"Team Minnesota" did extremely well in this Olympics

From the Star Tribune:

As the Pyeongchang Olympics close out a 17-day run Sunday, Minnesota athletes have collected three gold medals and a bronze... The count included unprecedented golds by cross-country skier Jessie Diggins of Afton and curling skip John Shuster, a Chisholm native. The U.S. never had won a gold medal in either sport and had only one medal of any color in each.

The U.S. women’s hockey team, whose eight Minnesota-linked players include seven natives, beat Canada to win its first Olympic gold medal in 20 years. Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn — who still lists Buck Hill Ski Team as her home club, along with the slightly more glamorous Ski & Snowboard Club Vail — earned bronze in the downhill, in what is likely to be her final Olympics...

Minnesota, with 5.5 million people, put 22 natives or residents on the U.S. team and earned a third of the country’s golds... 

And the New York Times:

That Minnesotans are leading American success in these sports should not be surprising. Minnesota produces more girls and women hockey players than any other state by far, according to U.S.A. Hockey, and the second-most curlers after Wisconsin, per U.S.A. Curling. And Minnesota, with a thriving cross-country community, is one of the few states where Nordic skiing is a varsity sport...

The women’s hockey victory likewise thrilled folks in Warroad, a town of about 1,700 that has put eight hockey players on Olympic teams since 1960, including Gigi Marvin on the last three women’s teams. All but T.J. Oshie, in 2014, brought home medals. (Oshie can be forgiven; his four goals on six shots in an opening-round shootout against Russia still inspires awe.)

My old high school now offers Nordic skiing and Alpine skiing as winter sports options.  In my era you had to choose either basketball, ice hockey, or wrestling (I see the latter is not available nowadays, replaced by... yoga). 

It has been said that no state's residents brag more about the accomplishment of their fellow residents than Minnesotans do.  That's why I was required to write this post.

More about curling at The Bemidji Pioneer.  Photo of Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins via Washington Post.

In Olympic news today...

"The Tongan cross-country skier perhaps best known for walking out into the last two Olympic opening ceremonies without a shirt is set to take to the snow in the Pyeongchang Games...

Pita Taufatofua has joked that his two immediate goals are to not crash into a tree and to finish before race organizers turn the lights off.

Taufatofua says the 15-kilometer race is probably a bit of a stretch for him since all his qualifying races were 10 kilometers. He just started skiing this year and has not skied much on snow.

He says he has a “love-hate, hate-hate relationship” with the 15-kiometer race. The last time he raced in a 15-kilometer event he lost a ski and finished in 1 hour, 40 minutes."

Update: He exceeded his goals.

"After spending only 12 weeks on snow in his life, having seen snow for the first time two years ago, Taufatofua finished third last, nearly 23 minutes behind the gold medallist. Three other athletes did not finish the race."

Photo: Instagram

This is an Olympic 1% gold medal

The 2012 "gold medal" is 92.5% silver, 6.16% copper and 1.34% gold.

Details at BoingBoing.

Reposted from 2012 because it is presumably still true. 

Questions about Canada and the Olympics

Q: I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow?(UK)
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die.

Q: Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? (USA)
A: Depends on how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto. Can I follow the Railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only Four thousand miles, take lots of water.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Canada? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of Vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Canada, but I forget its name. Its a kind of big horse with horns. (USA)
A: Its called a Moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

As explained at Snopes, these are all "fake" questions.  More at the link.

Reposted from 2010.

Winter Olympics medals adjusted for size of countries

The chart above was originally published in The Atlantic in the middle of the games; I don't know whether it has been updated to reflect the final counts.

Reposted (but not updated) from four years ago, because it's still interesting.

Triple axel explained

YouTube link.

The axel is a figure skating jump with a forward take off. It is named after Norwegian figure skater Axel Paulsen who, in 1882, was the first skater to perform the jump [cruciverbalists will long ago have learned that this is why it's not spelled "axle."]

The axel jump is considered the most technically difficult jump among six types of jumps in single figure skating. According to ISU judging system, a triple axel jump has a base value of 8.5 points, while a double axel has that of 3.3 points. This makes a triple axel the highest base-valued triple jump, above other triple jumps such as the triple lutz (6 points), triple flip (5.3 points), triple loop (5.1 points), triple salchow (4.2 points), and triple toe loop (4.1 points).

More at Wikipedia (and daily during coverage of the Olympics) 

This guy has nice legs

via

Problems with Olympic medals

From the Washington Post:

Now nearly nine months after the Games ended, it looks like organizers in Rio de Janeiro are still experiencing some hiccups. The latest issue has to do with medals handed out to more than 130 winners —  they’re rusting, chipping or as Agence France-Presse put it, “falling to pieces.”...

Andrada didn’t go into exact details about what exactly he thought was happening, but he called it “completely normal.”.. Olympic gold medals, for example, are actually just 1.34 percent gold. The rest is made of sterling silver, ABC News reports. And about 30 percent of the silver in those thousands of medals awarded in Rio came from recycled silver...

“The most common issue is that they were dropped or mishandled and the varnish has come off and they’ve rusted or gone black in the spot where they were damaged,” Andrada told Reuters, adding that silver medalists have seen the most problems.

And this:

The medals for the 2020 Games will be even more unique, with the promise of being the most environmentally friendly of all time. Per The Post’s Cindy Boren, the medals are slated to be composed of recycled cellphones and small appliances donated by Japanese citizens.

"Only governments want war"

A photograph of wrestlers Jordan Burroughs and Sadegh Goudarzi is being hailed as the single image to encompass the spirit of the Olympics. Jack Moore of Buzzfeed first posted the image of Burroughs, an American, and Goudarzi, an Iranian, hugging after the New Jersey native beat his Middle Eastern competitor for first place [in freestyle wrestling]. 

Text from Huffington Post.  Captioned photo via America Wakie Wakie.

50 years of uneven bars gymnastics

YouTube link. 

This six-minute video nicely illustrates the increasing complexity of the moves performed by female gymnasts.  The same has certainly happened in the balance beam; it seems that fifty years ago the event consisted of just walking, squatting, turning, and doing little jumps.

Via Neatorama.

Two Olympics-related advertisements

YouTube link. 

The one above ran during the opening ceremonies; if you're a parent, it might choke you up a little.  The one below may or may not have run during the events (I found it at Copyranter); it's a rare commercial that can make me literally LOL.

YouTube link.

How javelins are returned at the Olympics

They are placed in remote-controlled mini MiniCoopers and driven back to the starting location.  The same thing is done at the discus competition.  There is some disagreement as to whether this consitutes inappropriate product placement.

Olympic medals in art, literature, and music

"The Olympics used to include art competitions. Between 1912 and 1952, medals were awarded in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture... An exhibition at the 1932 games drew 384,000 visitors to the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art...

The categories included epic literature, chamber music, watercolors, and statuary; the 1928 games even included a competition in town planning.

In two cases champion athletes also won art competitions. Hungarian swimmer Alfréd Hajós, left, who had won two gold medals in Athens in 1896, took home a silver medal for designing a stadium in 1924. And American Walter Winans won gold both as a marksman in 1908 and as a sculptor in 1912.

In 1954 the art competitions were dropped because most of the participants were professionals, which was held to conflict with the ideals of the games. But the Olympic charter still requires hosts to include a cultural program “to promote harmonious relations, mutual understanding and friendship among the participants and others attending the Olympic Games.”"

Text found in the Futility Closet.  Image ("Jean Jacoby is the only artist to win two gold medals. He won his second with the above drawing, titled Rugby") credit here.  Additional information at Wikipedia.

You learn something every day.

Reposted from 2011.

"Smile, darn you, smile"

Mark Worsfold, 54, a former soldier and martial arts instructor, was arrested on 28 July for a breach of the peace shortly before the cyclists arrived in Redhouse Park, Leatherhead, where he had sat down on a wall to watch the race. Officers from Surrey police restrained and handcuffed him and took him to Reigate police station, saying his behaviour had "caused concern".

"The man was positioned close to a small group of protesters and based on his manner, his state of dress and his proximity to the course, officers made an arrest to prevent a possible breach of the peace," Surrey police said in a statement.

Worsfold, whose experience was first reported by Private Eye, claims police questioned him about his demeanour and why he had not been seen to be visibly enjoying the event. Worsfold, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2010, suffers from muscle rigidity that affects his face. He was released after two hours without charge or caution.

"It could have been done better. I was arrested for not smiling. I have Parkinson's," he said, adding that he realised the officers were working long hours and trying to control the event properly, but they had not, in his case, acted correctly.

Further details at The Guardian.

"Which international head of state snubbed Jesse Owens after his triumph at the 1936 Olympics?"

 

YouTube link. 

It wasn't Adolph Hitler, although that misunderstanding has been propagated endlessly.  For a lighthearted and entertaining explication of the answer, spend 3 minutes viewing the QI segment embedded above (skip to 31:30 if it doesn't autostart there)(the link under the embed goes to one that autostarts at the right spot, but for some reason I can't configure my embed to start at 31:30).

Those in a hurry who want the TL;DV answer can find it beneath the fold, but you'll miss the wise crack about the "far right."

The colors of the Olympic rings

Is there a hidden significance?  Officially, the answer is no...

The following is quoted directly from the IOC: "The five rings represent the five continents. They are interlaced to show the universality of Olympism and the meeting of the athletes of the whole world during the Olympic Games. On the Olympic flag, the rings appear on a white background. This flag translates the idea of the universality of the Olympic Movement. At least one of the colors of the rings, including the white background, can be found on the flag of every nation in the world."... Baron Pierre de Coubertin conceived both the symbol and the flag. Not coincidentally, Coubertin was the founder of the modern Olympic Movement. 

But... note this in the Wikipedia entry:

Prior to 1951, the official handbook stated that each colour corresponded to a particular continent: blue for Europe, yellow for Asia, black for Africa, green for Australia and Oceania and red for America (North and South considered as a single continent); this was removed because there was no evidence that Coubertin had intended it...

Here's the cited 1951 reference*:

We probably will never know for certain whether Coubertin's committee intentionally chose "yellow for Asia, black for Africa" (and red for the Americas) and that position was later "walked back" when such stereotyping became less popular, or whether the attributions of ring color to regions were just a creation of some enterprising writer or reporter.

*"Decision adopted by the Executive Committee". Bulletin du Comité International Olympique ( Olympic Review ) (Lausanne: IOC) (25): poo. January 1951.

Some Brits dread the Olympics

Image by Smuzz, via Charlie's Diary and BoingBoing.

U.S. Olympic team demonstrates what it means to be American

The outfits they will be wearing for the opening and closing ceremonies were made in China.

Some members of Congress are outraged.  Harry Reid (who was probably wearing shoes made in Italy at the time) told reporters - "I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again."

“Unlike most Olympic teams around the world, the U.S. Olympic Team is privately funded and we’re grateful for the support of our sponsors,” USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said in a statement...

When General Motors left as a sponsor, the USOC signed a $24 million deal with German automaker BMW that raised eyebrows. At the time, the USOC highlighted the carmaker’s 42-year history of selling cars in the United States and the fact that BMW has 7,000 American employees.

The USOC and the International Olympic Committee also were criticized for sticking with BP as a sponsor after the deadly oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico.

More at the Washington Post.  Too bad Jon Stewart is off for the summer.  And if for some bizarre reason you want to dress like this yourself...

$598 for the women’s blazer and $498 for the silk skirt. The men’s blazer is a staggering $795, flat front trousers $295 and nubuck shoes are $165. And that damn beret? $55.

Outrageously priced, outsourced clothing.  To complete the image they should have deferred payment for it to the next generation.

U.S. Olympic volleyball team without their Ralph Lauren outfits

Before heading to the 2012 London Olympic games, the U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team stripped down for ESPN.

From a gallery of 28 images in ESPN's "Body Issue" posted in the NY Daily News.

Photo: Art Streiber/ESPN.

Growth of the Olympics

The small circles are icons of natinal flags, showing participation in the Olympic games from 1896 (iinnermost) to the present.

Designed by Alicia Korn, via Found Here.