The real XXX Olympic Games

Officially, Kim Yu-na of South Korea will be judged only for her jumps and spins when the Olympic women’s figure skating competition begins Tuesday. But there will be important political and cultural elements to her programs as well.
No South Korean figure skater has won an Olympic medal, much less gold, as is expected from the willowy Kim, 19. So not only does she have to shoulder enormous athletic expectations, but also Kim’s main rivals, Mao Asada and Miki Ando, are from Japan, which occupied the Korean peninsula for 35 years through the end of World War II.

More than a half-century later, South Korea’s nationalistic fervor and sense of victimhood still inform sporting rivalries between the two nations. The Olympic buildup has been fueled by great anticipation of Kim’s beautiful, speedy, flowing style, and also by Internet vitriol and fears that she will be unfairly marked down for the quality of her triple lutz-triple toe combination jump.
“Koreans’ blood roils when their country competes with Japan in sports or elsewhere,” said Song Doo-heon, a professor of computer science at Yong-in Songdam University in South Korea, who blogs about figure skating and is a popular commentator on Kim.
Figure skating is as much art as sport. Kim is a cultural icon as well as an athlete. Thus, Song said, the competition between Kim and her Japanese rivals will also be viewed as a referendum “on which country’s culture is better regarded by the rest of the world.”
Given that Kim is a national hero in South Korea, “her loss or her winning will be perceived as a national loss or a national winning,” said Kyung-ae Park, a political scientist who holds the Korea Foundation Chair at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
“If she wins the gold medal,” Park said, “I think it will be a great boost for national pride for Koreans. In a way, it will work as compensation for past humiliations.”
The first Korean to win an Olympic gold medal, Sohn Kee-chung, took the marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but he had to compete for colonialist Japan and take a Japanese name. He remained a fierce Korean nationalist, though, and his story is still taught to South Korean schoolchildren.
“I know of him,” Kim said at Skate America in November. “I will try to be like him.”
Some South Korea experts suggest that anti-Japanese sentiment ebbed once Kim became the 2009 world champion, vanquishing Asada and Ando, the previous two champions. Also, when the countries co-hosted the 2002 soccer World Cup, South Korea advanced further than Japan, to the semifinals.
“Anti-Japanese sentiment in sport has decreased a lot,” said Chung He-joon, a professor of sports science at Dong-A University in South Korea. “It’s not what it used to be, partly because South Korea has defeated Japan very often, especially in soccer. Nationalistic fervor has found other vents as well — for example against the United States. There are even many South Korean fans of Mao Asada, because she is pretty.”

Kim is also popular in Japan, said Lee Yun-hyang, an Olympics interpreter who was born in Seoul, South Korea, and now works for the United States State Department. The enmity felt toward Asada and Ando, Lee said, does not match the antagonism directed toward the American short-track skater Apolo Anton Ohno over the disqualification of a South Korean competitor during a race at the 2002 Winter Games.
“We want to see Kim do well, but we don’t want to see Mao Asada fall,” Lee said. Yet, she conceded, “We have to win against Japan in every way.”
Chung, the sports science professor, said that South Korea seemed unique in the sense that “the whole nation laughs or weeps depending on one athlete’s success or failure,” a prospect that he found “a bit absurd,” considering that “these athletes do what they do for personal success and fortune.”
Michelle Kwan, the two-time Olympic medalist from the United States, experienced Kim-mania when she visited Seoul last month as a public diplomacy envoy for the State Department. She saw Kim pictured on numerous billboards and shown on televised replays of her previous competitions.
“She is the nation’s sister,” Kwan said. “That’s a lot of pressure.”
This pressure, of course, would bring huge financial reward if Kim — who already makes $5 million a year in endorsements, according to her agent — transformed expectation into gold.
“If she wins, she’ll be a Godzillionaire,” said Frank Carroll, who coaches the Japanese-American skater Mirai Nagasu, mixing his monster metaphors.
Yet pressure can also be straining. Kim has trained in Toronto, thousands of miles from her yearning fans. At Skate America, held in Lake Placid, N.Y., in November, she won the overall competition but seemed nervous during a faltering long program attended by several busloads of Korean supporters, who came from New York City.
Here, Kim has sometimes seemed tense, struggling to land her triple flip in training, while Asada possesses the more difficult triple axel. In practice Monday, though, Kim smiled and seemed commanding. Afterward, Brian Orser, her coach, said, “I think today was a turning point.”
Four gold medals won by South Korean speedskaters here have relieved some pressure on Kim. But only some. If she is defeated, there will be “some kind of panic” in South Korea, lamented Chung, the sports science professor.
“The society and media have publicized her too much,” he said. “The whole nation hanging on to one athlete — as if some crisis might befall the nation if she didn’t win a gold — this is not good sportsmanship.”

source: www.nytimes.com

The United States won only one medal at the Vancouver Olympics on Monday, a silver in ice dancing. Yet there was some significance to it.
With 25 medals, Americans have won as many as they have at any Winter Games not held in the United States, matching their haul from Turin in 2006.
The record is all-but-broken, too, because the women’s hockey team has advanced to the gold-medal game, meaning they can get no worse than silver. They will face Canada on Thursday.
The next big number for the Americans: 34, their record for medals won at any Winter Olympics, set at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
There are six days and 35 events left to try piling them up.
Otherwise, the big news Monday was the fallout from the U.S. men’s hockey victory over Canada the day before, including Canada deciding to change goaltenders.
Robert Luongo will be in goal Tuesday against Germany, with Martin Brodeur watching from the bench.
“We’re in the winning business and to win in any game, at any level, you need big saves,” Canada coach Mike Babcock said. “We’re looking for Lu to do that.”
The ongoing reverberations started with the head of Canada’s Olympic committee conceding that his country wasn’t going to win the medals race, a huge proclamation considering they spent $117 million over five years to “Own the Podium.” The white flag wasn’t raised directly because of the hockey game, but the timing makes you wonder.
“We’d be living in a fool’s paradise if we said we were going to catch the Americans and win,” COC head Chris Rudge said.
In the afternoon, TV ratings were released, and the game was the most-watched sporting event in Canadian television history and it tied the 2008 elections for the most-watched event on MSNBC.
Other events fed off the U.S.-Canada hockey game. For instance, Canada’s men’s curling team beat the Americans 5-3, eliminating them from the tournament, then one of the Canadian curlers called it “some redemption for the hockey team.”
Oh, don’t forget the other connection Monday: Happy 30th anniversary to Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig and the “Miracle on Ice” club.
“It was more than a hockey game to a lot of people,” Craig said. “As you get older … it becomes more and more important to us.”
Also Monday, Germany made a big move to try catching the United States in the medals race, tying the Americans for the most gold (seven) and getting to 21 overall.
The Germans won the women’s cross country team sprint and got silver in the men’s team sprint and in ski jumping.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

What a day to remember for U.S. coach Mark Johnson: He celebrated the anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice,” in which he scored two goals, and saw his team avenge their 2006 Olympic shootout loss to Sweden with a 9-1 victory.
The Americans jumped ahead 4-0, then put the game away with four goals early in the third period, all against Kim Martin, the same goalie who stunned them in Turin. Monique Lamoureux scored three goals. Angela Ruggiero, a four-time Olympian playing in her record 250th game, also scored.
Canada advanced with a 4-0 win over Finland. Meghan Agosta set an Olympics record with her ninth goal, and Canada upped its margin of victory for the tournament to 46-2.

ICE DANCING

No North American couple had ever won the event. This time, they were 1-2, with Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir outskating their Michigan training partners, David and White.
“There is so much to be proud of right now,” Davis said.
World champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia won the bronze.
Turin Olympics silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the United States were fourth.

CURLING

Skip John Shuster’s team got an early lead over Canada, but wound up losing 7-2 in a shortened match. Then the Americans fell 11-5 to China, ending their Olympics with a 2-7 record.
Shuster won bronze four years ago, helping bring more attention to this sport. It was the first U.S. curling medal at the Olympics and the first in a major men’s competition since 1978. They couldn’t build on it, though, losing three straight matches in extra ends (which are like innings in baseball).
“We’ve played good and just haven’t quite gotten there,” Shuster said.

AERIALS

Ryan St. Onge and Jeret “Speedy” Peterson are headed to the finals in the men’s freestyle aerials—and defending Olympic champion Han Xiaopeng of China and this year’s top jumper, Anton Kushnir of Belarus, aren’t.
St. Onge was second in qualifying, Peterson fifth. Han and Kushnir fell on their second jumps.
“I have had a lot of trouble landing this year,” St. Onge said. “To come out today and land two jumps the way I wanted to is unbelievable.”

CROSS-COUNTRY

Both team sprints—a freestyle event with two skiers taking turns going three laps—were decided in dashes to the finish.
Norway’s Petter Northug did it in the men’s event, pulling away from Germany’s Axel Teichmann. Norway’s Ola Vigen Hattestad—the reigning world champion in the individual and team sprints, and winner of the last two World Cup sprint titles—pulled out because of a sore throat.
Americans Torin Koos and Andy Newell were ninth.
Germany won the women’s team sprint when Claudia Nystad beat Sweden’s Anna Haag across the line by 0.6 seconds. Americans Caitlin Compton and Kikkan Randall were sixth.
Russia took bronze in both events.

SKI JUMPING

On his final jump in the team event, 20-year-old Gregor Schlierenzauer soared farther than anyone else in these Winter Games to wrap up the gold for Austria. This was his third medal; he won bronze in both individual events.
Switzerland’s Simon Ammann, who won both individual events, didn’t compete in the team event because his country didn’t have the four jumpers needed for a team.

BOBSLED

More changes are coming to the Whistler Sliding Center, this time to shave the ice in several tricky curves in hopes of making the track easier for bobsledders to navigate.
“It’s still going to be the toughest track in the world. No doubt,” U.S. coach Brian Shimer told The Associated Press.
Changes came after a two sleds crashed during supplemental training, which many nations chose to skip, opting for rest instead.
The women’s event is Tuesday and Wednesday, with the men’s four-man event Friday and Saturday.

BIATHLON

Magdalena Neuner of Germany won’t go for a third gold medal, pulling out of the relay on Tuesday because of exhaustion.
Neuner said she is “happy and satisfied” with having won gold in the pursuit and mass start races, and silver in the sprint, but that her Olympics have been “incredibly stressful.”

BUS DRIVER DIES

Police say a 71-year-old bus driver working at the Olympics died on duty while driving other drivers to their depot. He’s believed to have had a heart attack.
Another driver grabbed the wheel and safely stopped the bus, said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

source: sports.yahoo.com/olympics

Manami Hino’s may not be the fastest bobsleigh racing down Whistler’s track on Tuesday but if medals were awarded for artistic impression it would win gold.
The Japanese pilot and brakewoman Konomi Asazu will speed down in the opening heats in a gleaming sled adorned with stunning representations of their country’s rich culture.
As well as a painting of the sacred Mount Fuji it features cherry blossom and, most strikingly of all, the front end is emblazoned with a woman wearing a flowing kimono.
“We wanted to display the spirit of Japan,” 30-year-old Hino told Reuters. “For me it’s a very special design and I hope that it will give us luck.”
Tadahiro Yamamoto, Japan’s team manager, said it had been Hino’s idea to have the bobsleigh decorated.
“For beauty, I think we will win gold, ” he said.

source: sports.yahoo.com

Germany claimed the women’s cross country team sprint title on Monday with a battling performance as favourites Sweden took the silver while Russia claimed bronze at the Olympic Winter Games.
The winning pair of Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and Claudia Nystad came home first in a time of 18mins 3.7sec with Sweden at 0.6sec back and the Russians at 4.0sec off the pace.
“It was a great race, Evi and I worked very well together,” Nystad said having skied an excellent final leg. “We did everything right and at the right time.”
Having timed her bid for gold perfectly, Nystad said she gave her all to win gold for Germany.
“I decided to just try everything, give it all I’ve got. I had no feelings, just a plan,” she said.
The race came down to a tight final leg with Nystad attacking hard after Anna Haag had seemed to have a decisive lead.
“We really went for gold, but we have to be satisfied with silver,” said Haag.
“At the beginning of the final straight, I thought ‘maybe I can take it’, but there wasn’t enough distance left.
“She was too strong, Claudia is one of the best sprinters in the sport.”
The German bided her time and then attacked coming into the stadium to earn her country’s sixth gold medal of these Games.
The Swedish team led after the first exchange and Charlotte Kalla, who won individual gold in the 10km, set a fast pace with Sachenbacher-Stehle pushing her all the way into the changeover.
Haag then kept Sweden in front with Nystad second on the second leg and although Germany stole the lead briefly after the next exchange, Kalla made sure it was the white suits of Sweden in front.
Haag seemed to have the race under control by the last exchange, but Sachenbacher-Stehle hung in and when she made her final move, her Swedish rival could not respond.
But having claimed her second medal of the Games, Kalla said the Swedish pair could afford to party.
“We have a rest day tomorrow, so we can have a small celebration, then we will be preparing for Thursday’s relay,” she said.

Dutchwoman Ireen Wust shattered Canada’s confident hopes of an Olympic gold medal in the women’s 1500m speed skating on Sunday, adding the title to the 3000m she collected in Torino.
Kristina Groves took silver for Canada with Martina Sablikova, the 3000m champion, of the Czech Republic claiming bronze.
But it was a disappointing day for home hope Christine Nesbitt who had started as favourite having set the season’s fastest time of 1min 52.77sec and was lying second in the World Cup standings.
But Nesbitt managed just 1:58.33 on Sunday, far behind Wust’s winning time of 1:56.89.
Wust’s stamina was matched by her father who leapt over the barriers at the Richmond Oval to congratulate his daughter.
“He has got a hernia and a bad hip but in a moment like this, you don’t feel it,” said the champion, who also collected a bronze in the 1500m in 2006.
“I felt really good in the race but it didn’t work in the 3000m and 1000m. This was my last chance. I thought I had to open well and skate relaxed. Everything went right.”
Wust, who had finished seventh in the 3000m and an eighth in the 1000m, also helped the Netherlands become the first nation in 46 years to win the men’s and women’s 1500m at the same Games. Mark Tuitert won the men’s version on Saturday.
Groves was not happy with the conditions.
“The ice was not giving at all. Endurance is the most important thing in this race. Ice like this makes it even harder,” said the Canadian.

source: www.vancouver2010.com

The worst thing for future U.S. prospects in ladies figure skating was not that Japan’s Shizuka Arakawa won the gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics and spawned a generation of spinning, spiraling, jumping Japanese skaters.
The worst thing is the rise of Kim Yu-na, the reigning world champion who enters Vancouver as the heavy favorite for gold.

Kim is from South Korea.

So not only do you have two Asian nations with a legion of pony-tailed pipsqueaks rushing to the nearest rink, but you also have two Asian nations that don’t exactly care for one another and consider no greater ignominy than to lose to the other in anything. You have plenty of little girls dreaming of becoming an ice queen, and plenty of money and motivation to cultivate them.
Entering the 2006 Games, Asian women had won two figure skating medals — a silver by Japan’s Midori Ito in 1992 and a bronze by China’s Chen Lu in 1994. Now Asian women are forecast to sweep the podium this week and claim gold for the second straight Games while a U.S. team led by Del Mar’s Rachael Flatt is not expected to win a ladies single medal for the first time since 1964.
“The conclusion is that I was right,” said Ottavio Cinquanta, the Italian president of the International Skating Union who a decade ago pushed to promote Asian skating by sending more high-level events there. “Countries have understood skating is a sport for Asian athletes, better than basketball or soccer.”
It makes sense for all disciplines of figure skating — the bronze here by Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi was the first Asian to medal in men’s singles, and China went 1-2-5 in pairs — but especially with the women, the sport’s marquee event.
You have a massive female population with small physiques, low-fat diets, an increased emphasis on jumps since the elimination of school figures in 1990, and little dilution of the talent pool by other women’s sports. And perhaps something else.
“I think the Asian population — including Japanese, Chinese, Koreans — has respect for the aged, respect for the elderly,” Japanese national coach Nobuhiko Yoshioka said yesterday. “They will practice and do whatever their teacher or coach tells them to do. Perhaps that’s what has enabled these young athletes to diligently and seriously embody what they are told to do.”
“This is the type of sport that in the past the Anglo-Saxons, the Caucasians, were very adept at. Now the Asian population is very adept at it.”
Russia’s Nikolai Morozov concurs. He coaches Japan’s Miki Ando, the 2007 world champion who was the first woman to land a quadruple jump in competition.
“Japanese skaters have a very good body structure for skating,” Morozov told Japanese media last month. “They have a little bit lower center of gravity. So it’s much easier for them to jump.

Miki Ando

“And Japanese have great discipline, so when you tell them what to do, they just listen and do it. Americans (who are) 15, 16 years old won’t do this. They want to go out. They want to go to the movies.”
Of the last nine women’s medals at the annual World Championship, Asian women won seven. Kim’s toughest (and maybe only) competition here is thought to be Ando or Mao Asada, the 2008 world champion who plans to do the elusive triple axel in both her short (Tuesday) and free (Thursday) programs. Akiko Suzuki, the third member of Japan’s team, finished third at the Grand Prix final and is considered a medal contender as well.
The real impact, however, might not be felt for another decade, when all those girls idolizing Kim and Asada and Ando fill all the rinks being built.
Kim is considered South Korea’s most famous athlete, with an annual $8 million endorsement empire that includes Nike, Hyundai, a bank, electronics firms, a jewelry line, even a bakery. Samsung launched a special “Yu-na” touch-screen mobile phone last spring and sold a reported 500,000 in the first 80 days. A major department store chain orders branches to play her short and free program music at least 20 times a day to put shoppers in a good mood.
Asada was considered the queen of figure skating four years ago but missed the Olympic age cutoff by three months. Now that she’s here, a South Korean is favored to win the gold.
Kim, Asada recently said, “has been a good source of inspiration for me.”

source: www.signonsandiego.com

Torah Bright won Australia’s first gold of the Vancouver Games in women’s halfpipe Thursday, ending long-standing US domination of the sport.
Bright’s winning score was 45.00 points, with 2006 champion Hannah Teter of America scoring 42.4 and her team-mate and 2002 gold medallist Kelly Clark on 42.2.
“I was standing up there, and was like ‘there’s nothing I can do now, whatever will be, will be’,” she said as she recalled how she felt going into her last run.
“I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet.”
Bright, who notched just 5.9 points in her first run of the final and went first in her second run as a result, heaped the pressure on everyone else in the field and none of the riders was able to respond.
In an error-strewn final, almost all of the boarders failed to match their qualifying scores in front of more than 3,500 spectators under the lights on Cypress Mountain.
Bright’s win was only Australia’s second medal of these Games and followed men’s moguls silver for Dale Begg-Smith in freestyle skiing.
The 23-year-old, who was fifth in Turin, is currently fifth in the World Cup rankings.
A strong Chinese contingent, currently dominating the World Cup standings, entered the final with high hopes and Liu Jiayu finished just outside the medals. Her team-mate Sun Zhifeng was seventh.

Torah Bright

Highly fancied US snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, silver medallist in Turin, only managed 14.7 after falling both times.
The United States has taken every Olympic gold in men’s and women’s halfpipe since the Nagano Games in 1998.
US star Shaun White took gold in the men’s competition Wednesday.

source:www.vancouver2010.com

The president of hockey’s international body says that despite lopsided games the women’s tournament will remain in future Olympics.
International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel said Thursday that the teams from Canada and the United States are “on another planet.” He says the rest of the world needs time to catch up.
Fasel spoke alongside NHL commissioner Gary Bettman at a news conference before the U.S. men played Norway.
Fasel debunked the notion that women’s hockey should be eliminated, as softball was from the Summer Games in 2005. Women’s hockey made its Olympics debut in 1998.

source: www.mercedsunstar.com

American Lindsey Vonn won the women’s downhill gold at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday. Team-mate Julia Mancuso took the silver with Austrian Elisabeth Goergl winning the bronze.
Alpine speed queen Lindsey Vonn lived up to expectations by winning the United States’ first ever Olympic gold in the women’s downhill on Wednesday.
Vonn, the winner of five consecutive downhills in the World Cup this season, produced a flawless performance on the technically challenging Franz’s Run to finish in a winning time of 1min 44.19sec.
Teammate Julia Mancuso finished second at 0.56sec to take a surprise silver with Austrian Elisabeth Goergl winning the bronze.
An ecstatic Vonn said her victory was made even better by Mancuso finishing second.
“It’s one of the most incredible moments of my life,” said the 25-year-old American. “When I crossed the finish line and saw my name in first and Julia’s second, it was just the coollest thing.”
Vonn’s maiden Olympic medal comes four years after her bid was hampered by injuries sustained in training for the downhill during the Turin Games in 2006.
As well as making alpine history for the US, Vonn is also the first American woman to win Olympic gold in an alpine speed event since childhood hero Picabo Street won super-G gold at the Nagano Games of 1998.
Against expectations, Mancuso fired out the start hut to produce an inspired run that was enough to knock Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl of Austria off the top spot of the provisional podium.
Goergl had started with bib number five and went on to scorch the course, however the Austrian just avoided a spectacular crash when she landed after the last big jump with her ski tips pointing dangerously downwards.
Mancuso, the giant slalom champion from Turin, has been searching for good downhill form all season but she was eventually guaranteed a medal after Anja Paerson crashed and then Maria Riesch failed to shine.
Paerson was in silver medal position going into the final jump just before the finish line but the Swedish ace, like many of the field, found big air and landed awkwardly on one ski, eventually crashing out.
The Swede, who won three medals including slalom gold and downhill bronze in Turin, was immediately taken to hospital by a doctor for checks, according to organisers.
The only other racer left to challenge Vonn, German rival and friend Riesch, failed to produce the kind of challenge most were expecting, finishing way off the pace.

source: www.vancouver2010.com

Germany’s Tatjana Huefner claimed gold in the women’s singles on Tuesday as the German team threaten to sweep all three luge titles at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Huefner posted the fastest time of 2mins 46.524sec over the four runs while Austria’s Nina Reithmayer claimed second at 0.490sec behind with Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger third, 0.577sec off the pace.
With the body of Nodar Kumaritashvili flown home to Georgia on Monday, the mood was still sombre here for Tuesday’s women’s runs at the Whistler Sliding Centre, where the Georgian died in a training run accident last week.
After 20-year-old Felix Loch dominated the field to claim the men’s singles title on Sunday, Huefner claimed victory in the women’s with a flawless fourth run and only the doubles title remains to be decided.
Having held an overnight lead of 0.05sec over the field, Huefner turned the screw on Tuesday’s third run with an almost perfect slide to open a 0.268sec gap.
The margin between the German and Reithmayer in second looked decisive and so it proved as the German clocked a top speed of 134.1kph on the last run to take gold.
Germany’s women have dominated the luge in recent Winter Games.
Reithmayer has the distinction of being the only non-German to claim an Olympic medal in the women’s singles luge this century after Germans took gold, silver and bronze at both Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin four years ago.
Since the country reunified in 1990, Germany has won the men’s, women’s and doubles titles at Nagano in 1998 and at Calgary in 1988.
In the doubles, Austria’s Linger brothers, Andreas and Wolfgang, are the defending Olympic champions from Turin and will be challenged by Germany’s Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich, who won silver in Turin.

source: www.vancouver2010.com