One hundred nights from now, the 2010 Winter Olympics will begin in Vancouver, Canada. The city held a low-key celebration to mark the countdown, highlighted by the official handing over of the Olympic village from the city to the Vancouver Olympic Committee.

Interestingly enough, there was much more celebration in New York where NBC kicked-off its Olympic coverage with an event in Rockefeller center attended by numerous Olympic hopefuls. It included ice skating demonstrations, aerial skiers on trampoline and, of course, numerous mentions of the hundreds of hours of coverage on NBC and its family of networks.

Universal Sports, NBC's Olympic cable partner, debuted a prime-time studio show tonight dedicated to the Vancouver Games. It's set to air nightly beginning on Dec. 1.

You could be the new sponsor of U.S. Speedskating (provided you like satirical, political news shows).

"The Colbert Report" has become the primary sponsor of the U.S. Speedskating team, after the previous sponsor declared bankruptcy last month. Host Stephen Colbert announced the partnership in Monday's show, alongside American speedskating legend Dan Jansen:

It's partly for show, of course, but this is still a great thing for U.S. Speedskating. The publicity, buzz and money Colbert will generate for the squad can only benefit a team that competes in anonymity for all but two weeks every four years.

The length of the partnership wasn't announced, but you definitely won't be seeing The Colbert Nation logo on uniforms at the Olympics as there are separate sponsorship deals in place for the Games. But expect to see The Colbert Nation emblazoned on the skin-tight uniforms of our nation's speedskaters through at least the first two World Cup events and, possibly, in the national championships at the end of December.

"The Colbert Report" will not be giving any money directly to U.S. Speedskating. Instead, Colbert's viewers (dubbed The Colbert Nation) will be called upon to donate to the team. This method has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Yellow Ribbon Fund, which assists injured service members.

It should be interesting to see how successful this venture is. I'm all for supporting Olympic athletes, but it's not exactly helping out wounded veterans, you know? The Dutch bank that was supposed to sponsor the team (but declared for bankruptcy last month) was slated to pay $300,000 for its sponsorship. If Colbert's viewers can get even one-third of that, it would be an admirable effort. 

The biggest sports story of the weekend didn't involve Brett Favre or LeBron James and it didn't have anything to do with the World Series either. It played out on a 26.2 mile course in the five boroughs of New York City and featured a man who would be recognized less than almost every player on an NFL, MLB or NBA roster. His name is Meb Keflezighi, and on Sunday he became the first American to win the New York Marathon since 1982.

It's a monumental achievement. U.S. runners haven't fared well in marathons in years, so for an American to stun the racing world with a win in New York should have made front-page headlines. So why has Keflezighi's win been largely ignored by the mainstream press?

There seems to be a belief that because Keflezighi was an immigrant to this country that he is somehow less American than those born within the borders. CNBC's Darren Rovell sums up this unfortunate, jingoistic refrain (but he's far from the only one who's written in this way):

... Keflezighi's country of origin is Eritrea, a small country in Africa. He is an American citizen thanks to taking a test and living in our country.

Basically, the argument is that because Keflezighi wasn't born in America, he's not American.

I suppose the fact that Keflezighi immigrated here 29 years ago at the age of 12 doesn't matter. Nor is the fact that he didn't start running competitively until he arrived in the States, went to UCLA and has never worn anything but the red, white and blue at international competitions. The silver medal he won in the Athens marathon for the USA in 2004? That's irrelevant too.

Here's the Keflezighi back story: As detailed in a Sports Illustrated story from 2005, his family immigrated to the U.S. after his father fled the country to avoid being imprisoned for supporting Eritrea's independence. That was in 1986. Meb has lived here since then.

When asked whether his East African genes make him a more successful runner, Keflezighi responded to the question by asking, "if so, then why did I lose to so many Americans in high school and college?"

But why should that even matter? Meb Keflezighi's story is what defines America. It's a textbook example of the American dream: Fleeing war, taking advantage of opportunity in this country and becoming a personal and professional success. The end of Keglezighi's tale may be remarkable, but the beginning is similar to that of millions of Americans past and present. 

Why should the fact that somebody wasn't born in this country make them any less of an American? Was Barack Obama's father not truly American because he was born in Kenya? Anybody want to tell Arnold Schwarzenegger that he's only "technically" a United States citizen? Most Americans reading this will have had an ancestor who immigrated to America at some point (my great-grandfather came in 1914). Were they not really, truly Americans? 

I've purposefully not mentioned the 800-pound gorilla in the room: whether the perceived illegitimacy of Keflezighi has to do with his race. That's a topic for another day and another writer, but let's just say that you wouldn't be wrong to play that card. (Think of it this way: If Keflezighi immigrated from Scotland, would we be having this discussion?)

The irony of it all is that the last man to win the NYC Marathon before Meb Keflezighi wouldn't qualify as being "American" either. Alberto Salazar, who took the crown in 1982, was born in Cuba. 

The world's fastest man has adopted the world's fastest animal.

As part of an effort to help protect Kenya's endangered species, Usain Bolt formally adopted a three-month old cheetah cub today in Nairobi. (What? You thought the world record holder in both the 100 and 200 meters would own a tortoise?)

Bolt bestowed one of his own nicknames upon the cub, naming him "Lightning Bolt". The three-time Olympic gold medalist paid $13,700 to adopt Lightning Bolt and will contribute $3,000 per year so it can live at an animal orphanage in the Kenyan capital. 

Initially (and understandably), Bolt was reluctant to meet a fully grown cheetah, but he seemed comfortable holding his new cub. At one point he even fed Lightning Bolt milk from a bottle.

Fully grown, Lightning Bolt will likely be able to run 65 mph at top speed, about 40 mph faster than his adopted father Usain. One cheetah at a Cincinnati zoo ran the 100 meters in just over six seconds, about 3.5 seconds faster than Bolt's human world record of 9.58. Some scientists with way too much time on their hands have also tried to apply the physics of a cheetah's running style in order to maximize the ability of human runners.

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The flame that will light the cauldron at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver next February was lit today by the sun's rays during a ceremony Ancient Olympia, Greece. After traveling to Canada next week, the flame will make a 106-day journey through Canada before the start of the Games on February 12.

Quick, what's the first thing that pops in your head when you think of figure skating? James Bond, right?

After watching the short program of defending world figure skating champion Kim Yu-Na at the Trophy Bompard Friday, that connection may not be as far-fetched as you'd think. The South Korean skating sensation, who will be the prohibitive favorite to win gold next February in Vancouver, performed a flawless routine set to a James Bond medley yesterday, earning a near-record 76.08 from the judges. 

For good measure, she mimicked Bond's famous gun pose at the end.

As Philip Hersh points out on the LA Times Olympics blog, Kim's score would have been good for third in the men's competition.

At the start of the fourth and final rotation at the women's gymnastics all-around world championship in London, it was clear that an American would be atop the medal stand. The only question remained was which American, Bridget Sloan or Rebecca Bross?

Sloan, the American all-around champion, hit a solid, if not difficult, floor routine. When Bross, who trains at the same gymnasium as Olympic all-around champion Nastia Liukin, took the floor, she knew she needed to nail the routine to win the championship. Her first two passes were good, but on her final pass, she fell forward, placing both hands onto the mat. With that, she only scored a 12.875. That pushed her to second place, opening the door for Sloan to win the world championship. Japan's Koko Tsumuri finished in third place.

An Olympian in Bejing, Sloan's experience showed with her calm demeanor and steadiness. Her win was marked by performances that weren't as high in difficulty as her competitors, but were clean. Bross had more difficulty and a near-perfect balance beam and bars, but the floor exercise mistake was too much to come back from. Tsumuri led through two rotations, but the lack of difficulty on her vault kept her from staying at the top of the leaderboard. 

This 1-2 finish for America comes a year after the U.S. took the gold and silver in the all-around at the Olympics with Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Though there are different people leading the pack, America still dominates women's gymnastics. On the other hand, China, who had been so dominant at the Beijing Olympics, fell behind today, as neither of their athletes placed in the top five.

As is expected in the year after an Olympics, most of the household names take time off, whether to heal and decide if they want to continue or retire outright. However, experience did pay off for one of the stars of the 2008 Olympic Games, Japan's Kohei Uchimura, who won the men's all-around on Thursday in London, the site of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The messy-haired Uchimura took silver in the All-Around at last year's games after falling twice on the pommel horse. There were no such errors today, as he scored a 16.050 on the vault, a 15.625 on a high-flying floor exercise and sealed his win with a thrilling high bar routine with several high-flying release moves that earned a 14.975.

Great Britain's hometown boy, Daniel Keatings, did not disappoint the London crowd, finishing second on the back of consistent scores. He edged out Russia's Yury Ryazanov who took home the bronze.

As expected, the American men were shut out. Newcomer Tim McNeill was in second place after the qualification round, but was knocked out of contention by a poor high bar score. He finished in seventh place. Last year's Olympic fan favorite, Jonathan Horton, fell on the floor exercise and never recovered. He finished in 17th place.

America's medal chances should improve on Friday when the women compete for the All-Around title. Rebecca Bross is in first place after the qualifiers, with her teammate Bridget Sloan in fifth place. 

The medals that will be awarded at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics were unveiled today, with organizers touting the awards' connections to Canada, utter uniqueness and hefty weight. What they didn't mention is that they look like microwaved frisbees:

The gold medal looks like it belongs in a bowl of potato chips at King Midas's house. So far I've heard people comment that the medals look like gelt, melted 45s or, as I thought, something from a Dali painting.

But before we get too critical, here are a few facts and explanations of how the medals came to get their, uh, interesting form:

-- The medals of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games are circular in shape and based on a large master artwork of an orca whale by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer/artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage. Each of the medals has a unique hand-cropped section of the abstract art, making every medal one-of-a-kind.

-- They are among the heaviest medals in Olympic, weighing between 500 grams to 576 g depending on the medal.

-- Each feature a different crop of larger contemporary Aboriginal artworks and are undulating rather than flat — both firsts in Games history.  The dramatic form of the Vancouver 2010 medals is inspired by the ocean waves, drifting snow and mountainous landscape found in the Games region and throughout Canada.

They're still ugly. But, as Lisa Diller wrote on the Olympics blog at The Los Angeles Times, no athlete is going to quibble about the strange design of an Olympic medal. However, the traditionalist in me likes a simple round shape, a reliefed, venue-specific design and the Olympic rings.

The Summer Games usually follow this design, opting for a traditional format for every Olympics which usually feature the goddess of victory, Nike, on the front and backs designed by organizers of the host city. The Winter Games have less rigid structures in place for medals, which is how you end up with Vancouver's waviness. At least they're gold, silver and bronze though and not glass medals like Albertville handed out in 1992 or, even worse, the Torino doughnuts.

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Now that six days have passed since Chicago's Olympic dreams were shattered by the spiteful IOC, we can laugh about the colossal failure of the bid. Right? Too soon? Too bad.

On Monday's show, Jon Stewart mocked Obama's "put the Olympics near my house" pitch and then hilariously demonstrated the five stages of Chicago-induced grief as exhibited by the American media. And, because it wouldn't be The Daily Show if Stewart didn't rip on conservatives, he gets in some digs at Republicans near the end of the clip. Feel free to skip the "correspondent" report which runs from the 1:40 to 5:00 mark:

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