2010 Olympics

So I haven't been paying too much attention to the Winter Olympics this year. I used to watch the figure skating portions when I was a kid, as I was really into figure skating back then, however every time I flip past the Olympics, it's always something like Skiing or some other sport I'm not really interested in. The other night though, when we noticed MSNBC was replaying it, I finally got to see what Curling is!

My husband had told me about how he watched it during the 2006 Olympics, as he was curious as to what it was, however no matter how he explained it, it just seemed like one of those things you had to watch to get it. I decided it's kind of bowling meets shuffleboard meets pool.

There's 4 guys on a team, and there's a stretch of ice with a green, white and blue rings painted onto the ice at one end - each team gets like 6 turns and whoever has their curling rock closest to the center of the rings at the end of the round wins that round and gets a point. One guy stands by the rings to call how the curling rock needs to go, one guy at the opposite end throws the rock (kind of like bowling) and you got 2 guys with sweepers who go nuts at the ice in front of the curling rock to control whether it goes straight or curls. Now you can position your curling rock to block direct access to the center of the rings (kind of like positioning balls in pool to block your opponent's shot to the hole) so that the other team has to curl their rock around to get there. We watched a few rounds of the Canada vs. Switzerland game and it was pretty neat to watch!

Now, back to the figure skating...

I would have loved to have gotten to watch some, but like I said, every time I flipped past the Olympics, it was always Skiing or some other sport I have no interest in. I did find the Men's Short Program on onDemand the other night though and watched a little bit of that, after my mom had told me about the controversy surrounding it.

Apparently, the rules and judging have changed since I last watched and Russian skater Plushenko, who came out of retirement just to win the gold this year, is all bent out of shape, as in years past, it was required to do a quadruple jump in order to win, which Plushenko did, but the gold medalist, American skater Lysacek did not.

Now I'm not familiar with all the rule changes, but it is pretty disappointing just how much of a fit Plushenko and Russia are making over the fact that he won silver instead of gold. I used to love watching Plushenko skate back in the day, but he's kind of tainting his image here. Even Lysacek states that Plushenko's been one of his role models, looking up to him and the example he set over the years.

Here's an excerpt from the AP article:

     Time and again, Evan Lysacek was grilled about Evgeni Plushenko slamming his performance and quibbling about the quad, how even government leaders in Russia are crying foul over the finish in the men's final. Time and again, Lysacek sidestepped the bickering.

     Nothing the American said would be better than the answer hanging around his neck.

     "All I know is he's been really positive to me and been a really consistent skater through the years, and I've tried to learn from that," Lysacek said Friday morning, still basking in the glow of his Olympic gold medal. "I guess I'm a little disappointed someone who I saw as my role model would take a hit at me in one of the most special moments of my life.

     "It's tough to lose. It's not easy, especially when you think, no matter what, you're going to win. It's a really tough pill to swallow," he added. "We'll just try not to take it out of context and give him the benefit of the doubt. And congratulations to him on his third Olympic medal."

     Lysacek became the first American man since Brian Boitano to win the Olympic gold Thursday night, taking down reigning champ Plushenko in the process.

At least Lysacek is being the better man here, not saying mean things back!