Vancouver 2010 Olympics Coverage Daily - winter olympics

Darren loves Biathlon

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 16:06:40 -0800

Darren Barefoot explains why Biathlon is his favourite event, and also covers some of the background of how it came to be:

After hockey, I think biathlon is my favourite event in the Winter Olympics. I like its peculiar, conflicting combination of activities--cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It's conflicting, of course, because the skiing gets your heart rate up to 180 beats per minute, which isn't particularly conducive to shooting a silver-dollar-sized target half a football field away. I had assumed it had its origins in hunting, but actually we can blame the Norweigians.

What's your favourite Winter Olympic sport?

SLC 2002 Winter Olympics Flashback P.3 - Let the Games Begin!

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:51:15 -0800

(Note: This is part three of the SLC Winter Olympics Flashback series from Dave Thorvald and Dan Funboy)

Just when I thought we'd arrived a week too early, the crowds poured in from around the world, everywhere folks seemed to be hustling elsewhere - I noticed various recognizable media folks and tried to guess where people were from. Safe to say, a predominantly northern/eastern European (read=white) crowd but, cool hearing all sorts of languages as we cruised around downtown Salt Lake.

2002 SLC Winter Olympics Flashback - Checking the Scene

Sat, 04 Feb 2006 18:37:46 -0800

When first arriving in Utah, we took our second look at the torch which come through Logan late in the evening in the world-round relay. Folks from the town came out to line the streets depsite the cold. Earlier in the day, I stopped by the local ice rink to watch the Swiss hockey team practice. Teams and athletes were spread out all over the region (even up into Idaho) for practice facilities before their individual events kicked off.

A few weeks prior, Dan and I walked down to the Olympia's Farmer's Market to see the hand-off and a pre-Olympic rally of sorts - a few corporate trucks and local performers. The torch bearers is accompanied by a couple of attendents and followed by a ugly, (here un-named) corporate-sponsored vehicle with a coldroun of flamage in the truck bed. The torch-bearers (selected from applications) wear sporty suits (which they get to keep) and run 1km or so. For $300 you can buy your torch and many were and selling them on eBay for more.