Winter Olympics Week 1 Recap

The first week of the Winter Olympics has been pretty fun, as long as you weren’t part of the crew that worked on the Opening Ceremony. It had everything you would want in a first week. You had prime athlete’s elevating their game to win medals, also-rans wilting under the pressure, questionable judging, and lots of lost sleep. So, let’s do a little run-down of the first full week of the Winter Games.

Snowboarding:

I’m getting this out of the way first. Shaun White deserved the gold medal he won. No question in my mind. The tricks, the air, the technical ability were all much better than everyone else. However, I have a problem with the judging.

For every boarder, the judges were knocking off points for the smallest little things, but when it came to White, they became simpering fan-girls who could only see him through rose colored glasses. I think White could have fallen and they still would have scored him in the 40’s.

As for the snowboard cross, only one thing disappointed me about the Lindsey Jacobellis debacle. I didn’t get to see it live. I like to make fun of people’s failures in real-time. It’s more fun that way. Thankfully, since she imploded, I don’t have to see her anymore. Seriously, have you seen that girl? She looks like a guy in a bad platinum blonde wig most of the time.

Luge:

While it was tragic that the luger from Georgia died on a test run, I was getting tired of NBC beating the story into the ground. Every time they would head out to the track, they would tell us once again that a luger had died.

What was even worse was when Bob Costas told us that they would not show the clip of his death. I mean, we had all seen it by then. I had seen it earlier that day on NBC Nightly News. Doing this was like drinking a 12 pack of beer and then saying you’re not going to drink that night. The cat’s already out of the bag on this one.

On a lighter note, I still giggle every time I see a clip of doubles luge. Yes, I have the mentality of a 3rd grader.

Skiing:

Did you know that Lindsey Vonn has an injury? I guess her leg is injured or something. You would think they would bring this up.

Watching the skiing coverage is like watching an episode of House. They continually brought up the Vonn injury, like her leg is going to fall off at any minute. Based on the coverage, it seems like it would be noteworthy if she was healthy.

Anyway, I’ll be rooting for Julia Mancuso. Her child like enthusiasm warms my heart and I always like the underdog. Plus, I think she’s the only one that hasn’t nearly wiped out on the course.

Figure Skating:

Earlier when I was thinking about it, I was glad that, so far, the figure skating has been without controversy. I mean, the gold medals have been awarded to the best performers. Then Elvis Stojko rained on my parade.

Elvis Stojko, former Olympic skater who was better left on the trash heap of Olympic history, wrote an article today basically saying that Plushenko was robbed and figure skating was dead. Obviously, Elvis was watching something completely different than the rest of us.

Evan Lysacek absolutely killed on Thursday night. He was pretty much flawless in his routine. He didn’t throw a quad jump, but he did pair together his jumps well and did them throughout the routine.

Plushenko, on the other hand, looked like a wounded duck through most of his jumps (somehow landing them cleanly though). He did throw in two quads, to his credit. His footwork, minus what Stojko says, was pretty basic. We had plenty of time to study it, too, since Plushenko didn’t throw a jump at all in the last minute of his routine.

See, I listened to Dick Button and concentrated on Plushenko’s feet and not his crazy arm movements that make it look like he’s doing something. While Stojko was probably distracted by something shiny, he missed the fact that a 10 year old could have pulled off Plushenko’s movements.

Stojko needs to remember that figure skating isn’t just about who can make the biggest jump, but who can consistently hit all the elements. NBC was more than happy to point out (thank you Scott Hamilton) that Lysacek’s jump combos nearly had that same difficulty level, points wise, as Plushenko’s quads.

Anyway, enough picking on a guy who couldn’t quite get it done in the Olympics. At least there was no controversy in the pair’s figure skating this year.

Curling:

I was watching curling the other day and the Duchess walks in and sits down. She looks to grab the remote to change the channel and suddenly becomes enthralled by the action. Before you know it, she’s screaming at the USA Captain because she can’t make a simple hit.

I think she’s searching online for places we can go curling. Once again I’m shown I picked the perfect wife.

Why I Love The Olympics

There are a few things I look forward to in this world. New Doctor Who episodes, the release of the Sam Adams Oktoberfest, the start of the college football season, and the Olympics. The Olympics are two weeks of pure enjoyment for the sports fan inside me. There are so many reasons it grabs my enjoyment.

First and foremost is the patriotism that flows forth during the Olympics. I can forget things I'm not thrilled with, like the horrible economy and our idiot President. For two weeks, it's all USA, USA, USA! I may not know who these people are but I'm pulling for them to beat up on opponents from places like Finland. I may have to bust out a mini American flag and wave it around from my couch.

Then, we get to the part that it's two straight weeks of great sports. Normally, if it's not football, baseball, or soccer, it can pretty much be The Jay Leno Show, because I'm not watching it. Maybe it’s the drama, but all of a sudden, I think the Nordic Combined is the best sport known to man.

I can honestly say that outside of the Olympics, I don't watch curling. Hell, I go out of my way to actively avoid it. However, just today requested a day off of work to watch the US/Russia women's curling match (2/19, 12 noon, USA Network). Plus, I need to know how heavy the curling stone is and how big this sport is in Canada.

I think one of my favorite parts is NBC. I mean, besides Chuck, I don't even think about watching NBC. I even cringe when I want to watch a Notre Dame game or a Sunday Night NFL Game, because the sports on the network must be directed by a drunken monkey. However, they know how to put on the Olympics.

The one thing that makes NBC great is Bob Costas. Yes, Bob is past his prime and can't quiet catch up to the fastball anymore but his interviews are top notch. He blows the door off the creepiness factor when he interviews attractive female athletes. When the three USA fencers swept the medals in Beijing, I think I saw one of the top TV moments of all time. I felt the need to take a shower after watching it. I can't wait for Lindsey Vonn to win a medal. It's going to be great.

Last, but not least, is the drama. NBC always amps up the sap to make you root for some Bulgarian alpine skier who's sister lost her foot in a thrasher accident but still works 60 hours a week to support his dream. It makes you want to root for the guy, even if he has no chance of bring home the gold.

To balance this out, there is always some punk who thinks they are entitled to a medal when the Olympic Gods smack them down (to my utter pleasure). In 2006, during the final run of the Women's Snowboard Cross, American Lindsey Jacobellis was coasting her way to a gold medal when on the second to last jump, she decided to showboat and pull a method grab, only to completely douche the landing and wipe out. This allowed the woman behind her to easily coast past her as Jacobellis was floundering like a fish out of water trying to get up. Jacobellis finally got and finished in second.

We all learned an important lesson, after we finished laughing. Don't screw with the God's of fate. Play the sport with pride and integrity and you can be remembered for all time as an Olympic champion. If you become egotistical and showboat, you can end up like Jacobellis and be a laughing stock. That is why the Olympics are great; they are mostly played with pride and integrity. Well, unless you're a client of BALCO, but that's a different story.