2006 Turin Winter Olympics Blog

The official Olympic site has put up a video of Shaun White’s Turin snowboarding with sound and slow motion effects. It’s pretty interesting, so if you’re a fan, you might want to head over there and take a look.

We now have much better spam protection set up, so we have turned comments back on.

A quick note for the regular readers of this blog. We had to turn off comments on this blog, because we are getting pounded with SPAM comments. We are investigating the best procedure for preventing SPAM comments in the future and will update this post once we turn comments back on.

Who was your favorite U.S. medal winner of the Turin Olympics?
Chad Hedrick: 5% (27)
Shaun White: 25% (139)
Sasha Cohen: 16% (93)
Apolo Ohno: 20% (110)
Ted Ligety: 2% (9)
Shani Davis: 4% (24)
Joey Cheek: 7% (41)
Toby Dawson: 1% (5)
Hannah Teter: 2% (14)
Seth Wescott: 2% (11)
Rosey Fletcher: 1% (3)
Gretchen Bleiler: 1% (3)
Julia Mancuso: 1% (4)
Lindsey Jacobellis: 4% (23)
Danny Kass: 2% (10)
other: 9% (48)
Total Votes : 564

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier, but I just didn’t. I should have covered the 2006 Turin Paralympics after the Olympics. I’m sure many of you would have been interested. To make up for my negligence, here’s a bit of a recap.

The Russian Federation won the overall medal count with 33. Germany, Ukraine and France finished second, third and fourth. America finished fifth with 15 medals, including 7 golds. The U.S. paralympic alpine team contributed eight medals.
Notable medals include:

American Stephani Victor won gold in the Downhill slalom sitting. Stephani is relatively new to Paralympics. After a double amputation in 1995, she became aware of the Paralympics in 1999 and made it her goal to participate in the 2002 Paralympic Games. She has been featured on many national television programs, including 20/20, The View, ESPN and more.

Kevin Bramble won gold in the downhill sitting. Kevin was paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 21 in a snowboarding accident. In Turin, he was defending the gold he won at the Salt Lake City Paralympics in 2002.

Steven Cook brought home several medals, two gold and one bronze, in cross country skiing. Steven has been competing in the Paralympics since 1998. He lost his right leg below the knee in a 1988 farm accident.

Here’s to all the athletes, from America and the rest of the world who participated in the 2006 Paralympic Games.

Shaun White met the Olympian he most wanted to meet— Sasha Cohen— at a victory party for him last week. They hung out again at a post-Oscar party. But they’re just friends, so no one get any funny ideas.

Maybe Sasha Cohen and Chad Hedrick can make a movie together. Remember that movie “The Cutting Edge” about a hockey player and a figure skater who pair up for the Olympics? Maybe Sasha and Chad could do a remake? Except this time it would be a speed skater and a figure skater.

Sasha served as a special correspondent for “Inside Edition” at the Academy Awards and the after parties. At one of the parties Ben Stiller approached her about a cameo role in an upcoming film. So, maybe my dream of a Hedrick/Cohen film isn’t so far off.

Well, as those of you who have been around for a while may remember, I watched American Idol, instead of the Olympics. Now I’m blogging about American Idol. So, head on over to read updates, commentary, and any interesting tidbits I come across.

I’m quoted about this blog on the front page of today’s Washington Post in an article about “Blog Buzz”. I think it’s a decent article. It’s kind of funny to be referred to as a “sports fanatic”, and my family laughed long and hard about that, as I’m very far from fanatical about sports. I enjoyed this blogging experience, but it wasn’t because I’m an Olympics fanatic.

My only other beef was the continuing Olympic bashing. I hate to be included as a part of the portrayal that no one was interested in this year’s Olympics, but at least I’m not quoted as saying anything along those lines. Anyway, the article is available on the Washington Post’s site today or in print.

Germany (29) 11 gold, 12 silver, 6 bronze (biathlon, Nordic combined, luge, speedskating, cross country, bobsled, snowboarding)
USA (25) 9 gold, 9 silver, 7 bronze (snowboard, speed skating, downhill, freestyle, short track, ice dancing, hockey, bobsled, figure skating, curling)
Canada (24) 7 gold, 10 silver, 7 bronze (freestyle, speed skating, x country, short track, figure skating, skeleton, snowboard, bobsled, hockey, curling)
Austria (23) 9 gold, 7 silver, 7 bronze (downhill, Nordic combined, luge, ski jumping, snowboard, xcountry)
Russia (22) 8 gold, 6 silver, 8 bronze (biathlon, xcountry, figure skating, luge, speed skating, ice dancing, freestly skiing, downhill, bobsled)
Norway (19) 2 gold, 8 silver, 9 bronze (biathlon, xcountry, freestyle, nordic combined, ski jumping, snowboarding, downhill)
Sweden (14) 7 gold, 2 Sivler, 5 bronze (xcountry, downhill, biathlon, hockey, snowboard, curling)
Switzerland (14) 4 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze (downhill, figure skating, skeleton, snowboard, bobsled, cross country, freestyle, curling)
South Korea(11) 6 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze (short track, speed skating)
Italy (11) 5 gold, 6 bronze (xcountry, luge, speed skating, bobsled)
China (11) 2 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze (figure skating, short track, speed skating, freestyle)
France (9) 3 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze (downhill, freestyle, biathlon, snowboarding, xcountry)
Netherlands (9) 3 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze (speed skating)
Finland (9) 6 silver, 3 bronze (ski jumping, snowboarding, x country, freestyle, nordic combined, downhill, curling, hockey)
Estonia (3) 3 gold (xcountry)
Czech Republic (3) 1 gold, 2 silver (x country)
Croatia (2) 1 gold, 1 silver (downhill)
Australia (2) 1 gold (freestyle)
Poland (2) 1 silver, 1 bronze (xcountry, biathlon)
Ukraine (2) 2 bronze (biathlon, ice dancing)
Japan (1) 1 gold (figure skating)
Belarus (1) 1 silver (freestly skiing)
Bulgaria (1) 1 silver (short track)
Great Britain (1) 1 silver (skeleton)
Slovakia (1) 1 silver (snowboarding)
Latvia(1) 1 bronze (luge)

It seems that many of you who watched the opening ceremonies opted out of the closing ceremonies? Is that a matter of battle fatigue or lack of interest?

Will you be watching the closing ceremonies tomorrow night?
Yes: 55% (93)
No: 27% (46)
Maybe: 18% (31)
Total Votes : 170

What were your thoughts? Favorite moments?

Believe it or not, there are still some medal rounds tomorrow— one last cross country race and, of course, the hockey clash for gold.

I’ll be posting for about another week, then winding things up, barring any major late breaking scandals or some athlete telling off Bob Costas. Of course, I’ll be giving my views on the closing ceremonies, and there will be a poll up, so you can weigh in with your favorite part of the closing.

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have read, commented, questioned and generally made this an enjoyable experience. In case you’re wondering, I will be back for the Beijing Olympics and, then, for Vancouver. We may actually try to make it to those live. We’ve already purchased domains for the winter and summer Olympics, but there’s nothing up yet. Probably in the next week, or so. There’s already early news about both those Olympics available. So, if you’ve enjoyed reading and visiting about the Olympics, make sure to check those sites and bookmark them for your next Olympic viewing pleasure.

Thanks, again and see you soon!

Germany (29) 11 gold, 12 silver, 6 bronze (biathlon, Nordic combined, luge, speedskating, cross country, bobsled, snowboarding)
USA (25) 9 gold, 9 silver, 7 bronze (snowboard, speed skating, downhill, freestyle, short track, ice dancing, hockey, bobsled, figure skating, curling)
Canada (24) 7 gold, 10 silver, 7 bronze (freestyle, speed skating, x country, short track, figure skating, skeleton, snowboard, bobsled, hockey, curling)
Austria (22) 9 gold, 7 silver, 6 bronze (downhill, Nordic combined, luge, ski jumping, snowboard)
Russia (21) 8 gold, 5 silver, 8 bronze (biathlon, xcountry, figure skating, luge, speed skating, ice dancing, freestly skiing, downhill, bobsled)
Norway (19) 2 gold, 8 silver, 9 bronze (biathlon, xcountry, freestyle, nordic combined, ski jumping, snowboarding, downhill)
Switzerland (14) 4 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze (downhill, figure skating, skeleton, snowboard, bobsled, cross country, freestyle, curling)
Sweden (13) 6 gold, 2 Sivler, 5 bronze (xcountry, downhill, biathlon, hockey, snowboard, curling)
South Korea(11) 6 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze (short track, speed skating)
China (11) 2 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze (figure skating, short track, speed skating, freestyle)
Italy (10) 4 gold, 6 bronze (xcountry, luge, speed skating, bobsled)
France (9) 3 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze (downhill, freestyle, biathlon, snowboarding, xcountry)
Netherlands (9) 3 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze (speed skating)
Finland (7) 5 silver, 3 bronze (ski jumping, snowboarding, x country, freestyle, nordic combined, downhill, curling)
Estonia (3) 3 gold (xcountry)
Czech Republic (3) 1 gold, 2 silver (x country)
Croatia (2) 1 gold, 1 silver (downhill)
Australia (2) 1 gold (freestyle)
Poland (2) 1 silver, 1 bronze (xcountry, biathlon)
Ukraine (2) 2 bronze (biathlon, ice dancing)
Japan (1) 1 gold (figure skating)
Belarus (1) 1 silver (freestly skiing)
Bulgaria (1) 1 silver (short track)
Great Britain (1) 1 silver (skeleton)
Slovakia (1) 1 silver (snowboarding)
Latvia(1) 1 bronze (luge)

Curling? Have you watched cross-country skiing? While cross-country skiing and figure skating (really?) both got into the double digits, curling was voted the most boring Olympic sport to watch. Well, at least we won a medal in it.

Not to be disrespectful BUT What is the most boring Olympic sport to watch?
Alpine skiing: 1% (5)
Biathlon: 6% (22)
Bobsled: 4% (14)
Cross-country skiing: 17% (58)
Curling: 32% (112)
Figure skating: 13% (46)
Freestyle skiing: 1% (4)
Ice hockey: 5% (19)
Luge: 2% (7)
Nordic combined: 4% (13)
Short track: 1% (4)
Skeleton: 3% (10)
Ski jumping: 2% (7)
Snowboarding: 4% (13)
Speed skating: 3% (12)
Total Votes : 346