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I need a tittle
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As the Vancouver Olympics draw to an end on Sunday, it seems like a good time to recap some of the action so far while people are in the Olympic state of mind. Despite being the most watched Winter Games in history, with an worldwide estimate of 3.5 billion having watched the games at some point, the Vancouver region made up of 580,000 people is left with a an estimated $1 billion debt from the Olympic Village development. But at least they will have the memories to go along with the tax bills.
First up, we have a snippet from a newspaper in Poland which wrote a preview of the Vancouver games. Although I’m sure the content of the piece was excellent, it seems like the journalist got a little lazy when sourcing the pictures. Although he might have scoured google images with good intentions when looking for an image of Sumi, Quatchi and Miga, the cuddly cartoon mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics, he was a little naive in his actual selection which was a photoshop containing Pedobear, one of the more infamous 4chan memes.
Next we have the story of Muhammad Abbas the 24 year old skier who was the first ever representative from Pakistan in the Winter Olympics taking part in the giant slalom. He first started out in the sport by attaching two pieces of wood to his feet with thick rubber bands and hurling himself down a slope near to his home. Despite being ranked 3764th in the world, he managed to win sufficient International Ski Federation points to make the Olympics – it seemed like we were back in 1988 with the Jamaican bobsleigh team. Sadly for Abbas, who was drawn 96th of 103 starters, it was no fairytale but it was still a admirable performance as he completed both runs to finish in 79th place although he was a combined 42 seconds away from the gold.
And who can forget the epic Canada Vs USA Hockey match. Although this wasn't a medal game, it was one of the most highly anticipated dates on the Olympic calendar and Canadian players were falling over each other to get one over on their southern neighbors. Literally.
And it was another sad championship for the German speed skater Daniela Anschtz-Thoms. She won a gold in the team pursuit at the 2006 Winter Olympics but she had never won an individual gold before. In fact she hadn't won a medal of any color at any Olympics, World Championships or European Championships. Even worse, before the 3,000 meter speed skating final she had finished fourth in major championships a staggering 14 times. It was then no surprise when she missed out on the bronze medal by 0.03 seconds to chalk up #15. But still, she had the 5,000 meter race left to try and finally win her first individual medal. Guess where she finished? Fourth of course, making it #16. For Anschtz-Thoms there’s always the team pursuit on Sunday where she has a chance to defend the Germany's title and to come away from Vancouver with some metal.
Finally we get to the Russians who have had a torrid Olympics. After three days the Russian Parliament were calling for the country's top sports officials to resign after a haul of only three medals leaving them 11th in the standings. Although things have improved with a current haul of 15 putting them 8th, they have only three gold medals compared to eight they won at the Turin Olympics four years ago. Let's hope they get their act together for 2014 Olympics to be held in Sochi, Russia. And just a note to the Russian women's curling team - thanks for coming.
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First up, we have a snippet from a newspaper in Poland which wrote a preview of the Vancouver games. Although I’m sure the content of the piece was excellent, it seems like the journalist got a little lazy when sourcing the pictures. Although he might have scoured google images with good intentions when looking for an image of Sumi, Quatchi and Miga, the cuddly cartoon mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics, he was a little naive in his actual selection which was a photoshop containing Pedobear, one of the more infamous 4chan memes.
Next we have the story of Muhammad Abbas the 24 year old skier who was the first ever representative from Pakistan in the Winter Olympics taking part in the giant slalom. He first started out in the sport by attaching two pieces of wood to his feet with thick rubber bands and hurling himself down a slope near to his home. Despite being ranked 3764th in the world, he managed to win sufficient International Ski Federation points to make the Olympics – it seemed like we were back in 1988 with the Jamaican bobsleigh team. Sadly for Abbas, who was drawn 96th of 103 starters, it was no fairytale but it was still a admirable performance as he completed both runs to finish in 79th place although he was a combined 42 seconds away from the gold.
And who can forget the epic Canada Vs USA Hockey match. Although this wasn't a medal game, it was one of the most highly anticipated dates on the Olympic calendar and Canadian players were falling over each other to get one over on their southern neighbors. Literally.
And it was another sad championship for the German speed skater Daniela Anschtz-Thoms. She won a gold in the team pursuit at the 2006 Winter Olympics but she had never won an individual gold before. In fact she hadn't won a medal of any color at any Olympics, World Championships or European Championships. Even worse, before the 3,000 meter speed skating final she had finished fourth in major championships a staggering 14 times. It was then no surprise when she missed out on the bronze medal by 0.03 seconds to chalk up #15. But still, she had the 5,000 meter race left to try and finally win her first individual medal. Guess where she finished? Fourth of course, making it #16. For Anschtz-Thoms there’s always the team pursuit on Sunday where she has a chance to defend the Germany's title and to come away from Vancouver with some metal.
Finally we get to the Russians who have had a torrid Olympics. After three days the Russian Parliament were calling for the country's top sports officials to resign after a haul of only three medals leaving them 11th in the standings. Although things have improved with a current haul of 15 putting them 8th, they have only three gold medals compared to eight they won at the Turin Olympics four years ago. Let's hope they get their act together for 2014 Olympics to be held in Sochi, Russia. And just a note to the Russian women's curling team - thanks for coming.
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