Suddenly, Stephen Gogolev was just there. Tall, lanky, a master of understatement, a greater master of quick rotation, Gogolev emerged during the Olympic season like a bursting bud that had been buried for a long demoralizing winter. He’ll be going to his first world championship in Prague next week as a player, after having […]
Olympics
Gilles and Poirier: Peace at Last
After battling through the predictable/unpredictable trenches of ice dancing for 15 years, and a rash of ups and downs enough to startle a tornado, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier both stepped onto an Olympic podium in Milan last month and jumped up and down with utter, irrepressible joy. “We wanted to stay on the podium […]
Men Meet Friday the 13th
Friday the Thirteenth. That’s all you need to know. The men’s Olympic final was on this day of black cats, and blood moons, and things that go bump in the night. Unfortunately, so many of the men went bump in the night. But nobody, just nobody, even into the far corners of this earth, imagined […]
Gilles and Poirier: Long Path to Olympic Bronze
You look at Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier – nametag Olympic bronze medalists – and you rub your eyes. They were always a couple of goofballs who didn’t care what anybody thought of their creative schemes. Now they are much more. Or rather, the world now recognizes them as much more. On the Olympic stage, […]
Gilles and Poirier: Vincent in their Corner
“Now I understand, What you tried to say to me And how you suffered for your sanity And how you tried to set them free. They would not listen. They did not know how. Perhaps they’ll listen now.” So Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, skating to these words this Olympic season, are setting forth “some […]
Gabby Daleman is BACK!
Up until a few weeks ago, Gabby Daleman was Canada’s best-kept secret. We’ve hardly seen her in three years. She’s determined to change that with her straight-ahead fierce focus. Never has there been an athlete who is clearly about blood and thunder, intensity, and sheer want-to passion. She’s motivated like a wasp to a honey […]
Jason Brown: Art Lights the Way
Jason Brown grew up feeling the magic of the Miracle on Ice, that unforgettable march of the US hockey team to win gold at the 1980 Olympics. in Lake Placid, N.Y. Never mind that the event pre-dated his birth by 14 years. It’s just something that lives forever in the heart of an athlete in […]
Vincent Zhou speaks, All Should Listen
U.S. Olympian Vincent Zhou has been moved to speak out against the handling of the Russian doping practices that led to a hearing regarding Kamila Valieva, who tested positive for a substance at her nationals – but we didn’t find out about it until after the Olympics. Almost two years has passed before the international […]
Alone
I did not realize, until I watched the NBC broadcast in the evening of Feb. 17, just how deeply ran the emotions of an Olympic women’s figure skating event gone wrong. I had not seen all of Kamila Valieva’s tears when she finished. I had not seen how, when she came off the ice, her […]
Tough Decisions
The tough part: Canada has only two Olympic pair skating spots. The even more tough part: Canada had three teams that wanted those two spots. This decision was the most difficult to make for Skate Canada about the 13 skaters that would make up the Olympic team, and also the most controversial. Dance, singles: easy. […]