“You want to see a competitive team,” said [Canadian] team member Marc Kennedy, “you just gotta see us play cards against one another.”

If you are tempted to reply, “Yes, Marc, that would probably be more interesting than sitting through 90 minutes of curling,” that can only mean one thing: You’ve never seen curling in person.

Curling’s appeal for me is the brainy excitement and the ability of one well-placed stone to change the entire game in one second.  it requires deep thought and better control of where the stone goes.  Alas, still no curling in Richmond, Virginia where I live.  (For more on curling or the find a club near you, go to www.curlingrocks.org) 

The sweeping does more than just lightly melt the ice, it also removes tiny particles that slow down the stone.  As one of the Canadian team members told Murphy:

“The ice is pebbled,” explained James Prette, who was sitting behind me on Tuesday as the home team put the wood to China, 10-3. “When you sweep, you’re melting those little pebbles, which allows the stone to slide faster.”

And there’s hope for older folks like me:

“Curling is huge in this country,” says Prette, who lives in Vancouver but grew up in Saskatoon. “Especially in the prairie provinces. When you’re too old for hockey, you curl.”

I never took up hockey primarily because I wanted to live long enough to vote for Reagan!  But I am clearly too old for hockey in any event. 

My grandparents in Florida (they lived in Florida most of their lives not snow birds from the North) used to play shuffleboard and I was fascinated by that.  Curling has elements similar to shuffleboard but is better all around.  But I seldom got to play shuffleboard as a kid! 

I recommend the article in full.  I especially liked the explanation of the Canadian skip or captain, Kevin Martin:

Canada’s Kevin Martin is the skip of skips, his shot-making skills the stuff of legend, his talents as dazzling as the TV lights reflecting off his bald pate.

The first recorded curling match was chronicled (in Latin) in 1540 by a Scottish notary who wrote about a contest between two monks. Coincidentally, Martin, the best player of the 21st century, resembles a kind of monk… or emergency room doctor. Unassuming, modest, devoid of flash, the 43-year-old Martin is enormously popular in this country — largely because he is an almost perfect reflection of it.

“Oh jeez, no,” he replied, when informed that another coach had described him as curling’s Michael Jordan. “I don’t think of myself anywhere near that. We’re an amateur sport.”

According to Murphy, Martin’s teams have done very well in an amateur sport.  

I’ll defintely root for Canada today but only in curling!  May they own the podium.  But we’ll get you next time!

Most nations appear to have sports as a governmental function.  This article discusses a meeting between the German Minister of the Interior, who has sports as part of his portfolio, and his Jamaician counterpart. 

The New York Times reported that the Russian medal effort at the Vancouver Games is so poor that there are calls for the resignation of the sports minister.

“Russian Olympians Lose Historic Superiority” was the front-page headline on Thursday in Kommersant, an influential newspaper. Some politicians and commentators are calling for the firing of Russia’s sports minister and the head of the Russian Olympic Committee.

Both opposition and government leaders are saying the team better do better or heads will roll:

“The condition of Russian sports today embitters and offends all Russian citizens,” said Igor V. Lebedev, a parliamentary leader for the Liberal Democrats, a nationalist opposition party.

“Our athletes have given up their positions in every single sport,” he said in a statement, adding that officials overseeing athletic development in the country should be fired.

The governing United Russia party, led by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, released a statement on Thursday suggesting that there could be repercussions for athletic officials if Russian athletes continued to fall short in Vancouver.

“Anything under fourth place for our team will certainly be a failure, including for those who oversee athletics in our country,” said Boris Gryzlov, a United Russia leader who is speaker of Parliament. (Russia was ranked 11th in the medal count as of Thursday morning.)

This is what happens when you mix sports and politics.  I do not want our athletes turned into political pawns.  My original idea is still out there for the IOC to adopt:  NO direct government support of the Olympic team.

Here’s the Own The Podium webpage. 

About half of the funds are from government.  $47 million Canadian dollars (most for summer sports but $11 million (Can) for winter sports) was “donated” by the federal government in Ottawa.  (This also includes the Paralympics as well)  Another ten million (Can $) was donated by the British Columbia provincial government (Five for the winter sports).  There is even a federal minister of sport! 

I admire Canada very much and have visited this beautiful land several times.  I hope I get to do so again.  But the use of public funds for sport is unlibertarian, beyond the scope of government, uses tax dollars for things that all may not agree on and not an essential governmental function (For example:  What if I hate sports?  I don’t have to donate.  But if my tax dollars are used, I did not have a choice.  Another issue:  Suppose I disagree with the use of professional athletes in the Olympics [I do by the way], my tax money is used in an inappropriate manner), and it places athletes from nations who do not subsidize sports (e.g., USA) at a competitive disadvantage. 

The Olympics will never do it but there should be a rule against direct governmental funding of sports.  Governments can encourage private giving through tax dodges etc but no direct funding.  The penalty:  Your team is banned from the Olympics.

I was especially impressed by the athlete from Peru’s story.  I know he has no realistic chance to win a medal, but I’ll root for him anyway!  Maybe he’ll have the run of a lifetime and win the gold!  Could happen!  I also plan to root for the Republic of Georgia after their tragic situation.  I also root for all the small countries who have no chance or who have never won a medal before.  Paraguay had never won a medal in any Olympic sport until 2004 in Athens when they won the silver in soccer.  (I went on a missions/eclipse trip to Paraguay and it is an interesting nation few get to go to!)  I also root for the three Baltic Republics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), occupied illegally in 1940 and thankfully never recognized as part of the USSR by our nation and finally independent at last!

In a new and potentially disturbing development, Canada is taking a decidedly unCanadian attitude toward this Olympics:  Own the Podium!

From the USA Today of January 29:

“Canada has an aggressive new attitude,” Stephen Colbert said on his Comedy Central TV show. “In contrast to their previous slogan: ‘Pardon, would it trouble you if we won a medal or two? It would? OK. Never mind!’ ”

Rarely in Olympic history has the host nation failed to win even one gold medal. Twice, the too-gracious host has been Canada — at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.

That won’t happen again. “Own the Podium” is more than a battle cry. It is a $117 million Canadian (about $110 million U.S.) business plan that provides Canadian athletes in select sports with more coaching, enhanced training and paid travel — plus this ambitious goal: Place first in the total medal count.

Perhaps this is the wave of the future.  The larger countries will use their technological advantages to dominate the medal count and further shut out the smaller nations.  (One thing about the Winter Olympics is that smaller nations like Norway can do well.)  Hence my enduring interest in the opening ceremonies – the nations, their costumes, their flags etc.! 

In some ways this encourages a degree of cynicism.  I always figured during the Cold War days, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies would cheat their way to the podium while one of our athletes would be banned from the games for cold medicine!  I watched the famous ending of the USA-USSR basketball game in 1972 and shook my head in derision (I think they interrupted that game to show Taiwan being kicked out of the UN!) at how the ref put time back on the clock and the Soviets then won.      

Understand, I do want USA to do well!  BEAT CANADA!  But if some small nation that has never won or hardly wins a medal wants me to organize their curling team, I’ll take some lessons and read the rules and help them win a medal!  Ought to be a nice consulting fee out of it!  Just contact me through this blog entry! 

Remember, for more information about curling near you, contact USA Curling at this webpage.