Winter Olympics

BANKSIDE, LONDON, UK -- Well it's day 5 of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and in about 6 hours the USA men's hockey team takes the ice for the first time, facing off against Switzerland. The qualifying round is only 3 games, and the USA got seeded in the same group as Canada. Given that we stand very little chance of taking Canada down in the preliminary round, this first game against Switzerland and Thursday's game against Norway is absolutely essential. Win them both, and we could make the medal round regardless of what happens against Canada.

In women's hockey, I am thoroughly enjoying watching current and former Wisconsin Badgers take the ice for both Canada and the USA teams, and destroy their opponents. When I say destroy, I mean DESTROY! Canada beat Slovakia 18-0 in their first game. The next night, USA beat China 12-1. Last night Canada beat Switzerland 10-1. Tonight, immediately after the USA men's game, the USA women take on Russia. Double digits would be nice, but a simple win will do. It is very cool to see these girls on TV at the Olympics on the national teams - Erika Lawler, Jessie Vetter, Carla MacLeod, Meaghan Mikkelson, Jinelle Zaug... we used to see all these girls at the Kohl Center in Madison. They would destroy opponents in the form of other schools (Ohio State, Minnesota, Bemidji State) then... now they're still destroying opponents, but in the form of other countries. Pretty wild!

Besides the hockey, everything else has been impressive to me, with the exception of course to the tragedy on the luge track the afternoon before the opening ceremonies. Georgian Olympian Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21 year old slider, crashed at 89.7mph into the wall during a practice run. His sled flipped over after hitting the wall at the finish line (usually the fastest part of the track), and it sent him flying through the air. Dangerous enough, he almost certainly would have survived given his helmet and other safety equipment. Instead, whoever designed the track left a series of steel beams unprotected next to the wall. He hit one of the beams at full speed and died. Pretty haunting, and definitely tragic... I was surprised to see CNN had actually posted a video of the crash. If you are interested to see exactly what happened, here is the link: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/15/winter.sports.dangerous/index.html

In other news, thanks to Sarah for sending me an interesting article from the New York Times regarding high fructose corn syrup and soda/pop as a leading cause for children obesity in America. There are some interesting comparisons between the industry lobby and the tobacco lobby, and some interesting proposals to tax pop, and then use the money to subsidize the prices of fruits and vegetables, along with public service announcements and education for children so that they understand that contrary to popular belief, pop is not a healthy or harmless thing to be drinking. Check out the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/weekinreview/14bittman.html?emc=eta1

Finally, there has been a lot of talk of snow across the US in the last few weeks (no talk of it here in London - we have received a grand total of 'trace' accumulation of snow this entire winter - zero inches). Most people at home seem to think everyone else has been freaking out for no reason. Turns out there is some justification to Chicago's supremacy when it comes to snow removal... in an AP report, Chicago ranks at the top for snow removal: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jJ-tYDWorch1YAU1EkgWBnCu145QD9DT7S300

That's all for now - have a good day, and GO TEAM USA!!!