2006 Turin Winter Olympics Blog

Here are the results of our poll about favorite Olympic sports. An overwhelming majority (over 50%) favored figure skating. 14% of participants like ice hockey. 10% favor ski jumping. Curling and speed skating tied at 7%. Freestyle skiing, luge, and snowboarding each received 2% of the vote. The rest of the sports received no response.

I was somewhat surpised that the various skiing events didn’t receive more response. And ice dancing. Doesn’t anyone out there like ice dancing?

Thanks to those who participated.

Canadian-born ice dancer Tanith Belbin longs to compete in this year’s Olympics. The catch is that she’d like to compete as an American. Congress has cleared the way for this to happen by passing a bill that would allow her to become an American citizen before the February Olympics in Turino.

Under normal conditions, she would have been eligible to become a citizen in 2007, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., introduced an amendment to shorten the residency requirement for “aliens of extraordinary ability” from five years to three years between getting a green card and being eligible for citizenship.

“Aliens of extraordinary ability” applies only to resident aliens seeking to represent the USA in an “international event” and only to “aliens of extraordinary ability” who began their citizenship efforts before July of 2002.

Belbin, with her American partner Ben Agosto, finished second in the World Championships in Moscow this year. She moved to the United States in 1998.

Another ice dancer, Maxim Zavozin, could also be granted citizenship in time for the Olympics under the same process.

Zavozin emigrated to the United States from Russia in 1998. He and his partner Morgan Matthews are the 2005 World Junior champions and are hoping for one of three ice dancing spots on the American Olympic team.

The last obstacle to citizenship is the signature of the President.

World-beating figure skater Mao Asada will not skate for the Japanese team for the Winter Olympic Games because she is too young, the Japan Skating Federation said. International requirements say that a skater must turn 15 by July of an Olympics year to compete in the Olympics. Mao’s birthday was in September.

While I think that Mao Asada has clearly proven that she can compete on the international stage, I still think it’s a good thing that a minimum age has been instituted. I remember a few years when it seemed like the skaters (and gymnasts) were getting younger and younger. It was a little disturbing to see these children competing under so much stress.

So, what do you think? Should there be minimum age requirements for Olympic events? Take our poll!

The poll has been closed. The results were almost 50/50, with a small majority favoring minimum age requirements.

The women’s Olympic hockey team should be in good shape since they bring to the games several experienced members.

Olympic veterans Jenny Potter, Katie King, Tricia Dunn-Luoma and Angela Ruggiero were selected Tuesday for the U.S. women’s hockey team that will compete at the Turin Games. This will be the third Olympics for all four.

To read more about the U.S. Women’s hockey team, check out this ESPN article.

The U.S. Olympic team contains many familar names— Apolo, Bode, Michelle Kwan, and Jeremy Bloom, among them. Will this mean gold for the U.S.A.? The U.S. Olympic committee is optimistic.

Michelle Kwan is battling an injury but is hopeful that she will make the team at Nationals.

Bode Miller has been battling officials off the slopes.

Jeremy Bloom is pursuing football along with skiing.

I admit, I don’t know what Olympic athletes in other countries do with their spare time, but it does seem that U.S. athletes are less focused. Perhaps this is because, unlike some countries, American athletes are completely on their own when it comes to supporting themselves. They need to find sponsors or other jobs while they’re training. Will this affect the U.S.’s medal chances? Only time will tell.

I first saw the pictures of the new medal design for the Torin Olympic medals on a fellow blogger’s site. After a little bit of looking around, I found more about it on this site.

The basic jist is that it’s a donut, or a bagel, or whatever you want to call it, but it’s round with a hole in the middle. Apparently, this is supposed to represent the Italian piazza. But, honestly, a gold circle with the hole in the middle is really going to look like a nice, chewy Lender’s bagel hanging around the neck of the winner.

So, I’d like to know what you think about the medals. Take a look at the pictures on one of the above links, and then take our poll.

The poll has been closed. Most people weren’t crazy about the medal but didn’t hate it, either. Leave any further comments in the comment section.

Australia has finalized their short track speed skating team for the Torino Olympics, while Canada plans to announce their final team by January 4th. Japan is also finalizing its choices.

The competition to skate at the Olympics is fierce before you even get to the games. Only eight teams compete in the short track relay. Canada will only send 10 men and 10 women to compete in long track speed skating.

One of my favorite things about the Olympics are the Awww stories. You know the ones I’m talking about. Those stories about the underdog, the heroic stories, the sob stories. Dan Jansen. The 1980 U.S. hockey team. The Jamaican bobsled team.

Well, this story has the potential to be one of those tales. When it comes to Olympics, the name Bart Conner is familiar. But less familiar is Bruce Conner, Bart’s brother. He barely missed making the Olympic speed skating team once before— in 1976. Now, at 49, he’s trying again. I hope he makes the team this time. It would be one of those great Olympic stories, even if he doesn’t win a medal.

MSNBC has a really great site for easily looking up when events occur, which days are medal events, and other information about winter events in this February’s winter Olympics.

Ice dancer Tanith Belbin was sworn in this morning as a U.S. citizen. This clears her to skate for the United States in February’s Olympics in Turin, Italy. She and Ben Agosto are favorites to win the United States’ first ice dance medal since 1986.

The United States Congress passed a bill to expedite her citizenship. The bill was signed by President Bush on Friday.

The Olympic team will be chosen at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, which begin Jan. 10.

Chad Hedrick has qualified to skate in five events in the Turin Olympics.

In the process of qualifying, Hedrick set a world record in the 10,000 meters. His time of 12 minutes, 55.11 seconds beat the old record by nearly 3 seconds. In that race, Hedrick won by nearly a minute over second-place Charles Leveille.

Hedrick has qualified for the Olympics in the 1,000, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000. He also is expected to compete in team pursuit, a new event.

Hedrick is one of those interesting Olympic stories. He’s a former inline skating champion who only switched to skating on the ice in 2002.

I had never heard of Chad Hedrick until recently, but he’s now a favorite of mine. He’s from Spring, Texas, which is only about 20 minutes from where I live. Got to love a hometown boy in the Olympics!

The U.S. Olympic skeleton team coach has been placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment. 2002 Olympic gold medalist Tristan Gale and Felicia Canfield claim coach Tim Nardiello has made sexual advances and explicit comments toward female racers. Neither athlete will be competing in the Turin Winter Olympics. The four men and four women who are Olympic-team candidates have expressed support of Nardiello.

It seems like odd timing to me to bring this up. Why not a month ago? Why not a year ago? The allegations say this has been going on for years. One can’t help but wonder whether the allegations would have been made now if the women were headed for Turin. Whatever the truth, hopefully it will be resolved soon so that it doesn’t mar the team’s chances in the Olympics.

Earlier this week Derek Parra emotionally announced to the skaters preparing for the Olympic trials the reason he’s been distracted recently. He’s getting a divorce. Some people remember his wife and newborn baby from the Salt Lake City Olympics. That was a happier time. Parra explained that recently he hasn’t been sleeping, has been having difficulty concentrating, and is overwhelmed by sadness. Apparently, in this case, confession is not only good for the soul, but for his skating times as well.

On Friday Parra qualified to compete in Turin in the 1500 meter race. In an interview earlier this week, Parra said that if he qualified for the Olympics he would briefly go home and pack his things. We wish him and his family all the best during this difficult time.

Today we added a new Winter Olympic Trivia page on our website. Every week leading up to the olympics we will be posting a new quiz.

Take our first Winter Olympics Trivia quiz and let us know what you think. And if you have any trivia questions you think we should include, be sure to leave them in the comment section. If you want to challenge us, just leave the question. We’ll research the answer.

I challenge you, dear readers, to stump me! I consider myself somewhat of an above average amateur researcher. So, I challengeyou to come up with an Olympics question that I can’t find the answer to.

What do you win if you stump me? The winner will receive your name in the headline of a blog entry and an entire entry dedicated just to you and your question, plus bragging rights. You can even print out the “I stumped Jill Manty” entry and post it on your refrigerator, your office door, or your car window!