The United States team is tied with Russia for the lead in total medals won at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games as of this writing, with 19 medals. The U.S. team has five gold, four silver, and ten bronze medals. Germany leads with eight gold medals, followed by Norway with six. There is a five way tie for third with Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belarus, the U.S., and Russia all attaining five gold medals so far. One of the really big moments for United States fans was the gold medal performance of pair skaters Meryl Davis and Charlie White in the Ice Dancing competition. This marks the first time that the United States has captured a gold in this particular event. White and Davis have worked for 17 years leading up to this event, so their perseverance and diligence has paid off in Olympic gold. Track and field star Lolo Jones is a member of the U.S. Women’s Bobsledding team as a pusher and brakeman. She has competed in the Summer Games as a hurdler. This, of course makes her one of the very few athletes to compete in both the summer and winter games. Gracie Gold is carrying the United States’ hopes for gold in the women’s individual skating events and is considered the contestant to beat in those events. Colorado’s Alex Diebold was definitely a dark horse in the men’s snowboard-cross event but he managed to bring home a bronze medal for the USA team. Thirty-six year old skier Bode Miller collected a bronze medal in the Alpine Men’s Super-G and when NBC annalist Christin Cooper kept referring to his brother’s death during a post race interview, Miller broke down in tears. Miller has six Olympic medals in three different winter games, including a gold in 2010. The games aren’t over yet and some of the top competitors have yet to strut their stuff in their particular events so there will most likely be a whole bunch of changes in the total medal count before the last event is run this coming Sunday. Two members of the feminist Russian rock group Pussy Riot were released after being detained 10 hours by Sochi police. The two young women were walking through the Olympic Village when the security people arrested them for “theft.” The members of Pussy Riot have been very vocal in their criticisms of Vladimir Putin’s government policies toward women and gays and a couple of the ladies were imprisoned for two years for their outspokenness. Anyway Mr. Putin is definitely not a fan of the group.
Royalty at the World Sports Park?
The Eastside cricket field that everyone is so “excited” about is called the World Sports Park. The park will play host to the National Cricket Championships in August which will be the new field’s opening event. Apparently the Mayor hoped to land some high level dignitaries to be at the event so he sent invitations to Prince William and his wife the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, through the British Conciliate. Unfortunately, the royal couple had to decline the invitation, at least at this particular time. But there are a number of other possibilities. Maybe the mayor could get the Russian all-girl band Pussy Riot to come and perform a concert. It really isn’t fair to just refer to the 48 acre facility as only being a cricket field. There will actually be five multi-purpose fields where cricket, lacrosse, rugby, hurling, soccer, Gaelic and Australian rules football can be played. Up to 10,000 spectators will be able to catch event action. I’m sure that before all is said and done, some high profile international guests will be present for some of the bigger events. They will most likely have to be helicoptered in, however, because right now most of the roads on the eastside are screwed, blued, and tattooed.
Another Indy Super Bowl?
There is supposedly another move for Indianapolis to bid on hosting the 2018 or 19 Super Bowl. Looking at how the weather has been this year, it becomes more and more apparent that the incredible weather pattern that occurred in Indianapolis during February of 2012 was not just an aberration but an outright miracle. My beautiful daughter is firmly convinced that the Super Bowl committee made a deal with the devil to get that mild 2012 winter weather and that this winter’s record setting blast is the price we had to pay for that mild winter. My daughter lives within sight of Lucas Oil Stadium. The point is that the winter weather we normally experience in Indianapolis is much closer to the 2014 winter model than the 2012 one. What if the city was to experience a record-setting blizzard during a Super Bowl that might be held here in the future? It would be disastrous.
There is talk of a possible Super Bowl to be held in London, possibly at Wembley Stadium. American football has gained quite a fan base in Great Britain. Within the next quarter of a century look for the Super Bowl to be a true international event and held in cities such as Tokyo, Rio De Janeiro, Sydney Australia, and Madrid. Maybe even Sochi.
snicewanger@yahoo.com