2006 Turin Winter Olympics Blog

Gold Han Xiaopeng China
Silver Dmitry Dashinski Belarus
Bronze Vladimir Lebedev Russia

Short Track, Women’s 3000m relay

Gold South Korea
Silver Canada
Bronze Italy

I have to say I’ve been really impressed by Italy in short track and speed skating. Who knew they would be such a force?

Freestyle skiing, women’s aerials

Gold Evelyne Leu Switzerland
Silver Nina Li China
Bronze Alisa Camplin Australia

Congratulations to Alisa! Not bad for someone they didn’t even think would be able to compete.

Downhill skiing, women’s slalom

Gold Anja Paerson Sweden
Silver Nicole Hosp Austria
Bronze Marlie Schild Austria

What a surprise! Austria won medals in downhill skiing.

Speed skating, women’s 1500m

Gold Cindy Klassen Canada
Silver Kristina Groves Canada
Bronze Ireen Wust Netherlands

By the way, this win made Cindy Klassen the most decorated Canadian woman at a single Olympics.

In other news, U.S. men’s curling and hockey lost today. The men’s curling team will now play Great Britain for the bronze.

The Americans have not fared well in this Olympic’s aerials competition. Jeret “Speedy” Peterson was the only U.S. man to qualify for the finals. Now, neither of the women from the United States have qualified. Emily Cook was hoping for a comeback, after an accident injured her feet, and doctors told her she would never walk normally again. She finished 19th today. Jana Lindsey also failed to qualify.

On the other hand, there will be more than one comeback kid in the finals. Alisa Camplin qualified for the finals, placing 10th. Jacqui Cooper, also of Australia, missed the last Olympics because of a knee injury. She finished first in today’s qualifying round.

Men’s moguls

Gold Dale Begg-Smith Australia
Silver Mikko Ronkainen Finland
Bronze Toby Dawson United States

When I read this, my first thought was “good for Toby Dawson.” My second thought was “what happened to Jeremy Bloom?” My third thought was “how does someone from Australia win the moguls?”

Well, Dale Begg-Smith holds dual citizenship in Australia and CANADA, which is where he actually lives. So, that makes a lot more sense. He’s a pretty interesting guy, who splits his time between skiing and his multi-million dollar company that hi started when he was 13.

Men’s luge doubles

Gold Andreas Linger, Wolfgang Linger Austria
Silver Andre Florschuetz, Torsten Wustlich Germany
Bronze Oswald Haselrieder, Gerhard Plankensteiner Italy

Yes, the Lingers are brothers.

Is it just me, or do the Italians’ names not look Italian? I can’t find biographical information on them, but those names sound more German than Italian. Another case of dual citizenship?

By the way, the Ukranian, Roman Yazvinskyy, who was injured earlier today has a head injury but was conscious. He was taken by a helicopter to a hospital in Pinerolo.

NBC did a nice profile on freestyle skier Toby Dawson. I like to read articles like this because it gives me someone to cheer for. Who wouldn’t want the orphan turned Olympian to win?

Freestyle skiing has been a part of the Olympics since 1992, when mogul skiing was added at Albertville. In 1994, at the Lillehammer Olympics, the aerial competition was added (until I looked up this information, I had completely forgotten that there were back to back Winter Olympics when they made the switch over to every two years for the Summer and Winter Olympics).

Moguls, for those of you (like myself) who don’t ski, are basically big bumps and mounds of snow. It’s much harder to ski over these rough patches than down an ordinary hill. The mogul race is run down a mogul course that includes two jumps. The Olympic format consists of two runs, a qualifying run and a final run. The best time wins.

Aerial consists of a two-jump qualifier followed by a two-jump final. Now, by jumps, I don’t mean ski jumping where you fly off the end of a long slide and see how far you can go. No, this is aerial acrobatics. The athletes are limited to a maximum of three flips. What? Three flips?!? With skis on? Okay, then. The jumps are then scored on the take-off, execution, and landing. There is a difficulty factor that is figure in, as well.

I have to say this is one of the Olympic sports that I’ve never really paid attention to, but I think my kids would love it, and I’m looking forward to it, as well.

Alisa Camplin is a long-shot for a medal in Turin. Freestyle aerialist Camplin, who was a gold medalist at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City four years ago, had radical knee surgery in October. Her knee was repaired with a patella tendon from a donor cadaver.

This week in Deer Valley, Utah, she will be competing in her first competition just 12 weeks after the surgery. It is fitting that she is making her comeback in Deer Valley, since that is the site of her Olympic medal performance.

Camplin has already qualified for the Turin Olympics and will perform only basic aerial tricks in her comeback. While the team doctor says that it is unlikely that she will medal in Turin, the fact that she will be competing at all is pretty remarkable.

For the first time since it became an Olympic sport in 2002, the freestyle skiing events will take place at night during the Turin Olympics. When I read that, I thought, “Are they insane? How could you do that kind of skiing under glaring artificial lights?” But, apparently, the skiers think it’s fine. Some of them actually prefer it. It seems that it creates fewer shadows and, therefore, in many ways is easier for them to ski under than sunlight. The exception is when the lights are turned up too bright for television coverage. Hopefully, NBC will get that right and not call for overlighting at the Olympics.

Freestyle skiers must be a special breed. Earlier today I wrote about Jeremy Bloom’s determination to pursue his NFL dreams after he finishes his Olympic ones. Emily Cook’s story is different and even more inspiring.

In 2002, shortly before the Salt Lake City Olympics, Emily Cook broke both her feet landing a jump— one of the breaks was so bad that there was some concern she would never walk properly again. But now, a short four years later, she is on track to ski in the Turin Olympics.

You can read more of her inspiring story here.

Freestyle skier. Model. NFL player? If Jeremy Bloom gets his way, all will be true by the end of February. On the 15th, Bloom hopes to win a medal in freestyle skiing at the Turin Olympics. ON February 22nd, he will be trying to dazzle NFL coaches and convince them that he has the right stuff to make it in the pros.

It’s not as though Bloom never played ball. He played for the University of Colorado, until the NCAA declared him ineligible for taking endorsements as a skier. Bloom went to court over the issue but, ultimately, lost the court case and the opportunity to play college football.

Does he have the right stuff to make an NFL team? Only time will tell. In the meantime, we hope that he fulfills his Olympic dreams in Turin.