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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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!

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

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

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.