This column is the first in a three-part series designed to demystify the complexities of the Winter Olympics. Student Life urges you to turn off your cell phone and take some notes.
Last Friday night, the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games kicked off in safe and secure fashion. The USA was introduced last, garnered an outstanding ovation, expected in this time of patriotism. Representatives from 77 countries were expected to compete in this Olympiad in such classic sports such as alpine skiing, and new-school sports like snowboarding half-pipe.
After the first five days of the games, the United States is holding its ground, collecting ten medals, second only to the German team, a perennial power in cold-weather activities.
Curling
The unknown strange winter sport that everybody has heard of but can’t explain is in its second Winter Olympics. Curling was introduced in Nagano in 1998. After these winter Olympics, this sport should see a surge in popularity in the U.S. due to excellent and prolific television coverage.
Curling is a sport where four player teams slide a 42-pound granite “stone” across ice into a marked circle. The teams may use brooms to change the texture of the ice in order to “curl” the stone. The team that has more stones in the target area receives points. Think large-scale shuffleboard on ice.
Each team plays 10 “ends,” like innings in baseball, and then the final score is tallied. If the skip has made the right shots and the sweepers have worked the ice well, it’s party time, and it looks to me that some of these guys sure know how to indulge.
Through four matches, the men’s team is 1-3, beating the World Champion Swedes but losing three consecutive matches afterward. The U.S. must run off five consecutive victories in order to advance.
The women’s team is 2-1 and looks to advance to further competition.
Alpine Skiing
The men’s downhill is a basic yet harrowing ski run where the skier has to pass between marked gates along a wide path down the mountain. It’s the simple idea that first one to the bottom of the mountain wins. Skiers race at speeds in excess of 80 m.p.h., where catching one edge could prove fatal.
The Men’s downhill was won by Austrian ski-meister Fritz Strobl. Americans did very poorly in this event (which is nothing new) as the top finisher, Marco Sullivan. placed ninth. The women’s downhill, expected by some to be dominated by Chapstick girl Picabo Street, was instead conquered by France’s Carole Montillet.
Americans long for the days of “Golden Boy” Tommy Moe, who came out of nowhere to win gold at Lillehammer in 1994. Yet it seems the mighty Austrians and a few resolute Scandinavians have the event in a stranglehold these days.
Snowboarding
Snowboarding, another sophomore sport to the Olympics, has two competitions, the half-pipe and the slalom. The half-pipe, a style competition where boarders launch off the sides of the half-pipe and display tricks, seems more suited to the X-Games but has made a reasonably smooth transition to the mainstream.
As expected, the Americans showed some wicked moves in dominating snowboarding, sweeping the medals in the men’s half-pipe. Ross Powers dominated, rocking perfect grabs, twists, and 1080 McTwists down the length of the pipe to get gold. In the women’s competition American Kelly Clark stole the show in dramatic fashion proving that when it comes to attitude, no one beats the U.S.A.
Nordic Skiing
In Nordic skiing, which involves the ski jump and cross country skiing, Americans fared poorly. No American has ever finished better than ninth in the Nordic Combined. This year Todd Lodwick finished seventh, an improvement but not a major breakthrough.
The big story was Simon Ammann, the Swiss Harry Potter clone, who won two gold medals in the ski jump, beating out big name talents such as Germany’s Sven Hannawald and Poland’s Adam Malysz. He won the gold in the large hill competition by soaring 436 feet, with no layovers.
Figure Skating
The big story so far in figure skating is the scandal among the judges in the pairs competition. The Russian duo received gold while making a few visible technical errors. The Canadian team of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier completed the skate with no visible errors and a whole lot of flair, and received a silver, enraging figure skating fans everywhere and bringing the judges under fire.
Talk of judging collusion is brewing in the IOC, where judges agree to give a certain mark in exchange for another. This scandal is being investigated and will be reported on further in Winter Olympiad 201. Stay tuned, because anything could happen.
Contact Sal at [email protected]