Italy wins 4x10

So the men’s cross country 4x10 relay was a bit of an anti-climax compared to the last 3 Olympics in which the Norwegians and the Italians have battled to a photo finish every time. Norway faded to a distant fifth, the equivalent of the American men’s basketball team getting a bronze in 2004. Italy, however, emerged victorious. Christian Zorzi anchored the men’s team to a gold place finish, perhaps soothing the angst of losing by less than a ski length in Salt Lake City.

Video: Italy wins men’s relay, NBC Olympic Special of Previous 4x10 Relays, The Great Race

Previous Posts: Olympic Skiing: Men’s XC 4x10 Relay Tomorrow and Nordic Skiing in Torino & in Northern Maine.

I recently finished a site for Cool Collars, a soft terry-cloth towel that can be filled with ice and wrapped around the neck during outdoor activity to help cool the body. It was a fun site to do, particularly with the photographs of the kids. Here’s more cool collar information.

The Men’s Cross Country Skiing 4x10 km Relay is set for tomorrow in Torino. I’m not sure how many other people I could find who would agree with me, but I think it’s the most exciting event in sports. At least it has been since Lillehammer in ‘94 when Fauner outdueled Daehlie. Each of the last three finished has come down to the wire. Above is the most recent in 2002, when Thomas Alsgaard held of the Italians once again by a split second.

NBC usually has great coverage. Here’s an article from their website on the rivalry that has sprung up between Italy and Norway - Relay rivalry: Round four, Norway and Italy get set for another cross-country clash. We’ll see if it continues as the Italians ski on their home turf.

More Olympic XC Skiing Links

• XC Ski Schedule (Torino 2006)
• Athletes list by Discipline : Cross-Country Skiing
• Cross Country Ski Page on Torino Olympic Website
• NBC Olympics – Cross Country Skiing

Me in a freestyle race at Ft. Fairfield

The winter olympics in Torino, Italy are a little more than 40 days away. That got me thinking about great moments of winter olympics past which, for me, center on cross-country skiing and Men’s 4x10 km Relay and the epic battles between the Norwegians and Italians. Most of you, of course, have no idea what I’m talking about. If you watch the winter olympics at all, it will be all alpine events, snowboarding and that most <sarcasm>exhilarating</sarcasm> of all sports, figure skating. The
4x10 relay will be shown at some ungodly hour, if at all, but if you have Tivo, I highly recommend you check it out 19 February.

Incidentally, the part of the country I grew up in is putting a lot of resources into the sport with the Maine Winter Sports Center and Nordic Heritage Ski Club. I would have loved to have had a chance to get on the new roller-ski treadmill they have at the university.

Michael Lewis has a great article on Texas Tech’s head football coach, Mike Leach, in this weeks NY Times Magazine, detailing the rise of his unique brand of offense and unusual approach to the game.

Looking for fresh coaching talent, Schwartz analyzed the offensive and defensive statistics of what he called the “midlevel schools” in search of any that had enjoyed success out of proportion to their stature. On offense, Texas Tech’s numbers leapt out as positively freakish: a midlevel school, playing against the toughest football schools in the country, with the nation’s highest scoring offense.

This was my favorite part:

Last year, after a loss to Texas A.&M. in overtime, Leach hauled the team into the conference room on Sunday morning and delivered a three-hour lecture on the history of pirates. Leach read from his favorite pirate history, “Under the Black Flag,” by David Cordingly (the passages about homosexuality on pirate ships had been crossed out). The analogy to football held up for a few minutes, but after a bit, it was clear that Coach Leach was just . . . talking about pirates. The quarterback Cody Hodges says of his coach: “You learn not to ask questions. If you ask questions, it just goes on longer.”

Hodges knows - the players all do - that their coach is a walking parenthesis, without a companion to bracket his stray thoughts. They suspect, but aren’t certain, that his wide-ranging curiosity benefits their offense. Of all the things motivating Texas Tech to beat Texas A.&M. this night, however, the keenest may have been the desire to avoid another lecture about pirates.

Read Coach Leach Goes Deep, Very Deep

Well, so technically all games we play have been made up by someone at one time or another, but I’ve decided to record for posterity the games I’ve encountered at or near their conception. The Game of Bottle is one such.

Read the full article - How to Play Bottle

I read somewhere that it took 20 years for nascent basketball players to figure out that they needed to cut a hole in the bottom of the peach basket so they could quit climbing up the ladder to fish out the ball. Games gestate. In 50 years there will be a world-champion bottle team and their star player will have more endorsement contracts than he knows what to do with. Any megacorporations want to get in on the ground floor with some start-up capital? Coke? Pepsi? … Fanta?

Michael Lewis has a fantastic article on major league baseball’s obsession with power in this weeks New York Times Magazine. While it pays due diligence to the steriod controversy, it focuses instead on the roots of our national pasttime’s obsession with homers. High percentage players definitely have an advocate in Lewis, though I think he may overlook the impact of Ichiro on the renewed interest these types of hitters in the farm system.