Let the Games begin in Torino!

by **Brent Burns** on Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:56 pm

What would be your favorite Winter Olympics sport albeit lacrosse is your most favorite sport?

Mine would be speed skating.

What about you?

I read about "Grandma Luge" who is 57 years old and will be competing in luge. You can learn more about this amazing woman, Anne Abernathy at http://www.grandmaluge.com She wears a green suit with a red hat. She would not be hard to miss. :wink:

**Sponsor**

by **Gregg Pathiakis** on Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:58 pm

Easily hockey. No question.

by **bste_lax** on Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:11 am

Curling

End. Of. Thread.

:lol:

by **Dan Wishengrad** on Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:33 am

Men's and Women's Downhill. Second favorite is.... well, nothing much, for me.

by **Sonny** on Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:37 pm

Seems like all the women's hockey players come from Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, or Harvard.

by **UofMLaxGoalie11** on Sun Feb 12, 2006 12:38 am

Minnesota has the most olympians on the US team with 31. Im assuming thats mainly cause of the hockey teams.

Ive always been a fan of luge because it was very close with my family. My dad did work for the US olympic luge team while at 3M. He actually broke his leg while going down the course. My sister went to training camp for the junior olympics for luge, and she actually knows many of the people on the team this year. Her roommate there was on the womens bobsled team in salt lake. Also skiing is always interesting. And for biggest interest in the athletes, after seeing some of the girls in the moguls tonight, I think that would be my favorite to watch after their runs.

Oh I thought I would mention that one of the boys high school teams from minnesota beat the womens olympic hockey team. We sure do have some talent here.

by JW on Sun Feb 12, 2006 2:02 am

Men's Ice Hockey. NHL players will have more of an impact this year since they have adapted to a more international game. Watch out for Finland.

Curling

Pretty much all skiing events.

Bobsled/Luge.

by **Jolly Roger** on Sun Feb 12, 2006 10:07 am

Any event that doesn't have a "judging component"

by **Brent Burns** on Sun Feb 12, 2006 5:15 pm

All we already know:

*Michelle Kwan officially withdrew from the figure skating competition. That means Emily Hughes is on her way to Torino to represent our country.

*Yep, Ohno fell and did not have the chance to compete in the 1500 meter short track finals.

*In women's hockey, Canada routed Russia, 12-0 (Pool A); USA routed Germany, 5-0 (Pool B). For the US women's hockey team, be on the lookout for Sarah Parsons who is 18 years old and is a Boston-area star in hockey, soccer, and lacrosse.

*Shaun White (the red-haired guy) won the halfpipe title.

*Bernhoff (US) came in 4th in men's luge. In women's luge, Grandma Luge broke her wrist in a crash.

by **Adam G** on Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:41 pm

Alpine Skiing, Downhill gold medal run..... 90mph down a hill with blind turns and only a helmet as protection? Madness.

Luge is pretty crazy, too.... Hockey I can see almost anytime, and I'd rather watch the Badgers play anyone instead of Latvia getting rocked by Canada, imo.

by **Brent Burns** on Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:02 pm

Really had to bump this because I know some or most of y'all are quite familiar with the teenspeak/American counterculture speak such as "sick", "gnarly", and now from the snowboarders, "power shredding."

This article can be either "Gnarly powder" or "Shredding some powder."

http://sports.yahoo.com/oly/news?slug=bw-teter021306&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

by **ZagGrad** on Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:49 pm

Does anyone else think that the Half-pipe should not be an olympic event? I was watching it last night with my girlfriend and we both agreed that there really isn't anything exciting or extremely difficult about it. Maybe if you compared it to curling or figure skating...

by **laxfan25** on Tue Feb 14, 2006 3:03 pm

ZagGrad wrote:Does anyone else think that the Half-pipe should not be an olympic event? I was watching it last night with my girlfriend and we both agreed that there really isn't anything exciting or extremely difficult about it. Maybe if you compared it to curling or figure skating...

After watching the guys, the first runs by the girls looked very tepid by comparison. Then Kelly Clark took her last run and she was stoked! Great amplitude, her backside 1080 was awesome, the front 720 with a grab just rocked, and if she didn't fumble a little at the end I think she would have walked off with the gold and a 1-2-3 USA sweep.
Ya gotta feel for Yoko Ono though. You wait four years to finally get some media attention and then you flame out without even reaching the finals. Bummer.
My favorite event is the downhill though. One run at glory, balls to the wall and guys teetering on the edge of disaster. Great drama, especially now that we know that Bode Miller's doing it smashed on his a**! Ever since Franz Klammer's out of control run to the gold, it has been the highlight of the Olympics for me.
I do like the new Vice-Presidential lawyer skeet-shooting though - that could really catch on!

by **Brent Burns** on Tue Feb 14, 2006 4:07 pm

At first glance, the halfpipe stuff may not appear exciting, but like laxfan25 said about Kelly Clark, she is really pushing the envelope for the future female snowboarders to try very difficult twists, go HIGHER and HIGHER, and get good, clean landings (I was about to use the word, "stick", but that is reserved for gymnastics). The commentators said that Kelly was really stoked.

Heather Teter is 19 years old; there is another U.S. gal who is 16 on that team (she is 5'2").

by **UofMLaxGoalie11** on Tue Feb 14, 2006 4:26 pm

ZagGrad wrote:Does anyone else think that the Half-pipe should not be an olympic event? I was watching it last night with my girlfriend and we both agreed that there really isn't anything exciting or extremely difficult about it. Maybe if you compared it to curling or figure skating...

It basically looks like a spinning contest. Just who can fit the most 1080s into a run. The Kelly Clark really did a good job breaking down any differences between the men and women. After watching the mens competition the night before, then the womens last night I was like, thats it? But she really impressed me.