GOLD! USA Bobsled I!

USA Bobsled I (or bobsleigh): Steve Holcomb, Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler, Curtis Tomasevicz. First time in 62 years. Congratulations!

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GOLD for Demong! SILVER for Spillane! USA Nordic Combined Domination!

Bill Demong - the first American gold in the history of the Nordic Combined.

And Johnny Spillane - silver in the Nordic Combined, his 3rd silver in these games.

Nordic Combined is a...well, a combination of cross-country skiing and ski jumping.

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I've become a fan of Canada's Cheryl Bernard.

Here's the "skipper" (captain) of Team Canada at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It's Canada against the defending champions, Sweden tomorrow. "Ohhh, Cheryl Ber - I mean, Canadaaaaa..."

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Karma's a bitch, Kramer.

Normally I'd feel terrible for Winter Olympics speedskater Sven Kramer, Netherlands, who seemingly won the 10,000m race (he won gold in the 5,000m days before) but was DQ'd afterwards for an improper lane change - a lane change Kramer's coach told him to make.

The reason I DON'T feel a stitch of empathy for Kramer is because of this NBC interview with Kramer after he had won the 5,000m. Watch the video below - Kramer is speaking with a Dutch journalist, recounting his interview with the NBC reporter.


I actually feel worse for the coach. Kramer's a real douche.

NOTE: The video above has been pulled by NBC. In it, Kramer was talking to a Netherlands reporter about his interview with an NBC reporter. The American reporter asked Kramer to slate his name, country and what race he just finished (this was the 5000m). He said to her, "What, are you stupid? Hell no I’m not going to do that.” The reporter said that they introduce every tape like that. Then he told the Netherlands reporter that the NBC reporter was right there and saw what race he had just finished and that it was dumb for her to ask him that question. Kramer and the Netherlands reporter both agreed, "Well American and Canadians - they don't care about speedskating like we do".
February 25, 2010 12:01 AM

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Bode! GOLD!

Finally...USA's Bode Miller captures his first gold ever, in the Men's Super Combined - his 3rd medal of the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

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Ignorance ain't bliss, Ms. Hockey Puck.

USA Olympic women's hockey team Angela Ruggiero was recently interviewed by the Daily News in Los Angeles. Ruggiero is one of the oldest members of the team, winning hockey gold in 1998 at Nagano, silver in 2002 at Salt Lake City and bronze in 2006 at Turin.

DN: "Is there any chance of you playing on the 2014 U.S. team?"

AR: "I don't want to pull a Brett Favre. I'm leaning toward no, but I'm not saying either way. I'll take it year by year. In 2006, I thought I'd retire, but all I needed was six months off and I felt rejuvenated. I'll keep training. But a lot of pieces have to come together."

I take offense (imagine that). First off, this chick's not in the same league as Brett Favre, though one could argue you can't fairly compare NFL football to Olympic women's hockey. And sure Brett has retired and unretired numerous times, driving the world (seemingly) and anti-Favre fans batty (not me). A more accurate statement from Ruggiero might have been:

AR: "I don't want to pull a Brett Favre or a Roger Clemens, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Junior Seau, Mario Lemieux, Reggie White, George Foreman, Lance Armstrong, Magic Johnson, Ryne Sandberg, or a Sugar Ray Leonard...". All athletes who've retired at least once - if not more times.

Then Ruggiero contradicts herself. "I'm leaning toward no, but I'm not saying either way. I'll take it year by year." Isn't that what Favre does? Didn't she just say she doesn't want to pull a "Favre"?

While representing the United States at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Ruggiero made comments to Sports Illustrated website regarding the Canadian team's behavior during the preliminary round of the women's hockey tournament, for which she received some criticism: "I'm upset that Canada has been running up the score, especially against the host nation...There was no need for that. They're trying to pad their stats...Canada is running up the score for whatever reasons - personal, short-term."

When it comes to sporting events, it's my philosophy that - regardless if it's amateur (Olympics, but how "amateur" is it anymore?) or professional - you play to win and you score as many points as your opponent will allow you. Ruggiero graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in Government, wrote a memoir on her hockey-playing experiences and was a contestant on The Apprentice. She's savvy enough to understand she should just keep quiet and play hockey.

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Lysacek! USA Gold!

USA - Evan Lysacek - Figure Skating/Men's. First time an American has won this event since Brian Boitano's gold medal win at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

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Vonn! White! Davis! Kearney! Wescott! USA Quintuple Gold!

Congratulations to all the USA medal winners, thus far, at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver! I believe my fondest winter olympic memories are from Lake Placid in 1980 - Speedskater Eric Heiden's (WI native) five gold medals and the Olympic Hockey team's magical gold medal run. Ahhh, youth! Take a look at 5 gold moments:

Lindsey Vonn - Alpine Skiing/Ladies' Downhill

Shani Davis - Men’s 1000m Speedskating (trained at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee)

Shaun White - Men’s Halfpipe (snowboarding)

Hannah Kearney - Freestyle Skiing/Ladies' Moguls

Seth Wescott - Men's Snowboard Cross

I added one more USA medal winner - even though it was the silver. Click on READ MORE! to find out who.

Julia Mancuso - Silver medal/Alpine Skiing - Ladies' Downhill. Julia "in" Olympic garb...

...and sans duds. SKOL FAVRE! SKOL VIKINGS!

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