84 Days

Today, Nov 20th, commemorates the 14th anniversary of the sudden death of Sergei Grinkov. With his partner on and off the ice, Ekaterina Gordeeva, he won two Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1994 in pairs skating. Together, they are considered one of the best pairs team in the history of the sport. I'm prepared to say the greatest (although my dad definitely gives that title to the legendary Protopopovs). Gordeeva and Grinkov were in Lake Placid, NY practicing for an upcoming Stars on Ice event in 1995, when he suffered a heart attack on the ice and passed away. Truly a great loss.

There were lots of rumors going around over the t.v. schedule for the last season of ABC's Lost this coming winter. Many television networks do not normally air new programming during the Olympics. But ABC has announced that new episodes of Lost will air during the entire month of February, which means they will compete for viewers against the 2010 Winter Olympics on NBC. All I have to say is, thank God for tivo.

84 American NHL hockey players were in the running for the 23 man US Olympic hockey team for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=432241

In a survey taken by international sports experts in 2007, the question arose as to whether the International Olympic Committee should institute a continental rotation for the location of the Olympics, similar to FIFA's rotation for the World Cup. 84% of those who took the survey were against the idea of a continental rotation. However, 75% did feel that the Olympics should come to Africa in the next few years.
http://www.gamesbids.com/eng/other_news/1170437337.html?print

Shameless plug to follow my Olympic countdown on twitter: http://twitter.com/countdowntovanc