JAG’s Sports Blog

Chad Hedrick began his quest to equal Eric Heiden’s record of five gold medals in a Winter Olympics, winning the 5000m Saturday for USA’s first gold medal of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The brash-talking Texan speed skater covered the grueling 12 1/2 laps in 6 minutes, 14.68 seconds, about 17 hours after marching in the Opening Ceremony of his first games.

[tags]chad Hedrick, gold, USA, Olympics, Skating, Texan, 2006 Winter Olympics[/tags]

Apolo Anton Ohno  to Go Gold swept up on the scene 4 years ago in Salt Lake.  Short track was new to everyone and how exciting it was.  Apolo won the hearts and excited the world in this rough and tumble Short track speed skating!

This year he looks to improve on his gold and silver in 2002, even though his girlfriend Allison Baver is also on the short track speed skating team! 

America’s short track speed skating sweethearts have an (more…)

[tags]olympics, hockey, news, Canada, Sweden, U.S., Germany[/tags]

There are many reasons these days that the Norwegians and Danish keep the doors closed, afraid what might be behind them. This reason is not a funny one, but maybe more funny than certain cartoons for some (have you been watching the news). The Italians have dedicated more security personnel and other tecnologies to protect the Norwegian and Danish athletes due to the violent and deadly protests and acts of terrorism which is what it really is. If you go to visit Italian athletes in the Olympic Village they’ll greet you with open arms and offer you a warm cup of joe (coffee), according to the Norwegian newspaper (Aftenposten) But the reason for the sceptical attitude towards visitors in the Norwegian Camp is the fear of unwanted microbes and viruses (flu) that might stop them from winning the 15 (YiKeS!) Gold Medals Sports Illustrated thinks they’ll win. And that is definately not a laughing matter.

[tags]Turin, torino, olympics, italy, terrorism, flu, sick, gold medals, norwegians, italians, coffee, sports illustrated[/tags]

This Olympic 2006 post has been moved to:

this Olympic post 

 

[tags]olympics, italians, coffee, sports illustrated[/tags]

Olympic Post moved here.

 

[tags]olympics, torino, turin, Italy, terrorism, cartoons, norwegian, italian, coffee [/tags]

The Canadians can taste Gold.   They want it as much as the Steelers and Seahawk fans combined wanted the Superbowl win.

George Johnson of ESPN writes:

For us Canadians, this is the Super Bowl, the World Series, the World Cup of soccer and Mardi Gras all rolled into a two-week shinnyfest. Oh, they’ve been good enough to schedule speedskating and figure skating, bobsledding and people on skis toting firearms, too. Renewed financial resources, a commitment beyond the usual and an aggressive Own the Podium program has helped Canada assemble a Winter Games team unlike any seen for many years. Unless the whole thing falls apart, this team will far eclipse the 17 medals accrued in Utah four years ago.

Canada wants a Gold.  They want the 2006 Olympics to be their year and they have been doing anything that they can to acheive this.  There is wide spread gossipp around Canada that they are letting people get their citizenship overnight in many cases if they can help the team acheive Olympic Gold.  Normally citizenship takes 1 - 3 years at best, but hey give us Gold and you get it now!

Also schools have been set up all around Canada that only accept Olympic potential students.  They start as early as elementary, and these public schools work around their sports. Does this make anyone think of communist Soviet Union?

Now the past couple of paragraphs have sounded harsh.  It is not all harsh.  They want gold, and they have worked at it.  The teams have practiced, planned, and the best have been picked.  Gold is in their sights, and they will acheive more than the 17 in Salt Lake.

Hockey Gold above all else!

[tags]Olympics, Gold, Canada, Hockey, Soviet Union[/tags]