Thursday, December 31, 2009

43 Days

So this post turns out to be all about medal counts...

29 athletes who used K2 Inc. products at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy won a combined 43 medals. K2 is a top ski, snowboard and skate manufacturer and the medals were won in alpine, Nordic and cross-country skiing, snowboarding and speed skating. So do Olympic champions make a difference from a sales/marketing perspective? All I can say is that every time I go skiing, I secretly hope I will get Dynastar skis because that's what Tommy Moe used when he won the Olympics back in 1994.

43 countries have at least one winter Olympic medal. Norway has the most with 98 gold, 98 silver and and 84 bronze, totaling 280 medals.

Great Britain will host the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics, in London. Britain has historically done very well at the Summer Olympics, having won 715 medals, and at least one gold at each Summer Games. But in the Winter Olympics? Not so much. They've only won 20 Winter medals. And to make this fit in to the countdown, at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina D'ampezzo, Italy, with a team of 43 athletes, Britain failed to win a single medal (as is the case of 6 other Winter Olympics as well).

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

44 Days

Meet Kenya's only Winter Olympian, Philip Boit. Boit is a cross-country skier who first participated in the Nagano Olympics in 1998, where he placed last. He has slowly climbed from the bottom, placing fourth to last in 2002 in Salt Lake City and sixth to last in 2006 in Turino. Boit hopes to improve in Vancouver, which he announced will be his last Games.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, 44 nations had apparel deals with Nike.

The University of Florida has produced 44 Olympic champions. The most notable is swimmer Dara Torres who won 4 gold medals and 12 medals in total. Her most recent medal was silver and was won in Beijing at the age of 41, making her the oldest U.S. female swimmer to compete in the Olympics.

The Olympics' host countries usually have strong showings at the Olympics they host. Canada's record medal count is forty-four medals which they won at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984. However, that number comes with an asterisk, since the communist countries boycotted that Olympics and did not compete. Canada didn't do that well at the Calgary Winter Olympics or the Montreal Summer Olympics, but have many medal contenders competing in Vancouver, so stay tuned.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

45 Days

Gold medal favorite, American Lindsey Vonn hurt her arm in a skiing race yesterday in Austria at a world cup event. She initially thought she broke her arm, but it turns out to be just a bone bruise. With her arm in a sling, Vonn competed in the slalom event today, finishing 18th out of 30th. Yesterday, many questions arose as to whether or not she would compete today and how her injury would effect her quest for Olympic gold. Vonn has been doing so well this season, that even without finishing the race yesterday, she still remains in the lead in the World Cup standings.

As is the Olympic custom since the Innsbruck Games in 1964, the Olympic torch was lit in Olympia, Greece, the home of the ancient Olympics, on October 22. The torch, which may only be lit via sunlight off of a metal reflector, was handed off to the first torchbearer and began its travels through Greece. After eight days in Greece, the torch was handed over to the Vancouver Olympic Committee. From there, it began its 106 day, 45,000 kilometer route throughout Canada. On February 12, the final torchbearer will reach the Opening Ceremonies and light the Olympic flame which will remain lit throughout the entire Olympic games.

The longest event in short track speed skating is the 5000 meter relay, in which only men participate. The race consists of 4 players on each team who take turns skating 45 laps. At the 2006 Turino Olympics, the South Korean team won the gold medal. Canada placed second and the U.S. team, led by Apolo Ohno, came in third. Prior to that, both the Olympic and World records had been held by Canada. Come February, you can be sure the Canadian team will be looking to take back the gold in front of their home country. And of course, Apolo Ohno can never be counted out.

Monday, December 28, 2009

46 Days

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, the U.S. ski team will have the upper hand in at least one aspect - the food! For parts of the World Cup circuit and during the Olympics, the team will have home cooked meals prepared in a fully equipped trailer by team nutritionist and chef, Adam Korzun. Many skiers, including Bode Miller, have frequently complained about the food they receive on the road. Furthermore, even if the food is good, it's still not necessarily the right balance of nutrition athletes require right before a race. Korzun will see to it that the skiers are provided with the proper amount of carbs and protein racers are accustomed to at home.

Vonetta Flowers is the first African American to win a gold medal in a winter Olympic Games. She did that in 2002, in Salt Lake City in bobsled. Flowers started out in track and field events. When she failed to qualify for the 1996 or 2000 Summer Olympics, she switched to bobsled. She and her teammate, Jill Bakken, became the first Americans to win a medal in bobsled for the men or women in 46 years. She came in sixth in 2006 in Turino and will be competing in Vancouver as well. Good luck to Vonetta!

Canadian hockey player, Martin Brodeur won gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City 46 years after his father, Denis Brodeur won the bronze medal in hockey for Canada in 1956.

Munich, Germany is planning to bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will take place 46 years after the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, remembered mostly for the massacre of the Israeli team by Palestinian terrorists. If their bid is successful, Munich will be the first city to host both a summer and winter Olympics games.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

47 Days

I just want to thank all of my friends again for their amazing birthday party throwing abilities. Particularly, Miriam B. for hosting and Miriam L. for her spectacular birthday cake:



Those are of course, the Olympic rings, the symbol of the Olympic Games, which was created by Pierre de Coubertin (see 79 Days) in 1912. The five rings are interlocking to promote peace, unity and healthy competition between the five continents which partake in the Olympics. The five colors - blue, yellow, black, green, red - along with the white background represent the colors of the flags of the countries that took part in the Olympics at that time.

Athens, Greece hosted the first Olympic Games in 1896. As is usually the case, the host nation did particularly well, and was awarded 47 medals - the most at that Olympics.

Austria is the leading nation in alpine skiing medals with 101 at the Winter Olympics. Austrian athletes have also swept the World Cup podium (meaning they have come in first, second and third place) 47 times since 1973. No other country has dominated a single winter sport to this extent. This year, the Austrian ski team is lacking the big stars they've had in the past, such as Hermann Maier, but their track record proves they can never be counted out. Look for Benjamin Raich and Michael Walchhofer in the men's events and Marlies Schild in the women's events.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

48 Days

2407 athletes competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. Only 48 of them were women. And women's gymnastics, which is one of the most popular Summer Olympic events today, was only a demonstrative sport. At the 2010 Winter Olympics, all sports besides ski jumping will have both a men's and women's field. The female ski jumpers who were fighting to compete in the Olympics just lost their final battle with the Canadian courts, so their fight is now over.

Lindsey Vonn, formerly Lindsey Kildow before she got married, had a major crash on an alpine downhill training run at the Winter Olympics in Turino in 2006 and had to be immediately helicoptered to a nearby hospital. Just 48 hours later, she was back in skis, competing in the women's downhill event and placed eighth. Because of her gutsy performance there, her fellow American athletes, her fans and members of the media awarded her the 2006 U.S. Olympic spirit award. Vonn is definitely a medal contender at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Friday, December 25, 2009

49 Days

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and blog visits yesterday. It was all very much appreciated. Due to the various celebratory events that occurred last night, today's blog will be an abbreviated version. I only hope you can find it in your hearts to somehow forgive me.

49 countries competed in the Summer Olympics in Berlin in 1936, which was more than any other previous Olympics. 49 nations competed in the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics in Yugoslavia as well. Those were the only Winter Games ever to be hosted by a Communist country.

In a study completed about marathon tryouts for the 2004 U.S. Summer Olympic team, 49% of the men vying for a spot on the team did not have a coach. The study was done in an effort to find out more about the sport since it is one in which the U.S. has not been successful.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

50 Days

On November 11, two days after I started this blog, I received the following g-chat message from my friend Avi Z.
if you make it until 50 i will buy you an ice cream cone

Well Avi, I like chocolate syrup and rainbow sprinkles...

However, in exchange for the ice cream, I'm going to give a shout-out to Avi's favorite Olympian, Australian snowboarder, Torah Bright. Bright grew up in Australia, where she still trains during Southern Hemisphere winters and spends Northern Hemisphere winters training in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the age of 19, she placed fifth at the 2006 Winter Olympics in the half-pipe event in Turino, Italy. She has also won gold and silver at the X-Games, and became the first Australian to win gold in that event in 2007. She's considered a gold medal contender at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver, having won a recent World Cup event in November. Australia has never medalled in snowboarding at the Olympics. Bright will face stiff competition in February from the American ladies, Gretchen Bleiler, Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark, all of whom are previous Olympic medalists. Good luck to them all.

Fifty years after the 1924 Winter Olympics, an error in the scoring of the men's ski jumping event was discovered. American Anders Haugen, who had initially placed fourth, was found to have actually placed third. He was awarded his bronze medal in 1974.

I have no idea how biathlon seems to make it into all my posts these days. Nevertheless, the biathloners'... biathletes'... (what do you call them?) shooting targets are 50 meters away. Depending on the type of race, for each shot missed there is either a time penalty or another lap added to the race.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

51 Days

Only five athletes (all in summer sports) have competed in both the Olympics and Paralympics. This year, a Canadian cross-country skier has the chance to become the first winter athlete ever to compete in both the Paralympics and the Olympics. Canadian Brian McKeever won a 50 kilometer race yesterday, putting him one step closer to making the Canadian Olympic team. McKeever has Stargardt's disease, a genetic disease that caused him to start losing his vision at the age of 19. His vision is less than 10%. McKeever already has seven Paralympic medals in cross-country skiing and biathlon. The Canadian Olympic cross-country ski team will be determined in January. Good luck to McKeever!

The International Sled Sport Federation was created in 1913 to promote the sport of Luge. It took 51 years until luge became a Winter Olympic sport in 1964 at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

In his first NHL season, hockey great Wayne Gretzky scored 51 goals. Gretzky and the Canadian team came in fourth at the 1998 Winter Olympics, where they were expected to have medalled.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

52 Days

Have you heard about the Vancouver Olympics' most recent controversy? The Vancouver Olympic Committee invited the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to play at the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in February. When VANOC suggested that conductor, Bramwell Tovey, pre-tape the performance and then have another conductor mime it on the actual night, Tovey refused. Since then, VANOC has apologized to Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is now happy to play during the Olympics. The orchestra will also record the national anthems of participating countries to be played at the medal ceremonies. While VANOC's reasoning is understandable, in that many musical performances are pre-taped for live events to ensure good sound quality for broadcasting purposes, I'm surprised that they suggested having a conductor other than Tovey at the actual Opening Ceremonies. This reminds me of the controversy at the Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, when a young Chinese girl won the chance to record a song for the Opening Ceremonies and the Olympic Committee chose another, more attractive girl to lip sync to it at the event itself.

By the way, if anyone feels like rewarding me for doing such a great job on this blog by buying me tickets to the Olympics, the official Vancouver2010 website has opened a fan-to-fan marketplace for fans to buy and sell tickets off of each other. Just fyi, there are some skating tickets in there... Happy holidays to me. :) Ticket holders can also be a bit more charitable and donate their tickets to underprivileged kids who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to go to the Olympics.

Here's a trivia question for you: Which American actor won 6 Olympics medals (in 1924 and 1928), 52 U.S. National Championships and set 67 world records in swimming? That would be Johnny Weissmuller who was best known for playing Tarzan in twelve films.

In a survey completed by over 2100 athletes who competed in the Summer and Winter Olympics between 1984-1998, 52% of Olympians felt that family support greatly factored into their Olympic success.

Monday, December 21, 2009

53 Days

North American skiers are set to debut new racing suits come the Olympics in February. Spyder, the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team, has worked with skiers such as Olympic medal hopeful, Lindsey Vonn, to build a new, slicker racing suit that creates less drag and air resistance. Similar to the swimming racing suits that athletes like Michael Phelps wear, the more high-tech ski suits can really make a difference in races that come down to hundredths of seconds.

Biathlon, an Olympic event that combines cross country skiing and shooting, first took place in the Winter Olympics in 1960. Since then, 53 gold medals have been awarded. Of those medals, Russia, Germany and Norway have won all but eight of them. I've talked about him before, and American Tim Burke is one step closer to giving the athletes from those three countries a run for their money. On Sunday, Burke made U.S. history by becoming the first American to lead in the World Cup standings. No American has ever stood on the podium in Biathlon at the Olympics.

Between the Winter and Summer Olympics combined, there are 53 disciplines within 35 different sports in which competitions take place and medals are handed out. (38 in the Summer Olympics and 15 in the Winter Olympics.)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

54 Days

Skeleton was not a part of the Olympic Winter Games for 54 years - from 1948 until 2002 when it was again added to the program. Here's your interesting Skeleton factoid of the day (as if the first one wasn't enough): American Zack Lund was banned from competing in skeleton at the 2006 Olympics because he failed a drug test. Lund says the drug he tested positive for, finasteride, was found in propecia, something he had been using for years to help prevent hair loss.

Of Vancouver's $34 million bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia financed 54% of it. Private companies financed the rest.

Hermann Maier, one of the greatest skiers of all time retired just months before the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Austrian won a total of 54 World Cup victories and four overall World Cup titles. He is a two time Olympic gold medalist (in 1998) and two time Olympic silver medalist (in 2006). He is also known for having the most spectacular fall at an Olympic event, in 1998, just days before he won those two gold medals. Click here to watch the crash.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

55 Days

How have I been blogging this long into the countdown without mentioning American athlete Shawn White? Called the "Flying Tomato" because of his red hair, White is the defending Olympic Champion in the snowboard halfpipe event. He's a nine-time gold medalist in halfpipe at the X-Games (ESPN's extreme sports annual competition) as well. He also skateboards competitively. Apparently, the new "it trick" of the season is called a double cork and many snowboarders will be attempting the move in their runs at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The double cork is basically two diagonal flips, off axis in the air. Shawn White plans to win gold by doing two double corks back to back, which he's already completed in competition this year. White practiced the move over the summer on a halfpipe with a foam pit built in. (Another snowboarder, Matt Ladley learned the move without the foam pit at broke two bones in his arm in the process.)

A men's slalom course may have no fewer than 55 gates. Women have a minimum of 40 gates.

I never understood how athletes enjoy sitting outside in the freezing cold during the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. Especially the ones who have to compete early on in the two week schedule. (One of the reasons figure skater Michelle Kwan had to withdraw from the 2006 Olympics was because she reinjured herself in practice the morning after the Opening ceremonies in Turino, where she felt being out in the cold for so long had stiffened her injured muscles.) The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver will mark the first time that the Opening and Closing ceremonies (and some of the medal ceremonies as well) will be held indoors at the domed BC Place Stadium which seats up to 55,000 people. This should provide a more comfortable experience for athletes and fans alike.

Friday, December 18, 2009

56 Days

Okay, so I get why I don't have tickets to the Olympics. But I do not understand why an Olympian's parents don't have tickets, especially when they are prepared to pay full price for them. That's currently the case with Tugba Karademir's parents. You'll recall from 59 Days that Karademir is a Turkish figure skater who will be making her second appearance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in February. At the previous Olympics in 2006, she qualified so last minute, that her parents didn't have the chance to get tickets to see her compete in Turino. This year, even though they had plenty of time to prepare, they just can't seem to get their hands on any tickets. Unlike other countries, who help athletes' families make the necessary provisions to cheer on their family members, the Turkish Olympic Committee does not have the means to help the Karademirs. At the end of the day, the Olympics is a money-making business, so I won't even bother suggesting that athletes' parents be given free tickets. But it seems to me that there is no reason why some Olympic governing body, whether it be the I.O.C. or the host nation's Olympic committee, shouldn't give each athlete the opportunity to buy tickets for a limited number of family members to attend the events in which they will be competing.

UPDATE: It appears that Tugba Karademir's parents are headed to the Olympics. Apparently, a woman with tickets to the ladies figure skating short program and long program will not be going to the Olympics after all and those tickets now belong to Tugba's parents. Don't you just love happy endings?

in 2003, the 2010 Winter Olympics was awarded to Vancouver over Pyeongchang, South-Korea by a margin of three votes. The final tally was 56 in favor or Vancouver, to 53. (Just lost a 53 stat right there...)

There are only five countries that have participated in every Summer Olympics - Australia, France, Great Britain, Greece and Switzerland. Great Britain is the only country that's won a gold medal at every Summer Olympics. The most gold medals they won in one Summer Games is fifty-six, which occurred in 1908 on their home turf, in London.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

57 Days

NBC announced that they are forecasting a loss of about $200 million by televising the Olympics in February. That is a heck of a lot of money. I guess the economy and ad spending is not what it used to be. If you want to argue that the Summer Olympics brings a larger audience than the Winter Olympics do, NBC also lost an undisclosed amount on the Beijing Summer Olympics, two years ago in 2008.

The city of Vancouver spent $57 million to build a speed skating oval for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The last time the Winter Olympics took place in Canada was in 1988, in Calgary. 57 countries participated, as opposed to the 80-plus countries competing in Vancouver. One of the highlights of the '88 Olympics was the "Battle of the Brians" in men's figure skating, between American Brian Boitano (who won) and Canadian home-country hero, Brian Orser (who placed second). Orser is returning to the Olympics this year as the coach of Korean figure skating phenom, Yu-Na Kim, who is expected to medal in Vancouver. We were also introduced to Italian skier, Alberto Tomba "La Bomba" who was known more for his playboy/model-dating ways than for his three Olympic gold medals (two of which were won in Calgary). Another notable story was that of the Jamaican Bobsled team - proof yet again that the Olympics is not just about winning gold medals, but also about passion of sport. With no chance of winning, they stole the hearts of Olympic fans everywhere when they walked their bobsled over the finish line after having crashed on one of their runs. Here's clip of their crash.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

58 Days

The bid to win the 2010 Winter Olympics came down to three cities: Vancouver, Canada; Salzburg, Austria and Pyeongchang, South Korea. Because European countries made up a large part of the vote with 58 members, many expected Salzburg to win the bid. Interestingly enough, Salzburg was the first city to be eliminated. In fact, it is believed that the European voters specifically did not vote for Salzburg, knowing that the International Olympic Committee does not usually put two consecutive Olympic Games on the same continent. Had Salzburg won the 2010 Olympic bid, cities like Madrid and Paris, who were gunning for the 2012 Summer Olympics (which was eventually won by London), would have lowered their own chances to host the Olympics.

I recently came across an article from the New York Times, written on June 9, 1908. The headline read, "AMERICAN ATHLETES FOR OLYMPIC GAMES; Seventy-six Men Selected to Represent the United States in London. MORE MEN MAY BE PICKED Supplemental List of 58 May Be Added If Sufficient Funds Are Raised -- Hard to Choose Men." I found it interesting that the United States, a super power and one of the leaders in Olympic medals, would have ever considered sending fewer athletes than allowed to an Olympic Games because of financial issues. There are many other countries today who can only afford to send athletes to the Olympics who are expected to make a good showing. However, what's great about the U.S. team is that they do have the funds to send a group comprised of medal contenders and also athletes who can live their dreams just by competing at the Olympics. The article continues on to say that the approximate cost per athlete was $325 and that the American Olympic Games Committee needed approximately $15,000 more to send all of the athletes. Check out the article here. In the end, 122 male athletes were sent to the 1908 Olympics. (The U.S. did not send female athletes to that Olympics.)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

59 Days

I was talking to my friend Miriam L. the other day and we were discussing the difference between recreational Olympic fans and die-hard Olympic FANS. I'm sure you can imagine which of those categories I fall into. I think one aspect of the Olympics that the die-hard fans really appreciate is the feel good stories. Sometimes viewers get so wrapped up in the race for the gold medal, they forget about the rest of it. The athletes who have dedicated their lives to a sport which they love and have overcome all odds just to have reached the Olympics. The ones who are living their dream just by being there. One such athlete is figure skater Tugba Karademir of Turkey. Vancouver will be Tugba's second Olympics, as she competed in the 2006 Olympics in Turino four years ago. Tugba started skating at the age of five at Turkey's only skating rink. She quickly began competing internationally and it was clear that she had outgrown what skating in Turkey could offer her. Her parents saw the talent she possessed and gave up everything to move the family to Canada, where she could train in better conditions with top coaches and choreographers. In 2006, Tugba became the first Turkish skater to compete in the Olympics, where she placed 21st. Since then she has improved steadily, and while she doesn't appear to be a medal contender, her passion for skating is undeniable. I was in Lake Placid for Skate America last month and saw her skate her short program to Turkish music (choreographed by World champ Kurt Browning). It is clear that she is in it for the love of her sport, which to me, is the most important part.

I just happened to turn the television on last night to find country music star and actor Tim McGraw being interviewed on the Jay Leno show. I tuned in right on time, to hear Leno ask McGraw which of the winter Olympic sports is his favorite to watch, to which McGraw responded, figure skating. He said that with a houseful of women (McGraw is married to fellow country music singer, Faith Hill and they have three daughters) his family very much enjoys watching ladies and mens figure skating events. Here's the clip.

59 countries participated in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, the most up to that point. Unfortunately, due to World War II, London was not prepared to host the Olympics and many athletes were not properly trained. Thus, even with the record number of countries involved, it was not considered a particularly successful Olympics.

According to an ESPN poll, only 59% of American viewers rooted for the U.S. Olympic basketball team, known famously as the "Dream Team" at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Ga. The Dream Team was comprised of professional NBA stars who easily beat every team they played by an average of 32 points per game.

Monday, December 14, 2009

60 Days

Wow, 60 days left in the countdown to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. That's just two months. It's hard to believe I've been writing this blog for over a month already, but it's been great fun, and I expect the next 60 days to be the same.

Per the Miriam L. official "countdown to Vancouver" blog rules, years may not be used as a stat. However, the 1960 Winter Olympics played an important part in Olympic history, and I thought it would be fitting to discuss it today. Don't worry, you'll get the official countdown stats below.

The Olympics saw many firsts occur in Squaw Valley, California in 1960. For the first time, a television network (CBS) paid ($50,000) for exclusive rights to televise the Olympics in the U.S. which was hosted by Walter Cronkite. It was the first time an athletes village was created to house all of the athletes in one area. It was the first and only time that all skiing and skating events were all in close proximity to each other. Biathlon debuted as an Olympic event in Squaw Valley, as did women's speed skating. (Bobsled competition was skipped, as it was too expensive to build a bobsled run and there were not enough countries with athletes to compete.) It was also the first time South Africa competed in a Winter Olympic Games. And for the first time, scores were tallied electronically by IBM.

Another Olympic first to affect the entire sports world: instant replay. When officials were unsure of whether or not a skier had missed a gate during the men's slalom, they asked CBS to see the tapes. This gave CBS the idea to develop the first instant replay system, which debuted in 1963 at an Army-Navy football game.

Freestyle aerial skiers regularly fly about 60 feet above the ground in competition. This makes the event the highest event in the Olympics.

The maximum number of gates on an Olympic slalom course for female skiers is 60.

The Integrated Security Unit will be operating for 60 days over the course of the Vancouver Olympics, including setup time at the beginning of January and throughout the Olympic Games, and the Paralympic Games, which end in March.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

61 Days

Big news: 2006 Olympic figure skating champion Evgeni Plushenko is injured. Apparently, he's been attempting too many quad-quad and triple axel-quad combination jumps, which have never been landed in competition before. Check out this video of a Plushenko attempting a combination triple axel, quadruple toe loop. I really hope this injury isn't too much of a set back for him, because he is pretty much the front runner to win the upcoming 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, even though he has only competed once (this fall where he won by a landslide) since the last Olympics four years ago. If he could land something like that at the Olympics, it would be absolutely spectacular.

The Olympic Charter is the set of rules that the International Olympic Committee uses to govern each Olympic Games. It is made up of 5 chapters which are broken out into 61 articles. It creates a general outline of who's in charge, the responsibilities of each governing body and discusses the overall values of the Olympics.

Wayne Gretzky, considered the greatest hockey player of all time holds 61 records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff season records and 6 all star records. He played for the Canadian hockey team in Nagano, Japan in 1998, where Canada failed to win a medal. As the Executive Director of the Canadian hockey team in 2002, Canada won it's first gold medal in hockey in fifty years. Gretzky returned as Executive Director in 2006, but Canada could not repeat and did not medal in Turino. Gretzky helped Vancouver win it's bid for the 2010 Olympics by serving as an ambassador. He will not be managing the 2010 Canadian team, but will be involved to some extent. Some have speculated that Gretzky will light the torch at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics, an honor usually given to a champion athlete of the host country.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

62 Days

With only 62 days left in the countdown towards the 2010 Winter Olympics, you can seriously find the Olympic rings on anything. Including ecstasy. You know, the drug. Vancouver police seized over 100,000 pills of ecstasy imprinted with the Olympic rings this past Thursday. The drugs were worth about $1 million.

In February, the city of Richmond, British Columbia will honor the 2010 Winter Olympics by floating 13 million cranberries down the Fraser River in the shape of the Olympic rings. The cranberry float will be 62 meters in length and will sit in the river right behind the Richmond Oval, home of the 2010 Olympic long track speed skating competition. Cranberries are being used because Richmond is Canada's largest cranberry producer.

At the last Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy in 2006, 62 individuals won medals for 26 countries. Canadian speed skater Cindy Klassen won five medals, South Korean speed skater Ahn Hyun Soo won four, Italian speed skater Enrico Fabris won three, as well as American speed skater Chad Hedrick. American speed skaters Joey Cheek, Shani Davis and Apolo Ohno all won two medals. Of the top medalists in 2006, Klassen and Cheek have retired and Ahn Hyun Soo failed to qualify for the 2010 Olympics. Fabris, Hedrick, Davis and Ohno should all be there, so watch for them come February.

Friday, December 11, 2009

63 Days

Have I mentioned how much I love Phil Hersh? Well, maybe not on this blog, but trust me, I've said it a bunch of times. Hersh is a sports journalist who covers Olympic sports for the Chicago Tribune and I have enjoyed reading his articles (mostly the figure skating ones) for years. I think he is candid and honest (and funny) and just generally tells it like it is. To be completely objective, I know some skating fans have accused him of playing favorites, but since Michelle Kwan is one of his favorites, that's never really bothered me all that much. :) Anyway, the point is that on Wednesday, Hersh attempted to get to the bottom of why speed skater Shani Davis called speed skating sponsor, Stephen Colbert a jerk. The comment seemed to come after Colbert's joke about the Canadian Olympic officials who stopped allowing non-Canadian athletes to train in Canadian venues for the months leading up to the Olympics in Vancouver. (See my post from Wednesday. Be sure to check out my comment at the bottom for the video.) Hersh opined that it goes back further to the 2006 Olympic controversy when Shani Davis requested not to skate in the team pursuit in Turino and it was suggested that he was unpatriotic for doing so. At that point, on his show, Colbert made some remarks a lot unfriendlier towards Davis than the more recent jokes. Click here to read Hersh's article and see the 2006 Colbert clip.

According to a poll, over 18 million Canadians will watch a collective 63 million hours per week of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Norway holds the record for most Winter Olympic medals with 280. That's 63 more than Russia and the United States, who both come in second. However, in 2006, Norway only collected 19 medals - and only two of those were gold - the lowest amount since 1988.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

64 Days

The 2010 Winter Games is bringing us lots of Olympic firsts from a technology and media perspective. For the first time in Olympic history, the Games will be broadcast live in HD in movie theatres throughout Canada. As is the case of most sporting events, watching competitions with a roomful of fellow fans definitely adds to the excitement and energy of the event and I think this is a great way to get more people involved in the Olympics and winter sports in general. Until they bring that to the States (or unless someone reading this blog wants to send me to Vancouver), a living room full of semi-fans (aka my friends who can't come up with better plans that day) in my apartment will have to do.

The next Olympic first: The Vancouver Olympic Committee has announced that they will be providing audience members of figure skating, curling and hockey games with in-venue headsets to hear live commentary throughout the events. There will also be some sort of texting mechanism for the audience to interact with the commentators. Similar headsets have been used before, like at the U.S Open and I am super excited about this. I really hope this carries over to future sporting events, particularly in skating. With the new judging system, it can sometimes be very hard to understand why skaters receive the scores they do and having the commentators' opinions (who have access to the judges' scores) would be incredibly helpful. The commentary will be provided in English and French. No word yet on how much these headsets will cost.

There will be 64 events at the 2010 Paralympic games and 64 gold medals will be awarded.

The upcoming Summer Olympics in 2012 in London will mark the first time in 64 years that the Olympics has returned to the U.K. The previous time was in London in 1948. London also hosted the 1908 Olympics and they were supposed to host the 1944 Summer Olympics, but that was canceled due to World War II.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

65 Days

In my 93 Days post, I mentioned that Colbert and his fans stepped in to sponsor the U.S. Olympic speed skating team after their previous sponsor went bankrupt. So far, Colbert Nation has raised over $250,000. So you would think that the athletes benefiting from this money would be appreciative. Well, one seems not to be. Shani Davis, a long-track speed skater and 2010 Olympic medal front runner, called Colbert a "jerk" the other day in response to some of Colbert's speed skating jokes. Shani, he's a comedian, jokes are what he does. Probably not wise to bite the hand that feeds you. Just sayin'.

In 1984, ABC aired just 65 hours of coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia as opposed to the hundreds of hours NBC plans to air in February.

In Vancouver, ski cross will be the only sport to debut at the 2010 Olympics. Ski cross is a fast paced sport where 16 women and 32 men (in separate events) race 4 skiers at a time, down a rugged course with turns, bumps and jumps. The first two skiers in each heat to finish the course advance to the next round. Intentional contact is not allowed. The average speed for men is 65 mph. Ski Cross has been a part of the Winter X-Games for years, where it's can be even more exciting with 6 skiers racing at a time. One American to root for in Vancouver is Daron Rahlves. If you've followed the Olympics at all, you may remember Rahlves as a downhill and super G skier from the '98, '02 and '06 Winter Games. He's won countless events, but has never taken home an Olympic medal. He recently switched over to Ski Cross and is the 2008 X-Games Ski Cross Champion and may very well be in reach of that elusive gold.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

66 Days

I feel like ranting for a second. At Skate America, my sister came up with a new term for figure skating costumes: Olympic ready, as in, is this what you want to be wearing when you win and are on every front page of every newspaper? For instance, we think ladies front runner, Yu-Na Kim is very Olympic ready. And we would also assume that if Vera Wang is designing your costumes, you would automatically be Olympic ready, i.e. Nancy Kerrigan in 1994 and Michelle Kwan in 2002. Well somehow, Evan Lysacek seems to be managing just the opposite. This season he has had two costumes for his long program designed by Vera Wang, and both just don't seem Olympic ready at all. The first one was sheer in the front and back and the new one has snakes. (And the sleeves need to be shortened.) To steal a line from SNL, really? In my opinion, he is very quickly heading into giraffe-tuxedo land, a la Olympic Champion, Ilia Kulik in 1998. And also, why does Lysacek always wear black? You can visit the photo gallery on his website or just take my word for it - Lysacek has not added color to his repertoire since 2004. For crying out loud, just wear a color already. This is the Olympics, not a funeral! (Please be advised that this rant is only written out of love and concern for Evan. If I wasn't rooting for him to make it to the podium and thus the front page of newspapers everywhere, I wouldn't care if he wore a bathrobe. And I must admit, the giraffe costume grew on me... a little.)

66 countries are members of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), but only seven of those (Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States) have finished in the top three at the IIHF World Championships. Those seven countries have also medaled at every men's ice hockey event in the Olympics since 1920 but six. (And five of those six medals were bronze.) Also, all nine Olympic medals in women's ice hockey have gone to one of those seven countries. (Women's ice hockey did not become an Olympic sport until 1998.)

There are also 66 countries who are members of the International Biathlon Union.

A law was passed in Beijing prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics banning smoking in the city's 66,000 taxis for both drivers and passengers. The law fined drivers $13 to $26 if caught smoking at the wheel.

Monday, December 7, 2009

67 Days

The U.S. snowboarding team unveiled their Olympic team uniforms. Not something I would ever wear on the slopes, but then again, I'm a skier. What do you snowboarders think?
http://snowboarding.transworld.net/files/2009/12/mensolympicuniform.jpg


Even though GM company declared bankruptcy back in June, they have still committed $67 million to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and while most of that is in the form of in-kind contributions such as cars, it also includes $14 million in cash.

Canadian Jeremy Wotherspoon is the 500m world record holder, an Olympic silver medallist and his 67 World Cup wins are an all-time record for male speed skaters. The 2010 Olympics in his home country will be his fourth.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

68 Days

Celebrations all around for US Biathlon and Tim Burke. It was a week of firsts for Burke when he became the first American to win a medal in a World Cup Sprint competition by placing second and the first to medal in biathlon twice in one week. In the sprint, he went 10 for 10 in shooting and on a personal note, he made an excellent shooting instructor for my friend Miriam L. and me at the U.S. Olympic Committee's Countdown to Vancouver event in Rockefeller Center, NY a few weeks ago. Lots of luck to Tim in the Olympics!

For 68 years, after the Olympic flame was lit at the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, a group of doves would be released to symbolize peace. The tradition began at the 1920 Summer Olympics. It ended after the 1988 Summer Olympics when several doves were burned alive in the Olympic Flame. Not so peaceful.

According to the Sports Business Journal, the U.S. Olympic Committee approved 68 newspapers to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which is almost half as many as the 134 newspapers that covered the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The U.S.O.C. had issued 481 individual passes, but 135 were returned. Furthermore, television ad sales are down from the usual amount for the Olympics. Both of these down trends seem to indicate lack of interest in the Olympics, and in winter sports in general. Some suggest that the upcoming Olympics is lacking in marketable athletes. Others suggest that it's all just due to the bad economy.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

69 Days

At the 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, only 24 members of Brazil's Olympic team out of 69 were able to compete. Brazil was so poor due to the Great Depression that the only way they could get the team to Los Angeles was to send them on a barge with 25 tons of coffee to sell to ports on the way. At the time, there was a $1 head tax per person to enter the U.S. and a $2 athlete entry fee for the Olympics. The hope was that the profits from selling the coffee at ports along the way would be enough for all 69 athletes. Unfortunately, they were able to sell only $24 worth of coffee by the time they reached L.A. The Brazilian Olympic team then pleaded their case to the Brazilian consulate in San Francisco, which sent a check written out for the equivalent of 45 American dollars. Yet again, the athletes were hit with bad luck, and in the time it took for the check to get from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Brazil's currency devalued and the check was worth only $17 when it arrived. What's more, the check then bounced. Here's hoping that Brazil will be able to make up for that fiasco when the Summer Olympics come to Rio in 2016.

When softball and baseball were dropped from the 2012 Olympics in 2005, they became the first sports in 69 years (counting back from 2008 - the last time it would be played) to be dropped from the Olympics. Before that, Polo was cut after the 1939 Olympics. More recently, softball and baseball were also voted out of the 2016 Games in Rio.

Friday, December 4, 2009

70 Days

Jim Thorpe to some is considered the best all-around American athlete, having excelled in football, basketball and baseball as well as in various track and field events. He won two gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, in the Pentathlon and Decathlon. However, in 1913, the I.O.C. discovered that Thorpe had played professional baseball prior to the Olympics, and stripped him of his medals. At that time, the I.O.C. were very serious about allowing only amateur athletes to participate in the Olympics. In a ceremony in 1983, 70 years after Thorpe was stripped of his gold medals, (and thirty years after his death,) the I.O.C. declared Jim Thorpe co-champion with the athletes who had originally placed second to him. They awarded two of Thorpe's children with commemorative medals, since his original ones had been stolen from a museum.

In 2006, the Vancouver Olympic Committee sent 70 of their employees to the Winter Olympics in Turino to shadow their Italian counterparts in order to prepare for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

71 Days

Move over all you baseball and football fantasy league players, there's a new fantasy sport in town. Figure Skating! US Figure Skating has a fantasy skating league on their website, but SkateBuzz.com, part of Skate Canada, seems to have one-upped them, by offering prizes such as cookware and skin care products -- they know their (female) audience. And get this, the pot they're giving away has a skating image on it! The rules are similar to that of other fantasy leagues. Choose the winners of each event beforehand, and get points for how accurate the choices are. Skate Canada (Canada's governing skating body) in particular has been trying to close the gap in the way the general public feels about skating vs. other sports. I guess a fantasy challenge is a step in the right direction.

Seventy-one of Finland's 151 medals have come in cross-country skiing. That's almost 50%, from one sport!

A year before the Olympics, 71 Canadian athletes signed a petition asking VANOC to make the 2010 Olympics carbon neutral. 25 Olympic sponsors are currently helping make this a reality.

71 million U.S. postal stamps were created to commemorate the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

72 Days

The 2014 Olympic Committee has unveiled the logo for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics to be held in Russia (in about 4 years and 72 days). While the logo definitely won't be awarded a wooden spoon anytime soon (see 83 Days), it is being criticized by some for being plain and boring. It is also the first Olympic logo to include it's website, which I think fits the twenty-first century perfectly. I'm just curious as to why they decided on a blue and white theme, as opposed to the usual Russian colors of red and white.

In other Sochi news, International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge announced that he fully trusts Russian authorities to provide proper security for the Olympics following a deadly bomb explosion in Russia this past weekend. Rogge was in Russia to help unveil the new logo for the Sochi Olympics. With four years to go, I don't think we should be worrying about security at the Sochi Olympics just yet. The 2002 Salt Lake City Games came just months after 9-11, and there were no major security concerns at all.

The Olympics has seen a major increase in doping tests over the last few years. There was a 72% increase from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy where about 1200 drug tests were administered. The number of drug tests given is expected to double at the upcoming Winter Games in Vancouver to about 2500. The World Anti-Doping Agency has also announced that the drug tests themselves are getting better and more accurate. Results of thorough drug tests should be ready within 72 hours of taking them. (That's two 72 stats in one topic!)

Aside from the current medical facilities already in place at Whistler Mountain, home of the ski and snowboard events for the 2010 Olympics, there will be a temporary trailer set up filled with 72 hours worth of surgical supplies as well. Given the fact that a medal-hopeful is already out of the Olympics due to injury(Canadian John Kucera broke his leg a couple of days ago in a World Cup event, and underwent surgery), I'd say that's a good idea.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

73 Days

I know that all of you, my wonderful readers, come to this countdown every day for one reason... Curling! Right? Ok, so curling is not the most popular Winter Olympic sport. But that doesn't mean we should ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist (even though I'm pretty sure that's what NBC does by airing it on NBC affiliates rather than their main channel). A few months ago, some friends and I tried curling on the wii and we pretty much had no idea what we were doing (who ever takes the time to read the instructions on those games). It also ended with some angry neighbors and the police being called, but that's another story for another blog. So, let's take some time to learn the rules of curling so that maybe 73 days from now, we might find that it's actually a fun and interesting sport to watch. (Or not, who am I kidding?)

Now, as we know from yesterday, Curling was originally a part of the Winter Olympics as a demonstration sport, but later became an actual sport in 1998. Curling is played by two teams at a time, with four players on each team. Teams take turns sliding granite stones down a rectangular sheet of ice, using brooms to help bring the stone to rest at the other end of the sheet, in a red circle called the house. After each team throws 8 stones, the team with the stone closest to the center of the house gets a point for each of their stones that's closer to the center than their opponents closest stone. The highest score a team can get is 8 points, and that is considered very difficult. There are 10 ends in each game (similar to an inning). To make this entry pertinent to today, each team has 73 minutes to play their stones over 10 ends.

Meaning no disrespect to Curling fans, researching the rules of Curling for this blog has made me less of a fan than ever, if that's even possible. Sorry. But here's the 50 page rule book for anyone who's still interested.

To end on a not necessarily better, but different, note, the estimated cost for building the Olympic Athlete's Village in Vancouver is $73 million.