Where has the fortnight gone? It seems we were just watching the opening ceremony, and now there are only a few days and a few medal events left. The Winter Games aren't as overwhelming as the Summer Games, but there has been a lot of good events going on.
Hockey: I didn't pay a lot of attention to hockey the first week, but it has really caught my
attention the last few days. The women have been in the playoff rounds, and the US and Canada faceoff for gold tomorrow (Thursday). It is the right matchup, and should be a great game. The US men's quarterfinal 2-0 win over Switzerland was a lot closer than the score indicated, and a fun game to watch. Canada pounding Russia in another quarterfinal was impressive. Much like the US breaking a long drought against Canada, our northern neighbors had not beaten Russia/USSR in Olympic hockey for 50 years. Nice to see one of the gold medal favorites gone before the semis.
attention the last few days. The women have been in the playoff rounds, and the US and Canada faceoff for gold tomorrow (Thursday). It is the right matchup, and should be a great game. The US men's quarterfinal 2-0 win over Switzerland was a lot closer than the score indicated, and a fun game to watch. Canada pounding Russia in another quarterfinal was impressive. Much like the US breaking a long drought against Canada, our northern neighbors had not beaten Russia/USSR in Olympic hockey for 50 years. Nice to see one of the gold medal favorites gone before the semis. 
Rea-dy: One of the subtle, but enduring nuances of the Games has been the computerized starter voice in speed skating (and other events?). Saying "rea-dy" in a mechanical tone seems to be seeping into conversations and monologues outside of the Olympics.How long does it take to win gold?: Many years if you count all of the preparation and training. But in the Olympic games, the time it takes to win varies considerably by sport. The Wall Street Journal did a nice feature on this subject based on the men's results from the 2006 Games in Italy.
Including all qualifying stages, they found Ski Jumping to be the quickest event for the gold medalist at 26 seconds. The slowest event? No surprise here with Curling lumbering to the finish line in over 12 hours.
Fastest to Gold
- Ski Jumping 00:00:26
- Aerials Skiing 00:00:30
- Moguls Skiing 00:00:46
- 1000m Speedskating 00:01:09
Slowest to Gold
- Curling 12:45:00
- Hockey 08:00:00
- 50K Cross Country 02:06:12
I guess this explains why it seems like Curling is on tv so much compared to other events. And this estimate only included the "rocks" of the winning team, not the time it took their opponent to play. Said another way, the winning curling team spent over 25 hours in matches over two weeks. As a comparison, the article pointed out it took Usain Bolt 39.66 seconds to win 100m Gold in Beijing, including the qualifying heats.
Post Olympic Preview: NBC will be looking for Olympic afterglow to get Jay Leno's return to the Tonight Show off to a fast start next week. First week guests include Olympic medalists Lindsey Vonn (Mon), Shaun White (Tues), and Apolo Anton Ohno (Wed).
Cool 11: One candidate is Isobel, the blind sled dog in Manitoba. Another is Canadian Skicross star Ashleigh McIvor (pic top) who seemingly has the ability to get out of any messy situation, and whose ingenuity made her a runaway Gold medal winner. Reminds me of her psuedo-namesake Macgyver from the popular tv show in the 1980's. Wasn't there an episode where he strapped branches on his feet and used them as skis? What a minute, Ashleigh is from Whistler and the show filmed in Vancouver for several years. Hmmmm. Can you see a family resemblance in the pictures below?
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