With the 2010 Olympic Winter Games set to captivate us over the
next few weeks, here are six storylines that deserve our attention.
What should we expect out of Lindsey Vonn? She was
an unfamiliar face to most Americans until gracing the cover of
Sports Illustrated’s Olympic preview. Now, Lindsey Vonn may
be the very definition of the magazine’s famed cover jinx.
The world’s best female skier she doesn’t know if
she’ll even be able to compete in the Olympics after
suffering a contusion to the muscles on her right shin during a
training run last week in Austria.
"It's probably the worst place that you can have an injury,
because you're constantly pushing against your boot and there's no
way around it," Vonn said.
Vonn hasn’t skied since the injury occurred and said it
was too painful to put on a pair of ski boots inside of her hotel
room. She refused X-rays because she didn’t want to know if
she had broken a bone.
The world’s best female skier is on the cusp of a third
World Cup title to go with world titles in the downhill and the
Super G. She currently leads the World Cup standings in the
downhill, Super G and the super combined. Ironically enough, she
was expected to be a medal contender in Torino, ultimately
finishing seventh while fighting through severe leg and back pain
suffered after a fall during training.
"I have to wait until the first training run on Thursday and
go up there, put my skis on and see how it feels," said Vonn. "I'm
thinking about how I can manage it so I can race well in all my
disciplines. I don't know if that means sitting out a training run
to get some extra rest. I'll have to keep doing therapy and play it
by ear. All I can say is that I will do my best."
Is it "Oh Canada" or "Woe Canada"? At no other
point in the rich history of the Olympics has a single team faced
as much pressure or as much scrutiny as the Canadian men’s
ice hockey team will in Vancouver. Team Maple Leaf is seen as a
gold medal favorite and is expected at the very least to pick up
the silver. Anything less will set off the same catastrophic
reaction and nationwide mourning period seen after Canada’s
quarterfinal loss to the Russians in 2006 and semifinal loss to the
Czech’s in 1998.
"It's pretty hard to compare because I've never gone through
it before," said Sidney Crosby, who was left off of the Torino
club. “I can imagine there is going to be pressure, but I
like to think all the things I've gone through before will help me
prepare for that. You've got to go out there and do the same
things."
With tickets to the gold medal game fetching Super Bowl
prices on the secondary market, it’s safe to say that the
entire Olympics could lose their luster the second the Canadians
are eliminated from the hockey competition.
The Ohno-lympics. Just as Michael Phelps was the
biggest name in Beijing, the Olympic buzz in Vancouver hovers
around Apolo Anton Ohno, who with a pair of medals will become the
most decorated Winter Olympian in U.S. history. The teenager who
brought the "soul patch" to prominence in Salt Lake is all grown up
now, and given how close these Olympics are to his hometown of
Seattle, expect this to he his swan song.
Ohno is a threat in all of the short track events, including
the 500 meters, where he won gold four years ago and the 1,500,
which he won in Salt Lake. South Korea's Lee Ho-Suk is seen as the
biggest competition along with fellow teammate J.R. Celski.
Does Jacobellis redeem herself? Everybody
remembers that epic gaffe that cost Lindsey Jacobellis a
snowboarding gold medal in Torino. What you didn’t know is
that despite the mistake, she’s continued to dominate her
sport, picking up a record 20th career World Cup victory earlier
this season. She is once again seen as the favorite in the
four-person course at Cypress Mountain on February 16.
“It’s actually pretty stressful,”
Jacobellis said of her preparation, which included yet another X
Games title last month. “I’m sticking to the game plan,
working out, staying focused and going to one event at a
time.”
The beneficiary of the Jacobellis gaffe, Switzerland’s
Tanja Frieden, retired from the sport just three weeks ago after
tearing both Achilles’ tendons at a World Cup event in
Canada.
Where are the U.S. figure skating medals?
It’s hard to remember a time where the U.S. has gone into the
Olympics without a leading prima ballerina of the ice. Michelle
Kwan isn’t walking through that door, Tara Lipinski
isn’t walking through that door, and Dorothy, Kristi and
Peggy aren’t walking through it either.
Instead the long lineage of American skating dominance shifts
to the dancers. In Torino, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto became just
the second U.S. ice dance team to medal at an Olympics, doing so
after a last minute act of Congress allowed the Canadian-born
Belbin to secure her citizenship in time. Now the defending World
silver medalists may not even be the best in their own backyard.
Fellow U.S. teammates and University of Michigan students
Meryl Davis and Charlie White beat Belbin and Agosto to capture
their second consecutive U.S. title last month and they also took
home the Grand Prix final back in December, an event Belbin was
forced to withdraw from after an infection following the removal of
her wisdom teeth. Both teams are expected to duel neck and neck for
top placement on the podium in Vancouver.
And both credit the popularity of reality dancing shows for
creating interest in their sport.
"From ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ to
‘Dancing With The Stars’, America is in a love affair
with dancing,” White said. “Hopefully that will lead to
more American viewers getting into ice dance."
Has the halfpipe taken over the Winter Olympics?
Weather has been the storyline in the days leading up to these
games, not just because it is unseasonably warm in the Olympic
city, but because it also has a direct impact on the new golden
goose of the Winter Olympics.
The halfpipe.
At the last two Olympics, the U.S. has collected five of the
six medals awarded in the men’s competition, including both
golds. Shaun White, the Flying Tomato and the face of the action
sports industry, is the defending Olympic champion and "Dancing
with the Stars" alum Louie Vito also expected to contend for a
medal.
White’s path to gold is seen as a foregone conclusion
after injuries to fellow U.S. teammates Kevin Pearce and Danny
Davis. Pearce suffered a serious head injury in a practice run on
New Year’s Eve; while Davis fractured his vertebrae after a
snowmobiling accident just three weeks later.
Torino gold medalist Hannah Teter, 2002 Olympic gold medalist
Kelly Clark and 2006 Olympic silver medalist Gretchen Bleiler are
all expected to compete for the medal stand in the ladies’
competition.
But if the weather doesn’t cooperate and the pipe is
warm and slick as opposed to fast and icy, who knows what might go
down. It just won’t be the same high-flying tricks
we’re used to seeing elsewhere.
