The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver Come to an End

My daughter predicted what the score would be for the men's hockey final game today at the Olympics with a score of 3-2 even before the game started but she was expecting/hoping that the US would be the victor and get the gold medal. We watched the game until the US tied the game with 2-2 with only seconds remaining and did we cheer! Then the game went into overtime (but it was time to drive her to the rink where she teaches Basic Skills in skating and skates herself).

We heard the news when we returned home and saw the Canadian men's hockey team with their gold medals and the US men skating off the ice looking pretty dejected.

The New York Times already posted an article on this intense game, which concluded these 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It also has a graphic of the medal talleys for various countries with the US garnering the largest number of medals with 37; Germany, in second place with 30, and Canada, in third with 26 (not bad for all that this country and its people invested in these games). In fact, Canada won 14 gold medals at these Olympics (the most of any country), whereas the US won 9, as did Norway, with Germany getting 10 gold medals. I was born in Canada so I am pleased that these games, overall, were quite successful and filled with many wonderful athletic memories.

At the same time, we saw tremendous courage in such athletes as Joannie Rochette, whose mother passed away in Vancouver just 2 days before Joannie skated her short program. Joannie, who is from eastern Canada, went on to win the bronze medal in women's figure skating this past Thursday. She is a true heroine and Olympian.

These Games were marred by the death of the Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, at age 21, during a training practice run, just hours before the opening ceremonies.

Many of the male hockey Olympic medalists (especially the gold and silver medalists) will very soon be back with their NHL teams and the figure skaters will be getting ready to compete again in the 2010 World Figure Skating Championship that will take place in late March in Turin, Italy.

Female Skating Olympians

The female figure skating competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics is now over with the long program completed last night in Vancouver. Kim Yu-Na of South Korea, who is coached by the Canadian, Brian Orser, scored a record number of points during the competition, and received the gold medal, followed by Mao Asada of Japan, with the silver medal, and Joannie Rochette of Canada, with the bronze.

Joannie Rochette's mother passed away last Sunday of a massive heart attack at age 55, shortly after arriving in Vancouver to watch the Olympic Games. Joannie competed two days afterwards in the short program and last night clinched the bronze medal. To be able to compete and to excel, under such trying circumstances, is the mark of a true Olympian and a champion. Joannie said that she tried to make her mother proud. Joannie's mother had told her a week ago that she was certain that she would receive a medal at the Olympics.

Our hearts go out to Joannie and to her father, Normand Rochette, for their tremendous loss.

Rachel Flatts, the American figure skater, who is 17 years old, and about whom I have written in an earlier post, placed 7th (she was downgraded several points, for reasons not completely clear), but, nevertheless, she received her first acceptance letter from a college and it was from Stanford University! Nagasu, her teammate, placed 4th, which is also a great achievement.

One skater, whose specialness also showed on the ice, was the skater who represents Turkey, Tugba Karademir. Her parents gave up their great professions and careers in Turkey and moved to Canada so that she could train there. Some generous benefactor paid for them to be able to attend the games in Vancouver (they could not afford to see her skate at the Winter Olympics in Torino 4 years ago). It was very special to see her parents smiling and waving the Turkish flag in the stands as they cheered their daughter on.

The complete female figure skating results can be found here.

Speaking of another "on the ice" competition at the Vancouver Olympics yesterday, the US women's hockey team was beaten by Canada in the finals. The Olympic US women's hockey team has many players who played on prep school high school teams in the Northeast and several who went to Harvard. Nevertheless, the US team garnered a silver medal!

As the Olympics start drawing to a close we extend our heartiest congratulations to all the competitors!

Figure Skating Olympians that We Have Actually Met

As the first figure skating medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics have been announced with the gold in pairs going to Zhao and Shen, a married couple from China, I thought it appropriate to share with my readers photos and reminiscences of some of the figure skating Olympians that we have actually met.

Above I have posted photos of Paul Wylie, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist in men's skating, taken at Harvard, of Sarah Hughes (the gold medalist at the 2002 Winter Olympics), after the Stars on Ice performance at the Mullins Center in Amherst with some members of the Skating Club of Amherst skaters, and of Johnny Weir with my daughter during a performance at Lake Placid in the summer of 2008, where she was training.

Paul Wylie, a graduate of Harvard, has been the leader behind the An Evening with Champions event at Harvard University, which takes place each year. It is an event that raises money for The Jimmy Fund, for cancer research. While I was a Science Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard in 2005-2006, my family and I went to this wonderful event and we got a chance to speak with Paul Wylie.

The inimitable Sarah Hughes, who has, since the above photo was taken, graduated from Yale University, and whose sister, Emily Hughes, is a student at Harvard and was an Olympic contender (who, unfortunately did not make the team this year) graciously posed with our local skaters for the photo above. Todd Eldridge, also a 2002 Olympian, but, unfortunately, not a medalist, also performed in the same show, and was fabulous.

As for Johnny Weir, who is competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, we met him in July 2008, on a rainy day, while walking on the main street in Lake Placid close to the Olympic training rinks (where the Miracle on Ice took place at the Lake Placid Games in 1980, that I have written about on this blog). Johnny Weir was walking with his mother and we stopped since he was immediately recognizable. Despite the rain, we chatted, and it was clear that the affection that he and his mother share is very special. Needless to say, when my daughter got a chance to skate in the same show as Johnny Weir, while training at Lake Placid, it was fantastic. The above photo was taken during that special performance.

We wish all the figure skaters competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver magnificent performances!

Congratulations to Canada on its first gold medal in a Winter Olympics in Canada

Finally, Canada did it and acquired its first gold medal ever in a Winter Olympics in Canada! Canada has been the site of several Winter Olympics from Montreal to Calgary and now Vancouver but until yesterday it had never won a single gold medal in a Winter Olympics that it had hosted.

The Canadian gold medalist who yesterday made history for Canadian sports is Alexandre Bilodeau who won the gold in mogul skiing.

The New York Tmes reports on this wonderful, and much deserved, victory (my family was breathless when we watched on television as Bilodeau skied in the finals).

As some of you may have heard, Bilodeau said that he was skiing for his older brother, who has cerebral palsy, and who managed to learn how to walk and even ski despite many odds. What an uplifting, Olympic story and victory!

Congratulations to Alexandre Bilodeau, to his family, and to Canada! All great things are worth waiting for.

I am cheering for many countries and all athletes at these Winter Games. Having been born in Canada, I can't help but feel a closeness to Canada and its majesty of scenery, size, and specialness.

Ohno, Oh Yes -- Speed Skating at the Olympics!

I was contacted by teamusa.org to blog about the Olympics, an invitation that I did not officially accept, but a topic that I cannot resist to be following and writing about. In today's world, what is local is global and vice versa.

Yesterday, we dined at one of our favorite restaurants in the Pioneer Valley, Mr. Kim's (Gohyang) Restaurant in Hadley, which is a Korean restaurant. It is owned by a family whose father has a PhD in sports management from UMass Amherst and whose daughter attends my daughter's fabulous school, Deerfield Academy. The dad also has a faculty position in South Korea but was visiting his family while on break so we got to chat with him.

After dinner and some walking to digest the delicious Korean meal, we proceeded to catch up on the 2010 Winter Olympics events. Apolo Ohno did it again, and received a silver medal (tying his record number of Winter Olympic medals with Bonnie Blair) and he did it with his amazing athleticism, flair, and drama. The New York Times had a terrific article on this event which resulted in two American athletes standing together on the awards podium, along with the gold medalist from Korea. Yes, there was a roller derby type of crash that took place at this event but it is these kinds of unexpected events that make the Olympics so fascinating to follow!

As for another UMass connection, Michael Corey, a UMass Amherst grad from 1999, who is also the voice of the University of Delaware, has been announcing the speed skating Olympic events.

For those of you who have been wondering how a local Western Massachusetts bus company has been doing at the Olympics in shuttling the athletes (something I wrote about in an earlier post) I am pleased to report that Travel Kuz has been doing great in Vancouver and there was recent coverage in the Springfield media. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, as well, the grandson of the owner of this bus company and my daughter were classmates for years at the terrific elementary school, The Bement School, in Deerfield, Massachusetts. He continues to play hockey and my daughter to figure skate, among other numerous activities.

These Olympics, however,were marred by a tragedy, the death of the luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, from Georgia, at age 21, and we extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and coaches. Georgia is a country that borders Ukraine, where my parents came from, and my first language is Ukrainian, which I learned growing up as a child in Canada. The Georgian Olympic delegation received a standing ovation at the Olympic opening ceremonies as they marched in wearing black armbands to commemorate the untimely, tragic death of their luger during a training run.

The Olympic torch and let the 2010 Winter Games begin!

Today the 2010 Winter Olympics Games begin in Vancouver, Canada. Our dear friends, the Wassermans, sent us the above photos of the Olympic torch which went by just 2 blocks past their home the other night in Vancouver. They are celebrating the beginning of these Winter Olympics as is the rest of the world!

We wish the athletes, their coaches, family members, and supporters a terrific Olympics with athleticism, friendships, harmony, spectacle, and beauty!

Thank you, Canada (my birthplace), for hosting these Olympics!

Let the 2010 Winter Olympic Games begin!