers and making Kobe Bryant play so badly that he gets pulled from the game. On the ice Sunday were basically two NHL teams. These guys know each other. They play with and against each other professionally. If they were to play ten times the U.S. would probably win at least four.

One quick gripe...why was the U.S./Canada hockey game bumped to MSNBC (which I don't get in HD) for ice dancing or whatever the hell? Who thought that the hockey was not the premier event that night? NBC has control over these entire games. I know the figure skating brings the ratings, but for one night they could have put the hockey on big boy NBC. For crying out loud, they have turned one of their networks into the curling channel, they owe me hockey in HD.

Olympic Thoughts - Opening Weekend

As the resident Boom Roasted Sports Olympics fan it has been left to me to dispense some opinion of the games.

So while Dave's interest extended only to trying to do the Lindsey two-step and become the cream filling in a Vonn/Jacobellis sandwich, I was actually watching some of the action.

Here are my thoughts on some of the weekend's events...

- The opening ceremonies....wow. They had two themes to me, which are both things I kept saying during the proceedings - "Oh Canada," (Imagine that said in resigned, you feel sorry for the country sort of way.), and "Wow, I forgot/didn't know that he/she is Canadian!" At the end of the ceremonies, after all of the boring Canada, This is Your Life stuff, the two themes came to a head when Steve Nash (Wow, I forgot he's Canadian!) and Wayne Gretzky and two others went to light the four-pronged torch...but only three pieces raised out of the ground, (Oh Canada.)

- The first medals of the games were awarded in men's short hill ski-jumping and the gold was won by Simon Ammann of Switzerland. For Ammann this continues a rollercoaster career arc that began with him bursting on the ski-jumping scene at age 16. At the 1998 Nagano games he finished 35th. He pulled out a surprise gold medal sweep (long hill and short hill) at the 2002 games in Salt Lake. In Torino in 2006 he didn't medal and then came back strong this year to win the short hill gold convincingly. Oh, and he looks like Harry Potter and Napoleon Dynamite had a baby.

- Canada's first chance to hear "O Canada" (their national anthem, not my way) after winning gold on their own soil was ruined by American Hannah Kearney in the moguls. She dropped in last, right after Canadian Jenn Heil grabbed first place, and snatched the gold medal from Canada's hands and in so doing, won the first, and so far only, gold medal for the U.S. in these games. Canada was vindicated in the men's moguls though, as Alexandre Bilodeau won gold and therefore uncursed (I think that's a word) the Canucks.

- Apolo Ohno won a silver medal in the 1500m speed skating event. He was sitting in fourth behind three South Koreans when the guys in 2nd and 3rd decided to play footsie and knock themselves out of the race. Ohno is now tied for first place for most Winter Olympic medals won by an American.

- And finally, I hate to end this on a sad note, but I have to say something about Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. First, let me say that I love the luge. The luge and skeleton are two of my favorite Olympic events, winter or summer. I love that they are extremely fast events that are decided by inches. But those are the same reasons why these events are so dangerous.

In my opinion the blame for this lies with the designers of the track. Leading up to these games even the most experienced sledders were concerned about the turn where Kumaritashvili lost control. They were calling it a '50-50' curve, meaning they thought only 50% of the athletes would make it through without crashing especially young inexperienced riders like the 21 year-old Georgian. With tracks for the sledding events and slopes for the downhill skiing the officials need to make the tracks difficult enough to separate the elite competitors but not so difficult that they become life threatening. They really messed up this time.