Olympic Thoughts

I'm going to have to start out by saying that the Olympics are tight. I enjoyed them much more than I thought I would. I think once every four years is the perfect time for them. That way they are unique, but you still kind of remember what happened last time. Also, being in mid/late February was perfect. It fits into the sports doldrums time where nothing is really going on except for regular season pro and college basketball.

A few thoughts:

On the medal counts, I'm as happy to see the US winning as anyone else, but I think it takes a bit more of a look than just saying the US dominated and Canada dominated as far as gold medals go.
A lot of the US's medals were in sports that are new and we pretty much invented. Even short track speedskating is pretty new.
Freestyle skiing (moguls, aerials): USA – 4 medals/ Canada 3 and 2 golds
Short Track: USA – 6 medals/ Canada 5 and two golds
Snowboard: USA 5 medals/ Canada 3 and two golds
Over 1/3 of our medals came in these newer sports, so it is clear that the USA and Canada are taking advantage of sports they pretty much invented, and these 37 medals and 14 golds don't really show the dominance that they do on the surface.

- I really enjoyed hockey. I think a lot of it has to do with all the soccer I watch, but all the games I watched were supremely entertaining. I was actually upset when the US lost and super hype when they tied it up in the last 25 seconds. But, America Jr. came out on top. Man.

- Skiing is an interesting sport. How can you be the best in the world and be dq'd in half your events?

- Short track speedskating is also weird, but in a good way. It seems half the time that skaters aren't really trying until the last three laps, and I won't even get started on the fun chaos that is the relays.

- Apparently fat people can be Olympic athletes.

- I don't know much about sports that are judged – figure skating, diving, gymnastics – but it was clear that Shaun White was by far the best snowboarder out there. Dude is tight.

- Women's hockey and women's snowboarding – boring

- Ski-cross was much less exciting than I expected

- Lots of people talk about Lindsey Vonn and Gretchen Bleiler being hot, but, for me, the Canadian ice dancer Tessa Virtue is #1

- I like to pretend that I would be great at ski-jumping or luge or something because I never tried it

- Despite my enthusiasm for the Olympics, I don't think I'll start following hockey or skiing. I think I'll just wait for 4 years