The Olympics happened before I had a blog, so if it's alright with you, Internet, I'd like to talk about them now.
There were of course some great victories that everyone talked about. America won gold in Nordic Combined for the first time since that event was added to the Olympics almost a century ago. And we won gold in bobsled for the first time since bobsleds were still sleds, and the course was still carved through the landscape with manpower and not manufactured on an assembly line.
And there were your usual heroes that managed to live up to their pre-Olympic media hype. Shaun White pulled a 69 McTwizzle or whatever and Lindsey Vonn skied with a boo-boo (I kid, she was great).
But I want to talk about some stories that didn't get as much press, because that's what the internet is for (besides pornography, stalking, and promoting your crappy garage band).
There was Petra Majdic, who was favored to do well in a skiing race I'd never heard of until she accidentally skied into a ditch during a training round. Afterwhich, she managed to ski the multiple rounds of the race and win a bronze medal with five broken ribs and a punctured lung.
And in one of the last events of the Olympics, a Polish skiier (whose name I have forgotten) went up against Norwegian skiier Marit Boergen (whose name I have just misspelled). Boergen was a powerhouse, having won 3 gold medals in these Olympics so far. But Polish Skier Lady managed to trick her into burning too much energy by skiing away in the last few laps.
It came down to the very last straightaway. Two Olympic skiiers skiing their butts off. I was glued to the tv while my mom crocheted a blanket and my dad surfed the internet. As Boergen made her move, I started to shout,
"Go (what's her name)!
Go (it's on the tip of my tongue)!"
And guess what? She lost.
No, I'm kidding - she won the gold. The first winter gold medal for a female athlete in Polish history, according to the announcers. And even Boergen came over to congratulate her, because she'd clearly skiied a hell of a race.
So when you think of these Olympics, you can think of Apollo Ono or Shani Davis (first black athlete to win a winter gold). But also think of Petra Majdic. And Polish Skiier Lady (A.K.A. Justyna Kowalczyk - thanks wikipedia!)
There were of course some great victories that everyone talked about. America won gold in Nordic Combined for the first time since that event was added to the Olympics almost a century ago. And we won gold in bobsled for the first time since bobsleds were still sleds, and the course was still carved through the landscape with manpower and not manufactured on an assembly line.
And there were your usual heroes that managed to live up to their pre-Olympic media hype. Shaun White pulled a 69 McTwizzle or whatever and Lindsey Vonn skied with a boo-boo (I kid, she was great).
But I want to talk about some stories that didn't get as much press, because that's what the internet is for (besides pornography, stalking, and promoting your crappy garage band).
There was Petra Majdic, who was favored to do well in a skiing race I'd never heard of until she accidentally skied into a ditch during a training round. Afterwhich, she managed to ski the multiple rounds of the race and win a bronze medal with five broken ribs and a punctured lung.
And in one of the last events of the Olympics, a Polish skiier (whose name I have forgotten) went up against Norwegian skiier Marit Boergen (whose name I have just misspelled). Boergen was a powerhouse, having won 3 gold medals in these Olympics so far. But Polish Skier Lady managed to trick her into burning too much energy by skiing away in the last few laps.
It came down to the very last straightaway. Two Olympic skiiers skiing their butts off. I was glued to the tv while my mom crocheted a blanket and my dad surfed the internet. As Boergen made her move, I started to shout,
"Go (what's her name)!
Go (it's on the tip of my tongue)!"
And guess what? She lost.
No, I'm kidding - she won the gold. The first winter gold medal for a female athlete in Polish history, according to the announcers. And even Boergen came over to congratulate her, because she'd clearly skiied a hell of a race.
So when you think of these Olympics, you can think of Apollo Ono or Shani Davis (first black athlete to win a winter gold). But also think of Petra Majdic. And Polish Skiier Lady (A.K.A. Justyna Kowalczyk - thanks wikipedia!)
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