OK, OK, so you’re tired of the Olympics. I’ve been talking about the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics for 2 weeks or more now. However, I have to point out one more link that I thought was pretty cool. On the Bejing 2008 Summer Olympics site they have a page that shows all of the medal designs used in every Olympic Games and the torch design as well. You might not agree, but I thought it’s pretty interesting to see how the designs have changed.
View the medals here and the torches here.
It’s hard to believe that it was 16 days ago that I sat here in fron of a roaring fire watching the Opening Ceremony of the XX Olympic Winter Games in Torino. Now here I am sitting in front of a roaring fire watching the Closing ceremony. Lucky for the althletes and attendees of the ceremony it’s actually warmer there than it is here. It’s aout 40 degrees in Torino tonight, here it’s only in the teens!
If you’re looking for info on the next Winter Olympics, check out vancouver2010.com. If you want info on the upcoming Summer Olympics check out beijing2008.com or london2012.org.
In the meantime, I’ll still be watching the Torino Games for a few more days because I still have some left on my DVR that I haven’t watched yet. 🙂
While watching the Olympics over the past 14 days, I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I thought this year’s has been more interesting than some other years. The main reason that I could come up with was that this is the first time I had a DVR while watching the Olympics. It lets me completely skip over the really boring sports like hockey, figure skating and cross country.
However, tonight while watching the primetime broadcast I realized that there was something else. Jimmy Roberts mentioned during his nightly “Chevy Olympic Moment” that nothing has gone as predicted in these Olympics. He pointed out that there were no real sure things in these games. He also pointed out that so far during the Olympics, 26 different countries have won medals. There were some Japanese gold medalists, Croatian gold medalists, and many others you might not expect.
You can read/view tonight’s “Olympic Moment” on NBCOlympics.com.
Looking for a way to keep up with the latest from the Olympics in Torino without having to head to the web? I finally found a good way. You very likely already use Konfabulator (now known as Yahoo! Widgets.) If not, go get it and then continue reading.
The Turin 2006 Winter Olympics widget puts the current medal count on your desktop and continuously updates it. It also gives you all the latest photos from the games and the day’s latest news.
Get the widget right here. It works on both Macintosh and Windows.
NBC airs some of the Olympic curling matches live in the middle of the night on its cable channels. The beauty of having a DVR means that time doesn’t matter so I decided to record a few of them. It might not have the excitement and speed of the luge, but it involves strategy and careful consideration, etc.
After watching a men’s match and a women’s match, I learned something new about curling. It’s insanely boring! Don’t get me wrong, it’s interesting for an end or two but then it just keeps going and going and going at the slowest pace you could imagine. Oh well, I guess there’s a reason they show it live instead of saving it for primetime on the network. 🙂
Singles luge has always been one of my favorite Winter Olympic sports to watch. I’ve also always thought it would be fun to try. Not that I’d probably ever have that chance, but if I had to try one Olympic sport, I’d pick the luge.
After watching the women’s singles luge yesterday my opinions changed slightly. It’s still loads of fun to watch. But I’m not so sure about wanting to try it now! There were a few pretty fierce crashes, but the worst was Samantha Retrosi an American girl who got knocked out and slid down half the course unconcious. Read the details here.
Oh well, maybe trying the skeleton would be safer. What? Face first? Oh…
Day one of the Torino Olympic Games is over. I just remembered what one of my favorite parts of NBC’s Olympic coverage is. It’s the late night coverage that begins at midnight. Maybe it’s the cozy set with the leather chairs and fake video fire; maybe it’s the fact that watching Bob Costas late at night brings back fond memories of watching Later with Bob Costas; maybe it’s the fact that they do more in-depth stories and summarize the day’s events.
Speaking of summarizing the day’s events, the US team came out of day one with their first gold medal. It’s their only medal at the moment. It was won by Chad Hedrick in 5000m speed skating.
Some evenings are better than others, but at the moment I can’t think of a better evening than sitting here watching the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in high definition with a fire roaring in the fireplace. This is the first year that the Olympics are being broadcast in HD. Very cool!
As the Winter Olymics in Torino get ready to get underway, I have to point out that there’s a connection between the games and my genealogy research.
The Gatti family is originally from Casrozo, Italy. Casorzo is a tiny village very near to Torino where the games are being held. I haven’t resarched it, but I’m sure there are some distant cousins of mine helping out with the games. 🙂 Visit my family tree site for more info about my family’s history. (It’s a little sparse now due to some family problems, but a great new one is coming soon.)
I’ve told you a few ways that you can get all the Olympic info that you want, but what if you don’t have time to go the those sites. Well, then you should have your info delivered right to you!
NBC provides this service via e-mail or your cell phone. Just go sign up because it’s free!