Bob Sledding

We watch the Olympics throughout most of the day, so that you don’t have to.

A month ago, readers here will recall I wrote here about world champion skater Erin Jackson who had a tiny stumble in the 500m race and, because of a quirk in the rules, got bumped from the U.S. Olympic team.  However, her teammate and hometown friend Brittany Bowe qualified in that race, too, and one other, and remarkably took herself off the shorter race so that her friend could make the team, too.  Well…on Sunday, Erin Jackson won the Gold Medal by .08 seconds.  She also became the first black speed skater to win an Olympic medal for the United States.

One added comment to this, just to add perspective to her win: although Erin Jackson had been an inline skater, she hadn’t ever ice skated until just over five years ago.  To clarify that, no, I’m not saying she hadn’t skated in this even until five years ago, but – she hadn’t ice skated, period, until just over five years ago.  And now, she is the Olympic champion.

So, not shockingly a sports governing board has caved to Russia, and is allowing skater Kamila Valieva to compete. I was pleased to see that my immediate reaction was near-identical to the blunt, angry response by NBC analysts Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir.  (And subsequently, most other people -- other than Russian -- felt the same, notably the former Olympic champion Yuna Kim who make a blunt posting on social media.)  To be clear, Valieva is a brilliant skater and the favorite.  But she had been found guilty of using a banned drug, which carries penalties with it.  One of which is that the person isn’t eligible for the Olympics – even if they’re only 15 years old.  Further, it’s worth remembering that the reason Russia isn’t officially at the Olympics, but that their athletes must compete as the “Russian Olympic Committee” is began Russia was kicked out for running a massive state sponsored doping program beginning around 10 years ago. The ridiculous excuse that a 15-year-old skater would be “irreparably harmed” ignores that all the skaters she’s competing against will be irreparably harmed because they followed the rules.  As for her being only 15, both Lipinski (who actually won the Gold Medal at the age of 15) and Weir said that they began being drug-tested years before that age and always knew the rules and what was going into their body, even checking when taking cold medication. 

To its credit (surprisingly), the IOC had challenged the preliminary decision to let Valieva to skate, but said it has to abide by the decision.  It also interestingly said that there would be no medal ceremonies in the team event or individual if she finished in the top three. They say that after there is a final settlement of the case, the IOC will (at a later day) have what they call "a dignified" ceremony presenting the medals. While on the surface, this is a good decision, I hope this is being reported incorrectly, since it punishes the other two medal winners -- especially if Valieva finishes third, and the others win Gold and Silver. (Though that's not likely, since she's favored.)  More intriguing would be if what they did was to not have a ceremony with Valieva involved, leaving her spot on the podium empty.  In essence it would be saying, "We were required to let you skate.  But we are not required to let you stand on the podium to receive your medal."

As I noted on Saturday, I was thrilled to see them add a monobob bobsled event for women, just a day after I thought they should have one-person bobsled races.  Maybe at some point they’ll add a monobob race for men, and a four-person bobsled for women.  The biggest difference between the monobob (and I love the name…) and mult-people bobsleds is that since there’s no brakeman in the back, there isn’t ballast to keep the sled from swaying – though being smaller, it's easier to control and get back on course.  I thought the races were great fun, since the monobob spins and slides off the walls more, but mostly because I think one person in a bobsled makes a huge of amount of sense.  And making the first-ever monobob race all the better (even more than its name) is that two U.S. drivers won the Gold and Silver Medals – Kallie Humphries taking the Gold and Elana Meyers Taylor getting the Silver.

By the way, a lot of people give their cars a name, and I wouldn’t be surprised if bobsledders do, too, for their bobsled.  If I drove a monobob, I think I’d seriously consider naming it “Ricardo.”  That may mean little to many people, but I think enough would get a sled called Ricardo Monobob.  And I’d probably be chuckling all the way down the course – which as the added benefit of keeping your mind off crashing.

The U.S. women’s hockey team had another low-scoring game that they won, making it into the Gold Medal-game finals against their rivals Canada.  The U.S. won against Finland 4-1, and were leading 3-0 until only 30-seconds were left, finally giving up a goal when the Finns pulled their goalie to have an extra offensive skater on the ice.  And then they themselves scored a goal into the empty net with 4-seconds remaining. Given that Canada has been playing superbly – and beat the U.S. earlier in the Olympics – they’re likely the favorite in the finals.  But the U.S. women have been playing great defense lately, only giving up one goal in three games, and are the defending champions.

More to come…