The US women’s ski team fared better than ever before, but maybe not quite as well as we all hoped. Lindsey Vonn had a Gold, a Bronze, and two “Agony of Defeat” worthy crashes, which were pretty spectacular in themselves. Her teammate Julia Mancuso, who was mostly obscured by Vaughn’s shadow in the pre-Games hype, won a couple of Silver medals.

Jen Heil and Hannah Carney fought another amazing proxy battle between the US and Canada on the downhill moguls, with the American coming out on top this time. The men’s downhill mogul was equally enthralling, except that it was Canada and France, so, equally enthralling equals a big ‘who cares’ here in the US.

Shani Davis won the long track speed skating, again.  He grabbed a Silver along the way, too.  Apollo Ono won his sixth medal, a Silver, in Short track speed skating.  Then he won a seventh, a Bronze, despite being pushed aside and shoved out of Gold contention.  Then one more Bronze in the relay, just for good measure.

Shaun White won the Gold, but I think he’s won a lot more than that with the rock star status he’s enjoying here in the US.  His Carrot-Top look and crazy X-Games skills have earned him a spot in the hearts and minds of a generation new to the Winter Olympics.  My nine year old just voted for Shaun as “Favorite Male Athlete” on the Nick Kids Choice Awards.

It was a good two weeks.  A fun time of watching sports I never heard of or at least never cared about before.  Now, we can put curling on the shelf for the next four years and focus on the impending arrival of MLB Spring Training.

Now that professional athletes are allowed in the Olympics (I’m sure Jim Thorp is performing some extremely athletic roll overs in his grave right about now), it is good to see the US seizing their proper role at the top. It is also nice to see the athletes taking the games seriously. This isn’t some extended, international All-Star game. These guys know what is at stake here, and they’re playing hard.

Some random observations from the Olympics so far:

• With all the talk about Crosby and Nash on the Canadian hockey team, I kept looking for Stills and Young, but they were nowhere to be found.

• Curling is so awesome.  In case you haven’t seen it yet, check out MSNBC some night.  I only discovered the, ahem, sport four years ago.  At that time, I didn’t really understand the rules.  Most of the time I didn’t understand what was going on, but it was kind of funny to watch - a little like bowling on ice.  Now, thanks to the wonder of Wii Decasports, I’m a veritable curling expert, and I’m enjoying the contests on a whole new level.  My favorite moment was during the US – Sweden match when the coach of the US team came down from… wherever he’d been all along and gave his guys a little guidance.  I didn’t even know they had a coach, much less what he could have been talking to them about.

• The USA is way ahead in the total medal count halfway through the games, with a full 25% more medals than our closest competition.  That doesn’t include the one we’re going to win in Men’s hockey, by the way.

• What is up with the two-man luge?  Was there a petition to add a sport that’s gayer than men’s figure skating?  Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

If American Johnny Spillane had held his lead for just a few more seconds, we might be talking about the Nordic Combined Normal Hill Event.  Maybe it is good that a French athlete edged him out at the last moment.  ”Nordic Combined Normal Hill Event” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.  Better that America wins gold in events that are easy to pronounce and remember.  It makes for better water cooler conversation.

Some assorted and sundry observations from the first two days of the 2010 Olympic Games:

• As of this writing, America is winning the total medal count.  Total medal count was adopted as the best way to measure success right about the same time that China started whooping us in the total number of gold medals in the Summer Olympics.

• Speaking of China, hockey just isn’t your thing.  Sorry if the USA ran up the score a bit in that 12-1 beating you took, but we needed to practice for when we face some teams with, you know, actual hockey players on them.

• Was it just me, or did the whole night of the opening ceremonies seem like one long infomercial for Canada?  I kept expecting to see an 800 number to call for reservations pop up at any moment.

• Is Ice Dancing a sport?  I don’t want to be demeaning.  I’m sure it takes a great deal of skill and effort.  I’m sure that the Olympians are very good at it.  But is it a sport?  I think that dancing, ice or otherwise, is by definition not a sport.  It’s, you know, dancing.  I’m just saying.

Until I discover the next “new” sport that the TV network chooses to force on us in prime time, I’m just looking forward to the start of the curling tournament on Tuesday.

Milorad Cavic is the swimmer Phelps beat by a fingernail in the Beijing Olympics path to eight gold medals.  Cavic and many others protested that Cavic actually won the race despite photo evidence and the touchpad time.  He was determined to crush Phelps in a Rome rematch and called him out publicly.  Phelps refused to wear this new style swimsuit that many others are wearing which will be banned soon because of its unfair technology and advantages in the water.

Cavic was certain that he would use this new suit to crush Phelps.  Knowing full well Michael would not stray from his loyalty to sponsor Speedo, Cavic tried to stir the pot by saying he would even buy Phelps one of these new suits.  Phelps denied the suit and didn’t comment much about the trash talking coming from this Serbian competitor.

Coach Bowman stated that Phelps does all of his talking in the pool, and that he did.  Phelps had a great start off of the podium and as expected lagged behind Cavic at the turn.  Phelps made up his ground and passed Milorad right at the finish, again.  It was not as close a victory as in Beijing, but it was still a close one.

Immediately, Phelps celebrated the win with a new World Record in the 100 meter butterfly.  Cavic had absolutely nothing to say.  All he could do was try to act with grace and congratulate Phelps.  I still am trying to figure out what Cavic was thinking in angering the world’s greatest swimmer who already is competing against himself daily.  Now, Cavic just gave him another and easier to beat target.  So, to Cavic…HAHAHAHAHA!

My question for you is, how much faster do you think Phelps would be if he had worn this new record breaking suit?

OK, they are both similar in that they involve Japanese obstacle courses. But while Wipeout is a silly show featuring whatever housewife or insurance salesman the network can rope into it, Ninja Warrior is a serious competition, with 100 top competitors chosen from thousands of applicants. Numerous former Olympians, including several medal winners, have tried (and failed) to defeat the course at Mt. Midoryama.

As much as I’ve boasted about Ninja Warrior these past two weeks, there is one sport that is at least as fantastic and fun to watch. That would be The Women of Ninja Warrior (known as Kunoichi in Japan). Occasionally, the geniuses who developed Ninja Warrior will redesign the course to focus less on brute strength and more on agility and grace. The woman’s course requires a Spiderman-esque level of agility, as the ladies bop and weave their way through the obstacles on the path to total victory.

As previously stated, only two men have ever claimed total victory over Ninja Warrior. The club is even more exclusive on The Women of Ninja Warrior. Only one woman, Ayako Miyake of Japan, has ever defeated all four stages of the course – and she did it three times in three consecutive contests.
Ninja Warrior (and the Women of) airs in the US on the G4 Network, available on most cable systems.

Watching Ninja Warrior is a family affair in my house. The boys (ages three & eight) love it as much as I do. A word of caution – if you’re going to watch with younger children, you should be prepared to mute the TV or change the channel during the commercials. G4’s target audience is clearly not the under 10 year old ninja loving set – but maybe it should be.

The media widely has been known to blow things substantially out of proportion, and this is certainly one of those cases. It can be argued for hours on end, one way or another just how dangerous steroids really are. Does it really matter? Alcohol is dangerous, and so are cigarettes…not to mention all the prescription drugs on the market with serious side effects, so honestly I ask… what’s the difference?

Most sports fanatics will ramble off about how using steroids is cheating and provides an unfair advantage, but once again I ask who cares? These sports players are paid millions and millions of dollars to entertain us; including that whole home run record business, which was all for us fans. I’m sure there are thousands of ways each one of these players tries to get ahead, and I can guarantee most of what is done in the locker rooms will never reach our ears.

If you think this billion dollar industry is pure in every aspect think again; cheating exists in sports like a plague. How many times have you seen a home referee pick on one team more, simply because they favored the opposition; I’ve seen it plenty of times. I can’t even begin to list the amount of times I’ve heard players were experimenting with performance enhancing drugs or trying out new ones, not to mention the rigorous workouts most of these players go through every day. I’m sure some work out much more than others; that boosts performance, why isn’t that cheating?

Frankly, if these players want to shoot themselves up with a drug that in many cases is killing them, then so be it, it’s their choice. Don’t even mention the fact that if these players truly want to do it, then they will, regardless of laws or fan opinions. Don’t try and tell me that the United States as a whole has never used such drugs to gain an advantage either, they exist all over the market these days.

So once again I say who cares. But what is your stance?