Vancouver 2010, Eh!

It's been a great past two weeks for fans of winter and winter sports.  In New York we've seen record snowfalls and world was treated to the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  As a New York who enjoys and embraces seasons [Editor's note: that was a cheap shot at a certain San Diego friend] I prefer the Winter Games over the Summer Games.

Since I have this bad habit of typing to no end, I will dedicate a later post to discuss my thoughts on what should constitute a sport.  Here are some of my observations from these games in no particular order:

[Obligatory Disclaimer: all observations were made prior to watching the closing ceremonies]

1)  It took awhile but I finally learned curling.  Not that I want to watch people throw rocks down an ice surface for three hours, but at least I can explain it to someone in under 90 seconds.

2) A Double McTwist 1260 is not an item on the McDonalds Dollar Menu nor a character on Grey's Anatomy, rather two flips while doing 3.5 twists (rotations).  Thank you Shaun White.

3)  Two-man luge continues to make me uncomfortable.

4)  Favorite Olympic name:  Torah Bright (Australian snowboarder)

5)  Do the Olympians have any say on what they wear?  I plan to purchase a Ryan Callahan USA hockey jersey (image on right).  I'm still undecided about the USA snowboarders "uniform" (with the fake jeans) but what were those Norwegian curlers (curlists?) thinking.  Still undecided about the USA snowboarders and I'm not going to discuss the outfits worn by the figure skaters.

6)  I can do without the NHL and the all-star festivities for the two-week Olympic tournament.  I just hope someday soon the women's tournament can be competitive.  Watching the USA and Canada dominate the women of the world is just painful. 

7)  The Russians continue to be sore losers.  After a male Russian figure skater lost to an American, he took a shot at the victorious skater's lack of performing a quadruple thingy, and called his performance something more fitting to ice dancing (another winter Olympic event).  My take:  Is there a difference between figure skating and ice dancing anyway?

8)  And finally, the Olympic games will always be remembered for the tragedies and negatives of the games and less so for all the great moments.  Vancouver will be probably be remembered for its glitches and tragedies rather than its amazing stories.  More on this here.  All non-believers should do a quick search of the Summer Games in Atlanta in1996 or the Winter Games in Munich in 1972.

Eight observations in honor of Apollo Ohno's total career Olympic medals.  Congrats to all those who competed in Vancouver and I'll see you all in Sochi, Russia in 2014!