Sports! We're#1 Archives – Page 3 of 14

February 20, 2022February 23, 2022

The Stone Beckons (Day 14, Beijing 2022)

How can you resist? Curling stone photo at Greatbigcanvas.com.

Mayhem. Disaster. Brilliance. Insanity.

Trust the Broom.

If you have not seen the curling at the Beijing 2022 Olympics because you still believe it’s like watching ice melt or golf, then you are missing out.

Try this. Take a ball–soccer ball, baseball, croquet ball, pickleball, doesn’t matter. Go out to the street and place a piece of paper down on one end. Walk to the other end, about half a football-field’s length away. Now roll the ball so it hits the piece of paper (that’s called the button). If you want, you can run in front of the ball while it’s moving and sweep rocks out of the way, just to get the feel of it.

If you think that seems unfair, because the ball will roll too fast, then roll it slower. If you think it seems impossible because how will you aim? That’s curling.

Beijing’s curling matches have been nail-biters, sudden death overtime spectacles, full-out rammies, if my translator is reading Scottish slang correctly. Here are three worth reviewing, even if you’ve already seen them and definitely if you have not.

Constantini working a spell on the stone. Photo from SI.com.

February 12, 2022February 14, 2022

Exorcising Demons for Gold ( Day 7, Beijing 22)

Lindsey Jacob Ellis, winning Women’s Snowboard Cross. Photo by Clive Rose.

Every Olympic athlete suffers. Every Olympian, every medalist, every winner has their own long story of hardship and sacrifice. Yet, there are a handful of stories every quadrennial cycle that stand out as just a little more meaningful.

Some might characterize these as stories of redemption, a perennial issue at the Games, as I’ve noted before. Some athletes simply take a little longer to get to the top of the podium. Some are haunted, but not as much by visions of lost medals as by the media. Even a previous gold isn’t always enough to keep the demons away. It’s why the Olympics is particularly hard on also-rans. The four year interval is a killer because it takes so long to wait to try again.

Lara Guy-Behrami celebrates her Super G win. Photo by Robert Bukaty.

Finally!

The oldest this. The longest that. The most years between the first Olympics and a win. These are the epithets that get tagged on to Olympians of an entire class. Winter athletes work in harsh and dangerous conditions, conditions for the young. Yet, there are 30-year-olds in the mix, because it takes experience to slice off that extra edge next to a slalom gate or to squeeze a few inches in front of the snowboard cross racer behind you.

While U.S. media were obsessing over why two-time gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin had skied off course, Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami was wondering whether her 30-year-old legs would be enough. She’d won Super-G titles, going all the way back to 2014, but she had only managed fourth in Sochi. There was a bronze, but it was in the downhill, and she had only managed bronze again earlier in the week in the Giant Slalom. Bronze was better than fourth, but…

February 7, 2022February 11, 2022

Women Jumping for Joy (Day 3, Beijing 22)

Start ’em young. 8-yr-old Kaija Copenhaver of Marquette, MI on a 30m hill. Photo by Benjamin Wideman.

The body is squeezed into a fetal position over two elongated toothpicks that hurtle down icy rails until the track simply ends. Up and out, the plunger opts for the “V” for Victory sign, tipping their sticks up and out as one hand act the rudder, flapping as the toothpicks fall down, down, down. So far down! Off in the distance, there are mountains, trees, even buildings, while the whiteness is below almost transparent except for pastel-colored lines, suddenly oh-so-close. A landing without parachute or bungee cord, just those two sticks, best held parallel as the flier alights, one in front of the other, arms upraised in a benediction–I am safe, I have come down to earth.

Men and women have jumped together in competitions, as with the vast majority of organized sports, since the mid-19th century. Women have been allowed to jump internationally for less than a decade. The new dominant country, which has some of the best facilities in the world, will surprise you. In the mixed competition this year, there was controversy over disqualifications due to equipment and elation for those bumped up on to the podium. There is concern for athletes’ mental health due to body-shaming and the pressure of competition. Olympics, same as it ever was.

Welcome to ski jumping.