Sunday 21 February
It had to happen - Musical Chairs
The Americans are top of the Alpine medal table and by no
coincidence they end every email they send out with best in the
World. Of the six races so far they have two golds, three silvers
and a couple of bronze medals for good measure. Sure there are
elements of their media that are sensationalist and like to kick a
guy when he is down but generally they are supportive and big their
racers up to make them feel wanted.
Go over the pond and what do we have: Our national broadcaster does
not send a TV crew to watch and interview the men at all during the
speed week. They have tried to talk to Ed Drake but with his racing
being the main focus this week, the times they have asked have not
been conducive for Drake so they have not been approved. The
man they send across to talk to Ed in the media mix zone writes a
blog belittling skiing and the downhill Olympic Gold in favour of
his mates snowboarding. Auntie used to be famous for encouraging and
supporting British athletes and yet now she seems more interested in
providing ex athletes with a retirement home. Asked today if he felt
the beeb could do more for the sport, Ed Drake responded yes, they
could by interviewing the British athletes as it would encourage
more of the young athletes to get involved. The man from the BOA was
almost having a fit as this answer came out - gone was the nice
civil interview and at last we had the athlete talking from
the heart. well done Ed.
Was up at the Salomon Press Night this evening. Usually these sort
of nights are littered with racers from the brand of ski or product
hosting the night. I felt like I had walked into something from Mars
(the planet not the chocolate bar) as I recognised no one. I was
told that we would be fed and watered which had been my main reason
for attending yet I did not want to stand in the corner like billy
no mates (even though some girls were bravely being body painted
from the waist up!). I soon found a couple of other journos, all
there for the same reason: To try and interview the racers from
Salomon! And where were they? Well Austria's Hannes Reichelt was
there, Canadian ex racer Melanie Turgeon was also there and
Davide Simoncelli in his extremely garish Italian Olympic clothing
arrived a little later. The room was full of the freeriders which
may have explained the blank look i gave the room on arrival! With
such a group of "liberal thinkers" I was amazed at the bravery of
the topless, body painted girls as they lined up with all that
wanted a picture.... In true News of the World fashion, this
journalist made his excuses and left!
Six races in and Team America have owned the podium, oops that was
what the Canadians were supposed to do. And to add salt to the
wounds, America beat Canada in the Match on Super Sunday in the Ice
Hockey. There will be sire heads tomorrow...!
we now move into the the technical events. These are the races that
will see the Eddie Edwards brigade out. While there is a
qualification race at the World Championships, I would strongly
agree that this would be a better idea for the Olympics as well
rather than having a group of racers who will struggle down the
slope making skiing look a mockery....
Nothing up tomorrow apart from maybe a blog ...
