THRILL OF VICTORY FOR ROSEY FLETCHER (sort of); AGONY OF DEFEAT FOR SASHA COHEN
Good evening. Well, finally, an Alaskan did medal at the Winter Olympics in Turin today. More on that in a bit, but first...
What started out to be the night for Sasha Cohen hoping to get the figure skating gold medal turned into disaster. In the women's free skate today, she and Russia's Irina Slutskaya all fell down during their make-it-or-break-it showings, clearing the way for 24-year-old Shizuka Arakawa from Japan to come from behind and grab the gold in the end; this was her country's first medal since Midori Ito's silver in 1992. Cohen and Slutskaya settled for silver and bronze respectively while Emily Hughes couldn't match big sister Sarah's success in Salt Lake City four years ago; she ended up in seventh place.
I was hoping for Cohen to pick up where Michelle Kwan left off after she dropped out of these games, but just like Kwan in 2002, one fall did cost it all...well, at least for now. This was her first Olympics, so the next time she'll try to take a stab at that gold will be in 2010 in Vancouver, when the games return to North America. Emily Hughes will be waiting in the wings as well.
Meanwhile, an Alaskan finally stands on the medal podium as Rosey Fletcher of Girdwood gets a bronze in women's parallel giant slalom snowboarding, becoming the first U.S. woman to medal in that discipline. Fletcher is now the fifth Alaskan Olympic medalist, joining Kris Thorsness (Los Angeles 1984), Hilary Lindh (Albertville 1992), two-timer Tommy Moe (Lillehammer 1994), and most recently, former University of Alaska Fairbanks student Matt Emmons at Athens. Switzerland's Daniela Meuli claimed gold with Germany's Ameile Kober following her up with silver.
It was about time an Alaskan medaled in Turin as our athletes there performed poorly, fueled by Jay Hakkinen's dissapointing 80th place showing in the men's biathlon last week (Anchorage's Kikkan Randall did way, way better than him; she came in ninth in the women's ski sprint) as well as Scott Gomez and his U.S. men's hockey team eliminated in the quarterfinals along with Canada on Wednesday.
By the way...given the 10-hour time difference between Turin and Alaska and knowing that I love spoiling myself when it comes to results from the games...not to mention ratings for NBC's coverage being down the shitter (I wish I knew somebody in this area with a Canadian satellite dish so they can enjoy the 100% LIVE, crap-free coverage from CBC), I got the news on the figure skating from my cell phone.
Anyway, the 20th Olympic Winter Games will all come to an end on Sunday, meaning NBC afterwards will return to its fourth place standing and here, "Friends" and "Frasier" reruns will be back to their regular times at the 7:00 pm hour following the news. But in the end, it'll be the viewers grabbing gold ourselves -- by tuning out these games! Good night.
Good evening. Well, finally, an Alaskan did medal at the Winter Olympics in Turin today. More on that in a bit, but first...
What started out to be the night for Sasha Cohen hoping to get the figure skating gold medal turned into disaster. In the women's free skate today, she and Russia's Irina Slutskaya all fell down during their make-it-or-break-it showings, clearing the way for 24-year-old Shizuka Arakawa from Japan to come from behind and grab the gold in the end; this was her country's first medal since Midori Ito's silver in 1992. Cohen and Slutskaya settled for silver and bronze respectively while Emily Hughes couldn't match big sister Sarah's success in Salt Lake City four years ago; she ended up in seventh place.
I was hoping for Cohen to pick up where Michelle Kwan left off after she dropped out of these games, but just like Kwan in 2002, one fall did cost it all...well, at least for now. This was her first Olympics, so the next time she'll try to take a stab at that gold will be in 2010 in Vancouver, when the games return to North America. Emily Hughes will be waiting in the wings as well.
Meanwhile, an Alaskan finally stands on the medal podium as Rosey Fletcher of Girdwood gets a bronze in women's parallel giant slalom snowboarding, becoming the first U.S. woman to medal in that discipline. Fletcher is now the fifth Alaskan Olympic medalist, joining Kris Thorsness (Los Angeles 1984), Hilary Lindh (Albertville 1992), two-timer Tommy Moe (Lillehammer 1994), and most recently, former University of Alaska Fairbanks student Matt Emmons at Athens. Switzerland's Daniela Meuli claimed gold with Germany's Ameile Kober following her up with silver.
It was about time an Alaskan medaled in Turin as our athletes there performed poorly, fueled by Jay Hakkinen's dissapointing 80th place showing in the men's biathlon last week (Anchorage's Kikkan Randall did way, way better than him; she came in ninth in the women's ski sprint) as well as Scott Gomez and his U.S. men's hockey team eliminated in the quarterfinals along with Canada on Wednesday.
By the way...given the 10-hour time difference between Turin and Alaska and knowing that I love spoiling myself when it comes to results from the games...not to mention ratings for NBC's coverage being down the shitter (I wish I knew somebody in this area with a Canadian satellite dish so they can enjoy the 100% LIVE, crap-free coverage from CBC), I got the news on the figure skating from my cell phone.
Anyway, the 20th Olympic Winter Games will all come to an end on Sunday, meaning NBC afterwards will return to its fourth place standing and here, "Friends" and "Frasier" reruns will be back to their regular times at the 7:00 pm hour following the news. But in the end, it'll be the viewers grabbing gold ourselves -- by tuning out these games! Good night.
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