It seems I write a column like this one every four years, and it stands to reason, the Winter Olympics come around every four years.
As I’ve written before, I’m a fan of many of the sports featured in the Winter Games, and it may be because we don’t get to watch so many of the sports on a regular basis.
Sure, we get to see hockey every season, and there are some skiing events and figure skating competitions that are on television from time to time, but many of the sports we only get to see when the Winter Olympics come around.
First, let’s give credit to the U.S. men’s and women’s hockey teams, who both beat Canada to win gold medals. For the men, it was the first time to win gold since the “Miracle on Ice,” at the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. Plus, they did it, to the day, on the 46th Anniversary of that win.
One of my favorite sports to watch is curling, and it’s not just a fad. I’ve been a fan of curling since I was kid and used to watch the bonspiels on Saturdays, on a television station out of Hamilton, Ontario. This year it was fun to watch curling because the U.S. was competitive. The mixed doubles team won a silver medal and the women’s team lost to Canada in the bronze medal game.
We may not have to wait another four years to watch curling. There is a new professional league that will be playing in April and they are working on a broadcast deal right now. More on that another time.
Another one of my favorite sports to watch in the Winter Olympics is actually a group of sports; all the ones where people go sliding down an ice track on either a skeleton, luge or bobsled. Again, these are not sports we get to watch each year.
The folks that ride a skeleton, headfirst, down that ice track, are certainly very daring. Even the ones who are riding in a bobsled, risk their lives traveling 70-plus mile per hour on a tube of ice. The U.S. did fairly well in those sports, winning a gold and two bronze medals in the bobsled competition, and a bronze in the luge. The U.S. didn’t medal in the skeleton.
My third favorite Winter Olympic sport is speed skating. These men and women race around a full-length track and a short track at great speeds on long skate blades. Often, they are so bunched together that one minor mistake or one little slip and several skaters hit the ice on their backside and go sliding off the track. These skaters must have a lot of confidence in their blades. With the way they lean in and take those curves at such an angle, it’s remarkable that more accidents don’t happen. I can ice skate, I used to referee hockey, but it’s extremely amazing to me how they take those curves and their skates to go slipping out from under them. That’s quite a skill.
The U.S. won two gold, two silver and one bronze in speed skating, and an additional bronze in short track speed skating.
Overall, the U.S. Olympic team finished second in the medal count behind Norway. The U.S. won the most gold medals it ever has in a Winter Olympics with 12, add in 12 silver medals and nine bronze medals for a total of 33. Norway finished with 41 total medals, including 18 gold.
The 2030 Winter Olympics will be held in the French Alps from Feb. 1 – 17, 2030. It will mark the fourth time France has hosted the Winter Olympics, including in Chamonix (1924), Grenoble (1968), and Albertville (1992). The 2030 Winter Games will be spread across multiple regions in the French Alps, with events expected to be held in areas such as Haute-Savoie, Savoie, Briançon, and Nice.
I can’t wait.
TULSA BEACON RADIO
Tune in to “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show every week, featuring interviews with local and national guests, talking about everything from politics to family issues. This week, my guest will be local political pundit and former city counselor Chris Medlock. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.