Bode and Bobsleds

They pretty much broke the mold when they made Bode Miller. Man, the guy is fun to watch ski and he's almost as entertaining to listen to because you never know exactly what's going to come out of his mouth. After claiming a bronze and a silver medal in Whistler, Bode capped his medal set by finally winning the gold in the super-combined and erasing the painful memories of the 2006 Games, where he spectacularly flamed out in all five of his races.
Bode was seventh after the downhill runs and then blistered the slalom portion to snag the gold. Above is him shooting across the finish line as the crowd went nuts. Interesting thing about the Games in Canada is that while the Canadians have this seeming inferiority complex when it comes to competing against the U.S. -- almost like a little bro-big bro relationship -- they root hard for the Americans (as long as there are no Canadians in the mix). So Bode was getting a load of support from not only the loads of Americans in the crowd waving flags and ringing cowbells, he was getting love from the Canucks as well.Raising the flowers on the victory podium after the race..
And heading out of the media center after finishing his post-race news conference, which per usual Bode, was entertaining, rambling, tangental and existential all at the same time. The guy is out there, has that rebel quality and really couldn't care less what anyone thinks about him. I likened him a little bit to a James Dean on the slopes...

After the race, it was down to Whistler base, where the party was going strong -- bands, music, food, drinks, you name it..
Grabbed a great lunch in Whistler before heading up on the gondola for the bobsled competition in the afternoon. For several days now, I've been searching for a brew on tap that Cirullo ordered me to try called R&B Ravens Cream Ale... I've now asked at 11 different restaurants, bars, dives with no luck. Only one place even had it in a bottle. The search continues,
Up at the bobsled track, which is on Blackcomb Mountain, one chairlift and a gondola away from

the Alpine events. Now I've always wanted to take a ride down a bobsled track, but I'll tell ya what, it's not much of a spectator sport. The sleds are flying by so fast, they're gone in the blink of an eye. If you look closely, you can see the Polish sled blurred in between the light stanchions just before the V in Vancouver...

Here's what I did not know about bobsledding, luge, skeleton, what have you...

The track at the end actually has a serious incline to slow the sleds down. It makes sense of course, but I never could really tell that whenever I happened to catch it on television. After crossing the finish line, the sleds race up a hill and start slamming on the brakes, jettisoning a large cloud of snow and ice from behind.

As I watched the last few bobsledders finish up from the warmth of the media center, Team USA knocked off Canada in a men's hockey preliminary game, sending a shockwave throughout the entire country. (Needless to say, this was one game in which the Canadians definitely didn't want to see any U.S. success) After getting back to Vancouver more than 2 hours later, it was amazing how subdued folks on the streets were. The night before, people were chanting, drinking, yelling -- yet on this night, there was little revelry.. Amazing how much significance one preliminary round game can have. We found out the next day that it was the most-watched television event in Canadian history...