Posted on 02/18/2010 9:52:45 PM PST by jerry557
VANCOUVER, B.C. - So far, so gold for the U.S. Olympic team.
It looks like American snowboarder Nate Holland wasn't joking when he said U.S. athletes planned to "rent" the medals podium at the Vancouver Games - a verbal shot at Canada's multimillion-dollar "Own The Podium" program.
After the first 5 1/2 days of competition on the snow and ice, the Americans are piling up medals of all colours and making a run at finishing the Olympics on Feb. 28 at the top of the heap for gold and total medals.
"They are on fire," said Roger Jackson, who heads Canada's effort to land the most medals.
The last - and only - time the U.S. won the medals race at a Winter Games was in 1932 on home soil in Lake Placid.
Despite the fast start in Vancouver, the U.S. Olympic Committee is trying to keep expectations in check.
"The team is certainly enjoying some additional success," Mike English, the USOC's director of sports performance, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "We're a little bit ahead of what we had anticipated, but we were being fairly conservative, so that's a good thing.
"But it's still just Day 7. There's still plenty of competition left."
Wednesday was a record-breaking day for the U.S. with six medals, including three golds won by marquee athletes Lindsey Vonn (women's downhill), Shani Davis (1,000-metre speedskating) and Shaun White (snowboard halfpipe).
That was the most U.S. medals won on a single day at a Winter Games, beating the previous mark of five from Salt Lake City in 2002.
"This will be a memory for all time," said Mike Plant, the U.S. team chief here who has participated in 15 Olympics as an athlete or official.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
I saw Shaun White when he received his medal and did the air guitar routine.
My first thought was “C’mon Shaun, settle down”. I noticed that he quit doing the air guitar routine pretty quick. Maybe he caught himself and realized “Hey, this isn’t cool”.
OTOH, I’m gonna cut him just a little slack because he’s 22 and because of the moment. Plus, what else would we expect from someone who likely addresses all his friends as “Dude”?
What he did was not something I would have done at 22 but like I said, I’ll let this one slide.
I did not see Shani Davis’ getting the medal. Common sense at least dictates putting his hand over his heart. I hope someone out there will ask him why he didn’t. If he was having an Obama Moment, well, I don’t have time for that and he can move to another country for all I care.
Boy, Doesn't that photo say it all?
Wait - did the Soviets boycott again?
As of this morning, the US leads in every medal category, in addition to the overall medal count. Go USA!
DUDE :) I will let it slide because I know Shaun White is a patriot, just didn’t expect him to pull out the whammy bar. Fist bump to your Friday.
I’m glad to hear that Johnny Weir skated well - he’s worked very hard. A shame that the judges held him back - I hate it when they do that. Couldn’t stay up to watch the men’s competition since I had to get in to work very early today.
While immensely proud and happy for them, they obviously take living in America for granted. I’m sure neither has had friends or family shed blood for our country. I’m sure they have a degree of patriotism, but clearly not decorum.
You can watch his performance above.
This is the correct one - for some reason the one I posted above linked to the wrong free skate.
I know Pleshenko is married....but it sounded like a cat fight. Its a gay sport. Roses and blowing kisses???? And thats the guys? IICCKKK...I need a shower....
GO DICK BUTTON! Skated to gold in pants and a sweater, not chiffon and feathers.
Ahhhh... those were the good old days - huh? I did see one traditionally dressed young man skating but he was not a top contender.
[Did you see that figure skater? I was *SO* happy to see the USA win - not only because Evan was better but Plushenko was so arrogant and presumptuous]
Evan Lysacek’s program was so much better than Plaschenko’s. Someone needs to remind Plaschenko that you are judged on the entire program not the ability to be able to land one jump. Plaschenko did land a quad but the rest of his program was poorly choreographed. His spins and footwork were mediocre. He in NO WAY deserved the gold over the American. I’m not even sure he deserved the silver. I thought Evan was better than Plaschenko in every aspect of the short and long program. His jumps, overall, were better than Plaschenko’s even without the squad. Much cleaner and smoother.
Plaschenko is a jerk and I only wish he hadn’t medaled at all.
The Europeans think this isn't right or good.
When will president Obama travel the world and apologize for this?
We should spread the medals around more equitably. Possibly do it based on CO2 emissions? Maybe we could create a quota system, and if we make to many medals we have to pay a fine to those that make less medals!
Is this all Bush's fault? He's at fault for everything else, so obviously he must be at fault for this too?
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