The band Honor Society has composed a song that will be on the Winter Olympics soundtrack. You can go to iTunes to download it, or just click here to preview it for freebies.
Not really my cup of tea, but anything attached to the Olympics is cool in my book.
In other Olympics news, it was announced that Al Michaels will be anchoring NBC’s daytime coverage, 30 years after his call of the Miracle on Ice.
The olympics are in their home country, and there is tons of pressure. They have to win the gold medal for their country’s pride, even if they are at best co-favorites to win the gold. No, I am not talking about Canada’s hockey team, but their men’s curling team (as one of my favorite twitter followers points out, the proper term is “rink” but I prefer to use the common term and bring curling to the masses. Or something).
Although Canada’s curling foursome is ranked #1 in the world, they are not the reigning world champions, as they lost to the team from Scotland 7-6 in the gold medal match at last year’s world championships, which by the way were held in Moncton, New Brunswick. Scotland, of course, will compete under the flag of Great Britain in the 2010 Olympics. Canada and Scotland have squared off for the gold in each of the last two worlds, as Canada topped the Scots 6-3 at the 2008 Worlds in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA.
Curling is the oldest winter sport in Canada. The oldest curling club in North America is the Royal Montreal Curling Club. The sport is most popular in the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The 2010 Canadian team will be skipped by Kevin Martin, a 44 year old from Alberta. Martin is a four time Brier champion, a former World Champion, has won 10 grand slam titles and is the first skip ever to win a career slam. The lead is Ben Hebert, also from Alberta. Marc Kennedy and John Morris are both from Alberta as well.
Martin is known as one of the most talented skips ever, and he attempts – and completes – such impossible shots that doing so is now commonly known as “pulling a Martin”
They may not have the worldwide fame as Canada’s hockey team, but make no mistake: the people of Canada expect this foursome (or fivesome if you count the alternate) to be just as golden as the men who wear skates while their on the ice.
One of the favorites with host Canada to medal, the United States women’s ice hockey team flattened Finland in Colorado Springs by a 5-1 score. Kelli Stack had 2 goals.
Stack scored her first goal just 2:36 into the game to give the US a 1-0 lead. Finland tied it late in the first, but it was all they would get as Jess Vetter turned aside 24 of the 25 shots she faced.
Jenny Potter, Captain Natalie Darwitz and Angela Ruggiero had the other goals. Jocylene and Monique Lamoureux each had an assist.
The Americans kick off their quest for a gold medal on Valentines Day vs. China.
The full media guide is out for the Olympics, which begin again in 9 days.
head here for the full details
While Americans are used to dominance in the Summer Olympics, the Winter games have been a different story as the United States have finished 2nd, 2nd, 6th, 5th and 6th over the last 5 Olympiads. While they are trending in the right direction, there is still some work to do to unseat Germany, who has led the medal count in each of the last two games, and Norway who won the most golds at the 2002 Salt Lake City games. The margin is razor thin, as the US finished four medals back of Germany and just two golds back of the Germans. However, there is a simple, yet easier said than done, strategy for winning the medal count in 2010.
1. X Games
None of Germany’s 2006 medals were won in an Xgames olympic event, whereas 7 United States medals, including 3 golds, were won in snowboarding, whether it be the halfpipe or snowboardcross. Assuming Shaun White, Gretchen Bleiler, Kelly Clark and Hannah Teter all medal, and one other American man medals in the halfpipe, they will be off to a great start. Add in likely medals by Lindsey Jacobellis and Nate Holland and the United States will be off to a flying start.
2. Team Competitions
In the summer olympics, which had 303 events in Beijing, team competitions are not crucial to medal success. But in the winter games, when Torino had just 84 events, team medals are much much bigger. The United States women’s hockey team is virtually guaranteed a medal, but the men are another story. Especially with the recent injuries to their defense, they are a longshot to win a medal. However, if Ryan Miller gets hot, the States can steal a medal. In 2006, men’s curling came out of nowhere and won a Bronze, the United States’ first medal in the event. However, that was coupled with a disappointing showing from the women’s team, which was projected to win a medal. The ice hockey and curling teams can grab precious medals that could prove to be the difference.
3. Unexpected medals
This one kind of goes without saying, but some unexpected medals would go a long way to putting the States atop the medal count. In 2006, Bode Miller was US Skiing’s golden boy, the one who would win multiple golds, but it was lightly regarded Ted Ligety who won the country’s first skiing medal. Joey Cheek had been an inline skater for most of his life, and as a speedskater had never had much success – he was 7th at the 2002 World Sprint Championships, but he ended up winning a surprise bronze and a shocking gold in Torino.
This can work with countries other than the United States as well. If someone upsets one of the German favorites in the biathlon, bobsled or cross country skiing, that lost medal for Germany can be the United States gain.
We didn’t even discuss Canada and their “Own the Podium” campaign, so there are obviously tons of variables, but if the United States can continue their dominance of the extreme sports, grab some medals in team competitions, and get a couple storybook unexpected gold medals, we could see the United States atop the medal standings.
For some reason I couldn’t log in the past couple of days. Mea culpa. We’ll be back tomorrow.
Today’s profile is United States biathlete Tim Burke. Burke was born February 3rd, 1982 in Paul Smiths, NY. Burke has made 3 podiums in the Biathlon world cup, and in 2009 he became the first ever American to lead the World Cup.
Burke is also the 2nd US athlete ever to finish as high as 2nd in a World Cup competition. Burke took over the World Cup standings lead in December 2009 due to Emil Hegle Svendsen missing a couple races, and Christoph Sumann taking 103rd place. He held it for just one race, but then by taking 2nd in a race he regained the overall lead.
Well we missed a day in our athlete profiles, which is why we’re going to double it up and pick a pair of teenagers on the US Women’s Ice Hockey team, the Lamoureux Twins.
Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux grew up in a hockey obsessed house. Their father played at the University of North Dakota, and then professionally. Their older brother JP played at UND as well, and their brother Mario is yet another Sioux. But when it came time for the Twins to pick their college, they went to the University of Minnesota.
In their Freshman seasons, both twins made a mark in the WCHA. Jocelyne was first team all conference, and ranked 11th nationally in points per game with 1.62. She was 2nd on the team in points, goals and assists, and 3rd in the conference in all those categories. It doesn’t get much better unless…..
Your name is Monique. Monique was a 2nd team All-American, top 10 finalist for the Kazmaier award (National POY), and the WCHA scoring champion with 61 points in conference play. Monique had 39 goals, and 75 points in just 40 team games. She was 4th in the country in goals per game.
After their Freshman year the Grand Forks, ND natives transferred home to play at the University of North Dakota. They will have to sit out a year per NCAA rules, but that’s just OK with them, as they have some business to attend to. Like winning a gold medal.
With less than a month to go before the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Games, we are going to be doing a profile on a different athlete each day. Today’s athlete is American speed skater Shani Davis.
Shani Davis is brash. He is competitive. He is controversial. He is, at times, an asshole. He is also the best speed skater in the world.
In Swahili, Shani means lightweight. Davis is definitely lightweight on the track. He currently holds the world record in the 1000m, the 1500m, and the samalog. If you want to know more about the samalog, click here.
After a controversial ruling that left him off the 2002 Olympic team, Davis made the most of his 4 year wait, winning a gold and a silver in Torino.
Davis has won 13 career medals at the world championships, 5 of them gold. Davis recently won the 2009 World Sprint Speed Skating Championship, held in Moscow, and is one of only 2 men ever to win both the World All-Around and World Sprint titles, the other being Eric Heiden.
Davis is undoubtedly the favorite in the 1000 and 1500m races next month.
American ski-crosser Casey Puckett crashed in France. The 37 year old came out of retirement in an effort to ski in his fourth Olympics.
His fourth place finish puts him in good position to make the olympic team, if his injured shoulder cooperates. In a blog, he mentioned that he was optimistic, but hasn’t gotten his MRI results yet.
