For those of you who are living under a rock or have been without power for about a week, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics have started with a thunderous roar. The hopes and dreams of all Canadians have been put on the shoulders of their athletes as they look to defend their home turf in Western Canada.
After an awe inspiring opening ceremony (which came with a mechanical glitch), the games kicked off. One of the most notable moments came in the men’s short track speed skating. Apolo Anton Ono somehow found his way back to the medal stand during the 1500 meter race. During the final turn on the last lap two of the three Korean speedskating leaders wiped each other out of the race, which opened the door for Ohno to take Silver and fellow American J.R. Celski to nab the Bronze Medal.
In what seemed like an eternity, Alexandre Bilodeau captured the host nation’s first gold medal while competing in the Men’s Mogul Finals. After winning their first Gold Medal, Canada finally felt at home as they started to rack up medals. At it currently stands, the United States leads in the medal count with 14 total medals as Germany sits in second with 10. France and Canada bring up the 3rd and 4th spot respectively with 7 and 6 medals.
Lindsey Vonn, after much speculation as to the current condition her shin was in, geared up and raced in the Women’s Downhill Skiing event. Before she was set to go, fellow American Julia Mancuso had a fantastic run and was guaranteed to stand on the podium. Pulling out all the stops, Vonn captured gold in her run and the celebration began: “A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders now. I got the gold medal that I came here to get. And now I’m just going to attack every day, with no regrets and no fear,” said Vonn. In the final downhill skiing standings, the US captured gold and silver.
One of my favorite sports FINALLY began as the Men’s Ice Hockey began it’s division play. Team USA started the party with a 3-1 win (Goals by Bobby Ryan, Brandon Backes, and Ryan Malone) over Team Switzerland while Team Canada dominated Team Norway with a 8-0 win (Jarome Iginla scored 3 goals – Sidney Crosby assisted on all three of those goals). Nashville Predators’ own Shea Weber added an assist on a goal by Mike Richards during the second period of that game. If you haven’t caught any of the hockey games yet, be sure to tune in this Sunday as the two North American powers will collide with Team USA taking on Team Canada. 
The 2010 Winter Olympics has a ton of story lines to follow and if you are able to, I seriously suggest taking in as much as you can. Find a sport that you can really get into and watch as athletes from all over the world battle it out. There are still plenty of events to watch which will be shown on NBC, CNBC, or the USA Network. This blog post doesn’t cover every story out there but I wanted to update the Music City Rambling readers as to what is going on in the olympics. Needless to say, I’ll be glued to my television as I continue to watch almost every event I can (and yes, that does include curling).
- J.P.
