This guy dissed Johnny Weir, and in San Freaksicko at that. The gays will be demanding he spend some vacation time at this lovely resort.
Posted on 02/20/2006 12:56:56 PM PST by Cecily
In the pantheon of bad ideas as they pertain to newspapers, you will almost always find an editor or nine. It's uncanny how they can ceaselessly come up with something obvious or dull -- hey, let's write about ratings! -- but when applied to the Olympics there's also what they perceive to be a Bigger Picture. Namely, what does it mean for us as a country and a people if the Olympics get trounced by prime-time soap operas or reality series about treacly cats?
While we suspect it has a lot to do with the Nordic combined or the biathlon, it could conceivably have something to do with meritless male divas performing badly on ice skates or an adult's inability to tell a child the difference between the luge and the skeleton -- other than one goes head first, the other feet first and that neither should ever be copied off the roof.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This year's Olympics were over-hyped. And many of the athletes tanked, perhaps as a result.
I'm not watching as much because I don't like the way the events aired as split up. Too much switching back and forth from one event to the other which means that when it comes to the events you are really interested in you may end up having to watch for about 4 hours. Not to mention that the media announces the results hours before the events are actually aired.
Since I've watched NONE of the Olympics I felt obliged to read this article. For me, the bottom line is I'm a summer olympics person, always have been. Relatedly I've got a friend who is a fanatic about Ice Dancing, so I will hear it all from her and there is no point in cluttering my mind with forming any opinions of my own in advance. (Just kidding, sort of).
It was kind of like that time in 1980, when our hockey team played the russians, and won--only without the hockey, the excitement and the sense of incredible pride that came with it.
[ snip ]
Freedom of choice, of choosing "American Idol" over American slalom skiers, is fundamental to who we are.
That doesn't make it right. People should be watching the Winter Olympics. But they should also be reading the classics, not some made-up tripe that gets dissected on "Oprah." The world is full of people who opt out of enlightenment.
I guess he knows better than we do, huh?
Austrian Coach in Psychiatric Hospital
By JOHN PYE, AP Sports Writer
39 minutes ago
TURIN, Italy - An Austrian ski coach who bolted the Winter Games following a surprise anti-doping raid wound up in a psychiatric hospital — the latest stop on his bizarre flight from Turin, where authorities were still analyzing 100 syringes and other material seized from athletes' housing.
Authorities took Walter Mayer into custody Sunday after he crashed his car into a police blockade 15 miles inside Austria's border with Italy. Police later took him to a psychiatric facility, Austria's ski federation president Peter Schroecksnadel told The Associated Press.
"Apparently he's still in there," Schroecksnadel said Monday night. "I believe that there was a danger of suicide — they had to take him to the hospital."
Mayer was banished from the Olympics over allegations of blood doping at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. He resurfaced with the team in Turin, triggering police raids late Saturday — the first-ever doping sweep by police on athletes competing at the games.
Against the backdrop of the most stringent drug controls in Winter Games history, local authorities seized the syringes and 30 packages of antidepressants and asthma medication, Italian prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello told Austrian television. One Austrian athlete threw a bag out of a window containing needles and medicines, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
"The question is not the number of syringes but what was in them," Schroecksnadel said, suggesting that they could be used to inject vitamins. "The point is not the number of needles."
He also defended the presence of asthma medication, saying as many as five athletes were approved to use it legitimately.
Mayer left the Austrian biathlon and cross-country team base in the Italian Alps sometime before or during the overnight raids. He made it back to his native Austria, driving at least 250 miles before he stopped on the side of the road, reportedly to take a nap.
When police officers arrived, Mayer sped away, striking and slightly injuring an officer, police said. Authorities parked an empty police vehicle across the highway as a roadblock, and Mayer slammed into the squad car, totaling both vehicles. He sustained minor injuries.
Austria's cross-country relay team came in last out of 16 teams the morning after the raids, which kept some of the athletes up all night.
But the country's Olympic delegation rebounded Monday, winning three gold medals and two bronze — including Maier's — in Alpine and Nordic events Monday. No Austrians have won a medal in biathlon or cross-country at these games.
Austrian ski officials said they had severed all ties with Mayer.
"This is inexcusable," said Schroecksnadel. "Whoever does such a thing can no longer be a model" for athletes.
"We suspended him even before we found out he was in the hospital," he said.
Austrian prosecutor Gottfried Kranz told The AP that police released Mayer early Monday and then made a stop at a hospital psychiatric clinic in the southern city of Klagenfurt. He also said investigators found no illegal substances inside the wreckage of Mayer's car.
Mayer could be charged with evading arrest and causing bodily harm to a police officer, Kranz said.
During the raids, six skiers and four biathletes were taken for tests by the International Olympic Committee, hours before some were due to compete. The tests were still being analyzed.
Turin's chief prosecutor, Marcello Maddalena, confirmed Monday that Mayer was under investigation for possible violation of Italy's anti-doping laws, which treats doping as a criminal offense. But Maddalena said authorities would not seek Mayer's arrest.
Schroecksnadel confirmed that two biathletes — Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann — were suspended from the team for leaving Turin before the conclusion of the games. Both had finished their events, although Rottmann was available for a relay team.
"We will hold a hearing in Vienna once the Olympics are over," Schroecksnadel said. "It doesn't matter what the IOC findings are, if we find they've done the wrong thing, they'll be banned officially."
Austrian officials said Mayer had been in Italy in a private capacity, but had spent one night in the athletes' accommodation. IOC medical commission chief Arne Ljungqvist said Mayer's presence violated the "spirit" of his Olympic ban.
___
AP Sports Writer Stephen Wilson and Associated Press writer Ariel David in Turin; and AP writer William J. Kole in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.
This guy dissed Johnny Weir, and in San Freaksicko at that. The gays will be demanding he spend some vacation time at this lovely resort.
The coverage is really awful. The tearjerker stories run longer that the actual events. I watched a 30-min special on the 1994 Olympics!
It seem the most coverage is of ......... CURLING.
Curling 24/7.
Who is Dick Button? I've missed him completely.
I record the Olympics and watch the parts I'm interested in. That means no commercials, no interviews, and all skating must be on an oval track or with a stick in hand.
I did enjoy the snowboard cross though. Maybe next time they can have wide track bobsled with four sleds racing at a time. Kind of like "Ben Hur on ice".
I watching 5 minutes of curling Saturday morning. Does that count?
What Olympics???
He is one of NBC's figure skating commentators, or should I say, kvetchers. He doesn't like this, he doesn't like that, that move is tired, the ice dancers aren't exhibiting enough passion and sensuality, etc., ad nauseum. He does praise the skaters sometimes, though.
Peek-a-boo....
That's why I missed him. The skaters didn't skate in ovals and weren't carrying sticks, therefore I didn't watch them.
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