Sorry for the hiatus followers, just didn't decide to blog for the past month. But, now, I'm back, and back with a very long post concerning the Olympics, and all surrounding the Okympics, including NBC's coverage of it, and what I thought of it. Also, I'll talk about Tiger's "apology", and some other stuff.
First, let's start with the Olympics. They started off very badly with the death of the Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili because of an insanely fast track and no padding on the steel pole he crashed into. This will be remembered by many, and will caution other future Olympic sites not to build tracks so fast and so dangerous.
Before the death of Kumaritashvili ever occured, the concerns surrounded the weather, and it being too warm, while most of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast were freezing and digging out from a massive snowstorm. The committee did a very good job though, of shuttling snow in from the mountains and getting everything ready to go at Cypress Mountain, where the moguls, aerials, and some snowboarding events took place.
Then, there were the Opening Ceremonies, which were cool, because they were indoors for the first time ever, and the stands were in the design on each participating nation's flag. But, there was a flaw, in that the 4th arm of what was supposed to be the Olympic cauldron didn't function properly, and it just seemed awkward for a few moments. kudos to the Canadians for allowing the greatest player from their sport, Wayne Gretzky, light the Olympic Cauldron, both indoors and out.
Then, in the following two weeks was pure awesomeness of sport. The Canadians did very well, erasing the memories of the past 2 Olympics they hosted, by winning 14 Gold medals, the most of any nation. They erased the memories by winning a gold medal in the first Olympics they hosted. They also won the one they wanted the most, in hockey. they started off sluggishly, beating the surprisng Swiss 3-2 in a shootout, and losing to the USA 5-3 in the preliminaries. The loss to the Americans was probably the best thing that could've happened to the Canadians as they then thumped the Germans, the Russians, and thoroughly outplayed the again surprising Slovaks to get to the gold medal game against the Americans, which gave them one heck of a fight for the gold. The aforementioned Russians were probably the biggest disappointment, as they really didn't do much in the tournament, and they will hope to play a lot better when they host the next Games in 2014.
The Russians were not only disappointed in hockey, but all around, as they hoped to win a mind boggling 40 medals in Vancouver, but only came away with 15 medals, good for 6th place. Not very good, maybe in Sochi they will fare better.
The Americans won the most medals of any nation, with 37, and came away with the most medals in any Winter Olympics. An American also became the most decorated Winter Olympian ever, that being Apolo Anton Ohno. The thing with Ohno is though, he only won 2 gold medals of his 8. But, winning 1 medal is something very few people get to do, so instead of ridiculing Ohno for "only" winning 2 golds, he should be applauded for his dedication to the burgeoning sport of short-track speedskating thanks to him, and for his work ethic in the sport.
The most hyped person coming into the games by NBC was Lindsey Vonn, who coming off of consecutive world cup titles in skiing, was expected to medal in all 5 Alpine Skiing events. She did get a gold in the downhill, and a bronze in the Super-G. She did very well, facing a shin injury which was excrutiating, and she suffered a broken pinkie in the slalom as well, so congrats to her.
Another person facing adversity of a different kind though, was Joannie Rochette, who skated just hours after her mother had passed away from cancer. She did this on pure adrenaline, and came away with a bronze medal in the ladies' figure skating program. She put on a great show, and I hope she may continue to remember her mother fondly and dedicate everything she does to her, who put her in figure skating and more importantly, life. Rochette also probably received a lot of support from the hometown crowd surrounding her.
The person NBC hyped a ton in 2006, in Torino, Bode Miller, didn't come away with anything there, but he came away with 3 medals in Vancouver, showing a ton of maturity in just four years. He didn't win any in 2006 because of partying in and around the Italian city. Miller also scaled down his mouth in 4 years as well, because he was known for making outlandish statements, now not so much.
In figure skating, Evan Lysacek leapfrogged Evgeni Plushenko in the long program to take the gold, which he deserved, because of his presentation of the program, and his skills in the program. His fellow American, Johnny Weir also deserves praise for his wit and wisdom concerning negative comments made about him by foreign press. As for the women, both American women gave it a good run at the bronze, but Rochette deserved it for the reasons stated above.
Other notes concerning the Americans: Steve Holcomb drove amazingly well down the toughest track ever constructed on the way to the first USA gold since 1948 in bobsled. Holcomb overcame a degenerative eye disease to win it as well, which is great. Then, the Americans did well in Nordic Combined, winning the first medals ever in that event. Hopefully this trend continues in the 2014 games.
NBC's coverage was pretty good, I just didn't like all of the promos for their new shows at 10 p.m. If they didn't have that, it would've been excellent coverage. The only other thing is that I think they should've showed more stuff online, like they did in 2008 in Beijing, where they showed obscure stuff like team handball online. It was great stuff. I think they should show some more curling online, because who couldn't use more curling?
Tiger's statement was much ado about nothing for me. He didn't really give insight to anything new, and he was a robot throughout the entire speech! Tiger knows he did wrong, but I think a little bit more insight into what he was thinking while committing infedilty would've been helpful, as well as letting the press ask questions as to when he's returning and such. Also, I don't think that it should've been broadcast over 12 networks. People, he's a sports star! It doesn't matter what he does in his personal life! Don't broadcast a statement over 12 networks! 12!
Finally, congrats to the New Orleans Saints and their victory in the Super Bowl, they played a complete game, and shut down Peyton Manning.
Next: a March Madness preview in approx. 2 weeks.
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