Curling fans get crazy...

Here's a post from a Yahoo! sports blog that popped up on my homepage. It's completely unpolitical, but I found it interesting.

In a close women's curling match where Canada won 5-4 over Denmark, Danish Madeliene Dupont blamed the aggressive Canadian fans when she missed two potentially game-winning shots.

Curling is a sport that apparently requires intense concentration and the ability to hear your teammates. Dupont was practically in tears after 6,000 Canadian fans began stomping and making deafening noise. The noise was obviously intended to distract Dupont.

I understand such noise in sports such as basketball, hockey, and football, where the noise of the crowd is normal and expected by the players. But curling is tame sport, like golf, where it is the polite thing to be quiet, and only cheer when the players are finished. Even a Canadian curler agreed that the fans were loud, but excused their behavior based on the fact they "don't know the game." I think it's a lame excuse. They were obviously quiet when it was Canada's turn.

As an obnoxiously loud fan myself, I understand Canada's pride and desire for their home team to win. But I also find it embarrassing in a sport such as curling, where it is not appropriate. They're the hosts, and they should know better. Save it for the hockey rinks.

Really, another security breach?

link in title

For those of you that watched the Olympic opening ceremonies, I'm sure you recognized Joe Biden in attendance. The Vancouver police have just reported that there was a security breach that allowed an man with false credentials (i.e. a fake pass created from the internet) to be within a few yards of Vice President Joe Biden. Although the event resulted in no harm to Biden and the man was unarmed, it signals yet another failure of security. The man was able to get through several airport security-esque checkpoints with completely fabricated identification.

Considering the state dinner crashers and now this, is there something wrong with the way Obama and Biden are being protected? I mean, people are making it look pretty easy to get close to them. It certainly makes me wonder if there have been other breaches that have gone unnoticed. Does this happen with many administrations but it's just more publicized now? What are your thoughts?

Sweet Sweet Revenge... or not

I am sure those of you who watched the woman's snowboard cross the last Winter Olympics recall an incident in the final round. Lindsey Jacobellis, representing the U.S. team, was approaching the finish line with a clear lead, and rather than playing it safe, she attempted a move. Later she stated “Snowboarding is fun, I was having fun.” Unfortunately, she could not handle the fun of snowboarding and missed the landing. As Frieden passed her, she saw her gold metal slip away. Lindsey had to settle for silver.

This year, Lindsey came out ready for revenge. And once again she failed to win gold, let alone make it to the metal round. She lost control and hit a gate off of a jump and was automatically disqualified. Similar to many other Olympians, Jacobellis just did not have luck on her side. Do the Olympics really demonstrate who the greatest winter athletes are in the world? Do not get me wrong, everyone at the Olympics is very talented, but could the medalist just be the ones with the lucky run?