Programming note – Each day of the Olympics I’ll be posting an Olympic bet of the day. There will be some hockey, of course, but we’ll also throw in everything from biathlon to bobsled. It should be good fun, and hopefully it’s not too terribly unprofitable. The first medals will be awarded tomorrow, so keep your eyes open.
Speaking of the Olympics, it seems as if the weather gods in Vancouver are American. The weather has been terrible at Whistler, so the training schedule is a mess for the downhill events, and there is quite possibly going to be a delay. Whether the events get delayed or not, training was postponed yesterday, and will also be canceled today and tomorrow. That might not sound like a good thing, but it is for Lindsey Vonn. She’s the best female skier in the world, and seemed like a lock for one or two gold medals, but she was injured last week and is dealing with a bad shin. The training is giving her extra time to heal. The more of that she gets, the hardly she’ll be to look past when the downhill does happen.
We’re on a roll with the Olympics today, so let’s stay there. I’m sure by now you have heard the terrible story of the luger who was killed in a training run today. How in the world does that happen? The guy flipped off his sled on a turn, flew out of the track, and hit a non-padded pole. There are at least three things in that previous sentence that should never happen. It seems stunning that the track would be untested to the extent that this could still happen, and especially bad now that the stories are coming out that competitors were concerned about the track, and that international competitors were extremely limited in the amount of practice time they could have on the track. It all seems like a monumentally horrible, practically impossible PR folly.
Final quick hits:
– Tim Lincecum signed a two year, $23 million deal. The Giants have to be happy with the price, but I’m surprised they didn’t lock him down longer – if he’s half as good for the next two years as he has been for the last two then his next contract is going to be ridiculous.
– The sophomores are favored by as many as 13 points against the rookies tonight in the NBA. I’d take the points in that one.
– So long, Big Hurt. Nice run.
