Re: Part II of the XXIst Winter Olympiad....and NBC still sucks.
I don't think it's realistic to expect the USA to ever be a contender in the Nordic events. Was it Bill Koch who won a silver in cross country a few years ago? It's been a long time since drinks of water. There is a cultural disconnect here, and not enough of our kids are seriously interested in ski jumping or cross country or biathlon.
We're doing well in the newer events (snow boarding, short track speed skating, etc) and we've come a long way in the Alpine events. Remember how the French used to dominate? In '72 we won one Alpine medal, Barbara Cochran took gold in the slalom. As of now, we've taken 6 Alpine medals this time around, with more to come. Even with the expanded program, that's impressive.
Take traditional speed skating, we do pretty well these days. We've always got some folks with real medal potential. You'd have to go way back to find Americans listed among the favorites. In '80 we took only 6 golds, of course one was the hockey team and the remaining five were Eric Heiden (a once in a life time guy). Now, however, we've got some depth and some training facilities. And it shows.
We even have people who may medal in the sliding sports. We actually won medals in Luge at Salt Lake City. This time around we've evidently got a real chance in bob sled. Again, you'd have to go back to the first few winter Olympics to find Americans as legitimate medal contenders here.
Money, facilities and exposure are the keys to our improvement, that and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Still, we're doing better, way better, there's no denying it. We have turned a corner. It used to be that our total medal haul in the Winter Olmpics averaged right at 10 per Olympics. From '68-'98 our total medal haul was 88. Then the USA took 34 medals in '02 and 25 in '06. And we're well on our way to 25 to 30 this time around. No question, expansion of the program accounts for some of this, but we are doing a much better job of identifying and training athletes with Olympic potential.
Unfortunately, I don't see that happening in the Nordic events. Pity.
I don't think it's realistic to expect the USA to ever be a contender in the Nordic events. Was it Bill Koch who won a silver in cross country a few years ago? It's been a long time since drinks of water. There is a cultural disconnect here, and not enough of our kids are seriously interested in ski jumping or cross country or biathlon.
We're doing well in the newer events (snow boarding, short track speed skating, etc) and we've come a long way in the Alpine events. Remember how the French used to dominate? In '72 we won one Alpine medal, Barbara Cochran took gold in the slalom. As of now, we've taken 6 Alpine medals this time around, with more to come. Even with the expanded program, that's impressive.
Take traditional speed skating, we do pretty well these days. We've always got some folks with real medal potential. You'd have to go way back to find Americans listed among the favorites. In '80 we took only 6 golds, of course one was the hockey team and the remaining five were Eric Heiden (a once in a life time guy). Now, however, we've got some depth and some training facilities. And it shows.
We even have people who may medal in the sliding sports. We actually won medals in Luge at Salt Lake City. This time around we've evidently got a real chance in bob sled. Again, you'd have to go back to the first few winter Olympics to find Americans as legitimate medal contenders here.
Money, facilities and exposure are the keys to our improvement, that and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Still, we're doing better, way better, there's no denying it. We have turned a corner. It used to be that our total medal haul in the Winter Olmpics averaged right at 10 per Olympics. From '68-'98 our total medal haul was 88. Then the USA took 34 medals in '02 and 25 in '06. And we're well on our way to 25 to 30 this time around. No question, expansion of the program accounts for some of this, but we are doing a much better job of identifying and training athletes with Olympic potential.
Unfortunately, I don't see that happening in the Nordic events. Pity.
Getting ready, myself, for Olympics, and 3 College Hockey games on TV tonight 