The XXI Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada

Tragedy Hits The Olympics!
Thursday 2-11-10 - A luger from the republic of Georgia has been killed in a tragic accident one day before the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. He was ranked 44th in the world in the sport and his father was also an olympic luger.

Day 1 Friday
Missed the Opening Ceremonies but caught them on-line. Here's a quick summary-

A few malfunctions. Not as original as Salt Lake City but better than Helsinki's opening ceremony. The killer whale thing was nice also dedicating the olympics to the fallen luger was also very touching.

Events:
I confess that I will only watch the following winter sports:
Figure Skating(all), speed skating, snow boarding, skiing and hockey.

Day 2
I forgot to add speed ski shooting, which I watched today, to my lists of must sees.
Why is NBC tape delaying everything until prime-time? Now I have to duck the result reporting on the news or on-line. IMHO: NBC did a much better job of reporting the Tourino games.

The Canadians vow to "own the podium" and obsess over winning their first Winter Olympic gold on Canadian soil. Remember, "keep it classy", Canada.

Day 3
Short Track Speed Skating:
A bad pass by one of the 3 South Koreans lead to a spill that took out two of his team mates out and gave Apolo Ohno and J.R. Celsnik the silver and bronze, respectively. The South Koreans like to play team skating and so I was not a bit sorry for their mishap.

Watched the US women's hockey team demolish team China and I actually watched some curling today. I am convinced I can take any of the curling teams on and win.

Canada wins first gold in skiing. Hopefully they will now get over themselves. Who exactly said that they were our kind, polite neighbors up north?

Day 4:
Men's figure skating:
Evgeny Pleshenko is back with a quad jump in tow! His skating isn't as tight as in Tourino but he placed #1. Evan Lysaek's skating is on point tough as the American wowed as the legendary snow-bird ana a Japanese skater took 3rd place skating to a Jimmy Hendrix's song. Nerves got to the US Nationals champ and Canada's Patrick Chang as both fell and struggled with their routine.

Drama:
Johnny Weir didn't wear fur due to death threaths instead he wore pink tassles and placed 7th overall. This guy needs to just skate and stop the drama off the ice!

Day 5:
Nothing but Drama!
The Olympic Committe is holding the olympic torch hostage!Or that's how it seems as tourists and olympic spectators view the torch from behind a large metal fence.

Equipment Failure:
No Zamboni for the ice rink delays speed skating. Japenese male skater has to stop program to repairbroken shoe laces.

Weather:
Not enough snow for the down hill Alpine ski events or poor visibility.
2,500 tickets returned for viewing stands because of unstable soil beneath the viewing stands.

Day 6:
Jacobellis, notorius for show-boating her way out of a snow-boarding gold in Tourino, is out of the race.

Lindsey Vonn won down-hill skiing despite an injury. She has a chance to win more medals in combine but I hope she doesn't do anymore swim suit shots. It's too playboy-esque and she's above that. Keep it proper, girls!

Shawn White rocked in snow boarding and repeated his gold medal win, as did Shani Davis in 1500 meter speed skating(just in time for Black History month).

More Drama:
Ohno and Cselsnik make it to final in speed skating and will be up against the South Koreans again. Ho Kim is still talking smack so the final will be exciting. I am praying for a clean race and for the US team to prevail because they've been through a lot this year, especially J.R.

Olympic Wrap Up:
Men's Figure Skating:
Lysacek won despite Pleshenko's quad which lead to a big stink up in Russia and the Russian press. Johnny Weir and his fan's feel that he was robbed.

Tension Between Lyndsey Vonn and team Mate Mancuso:
Lyndsey got silver for her second race while Mancuso got 2 silver medals. Lyndsey broke a finger and DQ'd on her other races, one DQ may have caused Mancuso her race as she had to wait to take the slopes under less than optimal conditions.

The Women's Figure Skating:
The women's figure skating was a bit boring as everyone knew Kim Una would win. The Japanese women skaters were very strong and had a lot of supporters in the crowd. The American women were young teens, Rachel Flatt and Moria and they did verywell but the sentimental favorite was the Canadian skaterwhose mother died a few days ago.
Kim Una won gold, Moa Asadawon silver and the Canadian won bronze. Personally, I feel Moria was robbed of the bronze assheskated a wonderful long program and performed difficult jumps and did the most beautiful layback spin since Oskana Bayul.

Speed Skating:
Short Track:
Apolo Ohno is the Most Decorated Winter Olympian! Apollo is amazing but the Koreans and Canadians also skated well. So exciting! There was lots of pushing, shoving and even jumping as Ohno had to jump a fallen skater during a prelim. The skate officials DQ'd a few skaters even Ohno for pushing, which I think was wrong as the Canadian skater who won the race should have been DQ'd for pushing also.
Long Track:
Shani Davis repeats Gold!

Olympic Hockey:
Women's:
Team USA played well bit lossed to Canada in the Gold medal match.

Men's:
Team USA's win over Canada in the semi-finals caused many Canadians to lose bladder control. Then team USA rolled over Sweden and Canadian fans root for anyone but USA. The win leads to a USA VS Canada match up for the Gold medal final match. The game was the best hockey game since the young US team's "miracle on ice" win against the Russians in 1980. Team USA fell behing 2-1 but tied the game with less than 2 minutes to spare. The Canadians win in OT due to a rare miss by goalie, Miller, who was also an MVP.

The red, white and blue has nothing to be ashamed of as both teams did well.
To Team Canada: It's on next Olympics in Russia!

Closing Ceremonies:

Dancing inflatable beavers... what else can I say.