Winter Olympics… Go Team Deutschland!

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Excellent.  I always loved winter sports on the telly, and I still find myself humming the theme tune to ‘Ski Sunday’ now and again.  That show was as much a part of winter weekends as tuning in to see the vidiprinter (sp?) and hear a posh voice proclaim Partick Thistle Nil.

Only problem was that we (and by ‘we’ I mean the Brits) were pretty rubbish at it.  There was the Bell brothers, but I think the best either of them managed was 6th or something, and sometimes the ice skaters, but otherwise there was not much cheering going on when the Winter Olympics came around.  Last time Britains Gold medal came in Curling, with another bronze in the Skeleton Bob, although according to team chiefs, only one medal in Torino would be a success.

In fact, for the majority of British people - and despite the wonderful performance by the Scottish girls last time around - the Winter Olympics represents two things: Torville and Dean, and Eddy ‘the Eagle’ Edwards.  Torville and Dean were, granted, quite good.  But they were quite good at ice dancing.  Which isn’t really a sport now, is it?  And Eddy - who incidently I met in Borovets in Bulgaria - was famous for being really, really terrible at ski jumping.  So terrible that they changed the rules to make it impossible to qualify for the next Olympics, and thus depriving young British kids with a Winter Olympic role-model.

One good thing about living in Germany is that I can choose a whole pile of slightly better winter sportspeople to support on the dubious basis of where I live, just in case that one medal prediction doesn’t come off.  The Associated Press have put together their own prediction list for medals in all the events, and being the glory hunter that I am, I now know the names of my new found, snow bound, heroes.

So come on Sven Fischer (10km Biathlon),Uschi Disl (7.5km Biathlon), the Mens 4-Man Bob Sleigh Team, the Womens 2-er-Woman Bob Sleigh Team, Tobias Angerer (Cross Country), Claudia Kuenzel (also Cross Country), David Moeller (Luge), Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch (Double Luge), Kerstin Juergens (Skeleton), and of course my absolute favourites, the duelling speed-skating duo of Claudia Pechstein and Anni Friesinger.

Good luck everyone, and make us proud! 

EDIT: Oh, the Guardian has a somewhat interesting A-Z guide to the Winter Olympics here.

On the Atari DJ Tapedeck: The Theme to Ski Sunday, Obviously.

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Filed under Elsewhere, General, Germany, Sport, Winter Olympics