Day 4

Day 4 began with a very hungover Nation. I hope that Vancouver and Whistler Village stocked up on Ibuprofen. After Alex Bilodeau's historic Gold Medal performance on Sunday night, Canadian's partied into the wee hours of the morning. Downtown Vancouver and Whistler Village looks crazy right now. Jammed with people having a great time, it looks like the party of the Century. I'd like to be there but at my age, I find Bingo too exciting.

I did get a chance to see some of The Today Show early this morning though. It is taping from Grouse Mountain, located high above Downtown Vancouver. Unfortunately they tape at 4 am so they can be live in the East at 7, so it was dark while I watched. It was cool to see Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira say such nice things about Vancouver. They seemed to really like our City. Or they could just be saying that because they were worried about being mobbed by the swarm of Canadians surrounding them. To start the show they showed highlights of Alex Bilodeau's winning performance and then interviewed him. A little later on they interviewed Wayne Gretzky. Pretty classy of them.

Today was a big day as the Pairs Figure Skating Free Program was scheduled as well as the Men's Downhill at Whistler. It's been a few years since I've watched the Downhill. I used to know pretty much all the competitors and watch most races, but I haven't really followed it closely for many years. I don't know when they started putting a blue line all the way along both sides of the course and lining any bumps, but I find it distracting. (I'd say epic fail but I don't want to sound like I'm 12). The course looked to be in pretty good shape considering all the weather problems they've had. I tell you, if there really is a God, he's NOT a fan of the Winter Olympics. Who know's maybe he's one of the protesters. Anyways it was a disappointing day for Canadian downhillers. I think there was way too much pressure heaped on Manuel Osborne-Paradis. Yes he's from Whistler but he wasn't really a favorite. He made one costly mistake and finished 17th. The top Canadian was Erik Guay who was very happy with his 5th place finish. Unfortunately, as is often the case with the Downhill, the course slows down as the bottom of the hill starts to warm up so any skiers that started late had virtually no chance of a spot on the podium. Switzerland's Didier Defago took the Gold which for that small Country is equivalent to Canada winning Gold in Hockey. How do you say Ibuprofen in Swiss?

Up on Cypress Mountain the Men's Snowboard Cross was taking place. I don't recall ever seeing this event before. They all have one race where they go down individually which I found to be quite boring. The second race they go down 4 at a time. That's more my style. While I didn't actually get out of my comfy easy chair, I was sitting on the edge of it. In the Gold Medal race it appeared that Canada's Mike Robertson would run away with it and become Canada's second Gold Medal winner on home soil, but before I could even finish that thought, American Seth Wescott passed Robertson on the final turn and stole the Gold Medal. These damned Americans. Why did we even let them across the border? Still, Robertson seemed to be happy and a Silver Medal is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, it will keep Werewolves away. Or is that Garlic?

Over at the Richmond Oval, there were problems with the Zamboni during the Men's 500 metres. Problems with a Zamboni? In Canada? Isn't that like Italians having problems with Pizza? Or the Japanese having problems with cameras? (Objection, your Honor, I'd like that last comment to be stricken from the record!) After a delay of at least an hour the event continued and it was a disappointing day for our Canadian speedskaters as well. Jeremy Wotherspoon, our best bet for a medal, finished 9th and our top Canadian was Jamie Gregg coming in 8th place. Korean Mo Tae-Bum won the event, which was also marred by an Asian competitor kicking a hole in the ice out of frustration. They need refs who can call penalties, that's at least a game suspension. I also noticed that when Ronald Mulder of the Netherlands skated, fans held up signs spelling 'Rondla'. I feel sorry for the poor dyslexic Dutch fans and I really hope they enjoy Vnacovuer. As poorly as the Canadians did they still finished ahead of the Zamboni driver, who lost points for artistic merit after dumping ice, snow and hot water on the ice after it malfunctioned. The latest news is that they've flown in a different (translation: non-green) Zamboni from Calgary. While some people may be surprised that they had to go to Alberta to get a Zamboni, I'm just surprised they actually make a Zamboni that can fly.

Due to the delay in the Speed Skating, the last race was on at the same time as the Pairs Free Skate. As I flipped back and forth between the two, every time I would put it back to Figure Skating, the first thing I saw was some bitch was falling on her ass. And the guys weren't doing much better. I am a fan of Figure Skating, but I've always said I want to see everyone skate perfect programs, or fall all over the place. Two footing landings and putting your hand down for balance are just plain boring. My personal hero is Japan's Midori Ito who is notorious for actually falling right out of the ice surface and disappearing. A few seconds later she jumped back on and kept going. I'm not sure if that deduction is even mentioned in the rule book but I'm thinking you should actually give her points for originality. I should also mention that in practice moments before that legendary performance, she had a collision with a skater that would have made Scott Stevens proud. Yep, if we had more Midori Ito's in the World, there would actually be a Figure Skating League and franchises throughout North America. With the exception of a few good wipeouts (I also love it when somebody falls and tries to get up but falls again) most of the wipeouts were lame. Although I have to give a big shoutout to the Oriental yet Russian skating woman who wiped out and while still skating she snapped her shoulder back in place. I think I may have a new hero. Only one pair, Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao skated clean and they were brilliant. They were too far behind after the Short Program however and they had to settle for a Silver Medal. Qing Pang and Jian Tong took the Gold after an amazing Short Program and a Free Skate that was probably second best on the night and good enough for them to win. China finished first, second and fourth in this event and have now earned some respect in Pairs Skating. Canadians Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison finished a disappointing 6th. A couple of key mistakes put them out of contention.

In Women's Hockey Canada beat Switzerland 10-1 after outshooting them 62-12. This sport really needs to improve outside of the US and Canada or it risks being taken out of the Olympics altogether. The IOC took Women's Softball out of the Olympics because the US was winning all the time, but at least it was competitive with strong teams from Japan, China, Chinese-Taipei, Canada and Australia. It would be really nice to see some other teams step up and challenge the US and Canada.

The much anticipated Men's Hockey begins on Day 5. Canada plays Norway and our hometown hero Roberto Luongo will get the start in goal, with Martin Brodeur scheduled for the second game against the Swiss. This will probably be a blowout as Norway has only one player in the NHL but it will be interesting to see how Luongo plays. The 3rd game is against the US so I'm sure coach Mike Babcock will go with the hot goalie, although I know he is a huge Luongo fan so don't be surprised if Bobby Lou gets the start against the Yanks. While the Canadians are obviously the favorite in this event, there is not a lot of time to practice so I think the team that gels the fastest will be the toughest to beat. It looks like Russia, the US, Sweden and Finland will be our toughest competition. Since it is single knockout once it gets to the Medal Round, goaltending is more important than ever. For that reason I would pick Finland as a possible darkhorse as their goalie has been the hottest in the NHL for a few weeks. (I'm tired, Google his name. And no, it's not Kipprusoff.)

Other big events tomorrow include the start of Curling for the Men and Women, in Figure Skating we have the Men's Short Program featuring Canadian Patrick Chan and American Johnny Weir who skate back to back. It should be a great night and I just hope that if the skaters can't stay on their feet that they fall all over the ice. Hey, it's all about the entertainment. There's also Women's Snowboard Cross up on Cypress Mountain, Women's 500 metre Long Track Speed Skating at the Richmond Oval(if that Albertan Flying Zamboni is any good), Men's Super Combined Skiing up at Whistler and Women's Luge. Should be some great viewing. My poor easy chair is getting worn out.