Winter Games: Prelude to the Summer Olympics

By now, you should be recovered from your post-Super Bowl hangover, which is good, because in just three short days, the Winter Games of the 20th Olympiad will begin in Turin, Italy. Or is it Torino, Italy? Turin? Torino? Turin? Torino? After first hearing that the games were being played in Torino on the stupid Visa commercial with that snowboarder, I investigated further. Apparently, Torino is the Italian name of the city, while Turin is the Americanized name. Good work, Olympic marketers! Now we have half a million people with t-shirts that have the wrong name of the city. I’m going with Turin for the simple reason that if the Games were in Rome, we would not call them the Roma Games. Plus, I’ve already bought several dozen Olympic sweatshirts that say Turin, and I don’t want to throw them away.

Now that that’s settled, let’s take a look at some of the more interesting sports that will be contested over the next two weeks. Unlike the Summer Games, with its overloaded buffet of sporting events like trampoline and rhythmic gymnastics, the sports of the Winter Games fall neatly into only seven categories. After watching the previous world championships from almost every featured sport, I can safely give my expert opinion on what I think will be the most intriguing events to watch from each category.

Biathlon
This sport originated in Norway in the 18th century when northern Norwegian soldiers often had to ski over extremely flat fields and then shoot dead lemmings that had been pinned to trees as training for their war against the southern Norwegians. Oddly enough, the United States has never won a medal in this event, so if you want to be ahead of the game, root for Jay Hakkinen, who is apparently the best American biathlete despite his 13th-place finish in Salt Lake City. When Jimmy Roberts does a sappy profile on him after he finishes ninth, you can turn to your friends and say, “Hey, I knew about that guy two weeks ago!”

Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh and skeleton make up the two events in this category. Bobsleigh, as we all know, was invented on the island of Jamaica by four colorful Jamaicans and John Candy back in 1988. Since then, the less-tropical nations have caught on, leaving the Jamaicans in the dust for the past 18 years. Skeleton made its resurgence in 2002 after a 54-year absence from the games. This event is similar to the luge, except riders go down the course face first, which makes for a much less exciting race. Jim Shea Jr. captured the nation’s heart in Salt Lake City by becoming the first third-generation Olympic athlete, winning the gold medal by 0.05 seconds. Unfortunately, there are only second-generation Olympians in the skeleton event this year, so no one will be paying attention.

Curling
This sport apparently originated in Scotland, although many Canadians claim that their country invented the sport as an alternative for those children who sucked at hockey. Teams of four attempt to place stones on a target, using brooms and chimney sweeps to slow or quicken the pace of the stone. There is also a lot of strategy involved, as stones can be used to block later stones thrown by the other team. After watching the sport back in 2002, my friend claimed that he could make the Olympic team after only playing the sport for a week. We all laughed back then, but he’s the one laughing now, as he just earned a spot on the US team over the weekend.

Ice Hockey
Canada’s other pastime, ice hockey, also originated in the British Isles. While the Brits would love to relive their glory days of the 19th Century, sadly they didn’t qualify for Turin. The match that’s on everyone’s mind is the grudge match between the US and Kazakhstan on February 16, when the Kazakh team will try to prove its country is famous for something other than hilarious television reporters. The Canadians look like the favorite here, but don’t be surprised if a feisty US team sneaks its way into the semifinals. Do I smell “Miracle on Ice 2”? YES!

Luge
Luge is the French word for sled. Why it deserves its own classification on the official Olympic website is beyond me. Invented by Vikings as a way of weeding out the stupid ones (no sane Viking would ever agree to ride on a sled), the first international luge race was won by an Australian. An auspicious beginning for a sport that has captured the imaginations of dozens. For some reason, someone thought it would be a good idea to have a doubles event for this sport. This event has the distinction of being the only mixed sport in the Olympics (except mixed doubles, if that’s actually an Olympic sport). Men and women, however, have traditionally not ridden together on the same team. Hello, Martha Burk, do I sense a lawsuit?

Skating
Women’s figure skating is probably the premier event of the Games. In the past 12 years, we have been treated to some amazing storylines. First, we had little Tonya Harding (back before her Celebrity Boxing days) trying to put the kibosh on Nancy Kerrigan’s knee but to no avail. Then, we had little Tara Lipinski steal the gold out from under 18-year old Michelle Kwan’s nose. Next, we had little Sarah Hughes steal the gold out from under 22-year old Michelle Kwan’s nose. You all see what I’m building to, right? Will this be the year that Kimmie Meissner finally breaks through and wins the gold medal? Only Dick Button knows for sure.

Skiing
Last, and certainly least, we have skiing. With six disciplines (including snowboarding, which oddly enough is competed on skis), skiing has something for everyone. Not to be outdone by the geniuses who came up with the biathlon, the southern Norwegians decided to combine ski jumping and cross-country skiing into the Nordic Combined event. Evidently, southern Norway was unprepared for the invasion by the biathlon trained northern Norwegians in the Battle of Nesjar, so they decided to perfect a new training regimen by jumping off of cliffs and then (for those that survived) skiing over the extremely flat terrain for many miles.

Qualms About Summer Games

Twelve hundred ten hours is approximately 50 days -- no, that's not the amount of time you're going to have to wait on the hockey line this year. It's total coverage of the Athens Olympics that NBC aired over a 17-day period. Thanks to the $793 million NBC shelled out to buy the rights to air the games, the American viewing public was treated to a six-channel blitz of the Olympics for two straight weeks, while quality shows such as North Shore and Quintuplets were sadly put on hiatus.

Overall, 929 medals were awarded in 301 events, and I successfully watched about 15 of them, none of them live. For the first time ever, the American public could watch rhythmic gymnastics and modern pentathlon simultaneously. (Trivia time! Name all five events in the pentathlon. Winners will receive a copy of the 2004 men's pentathlon final.)

While the Athens Games were the most entertaining Summer Olympics in recent memory, there are still some qualms I would like to address.

First -- the over-hyping of swimmer Michael Phelps. It is the media's duty to responsibly and fairly cover and report an event or person, and unfortunately, the media failed Phelps in this regard. The frenzy surrounding the 19-year old during the weeks leading up to the Games created a huge burden that was impossible for him to live up to. Every day from every media outlet, it was Phelps Central. By the start of the Games, I was ready to believe that not only would Phelps win gold in his eight swimming events, but he would also medal in field hockey, handball, and trampoline. But then the dream came crashing down.

In the 200-meter freestyle, which featured the showdown between America's Chosen One and Aussie Ian Thorpe, Phelps swam a personal best in the final. However, this sordid effort was only good enough for bronze. Never mind that this wasn't even one of Phelps's strong events, he let the whole country down by not beating Thorpe. An entire generation of young swimmers was left crying in front of their televisions as Phelps stood on the lowest level of the podium, while we were forced to listen to "Advance Australian Fair."

Ok, so maybe that's taking it a little too far, but I was only trying to emulate the media's unrealistic portrayal of Phelps. Clouded from view by the dashed hopes of the diehard swimming fans in America is the real accomplishment Phelps achieved at the Games: he won a record-tying eight medals. That feat took 17 races in eight days, a ridiculously busy swimming schedule.

After setting an Olympic record and taking gold in the 200-meter individual medley on August 19, Phelps had little over 30 minutes to prepare for the semifinals of the 100-meter fly. How did he respond to the quick turnaround? Another Olympic record in the span of under an hour. Maybe Phelps will only be remembered for failing to win seven gold medals, but I think we owe him a lot more than that.

On to Paul Hamm, who became the first American ever to win gold in the men's gymnastics all-around competition. Hamm's victory came into question when it was discovered that the judges gave bronze medallist Yang Tae-young a 9.9 start value instead of the correct 10.0 for his parallel bars routine. This extra tenth would have propelled Tae-young to the gold medal. The South Koreans tried to appeal the results, but were told that they should have first filed their appeal before the next rotation began during the competition.

Another media frenzy erupted, and Hamm was unfairly pressured by the president of the International Gymnastics Federation to give up his gold medal, in what would be considered "the ultimate demonstration of fair play."

Way to pass the buck there, Mr. President. There is a reason there is no video replay for gymnastics. While the review of Tae-young's routine showed that his start value was wrong, it also showed another huge mistake that would have actually lowered his score. In the parallel bars, a gymnast is only allowed to make three holds during the routine, and the tape clearly shows that Tae-young had four holds, an automatic 0.2-point deduction. You can't fairly go back and review only one part of one routine. That would be like an NFL referee using video review to call a pass complete, but failing to realize that the receiver stepped out of bounds during the catch. This whole fiasco has evidently cost Hamm the thing he really wants--a place on the Wheaties box.

Finally, a brief word on the men's Olympic basketball team. There has been much criticism over the "Dream Team's" bronze-medal showing, and most of the blame is being unfairly placed on the players. Given the circumstances, I think it was unrealistic to expect the domination exhibited by the past Dream Teams. There is no way a group of players thrown together a few weeks before the Games can meld into a cohesive unit and adapt to a different style of basketball after playing a full NBA season.

This wasn't our first choice team by a long shot, but don't blame the players for having the audacity to want to play in the Olympics after so many other players passed. Blame Larry Brown for quitting on his team in the middle of the first round. Blame the selection committee, who brazenly ignored players that fit the mold of the international game, choosing instead to focus on marketing the NBA's young stars. Maybe the disappointment will convince the committee to give Fred Hoiberg and Michael Redd a call in 2008.

There are so many other stories from Athens that this column could go on for several more pages. If you have a lot of time to kill, (say, on the hockey line?) drop me a note. I've got all 1210 hours of Olympic footage on 200 convenient video tapes or one DVD for only three payments of $39.99.