More Winter Olympic Musings

Some brief observations:

I commented on Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who have been favored as gold medal contenders in ice dancing, back in February 2010 during the Vancouver Winter Games, and I'd forgotten about them by March 2010.  How could I have forgotten them, even though I'm not a die-hard ice dancing fan?  Not only are they great, Meryl Davis is hot! :-D

I caught the highlights of the U.S.-Russia men's hockey team, and I didn't need to see the whole thing to see just how intense it was.  Geez, those shootouts could have gone on forever!  T.J. Oshie of the St. Louis Blues, who won the game for the U.S., is the new national hero.  I don't think this victory is going to have the same psychological impact as the 1980 victory over the Soviet team, despite Team USA having beaten the Russians on Russian ice, because the Cold War is over, and all the teams are full of NHL players.  

But it really must have upset Vladimir Putin, who attended the game.

The bobsled events began with the two-man competition. Steven Holcomb, who won the gold medal in the four-man competition at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and  brakeman Steve Langton, is in serious contention for a medal at Sochi, but the press is going to the return of the Jamaican bobsledders, who proved to be naturals at the sport at the 1988 Calgary Games, after having honed their athletic skills in push cart racing in Jamaica.  They've qualified for the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2002, with Winston Watts driving the sled and Marvin Dixon handling the brakes.  Though  they're not considered serious medal contenders, the fact that they made it to Russia means they've already won.

And for those who want to know, yes, there is a Latvian bobsled team - Oskars Kibermanis and Vairis Leiboms drive and brake, respectively, in the two-man competition - but, in fact, they're no more likely to win a medal than the Jamaicans.  Though the bobsled teams of the old Soviet Union was dominated by Latvians, Soviet bobsledders hadn't won or placed second or third very often at the Winter Games when that country existed.

Oh yeah . . . why is BMW designing American bobsleds?  We have the athletic talent for this sport, but we don't have the engineering prowess to build our own sled?  We have to go to Munich for that?