LAKE PLACID, N.Y.// By the time you see Stephen Colbert’s wild ride on his Comedy Central show, it’ll be a neatly packaged laugh riot.

But in no way will it resemble reality.

The host of The Colbert Report was a passenger aboard a four-man bobsled and steered himself on a skeleton sled in the weekend’s final hours as dusk settle over Mount Van Hoevenberg.

The boblsled ride for most civilians starts partway down the mile-long tube of ice, the office for Olympians in training and the site of many World Cup competitions.

But Sunday’s driver, world champion Steve Holcomb, said Stephen Colbert insisted on “the full treatment.” Let the record show Holcomb then smirked.

Continue reading "The full package: Colbert on ice (and video) " »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 6:37 PM in Today's Special, World Cup Bobsled/Skeleton | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. // As he slipped into the bullet-shaped black bobsled and stared down the mile-long icy chute, Stephen Colbert faced his moment of truthiness.

He didn’t blink or scream -- so he said -- but the Comedy Central host did admit to getting a pounding “like losing the worst snowball fight of your life,” after riding a four-man sled driven by world champion Steve Holcomb and taking a solo skeleton slide.

As the bobsled crossed the finish line and slowed to a stop, Colbert raised his arms above his head to the chants of U-S-A from the crowd remaining after the World Cup competition. He helped hand out medals and stood at attention as the national anthem played, his reddish-orange speed suit clashing with, well, almost everything.

The segment for The Colbert Report will be one in a series of Olympic bits spun off from the host’s promise to raise money for the U.S. speed skating team.

When asked which ride he preferred, Colbert pointed at the skeleton sled and said, “That one ... it was slower.

- Candus Thomson

Photo courtesy of Getty Images 

Posted by Baltimore Sun sports at 4:02 PM in Today's Special, World Cup Bobsled/Skeleton | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. //  It wasn’t too long ago that skeleton looked to be America’s winter sport.

Added for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the face-first sliding sport was dominated by the U.S. team, which won two gold medals and a silver.

“It felt like we were on our way,” said Jimmy Shea Jr., a third-generation Olympian who won with his grandfather’s funeral Mass card tucked in his helmet. “It was a great way to break into the Olympics.”

The magic vanished in 2006, when injuries and a drug disqualification eliminated top contenders. The best the team could muster was two sixth-place finishes.

With little more than two months to go until the 2010 Winter Games and international competition shifting to Europe for the remainder of the season, the U.S. skeleton campaign is in danger of unraveling.

Continue reading "World Cup bobsled/skeleton recap" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 3:54 PM in World Cup Bobsled/Skeleton | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. // He may be sponsoring the U.S. Speedskating team, but Stephen Colbert wants to experience the rush of a bobsled run with the reigning world champion and the terror of a solo ride on a skeleton sled.

And so he shall Sunday after World Cup competition here.

Colbert's staff is in town and the Comedy Central talk show host is expected to fly in Sunday for a whirlwind shot at two of the Olympics' three sliding sports.

At 45, Colbert is two years older than U.S. bobsled Coach Brian Shimer, a five-time Olympian and 2002 Olympic bronze medalist.  

Continue reading "Stephen Colbert slides into town" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 1:40 PM in World Cup Bobsled/Skeleton | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. // With two powerful starts and some precision driving, John Napier won his first World Cup bobsled gold medal on the track around the corner from his home.

Then, with his right foot, he stomped a green-and-white pack of cigarettes, winning a bet with a mentor who had vowed to end his decades-old habit to honor Napier's first win.

"I didn't expect it. I didn't deserve it," said a grinning Napier, 22, who lives on Bob Run Road in a house he helped build three years ago. "To do it here means a lot."

The U.S. men's squad finished one-two in the two-man bobsled competition. Napier's two-run time was 1 minute, 53.62 seconds. Steve Holcomb, the reigning 4-man world champion, finished twenty-six hundredths of a second back. Mike Kohn, who lives in Northern Virginia and trains in Maryland, finished ninth, with a time of 1:54.69.

Napier, a good driver often undone by poor starts, snapped off a great push with Charles Berkeley and steered his way to a first-place finish in the first heat.

Then, he had to endure more than an hour wait until it was time for his second run. 

Continue reading "Local boy makes good" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 12:19 PM in World Cup Bobsled/Skeleton | Permalink | Comments (0)