Letters to the Editor
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Booming Voice!
I was wondering the same thing about that guy with the voice: Who is that guy? I think if we saw him, he would probably be 5'4" and 115 pounds with thick glasses amd a pronounced limp. However, if Sha Na Na ever regroups....
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Kaufman seriously wrongheaded on humanitarian concerns
Mr. Kaufman states that wouldn't it be nice if all the other medal winners, a la Cheek, donated their bonuses to good causes. Sure, it would, but think for a second. 25,000 grand is probably around half of the annual income of any given olympic athlete, many of which, at least in the U.S., work part time jobs at Home Depot, for full time pay so that they can train. Now, I may be wrong on this, but I doubt that full time pay at the Depot is going to be anything to write home about, so essentially, Mr. Kaufman is saying that wouldn't it be nice if these athletes gave up what amounts to half of their typical yearly salary. The mere fact that Cheek is donating any of his winnings suggests that he is either one the most selfless people in the world or he is independently wealthy and 25 grand is no great shakes to him. I would really like to see Mr. Kaufman call for professional athletes to fork over half of their annual income. Maybe if that happened most of the world's starving children would be fed. Of course, it would be nice for Olympians to donate to charity, but is it at all reasonable to expect them to or even reasonable to talk about it as a plausible scenario? Nope. Hey, Mr. Kaufman, you got 25 grand to spare?
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Curling
I've been watching the American men curling and they are fantastic. The captain has such a masterful control over where the stone goes. Even when someone on the team makes a mistake they seem pretty philosophical about the whole thing. Yesterday, playing Finland, they missed a key point in the final end that gave the match away, but they just looked disappointed. They're not a demonstrative team, but they are great to watch on ice.
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Women's Hockey
Hiya King:
I don't know if you heard about it, but your diagnosis of the current state of North American women's hockey is probably about spot on. Didn't the U.S. Women play a top-tier boys high school team in the past couple of months and tie them (or lose 0-1, or something)?
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Ski-pumper
I've been waiting for someone to mention the deep voice of encouragement from deep in the cavern of the starters' gate. At first I thought he might be a personal pumper-upper for one of the skiers, but then when the next American came up he did the same thing. He was even pumping them up on training runs, which leads me to believe he is a paid member of the team. But here's my question - if Bode's "the man," how can Rahlves also be "the man?" If I were either skier, I might feel like this shouting man was being a bit disingenuous, as he is telling me I'm the man five minutes after giving my teammate the same sentiment. That could cause me to not get pumped up, but rather to question who this guy was really rooting for, and the top of the downhill is no place to be questioning things. I blame him for Team USA's collective out-of-the-medals performance thus far. He either needs to find unique things to say to each skier - a la their song of choice, or just stop...because now he's just getting in their heads.
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Skating Mulligans
Usually I would agree that "do-overs" are strictly for the playground. However, for something like ice dancing, I don't mind so much. Partly because I only grudgingly accept ice skating as a sport, probably. Also, though, because maybe if there wasn't such a rule in ice skating, people might not even try to do something like the quad-whatever. Why risk everything on something no one has ever done before, no? Nobody would hold it against them that they didn't try, because no one else had ever done it either.
In sports where people compete directly, face-to-face against one another, mulligans wouldn't be fair. One football team's failure to get a first down on a reverse is the result of the other team's defensive play. In the instant matter, it wasn't a crafty Russian zone blitz that spoiled the Chinese pair's landing. The Chinese just tried something apparently really really hard and fell.
If the Chinese had taken a spill performing a simple maneuver, then perhaps the mulligan would be inappropriate. The Chinese, however, were attempting something very difficult and rare. Therefore, I support the rule as applied here.
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THE story of the Olympics, thus far
King,
Thanks for pointing out these kinds of slightly-below-the-radar Olympic moments that go largely unmentioned elsewhere. My wife and I have been yelling encouragement at each other around the house to 2 days now: "Oh yeah! Fold that laundry! Destroy those bills! Time to CLEAN that cat litter!"
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Curling Captain
Curling Teams don't have captains, they have skips.
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This column's readers are The Man!
and/or The Woman!
Christy: Mr. Kaufman is saying that wouldn't it be nice if these athletes gave up what amounts to half of their typical yearly salary.
They don't all have to donate the whole thing. And gold medals often lead to more income.
tbrandel: If Bode's "the man," how can Rahlves also be "the man?" If I were either skier, I might feel like this shouting man was being a bit disingenuous, as he is telling me I'm the man five minutes after giving my teammate the same sentiment.
Just cause Bode's "the man" now doesn't mean he's going to be "the man" five minutes from now. Perhaps "the man"-ness is an ever-shifting title. Maybe the shouting man has a poly-hoministic belief system. (I just made up that term.)
marktgarten:
Because the more difficult a move is, the more points you get for it.
If the Chinese had taken a spill performing a simple maneuver, then perhaps the mulligan would be inappropriate. The Chinese, however, were attempting something very difficult and rare.
Unless I'm mistaken, there's nothing in the rule regarding how difficult a trick was that resulted in an injury that requires a restart.
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Women's Hockey Play Level
Yes, the US Women's Hockey Team played an exhibition against the Green Mountain Glades, a boys junior hockey team in Vermont last month, with the boys winning 8-6. See http://www.nescac.com/Releases/2005-06/Middlebury_USAH_011606.htm
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Not a "do-over"
I voiced my opinion on this over in TableTalk, so I'm not going to belabor the point other than to say that this: "It doesn't seem right that you can crash, stop your routine, get a do-over, start again and still get a medal-winning score, crash and all" is not entirely accurate.
They did not get a do-over. The first part of their program, including the fall, was scored. They had to continue from the point of the fall.