|
|
Post by 2010orbust on Feb 12, 2009 0:07:57 GMT -5
Skaterswaltz, I also have tickets for the 17th and maybe when the time comes, some of us may be able to connect. Did you get any other tickets for the games? We're all fans of ST. My sister, who is going with me, has attended the Olympics before but this is my first. She loved Apolo. I was finally able to book rooms, but not at a hotel. I'm staying at a B&B in Vancouver near public transport. A friend of mine up there said not to try to drive, that there would be alot of major road closures, traffic, expensive parking, etc. The thing with B&Bs though is that I wasn't sure who I was giving my credit card to!! When you find stuff on the internet, it may not be legit. I did some more checking with the B&B guild up there + got a cc of the business license. The B&B has good prices and proximity to transportation. The hotels are pretty outrageous from what I've seen, especially with the packages. I've read that the ratio of demand to supply of rooms is going to be huge. Anyway, that's what I've done. Hope it works out.
|
|
|
|
Post by A.O.Freak on Feb 12, 2009 0:24:26 GMT -5
Olympics on Track Despite Headaches A few U.S. team sponsors have backed off. The athletes village is getting a bailout loan. Even the tourism bureau in 2010 Winter Olympics host city Vancouver, Canada, has suffered layoffs. With a year left until the 2010 Winter Olympics and more grim news anticipated, is it any wonder a new sponsor of the U.S. Ski Team is Alka-Seltzer? Despite a few headaches, the 2010 Games are on track to be the largest ever. About 5,500 athletes from more than 80 countries will compete in the biggest city to host the Winter Olympics: Vancouver, with its metro area of 2 million people. "I'd be a fool to say I wasn't affected by what's going on globally," Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno  said in a teleconference last week. "There's many, many, many, corporations and companies out there looking for ways to cut back on their marketing expenses. "But with that being said, there's always going to be an interest within the Olympic Games, regardless of what is going on." The venues are built, and many already have hosted competitions. Meanwhile, Germany, Norway and Austria have boosted their Winter Olympics efforts, USOC chief officer Jim Scherr said. Host nation Canada has launched a program called "Own the Podium." Russia, ramping up to host the 2014 Games in Sochi, hopes to have a strong showing next year, and Summer Games power China is improving in winter events such as speed skating. Stateside, athletes are hoping to improve upon their 25-medal showing in Turin, Italy, in 2006 -- second to Germany's 29 medals. Lindsey Vonn, the overall alpine World Cup winner in 2007-08, will be a strong medal contender, as will Ohno, the men's and women's hockey teams and the U.S. snowboarders. Adam Smith, a Bend native on the U.S. snowboarding team, will compete Sunday at a World Cup event at Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver, the Olympic venue for that event. Smith is in the top 10 of the World Cup standings and aims to make the Olympics in the parallel giant slalom. "Been running strong the last few years and very confident in the fact that I'll be making the team, and have no issues with even thinking that I won't," he said. Comments by renegade alpine skier Bode Miller published Wednesday indicate he will retire at the end of this season. While the two-time silver medalist might subtract himself from the Games, the International Olympic Committee is adding an event: ski cross. Like snowboard cross, it features athletes racing one another rather than the clock. The top two finishers from each four-person heat advance, culminating in a four-person final. But this isn't roller derby; skiers aren't allowed to interfere with one another. Scherr promised the U.S. would "field a team that is clean and drug-free," no small task given the persistent revelations of drug use in a variety of sports in recent decades. Yet to be seen is whether the economy will cast a similar specter over the Games. Last month, the government of British Columbia passed an emergency bill to allow the city of Vancouver to borrow at least $458 million to ensure that the Olympic athletes village is completed as planned. The New York hedge fund that was to lend $750 million for the project stopped making payments to the developer in September. Including land, the project is worth $1 billion. Olympics organizers say that despite the financial struggles, the venue is nearly complete. Due in large part to the U.S. banking and stock market crises, travel has declined worldwide. Vancouver is no exception, despite high anticipation for the Games and its relatively close proximity to large U.S. cities. Tourism Vancouver, the city's official bureau, has lost 20percent of its staff since November through layoffs and attrition, said Walt Judas , vice president of visitor services, communications and 2010 strategies. Yet demand remains high for Olympics tickets and hotel reservations. It's too soon to tell how much the economy might affect travel to the Games, Judas said, but he is hopeful. "I'm not suggesting that the Olympics is immune to any kind of economic downturn," he said. But "so far we haven't seen the signs. It's very good." |
|
|
|
Post by mtnme on Feb 12, 2009 10:53:45 GMT -5
LOL on the 'will work for St tickets!' But here's a way to cover all our bases: we'll wear a gold turtleneck with the words JR Just Rocks around the neck - over that is Jordan's shirt - which is under our TRF blue jackets, with our Baver's Bad-asses pins. Since the green sweatshirts just won't do, we'll keep our eyes open around St. Patrick's Day for those 'leprechaun green' derbies and put Rooting for Reutter on them. Around our foreheads, we'll have 'unapologetic' red bandanna's, and around our mouths, we'll sport Ryan Leveille's signature green bandanna. We still gotta come up with stuff for Travis, Anthony, Jeff, Kimberly etc, etc.... ...and by the time all is said and done, we'll look like the freaking Michelin man and we won't be able to move!  Okay, we've still got pants, socks, shoes, gloves, and earmuffs. We may just be able to cover the whole team. How in the hell are we going to get on the plane much less carry signs into the venue? and hey, I've been romaing the internet while sick at home. It's unbelievable how many single, male country western singers sale ladies' "boxer" panties in their online stores. Kenny Chesney's say---Buried Treasure. Chuck Wicks' are white with pink hearts. I guess Toby Keith's wife said no way buddy--he sales a pair of black work out pants with "High Maintenance" across the a**. Let's go shopping! In the continuing interest of covering all our *snicker* bases...(and I don't think this adequately does - pun intended) and in keeping with gasps theme, we could go for the skater undies. Although I don't think women of *ahem* 'our age' could pull this look off - Nor should we...   Lezleigh Jaworski's 21st birthday. Sonia, Kimberly, Sarah, Lezleigh the birthday girl, Cherise, Tina  |
|
|
|
Post by skaterswaltz on Feb 12, 2009 16:38:08 GMT -5
ONE YEAR OUT: ATHLETES TO WATCH FOR 2010sports.espn.go.com/oly/columns/story?id=3901784Perhaps there is something in the ice in Lake Placid, N.Y. Back in 1980, of course, it was the site of the "Miracle on Ice," in which a group of American college hockey players somehow upended the Soviet Union team, what many considered the greatest hockey team ever. The United States went on to win the Olympic gold medal. This past week in Lake Placid came yet another miracle. Erin Hamlin, a 22-year-old who now is the toast of her hometown of Remsen, N.Y., pulled off the unimaginable by winning the singles luge world title. The victory snapped Germany's international 99-race winning streak, dating to 1997, including Olympic, world championship and World Cup contests. The win prompted a Greek restaurant in Utica, N.Y., to hoist a banner in her honor; made news in Taipei, Taiwan; and, reportedly, brought Olympic silver medalist slider Gordy Sheer to tears of joy. More importantly, it positioned Hamlin as a serious medal threat at the Vancouver Olympics, which will begin a year from Thursday. "I started riding in 2000, and coming through the years, you always saw these German sweeps," Hamlin said. "To be the person to break [the streak] is pretty amazing." Not only did a German not win -- Natalie Geisenberger settled for silver -- but the country had just one slider on the podium. Natalia Yakushenko of Ukraine took the bronze. Hamlin believes the event sent a strong message to the once-invincible Germans. "They have to start watching their backs a little more," she said. Hamlin, who placed 12th in Torino, knows it won't be easy to pull off the biggest of victories a year from now at the 2010 Games. There she will have to make four runs, instead of the two she had to do at the World Championships. Plus she won't have the advantage of competing on her home track in Lake Placid. She will get to test the Olympic track in Whistler, British Columbia, from Feb. 16 through 21 at the FIL World Luge Cup. "It will take a lot to stay up here," Hamlin told reporters in Lake Placid, "but who knows, anything can happen." Here are some other winter athletes who just might pull off some miraculous performances a year from now: Lindsey Vonn She won't be the surprise Hamlin would be, but Vonn, who is coming off her first super-G and downhill wins at the World Championships, could become the face of the Games on American televisions should she win in Vancouver. Ever since she crashed during the Olympics on Feb. 13, 2006, and had to be flown by helicopter to a hospital in Torino, Vonn has been thinking about competing in 2010. Even though she had a bruised hip, Vonn somehow managed to compete the following day and placed eighth in Torino. Imagine what a healthy Vonn could do. Other veteran U.S. skiers haven't been as hot. Bode Miller, a two-time Olympic silver medalist but a huge bust in 2006, has not won a medal at a major event since the 2005 World Championships. He came close to winning the super-combi race this month but straddled a gate just shy of the finish. In a report from the worlds, Miller hinted that he might retire before the 2010 Games, but with him, you just never know. Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety, meanwhile, was disqualified from the super-combi for a "breach of equipment rules." Julia Mancuso, who also struck gold in Torino, has been struggling. Battling back and hip injuries, she has not won a World Cup event in nearly two years. Shaun White "The Flying Tomato" continues to soar. The 2006 Olympic halfpipe snowboard champion has spent the past three years winning all sorts of events, including skateboarding. He became the first athlete to compete in both the Winter and Summer X Games and won the skateboard vert in 2007. In January, he made an incredible third-run rally to win his second consecutive gold medal in the superpipe. En route to the victory, he beat Kevin Pearce, who could be White's biggest threat next year. On the women's side, there is a trio to watch: 2002 Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark, Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter. Katie Uhlaender A four-time national skeleton champion who took up the sport in 2002, Uhlaender won the World Championships crown in 2008. At a World Cup test event in Whistler earlier this month, she placed fourth. Uhlaender, of Breckenridge, Colo., comes by her sports success honestly. Her father, Ted, played for Cincinnati's Big Red Machine in the 1970s and later was a coach with the Cleveland Indians. On the men's side, Zach Lund is back. The two-time world bronze medalist was bounced from Torino after drug tests showed he had been using a banned substance called finasteride, which is found in many anti-baldness medications. He returned to the sport the following year and claimed the overall World Cup title. Angela Ruggiero The three-time Olympic hockey player is hoping to end her career on ice better than she did on TV. Ruggiero, who survived 10 weeks of the 13-week taping of "The Apprentice" before The Donald told her she was fired, has made up her mind to go for gold one more time in Vancouver. A Harvard graduate, Ruggiero has a gold, a silver and a bronze to her name. It will be tough for the Americans, who likely will face the Canadians on Canadian soil, but the United States won the 2008 World Championship. Forward Jenny Potter also is going for her fourth Olympics. Mark Johnson, the coach at the University of Wisconsin, was named the women's Olympic coach last month. Todd Hays In 2006, after competing in three Olympics, Hays decided to retire from bobsled to pursue a coaching career in football. A former linebacker at the University of Tulsa, Hays took two years off from bobsled. But now, at 39, he is back on the bobsled track. In 2002, he ended the U.S.'s 46-year medal drought in the bobsled by taking home the silver in Salt Lake City. Whether he has time to return to the medal stand remains to be seen. Shauna Rohbock The 2006 Olympic silver medalist (along with Valerie Fleming) certainly has the experience to make a repeat appearance on the Olympic podium. At the bobsled World Cup competition in Whistler last week, Rohbock (along with Elana Meyers) captured the gold. The biggest competition could come from another American: Erin Pac. Pac and teammate Michelle Rzepka won their first World Cup event medal, a bronze, in Whistler. It could be a sign of something bigger to come. Jeremy Abbott The newly crowned U.S. figure skating champion has brought a blend of style and athleticism to the sport, but he will have his work cut out for him, especially from within his own country. Actually, from his home rink in Colorado Springs, Colo. Abbott won nationals, but newcomer Brandon Mroz, an 18-year-old who trains with Abbott, wowed the Cleveland crowd in January with a huge quad and a silver medal. Ryan Bradley, who also trains with them, wound up fourth. And that's not even including two-time U.S. champion Evan Lysacek and three-time champ Johnny Weir. Lysacek barely made the world team with a third-place finish at nationals. Weir wasn't as lucky. He finished fifth and will have to watch worlds on television. The event will be held March 22-29 in Los Angeles. Others to watch are France's Brian Joubert and Canada's Patrick Chan. No Canadian has won an Olympic gold medal in men's figure skating, although there have been a few who have come darned close. Elvis Stojko and Brian Orser each won two Olympic silver medals, and Jeffrey Buttle, Toller Cranston, Donald Jackson and Montgomery Wilson each won the bronze. The last time the Winter Olympics were held on Canadian soil was in 1988 in Calgary, and men's skating was in its heyday with the "Battle of the Brians" -- Brian Boitano won gold and Orser was the runner-up. The favorites on the women's side are South Korea's Yu-Na Kim, who is coached by Orser, and Japan's Mao Asada, who can land a triple axel. Newly crowned American champion Alissa Czisny, who has been getting frequent pep talks from Boitano, is gorgeous to watch, but her jumps are far too inconsistent to thwart Kim and Asada. Other Americans to watch are two-time U.S. silver medalist Rachael Flatt, bronze medalist Caroline Zhang, 2008 champion Mirai Nagasu and Ashley Wagner. Kimmie Meissner, the 2006 world champion, has a long road to travel if she is to be a force in 2010. Canada could figure in the medal mix with Joannie Rochette and comeback skater Cynthia Phaneuf. Home ice is good for Canadian women. The last Canadian woman to medal at the Olympics was Elizabeth Manley, who soared to the silver in Calgary in 1988. Apolo Anton Ohno
The 26-year-old short-track specialist has a shot to become the most decorated men's U.S. Olympic speedskater. After medal-winning appearances in Salt Lake City and Torino, he has five medals, tying him with Eric Heiden. Bonnie Blair has six. Ohno will have a huge test March 6-8, when he competes in the World Short-Track Championships in Vienna, Austria. If there were a dancing portion at the Olympics, Ohno would win hands-down. Some women speedskaters to watch are Katherine Reutter and Jennifer Rodriguez, a three-time Olympian dubbed "Miami Ice" for her South Florida roots, who is trying to make a comeback. Meryl Davis and Charlie White Speaking of ice and dancing, Meryl Davis and Charlie White could find themselves in medal contention in a year. They won their first U.S. ice dancing title in January (yes, there is a little asterisk there, since their good friends and former training partners Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto didn't compete as Agosto recovered from a back injury). Davis and White followed up their nationals victory by going to Vancouver to compete in the Four Continents Championships this month and won, beating Canada's world silver medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir along the way. Belbin and Agosto expect to be healthy at next month's World Championships, but they need to regain their international -- and now national -- stature in a hurry. Mark Grimmette Grimmette is prepping for his fifth trip to the Olympics. Beginning in 1994 in Lillehammer, he has competed in four consecutive Winter Olympics, and won a bronze medal in 1998 in Nagano and silver in Salt Lake City in 2002. Along with Brian Martin, Grimmette's luge partner of 13 years, the duo had been struggling of late. But Grimmette and Martin could be back on track after capturing a bronze medal at the World Championships earlier this month, their first at worlds since 2007. Jeret "Speedy" Peterson Watching this aerial skier is like watching the stock market these days. He can either skyrocket or take a major plunge. But there's no doubt this guy is a risk taker. Known for his "Hurricane" move, in which he performs five twists and three flips, Peterson either blows away his competition or gets blown out. The two-time Olympian took about a year and a half off from the sport and now is trying to come back with some big moves. He earned his seventh World Cup career victory in Lake Placid last month, marking his first World Cup event win in two years. Amy Rosewater is a freelance writer based in Baltimore and a frequent contributor to ESPN.com.
|
|
|
|
Post by sk8on on Feb 13, 2009 13:21:36 GMT -5
From nbcolympics.com... Video of the "top 5 to watch" in Vancouver. Apolo is highlighted. Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick are mentioned as well. www.nbcolympics.com/vancouverpreview/index.html?v=VAN_TOP5_FEB2010And I'm posting 2 pics---more can be found here: www.nbcolympics.com/photos/vancouver2010/galleryid=258327.html A detail of the Olympic Torch during a ceremony for the unveiling of the 2010 Olympic Torch on February 12, 2009 at the Whistler Village Square in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Participants celebrate as the 2010 countdown clock reaches 00:00:00 during a ceremony for the one year countdown of the 2010 Olympics Games on February 12, 2009 at the Richmond Olympic Oval in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. |
|
|
|
Post by mtnme on Feb 13, 2009 14:27:08 GMT -5
Sour economy clashing with dreams of Olympic hopefulswww.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2009-02-12-usa-2010-budgets_N.htmBy Vicki Michaelis, USA TODAY If you're watching the U.S. Olympic curling trials later this month, you might see some dogs' mugs in one of the bull's-eyes on the curling sheets. Consider it a sign of the hard times. The bull's-eyes usually contain a sponsor or broadcaster logo, but this time there were no takers. So USA Curling and organizers of the Feb. 21-28 trials in Broomfield, Colo., put the four bull's-eyes, or "buttons" in curling parlance, up for auction on e-Bay for a minimum $1,150 each. One buyer bit, and plans to put a picture of his dogs in the button, USA Curling chief operating officer Rick Patzke says. FEELING THE PINCH: Financial sacrifices hit all athletes With costs rising and sponsorships dwindling, the federations that train the USA's Winter Olympians are casting about for creative ways to raise money and paring spending any way they can. The economic downturn has hit at a time they can ill afford it, with the 2010 Olympics fast approaching. The Vancouver Games will be held a year from now. "As they look at trying to ramp up their athletic programming and their other organizational priorities going into the Vancouver Games," U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr says of the winter sport federations, "this economy is making it really difficult." The federations are as varied as the sports they represent, from tiny US Biathlon, which oversees a handful of athletes, to relatively mammoth U.S. Ski and Snowboard, the national governing body for everything from alpine skiing to snowboard to nordic combined. The weak economy has affected them all. Winter Olympians •US Biathlon is trying to regroup after a $250,000 loss in 2008, on a $2 million annual budget, that it attributes primarily to the U.S. dollar's weak value relative to the euro last year. Between travel to European competitions for athletes and salaries for European-based coaches, the federation spends 60% of its budget in European currency. •U.S. Ski and Snowboard last month levied a 10%, across-the-board pay cut as well as layoffs. That followed travel cuts instituted in the fall. Up for consideration is whether to have athletes not yet at top performance levels start paying more of their expenses. •USA Curling scrapped a donor campaign last fall that it was hoping would raise enough money to allow its 2010 Olympians to attend training camps without having to work at the same time. It also was counting on the campaign to raise $70,000 for five sets of competition-quality curling rocks. Instead, for the Olympic trials, USA Curling will be renting rocks from Canada. •USA Luge has reduced staff through attrition and is struggling to recoup the annual $1.5 million it lost when a major sponsor dropped off before the downturn. So far, the federation has found enough sponsors to recover only about a third of that. That has dropped its annual budget to two-thirds of what it was going into the 2006 Olympics. "The bottom line is if we don't see some significant revenues, then I'm going to have to make far more drastic cuts, and I just hope it doesn't come down to that," USA Luge executive director Ron Rossi says. Impact on future medalists Some belt-tightening measures have affected potential 2010 Olympians, such as U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton's decision to send just one men's bobsled team, instead of two, to European competitions for the second half of this season. "I had to give up the chance of being the World Cup champion, which is a big deal to me and a big deal to my sponsors," says Steven Holcomb, pilot of the sleds left at home, who were ranked third in the two-man and four-man World Cup standings. "But we don't have the funding to do it, so we had to make sacrifices and, unfortunately, I was the one to be sacrificed." Overall the federations are trying to hold the line on funding for athletes likely headed to Vancouver, instead cutting back on development programs. "At the level of athletes who are in a position to finish in the top 10 at the Olympic Games or maybe even win a medal, we haven't made any compromises that would affect their performance or their preparation," US Biathlon executive director Max Cobb says. "But we definitely have made a lot of compromises below that." US Biathlon asked athletes below the national-team level to pay their own way for a training camp last fall in Utah. USA Curling and US Speedskating have put on hold plans to fund more development programs. USA Luge has reduced its recruitment efforts. Such an approach has them fearful they're mortgaging the USA's Winter Olympic future to pay the bills for 2010. "The concern is not that we're eliminating the athletes that are going to Vancouver as medal hopefuls but that we're eliminating the athletes that are going to Sochi (for the 2014 Winter Olympics) as medal hopefuls," U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Darrin Steele says. (FIRST-PERSON: Slider Noelle Pikus-Pace makes ends meet. Link on original webpage) Adding to that concern is uncertainty over what the post-2010 Olympic environment will bring. As bare-bones as budgets are now, they're bolstered by the fact that Olympic organizations run on a four-year cycle. The majority of sponsors are signed on through next year. Post-2010 is on the back burner as Vancouver this week celebrates the year-out mark. A more immediate consideration looms in late spring, when the USOC allots funds for the winter sports federations. Some of the smaller federations depend on the USOC for more than half their budgets. "They've been quite reassuring, saying the (federation) funding is really important," US Biathlon's Cobb says. "That's terrific and much appreciated, but at the same time I think they don't really know where they're going to be." Cautious approach The USOC, which is giving 49% more to the winter federations and athletes now than it did the year before the 2006 Games ($13.3 million, up from $8.9 million), has taken its own hits during the economic downturn. Three sponsors — General Motors, Home Depot and Kellogg's — decided not to renew their sponsorships after the Beijing Games. The USOC has 17 sponsors signed on through the 2012 Summer Games as well as guaranteed revenue from NBC's Olympic television rights fees, which run through 2012. Even so, the USOC held a conference call last month with its sport federations to encourage them to be as prudent as possible. "While revenues might be solid now," the USOC's Scherr says, "we don't anticipate that this recession is going to be over quickly or that it's not going to impact us." Scherr expects that, with the Vancouver Games looming, the USOC will give special consideration to funding for winter federations. "We don't want to let opportunities of athletes who are within reach of the podium go by the board, because it's a devastating result for those individuals and collectively for us," he says. "We're going to protect their athletic programs to the extent that we can." Many of the federations are used to running on shoestring budgets even in good economic times, so they're steeled for the current environment. When Bob Crowley took over as executive director of US Speedskating in 2006, he discovered the organization was on the verge of bankruptcy.
When the federation decided last year to install an injury-reducing pad system for short-track skaters at the Utah Olympic Oval, at a cost of $65,000 to US Speedskating, Crowley knew something would have to be sacrificed. A trip to a short-track World Cup this season in Japan went on the chopping block.
After an outcry from athletes, sponsors stepped forward to cover the $30,000 cost of the trip for 10 athletes, a coach and trainer, Crowley says.U.S. Figure Skating had to slash spending after its $12 million-per-year TV rights deal with ABC ended in 2007. Its annual budget dropped by about 40%, to $11-$12 million. "We're solid with that for next year and for the foreseeable future," U.S. Figure Skating executive director David Raith says of the budget. "Frankly, I'm bullish right now on our sponsorship capabilities and opportunities." The timing of the Vancouver Games at least gives the federations the ultimate carrot when talking to sponsors. But not everyone is confident that's going to be enough. "It's just an awful time to be out there saying, 'Hey, come and partner with us,'" USA Curling's Patzke says. "We're making do with what we have."
|
|
|
|
Post by skaterswaltz on Feb 13, 2009 15:53:58 GMT -5
More Vancouver 2010 predictions/speculation: www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-hersh13-2009feb13,0,732463.story?page=1 Includes great picture of Shani. ------------------------------ U.S. should do well in Vancouver GamesTeam has great expectations, and medal totals could be about the same as at Turin in 2006. By Philip Hersh February 13, 2009 The only other time the Winter Olympics have been in Canada, at Calgary in 1988, the U.S. team did so poorly the U.S. Olympic Committee called on volatile and voluble George Steinbrenner to fix the mess. The Yankees owner, then a USOC board member, calmly and quietly headed a commission that a year later issued a report reducing the USOC's previously amorphous mission to this bottom line: "Winning medals has always been the primary goal." And the U.S. has gone on to win a lot more medals in subsequent Winter Games than the two gold and six total in 1988 -- its fewest total medals since 1964 and fewest gold medals since 1968. Some of the improvement owes to an enlarged number of medal events: 46 in Calgary, compared with 78 in Salt Lake City (2002), when Team USA achieved record numbers (10 gold, 34 total); and 84 in Turin, Italy (2006), when it set records for a performance in a foreign Winter Games (nine gold, 25 total). In some of those new events, like snowboard, the U.S. began with a big lead from longer involvement in the sport. Traditional ski nations like Switzerland, Germany and Austria have been closing that gap once they realized it was worth allocating resources to sports with many medals at stake. So where does that leave Team USA heading into the second Canadian Winter Games -- and 21st overall -- that open a year from Thursday in Vancouver? "We have great expectations for this team," USOC chief executive Jim Scherr said. It is not unrealistic to expect Team USA to win more medals than it did in Turin. After all, without an upcoming home Winter Games as incentive the way the Beijing Summer Games were, China is yet to become a superpower in winter sports -- although it is likely to win more medals than its 11 in 2006. "On the winter side, they are probably where they were in 1996 on the summer side," Scherr said. "We have been fortunate they haven't turned their full focus and energy to the Winter Olympic side." The following are glass-half-full predictions for the U.S. performance next February, which add up to nine gold and 27 total. But they all go out the window should any of three key athletes -- Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, speedskater Shani Davis and short-tracker Apolo Anton Ohno, whom I figure for six individual and two team medals -- not make it to the Winter Games in good form. Snow SportsBIATHLON (0): U.S. never has won a medal and that won't change in Vancouver, but veteran Jay Hakkinen, 31, could be the first to get a top-10 individual finish. Prediction: no medals. ALPINE SKIING: (2 gold): Lindsey Vonn will be favored in three events (downhill, Super-G, combined) and a threat in slalom. If he deigns to compete and his bad ankle fully heals, Bode Miller is, as usual, a medal contender in five events. The 2006 champions, Ted Ligety (combined) and Julia Mancuso (giant slalom), are struggling this season: Prediction: Four medals, two gold. CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING (0): One medal in history -- Bill Koch's 1976 silver. Andy Newell, Torin Koos and Kikkan Randall have top-10 ability. Prediction: No medals. FREESTYLE SKIING (1 bronze): Skicross (new event): Former downhill great Daron Rahlves and another ex-Alpine guy, Casey Puckett, are contenders. Prediction: 1 medal, no gold; Aerials: Jeret Peterson does the toughest move in the sport. Prediction: 1 medal, no gold; Moguls (1 bronze): Hannah Kearney has been a consistent World Cup performer. North Americans do well in North America. Prediction: 1 medal, no gold. SNOWBOARD: (7 medals, 3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze): Boardercross (1 gold, 1 silver): Champion Seth Wescott and Lindsey Jacobellis, whose hotdogging turned gold into silver, both return: Prediction: 2 medals, 1 gold. Parallel giant slalom: (1 bronze): Prediction: no medals. Halfpipe (2 gold, 2 silver): Shaun White, now a grizzled 22, will be hot again. U.S. women -- including Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler, who finished 1-2 in 2006 -- good enough to sweep. Prediction: 4 medals, 2 gold. Sliding Sports BOBSLED: (1 silver): Driver Steve Holcomb has been a force on the World Cup all season and won a four-man silver in the Whistler test event last weekend. 2006 silver medal driver Shauna Rohbock won at Whistler. Prediction: two medals, no gold. SKELETON: (0): Zach Lund, who missed the 2006 Games after a positive test for a drug in a hair-loss product, has a big incentive but mediocre World Cup results this season. Noelle Pikus-Pace has similar incentive: Coming off a 2005 season in which she was World Cup champion, Pikus-Pace missed the 2006 Games after breaking a leg when a bobsled ran over her in training. Katie Uhlaender, gold and silver medalist at the last two worlds, also is a medal threat. Prediction: one medal, no gold. LUGE: (0): Both Tony Benshoof, returning from back surgery, and new world champion Erin Hamlin have a chance at a medal. Prediction: no medals. Ice SportsFIGURE SKATING (2 silvers, women and dance): A historic whitewash -- the first since World War II -- is possible. Evan Lysacek and an ice dance team look like the best hopes at avoiding it. Prediction: 1 medal, no gold. SPEEDSKATING: (7 medals, 3 gold). Men won all the medals in 2006, and that will happen again. Shani Davis looks a lock to win the 1,000 again and could be a factor in the 500 and 1,500, while newcomer Trevor Marsicano and veterans Chad Hedrick and Tucker Fredricks all look like contenders. Prediction: 4 medals, 2 gold.SHORT TRACK: (3 medals, 1 gold). Count on the one-man army, Apolo Anton Ohno, to be a factor in the sprints and the relay. Prediction: 2 medals, 1 gold.HOCKEY: (1 bronze). There is no surer Olympic medal bet than the U.S. women. Men need a goaltender to contend. Prediction: 2 medals, 1 gold. CURLING: (1 bronze). Both the U.S. men and women are contenders. Prediction: one medal, no gold. phersh@tribune.com ------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Post by aaosmts19 on Feb 17, 2009 12:39:03 GMT -5
newsok.com/vancouver-struggles-to-gain-positive-attention/article/3345808Vancouver struggles to gain positive attention BY VAHE GREGORIAN Published: February 15, 2009Buzz up! With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics commencing a year from today, perhaps the U.S. Olympic spotlight soon will shift in that direction and away from the residue of the Michael Phelps bong episode. But it won’t be just yet, not with the lingering ruckus over Phelps and ever-present reminders. Consider that some of Team USA’s best medal prospects are in the snowboard … half-pipe, a discipline that the USOC no doubt would like to call something else for now. Then there was speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno’s apparently inadvertent choice of words when asked about Phelps’ behavior.
As an Olympian, he said in a teleconference last week, "You’re in a glass bowl.”Even assuming most Olympians aren’t, other matters beyond Phelps thus far have dampened the buildup for what will be the largest Winter Games ever held. The Games also figure to be an intriguing measure of Team USA’s place in the order after winning 25 medals in Turin, nearly double its previous best (13) on foreign soil. But that will be then. Now, mere months after the overwhelming Beijing Games, Canada’s third Olympic hosting venture has been stung by the global economic meltdown. Even as International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge arrived in Vancouver this week to engage the one-year countdown, the local organizing committee has been forced to dip into its contingency fund for $40 million and the city has had to borrow an unexpected $350 million to finish construction of the athletes’ village after the original lender stopped payments. Closer to home, a stricken economy also has led to General Motors and Home Depot not renewing longtime USOC sponsorships and Anheuser-Busch reducing its commitment by an unspecified amount. "We wish we knew or had a better handle on where (the economy) is going in the future,” USOC chief executive Jim Scherr said. Scherr noted that the USOC does have 17 sponsors signed through at least 2012 and is well-buffered by its television rights package of more than $2 billion through the 2012 London Games. But Ohno believes sponsorship possibilities for athletes have diminished, probably far more so for those of lower profiles than his.
"I’d be a fool to say I wasn’t affected by what’s going on globally,” said Ohno, who has won five medals in the last two Olympics. "Clearly, (marketing arms of corporations) are looking for ways to cut back.”Yet that also could be a chicken-and-egg matter: Who, after all, is the looming face of the 2010 Olympics for Team USA? With no dominant women’s figure skater for the first time in years, the U.S. conceivably could go without a medal in the marquee event of the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1964. Even if 2006 silver medalist Sasha Cohen sashays back into competition, there’s no guarantee she’ll make the team, let alone win a medal. The men’s hockey team failed to win a medal in the last Olympics and won’t be a known commodity for months, and the women’s hockey team has gone from gold to silver to bronze in the last three Games -- and could have up to 14 rookies on the team. For now, there are few prospects beyond the galaxy of the charismatic but off-Broadway snowboarders such as Shaun White and Lindsey Jacobellis -- whose claim to fame was goofing her way from gold to silver in Turin. Skier Bode Miller, whose flop in the Turin Games was magnified by his unabashed late-night partying, is the defending World Cup champion but told UniversalSports.com this week that he expects to retire. Alpine counterpart Lindsey Vonn, 24, this week became the first American woman to win two gold medals at a world championship since 1952. Hours later, she was sidelined from the competition after cutting her thumb on a broken champagne bottle during a victory celebration.
|
|
|
|
Post by mtnme on Feb 17, 2009 13:23:35 GMT -5
newsok.com/vancouver-struggles-to-gain-positive-attention/article/3345808Vancouver struggles to gain positive attention BY VAHE GREGORIAN ..... Alpine counterpart Lindsey Vonn, 24, this week became the first American woman to win two gold medals at a world championship since 1952. Hours later, she was sidelined from the competition after cutting her thumb on a broken champagne bottle during a victory celebration. Huh? Duh? Wha? This guy is joking, right? We've gone from Michael Phelps sucking on a bong as an egregious offense for an Olympian to a skier wanting a glass of champagne after a momentous win as same? Where is this guy from? Utah???Congrats Lindsey on the win! And if I were you accomplishing such a feat, you're D@MN STRAIGHT I'd be celebrating with some champagne. And in the other hand would be some sinfully, decadent dessert, preferably containing absolutely obscene amounts of chocolate.  You Go Girl, and sorry about the injury.... Sometimes you have to wonder about these journalists. Exactly what planet are they from? |
|
|
|
Post by Lori on Feb 26, 2009 20:38:44 GMT -5
A little help, please!
I've scoured this thread and haven't seen the answer to my question:
Does anyone have the shedule for the ST events for Vancouver? (What events on what days, including prelims & finals) - or does anyone have a link for this info?
Thanks!
|
|
|
|
Post by sk8on on Feb 26, 2009 21:00:13 GMT -5
A little help, please! I've scoured this thread and haven't seen the answer to my question: Does anyone have the shedule for the ST events for Vancouver? (What events on what days, including prelims & finals) - or does anyone have a link for this info? Thanks! Lori, hope this helps... www.nbcolympics.com/newscenter/vancouver2010/newsid=257924.htmlShort Track schedule (All times Eastern) Feb. 13/Day 2 Women's 500m qualifying; Women's 3000m relay qualifying; Men's 1500m (medal event) 8 p.m. - 10:45 p.m. Feb. 17/Day 6 Men's 1000m qualifying; Men's 5000m relay qualifying; Women's 500m (medal event) 8 p.m. - 10:15 p.m. Feb. 20/Day 9 Women's 1500m (medal event); Men's 1000m (medal event) 8:45 p.m. - 11:30 p.m. Feb. 24/Day 13 Women's 1000m qualifying; Men's 500m qualifying; Women's 3000m relay (medal event) 8 p.m. - 9:45 p.m. Feb. 26/Day 15 Men's 500m (medal event); Women's 1000m (medal event); Men's 5000m relay (medal event) 9 p.m. - 11:15 p.m. |
|
|
|
Post by tdav on Feb 28, 2009 23:16:19 GMT -5
As I was updating Ahn's wikipedia article a couple of weeks ago, I came across an article where he said he planned on competing until 2018 (in hopes Pyeongchang will get the bid). He also said that his 9 or 10 year old brother is beginning short track and that he would like them to be on the relay team together. I thought it was interesting. I was like "2018! That's a while.". I guess he could, as he would only be 31 or 32. Here's the full article: joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2900911 |
|
|
|
Post by Lori on Apr 1, 2009 19:50:23 GMT -5
From VANOC:
April , 2009
Mark your calendars — Phase 2 starts June 6 at 10:00 am (Pacific Time).
The next phase of Vancouver 2010 Olympic tickets go on sale Saturday, June 6 on a first-come, first-served basis. During Phase 2, all Canadian residents can purchase tickets directly through vancouver2010.com or by calling the Vancouver 2010 Ticketing Call Centre at 1-800-TICKETS (1-800-842-5387).
More information will be available as we get closer to June 6. Be sure to watch your inbox for updates from vancouver2010.com
|
|
|
|
Post by number1fan on Apr 2, 2009 0:01:19 GMT -5
tickets.vancouver2010.com/buy/TMSPublicEventInfo
Phase 2 Olympic ticket sales begin June 6 at 10:00 am (Pacific Time)
SHORT TRACK @ Pacific Coliseum - Request Limit 8
Single Sessions
Sat Feb 13 - 17:00 to 19:45
ST001
Ladies' 500 m Qualification
Ladies' 3,000 m Relay Qualification
Men's 1,500 m Qualification and Final
A: $150 + $10 fee
B: $110 + $10 fee
C: $50 + $6 fee
Wed Feb 17 - 17:00 to 19:15
ST002
Men's 1,000 m Qualification
Men's 5,000 m Relay Qualification
Ladies' 500 m Final
A: $150 + $10 fee
B: $110 + $10 fee
C: $50 + $6
Sat Feb 20 - 17:45 to 20:30
ST003
Ladies' 1,500 m Qualification/Final
Men's 1,000 m Final
A: $150 + $10 fee
B: $110 + $10 fee
C: $50 + $6
Wed Feb 24 - 17:00 to 18:45
ST004
Ladies' 1,000 m Qualification
Men's 500 m Qualification
Ladies' 3,000 m Relay Final
A: $150 + $10 fee
B: $110 + $10 fee
C: $50 + $6
Fri Feb 26 - 18:00 to 20:15
ST005
Men's 500 m Final
Ladies' 1,000 m Final
Men's 5,000 m Relay Final
A: $150 + $10 fee
B: $110 + $10 fee
C: $50 + $6
|
|
|
|
Post by skaterswaltz on Apr 2, 2009 12:24:46 GMT -5
From VANOC: April , 2009 Mark your calendars — Phase 2 starts June 6 at 10:00 am (Pacific Time). The next phase of Vancouver 2010 Olympic tickets go on sale Saturday, June 6 on a first-come, first-served basis. During Phase 2, all Canadian residents can purchase tickets directly through vancouver2010.com or by calling the Vancouver 2010 Ticketing Call Centre at 1-800-TICKETS (1-800-842-5387). More information will be available as we get closer to June 6. Be sure to watch your inbox for updates from vancouver2010.com So does that mean only Canadian residents can purchase tickets in Phase 2? |
|
~Lori
