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.

3 comments:

  1. what were colbert's offending jokes?

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  2. You can check it out for yourself here at about 2:15 in: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/255185/november-05-2009/on-notice-dead-to-me---canadian-iceholes

    The interesting thing is that Colbert was making fun of the Canadians, so I'm not sure exactly where Davis took offense (although he has trained in Calgary).

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  3. i love how "just saying" is in your blog today. and to think, i started the "just saying" phrase almost a year ago...just saying!! (MNB)

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