Men's figure skating had all the hype, but Men's Snowboard Cross was where all the action was on Thursday in Torino! Reigning World Champion Seth Wescott of the United States dominated in every heat until the final where he had to come from behind halfway down the exciting course--that I like to describe as snowboarding meets bobsled--to take the lead and win Gold by the narrowest of margins in what was nearly a photo finish.
Snowboard Cross is head-to-head competition with four snowboarders racing each other down the mountain over a series of jumps and turns and inclines in the tradition of BMX Bike Racing. First one that crosses the finish line wins. No time penalties, no judge interpretations, no convoluted scoring penalties. Cross the line first and you win. And that is exactly what this Maine Native did in his history making final, becoming the first ever Olympic Snowboard Cross Champion.
Perfecting his snowboarding skills by backcountry boarding in Alaska on mountains only accessible by helicopter, Wescott actually has faced down several avalanches and has lived to tell about it. As a master of Alaska snowboarding, grace under pressure is a given, and that experience serves him well in head-to-head competiton. Thursday it proved to be the winning combination for success. Congratulations Seth! We're proud of you!
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In Men's Figure Skating, Johnny Weir skated an uninspired program and fell to 5th place. Meanwhile, Evan Lycasek was brilliant and moved up from 10th to 4th--had he not fallen on his triple axel in the short program Tuesday night, Evan would have won the silver medal. Matt Savoie was 7th.
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TODAY'S OLYMPIC HIGHLIGHTS
4:00 am--1:30 pm: Live women's snowboardcross; men's curling match; live women's curling, USA vs. Russia; live women's hockey semifinal; bobsled two-man training runs; USA
3:00-5:30 pm: Live women's hockey semifinal; MSNBC
5:00 pm--8:00 pm: Men's curling, USA vs. Switzerland; CNBC
8:00 pm--11:30 pm: Figure Skating: Ice Dancing Compulsaries; women's snowboard cross final; Alpine skiing women's combined (downhill and slalom); skeleton men's final; ski jumping K125-large hill individual; NBC
Thanks for reading.
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About Me
- Matthew S. Urdan
- Born and raised in Detroit, I lived in Michigan the first 35 years of my life until work relocated me and I began my exile. I long for the coast of Northwest Michigan and the towns of Charlevoix, Petoskey, and Traverse City...known collectively in Detroit as "Up North" and the Murdick's Fudge and Green Rivers from my younger days.
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This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.
The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. The owner of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics, however those opinions are never dictated and will always be 100% my own. Even though I may receive compensation for some posts or advertisements, I always give my honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.
To get your own policy, go to DisclosurePolicy.org
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4 comments:
I'm totally entertained by the Olympics, as I always have been. The snowboarding finish was for the ages. But I still like skating best, hype or no.
I spent many summers in Ann Arbor going to the U of M. We might have been neighbors back then.
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Good to see that xgames influence in the winter olympics and it will interesting to see when skateboarding will be part of Summer Olympics
Good to see the xgames influence in the winter olympics and it will interesting to see when skateboarding will be part of Summer Olympics
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