Green Flamingobecause I said so

These Vancouver Olympic Games have been great. The rush of adrenaline through extreme sports, athletes and fans come together to make something extraordinary. I followed many events of the Olympics, though I did not blog about all of them here. As we conclude the Olympics Games here in 2010 I have decided to share some of the outstanding moments that I watched.

Alexandre Bilodeau finally won the first gold medal for Canada at their home games, the cheers were wild! He won in the men’s moguls.

Lindsey Vonn got the gold she had been waiting for to complete  her achievements in women’s downhill. However, she did not come through for gold on the other alpine events.

Shaun White dominated the half pipe competition and had an amazing victory run showing off a new trick which scored a 48.4!

Sorry I have to skip over a week here, I saw many of the events and they were very exciting.

Just today, Canada beat the US for the gold medal in hockey, with Sidney Crosby scoring the winning goal in overtime. Both teams were spectacular and many people said it was the best game they had ever seen.

Tonight and at this moment the closing ceremony is being performed, and it’s much more casual than the opening ceremony was. Canada managed to laugh at their technical error with lighting the Olympic flame in the opening ceremony and this time it worked out for them. Canada says goodbye to everyone and hands the flag to Sochi, Russia, site of the 2014 Olympics. I hope to see everyone then!

I have decided that from now on I will be posting mostly twitter updates on the Olympic games, for I watch a lot of events and can tweet about them live. You can follow me on twitter or see the updates in my sidebar. I will recollect the ideas and big wins with a blog post as well.

Day 2

These are the events that I saw and tweeted on.

Individual ski jumping:

1. Simon Ammann with the first gold of the 2010 Olympics
2. Adam Malysz
3. Gregor Schlierenzauer

Speed Skating men’s 5000

1. Sven Kramer was the very popular choice from the Netherlands
2. Lee
3. Skobrev

Short track men’s 1500

1. Jung Su Lee
2. Apolo Ohno
3. J.R. Celski

Apolo did not get the gold, though he and his teammate were able to come in 2nd and 3rd due to a collision of 2 other koreans.

Women’s Moguls

1. Hannah Kearney achieved her shot at redemption
2. Jenn Heil did not quite pull off the gold medal for Canada
3. Shannon Barke

Day 3

Men’s Luge Singles

1. Felix Loch of Germany
2. David Moeller
3. Armin Zoeggeler

Men’s Moguls

1. Alexandra Bilodeau – he finally breaks Canada’s curse by winning a gold at his home country’s games
2. Dale Begg-Smith the Vancouver born defending medalist was close from Australia
3. Bryon Wilson of the US

Alexandre Bilodeau (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

That wraps up the events I watched, there were some other ones that went on today, but I am excited for this week to come!

Last night the Vancouver Olympics began with the opening ceremony which was quite spectacular. I watched the entire thing on tv, and though I wish I was there in person it was still very exciting to watch. After Beijing no one thought any other city would come close to that, but Vancouver did a very good job in their own form of presentation.

Vancouver introduced the athletes first, for in their eyes the cultural ceremony is for the athletes, welcoming them. Many bore a black armband in tribute to Nodar  Kumaritashvili who died in a tragic training run on the luge. The Georgia delegation still marched however in honor of their fallen comrade.

The digital effects of the cultural ceremony were quite spectacular. I have to say I was amazed when I first saw them, though it could be because I did not witness the entire Beijing ceremony. I have to say while using a lot less money Vancouver executed very well. It would have been great to be a part of it too. The journey of the ceremony took everyone across Canada and ended up in the cosmopolitan city Vancouver. It all seemed to go off perfectly until at the end a malfunction prevented a pillar from rising to support the cauldron. After a long pause, three of the four torchbearers lit the cauldron, and Wayne Gretzky headed to light the second one in the downtown area.

I wish I could be in Vancouver at the moment, for it would make coverage of the Olympics much easier and would be a wonderful experience. I will be covering more events of the Olympics later on tonight and in days to follow. Enjoy the 21st winter Olympic Games!