Saturday, February 18, 2006

The Olympics: Week One

Here are some things of the highs and lows that I noticed during the first week. You decide if they are highs or lows.

Norwegian cross-country skier, defending Gold Medalist, breaks a ski at the beginning of the 30km. He loses 45 seconds before getting a replacement, only to come back and win the silver medal, missing the gold by 0.6 seconds.

Chinese pairs figure skater falls badly on a throw landing, like her hip should have snapped. She skates it off and skates the rest of the routine, somewhat tentatively, but good enough to capture the silver.

American downhill skier crashes badly in practice. She comes back two days later to do the race with a badly bruised hip and back. She finished 8th.

Canadian cross-country skier breaks a poll, loses the lead and falls way back from the pack. A Norwegian coach sees this, runs on to the course and gives her a replacement. Canada wins the silver, Norway finishes forth.

A Canadian born mogul skier, competing for Australia, wins the gold medal and in the process, knocks the top Canadian from third to forth place. Way to go Canada, push those winners as far away as possible!

The US woman's hockey team calls out Canada for running up the score, calling it selfish and only for short term gains. The US, heavy favorite to meet Canada for the gold, lose to Sweden in the semi-finals.

A US woman snowboarder has the gold medal locked up with a three second lead and about 200 metres to go. Then she hotdogs on the last jump and crashes. The Swiss boarder passes her and wins the gold. To add salt to the wound, half a dozen people mob the Swiss girl at the bottom of the hill, leaving the US girl all alone. Included in the people celebrating is the men's snow board champ, from the US, who is currently dating the Swiss boarder.

Canada wins gold, silver and almost bronze (4th by 0.25 seconds) in Skeleton.

The Swiss mens hockey team upsets Canada 2-0 during round robin play.

Jeremy Wotherspoon, apparently one of the greatest speed skaters ever and favoured to win at least one medal, finishes 9th and 11th in his two "specialties". Way to show up when it counts!

3 comments:

Yvette said...

I won't be hearing the end of that for a long time. Andy gloats well.

Unknown said...

Hey, I got my Swiss passport 2 years ago, when do I get a gold medal?

Angry Gnome said...

I think the fall by the Chinese skater was pretty bad. I hadn't watched figure skating in almost 10 years and the first night back watching I saw that. I have banned myself from watching it - I get too stressed.
I do, however like to watch the women's short track skating, those ladies are vicious!