2006 Turin Winter Olympics Blog

Here it is mid-January, and you still haven’t gotten your Olympic tickets. You’ve meant to, but something just keeps getting in the way. Is it too late? Can you still get your coveted luge ticket?

The answer is— probably. Out of a million tickets, about 400,000 still remain. The Turin Olympic Committee is hopeful that the goal of just over 800,000 tickets will still be met. At this time tickets are still available for all sports, although if you want to see figure skating, you’ll have to shell out close to the U.S. equivalent of $120.

I think it’s really sweet that 30,000 tickets will be given to Turin area schoolchildren at a price of euro3 ($3.60) each.

Want to see the opening or closing ceremonies? About 6,000 tickets remain for the Feb. 10 opening ceremony, most of them costing between euro250 ($300) and euro500 ($600). About 10,000 tickets are unsold for the Feb. 26 closing ceremony.

For more on this, see the official Torino site: http://www.torino2006.org/

Just in case you were wondering.

Well, you can probably guess it has something to do with skiing. You’re right. Nordic combined is an Olympic sport that combines cross-country skiing with ski jumping. There is no women’s event in this sport in the Olympics.

There are actually three Olympic events that fall within the broader category of Nordic Combined— Individual Gundersen, Sprint, and Team.

In Individual Gundersen, each competitor first takes two jumps. The jumps are scored on distance and styles. The resulting points then determine who starts where for the 15 km cross-country skiing race that makes up the second half of the event.

In the Sprint, competitors only get one jump. This is followed by a 7.5 km cross-country race. Again, starting positions are determined by the points from the ski jumping.

In Team, there are four jumpers who each take two jumps. The team’s score in the jumping portion is the total score of the eight jumps. Then the team members compete in the 4×5km relay. The same method used in the other events is used to determine start position. The winner is the team whose final skier crosses the finish line first.

In Italy, sports figures found guilty of “doping” can face criminal charges. Under International Olympic Committee rules, athletes can be disqualified and stripped of their medals but cannot be criminally prosecuted. So, whose rules will Olympic athletes face?

That is still up for debate. Italian health officials and Olympic Committee members have still not arrived at an agreement.

I wonder if that applies to all doping. Remember the guy who tested positive for an anti-baldness drug? Would that mean time in the Big House?

Yes, you can expect to see the countdown each day. We’re close enough, I think for a daily reminder.

Read this article on ten reasons you should watch the Turin Olympics.

Here’s the summary:

10. Women’s hockey
9. Jeremy Bloom
8. Figure skating judges
7. Snowboarding
6. Chad Hedrick
5. Bode Miller
4. Men’s hockey
3. Apolo Anton Ohno
2. Figure skating
1. Gold medalists X

To find out all the details about why these things make the Turin Olympics must-see, read the article.

I bet you thought I forgot.

Until recently, I thought ice dancing was a slower, less exciting version of pairs skating. I mean—no lifts, no jumps, no death-defying throws. Where’s the fun in that?

In truth, ice dancing is extremely rigorous. Ice dancing competitions consist of three parts–compulsory dance, the most like the original ballroom dances that inspired ice dancing; an original set pattern dance, , with rhythms designated by the International Skating Union; and a free dance, which allows the greatest freedom of expression. Since 1998, dancers have been required to include certain elements in their free dances, including step sequences, lifts, dance spins, and multi-rotation turns called twizzles.

Originally, dancers never skated apart from another. This restriction has been relaxed in recent years.

For a good FAQ on ice dancing, or if you just have more questions, visit Care to Ice Dance.

If you’re a fan of Michelle Kwan, I suggest you get prepared to be annoyed and possibly to send email. If you disagree with the decision to place Kwan on the U.S. Figure Skating Olympic Team, you’ll love this editorial. Houston Chronicle writer John Lopez essentially says that the U.S. Figure Skating Federation (well, really the whole international skating community) is a joke and crooked. While he makes some valid points, I think the overall tone of his article is a trifle unnecessary.

Yes, the figure skating community has had its problems, but I don’t think Michelle Kwan’s placement on the Olympic team is a sign of foul play. After all, she’s probably more likely than Emily Hughes to medal, even if she is injured. If Emily Hughes isn’t bothered, why should John Lopez be concerned?

Our fourth weekly Winter Olympics Trivia quiz is ready.

Go take our latest Winter Olympic Trivia Quiz by clicking here.

As some of you know, we had polls on this site at one point in time. Well, we discovered that, with they system we were using, when people went to the poll answers there were sometimes ads that we don’t want associated with our site. So, we’re looking for a new polling system, but in the meantime, I still want to hear from you! So, how many of you are planning to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies? You can just answer a yes or no, and I’ll compile the results and send them out later. Now, if you like, you can also tell why or why not or anything else about Olympic viewing.

Update: We now have an Olympic poll on the upper left sidebar. Go cast your vote now.

And my main thought is— does that give me enough time to do a writeup on the rest of the Olympic sports?

It seems really late to be still naming athletes to the Olympics, which starts in just over 2 weeks, but that’s just what happened yesterday. The 2006 Olympic snowboarding team was announced yesterday. It consists of 16 athletes: eight in halfpipe; five in snowboardcross, which is making its Olympic debut in Turin; and three in parallel giant slalom.

The shoo-ins were Shaun White and Gretchen Bleiler. Defending Olympic champion Kelly Clark also made the team, but defending Champion Ross Powers was unable to make the team.

It is still weird to me that snowboarding is an Olympic sport. It is the equivalent, in my opinion, of skateboarding or surfing being turned into Olympic sports. I think more research is needed. I guess today’s sport that I’ll be explaining will be snowboarding. Maybe it will give me greater respect for a sport that I truly don’t understand.

So, the Olympics are coming, and you have kids. Where can you go to teach them a little about the Olympics or just to let them have some Olympic fun?

PBS Cyber School has a fun site with plenty of activities based on skiing, skating and snowboarding. If you’re a homeschooler, you could use this as a curriculum for a couple of weeks as your kids learn some math, geography and more.

Winter Olympics for Kids has some fun links, including a funTorino cyber hunt.

Then there’s the official Torino website. You’ll need to click on the Kids’ area and then English, unless of course you speak Italian or French. There’s all sorts of interesting information on the site.

Enchanted Learning is one of my favorite sites for kids. Their Olympic site is no exception.

Did I forget to mention your favorite site for kids? Let me know what they are in the comments section.

Snowboarding has been a part of the Olympics since 1998. It has been around as a sport since the 1960s. It grew in popularity in the 1980s. But what is it? Is it skateboarding on snow? Skiing on a surfboard?

There are six snowboard events on the programme of the Olympic Winter Games: men’s halfpipe, ladies’ halfpipe, men’s parallel giant slalom and ladies’ parallel giant slalom, men’s snowboard cross and ladies’ snowboard cross. Snowboard cross is making its debut at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

The halfpipe is similar to skateboarding. There is a half-cylinder shaped course, and competitors perform acrobatic feats while going down the course. Speed is unimportant. It’s all about form and difficulty of the tricks performed.

Parallel giant slalom pits one snowboarder against a competitor in a head to head race down the mountain. After qulifying rounds, a group of 16 participates in a tournament, racing two at a time, until there is a winner.

Snowboard cross is a little like motorcross on snowboards. There is a challenging course, including jumps and obstacles. Groups of four race at the same time, with the top two finishers going on to the next round.

I can see how snowboarding is a challenging sport. But I still don’t know if I buy it as an Olympics sport. If inline skaters have to become ice speed skaters to participate in the Olympics, maybe snowboarders should become skiers. This is probably a sure sign that I’m getting old— you know you’re getting older when you start wanting things to stay the same and longing for the “good old days”.

For more on snowboarding, plus a video (kids, don’t try these stunts at home), visit the U.S. snowboard team’s site.