Olympics, Part Two
Roight, Bob Costas here, for the two-thirds-done-with-the-Olympics report. Going down the list:
Alpine Skiing: I'll admit that I didn't watch all that much, but I was present to see Bode Miller fail to medal/get disqualified every time. I would say sucks to be him, but he's raking in the dough for being an idiot. Boo. Janica (something Croatian I can't spell at the moment) beat out Anja Paerson for the combined, Anja gets the gold for Super-G, and I didn't watch downhill. Whoops. Slalom is today, and I'll watch it depending how I feel. Geoff's pick: Janica Kostlec-somethingorother. She's coming off a bad flu, but she's a graceful, humble winner, unlike her brother, who also rocks with socks and extra blocks for his incredible celebration at the end line of downhill for getting a silver (some thought that maybe he celebrated too much because he thought he won the gold, but I don't think so), while an ungrateful bronze winner pouted.
Biathlon: Something I would of watched if NBC bothered to cover it. Too bad. Gold to Germany. Moving on. No more competitions.
Bobsleigh: Sorry, no Jamaicans here (they failed to qualify for the first time since Cool Runnings was made), very little caring. Seeing one of the blokes trip into the sled going down yet still winning was pretty amusing, if boring. Geoff's pick: Uh, I dunno who's in it currently. German Sled 2 seems a good pick.
Cross-Country Skiing - Not much of a nail biter. Norway fades in the team competition on the third set, Italy blasts away on the third and fourth for the gold, the Czech Republic and Germany slug it out for the silver and bronze. Norway's fourth manages to pull into fifth place, rather sadly. In the individual events, Thailand's sole athlete, Prawat Nagvajara, finished last in the men's 15km, half an hour past the gold medal winner, with a time of 1 hour, 9 minutes. Russia's silver medal winner, Olga something or other got her medal stripped for doping. Boo! Doping bad! No more competitions.
Curling: Ooh, tense. US womens team has been eliminated by the Brits, and so has our coverage of women's curling. The US men's team has advanced to the bronze medal match against Great Britain, while Finland goes up against the favoured Canadians for the gold. I dunno about you, but I'm rooting (unsurprisingly) for Finland, captained by skip Markku Uusipaavalniemi. I kid you not on his name. Anyway, they're the underdog, so yeah.
Figure Skating: Pairs is done, Mens is done, and I don't care about ice dancing. As to the women's, Sasha Cohen tops Irina Slutskaya by 0.03 for the lead currently, with Japan's Shizuka Arakawa 0.7 behind them for the top three going into the free-skate. For those (read: one) who care Tugba Karademir of Turkey placed 22nd out of 24 qualfiers and will skate fifth on Thursday. If they bother to show all of them, which they won't. Geoff's pick: Not much of a surprise here either, Kimmie Meissner, currently ranked fifth, because she pretty much represents the glory of the Games for the US, as opposed to Sasha-I-punt-my-coach-because-I-don't-win. I'd be happy with Slutskaya winning though, she's on a crusade to raise awareness for heart related health issues. Actually, I'd be happy with anyone winning except Cohen. The Japanese need a medal, and this is their best shot. So I guess Cohen is the replacement Kwan: The person I root against.
Freestyle skiing: On tonight for the prelims. Will report later.
Ice Hockey: Well, women's ended with Canada beating the snot out of the "miracle" Swedens for the gold, and the USA pounded Finland for the bronze. One-sided games, both of them, though Sweden tried to make in interesting. For men's hockey, the Czech Republic eliminated Slovakia, was close, but wouldn't have been if Jagr had been playing at full strength. Jagr, in a preliminary round had been hit hard by the dirty, dirty enforcer in the form of Jarkko Ruutu. Boo! Russia eliminates Canada, and Finland avenges the women's team loss by kicking the USA around 4-3. The quarterfinals are now Finland vs Russia, and the Czech Republic against Sweden. Both gold and silver medalists from Salt Lake have been eliminated. Ooh. Geoff's picks: Finland, unsurprisingly. They're undefeated so far, and will probably run over the Russkies. The Czechs will handle the Swedes easily, with or without Forsberg. The Czechs will be plenty motivated enough to take on the Finns for their past loss, but I'm betting on Finnish discipline holding out against Czech talent.
Luge: Hackl lost. Boo. Fin.
Nordic Combined: Over and done with. Some youngling from Norway won.
Short track speed skating: I personally find this sport retarded. For a sport where physical contact is not supposed to happen, everyone is throwing elbows in the beginning, and it just strikes me as a very mean, competitive sport. Geoff's pick: I'll go with Ohno here because he doesn't throw hissy fits when he loses. On the women's side, any Hungarian or Canadian, because they have a tendency to skate really cleanly, unlike, say, *cough*PRC*cough*.
Skeleton: I watched maybe twenty minutes of it, and don't know anyone in the sport. In any event, the men's event has ended and I'm pretty sure they don't have a women's event.
Ski Jumping: See above.
Snowboarding: Over and done with. Special mention goes to Lindsey Jacobellis, who gave up the gold by trying to showboat with a trick on the last hill of the motorcross, wiped out, and came in second. Don't do that crap at the Olympics. USA as expected cleans up at the rest of the events. It's really quite one-sided. Slalom is tonight. Geoff's picks: Anybody who isn't an American. Prove that someone else actually snowboards.
Speed skating: Uh, men's has ended. The Hedrick-Davis catfight is retarded, especially since JOEY CHEEK, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE has done as well as either of them. Joey Cheek rocks my socks with extra blocks. If you didn't know, he donated his total of 40k (ha. ha.) from Olympic bonuses from the US Olympic Committee to a charity organization dedicated to bring athletic facilities to developing countries, to try and give children a dream of competeing, and so forth. While I might question he choice of places to donate to, the fact that he did is commendable. Go Joey. Women's finishes tonight, and aside from the favourites, not too sure who is competing. Geoff's picks: Joey Cheek for IOC Board position. I mean, uh, Friesinger, because she hasn't won any individual medals yet. Anyone who's racing against Hedrick in the 10k, because I don't like him.
That's about it folks. Bob Costas, signing off.
Alpine Skiing: I'll admit that I didn't watch all that much, but I was present to see Bode Miller fail to medal/get disqualified every time. I would say sucks to be him, but he's raking in the dough for being an idiot. Boo. Janica (something Croatian I can't spell at the moment) beat out Anja Paerson for the combined, Anja gets the gold for Super-G, and I didn't watch downhill. Whoops. Slalom is today, and I'll watch it depending how I feel. Geoff's pick: Janica Kostlec-somethingorother. She's coming off a bad flu, but she's a graceful, humble winner, unlike her brother, who also rocks with socks and extra blocks for his incredible celebration at the end line of downhill for getting a silver (some thought that maybe he celebrated too much because he thought he won the gold, but I don't think so), while an ungrateful bronze winner pouted.
Biathlon: Something I would of watched if NBC bothered to cover it. Too bad. Gold to Germany. Moving on. No more competitions.
Bobsleigh: Sorry, no Jamaicans here (they failed to qualify for the first time since Cool Runnings was made), very little caring. Seeing one of the blokes trip into the sled going down yet still winning was pretty amusing, if boring. Geoff's pick: Uh, I dunno who's in it currently. German Sled 2 seems a good pick.
Cross-Country Skiing - Not much of a nail biter. Norway fades in the team competition on the third set, Italy blasts away on the third and fourth for the gold, the Czech Republic and Germany slug it out for the silver and bronze. Norway's fourth manages to pull into fifth place, rather sadly. In the individual events, Thailand's sole athlete, Prawat Nagvajara, finished last in the men's 15km, half an hour past the gold medal winner, with a time of 1 hour, 9 minutes. Russia's silver medal winner, Olga something or other got her medal stripped for doping. Boo! Doping bad! No more competitions.
Curling: Ooh, tense. US womens team has been eliminated by the Brits, and so has our coverage of women's curling. The US men's team has advanced to the bronze medal match against Great Britain, while Finland goes up against the favoured Canadians for the gold. I dunno about you, but I'm rooting (unsurprisingly) for Finland, captained by skip Markku Uusipaavalniemi. I kid you not on his name. Anyway, they're the underdog, so yeah.
Figure Skating: Pairs is done, Mens is done, and I don't care about ice dancing. As to the women's, Sasha Cohen tops Irina Slutskaya by 0.03 for the lead currently, with Japan's Shizuka Arakawa 0.7 behind them for the top three going into the free-skate. For those (read: one) who care Tugba Karademir of Turkey placed 22nd out of 24 qualfiers and will skate fifth on Thursday. If they bother to show all of them, which they won't. Geoff's pick: Not much of a surprise here either, Kimmie Meissner, currently ranked fifth, because she pretty much represents the glory of the Games for the US, as opposed to Sasha-I-punt-my-coach-because-I-don't-win. I'd be happy with Slutskaya winning though, she's on a crusade to raise awareness for heart related health issues. Actually, I'd be happy with anyone winning except Cohen. The Japanese need a medal, and this is their best shot. So I guess Cohen is the replacement Kwan: The person I root against.
Freestyle skiing: On tonight for the prelims. Will report later.
Ice Hockey: Well, women's ended with Canada beating the snot out of the "miracle" Swedens for the gold, and the USA pounded Finland for the bronze. One-sided games, both of them, though Sweden tried to make in interesting. For men's hockey, the Czech Republic eliminated Slovakia, was close, but wouldn't have been if Jagr had been playing at full strength. Jagr, in a preliminary round had been hit hard by the dirty, dirty enforcer in the form of Jarkko Ruutu. Boo! Russia eliminates Canada, and Finland avenges the women's team loss by kicking the USA around 4-3. The quarterfinals are now Finland vs Russia, and the Czech Republic against Sweden. Both gold and silver medalists from Salt Lake have been eliminated. Ooh. Geoff's picks: Finland, unsurprisingly. They're undefeated so far, and will probably run over the Russkies. The Czechs will handle the Swedes easily, with or without Forsberg. The Czechs will be plenty motivated enough to take on the Finns for their past loss, but I'm betting on Finnish discipline holding out against Czech talent.
Luge: Hackl lost. Boo. Fin.
Nordic Combined: Over and done with. Some youngling from Norway won.
Short track speed skating: I personally find this sport retarded. For a sport where physical contact is not supposed to happen, everyone is throwing elbows in the beginning, and it just strikes me as a very mean, competitive sport. Geoff's pick: I'll go with Ohno here because he doesn't throw hissy fits when he loses. On the women's side, any Hungarian or Canadian, because they have a tendency to skate really cleanly, unlike, say, *cough*PRC*cough*.
Skeleton: I watched maybe twenty minutes of it, and don't know anyone in the sport. In any event, the men's event has ended and I'm pretty sure they don't have a women's event.
Ski Jumping: See above.
Snowboarding: Over and done with. Special mention goes to Lindsey Jacobellis, who gave up the gold by trying to showboat with a trick on the last hill of the motorcross, wiped out, and came in second. Don't do that crap at the Olympics. USA as expected cleans up at the rest of the events. It's really quite one-sided. Slalom is tonight. Geoff's picks: Anybody who isn't an American. Prove that someone else actually snowboards.
Speed skating: Uh, men's has ended. The Hedrick-Davis catfight is retarded, especially since JOEY CHEEK, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE has done as well as either of them. Joey Cheek rocks my socks with extra blocks. If you didn't know, he donated his total of 40k (ha. ha.) from Olympic bonuses from the US Olympic Committee to a charity organization dedicated to bring athletic facilities to developing countries, to try and give children a dream of competeing, and so forth. While I might question he choice of places to donate to, the fact that he did is commendable. Go Joey. Women's finishes tonight, and aside from the favourites, not too sure who is competing. Geoff's picks: Joey Cheek for IOC Board position. I mean, uh, Friesinger, because she hasn't won any individual medals yet. Anyone who's racing against Hedrick in the 10k, because I don't like him.
That's about it folks. Bob Costas, signing off.