- The Canadian curler who's 5 1/2 months pregnant.
- The twenty funniest figure skating faces of the Games.
- It's about time to start to get to know Kim Yu-Na, the South Korean figure skater who is as to the rest of the women's field in 2010 as Albert Pujols is to other hitters.
- No one yet knows whether Russian ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin will be wearing their controversial aboriginal costumes for Sunday's original dance competition. (Compare with the 2000 Sydney Games, which allowed Midnight Oil to perform "Beds Are Burning" at the closing ceremonies while wearing black shirts which said "sorry".)
- The bobsleighers don't like the ice chute either.
- added! U.S. Speed Skating sponsor (and assistant sports psychologist) Stephen Colbert takes on a disturbing aspect of NBC's coverage -- while appearing on NBC.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
TONIGHT ON NBC -- OHNO AND DAVIS GO FOR GOLD: Olympic remainders:
Sudden Onset Sleepiness has cut me off from any more extensive curling watching (no snap intended at curling, I was actually watching the end of Project Runway when it hit me, causing me to have to rewind to the judging twice, and not yet managing to stay away for it any of the three times!) but I was going to include the pregnant curler thing in my next update, and say that, yes, I like curling, but no, I don't think it's an Olympic sport, and the fact that someone can be pretty much the same "athlete" at 5.5 months along, means that their sport is not so much about being swifter or higher or stronger. Also, a whole lot of the commentary focuses on how there are no time-outs in curling except for beer. This reminds me of nothing more than bowling.
ReplyDeleteCurling, along with bowling, golf, fishing, car racing: yes there's a physical component, no, I don't think it's the focus of the game, and none of them are, imho, Olympic sports.
I skipped most of the compulsory dance on Friday night, but I did see Domnina and Shabalin in the kiss and cry, where they were wearing what looked to be First Nations blankets. Apparently, in an effort to mend fences with Australia's aboriginal communities, they made a trip to exchange gifts with BC's First Nation's communities. Reports from this morning were that the costumes were basically the same, though the bodysuits are no longer brown.
ReplyDeleteThe most intriguing part of the NYT article about Kim Yu-Na was definitely the reference to her mother, who apparently was so invested in her training (forcing her to do jump after jump) that Yu-Na had a herniated disk when she showed up to train with Brian Orser. Stage mother much?