The Obligatory Sports Post
Oh fer wasted time. I watched a fair amount of the O'limp'ics and a good bit of basquetbol in the last fewweeks and feel compelled to make at least some comments. I'm a Duke fan so it's actually obligatory, right?
I'm so over the Winter Olympics. There was Bode Miller who was a world-class jerk (gold medal in assholery) and skater Johnny Weir who's "diva attitude" made me hate all male skaters just a little bit. It's a sad day when the American makes me applaud the grace, elegance and ability of the Russian fer crissake. I saw, incidentally, in a local paper that Weir is going to skate in some show in the DC area and I said to myself, "Not for a dime of my money." Hey Weir! I hope you marry Tonya Harding! Except I'll bet you're waiting for the defeat of "traditional marriage initiatives." I'm not a homophobe but I hate you.
The women, on the other hand, were wonderful. Kimmie Miessener was a delight - glowing smile and bouncing enthusiasm. I hope she vacuums up many medals and lots of money in her career. I applaud Sasha Cohen's performance but I just can't warm to that bobble head of hers. It's Alexis Bledel Syndrome all over again. But congratulations nonetheless for the silver. And it's impossible to leave off the women skaters without mentioning that for men, there can be no greater thing than a hot-looking figure skater who actually has the word "slut" in her name. And then I immediately apologize for saying such an ugly thing.
I don't ever recall seeing ski courses with sidelines before. Not that it's a big deal but it seemed new to me. Best not say anything more about the skiing except I hope Lindsey Kildow recovers fully from her nasty spill. It hurt just to look at it. Snowboarding. I dunno. Is this really an Olympic sport? Enh. Why not. And let women compete in the ski jump! Dammit. The sliding-down-icy-tubes-on-things events (luge, skeleton, bobsled) also don't do a hell of a lot for me. When you have to measure time in thousandsths of a second to get a winner, we've reached a point where the technology surpasses the human element. The only thing I really liked was a report on an Italian bobsledder who won gold in the previous Italian Winter Games (I think) who was the very essence of sportmanship. When in a previous Games the British bobsled team broke a bolt and had no spare, he, after his run, took a bolt off his sled and passed it along to them and the Brits then won. That is class beyond measure.
Finally, the speed skating deserves mention. Nice to See Apollo Ohno win a good, clean gold. He's a sportsman. And how sad to see the foolishness of Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick. My sympathy is a bit more for Hedrick but both played divo games when they should have sucked it up and skated for the team. Grownups probably would have scored a couple more medals for the US. Oh well (shrugs) whadda ya gonna do?
The best news out ofthe Winter Olympics? That we have four whole years before the next round! Hmm. I guess I went on longer than I intended. The basketball post might have to wait a bit.