Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto have a strong shot at winning a medal in Vancouver -- if they ever get there. Right now, the ice dancing pair who won silver in Turin are stopped by the same snowstorm that is paralyzing much of the country and has hit the east coast particularly hard. Belbin tweeted on Tuesday night:

Belbin and Agosto are hoping to get into town by Friday afternoon so that they can be a part of the Opening Ceremony. They're not scheduled to compete until Friday, Feb. 19, but most athletes arrive much earlier than their competition date to not only prepare for their events, but also to enjoy the Olympic experience.

On Friday, the 21st Winter Olympic games will kick off in Vancouver. More than 5,500 athletes will all be competing for some precious steel, but that isn’t the entire reason you should care. Here are 21 reasons why you, kind sirs and madams, should be excited for this year’s Olympic Games.

• Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, or as you can call him, the Snow Leopard. Kwame is Ghana’s first Winter Olympian, and will be competing in Alpine skiing. How easy is he to love? “No problem. Choo, choo, I’m the train which never stops,” he was quoted as saying. How did he get his nickname? Kwame is being sponsored by an online poker site, and any extra money he makes will be donated to save endangered snow leopards from extinction. Choo, choo indeed!

• Wives, turn away for a second. OK, guys, do this right now. Go to Sports Illustrated, find pictures of Lindsey Vonn, and smile. She’s the world’s best Alpine skier, she is American and she is absolutely beautiful, and not in that “she’s an athlete so she is pretty for an athlete” kind of way. Nope, this is “she walks in a bar and your buddy is going to nudge you” hot. But it isn't her looks that might make her a star. Vonn could win four gold medals in Vancouver. Now that's hot.

• You think NASCAR is fast? Take one night to watch skeleton. Seriously. For all the talk about obscure sports in the Olympics, the fact that people actually practice (and become good) at skeleton is insane. It’s like how Jerry Seinfield used to joke about the luge, only tougher, faster and with more risk.

• Here’s something to ponder: Arnold Schwarzenegger, a man made famous by performance-enhancing drugs, will carry the torch on Friday morning in a Games that is being tortured by, you guessed it, performance-enhancing drugs.

• Football is over. What else are you going to do? 

• He was the face of American sports in Turin, and Apolo Ohno will again be competing for medals in speedskating with the flash that has made him a face to remember. He might be 27, but he is still skating well, and needs one more medal to beat Eric Heiden for most by an American man. How is the outlook? In trials, Ohno won the finals in the 500 meter, the 1000 meter and the 1,500 meter, although he came in second in time trails to J.R. Celski in the 1,000 meter. He has said, “This is the strongest team we’ve had,” so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him take the medal stand a couple of more times before he leaves us for good.

• And while you’re at it, speedskating in general. What part of Shani Davis don’t you understand? Seriously, if you’re American, you need to love speedskating like you used to love figure skating. Here is an interesting stat: since 1924, speedskating has produced more gold medals in the United States than all other sports in the Winter Olympics … combined! Also, who doesn’t love Stephen Colbert?

• Unlike the World Cup, the Olympics will not have thunder sticks. Vancouver banned the annoying pieces of plastic, which makes me love Vancouver even more.

• Just to see if there is more snowfall in the month leading up to the Olympics in Arizona than in Vancouver.

• To laugh at Russia. See, the country that used to dominate the hell out of the Olympics until the big split has made the claim that its goal this winter is to take home 40 (40!!) medals, four more than the most ever by a country (Germany in 2002). To me, Russia has always been the Yankees of the Winter Olympics, so being able to laugh at it when it falls short (the Russians are projected to snag 21 medals) will be reason enough to tune in.

• Johnny Weir’s outfits.

• For Shaun White and his continued dominance in snowboarding. If you didn’t watch the X-Games, you missed White’s brutal practice crash that even left White in awe after watching his face catch the edge of the halfpipe. White will have tricks in his bag for this event, and anytime he’s in the air, your television should be tuned in.

• For the curling. Did you know it’s becoming more popular? There are 154 curling clubs in the United States, and like adult kickball, it’ll be gaining popularity. Also, like modern art, curling is one of the few sports people at home on their couch can look at and think to themselves, “Heck, I could do this.” That is, until you try and play it.

• You gotta watch something the Pope endorses. His words: I hope the Olympics can be “a valued building block of peace and friendship between peoples and nations.” I couldn’t have said it better if I was Pope.

• To actually utter these words for the first time in years: “I’m watching NBC, and I like it!”

• To watch Roberto Carcelén, the first Winter Olympian from Peru. He will be competing in cross-country skiing, but his story on how it all worked out is probably the best you’ll hear from Vancouver. Carcelén was planning on running a marathon in the United States, and decided to get online to meet some people before heading to America. Instantly, he met Kate, and the marathon was history. They met in March of 2003, were married in July, and Kate introduced Roberto to skiing. After watching the ’06 Winter Olympics, Carcelén vowed to become the first Peruvian in the Winter Games, and, umm, he did it.

• Talk about pride… India’s Shiva Keshavan is the only Olympian from the populous country, but wasn’t going to be able to compete because his sled broke and he didn’t have the scratch to fix it. No worries. Five Indian businessmen heard about the luger’s troubles, tossed in $10,000 each and now he is in the field in Vancouver.

• To see Bode Miller drop the crazy act and just ski. Miller is competing in all five Alpine events in Vancouver, even though, you know, he hasn’t even trained for two of them. Call him what you will, Miller will be a big draw at Vancouver.

• To make fun of the American’s outfits for the Opening Ceremony. I’d say it is Steve Martin mixed with a dash of Michael Cera’s bad character in “Youth in Revolt” coupled with what you used to think was cool in ninth grade.

• To see Canada win gold in hockey. Hey, it’s going to happen, but if for some fluke reason it didn’t, I win a bet against a very attractive female in Vancouver who will not be very happy with her country’s squad.

• Because, no matter what you say to yourself about the Winter Olympics, if you are a sports fan, you should care. It is our country competing against other nations in sports, the most universal thing in the world. No languages, no fashions, no styles … just who is better at that moment, and who can step up on the big stage. It is decades of training, sweat, blood, “I don’t want to” and “I can’t do it.” It is people’s entire reason of being, all wrapped up in 15 seconds of competition. It is what these athletes were meant to be doing, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

You're not going to believe this, but Shaun White is very rich. In fact, according to Forbes he's the richest Winter Olympian in Vancouver.

Joining White at the top of the list is South Korea's figure skating ace Kim Yu-Na. Both White and Yu-Na pulled in nearly $8 million last year from sponsorships, prize money, and other endorsements. Not bad for a 23 and 19-year-old.

After the $8 million dollar kids, the earnings drop off significantly with Sports Illustrated cover girl Lindsey Vonn coming in third with $3 million, followed by Alpine skier Ted Ligety's $2 million. Six more Olympians brought in at least a million last year including Americans Apolo Anton Ohno, Bode Miller, and Gretchen Bleiler.

The list doesn't include salaried athletes because that's not fair. The NHL players who will be competing in this year's Olympics make their money through their teams while these more traditional Olympians earn their living through sponsorships, which have decreased as the economy has tanked. Because of this, and the Winter Olympians' less marketable sports, endorsements have become harder to obtain. Just ask the American speedskating team who needed donations from Colbert Nation to stay afloat. Even the seemingly untouchable White was affected, as he lost American Express and Hewlett-Packard deals last year.

Nonetheless, there's still money to be made as an Olympian. But now it's a little harder to do. Probably not as hard as smashing up your face then winning $40,000 from the X Games though.

"... the federal government will continue to fund both summer and winter sport at $47-million per year. Some $11-million of that goes to winter athletes and $36-million to summer athletes.

"But the minister would go no further than that at a news conference that included Jackson and Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive officer Chris Rudge, saying it's going to be a 'tough budget.' "

The devil is due to be in the details. It's an easy win for the federal government. It gets to say it is holding up its end of the bargain. The onus gets deflected away to the corporate sector, which doesn't have to worry about regular general elections. It becomes easy to let it slide.

Witness:

Do I ever wish injury upon another man? Of course not. But when watching ski jumping next week will I yearn for a catastrophic fall that miraculously results in only minor scratches? Perhaps.

Thanks, SB Nation

The sports-industrial complex in Canada can be rather meh if there's not a stick and puck involved, so it's only natural to wonder if Own The Podium will end up as a one-off. That will be a major focus over the next couple news cycle. Michael Grange, The Globe & Mail's fine sportswriter, noted a couple hours ago:

"... lost amidst the impressive build up to 2010 is what might happen going forward.

"The $11 million the feds have pledged still leaves Own the Podium $17 million short of what they had to spend this year now that VANOC - the other funding partner - will cease to exist.

"Athletes don't know what's going to be out there for them after the Games wind up, and it's inevitable that corporate sponsorship will shrink once the Olympic spotlight fades.

"Some of the most important people in the lives of athletes are their strength coaches, massage therapists, nutritionists and sports psychologists. At the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary, where many of the people who fulfill exactly those functions work, 37 staff have been given layoff notices.

"The fear is that some of the very best ... will get scooped up to work for other countries; some already have according to CSCC president Dale Henwood."

In a word, it would be brutal if that came to pass.

In another, made-up word, it would be schadenfreulicious (the sweet taste of schadenfreude) for more than a few amateur sports diehards. They've spent years hammering on the point, mostly to deaf ears and closed minds, that Canada doesn't have a national sport policy. The notion of pulling on one rope to get the most out of a small population has never taken. In amateur sport, it's often like a city council meeting, everyone protecting their own little bailiwick.

What would it say about us if the if the podium is yanked out from under winter-sport athlete? It does not flatter us if we effecitively tell someone on course to hit her or his peak by 2014 or 2018, sorry, your parents should have given birth to you sooner.

The subtext with our sport development is we tend to take after the U.S. model, which works well for a country of 300 million people, but not so much for a northern nation of 33 million. It's bound to happen since they're next door, while Australia and European countries who punch above their weight in the Olympics are out of sight, out of mind.  Small wonder that, as Grange wrote for the dead-tree medium today, in Canada often "elite performance is a collision of accident, will and just enough money to get by."

One would hope, idealistically, Vancouver could make us better define ourselves as a sports nation, and that major corporations would hear that's in their interest not to totally cut their amount of sponsorship (it's bound to drop off somewhat). The optics reverting to form come Sochi in 2014 would be a great excuse for cynicism. Who wants that?

Scattered among the hosts are 18 former Olympians who have won a combined 16 medals. The most experienced commentator will be Dick Button, who is making his 17th Winter Olympics appearance after winning gold at the 1948 and 1952 Games. Several commentators will be making their debuts this Olympics, including Jonny Moseley, Lee Ann Parsley, and Jeremy Roenick who may make people's head's bleed.

Costas, of course, is an Olympics mainstay. He will be returning for his ninth stint as host of the Games. But joining him in the booth this year, after a 22-year Olympics absence, will be Al Michaels, the voice of the legendary "Do you believe in miracles?" call. Here's hoping he's a good luck charm.

As previously mentioned, NBC will be providing 835 hours of coverage in Vancouver. Spread between the 53 announcers, that's nearly 16 hours of talking per person if they never talked over each other. Now might be a good time to invest in a throat lozenge company.

Full announcer list after the jump.

ALPINE SKIING

Tim Ryan
Todd Brooker
Christin Cooper
Steve Porino

BOBSLED/LUGE/SKELETON

Bob Papa
Duncan Kennedy (Luge)
John Morgan (Bobsled)
Lea Ann Parsley (Skeleton)
Lewis Johnson

CROSS COUNTRY & BIATHLON

Al Trautwig
Chad Salmela

CURLING

Andrew Catalon
Don Duguid
Colleen Jones
Elfi Schlegel

FIGURE SKATING

Tom Hammond
Sandra Bezic
Scott Hamilton
Tracy Wilson
Andrea Joyce

FREESTYLE SKIING

Todd Harris
Jonny Moseley
Tina Dixon

HOCKEY

Mike Emrick
Kenny Albert
Eddie Olczyk
AJ Mleczko
Pierre McGuire
Joe Micheletti
Mike Milbury
Cammi Granato
Jeremy Roenick

SHORT TRACK

Ted Robinson
Andy Gabel
Andrea Joyce

SNOWBOARDING

Pat Parnell
Todd Richards
Tina Dixon

SPEED SKATING

Dan Hicks
Dan Jansen
Andrea Kremer

SKI JUMPING

Matt Vasgersian
Jeff Hastings

Vonn, a favorite to win three gold medals at next week's Winter Olympics, is featured in a multi-page photo spread in SI's annual swimsuit issue, which was released Tuesday. Inside the issue (and online at SI.com), there are pictures of Vonn in a ski chalet, sitting in a sauna, standing on the slopes and posing with a rescue helicopter, all while wearing various bikinis, of course.

If you were one of the misguided few who were upset with Vonn's semi-suggestive cover pose, then these 45 swimsuit pictures are likely to fan the flames even more. Calls of  objectification and sexism by the media will doubtlessly intensify. It's a tired refrain though. 

Vonn isn't a good looking athlete, she's a great athlete who happens to be good looking. She's Chris Evert, not Anna Kournikova. (The latter once posed for SI, the former did not.) By the end of these Olympics there's a reasonable chance Vonn will become one of the most decorated American Winter Olympians of all time. It will have everything to do with her athletic ability and nothing to do with how attractive she is. So she looks good in a swimsuit. Why shouldn't she use that to help market herself?

To fans of sport, one thing has long been clear. In two weeks, it should become readily apparent to everyone else, including the critics: Lindsey Vonn is way more than just a pretty face.

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Suffice to say, a little added pressure on the home team is part of the host broadcaster's mandate for these Olympics. No one's judging. That's just how it's going to be, for the next 2½ weeks. You really needed to see it to believe CTV's coverage on Monday about who might be the first Canadian to win a gold medal on home soil. There were promos in prime time teeing up Saturday, focusing on Jennifer Heil in women's moguls, Charles Hamelin in short-track speed skating and Manuel Osborne-Paradis in the men's downhill. The second item on the CTV National News was essentially an extended treatment of the same theme (it would be too obvious to put it first).

Look at this way: the CTV Olympic Consortium didn't pay to air a 17-day sports version of Lowered Expectations. (Some would say that is the CBC's job, starting in Sochi in 2014.) So, who is it going to be?

Osborne-Paradis is the AP's pick to win the men's downhill, which begins around 2:45 p.m. EST. If it's not him, then Hamelin and Heil have their events concurrently, beginning in the 10-11 p.m. EST window. That would be something, if they both go off around the same time.

Heil comes into the Games riding a four-event win streak in moguls. It would be fitting, given the female athletes accounted for 16-of-24 Canadian medals in Turin four years ago, if a woman won the first. Meantime, Hamelin is racing in men's 1,500 meters, which isn't his best event.

Honestly, Heil feels like the stone-cold lead-pipe lock of the three. She's been winning, and men's downhill and short track by nature are unpredictable. She's consistent. (Thank you, Joe Morgan.)

Meantime, please don't be indulge that inner fatalist which believes disaster lurks. Too much pressure? The athletes have access to sports psychologists and such 24/7. No worries there.

Stop projecting. Canadians have a collective memory of Olympic hopefuls who fell on their face and quote, unquote dashed a nation's hopes. There is major memory burn associated with  Aug. 24, 2004 at the Athens Summer Games, when in the space of a few hours Perdita Felicien fell in the women's 100-metre hurdles and diver Alex Despatie only got silver in men's three-metre springboard.

It will be different this time. It is best to push out any of our characteristic pessimism. The media has been hammering out the storyline about a Canadian finally winning a medal on home soil, ice, snow for months (cue the cute kids: "It didn't happen in Montreal!" ... "It didn't happen in Calgary!").

It was always romantic when our first gold seemed to fall from the sky, when it was someone unexpected. Well, we are past that now. If Heil comes through, it might seem anticlimactic, but at least that media trope will be buried for good.

Things aren't looking too great for the United States ski jumping team. The team, who has not been fully funded since 2006, won't be attending Friday evening's Opening Ceremony because they have qualifying jumps that morning at the Whistler location. Even worse, if they don't qualify that morning, they're out of the Games before they start.

It's been a struggle for the U.S. ski jumpers basically since the start of the Olympics. With just a single bronze medal in 1924, the team has not enjoyed a great deal of success. After the 2006 Olympics, the ski jumpers formed their own team out of necessity. Since then, the jumpers have worked odd jobs, found sponsors, and relied on family for the $20,000 needed annually to continue competing. And it hasn't been easy. Team member Anders Johnson told the Associated Press, "It's really difficult to do with how the economy is now...And it's an even bigger sacrifice for our family to work that extra bit to keep that Olympic dream alive for us."

The skiers themselves are optimistic, perhaps a sign of their youth. Ranging in age from 17-21, the jumpers have left high school and put off college to chase their dreams. Nick Alexander, elderstatesman of the team at all of 21, confidently said to the New York Times, "We'll be up there one day."

With the determination they've shown thus far, he's probably right.

Previously, Jean-Claude Killy is just loungin'.

Gold, Magic32: "Bro! Mammoth will be rizzagin' with honeys, bro! Checklist: Shades on head? Check! Sweater over the shoulders? Check! Teeth whitener? Check! Kardashians will totally be on this, bro!"

Silver, Cursor: "Ski trendy. Ski with style. Ski with a sweater around your neck."

Bronze, Rob R: "This ensemble says, 'Yeah, I'm going skiing and deer hunting ... but I'm going to look good doing it.' "

Elana Meyers, a Southerner and the daughter of an NFL player (Falcons RB Eddie Meyers), always dreamed of being an Olympian, and honed her skills as a softball player to make that dream come true. Now, after softball has been dropped from the Olympic slate, Meyers is an Olympian. A bobsledding Olympian.

Meyers is part of the U.S. two-man bobsled team after picking up the sport two years ago. She was invited to bobsledding camp by the USOC after a tryout for the softball national team did not work out. The poor softball tryout ended up being a blessing in disguise after softball was dropped and Meyers took so well to bobsledding.

Now, Meyers finds herself as the only Olympian from Georgia. She has gone on her own personal PR campaign, cajoling Atlanta radio stations over Twitter to interview her. "Did you know there is a Georgian on the roster of the 2010 US Olympic team? Bobsledder Elana Meyers from Douglasville."

The video is part of a companion piece that McGinley did for the Times called "The Highfliers." The photo series captures high-flying Olympic athletes such as Shaun White, Hannah Teter, and Johnny Weir fighting gravity as best they can. The pictures, as well as the video, are absolutely essential viewing.

(via Hypebeast)

Since most sports fans only check in on Olympic sports every four years, Fourth-Place Medal is here to help. Here are the basics of skeleton, a sport that is conservatively called the craziest sport in the history of sport.

What is this sport about? It's about hurtling your body down a bobsled track on a tiny sled, headfirst, as quickly as possible.

Seriously? Yes, seriously. The sliders -- as they are called -- can experience up to 5Gs of force on a run, which is roughly equivalent to a Formula One car moving fully breaking under maximum speeds. Unlike Formula One cars, their sleds have no brakes or steering.

Then how do they keep from flying off the surface of the bobsled track, or, say, the Earth? Their bodies. They control the movement of the sled by making slight changes in body positions. See why this is an Olympic sport?

Yes. So, who is going to win? As in many Olympic sports, the Canadians dominate. Canadians are expected to win gold in both men's and women's skeleton, with Jon Montgomery and Melissa Hollingsworth leading the way. Great Britain is pinning their medal hopes on Shelley Rudman, who won a silver in Turin, and Germany expects to be in the running as well. 

When do I tune in to watch this craziness? Both men's and women's skeleton competitions, including the medal heats, are on February 19.

Tim Thomas sports the deadly bird/cat combo mask, complete with Team USA logo on the crown. Extra points are given for the blood red eyes in each animal.

Jonathan Quick's mask features dueling eagles, so that no matter which way you look at him, you're terrified to shoot.

Each mask was airbrushed by Canadian artist Steve Nash (not the basketball player) for Eyecandyair, and they each feature fearsome birds, which must be this Olympics' mask theme.

Of the two, I prefer Thomas' mask because Quick's eagles remind me too much of something that you would see on the back of a truck. However, you really can't go wrong with either of these masks.

What do you think of these masks? Let us know in the comments!

To this day, one of the strangest things in the history of the world is Arnold Schwarzenegger's career path. From steroid-using bodybuilder to the world's biggest action star to governor of California, which is still one of the most unbelievable things ever. To that list of bizarre triumphs Schwarzenegger can add Olympic torch carrier.

As California's "green governor," Schwarzenegger has forged a relationship with British Columbia's "green premier" Gordon Campbell and Vancouver's "green mayor" Gregor Robertson, leading to his selection as torch carrier. Despite zero Canadian heritage, Schwarzenegger will join Canadian heroes such as Steve Nash (two time NBA MVP), Walter Gretzky (father of Wayne Gretzky), and Michael Bublé (singer my mom really likes).

Even more perplexing is that Schwarzenegger will carry the torch on Friday morning, a scant twelve hours before the Opening Ceremony begins, meaning that an Austro-American politician will be a major figure during one of Canada's finest moments. If in a few years Arnold Schwarzenegger is somehow the Prime Minister of Canada, I will not be surprised.

The first step was the creation of two 10,000 square-foot "polyclinics." These clinics will be located in Vancouver and Whistler, and each will house imagining, laboratory, and pharmacy services. The hope is that the creation of these two clinics will help ease the strain on local hospitals who may not be able to handle the influx of visitors. The Whistler polyclinic will even be equipped with a mobile surgical unit that will be used in "life or limb" situations.

Another important part of the health plan is fighting the flu. While organizers do not expect the H1N1 virus to be a problem in Vancouver, they are prepared to fight seasonal flu. 5,000 flu vaccinations have been purchased by VANOC for their staff, while a local organization, Vancouver Coastal Health, is footing the bill for 20,000 volunteer vaccinations.

And of course, if you put a few thousand athletes in a closed village, there's bound to be talk of sex. Health officials are providing 100,000 condoms to the athletes, and they're expecting to use them. According to Canadian skier Emily Brydon, "What happens at Olympic Village stays at Olympic village. There's a lot of stress pent up over the week, so it's safe to say that some good times happen." In Beijing, the same number of condoms were distributed and only 5,000 were left over. Naturally, these were snatched up by a collector.

For all the troubles they're having with the weather, and no one wanting the Olympics to be there, it seems like VANOC has done a superb job of preparing for the Olympics from a public health standpoint. 

Asada, the Japanese figure skater who is expected to medal at this year's Olympics, is a huge hit among Vancouver area merchants who have created dishes based on the star.

First was the Mao roll, which is the creation of Hitomi Ishikura, a local sushi store manager. According to Ishikura, the skater helped design the roll, insisting that avocado be excluded due to her dislike of the delicious fruit.

More recent is the Mao dog, which is being sold by a Vancouver street vendor. The Mao dog is made from Kobe beef, dipped in tongkatsu sauce, and sprinkled with gold and red tofu maple leaves that allude to Asada's quest to win gold in Canada. It goes for $10 and is sold from Noriki Tamura's Japadog street cart. With only 20 Mao dogs made each day, the treats usually sell out by lunch.

But the most ingenious part of Tamura's meal is the way he cuts the hot dog. Tamura told the Vancouver Sun, "We cut the sausage three times to symbolize her triple axels." Brilliant.

Photos of the food after the jump.

The Mao dog.

The Mao roll.

Grammar nerds rise up against the use of "podium" as a verb. Don't mess with grammar nerds. (New York Times)

Hot Winter Olympians. Granted, quite a few of these athletes didn't make the Olympic team, but they're still hot, so we won't quibble. (Zap2It)

Follow the Olympic torch as it makes its way to Vancouver for Friday's Opening Ceremony. (Vancouver 2010)

Work out to snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler's playlist. I appreciate her inclusion of Citizen Cope and Salt 'n' Pepa. (Fitness Magazine)

U.S. hockey player Angela Ruggiero once turned down a job offer from Donald Trump so that she could keep playing hockey at an Olympic level. (USA Today)

Frozen Medal Stand is the Fourth-Place Medal collection of links, news and other Olympic ephemera. If you want something included, send it here.

I'm not sure why you'd want to do this, or even why it's available, but if you want head on over to NBC's Olympic site and watch live footage of the Whistler Olympic village. There is no sound. There is only one camera which you have no control over. And there's not even that many people there yet.

I've had it open for at least 10 minutes, just popping over occasionally to see if anything's happening. Besides about 25 people wearing red jackets, there's nothing. I guess it could be good for keeping up-to-date on weather, and there's a miniscule chance you could see an Olympian walking around. But it's totally fascinating, especially in slow motion.

It's certainly worth checking out for just a few minutes, even if nothing happens. It's like being there, without being there. Let's hope this is available throughout the Olympics because I can imagine some pretty excellent party footage after the Games.

Bob Weeks, the dean of Canadian curling writers, has a great feature on Lino Di Iorio, a Toronto-area inventor who is an analog to what the USSR was to hockey in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, or what Bill James was to baseball analysis.

To an outsider, curling is very instinctive game. Di Iorio has tried to get that down to a science, particularly with his "idea of interval timing, using stopwatches that allow a sweeper to know instantly if a rock is heavy or light" and new equipment. He's the one who came up with the Bottom Plus Slider that "better distributes the player's weight and creates a more even slide. Almost every top player in the game swears by it."  

The former is the difference between a ballplayer just knowing what a pitcher throws and having an on-screen graphic of pitch f/x data. The rub is the highers-up in Canada have given Di Iorio the brush-off. All of this is framed by the expectation Canada should win each curling gold.

It is dollars-to-doughnuts that if you polled 100 Canadians, and asked one of those leading questions pollsters love, "Should Canada be favored to sweep" -- note the pun -- "the gold medals in curling?" most would say yes. Remember The Associated Press medal projections from last week? The Canadian skips (Kevin Martin and Cheryl Bernard) weren't even mentioned by name, but the wire service called them to win gold. 

That lends itself to make Di Lorio's work fascinating, at least to a sports obsessive.

"With degrees in physics and math, he has worked out a variety of systems that have been snapped up by numerous countries looking to gain an edge on the rest of the world.

"So successful is his work that the one country that hasn't bought into it - Canada - is in danger of falling behind when it comes to research into the game. Di Iorio may end up doing more to knock Canada off its perch as the world's top curling nation than any person actually throwing a rock or sweeping a broom.

"It's frustrating for Di Iorio because he tried several times to work with Canadian curling but was always turned down. And now there's some insult added to the injury.

"Two weeks ago, at two separate press conferences, the Canadian Curling Association and the Canadian Olympic Committee trumpeted great results into research done on sweeping and the delivery. The studies, one at the University of Western Ontario and another at the University of Alberta, were funded by the Own the Podium program and received great attention in the news media.

"However, elsewhere in the world, the curling fraternity was snickering. Much of what was discovered in these studies was already common knowledge to those who had been working with Di Iorio."

The official explanation is there was no money for research. This country wins the men's worlds about 60 percent of the time and the women's roughly half the time. The thinking, at least from a post-hoc point of view, is why research how to improve at a game we've clearly mastered. Of course, that gets into nature vs. nurture. Does Canada really that smart, or is it just strength in numbers?

It wouldn't be the first time Canada was caught behind the curve in a game it was used to dominating. Way back when in hockey, Canada assumed it was best since it had never really been challenged. The USSR came along with advanced systems and better methods of training, and owned international hockey for about 30 years (notwithstanding the odd Summit Series and Canada Cup).

The difference this time is the innovator is one of our own. As Weeks relates, Di Iorio has already offered help to one Olympic curling gold medallist not from Canada (Norway's Pal Trulsen, who won the gold medal at Salt Lake City in 2002) and he's helped out Great Britain's gold medal contender, David Murdoch, who also is defending world champion.

In some sense, Canada has underachieved since curling became a full medal sport, with one gold and two silvers on the men's side and one gold and two bronzes for the women. Curling's not a sport that lends itself to the second-guessing you hear on sports talk radio (everyone tends to fall in line with the game's pieties), but people should wonder if a double gold is not realized.

If Canada can't pull that off curling on home ice, perhaps Lino Di Iorio will be more sought-out in his homeland. 

And I thought you couldn't get any more American than a muscle-bound Uncle Sam showing off his tattoos and flaming hockey stick. I was wrong. This side is like listening to Grand Funk Railroad while eating apple pie and declaring independence from your tyrannical overlords, but in mask form. It doesn't get more American than that.

As previously mentioned, the mask is designed by Warwick Mask & Equipment, Inc. with the actual paint job done by Bishop Designs. The Michigan-based design shop is also doing the Czech Republic's Tomas Vokoun's mask. While it's not quite as awesome as Ryan Miller's, it's a nice two-toned look that's got some fearsome birds, which seems to be the way to go for the Vancouver Olympics.

Photos of both masks after the jump.

The right side of Miller's mask, now in higher resolution.

The left side of Tomas Vokoun's mask. 

The right side of Vokoun's mask.

Clearly Miller has the superior mask here, but what do you think? Is this the best mask ever? Is Tomas Vokoun going to be sad when he finds out his mask was done at the same place as Ryan Miller's? Let us know in the comments.

"The U.S. Speed Skating Association, along with the Dutch Speed Skating Association (KNSB), have formally asked officials that the Oval's neon green blocks be replaced with a color that's more clearly visible to the speed skaters.

"Several skaters have complained that the markers blend in with the ice and are difficult to see, making them a hazard as athletes race by at excessive speeds."

It's understandable there would be concern. Color association is vital for athletes in fast-moving sports. Joe Montana once said he knew to get rid of the ball when the dominant color in front of him started to shift to that of opposing team's jersey. In his Edmonton Oiler days, Wayne Gretzky struggled against the rival New York Islanders because they wore the same pants (blue with orange trim).

A world-class speed skater is used to the markers being red. Couple this with the media furore over how much (or how little) opportunity U.S. and other foreign competitors have had to be acclimatized to the oval, and it could come into play come Friday.

Previously, "What? Me worry?"

Gold, Rob R: "So then the skier says, "Giant Slalom?! I don't even KNOW him!"

Silver, Cursor: "I have to say when I was flying over here I was at an all time...... high"

Bronze, tony: "Snow? We got Dal Richards! We don't need no stinking snow."

But if Wonder Bread keeps making commercials like this one, they'll be sure to win back some of the supermarket share. Check it out.

Be careful, little bobsledders!

There's nothing better than kids acting like grown-ups, and that includes Charles Barkley and Lamar Odom eating Taco Bell. Close, but no cigar.

Cars and cash prizes are being used as incentives for the Russian athletes, but the goal seems a little far-fetched. OK, a lot far-fetched.

First, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and subsequent reemergence of the Russian national team at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, the country has won only 76 medals total. Second, during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, the team brought home just 22 medals. But most discouraging is the fact that the most medals ever won by any country in a single Winter Olympics is 36, by Germany at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

So basically, Russia wants to almost double its last Winter Olympics medal count, while accounting for more than half of its all-time Winter Olympics medal count, which will break the record for most medals at a Winter Olympics. And those 40 medals will be coming in just 86 events. It's a lofty goal.

Does this sound realistic? Nyet, but it's always nice to have goals.

Here Ohno is getting excited for his trip to Vancouver. He won't admit it, but he wanted to use an exclamation point rather than an ellipses there at the end.

The saga continues after the jump...

He has arrived! Early! And he's making up for skipping that last exclamation point.

It seems Apolo enjoys his Ralph Lauren gear. I'm guessing the white pants are a favorite.

Ahhhhh, morning in Vancouver. So crisp and sunny. No rain (or snow?). This certainly warrants a smiley face.

Uh oh. Why does Apolo need to "take the edge off?" Is this something we should be worried about. Don't do anything crazy Apolo, it's just team pictures.

Quick! Someone go chill with Apolo Anton Ohno! He is training at 9 pm, but after that you can chill in Vancouver. He needs you.

Will Apolo Anton Ohno get someone to chill with him? Will he be able to "take the edge off?" Stay tuned to Apolo Anton Ohno's Twitter feed to find out.

Ticketing vice-president Caley Denton said yesterday that officials have been scouring each venue to determine final media and camera placings, and that process is now yielding more room for the public. The extra seats may produce up to a thousand added admissions to the gala opening ceremonies on Friday, Denton said, plus fresh tickets to all other Olympic events. Besides men's hockey, they include high-demand competitions such as figure skating, speed skating and the women's hockey final.

How will you come upon these tickets? A little bit of luck, and a little bit of internet stalking.

VANOC isn't organizing a big online sale for these tickets that open up. They will likely notify their followers on Twitter, and release the tickets quietly on the ticket sale portion of their official Web site.

That means if you want to happen upon prized Olympic tickets, you need to stay on the internet and follow VANOC on Twitter. The refresh button is your friend.  

There seems to be this sense of great confidence, even invincibility about the Russians. They are a ridiculous offensive juggernaut with arguably the best goaltending in their country's history. They are led by the best player on the planet, but more importantly he has set the tone for the team.

If the Canadians, Americans or any other nation is going to beat Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and the Russians, they'll have to topple the best men's hockey program in the world, according to the pre-Olympic ranking by the International Ice Hockey Federation:

Boy, the Germans must feel peachy being ranked behind a team that's not even in the tournament.

Now, these point totals aren't specific to the actual Russian team hitting the ice next week. They are computed based on the long-term success or failure for a national team program (formula found here). So Russia's wins in the last two IIHF world championship tournaments were weighed heavily, while its fourth-place finish in the 2006 Turin Games was dropped from the rankings because of the IIHF's "four-year cycle" for points. 

In essence, it's Poindexter math-lete stuff, but it's also confirmation that the Russians are the hockey bullies heading into the tournament. Which is refreshing in a "Rocky IV" sort of way. It also relegates Canada to underdog status, which seemed pretty darn near impossible with this roster.

Speaking of Canadian underdogs: The U.S. women are ranked ahead of Canada by the IIHF, and like Russia have captured the last two world championship gold medals. Yeah, that'll bring the blood down from its boiling point in that rivalry.

1. Asian women are the ones to beat: South Korean Kim Yu-Na and Japanese skaters Miki Ando, Mao Asada and Akido Suzuki have made the most waves on the international skating world this season. Yu-Na won the Grand Prix final and is the defending world champion. Asada landed two triple axels -- a jump that is rarely completed by women -- in the Four Continents Championships, the last tune-up before Vancouver. 

2. Yevgeny Pleshenko is back and better than before: The Russian figure skater blew the competition away in Torino with his soaring jumps, but retired after winning the gold medal. In the grand tradition of sports retirements, it only lasted a few years, as he is competing again. After spending years on the Icecapade circuit, Pleshenko is more comfortable with the artistic aspect of figure skating, which was the one weakness he had in 2006. He is now the complete package. If he is on in Vancouver and hits his routine, he will be unbeatable. 

3. Americans can win gold, just not where you're used to seeing it. After years of dominating ladies figure skating, the U.S. has amazing skaters in ice dancing and men's figure skating. Evan Lysacek is the defending men's world champion, but can still be beat by the defending U.S. champion, Jeremy Abbott. Depending on the day, Johnny Weir is a threat to medal, as well.

In ice dancing, the race will likely come down to two American pairs and a Russian pair. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto have a silver medal from Torino, but Meryl Davis and Charlie White beat them at the U.S. championships held in January. They're both vulnerable to Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, the defending world champions who have been mired in controversy over their original dance. (For more on ice dancing, check out our Average Fan's Guide.)

4. The scoring is different, and less likely to be corrupt. Forget looking for perfect 6.0s from the United Nations panel of judges. Now, two sets of scores are added together to get the final score. One, the technical score, is the aggregate for all the technical elements -- jumps, spins and footworks -- performed correctly in the routine. Judges decide on if the elements were performed correctly. The technical score is added in with the program score, which judges award on skating skills, transitions, performance, choreography and interpretation.

The two scores added together make the segment score, and the segment scores from the parts of competition -- short program and free skate for ladies', men's and pairs', and compulsory dance, original dance and free dance for ice dancing -- add up to make the final score, which decides who gets gold.

Sounds confusing? Yes, it is at first but much like the new gymnastics scoring that most fans learned about in 2008, it makes more sense when you see it in practice. The scoring system has been criticized for being too focused on athleticism, but after scandals in scoring tore through the sport, a more objective system was needed.

5. It's a rebuilding year for the American ladies. You may have been captivated by Mirai Nagasu's bubbliness on the ice or Rachael Flatt's workmanlike win, but don't have high expectations for these women to bring home the gold like Kristi Yamaguchi, Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes before them. They don't have the same technical ability as Asada, Yu-Na, Suzuki and Ando. 

Iran has been competing in the Winter Olympics since 1956, but the country has never sent a woman participant to the Games. Until this year. In just a few days, Marjan Kalhor will be the first female Winter Olympian in the history of Iran.

Training in the Alborz mountain range north of Tehran, Kalhor began skiing at age four. But it wasn't until a National Youth Championship that the skier considered truly pursuing the sport, saying the win "[gave] me ideas." By 16, Kalhor won bronze at a competition in Turkey, and two years later she took home gold in slalom and silver in giant at a Lebanese event.

As the first Iranian woman in Winter Olympics history, Kalhor has been selected to carry the country's flag in the Opening Ceremony, much like Homa Hosseini, the female Iranian rower who carried the flag at the Beijing Olympics. While in Vancouver, Kalhor will abide by the strict dress code set forth by the Islamic Republic. In the Olympic village she will wear the traditional headscarf, but on the slopes, she'll dress like all the other skiers. According to Kalhor, "Skiing is a sport which needs you to be fully clothed. So as far as the uniform for the competition goes, there is no problem — I'll observe the Islamic dress code."

Kalhor isn't expected to medal in Vancouver, but is focused on giving her best effort on the world's biggest stage. Sometimes, it doesn't take a medal to be a winner.

The Make-a-Wish Foundation had booked several rooms with the cruise ship for 54 families from Australia, Canada and the U.S. When word came that the cruise and hotel weren't going to happen, Make-a-Wish thought they had to cancel the dreams of all 54 families.

That's when Jet Set Sports, a company that provides corporate hospitality at the Olympics, offered to help. They provided lodging for the stranded families, allowing the children's Olympic dreams to come true.

One child, Matthew Vocino, who has congenital muscular dystrophy, is a fanatic for Team Canada hockey. His father calls him a "rink rat," and was devastated when he thought he couldn't go to the Olympics. Now, he will get to see his favorite team play.

As a follow-up to Friday's post about the Olympic torch relay, comes word that that organizers found a spot on the final day of the relay for, wait, Dal Richards, who, thank goodness for quick copying-and-pasting, is, "B.C.'s 92-year-old big band legend." That means who is below age 75 and east of the Rocky Mountains has ever heard of him, but back in the day he was part of a boys' band that won, "top honours among competitors across North America at the 1933 world's fair in Chicago" and he played with Bing Crosby, whose likeness you might remember being used after his death to sell vacuum cleaners on TV 20 years ago.

Really, that is so much more pertinent to the 2010 Olympics than Lee-Gartner being the only Canadian, female or male, to have won a gold medal in the demanding Olympic downhill. 

Nothing against Dal Richards. Apparently, he is world-famous all over British Columbia's Lower Mainland. Surely he'll arry this off with a dignity and enthusiasm beyond some men about, oh, 60 or so years his junior.

There's a quote in the above-linked article that this is "a great way for the city to say thanks to him and it's a great way for him to say thanks to the world," but is it really an appropriate to include a local celebrity who knew a lot of famous dead people, while Kerrin Lee-Gartner gets snubbed? That's a column worth writing for some of the traditional-media folk.

The one step farther is this is typical of self-involved Vancouver, celebrating its own at the expense of developing broader perspective. That's a polite way of getting around calling them rubes. You know how Canucks fans think Trevor Linden had a better NHL career than Mark Messier? Now it all makes sense.

The biggest obstacle on Lindsey Vonn's quest for Olympic history may not be another competitor. It could be Mother Nature.

Rain and balmy temperatures are threatening to disrupt the Olympic skiing program at Whistler beginning next Sunday. Seven-day models are calling for wet, warm weather, a meteorological quirk which could throw a wrench into Vonn's pursuit of five medals. A compacted schedule and a compromised course are the main issues.

Vonn will be competing in all five women's ski races, stretched out over 13 days. (Some of her top rivals will also compete in five, but other medal hopefuls are specialists and compete in fewer events). If a race has to be postponed due to weather, the protocol in Olympics and World Championships is to keep the rest of the schedule intact and to fit in the moved event during an off-day.

The women's skiing schedule for Vancouver is as follows:

Sunday, February 14 -- Super combined

Wednesday, February 17 -- Downhill

Saturday, February 20 -- Super giant slalom

Wednesday, February 24 -- Giant slalom

Friday, February 26 -- Slalom

That's a front-loaded schedule for Vonn, whose best medal chances for gold come in the first three races (she's the prohibitive favorite in the downhill and super-G). It sets up very well for her. A move of her marquee events to later in the schedule wouldn't be welcome, particularly given the wrist injury Vonn has been nursing the past few weeks. Having the downhill at the beginning allows Vonn to be fresh, rather than fatigued from a prolonged schedule. (Most world cup meets usually last one weekend.)

A bigger issue may be the condition of the course. When weather threatens a ski competition (as it often has at Whistler -- two World Cup events were canceled in the '90s), organizers often use a process called injecting to make the course more consistent and resistant to unwelcome weather. The downside is that injecting can leave a course icy and the skiers at a greater risk of injury.

Vonn is among the biggest critics of the technique:

"It's not ski racing anymore. I don't think it does anyone a service to have it this difficult. It doesn't look good on TV...

"Since the injections, the women have had a lot more injuries. You know, it's not appropriate for women's racing. ... I personally do not think that they need to be injecting the course."

Her husband likened the process to car racing officials randomly throwing oil slicks down on the track. 

All skiers have to ski the same mountain, so it's not like weather will only be a problem for Vonn. But America's Olympic sweetheart has the most to lose if it becomes one.

Other popular Yahoo! Sports blog posts:
• Olympian's controversial SI cover
• Johnny Weir talks smack, defends his sport
• U.S. snowboarding outfits causing a rift

I'm not entirely sure how that promotes Nestlé Crunch, but I'll cop to wanting to eat some kind of chocolate. The only thing that would be stranger is if they wrestled in Ohno's other sponsor's product. However, I don't quite understand the logistics of wrestling in potatoes. Someone would roll an ankle for sure.

"I am an effeminate person ... but in no way does that make me less macho." Right on.

Yeah, Weir's costumes and performances are over-the-top, but that's who he is. He'll put on some crazy hats and karaoke Carrie Underwood because he likes crazy hats and Carrie Underwood. If that loses him some fans, so be it. But him staying true to himself certainly endears him to audiences around the world.

And he ends with an excellent zinger. That's a sure-fire way to win people over.

Just a week after Johnny Weir changed his costume to placate animal rights activists, the Russian ice dance team who made headlines with their controversial costumes have decided to change their costumes. Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin will alter the outfits they will wear for the original dance in Vancouver. Their original costumes, supposedly intended to honor Australian Aboriginies, offended Aboriginal groups.

Domnina and Shabalin are not changing their music or the dance. At this point, why go halfway? Aboriginal leaders have said that the music and dancing has nothing to do with Aboriginal culture. The music and dance are still offensive, just like the costumes. If you're going to offend people no matter what, why change costumes?

Clearly, Domnina and Shabalin are two people who rarely go halfway. They won the world championships in 2009 and the European Championships last month. Even in their costuming, they're all in. See?

Already the best in the world, White's new physique has caught the eye of opposing coaches. Canadian snowboard coach Tom Hutchinson told The Canadian Press, "He was a pretty small guy -- you see him now, the guy has worked out. He's gotten big because he realizes that the crashes are getting so hard. You need to be in good shape."

White, who skateboards competitively in the offseason, says that his second sport helps his reflexes and how to find the ground when he's spinning. He also has talked about a workout routine that he follows. However, White and his coach are reticent to give the details of his training regimen outside of the fact that he does go to the gym and he plays the guitar. So basically he's any college sophomore. He just happens to have a secret halfpipe and several world championships.

The Canadian curling team didn't like that image, and has done everything they can to change it. First stop, the uniforms. Gone are the polos and sweaters. They've been replaced by stylish, body-hugging shirts and jackets that were modeled after soccer and Formula One togs. 

Those are pretty sweet, and available for purchase here, if you'd like to make yourself as fashionable as a Canadian Olympic curler. 

Next, the curlers had to take a hard look at themselves. The sport had stereotypes of rotund athletes. These days, throw that idea out the window.

In the run-up to curling as a demonstration sport in the 1988 Calgary Winter Games, the Canadian Curling Association held a selection camp at which a number of prominent players - Ed Werenich being the most notable - were told to lose weight if they wanted to be considered for the team. The story was so believable and humorous, it made the front page of many newspapers. But all that's in the past now. These days, the curlers may not be ready to rival a cross-country skier for stamina or bobsledder for muscles, but they are certainly in top shape.

Curlers are even touting their sport as a great way to get in shape. John Morris, a member of the Canadian curling team expected to win gold in Vancouver, recently penned the book, "Fit to Curl," focused on curling-specific fitness.

So when you see that svelte, sexy Olympian walking through the Olympic Village or being interviewed on television, don't assume it's a cross country skier or a bobsledder. It may just be a curler. 

It first came to light in October that the CTV Olympic Consortium, the host broadcaster for the games, was using some of its talent, ranging from national treasures such as The Globe & Mail lead sports columnist Stephen Brunt (the best sportswriter in North America) to teleprompter jockeys such as Ben Mulroney, to run in the torch relay.

Essentially, spots in the torch relay were basically sold as part of the sponsorship package. Olympic heroes of yore were SOL, but so what, eh?

This sticks in the jock-idealist craw. The latest, as related by William Houston of Truth & Rumours and Randy Starkman of the Toronto Star, has seized upon Kerrin Lee-Gartner, who in 1992 won Canada's first and only Olympic downhill gold medal, being left out of the torch relay. Never mind the games are being held in her home province and the relay went through Calgary, the former Olympic city where she resides.

Lee-Gartner called the appropriate people to ask if they could find a spot for her. They never called back. Former figure skating pairs medallist and commentator Debbie Wilkes subsequently related to Starkman that she applied to carry the torch and was passed over.

Honestly? It is understandable where Gartner and veteran sports journalists are coming from. It reeks. It also goes in one ear and out the other if you take the Olympics as is, rather than as you imagine it should be.

There is nothing but undying respect on this end for William Houston. One suspects most people would side with his take:

"It is inappropriate for journalists to carry the Olympic torch, particularly those who will be in Vancouver covering the Games. It’s inappropriate because these people, by running with the flame, are participating in a marketing exercise that promotes a business enterprise, the Olympics, which they will be expected to objectively report on. How can you help hype an event one moment and then be expected to give an honest and independent assessment of it the next?"

One would hope that it will be different the next time Canada hosts the games. Don't count on it, though.

Winter Olympic officials have been concerned for weeks with warm temperatures in Vancouver. Now they can add another weather worry to the list.

Seven-day forecasts call for rain showers and warm temps from Thursday through Sunday at the Games. This won't negatively impact Friday's Opening Ceremony, as it is set for the domed BC Place Arena. But if the rain makes its way up to Whistler (where the weather has been more snowy of late), it could have an effect on a number of events on the opening weekend, including Lindsey Vonn's first attempt at gold in the Ladies' Super Combined Slalom. 

Though potentially balmy temperatures have had Olympic organizers concerned for months, the official stance from the IOC and VANOC is to put on a brave face in public ("we've made great progress in preparing the venue, thanks to our team that's been working night and day to deliver on the contingency plan we had ready," said one VANOC official), while working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure events can run no matter the weather.

That's the only way to handle it. The weather is out of their hands. Preparing for the worst and hoping for the best is about all VANOC can do.

This wouldn't be the first Winter Olympics to deal with unseasonable weather. The 1928 Games in Switzerland had an entire day of events postponed because of rain and had one event, the 10,000-meter speed skating race, canceled entirely due to warm temperatures. In 1964, members of the Austrian army had to pack ski slopes by hand and foot after 10 straight days of rain fell before the Opening Ceremony. And 12 years ago in Nagano,  snow, sleet and fog forced multiple postponements of ski races.  

Here's the long-term forecast for Vancouver:

They may need some more hay up in British Columbia. Who would have thought Washington, D.C. would be more suited to host the Winter Olympics than Vancouver?

Historical data courtesy The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics.

Previously, Mark Grimmette proudly displays his new luge suit.

Gold, einstein7wannabe: "Now I know why Lucille kept Buster around."

Silver, Rob R: "Are you threatening me?! I am The Great Cornholio!"

Bronze, Cursor: "That Once-ler was right. I really did need a 'Thneed.' "

That might be going by the wayside. Friday's Globe & Mail touched on how endorsement opportunities for Canadian Olympic medallists, at least outside Quebec which is a sports culture unto itself, seem to be drying up. It used to seem like if a Canadian won a gold, he or she could count on being in a commerical or two.

Now a Canadian champion is more commonplace, but the audience is fragmented because there is more competition among media. So there's more athletes and their agents fighting over a shrinking pie:

"Evan Morgenstein, an American sports agent who represents former Olympic athletes Mark Spitz, Bruce Jenner and Janet Evans, said turning a medal into a career is no longer a straightforward exercise in alchemy. It requires not just athletic achievement, but the right look and story to grab public attention.

" 'Twenty years ago, you probably had 60 per cent of homes watching the Olympics,' he said. 'Today, I don't care who you are or what sport you compete in, you'd have to light your genitals on fire before your competition to get that kind of viewership.'

"During the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, the Olympics registered in the top 20 shows on Canadian television only twice, showing up in 18th and 19th place, well behind Desperate Housewives, American Idol and Grey's Anatomy.

"Even this year, with Canadian athletes poised to win big on their home turf, sports agents say there will be only so much money to go around.

" 'It's not nearly what people think it is,' said hockey marketer Brad Robins."

Time was, there was a stickiness if a Canadian won. There is major memory burn from Kerrin-Lee Gartner coming seemingly from out of nowhere to win the women's downhill in Albertville in 1992.

The name recognition just is not there. Take the commercials McDonalds is running where Canadian athletes deliver lines about how they go there regularly. To get someone to represent women's hockey, they didn't pick one of the younger Canadian mainstays such Meghan Agosta, Charline Labonté or Sarah Vaillancourt, or even a three-time Olympian such as Jayna Hefford (have to mention a fellow Kingstonian). Instead, their ads feature retired captain Cassie Campbell, since she's known through her work on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. That's one hell of a tell.

Quebec is an exception. Out of necessity, a very concentrated media culture has developed in the French-speaking province. The sporting tastes are more influenced by Europe than in the ROC (Rest of Canada), so they don't forget about their Olympic stars in between games. (Quebec tastes, and this might surprise U.S. readers, also skew a little more American; people hold tailgate parties before football games there, which they didn't even do in Toronto for Buffalo Bills games.)

It would be nice if all Canadian winners had that available to them. Instead, there will be a mad scramble by athletes and their agents to fight for scraps. Hey, maybe CTV can make a reality show out of this. It's bound not to get canceled, like Canadian Idol.

Curling is gaining popularity across the U.S. USA Curling has 154 registered clubs, in both the expected places, like Casper, Wy. and the unexpected, like Wake Forest, N.C. The Chicago Tribune reports that the four clubs in the Chicago area are expecting a surge in membership with the Olympics.

The appeal of curling is that a person doesn't have to be an amazing athlete to try it. You don't have to be young, or in perfect shape, or a hulk of a man. Curlers with knee problems can modify the sport so that they continue to play, attracting curlers of all ages.

But that's not the only reason people like it. SB Nation's Spencer Hall tried it, and he was hooked. 

Curling is mesmerizing for one reason: it's simplicity. Chess on ice is the usual comparison, but it may be even simpler than the endless variations and gambits of Kasaparov's game. Leaning out on the hack and staring down the ice, curling engages the game-playing brain at its most basic and addictive of levels. Put this there; leave space here; completely screw over opponent. Like the best games, it is a true zero-sum game, but unlike chess involves the body, a kind of meditative rock-toss you do over and over again until you're in the wordless space Zen Buddhist monks are always blabbing on and on about.  The ice helps: there's blank whiteness, a few lines, and everything else evaporates away. 

Beyond that, curlers talk about a camaraderie that they don't find in many other sports. After games, regardless of the winner, the curlers sit together and enjoy a beer.

This doesn't mean the game is not athletic. Hurling a 44-lb. stone down the ice and/or sweeping furiously to help it reach the right spot isn't easy. To do it at an Olympic level is an incredible feat.

Unlike figure skating or ski-jumping, it's relatively easy to try the sport out. Check in with USA Curling to find a club near you. If you don't want to put in the athletic effort, at least make a donation to the team. You may end up as a curling VIP. 

Hot fire, son. Outside of having to record a new version every two years, I think this is the perfect anthem for Olympic glory.

On second thought, I like the timpani. It sounds regal. But I will agree with Blake that N*sync is superior to Backstreet. Everybody knows that.

Evan Lysacek - The Sinatra

"Heeeeyyyyy. I'm skatin' here. Ol' Brown Eyes is doin' it his way. Fugeddaboudit."

Mao Asada - The Yawn

Skating is exhausting, and Mao is just getting a little sleepy, that's all. Must have been something in the air...

Akiko Suzuki - The Actually Sleeping

I knew there was something in the air. Wake up, Akiko! You have more skating to do!

Meagan Duhamel - The Sonic

Meagan is celebrating the release of Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the iPhone. She's a huge fan of the Sega Genesis console.

Adam Rippon - The "I Did It!"

You did it, Adam. You somehow managed to completely replicate my high school hairstyle. Keep on doin' it!

Stay tuned for more Faces of Skaters...

That's the question Lindsey Vonn and other Olympic athletes are asking themselves one week before the Winter Games begin in Vancouver. And the answer isn't as simple as you might think.

Vonn, who's expected to contend for five medals at this month's Olympics, posted a pre-Games farewell message on her Twitter page Thursday, evidently because she believed IOC regulations forbid athletes from using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook during competition.

She wrote:

because of the Olympic rules (blackout period) I will not be able to post any updates from now until march 3rd. Sorry, it bums me out too! 

But Wired Magazine spoke with a USOC official who says that there is no Olympic blackout and athletes are free to post messages during the Games. There are certain restrictions in place though. Athletes can't double as journalists, which means all posts/Tweets have to be written in first person. (I'm not sure why that matters at all. Was there really a lot of confusion from athletes posing as newspaper writers?) And there are also rules on the books about referencing sponsors who aren't officially affiliated with the Olympics, like Vonn and her deal with Red Bull.

It seems that the message is getting back to Vonn, who posted on her Twitter account Friday morning seeking clarification on the issue.

We love warm weather Winter Olympians here at Fourth-Place Medal. You already know about the Snow Leopard and Shiva Keshavan. Now, courtesy of Deadspin, comes the story of Roberto Carcelén who definitely deserves to be added to the list.

Carcelén is from Peru, a country whose only other Winter Olympics experience is a group of four snowboarders who didn't register for their events, and his backstory is pretty amazing. And not just the first Winter Olympian from Peru part either. How he got to that point is even more surprising.

It starts with Carcelén deciding to run a marathon in America. Hoping to meet some people in the States, he takes to the Internet, where he strikes up a long-distance instant messaging relationship with an American woman. Soon enough, the marathon plan was history. Carcelén and his future wife Kate finally met in person in March of 2003 and were married by July. Then she introduced him to skiing.

An avid surfer and runner in Peru, Carcelén had never skied before. However, after watching the 2006 Winter Olympics, Carcelén hatched a plan to become the first Peruvian in Winter Olympics history. After four years and roughly $60,000 out of pocket, Carcelén is set to follow through on his plan, where he'll walk in the Opening Ceremony as Peru's first and only Winter Olympian.

Not bad for a South American surfer.

During last night's "Jay Leno Show," Leno pointed out that Lysacek wears somewhat normal clothes on the ice. (Leno must have missed the abundance of feathers and shoulder cages.) But Leno dug deep into Lysacek's past, finding a silly picture of him in a classicly terrible ice skating costume. Skip to the 2:50 point of the video to hear Lysacek's response. 

Of course, Lysacek shouldn't be too concerned if he skates as he did at last years world championships, which he won. Nothing will grab the ladies' attention like a gold medal. 

Just days before the Vancouver games start, the British Olympic Association has announced that the supporting body for their 14 ski and snow athletes, Snowsport GB, has declared bankrupty. A contigency plan has been put in place to ensure that those 14 competitors will be able to be a part of this year's Olympics. The plan is to instate a currently dormant company, Team GB Ltd, to serve as the national governing body for ski and snowboarding.

The move isn't terribly surprising as just last month Snowsport GB was unable to afford accomodations or ski passes for athletes in training. Needing $326,000 by the end of January to avoid bankruptcy proved too much for the struggling federation.

There is good news though. First, Britain's skiers and snowboarders have been assured that they will be able to compete in Vancouver after the International Ski Federation approved the BOA's contingency plan. Second, the country's men's curling team, who is expected to contend for a medal, was in no way affected by this news. Phew.

Lady Gaga or figure skater? With the amount of bedazzling involved in their costumes, it can be hard to tell. Hint: the above is Miki Ando, a Japanese figure skater. (Celebuzz)

A promotional video using footage from the Nazi-influenced film "Olympia" was withdrawn by the Vancouver Olympics organizers. The better idea would have been to never use the footage at all. (New York Times) 

Julia Mancuso -- the skier who organized the bib auction to benefit Haiti -- is looking to rebound after an injury-filled four years between Olympics. (Washington Post)

Kevin Pearce, the snowboarder who sustained brain injuries while practicing on the halfpipe, has been transferred to hospital in Denver that specializes in brain injuries. Pearce is said to be making excellent strides. (USA Today)

American figure skater Evan Lysacek, who is confident and ready heading into the Olympics, will appear on the Jay Leno show tonight. (NBC)

The Frozen Medal Stand is the Fourth-Place Medal collection of links, pictures and other ephemera. Feel free to join in by sending links, pictures and ephemera here. 

Your mission, Fourth-Place Medal readers, is to help us decide who has the better grocery store sponsor — Apolo Anton Ohno and the Washington State Potato Commission or Torin Koos, who is sponsored by USA Pears.

It's an almost impossible decision. Please choose wisely and let us know in the comments.

This is the second in a two-part blog post about the real story of Dan Jansen's remarkable Olympic career. Click here to read part one. 

The benefit of hindsight makes the triumphant conclusion to Dan Jansen's Olympic career seem like an inevitability. His sister dies, he falls, a few years later he wins. It's the stuff of which dreams, and awesome 30-second commercials, are made. But the reality wasn't so tidy. Jansen had to wait six years, two Olympics and three disappointing races to eventually climb atop the medal stand.

After the falls in Calgary, Jansen had four years before the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France and once again established himself as the man to beat in the 500 meters. In his first Olympic race since falling twice four years earlier in Canada, Jansen seemed haunted by his falls and took the final turn with caution, losing precious tenths in the process. He made it across the finish line, not a small thing after Calgary, albeit with a time he knew wouldn't give him the gold. For a while it looked like he'd medal, but a late run knocked him off the medal podium to fourth place, two tenths behind the eventual bronze medalist.

The 1,000 didn't go any better. Jansen went out too quickly in the longer sprint and sputtered to the finish line in 26th place. He had looked like a medal candidate for much of the first 700 meters but then, as he later described, "I got tired. My legs were gone. They were like lead."

In another era, that might have been the end of Dan Jansen's Olympic career. The four-year cycle would have made him 30-years old at the time of the next Winter Olympics, a time when most speed skaters have long since hung up the skates. But a decision made six years earlier gave Jansen another shot.

In 1986, the International Olympic Committee voted to change the cycle of the Winter Games so it wouldn't fall during the same year as the Summer Games. The new cycle was to begin in 1994 in Lillehammer, which meant that Jansen would only have to wait two years for another shot at Olympic glory. Who knows whether he would have kept up skating had the Games not shifted, but the switch made his choice a simple one.

For the third time in six years Jansen entered the Olympics as the favorite in the 500. He had won six of eight races that year and had the four fastest times in history. Skating well in his race, Jansen hit the final turn, slipped and had to touch the ice to regain his balance. He finished in eighth place. There was one more shot. It didn't seem like a good one.

Jansen's specialty was the 500, not the 1,000. He had never finished better than 16th in his three previous Olympics. But when a burst of aredaline surged through his body before the start, he said he knew he was ready. At 600 meters Jansen was ahead of world record pace. But, again, as the final turns were approaching, Jansen slipped. He was within one inch of hitting a lane divider and falling. Somehow, he regained his balance, sprinted to the finish and crossed in a stunning world record time.

Reports from Lillehammer say that his rivals cheered when his time flashed on the board. "There were no Norwegians, Dutch Americans or people of other nationalities among the spectators, only fans of Dan Jansen," said the Official Report of the 1994 Olympics.

You know the rest. Minutes after saluting the sky in honor of his late sister, Jane, Jansen took a victory lap with his 8-month old daughter of the same name.

Thanks to David Wallechinksy and Jaime Loucky's The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics. It's a must-have for any fans of the Games.

For instance, Bill Demong. Demong is a Nordic combined skier from New York, and his secret to success is eating sandwich after sandwich throughout the day.  While he'll say it's because he needs to combination of carbs and proteins that a sandwich offers, we all know it's really because he loves sandwiches. You can't blame him — sandwiches are delicious.

Then there's Rebekah Bradford, a speed skater from Minnesota. Bradford swears by flat Coca-Cola for a pick-me-up during her workouts.  Bradford likes the "electrolytes and caffeine" that the uncarbonated drink gives her, despite the fact that team nutritionist Nanna Meyer definitively states that Coca-Cola contains little to no electrolytes. But you can't blame Rebekah, either. Coca-Cola also is delicious.

And finally there are Summer Olympians Mark Foster and Glen Christiansen, who wear green tourmaline gemstones to speed up their recovery from their intense swimming workouts. Green tourmaline is believed to boost memory, intuition and mental powers. Oh, and according to Christiansen, "it also gives me more sexual interest and power." Hey-o! You certainly can't blame these guys. Green tourmaline jewelry is gorgeous.

But have you heard of the "Lucky Loonie?" Me neither.

Apparently at the 2002 Winter Olympics, a Canadian ice maker needed a mark for referees to aim at when dropping the puck since the large center ice logo didn't include the traditional circle. And it couldn't be visible to television cameras. His solution was a loonie under the ice. When Canada won the gold medal in both men's and women's hockey, a legend was born.

After being retrieved by Canada's manager Wayne Gretzky, the loonie has been on display in Toronto's Hockey Hall of Fame. But now they want fans from all over to bring luck to the Canadian hockey teams by touching the lucky loonie. It was unveiled by hockey legend Don Cherry at this hilarious photo op.

"Any finger but your middle one." Excellent.

Were I in Toronto, I'd make it a point to go rub the lucky loonie, even if it meant the US didn't win gold. I'd also get some peameal and stop by XO Karaoke, but that's beside the point.

Israeli Tamar Katz qualified for the Olympics -- the first Israeli woman to ever qualify for figure skating -- but her country's rules stipulate that the skater must finish in the top 14 at the European Championships. Katz took 21st. The Israelis gave up their spot, opening the door for Australian Lee.

American-born Katz was gracious in an interview with the New York Times:

“Of course I’m upset after all the hard work and moving far away from my family to train,” Katz said in a telephone interview. “It would have been a great honor to represent my country at the Olympic Games. I wish the Australian skater the best of luck — it’s a wonderful opportunity for her.”

It's odd that a country would have qualifying rules so much more stringent than the international committee. Making the Olympics is difficult enough in and of itself. The U.S. could only suss out two qualifying spots for women this year because the Americans did not skate well enough at the world championships.

Taking Katz out of the Israeli delegation means that only three athletes will represent them in Vancouver, ice dancing siblings Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky and skier Mikahil Ranzin.

The Israeli loss is the Australian gain. Lee, who finished 33rd at the most recent world championships, will have the shot at (unlikely) Olympic gold.

Previously, what was I thinking jumping so far?

Gold, Rob R: "Did somebody say this could be harmful to my ovaries?!"

Silver, Magic 32: "Zut Alors! I left ze coffee may-kair on! Baguette?"

Bronze, Jeremy: "Oh geez. I hope that Vancouver snow doesn't melt away before I land!"

There's an old saying: "Sometimes you just have to be the last guy standing in a 1000m speedskating race during the Olympics in Utah." It's not a great saying, but I think it's applicable in this case.

And while this race is awesome, the aftermath is even better. The first southern hemisphere athlete to win a Winter Olympics event, Bradbury became a hero in Australia. His name even entered the national lexicon as "doing a Bradbury" came to mean obtaining an unexpected success. Bradbury was featured on a stamp, danced on Australia's version of Dancing with the Stars, and in 2007 received a Medal of the Order of Australia for his gold medal win. Pretty good take for staying on your feet. 

According to The Globe and Mail, here's how it will work:

When visitors to the Ontario Pavilion next month put on the headphone-like brainwave sensors, their mental activity will be communicated to control systems that light up each of the sites. Slow your mind and the lights dim as the brain starts producing lower-frequency alpha waves. Higher-frequency beta waves of an alert mind make the lights come to life - comet trails stream down the shaft of the CN Tower; backlit Niagara Falls starts to glow in shades of purple and red; Parliament Hill springs out of the shadows.

Basically, just keep thinking and you'll control a lightshow. However, if you stop thinking, the lights go out. No pressure.

If you're in Vancouver, definitely give this a try. Just be careful what you think about. You don't want your hunger cravings to be the reason for a massive blackout.

Does Remarkable Swag sound familiar? It should. It's Fourth-Place Medal's remix of Ball Don't Lie's Phenomenal Swag. See anything noteworthy? Let us know.

Do you want to be the most annoying person in the world?

You do? Why?

Okay, then you're going to need this app for your iPhone. It's called Cowbell2010, and you're never going to guess what it does.

Oh, yeah. You're right. It does ring like a cowbell. Loudly.

Why would you want this? I was raised in a small town and played for a mediocre high school football team, so I get the 'cowbells at sporting events' thing. And I even understand that there's a history of people bringing cowbells to Alpine skiing events. But what I don't get is why someone would want or need a cowbell on their telephone.

But this is 2010, the year of the cowbell. Everybody is going to be ringing cowbells for each other. At work, in school, or basically anytime you do something good, it might be nice to have somebody rooting you on with an imitation cowbell on their phone. That totally sounds awesome.

On the bright side, this app is only $0.99 US. It also includes a full schedule of the games, follows Olympic athlete tweets, and keeps a medal count, all of which are easily obtained for free elsewhere. Sounds like a real bargain.

FPM rating: One (out of five) Oksana Baiuls