Bob Sledding

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

They’ve now started the skeleton event.  And as much as I like the bobsled and luge competitions, and the skeleton is part of that world, I have a hard time understanding why it’s a separate Olympic sport.  Skeleton is exactly the same as luge, except that instead of laying on your back, you lay on your stomach.  Yes, I get it that the skills are different, no question – you steer the sled with your hands, rather than your feet.  But really, that seems more logistics than a different sport.  (“Hey, I have an idea!  Let’s do the same thing…but upside-down!”)  Then again, as much as I especially like the bobsled competition, I’m not quite sure they need the two-man and four-man events – especially since, after pushing the sled for just 10 yards, they all jump in the sled and everyone but the driver does absolutely nothing but sit.  For that matter, why not have one-man bobsled?  You would just push your own sled, jump in and steer.  Honestly, that almost seems to make the most sense, yet it’s the one they don’t do.

And hey, luge and the skeleton are good.  But start the bobsledding already!  Especially the 4-man bobs.

Mikaela Shiffren gave a seriously impressive interview after her first run in the Super-G race, which she completed and did fine, though she was in eighth place.  Just that she did an interview during the competition spoke well of her, but it was her answer to the question about her reaction to the love and support she’d gotten after her two races where she went out so quickly.  In part, and paraphrasing as best I can, she said, “I didn’t deserve it, and people shouldn’t waste their time on me.  I’ve won Olympic medals and World Championships and have had wonderful things in my life, so I’m fine.” And then she went on for about three minutes about what she was doing to correct her skiing problems and how she was handling it all, and then said, “I should stop talking now” (which cracked up everyone around her), but to all the people who wrote me, I just want to say thank you.  There’s no way I can respond to everyone and no way I can say anything in depth.  But I didn’t know there was that much kindness in people.  It’s the most amazing thing from my Olympic experience because I never would have thought that people could be so kind.  And it all came about because of my…failure -- I can say that, because…that’s what it was, a failure.  But you just go on.”  You don’t hear athletes that open, insightful and graceful after failure, even with a day to process it.  Especially such public failure on worldwide scale.  Especially at the age of 24.  Or most people, period.  At any age.

As I’ve mentioned, I like women’s hockey, and the U.S. team had a weird game last night.  It was a quarterfinals game against the Czech Republic, which was playing in its first-ever Olympics.  And the U.S. was a heavy favorite, never being even knocked out of competition before the semi-finals, getting a medal in every Olympics since women’s hockey has been played.  Further, the Team USA outshot the Czechs by an astounding 59-6.  But going into the third and final period, the score was 1-1.  In fact, with just three minutes left, the U.S. was only up by just 2-1.  The Americans did score again at that point, and then scored again into an open net (after the Czech Republic pulled its goalie to get another offensive player) with about 10 seconds remaining.  But that 4-1 win is an exceedingly deceptive score.  It was a shockingly very close game.  In fairness, the Czechs have played well, and played superbly for a first-time team, but even though Team USA is now in the semi-finals, if they want to make it to the finals (against, no doubt, their longtime rivals Canada, who just beat Sweden 11-0), they’d better regroup and play up to the level they’re used to.  And score more goals, rather than just get a lot of shots.