Hoo's Going to London

As the Olympics draw near at the end of the month, I found even more reasons to root for the red, white, and blue. The following UVa athletes will be competing for gold in London:

• Lauren Perdue, Swimming, 4x200 Freestyle Relay
• Matt McLean, Swimming, 4x200 Freestyle Relay
• Paige Selenski, Field Hockey
• Michelle Vittese, Field Hockey
• Becky Saurbrunn, Soccer
• Will Coleman, Equestrian

Meanwhile, these fellow Hoo’s will be representing different countries, but still look out for them as they follow their flag into Olympic Stadium.

• Somdev Devvarman, India, Tennis
• Katya Bachrouche, Lebanon, Swimming, 800 Freestyle
• David Karasek, Switzerland, Swimming, 200 Individual Medley
• Yannick Kaeser, Switzerland, Swimming, 200 Breaststroke

U! S! A! Go Hoos! Go!

Miracle on Ice II?

30 years to the day after the Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid, the United States Men’s Hockey team sits on top of the Olympic Hockey world for the time being after pulling off a huge upset last night. After the 5-3 victory of favored and host Canada, the U.S. is the top seed going into the tournament portion of the competition. While this matchup paled in comparison in significance politically to the Soviet Union upset, and wasn’t in the medal round yet, it’s still a sweet victory. Hockey is Canada’s sport and since it’s hosting the games, a gold medal is more important to them than any other combined. The loss ends a 50 year drought for the USA vs Canada as well. It does not help Canada that the rest of the game’s have not gone their way either, see below. I think the best part is that Sidney Crosby deflected in the first US goal. USA! USA!

Vancouver Olympic Fail

Oh Canada, I’m sure this is not the way you wanted to start the Olympics. After years of build up and preparation, there have been several mishaps already.

• Obviously, there was the fatal luge accident in which the officials even blamed the athlete, while fixing the course overnight.
• Then the last part of the opening ceremonies failed when one of the pillars malfunctioned, leaving Gretzky out in the cold.
• The warm weather has created postponements and inadequate slope conditions. Since when is there more snow in DC than Canada? They can’t control the weather like the Chinese?
• Even the “green” zamboni’s didn’t work.
• And I’m sure there will be some figure skating controversy later on.
• And there are other mishaps going on for fans there.

At least it didn’t cost NBC much and they could always fall back on their primetime and late night programming. Oops.