Every day for nearly three weeks, I got to work in a gondola.

How cool is that?

For someone who has battled two beltways worth of traffic almost every weekday morning for 21 years, going from Silver Spring to Baltimore, this mode of transportation has been a dream.

Walk 15 minutes to the ski lifts. Step on a gondola. Look at the snow-capped mountains. Step off.

Forget about Mag-Lev trains for commuting. (Oh, wait, didn't the General Assembly ban the use of the word? Sorry.)

The magical ride is the highlight of the day -- and night, which is when we leave the mountain, our work done.

Now, all my work is done at these Olympics.

And while I'm relieved and exhausted, I'm a little bit sad.

Continue reading "In the rearview mirror" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 11:00 AM | Permalink
        

The U.S. luge team is raising money for the family of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the young slider from the Republic of Georgia who was killed in a training accident on Feb. 12, just hours before the Opening Ceremonies.

Tony Benshoof, the most decorated American singles slider, is auctioning off on eBay his Olympic speed suit, signed by all 10 members of the team.

Although the death stunned spectators and sent officials scrambling to cover their tracks, the memory wilted as quickly as the flowers at a makeshift memorial near the spot where Kumaritashvili died.

Not so within the tight-knit community of luge.

At Opening Ceremonies, American sliders wore a black ribbon on the collar of their jackets affixed by a Republic of Georgia Olympic pin.

Aussie slider Hannah Campbell-Pegg of Australia launched a similar auction, with the total approaching $2,000.

The U.S. auction can be accessed at: cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290407657152

"I feel like it’s the least I can do," said Benshoof in a statement. "It’s a small contribution, but we hope to collect a fair amount of money for his family...Nodar’s memory hangs heavy and it’s the No. 1 topic of conversation. When I meet someone new and tell them what I do, that’s the next question."

Posted by Candus Thomson at 11:58 AM | Permalink
        

As we wind down the 21st Winter Olympics, the U.S. Olympic Committee passed along a piece of the blueprint for No. 22 and beyond:

An Olympic journey begins with a single step. It’s that first one toward a goal that’s the most important.

For every one of the medals earned by U.S. Olympians in Vancouver and Whistler, there was that first step on the frozen ponds of Minnesota, the ice sheets in Wisconsin, the rinks of Boston and the hills and jumps in Steamboat Springs.

They all asked those first questions about how to be an Olympian to a parent or a coach. How do I take that first step?

And the answers came.

Continue reading "So, you want to be an Olympian?" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 11:30 AM | Permalink
        

Getting into a moving four-man bobsled is a trick even Houdini wouldn’t try.
Four guys straining to get 800-pounds of fiberglass and steel moving down a cement chute covered with ice, and then they all have to jump in before the sled noses into its one-mile plunge, with speeds reaching 95 mph.
When done right, it happens in less than five seconds.
When it goes wrong—as it nearly did for USA-3 Friday—it makes you hold your breath. Pusher Jamie Moriarty, the man right behind driver Mike Kohn, slipped and started falling head first into the sled. Adjusting on the fly, brakeman Nick Cunningham slid all the way to the back of the sled with his backend hanging off as Bill Schuffenhauer grabbed Moriarty to steady him and guide him into place.
Then there’s USA-2, with, perhaps, more human inside than any other sled.

Continue reading "Big men in a can" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 10:45 AM | Permalink
        

As inevitable as Yankees fans filling Camden Yards for a weekend series, so, too, is the catching of the Winter Olympics bug.

It happens. You have 10,000 sleep-deprived, badly nourished media types and 21 days of contact -- it's like a pool of gasoline waiting for a match.

I knew it was going to catch up with me when a Canadian journalist lumbered onto the media bus and made this public service announcement: "I've got the flu."

Everyone rolled their eyes. No one threw him into a snow bank.

That day, he was everywhere I was, interviewing athletes, pecking away at the keyboard just behind me, putting money into the Coke machine. He was even on the second media bus of the day.

The hammer fell less than 48 hours later.

Continue reading "You might be a doper if..." »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 9:54 AM | Permalink
        

When this Olympics is over. When the cauldron goes dark and the world goes home. When the Canadians, drunk on their poor sportsmanship in the quest for gold, sober up.

When all this comes to pass, the host nation should do the honorable thing and blow up a part of its now infamous sliding track and start again.

The track, billed the fastest in the world, is a death trap at worst and an accident waiting to happen under the very best of circumstances.

In short, it has robbed three sports -- luge, bobsled and skeleton -- of their competitive joy.

All these athletes want to do is get to the bottom upright.

That's not sport.

Continue reading "When sucking it up ... drains the Olympic spirit" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

A word about the photo on my Olympic credential.

Scary.

Or as my husband calls it, "Your Ma Barker look."

Like everyone else hoping to make Mother Tribune's Olympic team, I submitted a mug shot, the same one that decorates my Baltimore Police press ID.

Late last August, when it seemed as if I wouldn't be going to Vancouver, I took my heavy heart and a large amount of rum to Chappaquiddick, an island off the island of Martha's Vineyard, to fish and read with my husband.

It was there my fortunes changed and with it my ID photo.

Continue reading "Your face here" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

So "Own the Podium," the largest international Canadian effort since Guy Lombardo first played Auld Lange Syne in Times Square is just as dead as the musician.

After pumping $117 million into athlete training (nothing wrong with that) and promising to bring home -- wait they ARE home -- 27 medals, the residents of the Great White North are throwing in the great white towel.

"Woe Canada," was the headline in the Vancouver Sun.

For all their money and boasting, Canada has five gold medals -- 10 overall -- putting in the same ballpark as the mighty winter power South Korea.

The U.S. has 25 medals, seven of them gold. The salt-in-the-wound moment was U.S. men beating Canada's best in hockey. U.S. women are playing for the gold on Thursday against Canada.

Continue reading "Running up the white flag" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

A man with a fistful of postcards and wearing an oversized red, foam cowboy hat tastefully decorated with a giant white USA on the side strides past the bus stop and toward the blue box on a curbside pole.
He's a man on a mission.
Coming from the other direction is a woman in a Canadian-red down parka, dog on a leash and a paper bag in her hand.
She's a woman on a mission.
He gets there first.
And stops. And looks. And looks again for the flap that reveals the slot into which he will put his slabs of cardboard.
He looks under the box. And behind the box. Then steps back.

Continue reading "True poop" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 6:30 AM | Permalink
        

Katie Uhlaender would like to revise and extend her remarks in a previous post ("Katie lied?).

You know, the ones where she said "karma" of the bad kind, tied to the fatality and crashes at the Whistler sliding track, was responsible for the Canadians being without any medals to that point. And her complaints that USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation didn't do much to support her in her quest for an Olympic medal in skeleton. She finished 11th.

She called me to ask for that courtesy. Members of Congress get to do it, why not an Olympic athlete, eh?

First, the revised part.

Continue reading "Katie, Part II" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 2:01 PM | Permalink
        

Last summer, when skeleton slider Katie Uhlaender met with the press in Chicago, she promised that her comeback from a devastating knee injury would not include excuses or complaining.

She said she would live with the outcome of the Olympics, whether or not it included a medal.

Now in the winter of her career, without a medal, Katie has some scores to settle.

The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation didn't do much to help her, she said.

She hinted that if things didn’t change, she wouldn’t be coming back.

“Honestly, this week was a complete disaster as far as organization and getting things done. I was up until 4 in the morning, trying to get video for the last day of training,” said Uhlaender, daughter of the late major league baseball player and coach Ted Uhlaender. “I’ll come back if we get our stuff together.”

And she really wanted to use another "s" word, she smirked.

Continue reading "Katie lied?" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 6:00 AM | Permalink
        

One of the nicest feelings at the Olympics is watching a small country triumph unexpectedly over the nations with the big bucks and the big teams.

It's the same with small villages.

Even though it has hosted two Winter Olympics and been the home of many athletes in training, Lake Placid (pop. 2,750) doesn't have much in the way of Winter Games bling.

That changed Friday afternoon, when Andrew Weibrecht unexpectedly took the bronze medal in the Super-G, just .03 second behind his better-known American teammate Bode Miller.

Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal won the race with a time of 1:30.34.

At the Lake Placid Friendship House, in the shadow of the Whistler Mountain ski lifts and gondolas, people erupted in cheers and tears and a telephone tree sprouted branches as the news spread.

Continue reading "Here's to the little guys" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 6:35 PM | Permalink
        

I've stood close to many Olympians. Only once have I put my life in the hands of one.

The athlete is John Napier, a sergeant in the National Guard and a natural-born bobsled pilot.

He'll compete Saturday and Sunday in the 2-man bob and then come back next Friday and Saturday and throw down four runs in the 4-man competition. Afterward, a superior officer somewhere will decide whether Napier will join his unit in Afghanistan.

He dearly wants to go.

About five years ago after an international competition in Lake Placid, N.Y., I was offered a ride from the top of the mile-long track. Since "civilian" rides always start at a lower, slower spot, I quickly said, "yes," before anyone could change their minds--including me.

Continue reading "In good hands" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 12:28 PM | Permalink
        

She may be back there and I may be here, but few Marylanders can talk about the Olympics with more authority than Bel Air's Kimmie Meissner, a member of the 2006 U.S. team.

And she'll be spilling secrets at 1 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Sports Legends Museum next to Camden Yards.

Take advantage of talking to the youngest U.S. team member about the Turin Games.

She's a lively interview, good with kids and a truly decent person.

Continue reading "A Meissner-eye view" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

When you're among the best in the world and the schedule puts you up against competitors who are not, what do you do?

That's the dilemma facing women's hockey players from the U.S. and Canada as they work their way through the pack to the inevitable gold-medal showdown on Feb. 25.

Canada outscored its first two opponents 28-1. The U.S. team is at 25-1.

On their way to a 13-0 win over the Russians, the Americans did everything possible in the third period to keep from embarrassing their opponent.

"It's not about running up the score," said Jenny Potter, the oldest player and the only mother on the team. "It's about treating your opponent with respect and still working on what we need to be successful against Finland."

The U.S. plays Finland on Thursday.

Continue reading "Good sports" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 11:27 AM | Permalink
        

As I sit here watching it snow in Whistler Village -- think Columbia with faux-rustic shopping centers -- for the first time in weeks, I'm thinking of another snow job, the one involving the luge competition.

The folks who run the show lowered the men's start to slow the speed by about 10 mph after the poor fellow from the Republic of Georgia went airborne and was killed.

I guess slowing the men's start was somehow supposed to make everyone feel better.

But then they lowered the women's and the doubles' start, too, dishonoring those world-class athletes by making them start from what is essentially a children's learning area.

Why?

Continue reading "Snow job" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Near the bar at R. J. Bentley’s, a College Park watering hole, is a golden winged statue, an Emmy, signifying that someone has done a darn good job cutting through the white noise on TV.

The statue belongs to Jimmy Roberts, an NBC reporter and a graduate of the University of Maryland, Class of 1979, who turns sporting events into televised essays.

Roberts is at his 13th Olympics -- his first was as a production flunky at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. He keeps coming back because “there’s nothing like an Olympics. People make fun of me, but I dig this stuff. It’s great sporting events and great moments ... It’s really sincere.”

In Vancouver, he’ll provide features for an afternoon show hosted by Al “Miracles” Michaels and will host his own “Meet the Press” show on Universal.

Roberts gravitates to the athletes who compete in the shadows of Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller and Apolo Anton Ohno.

“For most Olympians, they are so impossibly thrilled to have accomplished this. They’re so overwhelmed,” he says.

And regular.

Continue reading "Winter Games, Terps style" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 10:50 AM | Permalink
        

His name is Ruben Gonzalez.

His country: Argentina.

His resume: four-time Olympic luger.

His Web site: thelugeman.com

His chances: Nada. Zippo. Zero. Zilch.

Don't take my word for it or don't think I'm being cruel.

Here's Gonzalez, 47, in his own words after his first of four runs.

"Feels like I've got a pretty good lock on last place. Someone would really have to try hard to take that away from me."

Of the 38 athletes competing here at the Whistler Sliding Center, Gonzalez is back of the pack in a sport where less than a dozen sliders have a chance at the podium in any year.

This year it's the Olympics, his last.

Continue reading "Just call him Speedy...not" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 2:30 PM | Permalink
        

In a few hours -- weather willing -- Patrick Deneen will come bouncing down a mountain just north of Vancouver on his way to what he hopes will be an Olympic gold medal.


On the outside, the reigning world moguls champion will be wearing official Team USA gear. But underneath, "I'll be Baltimore all the way," he says.


Deneen, you see, helps develop and wears gear from 180s, the Inner Habor-based company best known for those cool, duplicated-but-never-equalled ear warmers that wrap behind the head instead of over the top.


(As an aside, the company, with headquarters at the Inner Harbor, also makes a pair of "Tech Touch" gloves with little metal contacts in the index fingers that allow you to, yes, operate a touch screen device without exposing flesh.)


The Baltimore-Washington corridor doesn't grow many winter Olympians. We have Bel Air's Kimmie Meissner, a 2006 Olympian, and gold medalist Dorothy Hamill adopted us more than a decade ago.


So we have to find our connections where we can.

Continue reading "Baltimore all the way" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

When you go to cover the Olympics, you prepare for a lot.

Not death.

Yet Friday morning, there it was at the bottom of the luge track, waiting for Nodar Kumaritashvili, a young man from the Republic of Georgia, full of life and spirit, fulfilling his Olympic dream.

He was a split second from the safety of the finish line, when he lost control of his sled going more than 80 mph and was bucked into the air and slammed into an unpadded steel pole.

Medics said he had no pulse when they tried to revive him. Given the violence of the collision, Kumaritashvili most likely was killed instantly.

He was just 21.

Luge is an unforgiving sport. It requires complete concentration to get from the top to the bottom, one mile away, along an icy, twisting track at speeds approaching 90 mph.

First one down wins. Timing is done to the thousandths of a second.

Continue reading "Let the Games begin, please" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)