Olympics time!

The opening ceremonies were last Friday. I enjoyed them a lot--more than Beijing, even. It wasn't too gawdy, but it wasn't too mediocre. I loved the special effects with the video projected onto the floor, especially when it looked like whales were swimming across what looked like a giant pool. There was also a lot of people spinning around in suspended in harnesses, which was impressive to watch. The tap dancing fiddlers were cool, too. Canada is a strange mish-mash of cultures--English, French, Scottish, Inuit.

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A lot happened on Saturday.

I was reintroduced to Chris Collinsworth, who always does the Olympics coverage with Bob Costas. (I love Collisworth. Costas, not so much.)

We won gold and bronze in women's moguls, which is always exciting to watch--4 people fell in the finals, including 2 Americans (no severe injuries).

The best part was the first short track speed skating event, 1500m. Americans Apolo Ohno and JR Celski were up against a slew of Koreans, and it looked like they were going to sweep the board, but 2 of them ended up falling, allowing Apolo to slip in for silver and Celski got bronze. That medal means Apolo is tied with Bonnie Blair as the most decorated US winter olympian. He'll probably end up being the Michael Phelps of this year's Winter Games.

Apolo in the semifinals: He likes to start in the back and sneak his way up to the front.

The worst part was the bad training accident on the luge track. Nodar Kumaritashvil from Georgia died in a bad crash. NBC decided not to air the footage, which I think was a good idea. You can find it online real easily, though, if you even want to see it. It's not pleasant. They changed the coarse a little because of it, and the start point is now lower.

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On Sunday, I was at the Collegian office all day, so I missed both the prime time coverage AND the late night replay (it was a long night). So I had to catch up online at nbcolympics.com. It's a great site. They have full replay videos on there, but I can't get to them because I don't pay for a cable service (you have to register your cable info in order to watch the premium videos). The recaps and highlights were pretty good, though.

American Bryon Wilson got the bronze in men's moguls, and Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada's first gold of the games, which is also their first gold won on home soil, which is neat for them. the silver went to Dale Begg-Smith, who is actually from Vancouver, but he competes for Australia--I guess 'cause he moved there. Kinda weird. Anyway, Jonny Moseley did the break down video on the website. (Moseley competed in Salt Lake City in 2002 with his new trick called "The Dinner Roll," which didn't win him a medal (he got 4th), but made him awesome.) I love Moseley--he's party of the reason why I first got into the Olympics way back when.

After the short program for pairs figure skating, the top Chinese team (a married couple--Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo) broke their own world record score. They skated to a really cool instrumental version of Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever," and their jumps and choreography were spot on. They won bronze at the last 2 Winter Games, so it'd be kinda nice to see them finally win gold (I'm rooting for them), but the Germans are only .70 points behind them (I thought their program was kinda boring--they were dressed as mimey clowns, but the music and footwork was slow). The Russians are in third (their program was alright--the music was boring, though). 2 other Chinese teams, Pang & Tong and Zhang & Zhang are in 4th and 5th, respectively (their music was nice--the Chinese know how to pick good music... and costumes... and choreography).

Americans Amanda Evora & Mark Ladwig are in tenth, which kinda stinks, but if they do amazingly in the free skate and some other teams mess up they could still have a chance to medal... maybe... (probably not). The other American team is in 14th place. :(

Johnny Spillane won silver for the US in men's nordic combined (ski jumping/cross country--jump score determines start time on race). He started with a pretty good jump, and then skied really well. The race had a really close finish--Spillane was leading until Jason Lamy Chappuis, a French guy, passed him in the last few meters. The highlight video is really funny. The commentator is screaming at the top of his lungs, he's so excited! And everyone collapses after crossing the finish line. Haha! They were definitely pushing themselves!

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P.S. - Sam and I had a good time celebrating Valentine's Day Eve on Saturday. We ate at Johnny Carino's, shopped at Vintage Stock, went to see The Princess and the Frog (which he liked), and watched the prime time Olympics coverage. It was nice.