Sara's Countdown to Vancouver

Sara's Countdown to... Sochi? (The Recap)

2010-03-01T09:15:00.003-05:00

So here are the last of the 2010 Olympics stats:
-The U.S. won 37 medals, a record for any country at a single Winter Olympic Games, and the first time ever that the U.S. has topped the medal count. (The U.S. tied for third in the gold medal count with 9.)
-Canada won the most gold medals of the Games, with 14 - also a record, for most gold medals ever at a Winter Olympics.

And now, on to my stats:
-114 posts
-94 + 17 days of blogging
-1764 unique visitors (not including today)
-7603 page views (not including today)
-Visitors from 46 different countries and 47 states
-Most viewed posts:
Gold: 50 Days with 196 viewers
Silver: 66 Days with 115 viewers
Bronze: Day 8 with 89 viewers
-Most commented post:
Gold: Day 14 with 15 comments
Silver: 50 Days with 11 comments
Bronze: 66 Days and 67 Days with 8 comments
-244 Google searches lead visitors to my blog, my favorite: "i saspect that plushenko was ingured,that why he lost mens figure scating. is there any different opinions?" If you're reading, no, I do not suspect injury to be the reason Plushenko lost the gold.

I'd like to thank all my readers, my poem contributors and all of those who sent me links to articles you thought I might find interesting or useful for the blog. And of course, the person who pushed me to make the countdown more than just a boring gchat status, Miriam L. You're right, you are like the skating mom who doesn't let her kids off the ice until they've perfected their triple axel. I aspire to be like you. Special shout out to my commenters:
Gold: Zehava with 14 comments
Silver: Ocho G and MNB tied with 12 comments
Pewter: RebeccaLunch with 10 comments
(Zev came in 5th and BobBeeBoop and Avi Z tied for 6th)

I think that if even just a few of you watched (and enjoyed) a little bit more of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics than you might have otherwise, then I've done my job.

And in case anyone was wondering, only 1438 days until the Sochi Olympics...

Day 17

2010-02-28T11:03:00.000-05:00

Disappointment of the Olympics: Lindsey Vonn. Missed a gate again. I know she won a gold and Julia Mancuso only won two silvers, but I'm on Team Julia, probably for the tiara.

Apolo Ohno won his eighth Olympic medal - the bronze in the relay team. This was his last race of the 2010 Olympics, so he ended up with no golds. Ohno has not yet decided whether he'll try for a fourth Olympic Games in 2014. Even though he won three medals, I can't decide if he's also a "disappointment of the Olympics" since none were gold. Canada did win gold in the relay, which put the country at the top of the leader board for most gold medals so far with 10.

Can we talk about snowboard parallel giant slalom for a second? I know, right? Who even knew this sport existed. You know a sport should not be in the Olympics when a)you don't even hear about it until the second to last day of the Games and b)they only show about 4 competitors and they only show them in the late night broadcast. I don't even know who won because my dvr cut off, and honestly, I don't even care. I also thought of something. You know how all the skiing races were postponed at the beginning of the Games because of bad weather? What happens when there's bad weather at the end of the Games? Do they postpone past the Closing Ceremonies? Has that ever happened?

Day 16

2010-02-27T10:55:00.003-05:00

Wow, the poem thing really seems to be taking off. Here's one from Avi Z.

She blogs about the Olympics in 2010
not only the females, but even the men.
While her passion is to skate
perhaps blogging is her fate.

Sport after sport she writes about them all,
the daily tales both short and tall.
Day after day she entertains us
with a writing style that has no fuss.

When the closing ceremonies finally commence,
what will Sara do to keep us in such suspense?
I am sure that she will find a way to have some fun
because honestly, this story is far from done.

The Canadian women's hockey team apologized today for spending about a half hour on the ice after they won drinking beer and smoking cigars. That apology seems a little unnecessary to me. I know they're supposed to be "role models" but they're all adults (unless they're not, but the legal drinking age in Canada is 19) and nothing was illegal.

Quote of the week: "I am sick of this stupid game." That was said by the U.S. men's curling captain after coming in last place.

Day 15

2010-02-26T08:17:00.000-05:00

Who else had the bejesus scared out of them when American skier Sarah Schleper roared before she began her race? That's quite the way to psych yourself up.

Congrats to Jeret "Speedy" Peterson for winning the silver medal in freestyle aerials. I still can't tell the difference between Peterson's famous hurricane jump and any of the other jumps, but I'm happy he did well. Back in November, Peterson and some other skiers and snowboarders came to Rockefeller Center in N.Y. to celebrate the 100 day countdown to the Olympics and they did some of their aerial tricks on a trampoline. It was fantastic to see live.

Billy Demong made history last night by becoming the first American to win gold in the Nordic Combined. Johnny Spillane won the silver - his third of the games.

I am hating NBC right now. They showed only 10 figure skaters, three of which were not even in the top 12 after the short program. Why would they do that? I understand that they need to cut between different sports, but instead of going for the ones with cute little stories, show me 7th and 8th place. And seriously, why not show Demong's medal ceremony on the late night broadcast? I am thrilled that they made history, but that could have been an extra skater right there. Isn't women's skating supposed to be the premiere event of the Winter Olympic Games? Sigh.

To me, the performance of the night belonged to the bronze medalist, Canadian Joannie Rochette. She has a maturity and grace to her skating that the younger skaters, still in their teens, just don't have. That, combined with having her hometown crowd behind her, and the added emotion from her mother's death on Saturday made her mesmerizing to watch. But silver medalist Mao Asada's two triple axels (one in combination) is quite astounding to me as well. I do think that this is a similar situation to the quad controversy in the men's competition. That Asada's score came nowhere near Olympic champ Yu-Na Kim's is a little startling to me. Mao had just as much pressure from her country to win gold as Yu-Na did and she was clearly distraught during the medal ceremony. But talk about Yu-Na's score - she would have placed 9th in the men's program. That is ridiculously amazing.

Both American ladies skated really well. Mirai Nagasu had my second favorite performance of the night. And Rachael Flatt skated really well too - it's too bad her triple flips were downgraded. But as well as they skated, they broke a pretty amazing Olympic streak: At least one American woman has been on the podium at every Olympics since 1968...until last night.

Day 14

2010-02-25T08:42:00.001-05:00

Let us begin with a rhyme written exclusively for this blog, by our very own Sol R.

If you like to watch figure skating
And always keep all your friends waiting.
If you feel as though it takes over your life
This may lead to feelings of strife.
If you feel the need to watch it in order
You might have an Olympics Disorder.

So let's discuss the women's skiing from last night. Because of the heavy snow, skiers started racing before the skier before them had completed the course. In her first run, Lindsey Vonn fell and broke her pinkie finger. American Julia Mancuso, who was the defending Olympic champion in this event, raced right behind Vonn, not knowing that Lindsey had crashed. Halfway through, the referees made Julia stop since Lindsey was still sitting on the course. At that point, Mancuso's time was among the leaders of the race. Mancuso was then brought back to the top to being the race over, at which point the conditions were a lot worse and she ended up way behind the leaders. The second run of the event will be raced today. It's too bad, and maybe the referees need to rethink the idea of having two racers on the course at the same time, especially in dangerous conditions.

Other than that, I'm gonna call yesterday the most boring day of the Olympics so far. Nothing else to report.

Day 13

2010-02-24T08:42:00.002-05:00

The American men made more history yesterday in the Nordic Combined by winning the silver medal in the team event. This is the first team medal for the Americans and the second medal in the Nordic Combined - Johnny Spillane won the silver a few days ago in the individual event and was part of the team event as well.

Poor Sven Kramer. The Dutchman was way ahead of all the other skaters' times in the 25 lap race, and all set to win the gold, when he was disqualified for not changing lanes correctly. What's more, Kramer was in the correct lane, but his coach started yelling for him to move into the other lane, which turned out to be the wrong lane. Needless to say, Kramer was furious and could not be consoled. Speed skating is so huge in the Netherlands, that coach is never going to be allowed back into the country. At least Kramer already won a gold medal a few days ago.

Did you see the little clip they did about how famous Korean figure skater Yu-Na Kim has become in her home country? I can totally vouch for the fact that there is no exaggeration in any of that. When I was at Skate America in Lake Placid last November, fans had come from all over the world to see her and they went nuts for her. In all my years of skater stalking, I have never seen anything like it. She and Japan's Mao Asada certainly did not disappoint. Both of them have been having trouble with their jumps this season, so it was great to see Asada complete a triple axel-double toe and then Kim to follow that performance with a triple-triple combination. And what an emotional moment to watch Canada's Joannie Rochette skate a beautiful performance just days after her mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Even Scott Hamilton got all choked up. (Note, the man in the audience who NBC kept showing as Rochette's father was not actually her father, but a family friend.) The top 6 ladies are pretty much standing as expected with Yu-Na and Mao at the top and the Americans in the mix as well.

Day 12

2010-02-23T08:45:00.000-05:00

Caught up on some Olympics from Sunday. Go Bode! His first Olympic gold medal. What a comeback after the disastrous 2006 Olympics he had. No American male skier has ever won 4 medals in one Olympics and Bode has two more races to go.

In Ice Dance, North American teams have not had much success. Belbin and Agosto's silver medal in 2006 was America's best result ever, and the first medal in thirty or so years. No North American team has ever won gold. Not only that, but since the Ice Dance event began in the 1970s, the Russians have won gold every time, but twice. (Brits Torvill and Dean in 1984 and France's Annisina and Peizerat in 2002 are the exceptions.) So just the fact that three North American teams are in the top four positions, let alone the top two is a turning point in the sport. Johnny Weir was interviewed a few days ago about how he placed in the men's competition and he made a comment that suggested that he placed lower than he should have for political reasons - that it wasn't in some countries' best interests to have two American men on the podium. I don't know if that's true, but the fact that Russia claimed the bronze medal over Belbin and Agosto makes me think back to Weir's comments. What was up with the ropes? In my mind, lifting your partner from the ropes wrapped around her waist is totally cheating. But back to the positive, Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were absolutely stunning last night. If anything has improved from the new judging system in figure skating, it's definitely ice dance. North American skaters could have NEVER won gold (from a political standpoint) even just a few years ago. Belbin and Agosto must be acknowledged for paving the way for this achievement. Virtue and Moir are also the fourth Olympic champions in figure skating for Canada and the first ice dance team to win gold in their first trip to the Olympics.

What the heck is a "full double full full"? I mean, I know not everyone totally understands the difference between a quad and a triple in figure skating, but the way the commentators call the aerials competition is ridiculous. This is absolutely a sport that no one watches in between Olympics. Try and teach us, would ya?

Day 11

2010-02-22T09:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I decided to take a break from watching winter sports and participate in one myself, so I went skiing. It was a great day and I ended up renting men's Head boots and skis, and felt just like Lindsey Vonn who also skis in men's gear. Some think she is actually racing in Bode Miller's old skis, and I would like to think the same for myself as well.

Ski cross made it's Olympic debut yesterday, with the men's competition. It's just as crazy and fun to watch as snowboard cross. I don't know how ski polls are legal in this sport; it would be so easy to take out an eye like that.

The mother of Canadian ladies figure skater (and medal contender) Joannie Rochette passed away on Saturday night. At this point, Rochette still plans to skate at the Olympics. The short program begins on Tuesday.

By the way, do you know how hard it is to stay away from the Olympics when you don't want to know what's happening? My sister's birthday party on Saturday night? The bar had t.v.s airing the Olympics. The ski lodge? Olympics. The pizza store for dinner? Olympics!

Day 10

2010-02-21T10:10:00.003-05:00

Lots of history making over the last couple of days...

Norway's Simon Ammann made history yesterday by becoming the most decorated Norwegian Olympian - Summer or Winter. He won his fourth gold medal in ski jumping yesterday, his second of these Games. He became somewhat of a star in 2002 in Salt Lake City, more because he looked like Harry Potter than for his ski jumping accomplishments.

Bode Miller also made history on Friday by becoming the most decorated American skier when he won his fourth medal - this one a silver. He had two silver medals in 2002 and a bronze in the downhill a few days ago. Lindsey Vonn raced yesterday and won bronze, her second of this Olympics. (Note to those keeping track, Bode's race on Friday was the first alpine ski race of the 2010 Games that weren't spoiled for me before I watched it. A small victory right there.)

Shani Davis also won his fourth Olympic medal - a silver, which was the second medal for him in Vancouver. (He already won gold.) Davis will not be competing anymore at these Olympics.

And Apolo Ohno made the biggest history by becoming the most decorated American Winter Olympian with seven medals. He won bronze on Saturday night. Ohno has two more races to go this week.

Day 9

2010-02-20T10:49:00.004-05:00

This is going to be a short post, since I haven't had a chance to watch Friday's activities yet.

Here's a men's figure skating stat for you.

The only skater to win 4 Olympic medals: Gillis Grafström from Sweden who won 3 golds in the 1920s and silver in 1932.

The only skaters to win 3 Olympic medals (very short considering two of them did it at these Olympic Games):
Sonia Henie - 3 golds in 1928, 1932 and 1936
Irina Rodnina - 3 golds in 1972 (with partner Alexei Ulanov) and in 1976 and 1980 (with partner Alexander Zaitsev)
Artur Dmitriev - gold in 1992 and silver in 1994 (with partner Natalia Mishkutenok) and gold in 1998 (with partner Oksana Kazakova)
Marina Klimova & Sergei Ponomarenko - bronze in 1984, silver in 1988 and gold in 1992
Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao - bronze in 2002 and 2006 and gold in 2010
Evgeni Plushenko - silver in 2002, gold in 2006 and silver in 2010

Stephen Colbert arrived in Vancouver a couple of days ago to support his US Speedskating team and apparently, he's found a new use for skates. Figure skating champion Brian Boitano has been known to use a figure skate similarly on his cooking show, What Would Brian Boitano Make.

Day 8: To spoil or not to spoil...

2010-02-19T07:18:00.000-05:00

So I am now 0 for 3 so far in terms of not knowing who won the skiing events at the Olympics until it aired on NBC. On Tuesday, I was watching the figure skating preview show on Universal Sports and they interrupted their chat on the skating to let everyone that Bode won bronze. On Wednesday, I was signing off my email at work, and bam! there it was, Lindsay Vonn wins gold. And then yesterday, I was in the supermarket when I ran into someone who shall remain nameless who said, "can you believe she missed a gate!" so I knew Vonn did not win. (But yay for Julia Mancuso's second silver medal of the Games, which I did not know about in advance.) I have kind of come to terms with the fact that some events will be spoiled for me over the course of the Olympics, but it leads me to the following question: Who prefers to find out what happens right away and who prefers to wait until they can watch it play out on television? I think my thoughts on the subject are obvious, but if not, keep reading.

Let me tell you about my dedication (some might have other words for it) to the sport of figure skating. My friend Miriam B. came over to watch the men's long program with me last night. She had dinner plans earlier in the evening (happy birthday, Zehava) so we agreed to watch it a little late from my dvr. My roommate, Sara C. and my sister Rebecca both joined us as well. Over the course of the skating, both Sara C. and Rebecca managed to forget that we were not watching live and went online and accidentally found out the results. Miriam and I allowed them to keep watching with us provided that they observe my strict rules of no talking, making facial expressions or even breathing, lest they give anything away. As we watched each skater, the anticipation of watching the last performance of the night, Russia's Evgeni Plushenko grew - who would win, him or American Evan Lysacek. And then... my dvr stopped because the Olympics had run passed midnight and I forgot to record the News, even though I have been doing that every other night since the Olympics have begun. Sigh. After freaking out, Rebecca remembered that NBC reairs the Olympics at 2 am each night/morning, so I decided to wait until they showed Plushenko's performance at about 4:50 am. And it definitely paid off! Plushenko did the quad and a bunch of other jumps, but really had nothing else to offer. I was nervous that the judges were going to give it to him anyway since he's been so dominant this season, but once again props to them, the judging has been spot on so far. I think Evan deserved this one. I hope Plushenko doesn't feel like his entire comeback was a waste just because he didn't win. He is an exceptional skater who won his third Olympic medal: silver in 2002, gold in 2006 and silver last night as well. That's quite an accomplishment.

Anyway, back to me, I feel like Jimmy Roberts should do one of those sappy, emotional pieces on me about my dedication and perseverance to my sport. Talk about Olympic spirit.

I can't end this post without mentioning the Americans success in women's halfpipe, where Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark won the silver and bronze medals last night. Special shout-out to Torah Bright and her number one fan, Avi Z. for winning the gold.

Day 7

2010-02-18T08:34:00.006-05:00

Anyone who knows me and has seen Julia Mancuso ski knows why she's my favorite skier. It's the tiara, of course! Mancuso got a lot of flack at the 2006 Olympics for wearing a plastic tiara on top of her helmet and a beaded necklace during her competition, but then won gold, forcing people to shut up. At this Olympics, she had a tiara painted onto her helmet, but the real thing was out in full force once she finished the race. Congrats to her on her silver medal in the downhill last night. I love that she wore it to the medal ceremonies - that's totally something I would have done. And of course props to Lindsey Vonn as well on winning the gold. Interesting that Vonn's secret weapon seems to be the fact that she races on men's skis.

When I watch Apolo Ohno skate, the first word that comes to mind is finesse. So cool that the 5000m relay final will have 5 teams - that's 20 skaters on the ice at once! I was also reminded just how much Ohno did for the popularity of the sport when I watched the women's short track events on the late night broadcast (not worthy of the prime time broadcast) and realized how little I care.

Congrats to our Americans racking up the medals last night. Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick won gold and bronze respectively in speed skating. Davis is the first to win back to back Olympic gold medals in the 1000 meters. And 2006 Olympic champion Shawn "flying tomato" White and Scotty Lago also won gold and bronze in the men's halfpipe event.

The 6 U.S. medals yesterday made U.S. history for the most Olympic medals in one day.

Day 6

2010-02-17T09:15:00.005-05:00

Let's start with skating. Firstly, how many times is Scott Hamilton going to use the term, "the devil's in the details" to describe the deductions skaters receive on minor mistakes. We get it, find something new to say.

Last night's men's short program is the reason I love skating so much. After a night of falls in the pair's long program, the men really pulled it together when it counted. I love that the top three in the standings actually reflect the three best performances of the night. And I really love that American Evan Lysacek (the current World Champion) is in a virtual tie with Russian Evgeni Plushenko (the 2006 Olympic Champion) and Japan's Daisuke Takahashi without having attempted the quad toe loop. That just goes to show how strong the rest of Lysacek's skating skills are and I think that's a really good sign as to how he'll do in the long program. Biggest upsets of the night: Frenchman Brian Joubert and current U.S. National Champion, Jeremy Abbott. Both came into the competition as medal contenders but took themselves out of the race last night.

Skating factoid of the day: No reigning men's world champion has won the Olympics since American Scott Hamilton in 1984. That may not sound good for Lysacek but factoid number two: the only men to ever do that are all American. Of course, that should all be taken with a grain of salt, since they told Michelle Kwan in 2002 that all the ladies' Olympic Champions had been the World Champions the previous year, as she had been in 2001 and we all know how that worked out. (Not bitter at all...)

Once again, American Lindsey Jacobellis manages to disappoint. In 2006 in snowboard cross, Jacobellis was all set to win gold and on the last little jump of the course, she did a little victory trick and fell and had to settle for second. This year, she didn't even make it to the finals. But that made room for Canada's Maelle Ricker to win her country's second gold medal on home turf.

First reaction to the headline, "Pregnant Olympian a Rarety": don't know who this is, but she's really dumb for putting her baby's life at risk for the Olympics.

Second reaction: ...unless it's curling, which is pretty much the least active Olympic sport you could come up with. (Besides maybe ping pong, but that's a Summer sport.)

Which it turned out to be. Canadian curler Kristie Moore is 5 months pregnant. She's also the alternate on her team, so she's unlikely to compete anyway. But if her team makes the podium, she will win a medal as well. Moore is the second known athlete to compete at the Olympics while pregnant. The first was Magda Julin who won the gold in figure skating at the 1920 Winter Olympics while she was three months pregnant.

Day 5

2010-02-16T08:59:00.003-05:00

OK, whose new favorite sport is snowboard cross? Just watching the qualifiers was super exciting. The course on it's own is nuts! In the qualifiers, the snowboarders run the course by themselves which looks like a crazy event on it's own - even the 2006 Olympic champion, American Seth Wescott wiped out, and that was without having to fight the other racers off. But then, having 4 competitors race the track at once, and watching Wescott start out in last place in the final heat and win the gold, that was pretty exciting. Wescott became the first snowboarder to win back to back gold medals at the Winter Olympics. (Also, what's with the siren that went off each time the racer would pass one of the turns in the qualifiers? You'd think that would be a little distracting.)

Figure skating factoid of the day: Newly crowned pairs champions and married couple Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao live in separate rooms in their training dormitory in Harbin, China. Compare that to non-married American couple Amanda Evora and Jeremy Barrett (both pairs skaters but with different partners) who do live together in Florida. By the way, can someone please tell the skaters that you're not supposed to fall at the Olympics? Just sayin'. Special shoutout to both American pairs who didn't fall, especially to Evora and Mark Ladwig for getting the highest scoring element in the entire competition with their last lift.

Day 4

2010-02-15T09:30:00.001-05:00

I guess the Canadian curse is over. Alexandre Bilodeau became the first Canadian ever to win gold on home soil last night, when he won the men's freestyle moguls event.

Two brothers competed in the Nordic combined event (ski jumping and cross country skiing combined) yesterday, but for different countries. They're Norwegian born to Swiss parents. Tommy Schmid represents Switzerland while his older brother, Jan defected to Norway to be part of the strong Norwegian ski program there. They both train in Norway. Neither of them medalled, but congrats to America Johnny Spillane for winning the silver medal - the first Olympic medal for an American in Nordic combined, ever.

Figure skater Peggy Fleming, bobsledder Vonetta Flowers and Miracle on Ice hockey player Mark Eruzione were in a minor car accident yesterday when their car was rear-ended by another car. Their car was part of Vice President Joe Biden's motorcade and they were taken to the hospital as a precaution but are all fine. Fleming and Flowers later attended the pair's figure skating short program. V.P. Biden was in another car and was uninjured.

Day 3 (Oops, Yesterday should have been Day 2 and 0 Days should have been Day 1)

2010-02-14T09:34:00.000-05:00

So apparently Day 1 of the Olympics was Friday, even though the only thing that happened was the Opening Ceremonies. Oops.

Congrats to Apolo Ohno on getting the silver medal last night, tying Bonnie Blair for most medals ever for a Winter Olympian. I'm sure it's nice for him to have the medal, but I can't imagine that he's happy with second place. I bet this motivates him for his next four competitions. Major props to J.R. Celski for winning the bronze. Did you see the footage from the Olympic trials when he cut his leg on his blade? Blood everywhere!

Latvian Haralds Silovs made history yesterday by becoming the first Winter Olympian to compete in two different sports in one Olympic Games. And in the same day. He had about 5 hours in between his long track speed skating competition where he placed 20th and his short track speed skating event where he made it to the semifinals.

Jenn Heil attempted to become the first Canadian to win gold on Canadian soil yesterday in the women's freestyle skiing competition. As the defending Olympic champion, she was the favorite going into the race. But American Hannah Kearney had other plans and forced Heil to settle for silver.

2010 Winter Olympics: Day 1

2010-02-13T11:49:00.002-05:00

What a terrible way to start the Olympics. 21 year old luger Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia (the country) died on Friday during a training run at the Whistler Sliding Center. His sled hit the wall of the track and he was knocked into an unpadded steel poll. This track, which will be used for the luge, bobsled and skeleton events is considered the fastest in the world and athletes have previously commented on safety concerns. This is the first accidental death during competition or official training at the Olympics since 1960. At "press time" it had not been determined whether the Georgian Olympic team would pull out or whether the luge competition would go on as scheduled.

I haven't had the chance to watch the Opening Ceremonies yet (don't worry, it's tivo-ed), but I'm sure they were spectacular. The truth is, I don't usually end up watching the Opening Ceremonies until after the Olympics, because between the actual events, preview shows, news shows, etc., I'm pretty much fighting to keep up before anything even happens.

Speaking of before anything even happens, how are there multiple figure skating scandals already? And honestly, it's all ridiculous.

The first one stems from an interview that Sasha Cohen gave to People Magazine, saying that the two American women, Rachael Flatt and Marai Nagasu are "good skaters, they're just not at the same level as the international girls" and do not have a chance to medal at the Olympics. I really don't know what this controversy is all about, because it's true. They are great skaters, but right now, there are better skaters out there. I'm predicting an all Asian podium for ladies figure skating.

The second controversy is a two-parter, with 2006 Olympic Champion Evgeni Plushenko stuck in the middle of each part. Part 1: The International Skating Union recently created educational videos and one of them featured a performance of Plushenko's in which commentators made some negative remarks about the presentation side. Team Plushenko got upset and demanded that the performance be removed from the video. Part 2: After winning the European Championships last month, Plushenko commented on the higher marks the judges gave to silver medalist, Frenchman Brian Joubert on some of the non-jumping aspects than Plushenko received. Plushenko seems to have suggested that judges don't base the presentation scores on reality since only the jumps matter. This lead American judge Joe Inman (who will not be judging in Vancouver) to send an email out to other judges reminding them to judge each aspect fairly. And for some reason, the French Skating Federation (same people who were involved in the pairs skating scandal in 2002) took that email to be part of a North American lobby. Yeah, I don't get it either.

0 Days! The Olympics starts tonight!

2010-02-12T09:13:00.004-05:00

Mark Grimmette, a five-time Olympian in luge has been named the Flag Bearer for the U.S. team at tonight's Opening Ceremonies. Grimette previously won the bronze in 1998 and the silver in 2002. He is only one of four U.S. athletes to compete at the Winter Olympics five times. For more information on Grimette or any other U.S. Olympian, check out teamusa.org, the official website from the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Other flag bearers include speedskater Clara Hughes for Canada, who is one of the few to win Olympic medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics and figure skater Stephane Lambiel for Switzerland, who won the silver medal in Turino in 2006.

Never before has a city hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The city of Munich, Germany is trying to be the first and will succeed if they win the bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. They previously hosted the 1936 and 1972 Summer Olympics.

No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Olympic Games.

Canada has never won gold at the Olympics on their home turf.

1 Day

2010-02-11T08:40:00.003-05:00

With just one day until the 2010 Winter Olympics, America's star (or the American media's star) Olympian, skier Lindsey Vonn is injured and is unsure of her Olympic plans. As of now, she is still planning to compete in her events, but plans to skip her training sessions. Before this injury, Vonn was expected to go for gold in five different alpine skiing events.

At the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, silver medals were awarded to the winners and bronze to the second place athletes.

The U.S. placed first in the medal count once at the Winter Olympics, in 1932 in Lake Placid

The first Olympic Games to be televised was the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, where events were shown on large screens around Berlin. The first Games to be televised worldwide was the 1956 Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The first Winter Games to be broadcast in color was in Grenoble, France in 1968.

Vancouver will be the first Winter Olympics where some events are held at sea level.

The music played in all of NBC's promotional 2010 Olympics commercials is the song, One Day by Matisyahu featuring Akon. Listen to it here.

2 Days

2010-02-10T09:24:00.000-05:00

Forbes announced their list of the highest money-making athletes who will be competing at the 2010 Winter Olympics (professional athletes like NHL stars not included). The majority of their money comes from endorsements and sponsorships, as Olympic competitions aren't known for their huge paychecks.

At the top of the list is U.S. snowboarder, Shaun White who made $8 million in 2009. His top sponsor, Red Bull, even built Shaun his own half-pipe. White previously won gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics, which certainly helped pick up endorsements coming into this Olympic Games.

Tied at number 1, is South Korean figure skater, Yu-Na Kim. As the 2009 World Champion, Kim is the favorite to win gold in Vancouver and has become a huge star in her home country.

3. Lindsey Vonn (U.S.A.) - skiing: $3 million
4. Ted Ligety (U.S.A.) - skiing: $2 million
5. Apolo Ohno (U.S.A.) - short track speedskating: $1.5 million
6. Bode Miller (U.S.A.) - skiing: $1.3 million
7. Gretchen Bleiler (U.S.A.) - snowboarding: $1 million
7. Lindsey Jacobellis (U.S.A) - snowboarding: $1 million
7. Hannah Teter (U.S.A.) - snowboarding: $1 million
7. Maria Riesch (Germany) - skiing: $1 million

In the Biathlon sprint and relay competitions, athletes stop 2 times at the shooting range.

U.S. speedskater Jennifer Rodriguez started out first as a Roller Skating Champion, and then later an In-line Skating Champion. In 1996, she switched to speed skating and made her first Olympic team only two years later, in 1998. She won two bronze medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

3 Days

2010-02-09T08:06:00.001-05:00

I watched an Olympic preview show on the Universal Sports channel last night and learned about a medal prediction model that Professor Dan Johnson of Colorado College has created. Professor Johnson has had 94% accuracy from 2000 - 2008 with his model. Johnson projects each nation's total medal count and gold medal count based on per-capita income, the country's population, it's political structure, it's climate and home-field advantage. Here's what he's predicting for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Let's see if he's right:

Canada - 27 medals - 5 gold medals
U.S. - 26 medals - 5 gold medals
Norway - 26 medals - 4 gold medals

Russia - most gold medals, with 8

At the Olympic Closing Ceremonies, three national flags are each hoisted onto flagpoles one at a time while their respective national anthems are played: The flag of Greece (honoring the birthplace of the Olympic games), the flag of the host country, and finally the flag of the host country of the next Summer or Winter Olympic Games. The one exception was in 2004, when the Olympic Games were held in Athens and only one flag (that of Greece) was raised.

The U.S. is third on the all time winter medal count with 216 (78 gold, 80 silver, 58 bronze).

4 Days

2010-02-08T09:01:00.000-05:00

Just 4 days before the 2010 Winter Olympics begin, the site of the Olympic half pipe competition is in serious need of snow. Officials have already cut the training days from 5 down to 3 and have been dumping snow via helicopter. The first half pipe competition is set for February 17 and so far no plans have been made to change the venue.

Only four athletes have ever won medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games: Eddie Eagan (USA - Bobsleigh/Boxing), Jacob Thams (Norway - Ski Jumping/Sailing), Christa Luding (Germany - Long Track Speed Skating/Track Cycling) and Clara Hughes (Canada - Long Track Speed Skating/Cycling).

No Winter Olympian has ever won four gold medals in the same event.

5 Days

2010-02-07T10:35:00.001-05:00

The only Olympian ever to medal five consecutive times in the same Olympic event is German Georg Hackl. In 2002, Hackl completed this streak by winning the silver medal in singles luge.

The velocity of the curling rock at top speed is 5 mph.

American speed skater Eric Heiden holds the record for most gold medals in a Winter Olympics with five in 1980. (He and Apolo Anton Ohno both have 5 Winter Olympic medals, the most all-time for an American man. As previously mentioned, Ohno can break that record in Vancouver.)

6 Days

2010-02-06T10:06:00.003-05:00

Speed skater Bonnie Blair has won six medals at the Olympic Winter Games. That's more than any other American athlete. Speed skater Apolo Ohno has 5 and is hoping to get at least two more to make him the most decorate U.S. Winter Olympian.

6 countries only have one winter Olympic medal: Uzbekistan (gold), New Zealand (silver), Slovakia (silver), Denmark (silver) and Romania (bronze) and Latvia (bronze).

In 2008, six countries won their first ever Olympic medal: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Mauritius, Sudan, Tajikistan and Togo.

7 Days

2010-02-05T09:06:00.001-05:00

One week, friends, one week!!!

NBC's website is giving viewers the opportunity to judge the figure skating competitions at the Olympics. Whether viewers watch live, on dvr or online, they will be able to rate each technical element and overall presentation.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/judge/index.html

Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics 7 years ago, in 2003.

The Canadian hockey team has won the Olympic gold medal seven times. They didn't medal in 2006, but are favorites in 2010, especially with home-ice advantage.

7 athletes were caught using illegal substances at the 2002 winter Games, which was more than the combined total of all previous Winter Games since testing began in 1968.

8 Days

2010-02-04T09:37:00.000-05:00

Just two weeks before the Olympics, snowboarder Shaun White added his name to the list of injured Olympians, by slamming face first into the half pipe at X-Games practice. Luckily, he did not suffer a concussion and didn't only compete the next day, but won. Last Thursday, Australian snowboarder Torah Bright suffered her second concussion in three days. Snowboarding has seen an increase in head injuries this season, the most notable one being that of American Kevin Pearce who still remains hospitalized with brain injuries. His spill took place back in December.

At the Closing Ceremonies of each Olympics, the mayor of the host city transfers a special Olympic Flag to the president of the International Olympic Committee, who then passes it on to the mayor of the next city to host the Olympic Games. The receiving mayor then waves the flag eight times.

The record for the most medals in a single Olympics is five, which was accomplished by eight different athletes.

9 Days

2010-02-03T08:48:00.000-05:00

So the US Olympic team is set, with 216 athletes. 87 have previously competed at the Winter Olympics - three of whom will be competing in their fifth Olympics: luger Mark Grimmette, Nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick and alpine skier Casey Puckett who is competing in ski cross this time. 31 athletes have won a combined total of 48 medals: 12 gold, 20 silver and 16 bronze. Short track speed skater Apolo Ohno is the most successful returning Olympian, with 5 medals. Curlers Tracy Sachtjen and John Benton are the oldest Olympians at 40 years, while freestyle aerialist Ashley Caldwell and figure skaters Mirai Nagasu and Caydee Denney are the youngest at 16.

Norwegian biathlete, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen currently has nine Winter Olympic medals, and is hoping to break the all-time record of 12 medals in Vancouver.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, had Michael Phelps competed as his own country, he would have finished tied for 9th in the gold medal count, ahead of countries including France, Netherlands, Spain, Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, Brazil and Mexico. Furthermore, the rest of the world combined won seven golds in men's swimming events. Phelps, of course, won eight.

10 Days

2010-02-02T09:10:00.000-05:00

NBC announced that they (NBC affiliates included) will be airing an unprecedented 835 hours of Olympic coverage over the course of the 2010 Winter Olympics in February.

With 10 days to go, instead of giving you stats with the number 10, here are my personal top 10 Winter Olympic athletes/moments. (Keep in mind, that I didn't start watching until 1994. Also keep in mind, while I love all - well, most - Olympic sports, figure skating is by far my favorite.)

10-At Skate America the season prior to the 2006 Olympics, Russian pairs skaters Totmianina and Marinin took a horrific fall during a lift and Totmianina landed on her head and was knocked unconscious. To come back from a fall that could have been devastating and win the Olympics a year later made for a nice feel-good story.

9-Remember when Bode Miller could ski and won Olympic medals?

8-In 1994, professional figure skaters were allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time. A few attempted comebacks (Viktor Petrenko, Kurt Browning, Brian Boitano failed to medal, while legendary ice dancers Torvil and Dean won the bronze), but the only skaters to win were Gordeeva and Grinkov, who will probably go down in history as the best pairs team ever. Grinkov's death at the young age of 28 was a terrible loss to the skating world.

7-Let's face it. If it weren't for Apolo Ohno, nobody would care about short track speed skating except for the Koreans.

6-Who doesn't remember Dan Jansen taking a victory lap with his baby daughter in his arms after winning gold in speed skating after years and years of failed attempts.

5-I've mentioned this before, but for Austrian skier Hermann Maier to take such a spectacular fall and then come back to win a gold medal so soon afterwards is unbelievable.

4-The 2002 Canadian/Russian pairs skating scandal. While I'm not happy about what it did to the judging system (it pains me that future generations will not know what I mean when I award someone a 6.0 for presentation), it is worth noting that Canadians Sale and Pelletier are the only non-Russian or former Soviet team to win a gold medal in pairs figure skating since 1960.

3-American Tommy Moe winning gold and silver in skiing in 1994. I had a poster of him in my room for years. The first of many Olympic crushes.

2-With all the hullabaloo going on in skating in 1994 with the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding saga, it was Olympic champion Oksana Baiul's spunky show-tunes long program that really stole the show and piqued my interest in the sport. It's too bad it was all downhill from there for her.

1-Michelle Kwan. There's not much more to say. While I wish she would have won gold back in 1998 (she instead had to "settle" for silver to Tara Lipinski), as a Kwan fanatic, I am thankful for all the years of amazing skating we got to see from her that we might not have seen had she won and retired. Even without a gold medal, to me, she is the best skater in the history of the sport.

What are your favorite Olympic moments?

11 Days

2010-02-01T09:40:00.001-05:00

The events of the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held at eleven different venues throughout Vancouver and Whistler Mountain: B.C. Place Stadium (Opening and Closing Ceremonies), Canada Hockey Place/GM Place (ice hockey), Vancouver Olympic/Paralympics Centre (curling), Pacific Coliseum (figure skating and short track speed skating), UBC Thunderbird Arena (ice hockey), Whistler Celebration Site (victory ceremonies and performances), Whistler Sliding Centre (bobsled, luge and skeleton), Whistler Creekside (alpine skiing), Whistler Olympic Park / Whistler Paralympics Park (cross country skiing, biathlon, Nordic combined and ski jumping), Richmond Oval (speed skating) and Cypress Mountain (freestyle skiing and snowboard).

Marjo Matikainen is a Finnish cross country skier who won the bronze medal in 1984 in the relay and two bronze medals and the gold in 1988 in Calgary. Eleven years after retiring, she went on to become a member of the European Parliament.

12 Days

2010-01-31T10:05:00.000-05:00

At the recent figure skating National Championships, Johnny Weir, who placed third and received a berth to the U.S. Olympic team sparked controversy over a piece of fox fur on his long program costume. Weir announced yesterday that he would remove the fur from his costume in order to stop the threats by animal activist groups of disrupting his Olympic performance.

The most medals won by any athlete at the Winter Olympic Games is 12 by cross-country skier Bjorn Dählie of Norway.

12 athletes have won Olympic medals while representing two distinctly different countries, but it has never happened at the Winter Games.

13 Days

2010-01-30T19:13:00.002-05:00

The most gold medals ever won by one country at a single winter games is 13. This occurred twice: at the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck by the U.S.S.R. and at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City by Norway.

Speed skater Kim Yun-Mi of South Korea is the youngest Olympic gold medalist of all time, having won the Women's short track 3000m relay at the 1994 Lillehammer Games at the age of 13 years and 83 days.

14 Days

2010-01-29T08:43:00.000-05:00

Only two weeks left in the countdown to Vancouver!

Condolences to figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, whose father was buried yesterday. Kerrigan's father, Daniel Kerrigan, apparently died following a struggle with his son, Mark Kerrigan on Sunday. The family claims the death was unrelated to the struggle. Nancy won the bronze medal at the 1992 Albertville Olympics and the silver medal at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

A Chinese newspaper reported that Russian officials are expecting their athletes to win at least 14 gold medals at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Russia won 8 gold medals at the previous Winter Games in Turin in 2006 and 6 gold medals in Salt Lake City in 2002. This seems to me like a useless statement. The Sochi Olympics are four years away. Also, clearly, all medal contenders are going to try for medals. Not just for their country, but for themselves. I'm not sure the added pressure from a statement like this helps anything.

British Olympian Phil Harries first competed at the Olympics in the 400m hurdle event at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. 14 years later, he returned to the Olympics, but this time the Winter Olympics in 2002 as a member of one of Great Britain's bobsled teams.

15 Days

2010-01-28T09:02:00.003-05:00

In 1928, Switzerland became the only host country to fail to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. Canada (in 1988), Yugoslavia (in 1984) and France (in 1924) join Switzerland as the only host countries to not win a gold medal during the Winter Games.

Athletes will be competing in 15 sports at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Olympic Charter requires that there be a minimum of 15 Olympic sports at each Summer Games.

Canada won 15 medals at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games, two more than the United States. It was the first time Canada topped the United States in the overall medal standings.

16 Days

2010-01-27T09:22:00.005-05:00

Roberto Carcelen is Peru's first Winter Olympian. He will compete for the first time at the 2010 Olympics in cross-country skiing. He grew up surfing and running in Lima, but now trains in Seattle. He's only been skiing for three years!

In 1988, the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta hosted the first Winter Olympics to span 16 days. The previous Olympics in 1984 were held over 13 days. And as we learned yesterday, the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics will span take place over 17 days. The Calgary Olympics were also the last ones to take place in a different location than the Paralympics.

U.S. swimming superstar, Michael Phelps has 16 Olympic medals: 14 gold and 2 bronze from the 2004 and 2008 Summer Games.

The first Winter Olympics was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. 258 athletes participated from 16 countries. Medals were awarded in 16 events.

17 Days

2010-01-26T09:12:00.009-05:00

Factoid of the day: Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the International Olympic Committee, was president of the I.O.C. from 1925 until he died in 1937 in Geneva, Switzerland. He was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland but his heart was buried — as requested in his will — in a monument near the ruins of Olympia, Greece.

The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place over 17 days, starting in 17 days (duh) on Friday, February 12, with the Opening Ceremonies. The Closing Ceremonies will take place on Sunday, February 28.

Germany's Andre Lange is the man to beat in bobsled at the upcoming Winter Olympics. He's won three Olympic gold medals and holds the record for most Olympic and World medals in bobsled with a total of 17.

Bob Costas will host the 2010 Winter Olympics, his ninth on NBC. I am including this as the third stat, since I'm not sure if this is true or not, but Costas may or may not have won 17 Sports Emmy awards. Anyone want to do some fact finding? He may have more than that by now.

18 Days

2010-01-25T09:17:00.004-05:00

The first sentence on the wikipedia entry for "Curse of LaBonte" describes it as "quite possibly one of the most famous curses in curling history." From what I can understand, (and I am the first to tell you I cannot for the life of me understand the rules of curling,) at the 1972 Curling World Championships, after the U.S. competed against the undefeated Canadians, it was unclear as to who had won. An American on the team, Bob LaBonte, thought the U.S. had won and jumped in the air to celebrate. As he landed, he accidentally knocked into a Canadian stone, moving it ahead of the Americans' stone, thus awarding the win to Canada. It took 8 years for Canada to win another World Championships, which sparked comments that LaBonte had put a curse on them.

The 2010 Winter Olympics come 18 months after the previous Olympics, the 2008 Summer games in Beijing. (This same time period applies between most summer and winter Olympics.)

Larrisa Latynina, a gymnast from the former Soviet Union, finished her Summer Olympic Games career with 18 total medals, the most in history.

18 Mormon athletes participated in the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, and they won one gold medal and one silver medal. That's 10 athletes and one gold medal more than that at the Salt Lake City Games, in 2002, a city founded by Mormon pioneers and currently headquarters to the Mormon church.

19 Days

2010-01-24T09:18:00.003-05:00

In 2006, skier Robel Teklemariam became the first athlete to represent Ethiopia in any event at the Winter Olympics. Robel was born in Ethiopia and moved to New York City when he was 9. He was never happy in the big city, so his mother sent him to a boarding school in Lake Placid, NY (home of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Games) where he learned to ski. At the age of 12, Robel began dreaming of competing at the Olympics when a spectator jokingly told him he could represent Ethiopia. 19 years later, that dream became a reality, as he competed in Turino and finished in 108th place. He also established and heads the first Ethiopian National Skiing Federation and is trying to raise awareness of winter sports in his home country. Robel plans to compete at the Vancouver Olympics as well. Good luck!

At the first modern Olympic Winter Games in 1896, the founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was opposed to including female athletes, thus none competed. However, only four years later, nineteen women competed at the 1900 Olympic Games.

20 Days

2010-01-23T09:27:00.003-05:00

The top Olympic ski jumpers fly about 20 feet (6.1m) over the ground. I've been to the top of a ski jump in Lake Placid. That is one sport I don't think I'll be trying any time soon.

It was unclear whether or not there would be a Winter Olympics in 1948, right after World War II. There was a twelve year break because of the war, but St. Moritz, Switzerland was chosen to host the Winter Games. This choice was made mostly due to the fact that St. Moritz had hosted the Winter Olympics 20 years beforehand, and their sports facilities were still mostly intact, as a result of Switzerland’s neutrality in World War II.

Everyone has heard of the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY when the U.S. hockey team came out of nowhere to beat the Soviet team and then proceeded to win gold, which no one expected them to do. Well 20 years prior to that, there was a lesser known "Miracle on Ice" also on home turf, in 1960 in Squaw Valley, California. Another U.S. hockey team shocked everyone when they beat the Soviet favorites 3-2 and then went on to beat Czechoslovakia 9-4 to win the first gold medal for U.S. hockey.

21 Days

2010-01-22T09:16:00.003-05:00

Factoid of the day: The Olympic podium was first used at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY. American speed skater, Jack Shea was the first gold medalist to receive his medal from on top of the podium.

Here's an easy stat: The 2010 Vancouver Games will be the 21st Winter Olympics.

21 players were named to the 2010 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team, which included six Olympic veterans. U.S. Women's Ice Hockey has medalled in all three Olympic appearances to date: gold in 1998, silver in 2002 and bronze in 2006.

Thailand has won 21 Olympic medals, with the majority in boxing. Thailand's most successful Games was the 2004 Games in Athens, where Thai athletes won eight medals. Only one athlete, Prawat Nagvajara, has represented Thailand at the Winter Olympics. Many Thai winter sport athletes have qualified for their respective sports but their Olympic governing body has chosen not to send them, which happens when athletes of poorer countries aren't expected to do well.

22 Days

2010-01-21T09:39:00.003-05:00

The 2010 Winter Olympics is expected to be broadcast around the world in 22 languages.

The CTV (Canadian Television) network alone is promising 22 hours a day in coverage during the games. CTV's studios in downtown Vancouver are likely to be the broadcast headquarters for the coverage.

The calibre of the rifles used in biathlon is .22 inches. A biathlete's rifle must also weigh a minimum of 3.5 kilograms.

23 Days

2010-01-20T09:30:00.002-05:00

This is my favorite Olympic factoid of the day: During the 1920 Olympic Ladies figure skating competition, American Theresa Weld (who won bronze) was warned by the judges for making jumps "unsuitable for a lady," because her skirt rose to her knees. The horror!

23 players were selected for the U.S. hockey team, back on New Years Day. Only three of those players have previously played in the Olympics, which probably has to do with the fact the U.S. failed to win a medal at the last Winter Olympics in 2006.

In 2006, the U.S. Olympic team had 23 known minority athletes (out of 211) competing at Turino, which was more than double the number of minority athletes in Salt Lake City and four times as many who competed in the Nagano, Japan and Lillehammer, Norway games, held in 1998 and 1994, respectively. Minorities on the U.S. team are among the best in their sports, including short track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and long track speedskater Derek Parra.

24 Days

2010-01-19T09:13:00.002-05:00

The Association of Freeskiing Professionals is attempting to debut halfpipe skiing at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The AFP was hoping to compete at the 2010 Olympics, but the International Olympic Committee did not approve it. At the past few Winter Olympics, we have seen other extreme sports make their Olympic debuts, so halfpipe skiing may very well be the next new Winter Olympic event.

The city of Vancouver spent $24 million to build a new curling rink for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

American swimmer Dara Torres' Olympic career spans 24 years. At age 41, swimmer Dara Torres obtained a spot on the 2008 U.S. Summer Olympic team, which was her fifth Olympic games. This was unprecedented for an American female swimmer, especially given the fact that she did not compete at the 1996 or 2004 Olympic games. In fact, she is the first woman in history to swim in the Olympics past the age of 40.

25 Days

2010-01-18T09:49:00.002-05:00

Meet Nigerian American athlete Seun Adebiyi. Adebiyi is 26 years old and his plans for 2010 include creating the first Nigerian National Skeleton Team, passing the bar and beating Leukemia. Adebiyi, who had previously failed to make the Nigerian Swim team was preparing to be the first Nigerian Winter Olympian when he was diagnosed with cancer. He has now put his own Olympic dreams on hold to beat cancer. In search of a bone marrow donor, he has teamed with singer Rihanna to find 10,000 potential bone marrow donors. Adebiyi hopes to compete in skeleton in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

In 2008, per capita, China won one gold medal for every 25 million people in the country. (They won 51 gold medals, the most at the 2008 Summer Games.)

Twenty five corporate sponsors, governments and broadcasters of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games have joined forces to help make the Games carbon neutral by offsetting some of their own carbon emissions related to the Games, such as emissions generated by delegations travelling to and from the region.

26 Days

2010-01-17T09:29:00.001-05:00

Have you ever wondered why the official distance of a marathon is exactly 26 miles, 385 yards? I know I have. In 1908, the marathon standard was set at exactly 26 miles. However, at the Olympic marathon in London, officials couldn't find a good enough spot for the royal family to view the finish line. So organizers added an extra 385 yards to the race so that the finish line would be directly in front of the royal box. And it's been that way ever since.

At the 1968 Winter Olympics, an Italian woman won the gold medal in luge only because the East German woman who came in first place was disqualified for illegally heating the runners of her luge before the race. Twenty-six years later, in 1994, Italian Gerda Weissensteiner won the gold medal in luge without any pretenses.

In 2006, 26 countries won at least one medal in Torino, which is a Winter Olympic record. This topped the previous record of 24 countries which medalled at the last two games in 2002 and 1998.

27 Days

2010-01-16T11:25:00.002-05:00

Russian athlete, Yelena Isinbayeva is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in pole vaulting (in 2004 and 2008). She has broken the outdoor and indoor world records 27 times. Many consider her to be the greatest female pole-vaulter of all time.

Hurdler Edwin Moses won two gold medals in 1976 and in 1984 and a bronze in 1988. By July of 1984, Moses had completed the 400m hurdles faster than 48 seconds a record twenty-seven times. (Since then, the men's world record has been set at 46.78 seconds.)

28 Days

2010-01-15T09:15:00.004-05:00

A first for the Olympics Games: There will be a place called Pride House for gay athletes and fans at the Vancouver Olympics. At the entrance, will be a sculpture of a nude hockey player (well, he's wearing hockey skates) called “Slapshotolus” by Canadian artist Edmund Haakonson. Here's a picture (from the back).

At a meeting in 2002, the International Olympic Committee added a rule to the Olympic Charter, limiting the number of sporting events at the Summer Games to a maximum of 28 events. They also decided on a limit of 10,500 athletes per summer Olympics.

The average slope gradient on an Olympic ski course is 28%.

The United States has won 78 Winter Olympic gold medals. The largest number, 28, have come in speed skating. (13 came from figure skating events and 12 in alpine skiing.)

29 Days

2010-01-14T09:36:00.000-05:00

Talk about sibling rivalry. There are two sets of siblings, Andrew and Posy Musgrave and Andrew and Sarah Young who are all friends, fighting to make the British cross-country ski team. There are only three spots available (two for the men and one for the women), so at least one of them will definitely not make the team. Andrew Musgrave, the one with the best chance of making the team said, "We all get on very well, so I'm sure there won't be too much jealousy." Um, yeah, right. As someone with sibling, I don't believe it for a second. The British team will be decided on January 18.

Germany has won the most medals at each of the last three Winter Olympics. Germans won 29 medals in Torino in 2006 (four more than the United Sates) including 11 golds. The Germans won two more medals than the Americans at the Salt Lake Games as (36 to 34) in 2002. And in Nagano, in 1998, Germany won 29 medals again. The Norwegians were the last country to lead the medal count before Germany at the 1994 Olympics 1994 Games which they hosted in Lillehammer, winning two medals more than the Germans (26 to 24).

Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, became president of the International Olympic Committee in 1896 and held that post for 29 years.

30 Days

2010-01-13T09:19:00.003-05:00

The latest Olympic controversy is regarding alpine skiing. Lately, skiing officials have been icing up alpine ski runs by water injection - hosing down the race course one or two feet deep, so that the course ices over and does not deteriorate as skiers race down the mountain or in the event of inclement weather. Skiers have been complaining that this is only making alpine skiing more dangerous (a number of Olympic hopefuls have been injured this season). Water injection is also used on the ski cross courses, which athletes aren't happy about either. Officials have not yet decided whether to use this system at Whistler Mountain for the Olympics.

It took 30 years for the U.S. to win a medal in ice dance, which came from Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto in 2006. (Before them, the U.S. team of Colleen O'Connor and Jim Millns won bronze at the 1976 Olympics, the first time ice dancing was an event at the Olympics.) While U.S. figure skaters have always been a threat in men's and ladies skating, ice dancers and pairs skaters haven't had the same success. Belbin and Agosto changed that for U.S. ice dancing when they won the silver medal in Turino and this year, the U.S. doesn't only have them to root for, but U.S. ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White who are also podium favorites as well. Never have two North American teams made the podium at the same Olympic Games, but between them and Canadian threats Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who knows what could happen in February!

On average, skiing officials use 30 km of safety netting on a race course.

31 Days

2010-01-12T09:36:00.006-05:00

I love it! Homer and Marge Simpson will be going for the gold in curling on a Simpson's episode that will air sometime in February, around the time of the Winter Olympics. I'm not really a fan of the Simpson's but I think it's great that the Olympics is popular enough to be the theme of a television show on a rival network. (The Olympics will air on NBC while the Simpson's airs on FOX.)

Ursula "Uschi" Disl from Germany is the most decorated athlete in biathlon, with 9 Olympic medals to her name. She competed and medalled in the past five Winter Olympic Games: in 1992 (silver), 1994 (silver, bronze), 1998 (gold, silver, bronze), 2002 (gold, silver) and 2006 (bronze). The 2002 Games in Salt Lake City was particularly special because she became the oldest female biathlete to win gold at the age of 31. Disl has retired and will not be competing in Vancouver.

The Olympic torch relay brings the Olympic flame from Olympia, Greece to the site of the upcoming Olympics, in this case, Vancouver. It is timed perfectly to arrive for the Opening Ceremonies, where the Olympic torch is lit and remains lit until the Closing Ceremonies at which point it is extinguished. This year's torch relay cost an estimated $31 million, which many feel is a bit much for a tradition that doesn't have much to do with the Olympics themselves.

32 Days

2010-01-11T09:21:00.004-05:00

From the start of the modern Winter Olympics in 1924, Norway could not lose the gold medal in ski jumping. That is, until their streak was broken 32 years later, in 1956 in Cortina D'Ampezzo when Finland won the gold and silver medals. The two winning Finns changed the face of their sport, as they were the first to jump leaning forwards with their arms at their sides, which is how all ski jumpers jump today.

At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, 32 African countries boycotted the Games in protest of apartheid and that South Africa was permitted to compete.

I love how many times the number 32 appears in this one: At the 1932 Games in Lake Placid, New York, there had not been enough snow fall prior to the Games and snow had to be trucked in from Canada to help cover the cross-country ski course. Thirty-two years later, a similar issue arose in 1964 and 32,000 tons of snow had to be brought from higher altitudes to the Olympic venues in Innsbruck, Austria.

33 Days

2010-01-10T09:45:00.002-05:00

Lindsey Vonn has regained the lead in the World Cup standings, even with an injured arm, by winning two downhill races in a row, on Friday and Saturday. She has not lost a downhill race since February 2009. U.S. snowboarders Gretchen Bleiler and Kelly Clark have both earn spots on the Olympic team. Hannah Teter and a few other women will compete for the final spot in two weeks.

Of the 33 total medals won by Korean athletes (both North and South) in Winter Olympics events, 30 have been won in short track speed skating events. Similarly, 20 of China's 33 Winter Olympics medals are from the sport. Korea and China cannot be counted out in short track speed skating, but you can also bet that both China and Korea will be winning medals in figure skating in Vancouver. (Yu-Na Kim for Korea in ladies figure skating and pairs team Shen and Zhao for China, both front runners in their respective events.)

The first snowboard was created in 1965, when an engineer watched his daughter try and stand up on her sled while going downhill. He then took a pair of skis and attached them to create a snowboard for her. 33 years later, in 1998, snowboarding became an Olympic Sport at the Nagano Olympics.

34 Days

2010-01-09T11:24:00.000-05:00

The U.S. won a record 34 medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the most they've ever won at a Winter Games. That's more than double their previous high, which was 13. Four years later, in 2006, American athletes won 25 medals in Turino.

You know a course is tough when thirty-four of the best competitors (82 in total) in the world cannot not finish a ski course. That's what happened at the first of two runs on the men's giant-slalom course at the 2006 Olympics. American Bode Miller finished both races and placed sixth overall, in a race at which he was hoping to medal. Neither of the other two American medal contenders, Daron Rahlves and Ted Ligety, were able to finish. Austrian Benjamin Raich won, with Hermann Maier in bronze. Joel Chenal of France won silver.

35 Days

2010-01-08T09:14:00.006-05:00

Liechtenstein is a small country made up of only 35,000 citizens. They became the smallest nation ever to produce an Olympic gold medal in 1980 when Hanni Wenzel won the slalom and giant slalom events. She also won a silver medal in the downhill at the same Olympics and had previously won a bronze medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics. The country has won nine Winter Olympic medals in total, all in alpine skiing, which gives Liechtenstein the record for most medals per capita, with one medal for every 3,888 citizens.

American Kristi Yamaguchi is the 1992 Winter Olympic Champion in ladies figure skating. (She's the Dancing With the Stars Champion as well. Totally the same thing.) At the beginning of her career, Yamaguchi split her time between solo skating and pairs skating. She competed in pairs skating with partner Rudy Galindo. In 1989, Yamaguchi became the first woman in thirty-five years to win two medals at the U.S. National Championships - silver in singles and gold in pairs. Shortly after that, Kristi stopped pairs skating to focus solely on her singles career (which was clearly a wise move). Her partner, Galindo, later went on to win the mens National Championships in 1996 and won the bronze at the World Championships that year as well.

36 Days

2010-01-07T09:12:00.000-05:00

Nike has unveiled a new sneaker in honor of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Dunk Hi in red, white & blue and gold. They will be available beginning in February to coincide with the Olympics. What do you think?

The most medals ever won by one nation at one Winter Olympics is 36. Germany holds this record from the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games.

Handball debuted as an Olympic sport in the 1936 Summer Games and then was removed from the list of Olympic events right afterwards. 36 years later, it returned to the Olympics in 1972. Four years after that, in 1976, Women’s handball became an Olympic sport as well.

The Royal Canadian Mint has put 36 limited mintage Olympic and Paralympic themed collectors coins and sets into circulation to honor their home country Olympics in Vancouver.

37 Days

2010-01-06T09:22:00.000-05:00

Figure skater, Sasha Cohen basically swears she will compete at the National Championships next week, and make an attempt at qualifying for the Olympics. She hasn't competed since the 2006 Olympic season (she won the silver medal in Turino) and missed her two Grand Prix events this fall due to injury. At 25, she's considered an old timer in the world of ladies figure skating. She is definitely on the list of all time beautiful skaters, but she's never really been able to perform all of her jumps error-free. Only two U.S. women will make it to Vancouver this February, and no one really has any idea where Cohen stands in the mix of competitors, since most of them have only been competing on the Olympic level since she's been gone.

Even with an increase in television coverage, from the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics to the 2006 Turino Winter Olympics, NBC saw a 37% decline of their prime-time viewers. Reality shows like American Idol and Dancing With the Stars stole many viewers away. The decline was also partially due to the time difference between the U.S. and Italy, as opposed to the Salt Lake City Games where much of it was aired live.

On the speed side of things, hockey is the fastest Olympic team sport, where players can skate up to 37 mph. On the individual sporting events side, speed skaters can attain maximum speeds of 60 km/h in some of the shorter distance races.

38 Days

2010-01-05T08:46:00.000-05:00

This isn't really Olympics related, but it's cool. Liquid Image Co. has created a pair of ski goggles with a built in video camera at the top so that you can take videos of yourself skiing. LED lights inside the goggles alert the skier to the mode of the camera. The goggles can take still images as well and will be available in the summer of 2010 for about $149.

Whistler Mountain, home of the skiing and snowboarding events at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, boasts 38 lifts: 18 chair lifts, 16 surface lifts and 4 gondolas.

Canadian athletes have won a total of 38 gold Winter Olympic medals. (8 in ice hockey, 6 in speed skating, 5 in short-track speed skating, 4 in alpine skiing, 3 in figure skating, 2 in freestyle skiing, bobsled, cross country skiing, biathlon, and curling and 1 each in snowboarding and skeleton.) Canada is in seventh place in the overall medal count, but ninth in the gold medal count. The host country is hoping to improve those numbers by having a great showing on their own turf in Vancouver in February.

Every Olympic host creates pictograms which represent the sports included in those Games. Here are the 38 pictograms for the 2012 Summer Games in London. I'm not sure these images are any less deserving of a "wooden spoon" than the 2012 Olympic logo is. (See 83 Days.)

39 Days

2010-01-04T09:39:00.000-05:00

While we still don't know how many hours of Olympic coverage NBC and it's affiliates will air, there are new announcements from NBC's Olympic Sport's channel, Universal Sports. Throughout the two weeks of the Vancouver Olympics, the sports channel will air 5 hours of Olympic coverage from 10 am to 3 pm daily, showing news, highlights, previews and medal ceremonies. They will also have a 24 hour news ticker. I am so not going to have enough room on my dvr.

Alpine skier, Lindsey Vonn lost her lead in the World Cup standings this weekend after missing a gate in a slalom event and failing to finish the race. Vonn is still recovering from an injured arm.

39 of the 2985 athletes who participated in the 2006 Winter Olympics were representing Latin America and the Caribbean. The majority (2069 athletes) came from European countries.

In 2006, Canadian Duff Gibson became the oldest individual Winter Olympic Champion at the age of 39 when he won the skeleton event in Turino, Italy.

40 Days

2010-01-03T08:06:00.000-05:00

In Albertville, France, in 1992, Kjetil André Aamodt became the first alpine skier from Norway in forty years to win Gold at the Winter Olympics. He won a bronze there too and competed in the next four Olympics, medaling thrice (I love that word) in 1994, winning two more golds in 2002 and one more gold in 2006. With eight Olympic medals he is the most decorated alpine skier at the Olympics. Aamodt also has the distinction of being both the youngest and oldest male alpine skier to win a gold medal at the Olympics. (He was born in Sept. '71 - you do the math.)

NBC and it's affiliates aired 40 more hours of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino than they did the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Here's hoping for 40 more hours this time around. The last time I checked, which was a while ago, I couldn't find the exact number of hours NBC plans to air of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Anyone want to help me out on that one?

41 Days

2010-01-02T11:50:00.000-05:00

Shout out to Kevin Pearce, a U.S. Olympic hopeful in snowboarding. In Park City, Utah the other day, Pearce fell and hit his head while practicing on the half-pipe. According to ESPN, Pearce had to have surgery to relieve fluid buildup on his brain. No word on how this effects his chances to compete at the Olympics. We seem to be hearing of a lot of injuries this season, leading up to the Olympics. I'm not sure whether these athletes are unlucky or if winter sports have gotten to the point where they are just too demanding.

A study conducted by the University of British Columbia found that Canadian medals increased by 41% in the time since Vancouver won the bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. Medals increased at the Olympics, World Championships and other international events, largely due to Canada's "Own the Podium" program promoting winter sports.

42 Days

2010-01-01T11:28:00.000-05:00

At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan first and second place finish made them the first female figure skaters from one country to do that since 1956. Forty-two years earlier at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina D'ampezzo, another set of American women won the gold and silver medals: Tenley Albright and Carol Heiss. As an aside, Lipinski who was 15 at the time is the youngest Olympic figure skating champion in history.

Australia has competed in every Winter Olympics since 1952. Previous to that, they had only competed at the 1936 Winter Olympics. In Turino, Italy in 2006, with 42 athletes representing Australia, they won two medals, the most medals they have ever won in one Winter Olympic Games. (They won two medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics as well.)

Whistler Mountain, home of the ski and snowboard events at the 2010 Winter Olympics, was developed into a resort city with the intention of hosting the 1968 Winter Olympics. In 1968, Grenoble, France won the bid to host the Winter Olympics, but forty-two years later, they have finally received the chance to host the Olympics.

43 Days

2009-12-31T09:31:00.000-05:00

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).

44 Days

2009-12-30T09:07:00.000-05:00

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.

45 Days

2009-12-29T09:29:00.003-05:00

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.

46 Days

2009-12-28T09:22:00.000-05:00

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.

47 Days

2009-12-27T09:50:00.000-05:00

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.

48 Days

2009-12-26T10:39:00.000-05:00

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.

49 Days

2009-12-25T09:50:00.000-05:00

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.

50 Days

2009-12-24T09:25:00.000-05:00

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.

51 Days

2009-12-23T08:54:00.001-05:00

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.

52 Days

2009-12-22T08:08:00.000-05:00

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.

53 Days

2009-12-21T09:03:00.000-05:00

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.)

54 Days

2009-12-20T09:02:00.000-05:00

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.

55 Days

2009-12-19T10:37:00.008-05:00

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.

56 Days

2009-12-18T08:41:00.003-05:00

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.

57 Days

2009-12-17T09:39:00.001-05:00

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.

58 Days

2009-12-16T09:26:00.000-05:00

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.)

59 Days

2009-12-15T08:54:00.002-05:00

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.

60 Days

2009-12-14T09:22:00.000-05:00

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.

61 Days

2009-12-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

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.

62 Days

2009-12-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

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.

63 Days

2009-12-11T08:52:00.002-05:00

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.

64 Days

2009-12-10T09:16:00.014-05:00

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.

65 Days

2009-12-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

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.

66 Days

2009-12-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

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.

67 Days

2009-12-07T09:54:00.000-05:00

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.

68 Days

2009-12-06T10:01:00.002-05:00

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.

69 Days

2009-12-05T10:25:00.000-05:00

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.

70 Days

2009-12-04T09:22:00.000-05:00

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.

71 Days

2009-12-03T09:40:00.002-05:00

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.

72 Days

2009-12-02T09:34:00.000-05:00

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.

73 Days

2009-12-01T09:03:00.000-05:00

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.

74 Days

2009-11-30T09:49:00.000-05:00

Engineers at the University at Calgary have invented a tracking mechanism for the Canadian ski team that uses GPS to help correct any mistakes the skiers make as they race down a course. A sensor placed on the skier can track speed and position, with results that can then be read on a monitor. Since ski races can be won or lost by such small increments of time, any slight correction can make a huge difference. The 2010 Canadian ski team is hoping this helps come the Olympics in February. This certainly seems to give the Canadians an edge and it'll be interesting to see how the International Olympic Committee reacts to new technology like this.

There was a 74 year gap from the time Curling was first included in the Winter Olympics in 1924 until it was played again, this time as an official sport in 1998, in Nagano, Japan. In 1924, curling was played as a demonstration sport, but in 2006, the I.O.C. retroactively made the 1924 competition an official event and awarded medals to the winning countries.

A total of 74 men and 74 women will compete in the figure skating events at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. There are 30 spots available in both the mens and ladies fields, 20 spots for pairs and 24 spots in the ice dance event. Each country is given 1 to 3 spots based on how their athletes performed at the previous World Championships, and then the remainder of spots are up for grabs in other Olympic qualifiers. Each country determines which skaters to send based on their National Championships and how well their athletes have performed over the season.

75 Days

2009-11-29T09:38:00.004-05:00

Someone on ebay is selling two Vancouver Olympic pins for $50 each. While most pins on the Vancouver Olympic website are worth $8, these are apparently worth more because they display the Taiwan national flag. Because of politics between China and Taiwan, the International Olympic Committee has ruled that Taiwan may not compete in the Olympics as its own entity. China, who doesn't recognize Taiwan as a state, has compromised and allowed the Taiwanese people to compete as Chinese Taipei, under a different flag. The pins created with the flag of Taiwan were recalled, thus (according to the seller) increasing in worth.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-2010-Vancouver-Winter-Olympics-Pin-MISTAKE-Taiwan_W0QQitemZ220513021324QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_SM_Fan_Shop?hash=item335799ad8c

Figure Skater, Evgeni Plushenko of Russia is a favorite to win gold in the men's event in Vancouver. Before the International Skating Union changed the scoring system, he had racked up 75 perfect 6.0 marks. He is also the youngest man to ever receive a 6.0, which he won at sixteen.

The U.S. Speedskating team has won 75 Olympic medals, making it the most successful winter sport in the U.S. Hopefully that number will only grow in February.

The maximum number of gates in a men's Olympic slalom race is 75 gates.

76 Days

2009-11-28T10:11:00.002-05:00

Want to raise money for the Special Olympics? Then be a part of Colorado's "Freezin' for a Reason" fundraiser on Dec. 5. All you have to do is plunge yourself into the frigid waters of the Chatfield Reservoir in Colorado. The event will raise money to provide facilities, equipment and coaches for Special Olympians in the Colorado area. Sounds like a plan. http://www.specialolympicsco.org/

$76 million was spent to house over 5000 security personnel for the 2010 Winter Olympics on 3 cruise ships from Holland America and Carnival which will be docked in Vancouver over the course of the Games.

Again, I'm cheating a bit, but give me a break, it's Thanksgiving weekend. Jack Poole, the Canadian responsible for bringing the 2010 Olympics to Vancouver, died in October, at the age of 76. As the chairman for the Vancouver Olympic Committee, Poole oversaw their winning bid for the Olympics. Canadians consider him the father of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

77 Days

2009-11-27T09:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's post had sort of a negative vibe, what with (potential) Olympians not displaying the behavior that is supposed to go along with the spirit of the Olympics. So today, I want to get this countdown back on track, by highlighting an athlete whose actions do accurately portray that of the ideal Olympian. The first athlete who comes to mind is Olympic champion, speed-skater Joey Cheek. Cheek is a three time Olympic medalist from Greensboro, N.C. (Shout-out to Greensboro!) At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy, the U.S. Olympic Committee decided to award money to any American athlete who won a medal. Cheek medaled in two events and donated his $25,000 gold medal bonus and his $15,000 silver medal bonus to charity and urged other athletes to do the same. He was thus elected by the entire U.S. Olympic team to carry the American flag for the closing ceremonies. Since then, Joey Cheek has gone on to do a lot of charity work with regard to the war in Darfur. There, I feel better now.

The Vancouver airport is expecting March 1, the day after the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, to be their busiest day ever. Over 77,000 pieces of luggage are estimated to depart the airport that day (as well as 39,000 people). Air Canada has also added extra domestic flights throughout the Olympics. Who wants to pick the over/under number for percentage of suitcases that get lost?
http://www.justtheflight.co.uk/news/19466351-vancouver-airport-preparing-for-busiest-ever-day.html

$77 million worth of tickets to the 2010 Winter Games were sold in the first phase of ticket sales, from Nov. '08 through Jan '09. That's over a year before the Olympics are even set to take place.

YouTube bought the rights to stream highlights of the 2008 Summer Olympics to 77 territories where digital rights had not been sold, primarily in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The clips were blocked to everyone outside the 77 territories. This reflected the first time the Olympics could be viewed globally.

78 Days

2009-11-26T09:16:00.002-05:00

The Olympics is supposed to bring out the best in athletes around the world and inspire the human race to be better people. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the IOC, said, "The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." Which is why it's unfortunate when athletes cannot live up to that standard. As I mentioned in 86 Days, Russian figure skater, Andrei Lutai was arrested for allegedly stealing a car and drunk driving in Lake Placid, NY after competing at Skate America. Lutai was held in jail for several days. He then pleaded not guilty and was released to return to Russia. The Russian Figure Skating Federation just released a statement announcing that they have banned Lutai from the Russian national team for a year "for violating ethical norms of an athlete" which means he has lost his chance to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics. On the same topic, nine-time Olympic speed skating medalist, Claudia Pechstein has been banned from the 2010 Winter Olympics after returning blood samples with "abnormal levels" at the World Championships last year. The German Pechstein has won 5 Olympic gold medals in the past 4 Winter Olympics, and is Germany's most successful Winter Olympian.

I know I don't usually use years for my stats on the countdown, but I thought this was interesting. In 1978, the regulations for the Olympic medals were created. While each Olympic organizing committee can design their own medals, there are certain requirements which must be followed. Medals must be a minimum of 60 millimeters in diameter and three millimeters thick. Gold and silver medals must be at least 92.5% pure silver, and the gold medal must be gilded with at least six grams of gold. The name of the sport must be etched in each medal and must be attached to a ribbon or chain, to be hung around the medalists' necks. Here's an image of a gold medal to be awarded at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

At the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, only 25 of the 78 nations that competed were awarded medals.

79 Days

2009-11-25T09:36:00.004-05:00

Who doesn't love a good Olympics-related movie. The heart-warming ones, inspired by true stories like Chariots of Fire, Miracle and Cool Runnings. The utterly ridiculous, like Blades of Glory. And of course my favorite, The Cutting Edge. (I'm still waiting for a real pairs team to attempt the Pamchenko Twist.) Well there's a new one coming out to add to your collection, about British ski jumper Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards who came in last in both of his ski jumping events at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Set to play Edwards is Harry Potter star, Rupert Grint. What's your favorite Olympics movie?

Ever wonder who decided to revive the ancient Olympic Games and turn it into the modern Olympics that we know today? In the 1880's, a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin began to promote the idea of sports as a way to maintain health and bring unity and peace to the world. In 1894, de Coubertin gathered 79 delegates from 12 countries to attend an international congress with the purpose of reestablishing the Olympics. The 79 delegates gave de Coubertin the permission to form the International Olympic Committee and get things started again. Two years later the first modern Summer Olympic Games took place in Athens in 1896.

Whistler Mountain, the location of the ski and snowboard events for the 2010 Winter Olympics, lies 79 miles north of Vancouver, the home of all the indoor events.

Fourteen-time Olympic Gold Medalist in swimming, Michael Phelps, has a wingspan of 79 inches. That's equal to about six feet, five inches. Former NBA star Charles Barkley is 6'5. So from finger-tip to finger-tip, Michael Phelps can reach from Barkley's head to his feet. That's nuts.

**UPDATE: Apparently, I can't do math. 79 inches is actually 6 feet, 7 inches (as was so lovingly pointed out to me) which makes Phelps' wingspan longer than his actual height; he's 6'4.

HFDUFYFZCF2X

80 Days

2009-11-24T10:08:00.002-05:00

Here's the lesson of the day: When you need answers, go to the experts. Yesterday, I wondered where the term "eighty-one" came from in reference to a crash in bobsled and luge. Enter our experts, the folks at the Olympic Sports Complex in Lake Placid, NY and 1998 Olympic Silver medalist in Luge, Gordy Sheer. While it still seems like no one is quite sure where it came from, there are a couple of ideas.

Sheer thought the term came from motor racing, where in the event of a crash, "eighty-one" would be called in order to notify those who needed to know, without causing panic and chaos for the fans in attendance.

Olympic Sports Complex Marketing Manager, Rebecca Dayton, added that she heard that it originates from the old law enforcement codes, i.e. 10-4 (OK), 10-20 (location) and 10-81 (crash).

Thanks so much guys!

U.S. Figure Skating just announced its nominees for the 2010 US Figure Skating Hall of Fame. One of the nominees is 2002 Olympic Gold Medalist, Sarah Hughes. I totally understand that an Olympic Champ should be inducted into a hall of fame, but it just seems a little early to me. Granted, she's done with Olympic-level skating, but she won only eight years ago! (And don't get me started on the fact that she never won anything else, although even I understand that it's irrelevant once you've won the Olympics.) For crying out loud, she's twenty-four years old! Doesn't that seem a bit young to be entered into a hall of fame? Shouldn't you have to be like ninety or something? (On a scale from 1 to 10, how bitter do I sound?) I know others before her, such as Tara Lipinski, were inducted at young ages as well. It just seems to me that being entered into any Hall of Fame should be more like a lifetime achievement award - something that occurs once you've proven many years of dedication in your field.

Anyone heading to Vancouver for the Olympics better know someone there since 80% of Vancouver hotels are already booked by the Vancouver Olympic Committee, leaving few places to stay for tourists and spectators. And much of the remaining 20% is being reserved for preferred guests and tour operators.
http://www.goldencityrentals.com/node/97

Eighty people are part of Whistler Mountain's snow-making team this year, in order to prepare the mountain for the Olympic skiing events. That's double the number from last year.
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=17254.html?cid=rsstsn

81 Days

2009-11-23T09:55:00.004-05:00

I watched 5 1/2 hours of figure skating yesterday (amongst other activities like getting a black and blue ankle from horseback riding) so that I could bring you, my loyal readers, everything you deserve in a blog post.

When I was in Lake Placid last week, one of the things I was really hoping to do was take a bobsled ride down the famous course at the Olympic Sports Complex. Unfortunately, the course was closed in order to prepare for a World Cup bobsled event that took place over the last couple of days. Happily, Team USA came in 1st and 2nd in the 4-man bobsled event, which makes me feel a bit better about missing out on that opportunity. A bit. (Although I'm really not sure why Stephen Colbert got to take a bobsled ride when I couldn't. What, just because someone is famous and single-handedly sponsoring the entire U.S. speed skating team (see 93 Days), they get V.I.P. treatment? What's that all about?)

Well the people at Lost may not be intimidated by the Winter Olympics (see 84 Days) but the folks at the Academy Awards certainly are. Rather than air in late February as they have since 2004, the Oscars will air on March 7, 2010 so as not to coincide with the Olympics Games.

In Bobsled and Luge, the term "eighty-one" is used to signify a crash. It most likely originated at the Lake Placid, NY course, but people aren't sure why. I intend to get to the bottom of this! (Two points to anyone who can help.)

Only 81 countries participated in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russia (former Soviet Union). That was the lowest number of competing countries in a Summer Olympics Games since 1956. 60 countries, including the U.S., boycotted the Games in protest of the former Soviet Union's war on Afghanistan. Many of the boycotting nations competed in the Olympic Boycott Games in Philadelphia, PA. instead.

82 Days

2009-11-22T10:01:00.001-05:00

No news today. This weekend is Skate Canada, a skating competition which I've dvr-ed and haven't watched yet. I'm pretty adamant about not finding out what happens in a skating event before I watch it. And searching for Olympic news whilst avoiding the most popular Olympic sport is kinda hard.

In a European Olympic qualifying game in Women's hockey last year, Slovakia beat Bulgaria 82-0. Now, I'm no expert in hockey, but don't games usually get like a max of 5 goals or something? 82? Not only 82, but 82 to ZERO. I'm not sure if this is a really good sign for Slovakia in the 2010 Winter Olympics, or just a really bad sign for Bulgaria, but it set a record in an International Ice Hockey Federation-sanctioned event. The Slovakian team average one goal every 44 seconds.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=3577150

Top speed achieved in the skeleton event is 82 mph. The skeleton event is sort of like the luge, only instead of going down the track feet first, you go down the track head first. Skeleton was first introduced in the Winter Olympics in 1928 and returned in 1948, then took a hiatus until 2002 and 2006. 2010 will be its fifth Olympics.

The Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Center, which will be the home of the curling and paralympic wheelchair curling events cost $82 million to build. And I'm sure everyone will be happy to know that the building is eco-friendly, using rain water to flush toilets.
http://www.krolltravel.com/TravelNews/tn2008110362.html