Sochi Olympic Games

[eagle eye]

I haven't watched much of the coverage yet but I did watch the opening ceremonies last night and I was impressed. The bulk of the ceremony was spectacular. W the planners were able to do with light and the way they could change the floor of the stadium to look like what they needed was amazing. There was one section where about 40-50 people were portraying a crew on a ship and the floor of the stadium was lit to portray the deck of a ship on a rough ocean. It was really impressive.
I'm not a ballet person but the Russian ballet is world renowned and the section honoring that part of Russian heritage was pretty good and the dancers got some serious air on some of their jumps. You see why the Bolshoi is famous because they are seriously good.
The only uncomfortable part of the program was the time of the Bolshevik Revolution through the cold war and the end of the USSR. It was a real challenge for the producer to find a way to portray that 90 years or so of Russian history in a positive light and they really didn't nail it at all.
The end sort of recovered the good feeling atmosphere and the lighting of the Olympic Torch always chokes me up and last night was no exception.
Hopefully, the problems in accommodations and fresh water will be ironed out and I really hope the terrorists that live so close to Sochi don't do anything to mar the good will of these games. Certainly the lessons learned in the '72 Munich games should have taught everyone the Olympics is no place for political agendas, especially violent ones.
All that is left to say is GO USA!

[coachacola]

What's the deal with Bob Costas' face?

[eagle eye]

Word was he got an eye infection just before coverage of the games began. It was reported that the infection will clear up in a few days. No cause was given about the eye infection but the horror stories about the accommodations in Sochi from the fact you are allowed to flush toilet paper in the toilets, to yellow water out of the taps to reports that the water was unfit to drink or even dangerous if it made contact with your skin you could see how a person could get an infection.

[eagle eye]

The USA has a total of 3 medals including golds in both the men's and women's slopestyle snowboarding events. This is the first year the slopestyle is included in the winter games and the USA has won gold in both events. On the men's side Sage Kotsenburg who captured the first gold of this year's games on Saturday. The USA's other medal was a bronze medal won by Hannah Kearney in the women's free style skiing event. Sisters from Canada Justin and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe won gold and silver respectively in the event.

[eagle eye]

The US is doing okay in the medal count, they have a total of 12 with 4 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze. The sweep by the US in the ski slopestyle event got the US back into the top echelon of the medal count. They are tied with the Netherlands one behind Norway who has 13 total medals. Germany is dominating the gold medal count with 7 and the next closest is the US, Norway, Canada and the Netherlands with 4. Bob Costas continues to be sidelined from his host duties due to an eye infection that had him looking like Popeye.

Quote from the ChristianScienceMonitor.com; "The surprise ski slopestyle sweep was a welcome boost to Team USA, which was beset by discouraging losses by medal favorites earlier in the week. In an event that the Monitor’s Sochi correspondent called “thrilling,” Joss Christiansen, Gus Kenworthy, and Nicholas Goepper flipped and triple corked their way into history, turning in the first US Winter Olympic medal sweep since the men’s snowboard halfpipe in 2002."

The big surprise so far was the failure of snowboarder Shawn White to quality for a medal in the men's half pipe event. Even after he pulled out of the slopestyle event to concentrate on the half pipe and despite leading the event after the preliminaries White failed to medal finishing 4th in the event.

[eagle eye]

The biggest news for the USA yesterday was the thrilling win by the US hockey team in overtime over the Russian team. The big hero was T J Oshie who took all six of the shots for Team USA in the overtime scoring every shot except one. A lot of credit must go to US goalie Jonathan Quick for keeping the US in the game. The final score was 3-2 but the 8 shootout rounds was nerve wracking. Oshie plays in the NHL for the St Louis Blues and his notoriety factor has gone through the roof since yesterday.

Another player whose fame has gone through the roof is Shane Kotsenberg who won the gold in the men's snowboarding slopestyle event. NBC reported last night he was the most googled person in the world yesterday.

Russia has leaped into the medal lead with 16 tied with the USA. They are tied with four golds but Russia leads the US in silver medals 7-4 and the US leads in bronze medals 8-5. Germany, who is in sixth place in the total medal count with 12 still has the most gold medals with 7. Switzerland and Norway are next with 5 each.