Good Bye, Old Friend

Once again, we say good bye to the quadrennial athletic competition that is the Olympicss.  Perhaps we should call it biannual, since it was a mere 18 months ago that we were saying a fond farewell to Londan and will be only two and a half years until Rio, but winter and summer are different, if only for the falling and the stretchers on snow.

When London 2012 ended, I felt empty.  For more than three weeks I posted on this blog fairly regularly.  It was the first time I had attempted anything like this, and was done despite the duties of a parent and husband, a job and an attempt at that time to exercise on a fairly regular basis.  I was drained and exhausted, but at the same time felt like I had lost some motivation to do something different.  I didn't relocate the motivation on such a regular basis until two weeks ago.

As Sochi 2014 comes to a close, I don't have the same empty feeling.  Perhaps that is because, this being February instead of August, I still have basketball games for the boys, committee meetings for volunteer opportunities, snow on the ground and all the expected life obligations that seem to disappear in August.  Maybe its because I have given up the exercise thing (not entirely, see below.)  Maybe it is because the Winter Olympics are not as all encompassing as the Summer Olympics.  Who knows?  All I know is that getting this final Sochi 2014 post completed was a little more difficult than the final 2012 London post.

I enjoy the Winter Olympics for some of the same, but also for very different, reasons that I enjoy the Summer Games.  In both, you get to watch some of the best athletes in the world compete in events not frequently aired on national television in prime time.  I enjoy learning about the countries and people where the Games are held, and I thank Mary Carillo for the work she did.  In the summer, I enjoy watching people doing things I once did, although not even remotely on the same level.  In the winter, I enjoy watching people do things I wish I had, like biathlon and luge and speedskating, but missed my chance because of geography, opportunity, or any number of other reasons.

The Winter Olympics are more foreign.  Alpine skiing is something people in the mid-Atlantic region do for vacation, not an everyday activity.  I have no idea where to learn to speedskate.  I used to do something similar to skeleton down the giant hill in the neighborhood where I grew up, but I've never seen a car on a sliding track, or a banked curve on that street.  On occassion after big snows (meaning about once a decade) I will see someone cross country skiing down the street.  Those people always get funny looks.  Where do they even get those skis?  And who thinks, hey, just in case we get 2 feet of snow for the first time in 25 years and I can get out before the road is covvered in dirt and salt, I'm going to drop a few hundred dollars on cross country skis?  (Actually, I'm kind of tempted.)

The Winter Olympics are also much smaller.  Fewer events make for easier keep up with television watching.  The one problem was that many events were played more than once.  Part of this was because of the time change (showing all figure skating live during the day and the key players and Americans at night.)  However, in some cases, this went way too far.  Did they really need to show the parallel snow board live on NBCSN in the middle of the night, on tape for NBC's afternoon coverage and AGAIN at prime time?  Couldn't they have shown some curling during one of those times?  Even the events I loved, like biathlon, were often shown two or three times.  When live coveregae is shown at 4 am, I can understand showing part of it when the sun is up in the US, but three times is just too much.  I have a DVR.  I am very good with it.  I don't need you to show me the Women's biathlon 3 times.  Show me something else.

With that complaint aside, I enjoyed the Winter Olympics.  Sochi, aside from the non-winter weather, was beautiful.  The mountain pictures were spectacular.  The daily drama of whether Bob Costas could work or the "infection" had taken over his entire face was enjoyable.  Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski are legitmate stars and Terry Gannon was the perfect straight man.  There were no terrorist attacks.  For the sake of the viewers, the athletes and the fans, things were perfect (a few hotel issues being the exception).  Other than the spectacular failure in Men's Hockey, things went swimmingly for Vladimir Putin.  I guess that is the one bad thing.  This jack-ass actually pulled it off.

So, here are a few of my favorites, some of which you already know:

1.  Favorite sport - Biathlon.  Great competition, great drama, spectacular visuals.  This sport should always be contested at night under the lights.

2.  Favorite athlete - Gabriela Soukalova.  The Czech Biathlete won two silver medals (to go along with three 4th places) and looked spectacular with every slide of the ski and every shot of the rifle.

3.  Best Performance - Darya Domrachava.  Three gold medals in biathlon.  And dominant in every race.

4.  Favorite Gold Medalist - Sage Kotsenburg.  He won the first gold medal of the games, becoming the first American to win an Olympic medal on Russian soil, and looked like he was having more fun than anyone doing it.

5.  Sport I enjoyed learning more about - Curling.  I started to learn about curling during the 2006 Olympics.  Every 4 years I learn more.  If you want to call it shuffleboard on ice, I am not going to argue, but this game is fascinating from a strategic point of view.

6.  Best Job - Chris Collinsworth.  As far as I could tell, all he did was go to an event, then talk about it for 3 minutes the next day.  I need this gig.

7.  Biggest non-controversy - Women's Figure Skating.  Aside from what I said a few days ago, Adelina was better.  Unless you are a pretentious jack-ass who wants to pretend like you have a better eye for who is more "artistic", or whetever ridiculousness you want to claim.  Adelina skated for the gold.  Yuna skated out of obligation.  It showed.

8.  Worst Moment - Women's Hockey.  Blowing a two goal lead with less than 4 minutes to play is just devastating.  Their expressions on the medal stand were justified.

9.  Most Dominant Performance - Dutch Speed Skating.  36 medals awarded, 23 went to the Dutch.  12 events, 8 won by the Dutch, 5 Men's events, 3 swept by the Dutch.  We don't even do that well in swimming.

10.  Favorite Moment - Hard to say.  I was glad to see fellow West Potomac High School Alum Ashley Wagner redeem herself with three clean programs, but I like Gracie Gold more.  It was great to see Meryl Davis and Charlie White win their gold, but that was expected.  Mikaela Shiffrin's gold in slalom was a phenomenal "Hello, World" moment.  I tend to lean American and root against France almost as much as I root against the Redskins, but watching Martin Fourcade raise his arms in triumph to the crowd after a clean final shooting stage in the Biathlon Pursuit, even though he still had 3 km to ski, was an entertaining moment.  I was watching the best in the world, perform at his best.  But I can't do it, so let's go with the Heartbreaker's final stone to win the Bronze medal in curling.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. That was a block on Saturday, no matter what Duke fans say.

2.  Glad to see Latvia win silver in 4-man bobsled, even at the expense of Steve Holcomb and Night Train.  Funny to see the sme drivers win gold and bronze in the 4-man and the 2-man.

3.  Jimmy Roberts and Mary Carillo both did a great job with their stories.

4.  Too.  Much.  Snow.  in Virginia.

5.  I would hate to be Emil Hegl Svendson.   Ole Einar Bjeorndalen, winner of more Winter Olympic medals than anyone in history and trying to become the winner of more Winter Olympic GOLD Medals than anyone in history shoots cleanly in the 3 spot of the Men's Biathlon Relay and hands you the lead, and you miss the target 4 times in the last shooting stage to fail to even medal.  He should read my post about teammates.

6.  The Russian National Anthem needs to be sung in male voices.

Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - WRONG!!! and WRONG!!!  Wow.  Looked so good a week ago.

2. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Hard to say, but I think I got this one.  Correct

3. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - WRONG!!!  That was one heck of a final two days by the host country to take the medal count lead.  Of course, two of their golds were won by an American and three were won  by a South Korean.  But I'm not bitter.  (Yes, I am.)

4. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - I think I got it when I watched the Men's relay.  Correct

5. Norway wins Men's Biathlon Relay, Bjoerndalen gets his 14th medal.  WRONG!!!  See above.

Predictions

I'm taking a break from predictions.

What to Watch For

1.  The 2014, 2015, 2016 NCAA Basketball Tournaments; The 2014, 2015, 2016 Masters; The 2014, 2015, 2016 Tour de France; 2014, 2015 World Series; Super Bowls XLIX, L and LI; The 2014 World Cup: and many other things before Rio 2016.

2.  My first experience as a parent of a child in a basketball tournament, starting Saturday.

3.  How the Suburban Dad (and Mom) of three young boys handles a teenage girl for the summer.

4.  Local Sports comes back.  Summer Swimming 2014.


Random Fact of the Day

If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.