2010 Olympics Trivia

Baby on Ice: Canadian Curling Alternate Kristie Moore, 30, is 5½ months pregnant. She is the third athlete known to be with child during Olympic competition. In the 1920 Antwerp Games, Swedish figure skater Magda Julin won a gold medal while in her first trimester, and in 2006 Germany's Diana Sartor took fourth in the skeleton while pregnant. The Canadian curling team leader said "she is young and fit. There's no reason we'll have any problems, and she'll be out there." Hey, even Olympic curling is nothing compared to chasing around a two-year old!

And while we're talking about Olympic curling, ... snoooooze ...., Oh, sorry, I nodded off there for minute.

Japanese Figure Skater Nobunari Oda is the 17th descendant of Nobunaga Oda, the 14th century warlord who is the inspiration for the Super Nintendo game, "Nobunaga's Ambition." Wow, don't think we want to make HIM mad!

French Figure Skater Florent Amodio was born in Brazil and abandoned in the streets. He was adopted by a French family and raised in France. He was discovered by a skating coach at the age of 4 at a public skating rink.

Guess what? Americans aren't the only ones who don't know the words to their National Anthem. After Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada's first home field gold medal ever, a reporter roamed the streets, asking people to sing "O Canada." People got past "O Canada! our home and native land!," and then stood like deer in the headlights. Heh heh.

Speaking about "Americans, have you ever referred to yourself as an American while in Canada, and been snarkily told that "Canadians are Americans, too?"

Many Canadians are not pleased with the 2010 Olympic medal design, and have referred to them as "Pringles." Quite frankly, I wasn't sure how I felt about them from the pictures on this website, but once I saw them being awarded, I think they are indeed very impressive. See backstory here on the design and production of these unique medals.

Anyone remember "Tomba! Tomba!" Well, if you were over 12 and had hormones you do. Alberto Tomba was the rascally Italian Olympic skier who chased gold medal skater Katerina Witt all over the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Here's what he looked like then. Go to his official website (http://www.albertotomba.com/) to see what what he looks like now. (Yeah, I know the whole website is in Italian, but who cares.) And, oh, yeah, Tomba brought his OWN condoms to Lillehammer.

Before Olympic pairs skaters Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto finally reached Vancouver after two blizzards hit the arctic wonderland formerly known as Aston, Pennsylvania, they literally waded in waist deep snow across the parking lot to get to their practice rink.

You may have noticed the black feathers on Olympic Skater Evan Lysacek's costume during the short program. He was talked into them by his costume designer, Vera Wang. Wang actually competed at the 1968 US Figure Skating Championships with James Stuart, but when she failed to make the Olympics, she became a clothing designer. Good move, Vera.

PET PEEVE: Finally, here's my pet peeve. Russian Olympic skater Evgeni Plushenko scored 90.85 with a quad combination that carried a 3.80 higher base value than American Olympic skater Evan Lysacek's 11:00 base value for his triple lutz-toe loop combination. When you see that Lysacek scored higher on his sequences, and was 3 points ahead of Plushenko on his components, it is apparent that Lysacek is the better skater and, all other things being equal, without that quad, Plushenko would be at least 3.80 points behind Lysacek. Ever since the quad was first entered in competition, I knew it was going to ruin figure skating. Why not just have a "jumping competition," for those athletic skaters? I want to see artistry and skill. If I want to see a jumper, I'll turn on the skiing.

Ta for now.

More Olympic stories by this bleary-eyed writer: Plushenko Leads After Short Program; China Takes Gold Medal; 2010 Olympic Figure Skating Schedule and List of American Skaters; China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo in First Place After Olympic Skating Pairs Short Program; U.S. Olympic Ice Skaters Tanith Belbin and Johnny Weir Sharing Olympic Village Quarters; The 2010 Winter Olympic Medals Design;Winter Olympians from Philadelphia Area; Philadelphia Area Olympic Ice Skaters; 100,000 Condoms to be Distributed at 2010 Olympics in Vancouver
Sources: NBC-TV 10 Philadelphia; Time.com; Sports.Yahoo; Desigboom; BaltimoreSun,com; Nymag.com; Men's Short Program results