Quick Thoughts as the Olympics Close

Here are some quick thoughts as we near the end of the games.

- For someone so hyped Lindsey Vonn did a lot of falling. To hear people tell it before the games she was a goddess on skis. Five races, five chances for a medal and what did she come away with? One gold, one bronze, two falls, a missed gate, and a broken finger. (And to boot, she isn't that pretty. I mean, maybe she's pretty in that ugly kind of way like Carly Simon or Parker Posey, but that's about it.) Julia Mancuso should have gotten more of the attention.

- Evgeni Plushenko is a tool. Between the "Platinum Medal" incident, and looking like a Bond villain in his little promo I don't see how anyone can like this guy. How much fun would be if was the next Bond villain though? Have Daniel Craig chasing him all over Siberia. You could give Plushenko a fun villain nickname too like Razor, or The Blade, or Skate. Actually, you can't use Skate, he was the little black kid on inline skates in Streets of Rage 2, but any of the other names would do.

- Karma bit Sven Kramer. After he was a prick to Andrea Kramer he screwed up a lane change in a gold medal race in which he had a huge lead. Take that Svennie.

- People who think the U.S. hockey team's success is going to spark interest in the NHL need to calm down. It's great for now, but U.S. sports fans are notorious for having intense fleeting patriotism. Remember the 1999 Women's World Cup soccer team and how the WUSA was formed after? No? That's because the WUSA lasted for about ten minutes. Remember Rulon Gardner? For crying out loud, the greatest event in our country's sporting history was the 1980 Olympic Men's hockey team winning gold and that didn't spark anything.

- Speaking of hockey, this USA-Canada final is going to be huge, but we should make it even bigger. Here is a wager for you Canada. If we win, you become our 51st state. I mean, you're basically the US now except for the play money currency and the goofy police officers. So, we win, you become one of us. If you win we'll buy two cases of Molson Canadian and agree to not tell jokes about Canada for three days. How does a Canadian spell Canada? C-eh, N-eh, D-eh. You know, jokes like that.

So the hockey final is tomorrow. The closing ceremonies are coming soon. I'm sure they will take these Olympics out the way they have gone on for the last two weeks...with a resounding, meh.

On to London!!

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.