2010 Vancouver Games

Among the Olympic traditions I've experienced is the awarding of some token to journalists at the end of the Games, a sort of diploma for covering the 16 days of competition.

In Beijing, we received something that resembled a bronze medal, leading to jokes about how we could have tried a little bit harder and earned gold.

In Vancouver, I've been informed that a certificate of participation is available to me, similar to what top-eight competitors receive.

Who knew these people were reading my dispatches so thoroughly?

-- Kurt Kragthorpe

Park City's Steve Holcomb should be happy NBC caught the final run of his bobsled victory. Otherwise, the network may have made him do it over. That's what happened with the ensuing interview. Because of a glitch, NBC taped the whle thing again -- same questions, same answers, same "Holky" dance at the end. Being there made it all seem pretty silly, but I'm sure it looked good on TV.

With too much background information available about Holcomb (a good problem), I left out the detail that during his time at the Park City Winter Sports School, his girlfriend was Tristan Gale, another ex-skier who became an Olympic sliding star herself in the skeleton.

-- Kurt Kragthorpe

I'm just now exhaling after an intense, riveting 67-plus minutes of hockey, and the celebration that will last a long, long time is in full swing in Vancouver and throughout Canada.

Wow. The swing of emotions at the end was incredible, from Canada's being poised to win in regulation, then the USA's Zach Parise forcing overtime with a goal in the last 25 seconds. It all led to Sidney Crosby's further anointing as Canada's hockey prince, thanks to his goal 7 minutes, 40 seconds into overtime.

-- Kurt Kragthorpe

It's still more than two hours until Team USA drops the puck against Team Canada in the gold-medal hockey game, and already the anticipation has reached fever pitch.

We're all the way out here in suburban Richmond, about 10 miles south of downtown Vancouver and site of the "Richmond O-Zone" — a celebration area where fans have been lined up since before 6 this morning in order to get inside and watch the big game on a big screen. What should really be fun is seeing how they react, depending on the result ...

My vantage point for the historic bobsled drive by Park City's Steve Holcomb was in the finish area, standing right next to former NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine.

He watched the final run in the video screen with his hands in his coat pockets, nodded approvingly when split times were posted and then clapped twice when Holcomb's team crossed the line. He did show more emotion subsequently, congratulating the team on the perform.

Bodine got involved in bobsledding after the 1992 Olympics, figuring American sleds should have American technology and equipment. "Once we started building them, we wanted to win," Bodine said.

Bodine also told me he believed Holcomb's victory was bigger "probably, times 10" than his own Daytona 500 win. His logic: Fans cheer for different NASCAR drivers, but everybody in America was backing Holcomb.

-- Kurt Kragthorpe

At every Olympics, the organizers set up a news bureau computer system that produces “flash quotes” taken from athletes right after their competition, meant to help journalists on pressing deadlines.

Normally, they're pretty innocuous and bland.

But the Vancouver Games have featured one that is becoming the stuff of legend. It comes from cross-country skier Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset of Norway, whose miserable showing in the 4x10-kilometer relay earlier this week doomed his team to the silver medal behind Sweden.

“My name is Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset,” he said. “I skied the second lap and I f***ed up today. I think I have seen too much porn in the last 14 days. I have the room next to Petter Northug and every day there is noise in there. So I think that is the reason I f***ed up. By the way, Tiger Woods is a really good man.”

Seriously. It was on there.

Actually, Park City's Ted Ligety said his Olympic performance was "not a disaster" and three-discipline medalist Bode Miller said he was "100 percent" satisfied with his effort in Whistler.

Having said that, the Games certainly did not end well for them. Skiing consecutively this morning, Ligety and Miller lasted a total of less than 30 seconds on the slalom course before missing gates and being eliminated in the first run.

Compared to four years ago in Italy, where his gold medal was a huge surprise, Ligety did not deliver in 2010. His best finish in four events was fifth place, with one other top-10 showing. But he was reasonably upbeat afterward, saying that while another Olympic medal would have changed his life, not winning one won't make it worse.

After medaling in the first six Alpine skiing events (eight total medals), the U.S. team went 0-for-4 the rest of the way.

-- Kurt Kragthorpe

Canada lost 7-6 to Switzerland in the women's curling gold medal game, which will not be viewed by Canadians as an achievement.

So it seemed very strange Friday night during the short-track speed skating competition to have the P.A. announcer report "good news" from curling, that Canada had earned the silver medal.

For one thing, unlike the common practice in U.S. sporting events, it is rare for results from other Olympic events to be announced (there were no updates, for example, from the Canada-Slovakia hockey game). For another, Canada lost the game.

His announcement was greeted with what could be described as a low murmur.

-- Kurt Kragthorpe

Here at Whistler Creekside, the Alpine skiing venue, the last of 10 events is scheduled this morning. Snow is falling steadily, creating an ironic scene after all the weeks (or months or years) of anxiety about the lack of snow for these Games. The men's slalom will consist of two runs, in the morning and afternoon.

Four years ago in Italy, Ted Ligety and Bode Miller each failed to finish the first run. They're starting 16th and 17th in the field of 102 skiers. Scheduled to leave the start gate last is Kwame Nkrumah-Achaempong, the self-named "snow leopard" from Ghana.

-- Kurt Kragthorpe

That bronze medal that Apolo Anton Ohno and the rest of the men's short-track team won last night was the 34th of the Vancouver Games for the U.S. Olympic Team — tying its all-time record for medals in a Winter Games.

The record was set at the 2002 Salt Lake Games.

But the Americans aren't finished yet. They almost certainly will add a medal in the four-man bobsled today when Park City's Steve Holcomb takes his final two runs, and the men's hockey team is in the final against Team Canada on Sunday. Speed skater Chad Hedrick of Draper and his teammates also will medal in the team pursuit, having made the final.

Already, the Americans have assured they will top the medal table for the first time since the 1932 Lake Placid Games, and they almost certainly will break Germany's record of 36 medals, set at the Salt Lake Games.