Paying Attention: Bob sledding is one of the glamour sports of the Winter Olympics. The History of Olympic Bobsledding video (above) shows the growth of the technology of the sleds and the development of the tracks, but the legendary personality who did so much to make the sport popular, the peerless Eugenio Monti, is not singled out for focus. Monti dominated the sport like no one before or since, winning 6 Olympic Medals (2 Golds) and 10 Gold World Championship medals. He drove bob sleds at a time when ropes were used to steer the sled and had a marvelous ability to place the sled in the most perfect and quickest position on each curve. A fearless racer Monti was also a gracious and generous competitor, as his actions in the 1964 Olympics proved– he assisted two separate teams with sled difficulties only to see them go on to win Gold Medals. Eugenio Monti embodied all that is good about sports and the Olympics and to this day provides an inspiration to everyone who takes the time to learn about this incredible person and his legend of performance and kindness. Here’s Monti in action at Grenoble in 1968, a compilation video from 1956 to 1968 in which Monti is featured, and, finally, a video from 1960. Enjoy a step back in time to an era and a personality that were both very special.
Olympic Briefing: Snowboard Half Pipe
Paying Attention: The snowboard half pipe (joined at this year’s Sochi Winter Olympics by skiing half pipe) is the equivalent of the dry land half pipe beloved by skateboarders. The idea is deceptively simple: drop in from the top of the pipe, get up some speed, go over the top on the opposite edge, do a trick, comedown and go back up the other side, do another trick, repeat. The king of half-pipe snowboarding for the last two Olympics has been Shaun White (aka “The flying tomato” although he says he doesn’t like that name anymore–probably bad for endorsements). White will have his hands full at Sochi trying to defend his Olympic Gold Medal status. He pulled out of the snowboard slope style (citing a wrist injury) to concentrate on the half pipe, so much is expected of him. One thing is certain: snowboarding–like skateboarding–is a young man’s sport and Shaun is no longer a young man by snowboarding standards. He will have his hands full. Expect a battle, as White is always very good under pressure. Check out the video above, which provides a great POV of half pipe snowboarding, then read this wiki and finally follow it up with this pretty terrific video overview of the sport, courtesy the Sochi Olympics group. You’re now Officially Briefed: drop in and enjoy the ride.
The Handwriting Is On The Tablet
Breaking: This (disturbing) piece of news: Barnes & Noble, which had previous released their VP of Hardware for the Nook project, just let go their entire Nook hardware engineering group. Unable to compete with the Kindle or the iPad, B&N found itself in a very difficult corner with no apparent way out. I applaud their attempts to create a new product/platform for the company but also wonder why they didn’t investigate a perhaps more efficient/less expensive option and do a co-branding deal with Amazon on the Kindle. B&N gets an electronic reader/tablet product line for their stores; Amazon gets a B&N network of stores. Sort the pricing and everyone wins. The full story is here, courtesy of Business Insider.
Olympic Briefing: Ski Jumping
Paying Attention: Stand at the top of a hill–man made. There are two choices of hill: Normal (i.e. steep and long) and Large(very steep and very long). Either one is capable of inducing a serious fright to even the bravest soul. Next, strap on a pair of special Ski Jumping skis. They’re going to be about 260 to 275CM long (up to 9 feet in length) and relatively heavy. You will click- in wearing special ski jumping boots; the toe will be in in the ski binder, the heel will be free so you can lift it, except for a chord that runs to the board to maintain contact with the ski so that the board won’t flex too much while you’re in the air. You will also be wearing a spandex suit that offers low wind resistance and and less protection than a table napkin if you fall. You’ll need a helmet and a pair of goggles. Climb the hill to the jump start, ease out into the bench that spans the jump track and put your skis into the two prepared tracks that run down the jump. Sit down. Then, when the horn sounds, stand up and slide down the ski jump, at increasingly high rates of speed as you get nearer to the end. You will be expected to “nail” the endpoint of the acceleration down the ski jump with perfect timing, by pushing up with your legs and lifting off at the precise end of the run down the jump. Once in the air, lean forward at a very high angle, aiming your face as if you were going to plant it smoothly into the snow (it can happen), pull your arms back behind you, hold your skis in a “v” and turn yourself into an airfoil. Fly up to 450ft plus/minus and then land, gently, in good and stylish telemark form. Repeat multiple times with good results to make it to the Olympics. You can read more background on ski jumping at this wiki or get a slightly different perspective on the sport by viewing this video. There’s a reason many people say that ski jumping is their favorite Winter Olympic sport…..to watch. Doing it…well, that’s a totally different commitment.
Olympic Briefing: Bobsled
Press Clippings: In an effort to get everyone pumped up for the Sochi Olympics,we’ll continue posting videos that highlight the top sports. Today, let’s go with something that always gets the adrenaline pumping: Bobsled. This time, with a twist, in a run with a bobsled designed/produced by German car maker BMW for the US Team (BMW is one of the major sponsors of Olympic coverage, so they are really, all in for the Winter Olympics. Good for them and thank you). Hang on and push go. It is recommended that you run this one widescreen on your computer/laptop and with sound up (actually, that’s recommended for all of the videos). Bobsled (also spelled/called bobsleigh) runs in two and four person configurations. There are both male and female divisions. More information about bobsled can be found at this wiki . Also, here’s another great background video, courtesy of the Olympic Committee and hosted at YouTube.
Olympic Briefing: The Downhill
Nightshift Sports: The Downhill is considered the ultimate event in alpine skiing. The concept is simple: start at the top of the mountain and go down it–often straight downhill but with enough turns to hold your attention–as fast you can.
There is none of the rhythmic direction changes that mark the slalom or the gentler sweeping turns of the Giant Slalom (which, BTW, only look gentle from a distance).
Go down the hill on the course as fast you can, navigating the turns, the bumps, the jumps, and try to stay in form, aerodynamically correct, and strong all the way to bottom and maybe you won’t wad yourself up in the safety fences, so twisted it takes experts fifteen to twenty minutes to extract you. In other words, mistakes on the downhill can result in very serious injuries.
The course at the Beijing Winter Olympics is considered very difficult and dangerous for a couple of reasons. First, it is a total unknown. The ski racers at the Olympics have never seen it before, it’s not on the World Cup circuit and has never been run in serious, world class competition. Second, the snow is all man-made. As you know from previous postings, man made snow is more granular than the natural stuff, and it also has a tendency to be icy, which is not good. Just as wi drying a car, hitting a bad patch of ice at the wrong time can throw a racer off the preferred trajectory and into barriers on the side of the course. The Beijing course is also steep, even steeper than the famed Hahnenkamm downhill in Austria. Take it seriously. Do not leave the starting gate unless your insurance is paid up and you have done all the dry land training your coach mandated. Paid close attention on the very few practice runs you got on the hill. And your personal racer chaser has tuned your skis to perfection It’s good to have an acute sense of your own mortality while you chase immortality as an Olympic Medalist.
Otherwise…it’s not going to end up good.
Once you leave the gate, you must be focused and committed and there is no time for doubt or turning back.
Luckily for us, the small size of modern digital video cameras provides us with viewpoints in sports that were previously never available. Today’s clip will give you a view which will either confirm your decision to stay out of downhill competition or make you get all itchy and sweaty because you’re not in the starting gate. For more background on The Downhill, check out this wiki.
Either way, click the play button to get a racer’s view of the downhill at Garmitsch, one of the classic downhill courses in skiing. Prepare to be simultaneously amazed and terrified. Also: Video YouTube/Ski Stars….Thanks for sharing.
The Fine Print: Photos courtesy of our friends at GettyImages.com, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not been altered in anyway. We thank them for sharing. Text Copyright (c)2022 Donald Pierce and Southchester Group LLC, all rights reserved. DonaldPierce.com is produced by the team at the Media Bunker and Perception Engineering, who have requested a new expresso machine for this year’s Olympic coverage duty. And bigger speakers. Opinions expressed are those of the writers. We thank the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Olympic Committee for making this material, media and other resources available to share. For daily world news coverage please check out nightshiftnews.com, our sister site, which has links to every major English language newspaper in the world. Thanks for reading. Come back soon (and stay safe).
Olympic Briefing: Speedskating
Paying Attention: Speed skating is like running the 200 meter dash on ice. The sport is conducted on a sheet of ice, and is very, very technique driven. There are two forms of speed skating practiced in the Olympics: long track and short track. Long track is more graceful, mano-a-mano competition; short track is a more boisterous group event with lots of wipeouts, takeouts, and spinouts. Both forms of the sport are great for spectators and perfect for high def telecasting, Background information on speed skating is available in this wiki. The feature video (above) is a little longer than normal, posted at six minutes plus, but it will give you good background on the sport. You can get another view of the sport in this video posted on you tube by Samuel Ezerzer (Thanks, Samuel).
The Last Snowflake
Press Clippings: In the middle of the Winter Olympics, this article from the weekend New York Times points out the fragile future of snow, mountain resorts, skiing, and–yes–even the Winter Olympics, if nothing is done about global warming. Despite the cold U.S. winter, the very unusual shifts in weather patterns, the snow in the south, science–not emotion–shows that the planet is warming and that snow is going to be in very short supply by the year 2100. With that in mind, it seems like the perfect time for this very important piece.
The Harsh Truth About Aging
“Aging is very rude, making no attempt at diplomacy, at softening its’ message. No small talk. It just starts slamming doors in your face, yanking things out of reach (of your arms, your eyes, your deeper longings)”.
Olympic Briefing: Moguls
Paying Attention: If you spend much time on a ski mountain, you either learn to love moguls or to avoid them. The mogul skiers who make it to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics have learned to love them. Mogul skiing is technique, strength, and timing heavy. Mogul skiers blast through the bumps by using their lower body to absorb the shock and keeping their upper body very quiet. No doubt the “official sport” of mogul skiing grew out of a bunch of super-hot local skiers just showing off for their friends when cruising through the bumps; who knew, then, that one day it would be an Olympic sport. Catch some background on the sport with this wiki and this video . The opening video for this Olympic Briefing is of one of the greatest mogul skiers who ever lived, Jonny Moseley, at the Men’s Mogul Finals in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Get pumped. Jonny can roll.