Entries Tagged 'snow and ice' ↓

The 2010 Winter Paralympics are underway.

Alpine skiing
Biathlon
Cross-country skiing
Wheelchair curling
Sledge hockey

Though the Opening ceremonies were sold out, CTV in Canada opted not to broadcast them live.

One of the big stories of these Games will be how Paralympic athletes “get no respect”.

Luca (Lazylegs) Patuelli hip-hop dancer

Good luck to everyone there.

I’m not a figure skating fan. When I see Johnny Weir, I find it difficult to get past his appearance.

It’s too extreme. My inclination is not to watch him skate. I assume he’s more flamboyant style than substance.

And his antics play into many of the stereotypes about male figure skaters. Even gay pundits are asking: Is Johnny Weir “Too Gay” For Figure Skating? (VIDEO)

My respect for Weir climbed a notch or two after hearing him fire back at broadcasters Claude Mailhot and Alain Goldberg of RDS, a French-language sports channel in Quebec. Here’s that interview.

U.S. men’s figure skater Johnny Weir says he was ‘frankly, pissed’ upon learning that the two French-language commentators questioned his gender and made other jibes during his Olympic skating performances last week. (Feb. 24)

Click PLAY or watch his interview on YouTube.

Still, I’m more inclined to cheer (or at least smirk at) the macho antics of Silver medalist, Russia’s Yevgeny Plushenko.

Plushenko and his coach want his competitors to man up and throw quad twists. I agree.

Comments? … Should I simply give up on Figure Skating completely?

I’m sorry to see it end.

The greatest emotional moment for me was the reaction of Frederic when his brother won Moguls.

Canada’s first gold medal winner ALEX BILODEAU greets fans with his brother FREDERIC BILODEAU and sister JENNIFER BILODEAU outside the Pan Pacific hotel Tuesday evening during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

… His older brother, Frédéric, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age and told that he would be unable to walk by the time he was 10. Frédéric is now age 28 and still has the ability to walk. …

Frédéric inspires Alex as much as Alex inspires Frédéric.

Some feel that American Bronze medallist Bryon Wilson, a former gymnast, had a better second run than Alex. Wilson was brilliant. Look for him in the coming years.

Recall Brian McKeever, the legally blind skier who qualified for the Canadian Men’s Olympic Cross Country Ski Team?

As of this morning, he’s been dropped from the Team.

… Canadian cross-country ski coaches met Friday night to consider their lineup for Sunday’s final event, the men’s 50-kilometres. The decision was made to go with Ivan Babikov, Alex Harvey, George Grey and Devon Kershaw. Since no nation is allowed to field more than four racers in a cross-country event that means McKeever will not become the first winter athlete to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Team manager Dave Wood along with head coach Inge Braten were unavailable for comment Friday night. Earlier in the day, Braten spoke to the Canadian Press and said he had to be professional “and choose the guys who are the best for the 50-km. Normally, sorry to say, all four are faster than Brian. And I think they can fight for a medal, all four of them. And then I have to pick out one who has a medal chance and put in Brian? That’s the situation. I don’t like it.” …

Globe and Mail – Blind skier denied chance to make history

Tough call. This decision is not going to be popular.

Brian McKeever will still race in the Paralympics, a big favourite.

Lydia Ierodiaconou Lassila just won the Women’s Aerial skiing Gold Medal for Australia.

Australia ??

… Lassila took a congratulatory phone call from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and showed her same knack for twisting and turning on the slopes by urging him to increase funding for better facilities at home.

“I was trying to persuade Kevin, my mate Kev, to build us a water ramp so that we can spend more time at home and also encourage some other youngsters to get involved with this sport,” said Lassila, who spends more than nine months a year training abroad. …

Reuters

Lydia was an Artistic gymnasts as were the Silver and Bronze medalists from China.

The judging I find quite confusing. Many of the athletes do similar jumps with similar performance. Here Lydia tries to explain the rules for the rest of us.

Click PLAY or watch it on Olympics.com.au.

Poly did some browsing on YouTube, coming up with this historic clip on Aerial Skiing.

Frank Bare performs the first triple twisting quadruple back flip in 1983. This is from Dick Barrymore’s film entitled “The Golden Years of Ski films”. Buy it at dickbarrymore.com

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Frank learned it on a water ramp he helped build in 1978. No doubt they were inspired by the swimming pool used for landing extreme dismounts off horizontal bar and swinging rings near Muscle Beach, California.

Frank’s jump was impressive for that era. Only 4 or 5 men have ever done quadruple saltos. There’s very little incentive since it’s (happily) been banned in competition.

His father, Frank Bare Sr., was the first Executive Director 1963-1980 of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation (USGF). And later (1976-1980) was elected Vice-President of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).

What are the top freestyle aerial skiers competing in 2010?

Quadruple saltos are banned. Athletes must, therefore, add twists to increase difficulty score.

Here’s Jeret “Speedy” Peterson from Idaho landing what he calls “The Hurricane“.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Jeret plans to compete that jump in the Olympic Final, if weather conditions are optimal.

by site editor Rick McCharles

Just arrived in Vancouver. I’m parked in front of the high definition TV, catching up on The Games.

For every gymnastics person who loves figure skating (like my Mom) there’s one who dislikes the sport (like me).

I dislike the judging. Find the routines too long. Dislike the scandal mongering, this time involving the Artistic Olympic Gymnastics Champion.

But even I can appreciate Kim Yu-Na. She’s an awesome athlete.

Kim Yu-Na is 19 years old and is the favorite to become South Korea’s first Olympic figure skating champion. …

International Sports Examiner

Click PLAY or watch her Short Program on YouTube.

Update: Unorthodox Gymnastics takes issue with a clearly under researched article by Aileen Gallagher controversially titled Why Figure Skating Is So Much Better Than Gymnastics.

I assume Aileen is an expert in both Figure Skating and Gymnastics. Otherwise, why would NY Mag assign her to write about the topic?

What’s the essence of sport?

People challenging others to see who’s “best” under some arbitrary set of rules.

Short Track Speed Skating is exactly that.

The race itself is madness. There’s a delicious uncertainty about who’s going to win.

… the story of Steven Bradbury, “The Last Man Standing” in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Salt Lake City Olympic Coach Kendra Wilkie Street linked to this video on Facebook. Thanks Kendra.

Cirque’s Marceline Goldstein went out to try this insanely extreme sport. Looks hairy.

This is the latest snow kite promo video from Ozone, manufacturers of power kites , snow kites, kitesurf kites and paragliders.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Not a figure skating fan, I forced myself to watch the entire Short Program tonight. From what’s been called the strongest field in Olympic history, here’s the top 3, so far, if you missed it.

1. Evgeni Plushenko 90.85
2. Evan Lysacek 90.30
3. Daisuke Takahashi 90.25

Long Program goes Thursday, Feb. 18th at 8:00pm (ET).

Lysacek was good. I really liked Nobunari Oda, currently 4th.

And the NBC fluff piece on Plushenko was brilliant. The bad boy that everyone hates and fears.

World champion Evan Lysacek

Comedian Stephen Colbert is at the Winter Olympics as “Assistant Sports Psychologist” to the U.S. Speed Skating Team. As well as a colour commentator for NBC.

Stephen’s personal philsophy is clearly stated on his personal poster.

Where I live in Canada there’s controversy regarding our “OWN THE PODIUM” program.

That’s a 5yr, $120 million fund created to put Canada first in medals won at the Vancouver Olympics. And in the top 3 in Paralympics.

Canadian athletes in the past, famously, have been gracious in defeat. Garnering more than our share of 4th and 5th place finishes. It’s about time we made it clear that our athletes are not “tourists”, as Dick Pound once called them.

Canadian athletes praise Own The Podium. And so do I.

I disagree with most of the complaints I’ve heard against Own The Podium. The only serious accusation is that the organizing committee scheduled too little practice time for foreign athletes at the competition venues. The Canadians got a lot more time, I hear. If so, the IOC needs change the rules.

GEM posted a couple of links relative to the story of the luger who died on a training run. Here’s one:

Kumaritashvili had just 26 practice runs, as opposed to the 200 for the Canadians

Be sure to read all the details before jumping to any conclusion.

Congratulations to the new Olympic Champion.

And well deserved. Perfect back layout double twist. (I don’t care about the moguls or speed of the run.)

alexbilodeau.com

I’ll post video for both men and women when video eventually gets posted online.