The Olympics

Parent Cafe
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<p>I don’t think Costas hair is his own!</p>

262

<p>If Bob Costas and Bryan Gumbel were in the lion’s den, I’d have to root for the lion. I cannot see how either of them made it as far as they did. They are both so unpleasant.</p>

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<p>Re: Dick Button and PLushenko’s comment. Dick handled it beautifully by saying records were meant to be broken. Costas is an idiot.</p>

<p>I seem to remember pictures of Sonja Henig (sp?) in outdoor competitions. I have no idea re: summer v. winter.</p>

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<p>^^^^^Yes, I forgot about Sonja Henie. She was one of the first skaters to transfer Olympic glory into commercial success. I think she made a movie or two and was one of the first skaters (if not the first) to wear a shorter skirt and white boot type skates.</p>

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<p>Costas is apparently in some kind of mid-life crisis. Bad hair (either real or fake…doesn’t matter…it’s TOO DARK). Eyes that look like they’ve been messed with (he has that over-alert look). He better watch it…he’s becoming the male version of Joan Rivers.</p>

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<p>I really never minded Bob Costas before now. Just seems like he has a mean-spririted edge this time around.</p>

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<p>I like Costas, but he definitely is snarky with Button. I think it’s because Button could be SOOO over the top in the past; he would pick every nit possible. But he’s a legend and so NBC can’t get rid of him entirely, hence this reduced role. I do think Costas should be a little more reverent with him instead of treating him like the crazy uncle who was injured in the war and now no one knows what he’ll do or say.</p>

<p>Agree that Costas’ hair is bad. Mary what’s her name is better this year. She really bugged me at the past couple of Olympics.</p>

<p>Also, I guess it’s because I quit watching the Today show in the mornings, but I’m liking the coverage more than last time around, when I felt like I’d seen these stories a thousand times before the athlete ever competed. For me, it’s like watching UT football games and every announcer letting us know that Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley are roommates and their fathers were roommates, etc. Sure, there might be SOMEONE who watches college football who didn’t know that, but for those of us who watch every UT game, it got old.</p>

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<p>LOL, YDS, “crazy uncle”.</p>

<p>Costas’ attitude seems to suggest that he’s not very happy with his Olympic gig. He doesn’t influence my enjoyment of the games though.</p>

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<p>I don’t know. Costas doesn’t really bother me. I enjoy watching the competitions, and try not to let the announcers annoy me. The Olympics have always been kind of a big deal for me, even before the first one I remember watching (Mexico City in 1968), because I grew up hearing about my grandma’s older brother, who won 6 Olympic medals in track and field (4 golds and 2 silvers) in three different Olympics a long time ago. He was the first Jewish American to win a gold medal. The only competitive athlete in the history of my family as far as I know; other than him, we’re all just spectators (if that)! I very much appreciated it when Life Magazine had a big Olympics issue for the 1984 Los Angeles games, all about the history of the Olympics in the USA, and included a huge double-page action photo of my great-uncle in the middle of one of his gold medal-winning long jumps in St. Louis in 1904.</p>

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<p>Cool, DonnaL. Did your great uncle have a day job? I ask because I’ve heard that way back when most athletes were not “full time.”</p>

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<p>Wow, DonnaL!! How cool is that?<br>
I wasn’t going to mention Bob’s eyes, but since toneranger did…they do look rather strange. Overly large pupils or something. I mean I don’t hate him for it but it is distracting…</p>

272

<p>This article from *Salon *is pretty funny (sorry Canadians).</p>

<p>[Winter</a> Olympics 2010 - Salon.com](<a href=“http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2010/02/16/steve_almond_olympics/]Winter”>http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2010/02/16/steve_almond_olympics/)</p>

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<p>

My favorite skater of all time! My heart broke for him in 1992 when he finished out of the medal running, and especially in 1994 when a poor performance in the short program guaranteed that he couldn’t place on the podium. He gave a phenomenal performance in the free skate that year and went from 12th to 5th or something like that. And he was so classy despite his disappointment at both Games. If Gene Kelly had been a figure skater (and of course Gene could skate, too), he’d have been Kurt Browning.

She actually made more than a dozen movies between the mid-1930s and 1950 - and was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood at the peak of her success. Her movies have not aged well, though, and it’s hard to find them. She was a great athlete and very pretty, but she wouldn’t make you forget Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck.</p>

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<p>My great-uncle was a college student at Syracuse U. (where he was captain of the track team) during his first Olympics. (He grew up in Syracuse, after he and his family immigrated from Poland when he was a small child.) I think a lot of US Olympic athletes were college students back then. That was the year he set the then-world record in the long jump, which was then called the broad jump – 24’ 7 1/4", not a lot from a current viewpoint, but pretty impressive in his day!</p>

<p>After college, he became a lawyer (not by going to law school, I think, but through the apprentice system, which was something people could do back then). He continued to compete as a member of the Irish American Athletic Club in New York City. (Because clubs like the N.Y.A.C., of course, didn’t admit Jews. Or Irish, probably.)</p>

<p>Here are a few photos of him jumping at the St. Louis Olympics; the first, I think, is the one that was published in Life Magazine:</p>

<p><a href=“http://farm5.static.■■■■■■■■■■/4060/4366213168_5a7da313e0.jpg[/url]”>http://farm5.static.■■■■■■■■■■/4060/4366213168_5a7da313e0.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.jewoftheday.com/Ulpan/Images/Meyer%20Prinstein.jpg[/url]”>http://www.jewoftheday.com/Ulpan/Images/Meyer%20Prinstein.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://legendsrevealed.com/sports/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/myer_prinstein_longjump_1904.jpg[/url]”>http://legendsrevealed.com/sports/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/myer_prinstein_longjump_1904.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>And this is the story of his famous fight with one of his teammates at the Paris Olympics:</p>

<p>[Olympic</a> Legends Revealed #4](<a href=“http://legendsrevealed.com/sports/2009/07/24/olympic-legends-revealed-4/]Olympic”>http://legendsrevealed.com/sports/2009/07/24/olympic-legends-revealed-4/)</p>

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<p>Note the lack of spectators in the pictures.</p>

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<p>When you watched ski jumping, did you notice how skinny the guys are? One of the Swiss skiers was 5’8" 121 lbs.</p>

<p>[What’s</a> the skinny on abnormally lean ski jumpers in Olympics? - Phil Taylor - SI.com](<a href=“http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/olympics/2010/writers/phil_taylor/02/16/skinny.ski.jumpers/index.html]What’s”>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/olympics/2010/writers/phil_taylor/02/16/skinny.ski.jumpers/index.html)</p>

<p>Also, are we doing spoilers on this thread or not?</p>

277

<p>Personally, I like spoilers. Whatcha’ got?</p>

278

<p>The women’s downhill is over. google it.</p>

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<p>Exactly. And the TV coverage was spotty back then, too.</p>

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<p>From the pictures it looks like you could just wander over with your folding chair and watch the field events.</p>