Right Between the Eyes

One of the biggest stories to come out of Sochi today involves the sidelining of a major figure in sports.  Not a major athlete but a sports anchor - the big little guy, Bob Costas, who has hosted prime-time coverage of the Olympics, winter and summer, for NBC since 1992.  After 157 straight prime time Olympic broadcasts, Costas has had to bow out owing to a case pinkeye that started in his left eye and was supposed to ease in a few days but has in fact spread to his right eye.  The good news? Pinkeye only lasts about two weeks. The bad news?  Costas' condition will improve just in time for the end of the Winter Olympics.

In his place will be the increasingly insufferable Matt Lauer of NBC, whose mere appearance makes me bristle.  I don't know what it is about him that unsettles me.  Is it his bear? Is is his Marine haircut?  Is it because of the backstabbing he gave to Ann Curry? Is it because he's Matt Lauer?  It's probably a combination of all of the above.   

Meanwhile, the competition - like the weather in Sochi - is heating up.  Julia Mancuso is an irresistible presence on the slopes and in interviews.  Could you believe how psyched she was in winning the women's super-combined event's bronze medal?  Imagine if she'd won the gold?  I love this woman. :-)

Also, Lindsey Van is expected to be a big player for a skiing medal in Sochi.  Not Lindsey Vonn, who had to bow out - Lindsey Van.  Lindsey Van is on the women's ski jumping fan and is considered a heavy favorite for a medal.  Yeah, yeah, she must get a lot of autograph requests from people who mistake her for that other Lindsey . . . Lindsey Jacobellis, the snowboarder. :-D But in all seriousness, Lindsey Van could put women's ski jumping in our consciousness in a big way.  Would you believe that women's ski jumping wasn't even a winter Olympic event before this?  I wonder how many people even noticed that?

Because a lot of Winter Olympics fans are casual sports fans who don't follow skiing for the other three years and fifty weeks of the quadrennium.  And I must confess that I'm one of them.

Oh yeah, the New York area has another big winter storm bearing down on it for Thursday.  It's so warm in Sochi, it's too bad they couldn't have Olympic skiing here this year.  In fact, I know the perfect slopes for skiing in my area - all the shoveled, piled-up snow along alongside my driveway!

Even Bob Costas could see the possibilities in that.