couch with torso in the living room and feet through the door into the bedroom. Luckily no one got up to go to the bathroom. Not sure who left the fancy Bioluxe shampoo, but it's a welcome break from the standard hotel fare. Thank you.Been a few days off from the TV stuff which gave time for some great skiing. Wonderful the way the organizers have allowed folks who are skiing at Whistler to watch the downhill slopeside. We took advantage of this to catch bits of the men's and women's DH events. Also caught women's luge finals: 27 sliders from a handful of nations- so a 1 in 9 chance for a medal. Seems like pretty good odds to take home pretty precious hardware. It seems crazy
to me that women's ski jumping with 80 competitors from over 14 nations is still on the Olympic sidelines, largely, I'm told, because IOC chief Rogge took an early negative position (buttressed with pathetic antiquated arguments about female anatomy and compatibility for ski jumping- god bless the Euro male) and doesn't want to appear weak by wavering (again, god bless the Euro male). I didn't get it in to the NH coverage but until Adam Malysz jumped 109.5 meters last weekend the previous hill record was held by US woman ski jumper (and 09 world champion) Lindsay Van who will be watching the Olympics from her couch. The announcers at the venue were prohibited from mentioning Lindsay's record. God bless big brother.Which brings me to dinner last night at the Mongolie Grill with brother Chris and Peter Graves where we ran in to Alissa Johnson who stands 5th in the world in women's ski jumping and is here to cheer on brother Anders. This is the second Olympics she's attended... as a spectator. Time for a change here.
Speaking of Anders, he just missed qualifying for tomorrow's LH medal event. Top 50 made it, Anders was 52nd, ugh. Peter Frenette, 17 from Lake Placid and Nick Alexander, 21 from Lebanon both had great jumps (some of their best on the hill) and will ski tomorrow. Touching text from Pete's mother Jennie who was here for the NH comp but home now. In the NH coverage I told the story of how the Frenettes went lean on Xmas to get Peter to a comp in Japan that would help him qualify for Vancouver. She said she arrived home to a pile of Christmas presents at their front door. Today I mentioned that the unfunded US jumping team basically supports themselves with bake sales. Jennie says the phone is now ringing with orders for brownies. Touching my heart.
Speaking of mothers- Proctor & Gamble gave a $3,000 gift card to the mother of every US Olympian. I haven't seen P&G publicize their generosity but do see the obvious tie with the poignant ad campaign they're running that shows moms watching little kids suit up like Olympic athletes.
While we're on athletes, I find it curious that the Nordic combined team finished the NH comp, did the medal ceremony and Matt Lauer the next morning then played rock stars and caught a private jet to chill back in Park City. Maybe that's the professional, highly managed program they need in order to succeed at the Olympic level. Seems disappointing to me that they feel so much pressure that they'll leave the world's most meaningful gathering in pursuit of results. And I've never really bought the idea that you can get away from the challenges of a venue by leaving the venue. I did the math on the NH results and if it were a team comp the USA would have won gold easily. If these guys do win gold they should really relax... and if they do really relax for the LH individual event, better bar the door Katie. Could be outstanding.
Interesting scene in the coaches' meeting yesterday. The Austrians protested Ammann's binding system which is a slight modification of the same binding that half the field is using. Pointner, the AUT coach, said his protest was purely for safety and fairness reasons and did not name
Ammann, per se, but the Swiss team. When I asked the Swiss coach if he thought he had a problem, his response was perfect- "no," he said, "it's the Austrians who have a problem." Very many ironies to this protest not the least of which the Austrians are faltering on the jumps and tend to lead the field in both innovation and stretching compliance. Most ironic is that, post announcement, Ammann seems more relaxed and on top of his game than ever and the Austrians seem to be struggling. Isn't that a sweet piece of karma.The Olympics are all about minting celebrities and then collecting sitings of them. Kath was quite sure she saw figure skater Johnny Weir in ski boots at the top of Whistler (between short and long program). It was not Johnny. Bare Naked Ladies were actually sited- a free concert in the square. Wasn't a fan before but am now.
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