Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Rarely do I root against Americans in international competition, especially when I know little about the other competitors (your citizenship as default position). I did, however, find myself wishing that Bode Miller would find a ski firmly planted in his big mouth. I don't mind the bad boy image, nor do I mind the incessant coverage of this bad boy image. What I do mind is Bode calling Lance Armstrong a performance-enhancing drug abuser. Of course, he has no evidence, is only speculating with that useless mouth of his, and this simply makes him a giant douche. The really hilarious thing is that after his performance in the downhill (the be-all-end-all of skiing), we all know Bode is clean. You got a couple more events, Bode, and here is to you stinking them up like the downhill. Try to avoid serious injury though, as I don't want you to be made into a sympathy case. If you can just be mediocre, then perhaps everyone will quickly forget who you are. Then you can focus on your best event, the big mouthed asshole competiton.
Suck it, Bode!
I have to say, that comment about athlete profiles was right now. I admire the fact that Olympic athletes worked hard to get there, but the networks take the theme too far, forcing you to say, "That part about your cat's death forcing you to work harder than you ever had for his memory, I'm not buying it."
NBC's hype machine is really going down in flames. First Michelle Kwan, then Miller and Rahlves doing nothing in the downhill, and Ohno stumbling out of the 1500 in the semis. Only the snowboarding kid survived his glowing coverage. Between all of Bode Miller's pre-Olympic hype and then his stupid Nike commericals I can't imagine very many people hoping he would win other than the people at NBC and NIKE who invested so much in him.
Why in the world can't NBC show these events live while they are happening like they do everywhere else in the world? Instead of showing NASCAR qualifying all afternoon they could have been showing us live Olympic events. When we can read about the results online as they happen it seems like the least our braodcaster can do is show it to us. It is nice to see the women's hockey live, but that is the only thing we have been shown live so far.
Reading letters following a column about the Winter Olympics, and I find somebody with their lips firmly planted on Lance's bottom. Do these guys walk around wearing t-shirts with an image of themselves kneeling behind Lance? They seem to pop up everywhere! I am amazed the guy didn't go on a rant about how the Frenchman who won the downhill was ...... well, French.
On the Luge, 87 miles an hour while on your back, inches off the ice is pretty amazing. I rode a wheeled bobsled down the old concrete course in Lake Placid this summer. We went about half speed, sitting upright. It was amazing. I can't imagine going twice as fast, on my back, hoping my stomach doesn't block my view of what I am about to hit.
I loved Susan Sarandon, Yoko Onno, Peter Gabriel and all the other activists being in the open ceremonies. I could probably have done with hearing Yoko read anything, but just knowing Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin had steam coming out of their ears was wonderful!
Who is stiffer, Brian Williams or the frozen blue guy "S" is the Chevy commercials? I am thinking Brian.
King, I'm not a figure-skating insider, but I believe Kwan won several World Championships. So really your boxing comparison is like a boxer who won the belt but not the medal. Which still makes them world champs. She is still a wildly popular and gifted skater who draws large audiences in person and on TV, which is evidence of her stature in the figure-skating world.
btw, Sasha Cohen, interviewed this morning by Katie Couric, when asked about Kwan's saga, replied (more or less) - "I really haven't thought about it. I'm pretty much here for me". Ahhhh...the tight-knit all-for-one one-for-all world of women's figure skating...
Finally, watching Spurs v Pacers game yesterday on ABC, when they flashed "B. Miller finishes 5th in Men's Downhill". Pretty good strategy, NBC, letting your competition show your marquee results live while you show qualifications from another 'sport'.
ah, king, you are too much. just when i'm starting to fall for the olympic kitsch parade, you're there to bring me back down to earth with a little good-natured ribbing of the ridiculousness of it all.
personally, i consider the highlight of the olympics watching the american athletes on the medal stand trying to pretend like they remember the words to the national anthem (predictably, we see only americans awarded their gold-plated DVDs). shaun white didn't even bother, choosing instead to focus on the rather un-thrashin' dude-like waterworks display, which may have cost him a little street cred among his mall-rat army of admirers, but will no doubt cement his place in the hearts of the moms and dads who pay for all of that snowboard and skateboard gear he endorses.
i can only assume that you're waiting until tomorrow to mock the so-ironic-it's-ridiculous bust-out of bodie miller in the downhill event. bodie still has 4 events to go, but from here, it looks like nike might be headed for another 'dan vs. dan' debacle. ditto for the semifinal choke of apolo anton ohno--a more likable guy than bodie the bloviator, but over-hyped and -exposed nonetheless.
as for ms. kwan, well, the truth hurts--she really needed that olymic gold medal to earn a spot on her sport's short-list of unforgettables--but at least she had the sense and grace to bow out before it was too late for emily hughes to replace her. i know kwan was hungry to fill that hole in the trophy case, but i also suspect that the USOC wanted her in Turino more for marketing purposes than because anyone seriously thought she had a chance of winning. typically i couldn't care less about figure skating, but kwan seems believably genuine and decent, and it would have been a shame if her olympic career were to have ended with an embarrassing failure rather than an act of maturity and good sportsmanship.
i dig your idea about the 'ghost-skier' in the downhill events--maybe they could do that for the luge, too, so we can see how much flatter one guy is than the other. i actually really like the luge--especially the helmets, which make all of the riders look like their heads are about to explode. thanks also for the quick history lesson. i've been wondering how all of these strapping, square-jawed europeans end up riding sleds instead of on the hockey team or in bare-knuckles ultimate fighting championships, but now i get it: luge is the off-season pastime between log-rolling, boom-running, and crosscut saw seasons.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
