Winter Olympics Vancouver 2010

Well today is the last day. What a two weeks it has been. The excitement alone has been an adrenaline rush. It's helped make the long, long winter a little brighter.

Thank you to MSNBC for replaying the entire figure skating groupings this morning. It gave me a chance to get a closer look of the things I missed. I am much more critical of it because it was a major part 33 of my 48 years. Living and breathing something puts everything in perspective.

Individually, my take on the games. Something that will really never change about the sport is that exposure to international competitions greatly influences where you place in the Olympics. Favorites will always win before true skating. The outside stories also tend to influence the outcomes. Overall the competitors did well but the inconsistency of rewarding or overlooking the obvious still will probably never really change in this sport.

In re-watching the ladies competition it was very obvious. Korea's Kim Yu-Na really was alone in the race for gold. After watching her program a second time it was very interesting how many influences she had in her program. I saw alot of Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, and as far back as Nancy Kerrigan. Of course also saw alot of her coach Brian Orser. Much of the footwork moves were all Brian. (I couldn't help but think back to the "Dualing Brians". He lost the gold that Olympics and made me think he got his gold medal with Kim's performance) It will be interesting to see how she holds up in her career. She really doesn't seem to skate for herself more for her country and culture. Something that will never change in the Asian nations. The same could be said for the silver medalist Mao Asada. Her story was alot like the men's silver medalist, Plushenko. Although her tricks included three triples or was it two, they were not clean and complete so it really didn't count. You could really see the sadness in her face also. She had the silver medal but still didn't seem happy.

Canada's Joanie Rochette was a heart rendering story in itself. I can't help feel her performance was awarded due to the fact also of the sympathy factor and home advantage. Although her program was good, it did have several mistakes but those seemed to be slightly overlooked due to her personal tragedy to still give her the bronze medal.

The same is true with the ice dancing. The Russians ecked out a bronze, partly due to their higher scores in the Compulsory Dance. The "costume question" in both the Free Dance and the Original Dance were the same issue. But, since the Russians have always placed in the top 3 since the inception of the Ice Dance category, the really squeaked by.

In the men's competition it was really only Lysacek/Plushenko. It goes to show here any quad won't do.

It will me interesting what the World's Championship next month will bring. In the past most Olympians chose not to compete. I am sure it won't be any competition like the Olympics but still it's just as important.