Left field

from Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010:

Raining hockey pucks at the Olympics

Molly Riley writes:

Covering hockey at ice level is rarely without excitement but usually without injury to photographers ... until the game I was working at last Friday.

I was covering the last of three hockey games in one day from our assigned position in a seat against the glass. During second period a puck that was shot up to the net above the glass dropped straight down and hit me on the leg. I didn’t think much of it and while fans scrambled for the loose puck I thought ‘what are the chances of that happening?’

Then during the third period another puck was shot up into the net and came straight down, this time on my head.

I did not see it coming but knew what it was when it hit, and I thought 'hmmm I just got hit on the head with a puck...' It didn’t hurt much but I felt my head and found it bleeding. I cleared my cameras and laptop away, leaned over the isle watching blood drip from my head to a pool in the floor, and signaled for help.

A doctor from the crowd came down and said the cut didn’t look too deep. Soon a couple of medics appeared, moved me to a seat a couple rows up, and proceeded to wrap an over sized bandage around my head. They stood me up and as we walked up the isle, spectators in the two neighboring sections applauded. The medic told me that they were applauding for me. Embarrassed and laughing, the only thing I could think of to do was to wave to acknowledge their applause.

We arrived to the clinic onsite and after getting treatment I walked out to a group of waiting colleagues who were concerned and eager to show me the photos, some of which had already been tagged on Facebook.

from The Great Debate UK:

What can London 2012 learn from Vancouver? Seb Coe answers your questions

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver were hit at the very start by the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili and for a while the Games struggled to recover, as organisers were faced with problem after problem, from the unseasonably warm weather to transport snarl-ups to scoring problems.

Some even wondered if Vancouver would go on to be called the Worst Games Ever but no one is saying that now, with the action picking up to provide a series of electrifying and heart warming moments while the organisation has settled down.

In fact, Vancouver looks like it will set the bar pretty high for the next Summer Olympics in London in 2012. On Friday, Sebastian Coe, chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee, will be talking to Reuters from the Main Press Centre in Vancouver and will address questions including what London can learn from these Games.

Coe, of course, is himself a double gold medal winner, having triumphed in the 1500m in Moscow in 1980 and again in the same event in Los Angeles four years later.

He will be answering questions in a live chat we’ll be hosting here on Friday at 1600 GMT, talking about London’s preparations for the 2012 Olympics and his own Games experience in Vancouver, where he ran with the torch on the day of the opening ceremony (see the photo above).

If you have questions for Coe, please send them in to the Live Blog within this post, or in the comments below, and join us for the chat on Friday -- either at this page or at this link -- for a first-hand look at how things are going before the Five Ring Circus heads to London.

Kevin Fylan, Vancouver

from Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010:

A crush that led to Olympic gold

Canadians basking in the warm glow of Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue's gold medal winning performance in the ice dancing were all asking the same question on Tuesday ... Are they as close off the ice as they are on it?

Turns out the answer is no, but things might have turned out diffrerently, as Allan Dowd reports...

“I know I had a crush on Scott, that’s for sure, but I wasn’t alone there,” she told reporters.

“That’s certainly changed,” Moir shot back.

And no, they are certainly not dating now.

“Just on the ice for seven minutes every time we do the program,” Moir joked.

from Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010:

Winter Games, day 11 — live

Canada v Germany in the hockey is the highlight of the Winter Olympics programme today, with the host nation facing a test of nerve in this sudden death play-off.

That's not all, though, folks, with the men's giant slalom in alpine skiing one of five medal events.

from Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010:

Winter Games podcast — day seven

vancouverpodday7edit

Our latest podcast from downtown Vancouver focuses on the little differences between cultures, the giant war of words between the figure skaters and the surprise visit of the multi-medal winning Michael Phelps.

from Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010:

Williams wins gold, will Brits stop moaning about the Games now?

Amy Williams became Britain's first Winter Olympics gold medallist in an individual event for 30 years when she scored a commanding victory in the skeleton on Friday.

The 27-year-old with the curly-wurly hairstyle won by over half a second to emulate the gold won by Robin Cousins in the men's skating in 1980.

The big question now is whether the British journalists who have been so critical of the Vancouver Olympics, floating the idea of it being the Worst Games Ever, will start singing a much jollier tune.

Most of us here have been enjoying ourselves immensely, in this pretty, prosperous and welcoming city. Now that the Brits have Borrowed the Podium, will they join the party?

More later once we get some updated reaction from the British nupes.

from Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010:

Winter Olympics live blog — day seven

Our live blog on the day's events at the Winter Olympics is up and running... The men's Super-G is the big event of the morning, at 1130 local, 1430 ET and 1930 GMT, but there's exciting action too in the skeleton, ski jumping and ice dancing.

We'll be here all day and every day, with expert comment from our team of reporters at the Games, so please feel free to dip in and out...

from Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010:

Vancouver podcast – day six

2vanpod6edit

We're back, and now with new added Australian. Join me, Julian, Mary Milliken and Miles Evans for our chat about the Worst/Best Games Ever, Lindsey Vonn and, inevitably, the great Aussie contribution to the Winter Olympics.

from Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010:

Oh no Canada! But don’t be so quick to write off these Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have been beset by tragedy and trials, from the death of the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, through the Goldilocks weather up at Whistler and Cypress -- too much snow or too little snow, it's never just right -- to a biathlon scoring fiasco described as "the blackest day ever".

Then there was the opening ceremony fail with the missing fourth ice pillar, the PR disaster of moving ugly chain fencing in front of the outdoor cauldron so no one could take a decent picture, the thousands of ripped up tickets and having to call on Calgary to the rescue after the ice machines broke down.

It's quite a list of mess-ups and there are plenty more besides.

But calling these the Worst Games Ever? That's quite a stretch just a few days in and it may have more to do with certain sections of the media looking for a good overarching narrative -- a theme they can keep going back to in every story they write. An entire press pack cannot live on one outside hope of a curling medal alone.

I don't want to skate over the problems -- see what I did there? -- so I encourage you to follow the links above to read all we've written about them, but I also think we risk losing sight of a few things that have gone well in Vancouver. Here are a few reasons why these might well turn out to be not such bad Games after all.

1. Lindsey Vonn. Her gold in the women's Alpine skiing downhill means the American skier may end up giving us a great story of triumph in adversity, after she came her worried that a badly bruised shin might mean she wouldn't be able to compete at all. Vonn is competing in four other medal events, meaning a huge gold rush is still possible. That sort of achievement would change the whole mood of these Games and make them one of the most memorable ... for the right reasons. The downhill itself was spectacular as well, with so many skiers ending up on their backsides in the icy conditions. Made for terrific viewing.

2.  These are the Games we've stopped being snooty about arriviste sports like snowboard and freestyle skiing, and put these wonderful athletes at the heart of the Olympics. Just think about the significance of starting the opening ceremony with the image of a snowboarder freestyling off a cliff and leaping through the Olympic rings. How's that for a ringing endorsement? And the action itself has been at times beyond description, culminating in Shaun White's outrageous skill and daring in winning gold in the halfpipe on Wednesday night. Awesome, as they'd probably say themselves.

from Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010:

Winter Games, day six – live

Yevgeny Plushenko is the main attraction as the Russian attempts to seal gold with the men's free skate but there's plenty of irresistible medal action before then.

Join us on the live blog ... we'll be here all day with on-the-spot comments from our team if reporters, medal flashes, standback views and stats. Feel to dip in and out, and remember, comments are always welcome.