All posts in Olympics

Olympic Skater Brandon Mroz Spins Four Times In the Air

By | November 12, 2011 | Olympics, Sports Fashion | 1 Comment
blades-of-glory

Brandon Mroz became the first ever to hit a quadruple luts in international competition, proving that the gravitational pull of the earth is dwindling and that we will soon fly into space.

Read more…

I Love Curling

By | February 2, 2011 | Olympics | 11 Comments

I’ve now written 77 posts about the Super Bowl somewhere or another, and I just want them to play now. Right now. In the street, if necessary, like when Tommy Gunn and Rocky did it in Rocky 5, the third best Rocky movie. Fourth best maybe. It’s hard to rate art, but I can do it.

Anyway, I’m tired of talking about it. Short of analyzing the chemical composition of the plastic on their cleats, this game has been dissected in every possible way. That’s why I’m now going to talk about curling.

One thing I like about curling is that there is literally no difference between the men and women playing it. I also think it’s neat how they glide, one leg extended behind, sliding across the ice with what looks like a big, alien teapot.

And then those nuts with the brooms! Sweeping furiously as the thrower of the stone yells inaudible commands before the rock slides to a stop on the button. There’s no doubt about it, curling is fricking awesome.

When I think back to the great moments in curling, I really can’t remember any. But it’s so damn relaxing watching these people slide around and play shuffleboard. You might think I’m mocking this sport. I’m not. I love watching it and I wish it were on more.

I remember it like it was yesterday. Curling up next to the fire, watching two teams compete for the gold, one of them was probably the Canadian team because they excel at ice stuff… then I awoke from a peaceful slumber. On my television was now that sport where they ski and shoot stuff, which in my book is way more interesting than skiing and not shooting stuff. I happen to think all Winter Olympic sports could use the addition of a rifle, but that’s just me.

So there I lay, wrapped in a blanket watching Hans something shoot something, and I remembered I had missed the entire gold medal match. Oh no! Which team won? Which ones were playing? I’m sooo hungry. How long was I asleep? Did I DVR House? Was it even new this week? Then I went back to sleep.

Is a curling player called a “curler?” Is a German male player called “Herr Curler?” So many questions left unanswered from adoring fans who want to know the intricacies of the sport.

There’s really only one thing we can do to get curling in the mainstream where it needs to be, and quite simply, that is to promote it. It’s up to us, the media, to shine the spotlight brightly on this sport and spark the fire of interest that’s already been lit. And obviously, like everything else, I have to do it. I’m so tired of changing the world. It’s like, hello, little help over here? If I had some assistance, not only could we build an America where kids were wearing curling jerseys with the names of the greats like… Smith… and Jones… but one day we could have every Winter Olympian bearing arms. Give me bobsledders wielding AK 47′s and I’ll give you the greatest sport ever conceived by man.

We can do anything we set our minds to. That’s one of the great things about having a mind, you can set it to stuff and it happens sometimes. We make our fate. The world is our oyster, and we are its pearls. I don’t even know what that means or how it applies here, but metaphors inspire people, right? And they like it when the world is compared to mollusks. Or when they’re compared to pearls. I can’t remember, but it’s not important.  Stop being so difficult and just be inspired.

Photo

Hey Bettman: Leave the Olympics alone.

By | August 25, 2010 | Hockey, Olympics, Uncategorized, WTF? | 1 Comment

Hey, remember February?

Long time ago. Snow and things.

But the part you might remember is Vancouver’s Olympics. Hockey. Ryan Miller vs. Roberto Luongo. Overtime.  Sidney Crosby dumping it in the net. And an entire nation going completely insane.

Now, I’m not trying to rub that whole Canada-USA thing in. (Although I totally could.)

But here’s a question: Would you have cared as much if the game was being held at 4 a.m. in Russia instead of prime time in Vancouver?

The NHL is pretending you wouldn’t have. The NHL says it’s too disruptive to shut down for two weeks. The NHL says it’s too hard on their players. The NHL doesn’t want to let their players play anymore.

If you read between the lines, what the millionaires running the NHL are really saying is that they don’t feel like there’s anything in it for them. The pinnacle of sportsmanship, sure, whatever. The real point is, they didn’t get paid enough.  Nobody gave them one red cent to shut down for two weeks with four years’ notice. Nobody gave them a cut on the ticket prices or the merchandise prices or the overpriced concessions. Nobody let them control anything. The nerve.

So the NHL’s stance really is, if you want professional hockey players in the Olympics, if you want the guys we own in the Olympics, then we need to run the show – and you have to pay us for it. Never mind what the players want. You need to line *our* pockets first.  But we don’t want to come right out and say that because that would just be rude.

Instead, the NHL has a brilliant idea:  resurrect the World Cup. Which would take their players out of the NHL for weeks, would be played on the other side of the world, would be hard on the players, and – and this is the crucial part – would allow the NHL to call the shots and reap the profits.   Sure, nobody around the world really cares about the World Cup and viewership for a tournament like this would be lukewarm at best without an entire Olympic juggernaut behind it. This does not matter. We all know Gary Bettman and his penchant for expanding in to areas that have lukewarm support for hockey but great big deep city pockets to build arenas and pay franchise fees. (See: Phoenix). He’d love to charge obscure European cities obscene fees to host World Cup events that will then be played in the middle of the night watched by nearly nobody.

People watch the Olympics. People take time off work for the Olympics. People have Olympic-watching parties with couches and wings and beer. People talk about the Olympics and tune in to games surreptitiously at work. The Olympics is where people watch sports they only watch every four years – hockey included. Yet another tournament isn’t going to give the NHL more exposure.  As much as Bettman would like it to be, hockey isn’t football.  People love the Olympics. And you can guarantee that even if the next Luongo-Miller grudge match is being played at 4 a.m. EST on a frosty Siberian plain, we’ll be tuning in. Because for any athlete anywhere, the Olympics is the pinnacle. The best. If you win there, you win it all. Why steal that from both the fans and the players, just for the sake of profit?

Seriously, Bettman. Go charge another $3 for a bottled water, if you’re that hard up for cash. Leave the Olympics alone.

On Loving Hockey and Canada Gold

By | March 1, 2010 | Hockey, Olympics | 3 Comments

While my home team lost the gold medal in the men’s ice hockey final at the Vancouver Olympics, the game did serve one purpose.

It reminded me – along with millions of other people watching – why I love hockey.

You know how people say they love things like it’s their job? I could easily have a job loving hockey. A lifer Capitals fan who happily supported the late, possibly-lamented minor league Dayton Bombers when I lived in Ohio, one of the great joys of my life has been watching my home team rise to playoffs (and I believe Stanley Cup-contender) level since I’ve been back.

canadawin

Today, while I rooted for Team USA to beat Canada in the Olympic gold medal game, I realized around about the middle of the second period when USA got off of its collective ass and made it a real contest that this is why people who love hockey so much know that it’s such a great game. This is why, no matter how much old-time hockey fans complain about bandwagons and newbie fans, I think it’s cool that so many people have been sucked in by a growing NHL and this well-played North American Olympic contest.

I got fired up. As a fan familiar with the varying tempos of games I felt the situation change from a back and forth snoozer to a toss-up in a way that got me up on the edge of my seat. I thought my team might have a win in them yet, and even if they didn’t it at least wouldn’t be a giveaway.

That feeling lasted through an exciting third period and a literally last-minute goal by Zach Parise that sent this already epic Olympic medal game into almost eight minutes of overtime until Sidney Crosby’s goal (she writes with great sadness) gave Canada the gold medal.

“A great player made a great play and found a way to finish us off tonight,” said U.S. head coach Ron Wilson. “I think both teams are winners, but more importantly I think tonight the game of hockey is the real winner.”

Both teams played a great game, but Canada won, fair and square, 3-2. We lost.

And perhaps most importantly to me, especially because my team lost so I’ve already had time to move on to the existential conclusion, hockey won.

I’m a sap and a sucker and I’m oddly pleased for Canada, although my required Caps fan disdain for Pittburgh Penguin Crosby makes me rather bitter about the vehicle.

(If you are new to all of this, just Google “Patrick Division NHL hockey” for the backstory on that. Also ask any hockey fan who is not from Pittsburgh, excluding the Canadians who are only now vowing not to talk smack about him ever again. I know at least one, and I believe she will crack in short order.)

Seriously, I believe in sports as a reflection of personal and local pride. In a classily-run and contested Olympic Games that saw its share of pain and loss, I think a hard-fought win for the host country in a sport that means so much there that it has its own national holiday is actually a beautiful thing.

As someone on Twitter said, a Canada loss would have been like the U.S. losing to Canada in football.

But for a few minutes there, there was that amazing Parise goal that put U.S. goalie Ryan Miller back into the net where he belongs and took it to overtime. My Twitter stream blew up. I exploded out of my chair and screamed in my living room.

And I said, “This is why I love hockey,” once I sat down and stopped screaming.

It is a maddening game and it can make you crazy if you care about it, really. It moves so fast. It’s  high-pressure and it can turn on a dime. It’s excellent if you’re into that sort of thing, and once you do get into it, just try to quit it, I dare you.

ryanmillerAnd on many occasions in my life when I’ve been watching great hockey, I know there’s nothing like it, and it’s just cool to enjoy something that much. The two U.S. – Canada games at the Olympics really were some of the most exciting hockey I’ve ever seen.

In the end the U.S. was the only team in this Olympics that was undefeated in regulation. Miller was named the MVP of the tournament, deservedly so, with 36 saves. The guys on both sides will head back to their NHL locker rooms today, while I bet a lot of Canadians are calling in sick from the looks of the streets in Vancouver after the game.

As for my team, they play the Sabres on Wednesday, so I’m hoping Buffalo gives Miller the week off. Otherwise I’m going to be a little confused, and more than a little nervous. He may have let the last one in, but this guy knows how to stop a puck.

Congratulations, Canada. Well-played, USA.

[Photos courtesy of Reuters]

[Source]

The Last Straw

By | February 28, 2010 | Olympics, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

I recently wrote about my dissatisfaction with NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I really and truly thought that I had gotten it out of my system.

Oh, how wrong I was.

So here I sit on the last morning of the games wondering if we’ll get ANY COVERAGE AT ALL. You see, according to the KNBC website and the listings guide on cable, Olympic coverage came on at 9 am. Really? Because all I’ve seen is Access Hollywood (rerun) and Monk (also a rerun.) The hockey game-GOLD MEDAL GAME AGAINST CANADA is supposed to be on, as well as a few other events that are having their final rounds today.

This is absolutely unacceptable, NBC. You say that your ratings are high? Honestly, it can only be because we have NO other options for viewing. Have you polled anyone lately? And, quite honestly, I think I’m done with you as a network, local and national. This has been the final straw.

Here’s how I think national Olympic coverage should look from you, NBC (and CBS, ABC, and FOX should take notice, should there be a change in networks for the next games. Please?!)

Morning show- Fine. Cute stories about athletes, whatever. Depending on the time zone of the actual games, I get this. (The morning crew has actually done a great job of interviewing the athletes.)

Just after the morning show: LIVE COVERAGE

Noon: 30 minutes of local news.

Afternoon: LIVE COVERAGE

5 or 6 pm: 30 minutes of local news, 30 minutes of national news.

Evening: LIVE COVERAGE

10 pm: 30 minutes of local news

THE END.

Seriously, it’s only two weeks out of every two years. There is nothing that can’t be put on hiatus for those two weeks. With everyone having digital television now, if a network or local affiliate feels the need to air their regular programming they can now create a digital 2.0 channel for those programs and leave the regular channel for people to find the coverage of the Olympics easily. If you really need your dose of pop culture and celebrity news there are plenty of other networks and online outlets for that.

Here on the west coast we have had to wait until 11-12 pm to watch the medal rounds and races. Why is this if we’re watching it taped? If we tape it to watch later, the morning shows ruin the results. Watching is just not the same if you already know the outcome.

As for the actual coverage? It, too, has been horrendous. Someone actually made a chart of the time that was dedicated to each category: advertising, special stories, Bob Costas, medal ceremonies, etc. Costas is getting more coverage than replays and medal ceremonies COMBINED. The Olympics are not about you, Bob, they’re about the athletes, their competition, their competitors, and their medals. Last night he actually said “If you’re in the central or mountain time zone you can figure it out for yourself,” which I found pretty lame. I tweeted “Bob Costas is a douche,” and I received the following reply from Glennia: @HeadlessMom Amen to that. A botoxed, toupee-wearing douche at that. #shutupcostas.

Really Bob? As the announcer it’s your JOB to be able to tell the viewers when their national coverage begins and we only have four time zones. I guess we’d really be in trouble if we had something like 11 like Russia does.

Thank goodness today is the last day. I honestly don’t think I could take much more. Here’s to a new network getting the rights for the next Olympic games. One that will commit to getting it right.

(Cross posted at The Adventures of the Headless Family and Inland Empire Family)

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
← Older Entries