The Sochi Games Draw to a Close

The Winter Olympic Games in Sochi will close down today, and, while I have not written of them in this blog, I will say that I have enjoyed watching them.

The Winter Olympics bring to the forefront an odd mixture of sports that are unfamiliar to Americans, so, as such, they often draw criticism from xenophobic American sportswriters and sports fans.  "What in the hell kind of sport is luge/biathlon/speed skating/curling (take your pick, and I could go on)? Who cares about that stuff?"  Well, just because we don't have Little League Biathlon here in the US of A, doesn't mean that these things are not sports, and, in fact, are very important sports in other parts of the world, and seeing them once every four years is kind of fun.

The prime example of this to me is curling.  "Shuffleboard on ice" some folks sneer, but, once you get the basic rules of the game straight in your mind, and it is relatively simple, and watch these players (curlers?) do their thing, you realize that you are watching performers with a unique skill set.  And is the joy and sense of accomplishment for Canadian curlers winning a Gold Medal any less important to them that the joy experienced by Sidney Crosby or Kobe Bryant winning Gold Medals in their sports?  I contend that an Olympic skier, snowboarder, luger, biathlete, or curler experiences a "thrill of victory" equal to or greater than the ones experienced by NHL or NBA professionals. 

Okay, all that said, what did I like best about these Olympics?

• Believe it or not, I really got a charge out of the X Games types of events like slope style snowboarding and skiing, and the 4x4 ski races.
• Curling.  Didn't see as much these games as I did in the Vancouver Games four years ago, but enjoyed the matches I did see.
• The alpines ski events and skiers like Tina Maze of Slovenia and Mikaela Shiffrin of the USA.
• Noelle Pikus Pace, thirty-something mother of two, winning a Silver Medal in Skeleton for the USA 
• Rochester, PA's Lauryn Williams winning a silver medal in bobsled for the USA, thus becoming the first woman and only the fifth American ever to medal in both the Winter and Summer Olympics.  Such an accomplishment should earn her, at the very least, Pittsburgh's Dapper Dan Sportswoman of the Year honors.
• And finally, the hockey tournament, both men and women events.  Is it only me who finds Olympic hockey far more entertaining than an ordinary normal NHL contest?  How can these players, many of them NHL stars, play this skillfully and in such a free-flowing manner, only to return to NHL thuggery hockey once they are back to their teams this week?  
• I will remember the heartbreak of the USA Women blowing that 2-0 lead to Canada with under four minutes to play in the gold medal game, as well as the intensity and high level of play of the USA-Canada men's semi-final game.  (I will try to forget the no-show performance of the USA in the 5-0 loss to Finland in the bronze medal game.)

So farewell to the Winter Olympics for another four years.  It was a pretty damn good show!