Saturday, February 25, 2006

Gold AND Bronze for Canada!!!

Cindy Klassen just won her 5th (5th!!!) medal of the Torino games with a gutsy bronze medal in the women's 5000m!!!

Even more impressive, was the leave it all on the ice performance of Canada's Clara Hughes, who took the GOLD!!! Hughes has won medals at BOTH the summer, and winter games (summer in cycling) but this is her first GOLD medal!!!

Congratulations to Canada's best-ever winter athlete, and our newest Olympic champion!!!

Way to go ladies!!!

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Thursday, February 23, 2006

Congrats to Canada's women Figure Skaters!!!

Ok, so I'm not the biggest figureskating fan, but credit where credit is due, our ladies did an EXCELLENT job this evening!!!!

Joannie Rochette finished an extremely impressive 5th (she came in with hopes of top ten) and here's what Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch live blogged right after her performance:

The 20-year-old from Ile Dupas, Canada, entered the free in ninth place and was mesmerizing at the start. She skied high on a triple loop and acted as if she owned the ice. Her spins were lovely and crisp. She jumped with purpose. Her smile at the end said it all: fantastic stuff.

I think a lot of people sat up and took notice of Rochette tonight. And that's right, she's only 20, so she'll be 24 in 2010. Look out for her in Vancouver.

Vancouver's Mira Leung was equally impressive, skating very well and finishing 12th. Leung is 16 (16!!!) with much less experience than most of the athletes in Turin, and this wonderful performance and experience no doubt bodes well for her aspirations for Vancouver as well!!!

Congratulations ladies... we're all very proud!

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Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Todd Bertuzzi, Kris Draper, Shane Doan...

Eric Staal, Jason Spezza, Sidney Crosby.


I'm just sayin'.

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Thank GOD for the ladies....

Well, the hockey game isn't looking so good, so let me take this opportunity to say "Thank God for the ladies!" But not just the women's hockey team, who we all love.

If we get beat by Russia today, it'll be tempered somewhat by the 4 medals we won today, ALL courtesy of women!

From TSN:

"Cindy Klassen of Winnipeg won gold in the women's 1,500-metre speedskating race for her fourth medal at the Torino Olympics - a single Games record for a Canadian athlete. Teammate Kristina Groves of Ottawa claimed the silver.

Klassen becomes the first Canadian woman to win five career Olympic medals. She opened the Games with a bronze medal in the 3,000 metres, followed that with a silver in the team pursuit and later claimed another silver in the 1,000.

Chandra Crawford of Canmore, Alta., got things started earlier today by winning gold in the women's cross-country ski sprint.
Canada's fourth medal came courtesy of Alanna Kraus, Anouk Leblanc-Boucher, Amanda Overland, Kalyna Roberge and Tania Vincent, who won silver in the women's 3,000 metre short-track relay."

4 Medals today!!! and 2 Gold!!! Might makes us feel a little better if we get taken out by the big red machine in hockey.

And not to make us think the men are useless on this year's olympic squad, congratulations to Brad Gushue's rink who made it to the gold medal game in men's curling, defeating the U.S. 11-5. Another guaranteed medal for Canada (colour to be determined) which will bring us to 19 medals... our best winter Olympics ever, by at least 2...

Update: Just for the record, we've won 18 medals now, and by my count 5 of them were won by men (or teams of men). Five of eighteen. Makes me very proud of how our women athletes are dominating in their sports, but it raises an eyebrow too, no?


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Friday, February 17, 2006

Gold AND Silver for CANADA!!!!

Canadians Duff Gibson and Jeff Pain won gold and silver respectively for Canada in men's skeleton today.

Congratulations gentlemen! Very well done!!!

Congrats also to Canadian Paul Boehm who placed fourth.

3 of 6 medals... who knew we were such a skeleton powerhouse!

We now have 11 medals at Torino, just 7 shy of our best finish ever!

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Olympic Women's Hockey!!!

Sweden 3 U.S. 2


WOW!!!

I believe this will be the first major international gold medal game EVER to not be U.S. vs. Canada.

Let's hope it doesn't inspire some sort of miracle from Finland!!!

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Thursday, February 16, 2006

I blink and we win another medal!

Bronze for Canadian slider Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards in skeleton!

Congratulations!!!

7 down... 18 to go!

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Two more silver medals!!!!

Men's AND Women's silver in speed skating pursuit races!

Way to go!

6 down, 19 to go!

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Ripping your own CDs to your iPod is NOT fair use???

This story (h/t to Scruffy Dan) needs to spread through the blogosphere like wildfire. This is perhaps even more disturbing than the whole Sony rootkit debacle and we need to make a stink about it now, before it goes any further.

And someone should email Steve Jobs about this. Maybe he won't care, because this would presumably send more people to the iTunes Music Store, but I'd imagine some people could be turned off of buying an iPod if it means they have to re-purchase their ENTIRE MUSIC COLLECTION!!! A prospect which would easily cost most people THOUSANDS of dollars.

Preach everyone!

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Silver win despite broken ski pole!

From TSN:

Beckie Scott of Vermilion, Alta., and Sara Renner of Canmore, Alta., went out in style, winning the silver medal in the inaugural women's cross-country team sprint at the Olympic Games on Tuesday. It was an emotional finish for Scott, who says she'll probably retire at the end of the World Cup season.

A great day for Becky Scott who came in 6th just the other day, despite being a medal favourite (though, this is cross-country skiing we're talking about... it's such a gruelling race, I think any top ten finish is one to be proud of, even if you're a medal contender!) .

Even more impressive (still TSN):

Renner broke a pole in the second lap, that dropped her from the lead to fourth place, 2.4 seconds behind the leader. Scott put them back in the lead on the ensuing lap and they raced among the leaders the rest of the way.
"I didn't panic and before I knew it a Norwegian (coach) had given me a pole," said Renner. "It's not the best thing to happen but at the same time you can't give up."


Not surprising at the Olympics, but great to see another team's coach was right there with a pole for Sara!

Great job ladies!

3 down, 22 to go.

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Sunday, February 12, 2006

2 down, 23 to go!

Cindy Klassen wins bronze in the women's 3000m long-track speed-skating!

As the world-record holder, she is probably a little disappointed, but we should all be very proud!!! A young skater from the Netherlands put up a very impressive time for Gold, and a lot of well known skaters (like Anni Friessinger) clearly struggled with such a long, difficult race, but Klassen hung on for bronze despite clearly struggling and even slipping a little on the last corner.

Congratulations Cindy!

23 more medals to go!

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Saturday, February 11, 2006

One down, twenty-four to go!

Congratulations Jennifer Heil!!!

Gold for Canada in Women's Moguls!!!

Great start team Canada, only 24 medals to go!

Update: Here's the story!!!

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Friday, February 10, 2006

Fortier thinks Emerson should step down for by-election...

So, unelected Cabinet Minister Michael Fortier (who says he will not resign his seat should an opportunity to run in a by-election come up, but will wait until the next full federal election) thinks elected floor-crossers like David Emerson should step down and contest their seats in by-elections. Link (subscriber for full story, abstract has the gist)

I think Emerson should step down and run in a by-election too. However, hearing a cabinet minister who never even ran for election in the first place recommend that someone else should step down and run in a by-election themselves (something Forteir has explicitly stated HE will not do) is just too priceless not to comment on.

Who knew that the Tories could do arrogance, political expediency and hauty disdian for the electorate as well as the Liberals? It's pretty impressive isn't it?

It must make a lot of voters who thought they were "Standing up for Canada" want to sit back down.

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