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If you think NBC’s coverage is lame, you should see the Korean TV stations. They have all decided that short track is such a massive event that each will show coverage of the games at the same time. Blanket coverage–wall-to-wall on every channel. In fact, each network even has its own commentators doing play-by-play. And because they were so excited that Ohno didn’t make it in one of his races, they decided not to show the gold medal performance of the figure skating. Do you think this will hurt the 2014 Olympic bid by Pyeongchang?]]>

The BBC is reporting that the birth father of Toby Dawson, American bronze medalist in skiing, has been located in Korea after the medalists photo was splashed in the media there. Dawson, 27, was adopted by US parents in 1982, from an orphanage in Seoul who did not know who his parents were. Kim Jae-su, 52, said his lost son went missing during a shopping trip with his mother near a market in the South Korean city of Busan, in 1981. Dawson was found near the same market, South Korean’s Yonhap news agency said. I guess it will come down to the DNA testing. I hope it isn’t some guy who just lost his kid and is searching for an answer, but I guess we’ll see.
Dawson and the man claiming to be his father.]]>

A tip-off that disgraced Austrian nordic coach Walter Mayer was in contact with the team in Turin led to a late night drug raid and testing for the Austrian cross country team. Seems they were on to something. Two tested positive and a slew of doping-like material was found on the scene. But then things got weird. Mayer was found sleeping in his car near the border. He was involved in a bizarre chase in Austria on Sunday when he tried to evade police and ended up crashing his car into a roadblock they had set up. He’s now in jail.]]>

I fell asleep during the game and awoke in the 3rd period. I glanced at the scoreboard on the screen and said “Hey, US up by 2-1” but the US was in a frantic attack mode which didn’t figure. Why weren’t the Swedes on the offense? It was like they were holding on to a 1 goal deficit for some reason. About 2 minutes from the end I realized “hey, we’re losing.” Of course it doesn’t really matter as everyone advances basically (Kazakstan needs to win by 14 or something) but our next match is against the goal machine of the Russian team. I watch the games during the week at a bar called the Exchange just down from the White House. Perhaps in a throwback to the Cold War spy days, the bar staff seems to be all Russian. It will be fun Tuesday to watch and listen to them (the other day they were chanting ‘Lat-vi-a, Lat-vi-a” when we were playing them.]]>

Kansas City Stars column what many people are probably saying about the Olympics. “There are no stars,” she says. “And a lot of the Americans are jerks.” Sad, but true. I’ve been kind of surprised by some of the classlessness of our athletes (and some from other countries as well). I haven’t compiled a list, but: Bode Sasha Cohen and Emily Hughes (say one nice thing about Michelle) Russian Pairs (ignoring the Chinese effort) Shani Davis (and others in skating). Better not put his face on Wheaties or I’ll eat Cheerios for a year. Johnny Weis (ego/ability imbalance) Any others?]]>

The Goons lost to the Swiss today in a hard fought game that would have been a bit closer with a different ref. A pretty definite goal was called off by the replay official and several penalties against Canada probably wouldn’t have been called in the NHL. Canada is still debating the role of chief punk Todd Bertuzzi who served an 18 month suspension for a cheap hit in the NHL but somehow was called up to represent his country. ]]>

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This hurt. US Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis crashed just yards away from the finish line in a race she led by 3 seconds. You could just feel the pain of this Silver medal. I don’t know if she was showboating or not. She did grab her board on all the previous runs I saw her make, though this one seemed to be a bit more extreme than her previous “stablizing” grabs. Talk about being haunted…she won’t forget this wreck for years to come I suspect.]]>

NBC has the scoreline. UPDATEThe Washington Post did a write up about the game and the missed penalty shots. This kind of blows as I really wanted to seek revenge on Canada.]]>