FIGURE SKATING - Top Skaters of the Fall Ready for Grand Prix Final

The year following the Olympic Games is always a transition period in any sport, and figure skating is no exception. The seven meet Grand Prix season concludes this weekend as the Grand Prix final begins on Friday in Beijing. None of the Olympic champions from Vancouver will be present. Ladies champion Kim Yu-Na has skipped the Grand Prix season, but still plans on skating at the World Championships, she switched coaches from Brian Orser to Peter Oppegard in October. Evan Lysacek is touring with Stars on Ice and is unlikely to participate in the U.S. Nationals. Canadian Ice Dance champion Tessa Virtue underwent surgery in October to release the tension in two overworked soft-tissue compartments in her legs. The timetable for her return to competition with Scott Moir is undetermined. Pairs champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo have retired. On top of all that, World Champions and Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada has switched coaches and fiddled with her jumping technique which left her far off her form from previous seasons. Olympic bronze medalist Joannie Rochette has skipped the entire season, including Canadian nationals.
World Champion Daisuke Takahashi leads three Japanese men into the final. He won both of his events as did Takahiko Kozuka. Likewise, three Japanese women will compete, Mike Ando was the only lady to win both her events. Alissa Czisny, Carolina Kostner and Kanako Murakami each won an event, but placed only third in the other entry. Paris winner Kira Korpi only finished fourth in Japan, leaving her short of qualifying. The pairs should be a duel between Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany and Qing Pang and Jian Tong of China. The Russian pair of Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov won at home, but since that was their only event, they could not advance to the final. Olympic silver medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States appear to be the team to beat in dance, but the French team of Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat are the hot team of the fall and their “City Lights” free dance is a crowd (and judge) pleaser.

Youth Olympic Games

I just finished watching the broadcasts of the Youth Olympic Games and wanted to give my impressions. First, I was a little underwhelmed. Given that I did not have the anticipation that I would for the Olympics proper, but I think the coverage in the US on Universal Sports cut the drama out. Just some quick highlights for an hour each day, with very little focus on any individual athletes or events. That being said, I did like the idea of keeping the games on a much smaller scale and not trying to become overblown. The qualifying criteria isn't clear, but the smaller fields are appropriate for the youth games.

It doesn't seem as though the YOG became a destination for the top athletes in the age group. In women's gymnastics and swimming there are plenty of teenage world class athletes, but the only familiar face I could find was British world diving champion Tom Daley. If athletes want to compete in the YOG as much as they do in the Olympics, then the qualifying procedures must become clearer.

I also liked the idea of the mixed nation teams in some of the sports. There should continue to be a focus on sportsmanship and camaraderie amongst the athletes from throughout the world and not an attempt to make it a younger version of the Olympics.

Dara Torres to shoot for London 2012

Dara Torres, the 12-time Olympic swimming medalist, announced that she plans to train toward the goal of qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Swim Team at which point she will be 45 years of age. Torres has already been on five Olympic teams, beginning in 1984 where she captured a gold medal as part of the 4x100 meter freestyle relay team. Torres became a hero to the over-the-hill-gang by qualifying for the 2008 Olympics at age 41, winning three silver medals. The four gold medals she has collected have all been on relays, Torres still chases the elusive individual gold that she nearly captured in Beijing, losing the 50 meter freestyle by 1/100th of a second to Britta Steffen of Germany. Torres has been rehabilitating from shoulder surgery which she had after a lingering injury hampered her performance in 2009 where she finished 8th in the 50 freestyle at the World Championships. By missing the 2010 season, Torres will have difficulty securing a spot on the 2011 World Championship team as the 2010 Nationals and 2010 Pan Pacs will be counted toward the qualifying process. We will keep you updated on Dara's progress.

In Memoriam - Anton Geesink

On Friday, one of the great Olympic champions passed. Dutch judoka Anton Geesink, the 1964 Olympic champion in the open division died in Utrecht at the age of 76. In 1961, Geesink captured his first world championship and became the first non-Japanese world champion in judo. For the 1964 Olympics, the host nation was allowed to include two new sports to the program. The Japanese chose volleyball and judo. Japan captured three of the four gold medals with Geesink winning the fourth. He captued a second world championship in 1965 and a unprecedented 20th European champion in 1967 before retiring from the sport. Judo was not included in the 1968 Olympic program, denying Geesink an opportunity at a second gold. Geesink was elected to the International Olympic Committee in 1987.

Caster Semenya approved to run

I'm back...life with the baby is settling down.

The IAAF announced that 2009 World 800 Meter Champion Caster Semenya of South Africa has been medically cleared and will be allowed to resume her athletics career. The surprise of the Worlds last year, the 18 year-old Semenya became the target of suspicion and the IAAF asked the South African federation to investigate her gender. Rumors have swirled for the last 10 months, but no specifics on the results of her test will be revealed. Quite simply, she will be returning to the international scene. Sadly, she will forever be the subject of speculation. It remains to be seen how she will fair in her return. With no major international championships this season, Semenya will be tested on the Diamond League circuit and the Commonwealth Games in October.

Will Semenya continue to show improvement and challenge Jarmila Kratochvilova's 27 year-old world record or will she struggle as 2008 prodigy Pamela Jelimo has?

New IOC Members

I am back to writing for the blog as things are settling down a little bit.

At the Closing Ceremony in Vancouver (although one would not have known it from NBC's coverage), two new athlete members were elected to the IOC. As part of the revisions to the IOC following the Salt Lake bidding scandal, each Olympic Games the participating athletes elect from among their peers members of the IOC. At each Winter Games, two members are elected.

British skeleton slider Adam Pengilly and American ice hockey player Angela Ruggiero were elected to eight year terms, replacing Swedish alpine champion Pernilla Wiberg and Italian cross country champion Manuela di Centa.

Pengilly was the 2009 world championship silver medalist. As I have mentioned before, I was standing right next to his father in Lake Placid last year as he climbed from ninth to second to grab that silver medal. Ruggiero gives the United States another IOC member, back up to three (along with Anita De Frantz and Jim Easton). The US has had just two members since volleyball player Bob Ctvrtlik's term expired in 2008. The lack of US members (Great Britain, Italy & Switzerland all have at least four) was noted as a contributing factor to Chicago's failed candidacy for the 2016 Olympics.

In Vancouver when my daughter was born...

At 4:01 PST, the only event occurring was the men's curling tiebreaker where Sweden was in the process of defeating Great Britain in an extra end 7-6.

Finish with Games

After the birth of my daughter on 2/24, I had to get back to my DVR to finish watching the balance of the Vancouver Olympics. I had been pretty good about keeping myself from knowing the results. I pretty much only knew about the men's hockey final before seeing it for myself.

I will be updating soon with thoughts on the latest Winter Olympics.

No posts....

My daughter was born on 2/24. So I'll have to catch up with the posts. I still don't know any results since Thursday.

Tuesday's Favorites

TEAM NORDIC COMBINED (1:00-jump; 4:00-cross-country)
The US has three very, very strong legs. Can they hold up the fourth skier?
GOLD: Germany
SILVER: Austria
BRONZE: United States

MEN'S GIANT SLALOM (1:00)
GOLD: Ted Ligety, USA
SILVER: Marcel Hirscher, AUT
BRONZE: Massimiliano Blardone, ITA

WOMEN'S SKI CROSS (1:30)
GOLD: Ophilie David, FRA
SILVER: Ashleigh McIvor, CAN
BRONZE: Kelsey Serwa, CAN

MEN'S 10000 METER SPEED SKATING (2:00)
GOLD: Sven Kramer, NED
SILVER: Bob de Jong, NED
BRONZE: Havard Bokko, NOR

WOMEN'S BIATHLON RELAY (2:30)
GOLD: Germany
SILVER: Russia
BRONZE: France

LADIES FIGURE SKATING (7:30)
GOLD: Kim Yu-Na, KOR
SILVER: Mao Asada, JPN
BRONZE: Miki Ando, JPN

WOMEN'S BOBSLED (8:00)
GOLD: Cathleen Martini, GER
SILVER: Kaillie Humphreys, CAN
BRONZE: Sandra Kiriasis, GER

Prediction Update

After 54 events:

Gold - 17 (31%)
Medals - 79 (49%)

Doing better on the medals, struggling to pick gold.

Monday's Favorites

TEAM SKI JUMP (1:00)
GOLD: Austria
SILVER: Norway
BRONZE: Finland

MEN'S TEAM SPRINT (1:45)
GOLD: Russia
SILVER: Norway
BRONZE: Sweden

WOMEN'S TEAM SPRINT
GOLD: Germany
SILVER: Norway
BRONZE: Sweden

MEN'S AERIALS (9:00)
GOLD: Anton Kushnir, BLR
SILVER: Steve Omischl, CAN
BRONZE: Kyle Nissen, CAN

NBC Disrespects Bobsled Again

With the coverage of the third run bumped for live coverage of the last minute of the USA/Canada hockey game, NBC squeezed in a little bit of the fourth run at the end of primetime. They showed Steve Holcomb, in fifth place, drop a place but had not shown Pierre Lueders of Canada for context. They then skipped Ivo Ruegg of Switerzland which made it pretty obvious that the top three would not be displaced.

As with many of these sports, I have gotten used to seeing them in full each week on Universal Sports. We see the top 20 sleds in their final runs. Here, just four sleds in the final runs for the medals. More shameful coverage by NBC.

By the way, skipping Ruegg almost seems like an editorial decision not to even acknowledge the Swiss bobsled team. The other two sleds of Beat Hefti and Daniel Schmid dropped out of the competition following training crashes and NBC never mentioned it. Hefti was probably the gold medal favorite, or at least among them. All that and we get Bob Papa on play-by-play.

Sigh.

NBC Out to Lunch on Bobsled

NBC covered the men's two-man bobsled live Saturday night, but never made a single mention of one of the biggest stories in the event. Beat Hefti of Switzerland, the favorite to win the gold medal, withdrew from the competition after suffering a concussion in a practice crash on Wednesday.

Hefti won four of the eight World Cup races this season, including the most recent race in Igls, Austria. A major, major contender in the competition drops out and NBC doesn't mention it???? This is pure and simple, shoddy journalism. I guess that Hefti wasn't one of the stories NBC had clued in on before the event, and he isn't American so i suppose NBC doesn't care. This coupled with stories surrounding the dangers of the course since the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili last Friday make Hefti's crash and withdrawl a major story.

Bad marks all around to NBC on bobsled coverage. They did not show some of the major contenders on the first run, and only came in after the fact to report Canadian Lydon Rush's crash on the second run, when he was sitting in third place after the first run. Let's hope they improve coverage throughout the week.

Sunday's Favorites

MEN'S SKI CROSS (12:15)
GOLD: Chris Del Bosco, CAN
SILVER: Andreas Matt, AUT
BRONZE: Michael Schmid, SUI

MEN'S ALPINE COMBINED (1:00)
GOLD; Ivica Costelic, CRO
SILVER: Bode Miller, USA
BRONZE: Aksel Lund Svindal, NOR

MEN'S BIATHLON MASS START (1:45)
GOLD: Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, NOR
SILVER: Emil Hegle Svendsen, NOR
BRONZE: Christoph Summann, AUT

WOMEN'S BIATHLON MASS START (4:00)
GOLD: Magdalena Neuner, GER
SILVER: Helena Jonsson, SWE
BRONZE: Tora Berger, NOR

WOMEN's 1500 METER SPEED SKATING (6:00)
GOLD: Kristina Groves, CAN
SILVER: Christine Nesbitt, CAN
BRONZE: Ireen Wust, NED

Prediction Update

After 44 events:

Gold - 14 (32%)
Medals - 62 (47%)

Saturday's Favorites

WOMEN'S SUPER G (1:00)
GOLD: Lindsey Vonn, USA
SILVER: Anja Paersson, SWE
BRONZE: Elizabeth Goergl, AUT

WOMEN'S AERIALS (1:00)
GOLD: Li Nana, CHN
SILVER: Lydia Lassila, AUS
BRONZE: Xu Mentgtao, CHN

MEN'S CROSS-COUNTRY PURSUIT (4:30)
GOLD: Dario Cologna, SUI
SILVER: Petter Northug, NOR
BRONZE: Lukas Bauer, CZE

MEN's 1500 METER SPEED SKATING (7:15)
GOLD: Shani Davis, USA
SILVER: Chad Hedrick, USA
BRONZE: Denny Morrison, CAN

2-MAN BOBSLED (8:00)
GOLD: Beat Hefti, SUI
SILVER: Andre Lange, GER
BRONZE: Lyndon Rush, CAN

WOMEN's 1500 METER SHORT TRACK (8:45)
GOLD: Yang Zhou, CHN
SILVER: Lee Eun-Byul, KOR
BRONZE: Katherine Reuter, USA

Prediction Update

Ok, I missed all four gold medalists, but got 7 out of 12 medals. After 38 events:

Gold - 13 (34%)
Medals - 54 (47%)

Another Reason NBC Drives Me Nuts...

They just showed the third run of men's skeleton on late night. Showed Dukurs and Montgomery and Tretiakov. But skipped the guys in 4th-7th place & showed Zach Lund. Showing the other two Americans was fine, but they didn't even update us on the standings as they left. Now, I can't check on the internet to see how far out of bronze Lund & others sit because NBC didn't show it live and I would find out who won. Blah! And to add insult to injury the sub-mediocre Bob Papa is calling the event.

Proof of what a moron Papa is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V0wh0cubWU

Plushenko whines about loss

In the Winter Olympics, certain things are dependable...the lighting of the torch, the international panorama, tears at the medal ceremonies, and the Russians complaining about the judging when they don't win a gold medal.

It starts again. The South Korean short track team has already complained that Apolo Ohno did not deserve a medal, that he had fouled them during the race. Well he wouldn't have won a medal if the Koreans didn't take each other out. And video of the race showed the Koreans trying to give Ohno the Malachi crunch.

Now the Russians are coming. It must be so frustrating when the Russians can't control the judging and fix it themselves as they have in the past.

Yevgeny Plushenko finished just behind American Evan Lysacek for the gold medal, and rather than be a gracious champion who lost out in a scoring system that he was well aware of before he took the ice, he whined like the spoiled primadonna he truly is. Plushenko said, "You can't be considered a true men's champion without a quad. For someone to stand on top of the podium with the gold medal around his neck by just doing triple jumps, to me it's not progress, it's a regress because we've done triples 10 or even 20 years ago," Shut up Yevgeny! The Russians would rather have the days back when they controlled the judges and fixed it for themselves:

1980 Ice Dance - The Hungarian pair of Krisztina Regoczy and Andras Sallay received five first place votes, the Soviet pair of Natalya Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov also received five first place votes as the British judge voted the same score for both. Seems like a tie, right? Well, not exactly, as the Soviet judge put the Hungarians in third place behind the second Soviet couple, giving the gold to the USSR.

2002 - Alimzhan Tokhtakhtunov, alleged Russian mobster, allegedly bribed judges to fix events at the Salt Lake Olympics. However, the Italians did not extradite him to the US, as the FBI had been investigating him. Oh by the way, the Italians took the bronze.

The Russians complained about the ladies event in 2002 and 2006 when the heavy footed Irina Slutskaya lost in both Olympics.

Here's what to look for in ice dance: the Russians are likely to offend some group in their original dance and complain about the judging should they not win the gold.

Friday's Favorites

LARGE HILL SKI JUMP - qualifying (1:00)
GOLD: Gregor Schlierenzauer, AUT
SILVER: Simon Ammann, SUI
BRONZE: Wolfgang Loizl, AUT

MEN'S SUPER G (2:30)
GOLD: Didier Cuche, SUI
SILVER: Bode Miller, USA
BRONZE: Aksel Lund Svindal, NOR

WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY PURSUIT (4:00)
GOLD: Justyna Kowalczyk, POL
SILVER: Margit Bjoergen, NOR
BRONZE: Charlotte Kalla, SWE

WOMEN'S SKELETON (6:45)
Amy Williams is the surprise leader, but look out for Kristina Szymkowiak.

MEN'S SKELETON (6:45)
Martind Dukurs and Jon Montgomery look solid for gold and silver, but the bronze is wide open.

ICE DANCING (7:45)
GOLD: Davis & White, USA
SILVER: Virtue & Moir, CAN
BRONZE: Domnina & Shabalin, RUS
Also possible: Belbin & Agosto, USA; Delobel & Schoenfelder, FRA

About the medal count...

Almost halfway through the Vancouver Olympics, the old cold war battle is long since over. For some, the Americans vs. the Soviets gave the Olympics their juice. There was a rooting interest in beating the commies, great satisfaction in a miraculous hockey gold in 1980. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Soviet sports system, the Russian domination of the Olympics has begun to slip.

After Thursday's events, the United States has captured 18 medals, Russia just four. That's right, four, and just one of those are gold. A microcosm can be seen in figure skating where the Russians didn't even place a pair on the podium, and Yevgeny Plushenko, lured out of retirement by a desperate Russian figure skating federation captured silver behind American Evan Lysacek. The once dominant female cross country skiers are invisible and the Russians have not embraced new sports like snowboarding as American have.

Even the other former Soviet republics have not fared well. Belarus has two medals, Kazakhstan and Estonia one each, Ukraine none.

With Russia hosting the Games in four years, will the government and the sports federations commit the resources to capture many medals as the Canadians have this time around and virtually every country that has hosted the Games, both Winter and Summer, have done recently?

PREDICTION UPDATE:
34 Events
Gold - 13 (38%)
Medals - 47 (46%)

Prediction Update

After 28 events:

Golds - 12 (43%)
Medals - 40 (48%)

Thursday's Favorites

WOMEN'S 15 KILOMETER BIATHLON (1:00)
GOLD: Helena Jonsson, SWE

SILVER: Anna Carin Olofsson-Zidek, SWE

BRONZE: Magdalena Neuener, GER

WOMEN'S SUPER COMBINED
GOLD: Lindsey Vonn, USA
SILVER: Maria Reisch, GER
BRONZE: Anja Paersson, SWE
Dark Horse: Julia Mancuso, USA

WOMEN'S SKELETON (3:00)
The German women have reached the big tim this season, but the field is also wide open. Four winners and seven medal winners. The two Americans Noelle Pikus-Pace and Katie Uehlander have been just behind the main contenders, but are outside shots. Uhlaender, a former two-time World Cup overall champ is still recovering from a shattered knee cap in a spring snowmobile injury.
GOLD: Mellisa Hollingsworth, CAN
SILVER: Kerstin Szymkowiak, GER
BRONZE: Shelley Rudman, GBR
Other contenders: Marion Trott, GER (the World Champion suffers from horrible starts, but is the best driver along the course); Anja Huber, GER; Amy Gough, CAN; Noelle Pikus-Pace, USA; Katie Uhlaender, USA; Michelle Kelly, CAN; Amy Williams, GBR; Maya Pedersen, SUI; Svetlana Trunova, RUS; Emma Lincoln-Smith, AUS GOLD:

MEN'S SKELETON (3:00)
Five men have won World Cup races this season, and nine have made the podium. Martins Dukurs won the overall title handily, capturing four races. Alexander Tretiakov has the fastest start by a wide margin, but has been inconsistent, placing between 2nd and 15th this season. Ertic Bernotas captured the race in St. Moritz, but did not place higher than 5th in any other race this season.
The favorites:
GOLD: Martins Dukurs, LAT
SILVER: Jon Montgomery, CAN
BRONZE: Frank Rommel, GER
Other contenders: Alexander Tretiakov, RUS; Michi Hallilovic, GER, Sandro Stielicke, GER; Kristian Bromley, GBR; Tomass Dukurs, LAT ( no medals this year, but three 4ths); Jeff Pain, CAN; Michael Douglas, CAN; Zach Lund, USA
Dark Horse: My personal favorite - World Championship silver medalist Adam Pengilly, GBR - no higher than 10th this year, I stood next to his father as Andy went from ninth to second on the final run in Lake Placid. I'll be pulling for him to repeat his Lake Placid success.

WOMEN'S HALFPIPE (3:30-qualifying; 9:00-final)
GOLD: Kelly Clark, USA
SILVER: Gretchen Bleiler, USA
BRONZE: Sun Zhifeng, CHN

MEN'S 20 KILOMETER BIATHLON (4:00)

GOLD: Christoph Sumann, AUT

SILVER: Serguei Sednov, UKR

BRONZE: Tim Burke, USA

WOMEN'S 1000 METER SPEED SKATING (4:00)
GOLD: Christine Nesbitt, CAN
SILVER: Annette Gerritsen, NED
BRONZE: Wang Beixing, CHN

MEN'S FIGURE SKATING (7:45)
I won't change my picks from before the short:
GOLD: Yevgeny Plushenko, RUS
SILVER: Evan Lysacek, USA
BRONZE: Nobunari Oda, JPN

Wednesday Update

I am going to be brief. A great day for the USA as four Torino gold medalists return to the podium. As expected, Shaun White and Shani Davis repeat, but Julia Mancuso and Chad Hedrick capture surprise medals in events that are not their best.

The highlight of the day was Lindsey Vonn's first gold medal, winning the downhill after injuring her shin less than two weeks ago. Mancuso, the defending champion in the giant slalom, has not recently been know for her success in downhill. Both Vonn and Mancuso seem poised for more success in the Olympics. German Maria Reisch had an extremely tentative run and Swede Anja Paerson had a frightenting (although not injuring) crash.

Of note: Finland won their first medal of the Games, Peetu Piiroinen took the silver in the halfpipe and Russia finally won their first gold medal of the Games, bringing their total to three.

Wednesday's Favorites

WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY SPRINT (1:15-qualifying, 3:30-final)
GOLD: Petra Madij, SLO
SILVER: Justyna Kowalczyk, POL
BRONZE: Hanna Falk, SWE
American Kikkan Randall won a silver at the World Championships last year, but that was in freestyle technique, this year they will ski classical.

MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY SPRINT (1:15-qualifying, 3:30-final)
GOLD: Emil Jonsson, SWE
SILVER: Ola Vigen Hattestad, NOR
BRONZE: Nikita Kriukov, RUS
American Andy Newell has an outside shot at a medal, expect him to make the semifinal round.

WOMEN'S DOWNHILL (2:00)
GOLD: Lindsey Vonn, USA
SILVER: Maria Reisch, GER
BRONZE: Anja Paerson, SWE
Expect Vonn to dominate if she is healthy.

MEN'S 1000 METER SPEED SKATING (7:00)
GOLD: Shani Davis, USA
SILVER: Mo Tae-Bum, KOR
BRONZE: Lee Kyou-Hyuk, KOR
Davis is a heavy favorite, but the South Koreans are red hot.

DOUBLES LUGE (8:00)
GOLD: Florschutz/Wustlich, GER
SILVER: Linger/Linger, AUT
BRONZE: Leitner/Resch, GER
The Germans have been most adept at adapting to the lower start houses. Both American pairs are outside shots at a medal.

MEN'S 1000 METER SHORT TRACK (8:00)
GOLD: Sung Si-Bak, KOR
SILVER: Apolo Ohno, USA
BRONZE: Lee Jung-Su, KOR
Pretty wide open, any American, Korea or Canadian could win.

MEN'S 5000 METER SHORT TRACK RELAY (8:00)
GOLD: South Korea
SILVER: Canada
BRONZE: United States

WOMEN'S 500 METER SHORT TRACK (8:00)
GOLD: Wang Men, CHN
SILVER: Kalyna Roberge, CAN
BRONZE: Zhao Nannan, CHN

MEN'S HALFPIPE (10:15)
GOLD: Shaun White, USA
SILVER: Scotty Lago, USA
BRONZE: Iouri Padladtchikov, SUI
White is one of the heaviest favorites of the Games.


Could be a good day for the USA, unless the NBC-hype jinx continues from Beiing (Alsion Felix, Tyson Gay, Lolo Jones, Sanya Richards)

Tuesday in Vancouver

FIGURE SKATING
The men's short program lived up to the hype, some skaters bombed out (Brian Joubert & Jeremy Abbott) while Plushenko, Lysacek & Takahashi were marvelous. Anyone of the three could win the gold. Should one or more of the top three falter at all then Stephan Lambiel, Nobunori Oda, Johnny Weir or Patrick Chan could grab a spot on the podium.

SNOWBOARD
Lyndsey Jacobellis was the sentimental favorite, falling to silver in Torino, but hometown girl Maelle Ricker also fell in Torino, finished fourthand had to be hospitalized with a concussion. When Jacobellis fell out in the semifinals, Ricker had a clear path to Canadian gold.

BIATHLON
Ok, here's my deal. Why in the world does Sunday's biathlon event basically count twice? In the women's event, two athletes had a huge advantage going into the pursuit event Tuesday. Magdalena Neuner and Anastasia Kuzmina each earned one gold and one silver over the two days. Two medals from a combined event. Plus, the biathletes have two more individual events and the relay. The figure skaters have just one chance to win a medal. if they gave medals for the short program, Michelle Kwan would have two golds in her career.
In the men's pursuit, Bjorn Ferry became the first Swedish man to earn biathlon gold in 50 years, since Kles Lestander won the inaugural event in Squaw Valley.

LUGE
Starting from the junior start, Tatjana Hufner continued German dominance, while Austria's Nina Reithmayer broke up the German party with a silver medal, the first for a non-German since Nagano. American Erin Hamlin didn't do any better on Wednesday, finishing 16th overall.

SPEED SKATING
The Koreans continued to dominate at Richmond, with Lee Sang-Haw surprising Jenny Wolf for the gold medal. Lee had defeated Wolf in one of the 500 meter races last month at the World Sprint Championships, but everyone expected Wolf to claim gold at age 31. Besting Wolf by 0.06 in the first race, the two skated head-to-head again in the second 500, with Wolf winning by just 0.02, not enough to overcome Lee for the gold. Just like in the men's event, NBC had a great deal of difficulty using graphics to show where the athletes were in the combination of the two 500 meters.

MEDAL PREDICTION UPDATE:
21 events,
8 gold (38%)
29 medals (46%)

Russia struggling

After four days of competition, the once-powerful Russians have just a single bronze medal. Are they ready to perform well in front of the home crowd four yers from now in Soichi?

Plushenko leads, but vulnerable

Yevgeni Plushenko was the first skater out in the short program, and his performance was outstanding, scoring 90.85, 0.66 points higher than his short program in Torino. The big difference can be seen by Johnny Weir. Weir was second in the Torino short program, and scored 2.1 points higher than four yers ago. The difference is that he is sixth this year, not second. Evan Lysacek and Daisuke Takahashi are both within 0.6 points of Plushenko.

However, what makes Plushenko most vulnerable are his scores for program components, which were only sixth best, behind Labiel, Lysacek, Patrick Chan, Takahashi and 11th-place Frenchman Florent Amodio. Judges have taken notice of his deficiencies in his connections and footwork. Plushenko must jump all over Vancouver to keep the gold medal out of the hands of Lysacek and Takahashi.

Oh, by the way, Plushenko is trying to become the first skater since Brian Boitano to win a gold medal with a mullet.

More Glitches

- Fatality at the sliding centre.
- Problem with the torch lighting.
- Weather
- Faux-Zambonis at speed skating.

The latest today came at biathlon where in both the women's and men's pursuit events athletes were not released at the proper times.

In the biathlon sprint events last weekend, medals were awarded and athletes seeded for today's pursuit events. The leader of each event went off first with all the other competitors starting as far back as the deficit from the sprint event....or so it was supposed to be. In the women's event an athlete went too early and in the men's event Canadian Jean-Philippe Leguellec and American Jeremy Teela were both released too early. These mistakes did not impact the final standings as none of the competitors were in contention, but the attention to detail should be thorough in order to limit these problems.

What's next?

Tuesday's Favorites

MEN'S CURLING (games begin at noon)
GOLD: Canada
SILVER: Great Britain
BRONZE: Norway

MEN'S ALPINE COMBINED (1:00-downhill; 4:30-slalom)
GOLD; Ivica Costelic, CRO
SILVER: Bode Miller, USA
BRONZE: Aksel Lund Svindal, NOR
Defago could win another medal and Benjamin Raich, AUT could take his third career gold. American Ted Ligety is the defending champion.

WOMEN'S SNOWBOARD CROSS (1:00-qualifying; 3:15-finals)
GOLD: Lindsay Jacobellis, USA
SILVER: Maelle Ricker, CAN
BRONZE: Helene Olafsen, NOR

WOMEN'S BIATHLON PURSUIT (1:30)
GOLD: Magdalena Neuner, GER
SILVER: Helena Jonsson, SWE
BRONZE: Anastasiya Kuzmina, SVK

MEN'S ICE HOCKEY (games begin at 3:00)
GOLD: Canada
SILVER: Russia
BRONZE: Sweden

WOMEN'S LUGE (3:00)
Tatjana Hufner remains the woman to beat.

MEN'S BIATHLON PURSUIT (3:45)
GOLD: Emil Heglen Svendsen, NOR
SILVER: Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, NOR
BRONZE: Bjorn Ferry, SWE

WOMEN'S 500 METER SPEED SKATING (4:00)
GOLD: Jenny Wolf, GER
SILVER: Wang Beixing, CHN
BRONZE: Lee Sang-Hwa, KOR

WOMEN'S CURLING (games begin at 5:00)
GOLD: Canada
SILVER: China
BRONZE: Sweden

MEN'S FIGURE SKATING (7:15)
What an event this should be, the defending Olympic champion, four World Champions, seven men who have captured medals at Worlds.
GOLD: Yevgeny Plushenko, RUS
SILVER: Evan Lysacek, USA
BRONZE: Nobunari Oda, JPN
Also in contention: Stephane Lambiel, SUI; Brian Joubert, FRA; Patrick Chan, CAN; Jeremy Abbott, USA; Daisuke Takahashi, JPN; Tomas Verner, CZE; Johnny Weir, USA; Michael Breznia, CZE
This promises to be the most competitive events in figure skating history; although remember the 1994 Olympics when it was a showdown between Boitano, Petrenko and Browning and Alexei Urmanov won the Gold ahead of Elvis Stojko and Philippe Candeloro.

Monday in Vancouver

The cross-country races were marvelous and NBC did an outstanding job of covering the event. Petter Northug was a disaster, finishing 41st while Axel Teichmann finished 44th. It could be that the Tour de Ski took a lot out of these two contenders.

21 year-old Canadian finished 21st, a bit of a disappointment for the home crowd. But it wouldn't be an Olympic Games in Canada without a Harvey. His father Pierre competed in cycling in Montreal and cross-country in Calgary. Pierre also took the athlete's oath in Calgary.

The luge was a surprise, not because of the Germans in first and third, but for the Austria Nina Reithmayer in second and American World Champion Erin Hamlin way back in 15th.

In the volatile event of snowboard cross, where just making it through four races is an amazing (and perhaps somewhat lucky) accomplishment, Seth Wescott captured his second consecutive gold medal.

The men's 500 meter speed skating was considered one of the most wide open speed skating events in history with eight or ten men in contention of rthe gold. Mo Tae-Bum of South Korea was not one of them. However, the 21 year old shocked everyone by capturing the gold medal. Canadian Jeremy Wotherspoon, the sentimental favorite, showed his lack of race sharpness and finished ninth. The competition was delayed when the two Zamboni machines both did not work. This kind of thing happens to me with the copiers at work all the time, but my students haven't been waiting four years to do a math worksheet, and the whole world is not watching. A very disappointing situation, and a black eye for the organizing committee. It reminded me of the 2000 Olympic gymnastics competition where the vault was set too low in the women's all-around. Shani Davis withdrew from the second run after finishing just 18th in the first race. Davis hasn't skated his best in either the 5000 or 500, so we'll see what happens in the 1000 on Wednesday.

Didier Defago became only the third Swiss gold medalist in the men's downhill, along with Bernhard Russi and Pirmin Zurbriggen. The competition was so close, and Bode Miller's somewhat surprising bronze medal shows that he is in great shape and ready to contend for medals the rest of the way.

Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao skated a little tentatively tonight, but their overall quality of skating, along with the lead they had from a superlative short program brought them a first gold medal in their third Olympics. Their teammates, Pang and Tong captured the evening, and made it gold and silver for China. I remember watching Yao Bin skate, and skate poorly, at the 1984 Olympics. However, the Chinese sports program will succeed when they apply the resources and coaching to Olympic competition.

Of note should be the experience that was evident among some of today's champions. Seth Wescott (33) winning his second straight gold; Xue Shen (31) and Hongbo Zhao (36) capturing gold in their fourth games; Didier Defago (33) winning gold in his third Games; with Bode Miller (33) taking bronze.

NBC Messes Up at Speed Skating

I can't blame them for the ice problems that delayed the competition, that is another matter. The real problem was that they didn't seem to realize they were covering a competition that was the combined total time of two races. As the pairs approached the line to begin the race, the graphics simply displayed the athletes' names, with no indication of the times from the first race. When the skaters crossed the finish line, the time for the second 500 meter race was posted, without a graphic showing the combined time. I had a very difficult time figuring out who was in the lead and where the skaters stood in the final standings.

Alpine Skiing begins...

...and gets screwed over by NBC. Much like track & field in the Summer Olympics, alpine skiing is caught in the middle by NBC's coverage of the Olympics.

Sports that are far less popular on television receive nearly complete coverage on the NBC daytime broadcasts. This afternoon, both the women's and men's cross-country races were shown live by NBC during the afternoon coverage. All the major contenders were shown and viewers were able to see the race develop and get a full flavor of the competition.

This evening, the men's downhill, once the premiere event of the Winter Olympics, was horned in to the opening of the coverage in order for NBC to get to a polar bear feature. That's right, a polar bear feature! Only six runs were shown, and one of those was a DNF by Canadian Robbie Dixon. None of the other Canadians were feature, including Erik Guay who finished fifth or Manuel Osborne-Paradis, a pre-race favorite. We saw American Steve Nyman who finished 20th, but not the other two Americans, nor fourth place finisher Mario Schreiber. We didn't see Michael Walchhoffer, Werner Heel or Carlo Janka. But we did see the polar bears.

NBC could have shown the men's downhill live this afternoon at 1:30, the coverage began at 1:00. But since alpine is a "marquee" event, it gets embargoed to prime time....sort of. NBC does this to track & field in the summer games as well. Remember Bryan Clay's decathlon gold medal? No? Maybe because it was shown after midnight EST, about half a day after it acutally happened.

More coverage of the Winter Olympics than ever before, right? Well, tell me then why does the men's downhill get shown less than ever before. I have records for the 1984-1998 Games, before NBC got the contract.

1984 ABC - 11 downhill runs
1988 ABC - 10
1992 CBS - 11
1994 CBS - 11
1998 CBS - 17
2010 NBC - 6

Six bloody runs! An absolute disgrace, and a slap in the face of one of the premiere events of the Winter Olympics. God knows how they will handle the men's 500 meter speed skating later tonight. Oh, by the way, they could have shown that live at 8:30.

Monday's Favorites

WOMEN'S 10 KILOMETER CROSS COUNTRY (1:00)
GOLD: Charlotte Kalla, SWE
SILVER: Justyna Kowalczyk, POL
BRONZE: Marit Bjoergen, NOR

MEN'S DOWNHILL (1:30)
If the weather doesn't interfere yet again, this race will have 35 year old Swiss Didier Cuche as the favorite. He was fastest in the only training run despite skiing with a broken thumb that required six screws to surgically repair just less than two weeks ago.
GOLD: Didier Cuche, SUI
SILVER: Manuel Osborne-Paradis, CAN
BRONZE: Michael Walchofer, AUT
Also watch for: Werner Heel, ITA; Carlo Janka, SUI; Marco Buechel, LIE; Aksel Lund Svindal, NOR; Didier Defago, SUI; Ambrosi Hoffman, SUI.

MEN'S SNOWBOARD CROSS (1:30-qualifying; final-5:00)
It should be France vs. USA for the medals. The Americans don't always ski on the World Cup so the Olympics are a showdown unlike many other events.
GOLD: Pierre Vaultier, FRA
SILVER: Nate Holland, USA
BRONZE: Xavier de le Rue, FRA
Also look for Americans Seth Wescott, Graham Watanabe and Nick Baumgartner and Austrian Markus Schairer.

MEN'S 15 KILOMETER CROSS COUNTRY (3:30)
GOLD: Marcus Hellner, SWE
SILVER: Lukas Bauer, CZE
BRONZE: Petter Northug, NOR
The Italians have been skiing well lately, so keep an eye of Giorgio diCenta and Pietro Piller Cottrer.

MEN'S 500 METER SPEED SKATING (6:30)
This is one of the most compelling events of the entire Games. There are ten guys who have been fighting it out all season and a great champion who is an unknown quantity and home town favorite.
Gold: Lee Kyu-Hyeok, KOR
Silver: Mikka Poutala, FIN
Bronze: Tucker Fredricks, USA
4. Lee Kang-Seok, KOR
5. Keichiro Nagashima, JPN
6. Joji Kato, JPN
7. Jamie Gregg, CAN
8. Yuya Oikawa, JPN
9. Ronald Mulder, NED
10. Jan Smeekens, NED
Outsiders: Shani Davis; Yu Fengtong, CHN
The true wild card is eight-time World Champion Jeremy Wortherspoon, CAN who has not competed much on the World Cup circuit this season after breaking an arm. If he is near his best, he has as good a chance as anybody to capture the gold.

WOMEN'S LUGE (8:00)
The Germans dominated the men's event and the women are even more accomplished. Erin Hamlin of the United States won the World Championship last year and she has taken three bronze medals this year.
GOLD: Tatjana Hufner, GER
SILVER: Natalie Geisenberger, GER
BRONZE: Erin Hamlin, USA

PAIRS FIGURE SKATING (8:00)
A great short program on Sunday, with the top pairs so close, I'll stick with my picks from before the short:
GOLD: Zue Shen & Hongbo Zhao, CHN
SILVER: Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy, GER
BRONZE: Yuko Kavaguti & Alexander Smirnov, RUS

Sunday in Vancouver

PAIRS FIGURE SKATING
The overall level of the skating was amazing. Shen & Zhao started off the night and were magnificent, setting a new world's best in the short program. However, they are closely followed by four pairs and the final on Monday promises to be overwhelmingly competitive.

Two pairs that skated poorly seemed to be forgiven by the judges. The Canadians Dube & Davdison and the Russians Mukhortova & Trankov should be further down in the standings. The new judging system does not hammer short program mistakes as harshly as the old system did.

MEN'S MOGULS
Alexander Bilodeau gave the Canadians their first gold medal and it was reason to celebrate. Bryon Wilson of the USA captured a surprise bronze. I was a little confused that Guilbaut Colas finished in only sixth despite the fastest run. The judges scored Colas 0.6 of a point lower on the air score from the qualifying round, the difference between bronze and sixth

WOMEN'S 3000 METER SPEED SKATING
Martina Sablikova won as expected and should add another gold in the 5000 next Wednesday. Kristina groves barely hung on to capture a bronze for the home country. Nancy Swider-Peltz, jr. , daughter of the same named four time Olympian, skated well to finish ninth. She still has some work to do to surpass Mom, who finished 7th in the 3000 in Innsbruck, 1976.

MEN'S LUGE
Felix Loch's win was never in doubt from the first run. Thirty-eight year old Albert Demtschenko of Russia equalled a Winter Olympic record by participating in his sixth Games. His first Olympics in 1992 was as a member of the Unified Team. With the Games coming to Russia in four years, will he hang on for another go around. Bronze medalist Armin Zoeggeler is 36, so it is possible that we could see gold medalist Loch, who is 20, in 2026.

MEN'S BIATHLON
The weather played havoc with the biathlon Sunday, producing some totally unexpected results. The results will be used for the pursuit event on Tuesday, so the skiers back in the pack could catch those near the front. Gold medalist Vincet Jay of France will go off first in the pursuit, with all the other athletes handicapped by the time they were behind Jay. Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen will start 1:41 behind.

PREDICTION UPDATE (10 EVENTS)
15 medals (50%)
4 winners (40%)

Nordic Combined - Jason Lamy-Chappuis, FRA

Johnny Spillane took the lead with about 1km left, but Jason Lamy-Chappius, who had stayed in the pack the entire way, sprinted past Spillane in the final meters to capture the gold. Alessandro Pittin of Italy held off Todd Lodwick for the bronze.

What an exciting finish! I'm still trying to catch my breath, I was up off the couch jumping up and down the last minute of the race. Bill DeMong made a massive charge to finish 6th. As usual, the three Americans are all in the top 10. Brett Camerota finished back in the pack. The big question for next Tuesday's team event is will Camerota be able to keep the Americans in the race and give the other three a chance to win team gold?

Time for me to relax and get ready for some pairs, women's speed skating and men's moguls tonight.

Nordic Combined Jump

Exciting ski jump this morning in Vancouver. Todd Lodwick and Johnny Spillane have put themselves in great shape to challenge for gold. Jason Lamy-Chappius is also close to the leaders and should stay in the lead pack.

Bill Demong and Hannu Manninen are 22nd and 24th, they will probably ski together to get to the top 10. Magnus Moan and Felix Gottwald took themselves out of the running with weak jumps and they sit 40th and 41st out of 45 skiers, more than 2 minutes back.

Brett Camerota jumped really well and is in 10th place. The Americans would love to see him duplicate that result in the team event next Tuesday. If he can do that, the Americans will be tough to beat for gold.

Janne Ryynaenen of Finland has a 34 second lead over Lodwick heading into the cross-country. However, he is not the kind of skier to run away and hide, he's just not that strong. I expect him to be caught by 5km.

The 10k starts at 4:45, I can't wait! I think that the podium will be Lodwick, Spillane and Lamy-Chappius. Pittin is my dark horse.

Sunday's Favorites

A great start to the competition on Saturday, more fun for Sunday.

NORDIC COMBINED - INDIVIDUAL NORMAL HILL (Jump @ 1:00, 10k @ 4:45)
I am really excited about this event! The Americans are real contenders, but the field is stacked.
GOLD: Jason Lamy-Chappius, FRA
SILVER: Magnus Moan, NOR
BRONZE: Hannu Manninen, FIN

MEN'S BIATHLON 10KM SPRINT (2:15)

GOLD: Emil Heglen Svendsen, NOR

SILVER: Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, NOR

BRONZE: Dominik Landertinker, AUT

MEN'S SINGLES LUGE (4:00)
World Champion Felix Loch is going to be tough to overcome.

WOMEN'S 3000 METER SPEED SKATING (4:00)
GOLD: Martina Sablikova, CZE
SILVER: Kristina Groves, CAN
BRONZE: Daniela Anschuetz, GER

PAIRS FIGURE SKATING (7:30)
GOLD: Zue Shen & Hongbo Zhao, CHN
SILVER: Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy, GER
BRONZE: Yuko Kavaguti & Alexander Smirnov, RUS
The Chineses are clear favorites for gold, but the battle for the lesser medals should also include: Qing Pang & Jian Tong, CHN; Maria Mukhortova & Maxim Trankov, RUS & Zhang Dan & Zhang Hao. CHN.

MEN'S MOGULS (Qualifying @ 5:30; Final @ 8:30)
GOLD: Guilbaut Colas, FRA
SILVER: Dale Begg-Smith, AUS
BRONZE: Jesper Bjoernlund, SWE
Other contenders: Alexandre Bilodeau, CAN; Alexandr Smyshlayev, RUS; Patrick Deneen, USA; Bryon Wilson, USA; Nathan Roberts, USA; Michael Morse, USA

Prediction Update

After 5 events on Saturday, I got 8 medalists correct and two winners.

Deepest American Men's Team????

NBC's Mary Carillo, usually outstanding, anchoring the late night show refered to the US men's Olympic figure skating team as perhaps the deepest ever.

Ummmm, sorry Mary but the 1956 team of Hayes Alan Jenkins, Ronnie Robertson and David Jenkins swept the medals. It doesn't get any deeper than that.

The Streak Continues...

Hannah Kearney's gold medal continued the longest streak at the Winter Olympics. No, I do not mean the streak of Canada never winning a gold when hosting a Games, rather the streak of the USA being the only country to win a gold medal at every Winter Olympic Games.

Norway was close, but they were shutout in Calgary. The 60's were dicey for the Americans, just one gold medal each in 1964 and 1968.

The USA doesn't even have such a streak at the Summer Olympics, the 1980 boycott saw to that.

Men's 5000 Meter Speed Skating - Sven Kramer, NED

To no one's surprise, Dutchman Sven Kramer captured the gold medal in the men's 5000 meters. To everyone's surprise LeeSeung-Hoon of South Korea won silver and Russia's Ivan Skobrev the bronze.

Bob de Jong and Havard Booko never got going to their best abilities, and the Americans finished out of the medals, they should fare better in the shorter distances.

NBC did a fine job of covering the event, showing the final seven pairs live.

Normal Hill Ski Jump - Simon Ammann, SUI

Ammann won two gold medals in 2002, while in that competition Adam Malysz of Poland took bronze on the normal hill and silver on the large hill.

Ammann was the best jumper on the hill today, capturing his third career individual gold medal, equalling the record of Matti Nykaenen (who has four career golds, one in the team event).

In Olympic ski jump history, Switzerland has four medals, three from Ammann. Poland has four medals, three from Malysz. Ironically the other medal for each country was on the large (90 meter) hill in 1972 where Wojciech of Poland took gold and Switerland's Walter Steiner captured silver.

The Austrians were disappointing, although Gregor Schlierenzauer had a big second jump to snare the bronze medal. The Austrians should still be huge favorites in the team event next Monday.

The NBC coverage was shockingly commercial-riddled. They would show either two or three jumps and then off to three minutes of commercials. I guess I should run an errand or two and catch up on DVR. Soon, Olympic coverage will take commercial breaks in the middle of figure skating programs. Also, they have had so many interviews and features that now 2:11 into the coverage they have shown some ski jumping and one pair in speed skating. I miss 2006 when they showed live biathlon and such at the crack of dawn on the east coast.

For the record: I was right on 2/3 medalists and my dark horse pick took the silver.

Normal Hill Ski Jump - First Jump

Simon Ammann of Switzerland came down with the last bib number and hit the biggest jump of the first round to take the lead of Michael Uhrmann of Germany and Adam Malysz of Poland. Shockingly, the Austrians are not in medal position. Gregor Schlierenzauer has some work to do to get back into the top 3, but he is most capable of accomplishing that.

Ammann has set himself up to capture his third career gold.

Luge to try to get back to normal

After Friday's tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the luge track has been slightly changed. The protective wall where Kumaritashvili was ejected from the course has been built up.

Two additional practice runs will take place this morning at 11:30 EDT, with the first two of four runs of competition in men's singles set to begin at 8:00 EDT.

Men's Downhill Postponed

The bad weather in the Vancouver/Whistler area has caused the men's downhill to be postponed until Monday and the women's super combined, originally scheduled for Sunday, will be postponed as well.

Good news to Lindsey Vonn...the weather gods must be listening to her.

Saturday's Favorites

The medal favorites for the events that begin on Saturday with start times (EDT). Events which will award gold medals Saturday are in BOLD:

NORMAL HILL SKI JUMP (12:45)
The jumpers rarely compete on the normal hill except during World Championships or Olympics. On the World Cup the events are almost always contested on the large hill or on the huge hills of ski flying. The event will likely boil down to 2002 double Olympic champion Simon Ammann against the powerful Austrian team. Veteran Adam Malysz of Poland is the sentimental favorite and my dark horse.
GOLD: Gregor Schlierenzauer, AUT
SILVER: Simon Ammann, SUI
BRONZE: Andreas Kofler, AUT
Also watch for: Thomas Morgenstern, AUT; Wolfgang Loizl, AUT; Janne Ahonen, FIN; Anders Jacobsen, NOR; Bjoern Einar Romoeren, NOR; Robert Kranjec, SLO
All three Americans qualified for the final, but will not contend for medals. They will do well to finish in the top 30 and qualify for a second jump.

MEN'S DOWNHILL (2:45)
If the weather doesn't interfere yet again, this race will have 35 year old Swiss Didier Cuche as the favorite. He was fastest in the only training run despite skiing with a broken thumb that required six screws to surgically repair just less than two weeks ago.
GOLD: Didier Cuche, SUI
SILVER: Manuel Osborne-Paradis, CAN
BRONZE: Michael Walchofer, AUT
Also watch for: Werner Heel, ITA; Carlo Janka, SUI; Marco Buechel, LIE; Aksel Lund Svindal, NOR; Didier Defago, SUI; Ambrosi Hoffman, SUI.
Dark Horse: Bode Miller, USA - he is skiing in the perfect spot in the order, 15th, just before the seeded skiers. He can take advantage before the course begins to deteriorate.

WOMEN'S ICE HOCKEY (3:00)
Two opening round games, SWE v SUI and CAN v SVK. This should be a final between the USA and Canada. Give the home team the edge.
GOLD: Canada
SILVER: United States
BRONZE: Sweden

MEN'S 5000 METER SPEED SKATING (3:00)
GOLD: Sven Kramer, NED
SILVER: Havard Bokko, NOR
BRONZE: Bob de Jong, NED

WOMEN'S BIATHLON 7.5 KILOMETER SPRINT (4:00)
GOLD: Anna Carin Olofsson-Zidek, SWE

SILVER: Magdalena Neuener, GER

BRONZE: Helena Jonsson, SWE

MEN'S SINGLES LUGE (8:00)
First and second of four runs on Saturday, the medals will be awarded Sunday. After Friday's tragedy, luge will be in the international media spotlight as never before. With the event being held at night, the track could be even colder and faster than during training.
GOLD: Armin Zoeggeler, ITA
SILVER: Albert Demtschenko, RUS
BRONZE: Felix Loch, GER

WOMEN'S SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING 500 METERS (8:42)
Heats on Saturday, with final on Wednesday. This should amount to a China/Canada dual meet with Wang Meng an enormous favorite.
GOLD: Wang Men, CHN
SILVER: Kalyna Roberge, CAN
BRONZE: Zhao Nannan, CHN

WOMEN'S SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING 3000 METER RELAY (9:50)
You have to survive the heats before getting a chance in the final on February 24th.
GOLD: China
SILVER: South Korea
BRONZE: United States
Also contending: Canada and Japan.
Heat 1: NED/USA/KOR/ITA
Heat 2: JPN/HUN/CHN/CAN

MEN'S SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING 1500 METERS (10:18)
This event looks to be wide open, with the Koreans fielding a deep squad.
GOLD: Lee Jung-Su, KOR
SILVER: Charles Hamelin, CAN
BRONZE: Apolo Ohno, USA

WOMEN'S FREESTYLE MOGULS (10:30)
It's USA vd. Canada with defending champion Jennifer Heil the favorite. The USA is strong, they swept first through fourth in the most recent World Cup in Lake Placid (which Heil did not contest).
GOLD: Jennifer Heil, CAN
SILVER: Hannah Kearney, USA
BRONZE: Heather McPhie, USA
Also contending: Kristi Richards, CAN; Shannon Bahrke, USA; Michelle Roark, USA; Aiko Uemura, JPN; Nicola Sudova, CZE; Margarita Marbler, AUT

Enjoy Day 1:

Stories to follow:

LUGE: How will tragedy effect the competition? Will the Whistler track be too fast?
WEATHER: Will the men's downhill take place? Will Lindsey Vonn get a chance to ski her training run or will her events be postponed?
APOLO: Will Ohno add another medal to his haul, or will the Koreans dominate?
OH, CANADA!: Can a Canadian finally win on home soil? Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Jennifer Heil and Charles Hamelin each could be the first Canadian home victory after being shut out in Montreal and Calgary.
ANOTHER CRAZY CANUCK STORY: Osborne-Paradis is attempting to become the first Canadian man to win alpine gold. Amazingly, Canadian men have only won two alpine medals in Olympic hsitory, downhill bronzes by Steve Podborski ('80) and Ed Podivinsky ('94).
DUTCH SKATER: Can anyone challenge Sven Kramer in the 5000 or 10000? Shani Davis is a longshot in the 5000 today.
USA MOGULS: Jen Heil may be the only skier standing between the Americans and a podium sweep.

Daily Lindsey Vonn update - Friday

Vonn seems to be feeling better and the weather is helping her. Training runs in Whistler are hard to come by, and the Super Combined could possibly be pushed from Sunday to Monday. Her spirits appear to be much better than they were on Wednesday. Still, she has not had a chance to test her leg as the women's training runs continue to be canceled.

Tragedy in Luge

The 2010 Winter Olympics started on a tragic note, as Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during his training run Friday morning as he was throw from the track and into a steel pillar.

The Whistler Sliding Centre, home of luge, bobsled and skeleton, is rightfully billed as the fastest track in the world. On Friday, the concerns that many in the sport had came to a devastating fruition. The 21 year old Kumaritashvili was one of the least experienced sliders in the field, but the training runs produced numerous crashes including men's luge gold medal favorite and two-time defending champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy. Training was immediately halted, and the International Luge Federation called an emergency meeting to discuss how to proceed with the men's competition beginning Saturday at 8:00pm EST.

In the last several Olympiads, the sliding sports have sought to limit the number of participants in the field to qualified athletes through World Cup competition. No longer are there bobsled teams from Jamaica, Mexico and the Netherlands Antillies. The athletes in these sports must be experienced, but there still remain athletes from nations without a great deal of a luge tradition.

The ILF has decided to go ahead with the competition on Saturday, although apparently the IOC is send a team to Whistler to investigate on their own.

For the future, each time a new track is constructed, especially for an Olympics, the maximum speed should be considered. Tracks should be challenging while limiting the needless dangers.

Athletes in these sports are well aware of the dangers and the possibility of crashing. John Morgan has been covering bobsled for American television since 1981 and is working his 8th Olympics. While a rookie broadcaster in 1981, covering the World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, John Morgan was calling the event for ABC's Wide World of Sports in a race in which his brother Jim was killed while competing for the United States. At the time, John Morgan, from a family of bobsledders, let it be known that his brothers death was an inherent risk of the sport.

From a competitive aspect, how will this tragedy impact the medal contenders? Which athletes will be willing to risk a crash of any sort, let alone a potentially devastating crash, to get to the bottom of the track as fast as they can?

Opening Ceremony Part 2

Well, a little improvisation was needed to complete the torch lighting in Vancouver Friday night. When the mechanics of the cauldron did not work properly, there was a little bit of time to sit and wait and one could see Wayne Gretzky, Catriona LeMay-Doan, Nancy Greene and Steve Nash getting a little bit uncomfortable during the wait.

Since the ceremony was held indoors, Wayne Gretzky had to jump into the back of a truck and take the flame to an Olympic Park for the lighting of the cauldron which will be seen by visitors throughout Vancouver for the next 16 days. The caravan through the streets of Vancouver seemed a bit impromptu, but in doing so it also felt genuine.

Competition begins tomorrow with a slew of events.

Opening Ceremony Part 1

I am currently looking at the Opening Ceremony from both sides now. NBC has done a fantastic job so far this evening, limiting commercials during a life airing of the Opening Ceremony.

A beautiful Joni Mitchell rendition of her masterpiece "Both Sides Now."

The cultural portion of the evening is running a little long, looking forward to the lighting of the cauldron and the Canadian Olympic greats to be part of it. I hope they include my personal favorite, Gaetan Boucher (1000 & 1500 meter speed skating gold in Sarajevo).

The parade of nations was fun, with a couple of retired NHL Superstars leading their nations, Jaromir Jagr & Peter Forsberg.

Donald Sutherland is doing a great job with the voiceover and I smiled when they quoted the great Chief Dan George (rent "Little Big Man" from Netflix).

The poor Uzbeks, getting sandwiched between the USA and Canada in the parade of nations.

Back to the TV.

Vonn Injured

It was disclosed today that American alpine skier Lindsey Vonn suffered a shin injury in training last week. She has not been able to ski since then and is questionable for the Olympics.

The injury is a bruise on her shin where the top of her boot sits, causing significant pain. Vonn is the favorite to win gold in the downhill and super G, but even if she is able to ski will the time missed lessen her level of preparation? She was unable to walk for two days and had a press conference in Vancouver on Wednesday.

Fortunately for Vonn, the weather in Vancouver has been poor so the events could be delayed, giving her time to heal. Unfortunately, her best events are in week one, with her weaker events at the end of the Games.

Bobsled

Andre Lange of Germany will be entering Vancouver attempting to crown his legacy as the greatest bobsled driver of all time. Lange concluded the World Cup season by winning the final four 4-man races of the season.

Steve Holcomb of the United States won three races in four-man this season and is the defending World Champion. He will be trying to capture the first men;'s bobsled gold for the USA in 62 years. Holcomb concluded the season finishing 4th and 8th in the last two 4-man races.

Two-man:
Gold: Beat Hefti, SUI - winner of four races, including the finale in Igls.
Silver: Andre Lange, GER - after an early season leg injury, Lange was first or second in each of the last four races of the season.
Bronze: Lyndon Rush, CAN - Winner in St. Moritz, he will have the home track advantage.
4. Ivo Ruegg, SUI - The overall World Cup winner, he had three bronzes and a silver, but no wins and was 4th, 8th and 9th in the last three races.
5. Torsten Florschutz, GER - Winner at Konigssee, second in World Cup.
6. Karl Angerer, GER - Third in World Cup standings, but only one medal, a silver in Winterberg.
7. Steve Holcomb, USA - in the top 4 in each of the first three races, but has struggled in the last half of the season.
8. Pierre Lueders, CAN - The 1988 Olympic Champion, but no medals this season. Can the hometown favorite use the home ice advantage?
9. Alexandr Zubkov, RUS - Solid in the first half, no higher than 11th in the final three races.
10. Daniel Schmid, SUI - Improving all season, culminating with a bronze in Igls. Schmid his my dark horse medal threat.
11. John Napier, USA - Winner in his backyard in Lake Placid, he has been better than 10th in only one other race.
12. Edvin van Calker, NED - Bronze in St. Moritz, and seventh in two of the other last three races this season.

Four-Man

This should be a two-man battle between Lange and Holcomb. Holcomb looked like the hot favorite before New Year's, but Lange has been untouchable since.

Gold: Andre Lange, GER - Winner of the last four races.
Silver: Steve Holcomb, USA - Three first and two seconds, but did not medal in the final two races.
Bronze: Janis Minins, LAT - Only one medal, but the most consistent of all the drivers in contention for the bronze with three 4th's and two 5th's. Consistency should benefit him over a four heat competition.
4. Lyndon Rush, CAN - Winner of the season opener in Park City and on home ice.
5. Karl Angerer, GER - in the top 8 in each of the last six races.
6. Thomas Florschutz, GER - concluded a solid season with a bronze in Igls.
7. Daniel Abramovitch, RUS - silver in Park City, but three finishes of 15th or lower.
8. Alekandr Zubkov, RUS - his bronze at St. Moritz is his only top five.
9. John Napier, USA - two medals, but the younger driver proved inconsistent for the season. A dark horse here.
10. Ivo Ruegg, SUI - silvers in Cesana and Igls.

Two-woman:
Gold: Cathleen Martini, GER - Winner of four of the eight World Cup races.
Silver: Kaillie Humphreys, CAN - The home track advantage, always in the top six, only one win.
Bronze: Sandra Kiriasis, GER - The World Cup overall winner, six medals but no wins.
4. Shauna Rohbock, USA - Two wins, including the finale in Igls.
5. Helen Upperton, CAN - Only one medal, but close to the podium all season, will have a hometown advantage.
6. Eric Pac, USA - On the rise this season, two bronzes and seven races in the top seven.
7. Claudia Schramm, GER - One bronze medal this season, in St. Moritz.
8. Nicole Minichiello, GBR - The dark horse in this event, the defending World Champion missed two races and was either 7th or 8th in five of the six events she entered (14th in the other).
9. Sabrina Hafner, SUI - improved late in the season, finishes ranged from fifth to 12th.

Of note in bobsled, since the 1988 "Cool Runnings" Jamaica bobsled craze, the FIBT has stiffened the qualifying criteria in this dangerous sport. No Jamaican team in Vancouver, nor many other sleds from warm weather countries.

I'm looking forward to the bobsled in Vancouver, and if you watch NBC, a fun drinking game is to take a drink whenever John Morgan screams "NO SPEED!" If Holcomb wins, expect the color commentator who is bobsled's number one fan to be overcome with emotion.

Skeleton

Skeleton was re-introduced to the Winter Olympics in 2002 and 2010 will mark the first time that four runs will determine the medalists. The skeleton is the sliding sport where athletes hurtle headfirst down a chute of ice at speeds approaching 80 mph.

I attended the World Championships last February in Lake Placid and had a great time (even in eight degree weather). Unfortunately, 41 year old World Champion Gregor Staehli, SUI has had to end his season early due to a thigh injury.

Men:
Five men have won World Cup races this season, and nine have made the podium. Martins Dukurs won the overall title handily, capturing four races. Alexander Tretiakov has the fastest start by a wide margin, but has been inconsistent, placing between 2nd and 15th this season. Ertic Bernotas captured the race in St. Moritz, but did not place higher than 5th in any other race this season.

The favorites:
Gold: Martins Dukurs, LAT
Silver: Jon Montgomery, CAN
Brozne: Frank Rommel, GER
Other contenders: Alexander Tretiakov, RUS; Michi Hallilovic, GER, Sandro Stielicke, GER; Kristian Bromley, GBR; Tomass Dukurs, LAT ( no medals this year, but three 4ths); Jeff Pain, CAN; Michael Douglas, CAN; Zach Lund, USA
Dark Horse: My personal favorite - World Championship silver medalist Adam Pengilly, GBR - no higher than 10th this year, I stood next to his father as Andy went from ninth to second on the final run in Lake Placid. I'll be pulling for him to repeat his Lake Placid success.

Women:

The German women have reached the big tim this season, but the field is also wide open. Four winners and seven medal winners. The two Americans Noelle Pikus-Pace and Katie Uehlander have been just behind the main contenders, but are outside shots. Uhlaender, a former two-time World Cup overall champ is still recovering from a shattered knee cap in a spring snowmobile injury.

Gold: Mellisa Hollingsworth, CAN
Silver: Kerstin Szymkowiak, GER
Bronze: Shelley Rudman, GBR
Other contenders: Marion Trott, GER (the World Champion suffers from horrible starts, but is the best driver along the course); Anja Huber, GER; Amy Gough, CAN; Noelle Pikus-Pace, USA; Katie Uhlaender, USA; Michelle Kelly, CAN; Amy Williams, GBR; Maya Pedersen, SUI; Svetlana Trunova, RUS; Emma Lincoln-Smith, AUS

How many medals will Shani Davis win?

I'm going to bet that Shani Davis will win two gold medals, in the 1000 and 1500. I would have penciled him in for a third gold medal in the team pursuit had he chosen to compete as part of the American team. For the second consecutive Games, Davis has elected not to contest the team pursuit. His absence will be a significant hindrance to the American chances. Davis with Chad Hedrick and Trevor Marsicano would contend for the gold, without Davis, the Americans are unlikely to wind up on the podium.

Why does Davis chose not to particiapte in the team pursuit? Only he can answer that question. He has never displayed an interest in being part of the US pursuit team. American fans can only wonder what would happen if the three world champions teamed up, the possibility of a US gold rested in Shani's hands.

The men's 500 meters is absolutely WIDE open. There are upwards of ten men who could win the event. My formchart:
Gold: Lee Kyu-Hyeok, KOR
Silver: Mikka Poutala, FIN
Bronze: Tucker Fredricks, USA
4. Lee Kang-Seok, KOR
5. Keichiro Nagashima, JPN
6. Joji Kato, JPN
7. Jamie Gregg, CAN
8. Yuya Oikawa, JPN
9. Ronald Mulder, NED
10. Jan Smeekens, NED
Outsiders: Shani Davis; Yu Fengtong, CHN
The true wild card is eight-time World Champion Jeremy Wortherspoon, CAN who has not competed much on the World Cup circuit this season after breaking an arm. If he is near his best, he has as good a chance as anybody to capture the gold.

1000 Meters:
Gold: Shani Davis, USA
Silver: Lee Kyu-Heok, KOR
Bronze: Denny Morrison, CAN
Other contenders: Mo Tae-Bum, KOR; Poutala; Mark Tuitert, NED; Trevor Marsicano, USA; Simon Kuipers, NED; Chad Hedrick, USA; Mun Jun, KOR

1500 Meters:
Gold: Shani Davis, USA
Silver: Denny Morrison, CAN
Bronze: Chad Hedrick, USA
Other contenders: Havard Bokko, NOR; Lucas Makowsky, CAN; Stefan Groothuis, NED; Mo tae-Bum, KOR; Trevor Marsicano, USA; Enrico Fabris, ITA; Ivan Skobrev, RUS
NOTE: Morrison has history on his side. The men's 1500 meters has been won by the host nation more than any other event in the Winter Olympics (1952, '80, '94, '02 & '06).

5000 Meters:
Gold: Sven Kramer, NED
Silver: Havard Bokko, NOR
Bronze: Bob de Jong, NED
Other contenders: Ivan Skobrev, RUS; Enrico Fabris, ITA; Carl Verheijen, NED; Chad Hedrick, USA; Walter Olde Heuvel, NED; Shani Davis, USA; Lee Seung-Hoon, KOR

10000 Meters:
Gold; Sven Kramer, NED
Silver: Bob de Jong, NED
Bronze: Havard Bokko, NOR

Team Pursuit:
Gold: Netherlands
Silver: Canada
Bronze: Norway
Other Contenders: Italy, United States, Sweden,

Ice Dance Compulsory

The compulsory dance drawn for the Olympics will be the Tango Romantica.

The compulsory dance is worth about 20% of the total score in ice dance and will sort out the favorites early. Medal contenders will want to finish in the top five.

US Figure Skating Team

When the US National Championships in Spokane concluded, the exhbition of champions included a special ceremony introducing the 15 members of the 2010 US Olympic Figure Skating team. They were preceded by all twelve Americans to have won Olympic Gold; Dick Button, Hayes Alan Jenkins, Tenley Alrbight, Carol Heiss, David Jenkins, Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi, Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes.

It was a wonderful moment, hosted by Bob Costas, in a collaboration between the USFSA and NBC. Figure skating is a sport that does a great job at embracing its history. The ceremony also magnifies the gap between gold and silver at the Olympics. The ceremony did not include Tim Wood, Linda Fratianne, Rosalynn Sumners or Michelle Kwan. All World Champions and Olympic silver medalists. Great skaters, but not in the select pantheon celebrated in Spokane.

Do any of the Americans have a chance to join that group in Vancouver? Evan Lysacek is the defending World Champion, but defending Olympic Champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia has returned from a four year retirement skating better than even and establishing himself as the favorite to retain his gold medal for the first time since Dick Button in 1952.

Ice Dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto and Meryl Davis and Charlie White are both serious meal contenders. Davis and white are on a roll having recently won the Grand Prix Final and the US National Championships over Belbin and Agosto.

The two pairs for the US will do well to to finish in the top eight at the Games.

The two ladies, Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu are outside medal contenders should the Japanese skaters falter.

Figure Skating begins on Sunday with the pairs short program.

清扫

Ok...the title is what I got for an online translation of the phrase "to sweep" in Chinese.

The Chinese are continuing their efforts to become the world's dominant sports power. In Beijing in 2008 China won the most gold medals, even though the United States still captured the most medals overall. With the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, expect China to find success in sports they have not previously exceled.

China has never before qualified a team to compete in the tranditional sport of Curling. For years, curling has been dominated the Scotland, where the sport originated and where the stones are still quarried, and Canada, where curling is a national obessission. In 2007, the Chinese women finished seventh at the World Championships. In 2008 they captured the silver medal, and last year the Chinese team, skipped by Wang Bingxu, defeated the team of defending Olympic champion Annette Norberg of Sweden to capture the gold.

The Chinese men made their first World Championship appearance in 2008, finish just out of the medals, losing the bronze medal match to Norway. They finished seventh a year ago.

Chinese have previously enjoyed success in short track speed skating, freestyle aerials, sprint speed skating events and pairs figure skating. In addition to curling, China will also contend in women's halfpipe snowboarding.

The Curling event should be one of the highlights of the 2010 Games. In the Vancouver Olympic Centre which will hold 6,000 people should be an exciting venue. Canada has never failed to medal at the Olympics, and the Canadians will be strong contenders in both men's and women's events.

PREDICTIONS:

Men:
Gold: Canada
Silver: Great Britain
Bronze: Norway

Women:
Gold: Canada
Silver: China
Bronze: Sweden

I Can't Wait For Nordic Combined

Recently one of my students asked me which Winter Olympic event was my favorite. I really didn't have an answer. After giving it some thought, and watching a lot of Universal Sports, I realized that I enjoy nordic combined as much as any other event. That peculiar mix of ski jump and cross country that has been such a fickle mistress for American athletes. The champions need a combination of quickness for the jump and endurance for the 10 kilometer cross country. Since the Gundersen method of staggering the start times of the cross country was introduced to the Olympics in 1988, the first man across the line wins, providing the opportunity for thrilling finishes.

The United States has only won two medals in the history of Nordic Skiing in the Olympics, Bill Koch's cross country silver in 1976 and the 1924 ski jump bronze awarded to Anders Haugen after a calculation error was discovered 50 years later. Now the Americans will enter Vancouver with a team consisting of three world champions in nordic combined.

Johnny Spillane won his world championship in 2003, and has recently won a World Cup race in Oberhof. Spillane is one of the stronger cross country skiers in the field, but doesn';t have the spring at the finish to match some of his competitors. He has a number of fourth place finishes this season and his sole victory was a breakaway by about 30 seconds. Look for Spillane to push the pace with about 3 or 4 kilometers left in the race.

Todd Lodwick came out of retirement in 2009 to capture two gold medals at the World Championships. He has a second and third place finish this season,even though he has skipped several event in an effort to peak in Vancouver.

Bill Demong won a gold and bronze medal at last year's Worlds.. He won a very tough event in Val di Femme last month and has been consistently in the top ten all season.

However, there are many more contenders than just the Americans. On the World Cup curcuit, eleven different men have won events and sixteen have reached the podium.

Jason Lamy-Chappius, FRA - The Word Cup leader since day one, Lamy-Chappius has won five events. One of the best jumpers, if he can jump well and stay with the lead pack, he can usually sprint well over the last 200 meters.

Felix Gottwald, AUT - Sprint gold and individual silver in Torino, Gottwald has come out of retirement and is second in the World Cup, Gottwald is the second fasteest runenr in the field. If he has a decent jump, everyopne else will have to look over their shoulders for him.

Eric Frenzel, GER - One of the most consistent skiiers on the World Cup, Frenzel has reached the podium seven times.

Magnus Moan, NOR - The fastest runner in the field, Moan can make upwards of 90 seconds in the cross country. Two weeks ago he beat Lamy-Chappius in both races in France, trailing by over a minute in each. He already owns a sprint silver and individual bronze from Torino.

Tino Edelmann, GER - Edelmann was hot early in the season, winning in Lillehammer in early December. He hasn't been to the podium since then.

Mario Stecher, AUT - Stecher has been rounding into form nicely as of late, making the podium in three of the last four races, including a win in the final pre-Olympic World Cup in Seefeld.

Pavel Churavy, CZE - A strong jumper, Churavy is often in contention when the field bunches up and he can ski in the pack. His only podium finish was a second two weeks ago.

Bjorn Kircheisen, GER - He had a win in Ramsau the week before Christmas.

Alessandro Pittin, ITA - An inconsistent jumper, he can contend when he jumps well. Has had three third place finishes this season, including two of the last three races.

Anssi Koivuranta, FIN - A strong jumper who has to look over his back in the cross country.
Petter Tande, NOR - A silver in Lillehammer in December is his lone appearance on the podium this season.

Hannu Manninen, FIN - He came out of retirement and finished second and first on the opening weekend in Kuusamo. He has raced sparingly this season, but when he does he is at or near the top of the leaderboard. Manninen was a team gold medalist in 2002 and the 2007 large hill World Champion.

Akita Watanabe, JPN - A third place in Seefeld in the penultimate pre-Olympic race, Watanbe leads a Japanese team that has been improving throughout the season. One of the stronger jumpers, he must be out front to have a medal chance.

The Japanese are the defending World Champions in the team event, and even though they have rarely place individual athletes on the podium the last few years, they have four very consistent performers and the team should challenge for a medal.

TUNE IN:

NBC should show the nordic combined events live, especially with American interests:

Sunday, February 14th
Normal Hill Jump/10KM
Jump @ 1pm EST, 10K @ 4:45pm EST.
Predictions:
Gold: Lamy-Chappius, FRA
Silver: Moan, NOR
Bronze: Manninen, FIN

Tuesday, February 23rd
Team Event
Jump @ 1pm EST, 4x5KM relay @ 4pm EST
Predicitions:
Gold: Germany
Silver: Austria
Bronze: United States

Thursday, February 25th
Large Hill Jump/10KM Relay
Jump @ 1pm EST, 10KM @ 4pm EST
Predicitions:
Gold: Gottwald, AUT
Silver: Lamy-Chappius, FRA
Bronze: Frenzel, GER

In both individual events, I think anyone listed above has a good chance at a medal. The Americans will be right in the thick of things, will being in North America be an advantage over the Europeans?

Who Will Light the Torch in Vancouver?

At every Olympic Games in recent memory the identity of the final bearer of the Olympic torch is always shrouded in secrecy. Each organizing committee attempts to top the torch lighting of the previous games in the climax to a ceremony witnessed by hundreds of millions across the globe. Paavo Nurmi handing off to Hannes Kolehmainen in Helsinki in 1952; the young athlete Yoshinori Sakai, born in Hiroshima on the day of the atomic bombing in 1964; the noble figure of Rafer Johnson in 1984; paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo in Barcelona in 1992; the iconic Muhammad Ali in Atlanta in 1996; Cathy Freeman in 2000; and the entire 1980 U.S. Hockey team in Salt Lake City in 2002.

In two previous Olympics as host, Canada has gone with unknown youths. Teenagers Stephane Prefontaine and Sandra Henderson in Montreal and a 12 year old figure skater Robyn Perry in 1988. Will the Vancouver organizers go with the obvious and familiar or something off the beaten path? Here are some possibilites:

- Wayne Gretzky. "The Great One" is an obvious choice as Canada's greatest and most popular athlete. However, his only participation in the Games was as a member of the disappointing fourth place team at the 1998 Olympics. Gretzky was the manager of the 2002 Canadian hockey team that won the gold medal. Others have added names like Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr and Mario Lemieux to the mix. Lemieux would add a French/English dynamic to the torch lighting and he was the captain of the 2002 team.

- Betty Fox. The 72 year-old mother of Terry Fox who gained international fame in his attempt to run across Canada despite having lost a leg to cancer. Fox's odyssey took place in 1980, but he never crossed the entire country as he fell victim to another bout with cancer that would eventually take his life. Her cause has gained momentum through a group on Facebook.

- Nancy Greene. The 1968 giant slalom gold medalist was also the winner of the first two women's World Cup titles. Greene was hugely popular in Canada in her day and is currently a senator from British Columbia. She was voted as the outstanding Canadian female athlete of the century. Being a political figure may hamper her chances as the organizing committee may want to avoid any appearance of political interest.

- Gaetan Boucher. The speed skater was at one time Canada's most successful Olympian, Boucher won a silver behind Eric Heiden in 1980 and then took two golds and a silver in 1984.

- I am going to go for an unusual choice. In 1998, curling was a medal sport for the first time. Sandra Schmirler had already been the skip on three world championship teams for Canada. The sport that is hugely popular in Canada, Schmirler gained national celebrity by winning the gold medal in Nagano. In 2000, Schmirler died after a year-long battle with cancer. Her funeral was televised live on two different Canadian television stations and the entire country mourned her loss. I could see her daughters Sara, 13, and Jenny, 10, lighting the torch with Schmirler's teammates.

Welcome to My Olympic Blog

Just 13 days to go until the Vancouver Olympic opening ceremony. As a life-long fan of the Olympics, I follow many of these sports between Games. A member of the International Society of Olympic Historians, I will be updating this blog daily (twice daily during the Games) on Olympic matters, past and present.

One particular aspect of these Games that I am excited about, especially from an American perspective, is that the U.S. will be competitive in nearly every sport in these Olympics with the exception of ski jumping. The flip side of this coin is the concern that NBC will focus too much of their coverage on the Americans, and may lose sight of the great athletes from other countries. I am looking forward to the high level of competition in events such as the individual nordic combineds and the men's 500 meter speed skating.

The upcoming Games will be more than just Apolo Ohno, Lindsay Vonn and Shaun White. There will be wonderful stories about athletes you have never heard of; American and international. Vancouver will feature two weeks of intense competition, overjoyed winners and devastated losers. The stories have yet to be written, and there are certain to be surprises in many events. I prefer to watch the Games with an open mind, tune in and enjoy the international panorama of athleticism. Join me for the ride...