Amazing moments
- Joannie Rochette's bronze win was greater than gold. Her stellar performance in the wake of her family's sudden loss after her mother's heart attack during the games.
- Those red mittens were a great idea. Um, maybe they aren't necessary in Vancouver (being warm and sunny and all...) but in the rest of the country they are definitely warm.
- Shaun White's fantastic second run when he was guaranteed the gold. Double McTwist 1260!
- Slovenia's Petra Majdic's bronze performance despite being bruised and battered with five broken ribs. That's just crazy.
- Simon Ammann's two golds in ski jump. Will women get to jump in 2014? Not sure yet but it would be double the fun! Guy has hilarious sun glasses.
- Lots o' people in speed skating. Shani Davis for being a truly eloquent and elegant winner (and silver medalist), and Sven Kramer's fantastic 5000 m and his gracious statement that he takes responsibility for his 10,000m mistake (not to blame the coach since... well if you fired every coach that made a mistake... there would be no coaches). That deserves the gold for sportsmanship and humility.
- USA's the night train for bobsled!
- Redemption for Kevin Martin and crew for their gold medal win!
- Kim Yu-Na's majestic performance. Queen indeed.
- Hannah Kearney's flawless performance in women's moguls more than makes up for her disappointing 2006 experience.
- Norway for kicking our ass in cross country skiing. Um... today's performance was crazy.
- Ole einar Bjoernadlen (wow... now that's a name) of Norway's gold and silver medal haul in Biathlon... the true military I-can-chase-you-down-and-kill-you sport.
- The lethal Korean team who kicked our ass in short track speed skating. Apolo Ohno for now having eight medals... zowie!
- Older (not really but by figure skating standards!) pair, China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo winning the gold that has eluded them for so long. They deserve a really nice retirement.
Lessons to be learned
Canada should be proud of their athletes, and should take their cue by being graceful winners. Don't crow too loudly. The Gold medal count may soothe the committee's overly large egos for the medal shortfall in their arrogant "own the podium" campaign, but it also left a rather negative view of Canada to our foreign guests.
What is with Prime Minister Harper attending so many Olympic events when he CLOSED DOWN PARLIAMENT?!! Sorry but I don't recall it being a leader's job to stop work just so he could go on a PAID vacation by the rest of us.
Luge death? Pointing fingers this way and that. Budget cuts, blaming the designer, pretending that warnings never came, and Officials dodging blame by stating it was Nodar Kumaritashvili's human error on the track. TERRIBLE. Not one apology to Nodar Kumaritashvili's family.
Overall we all need to be thankful. With the shocking 8.8 earthquake in Chile, the death toll is now 700+. It feels rather... strange and inappropriate to celebrate a sporting event win. True heroes will be made in the next few days down there, as they try to salvage what they've lost and mourn those that will be gone forever.
