Wednesday, March 3, 2010

“S.Korea pledges active support for winter sports - YAHOO!” plus 3 more

Posted by giant at 11:08 PM

“S.Korea pledges active support for winter sports - YAHOO!” plus 3 more

S.Korea pledges active support for winter sports - YAHOO!

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 10:07 PM PST

EFRAIN buzzed up: Obama takes charge, demands vote on health care (AP)

24 seconds ago 2010-03-03T22:59:44-08:00

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Primus Mootry: A laughing look at the Winter Olympics - Herald-Bulletin

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 10:07 PM PST

Published March 03, 2010 09:50 am - Joe South's 1968 Grammy award-winning song, "The Games People Play," is a lively little ditty. Yet, it is a deeply serious commentary on the games we play. As the Winter Olympics draw to a close, here are some of my observations on some of the serious and less serious aspects of its games.

Primus Mootry: A laughing look at the Winter Olympics

Oh the games people play now

Every night and every day now

-Joe South

Joe South's 1968 Grammy award-winning song, "The Games People Play," is a lively little ditty. Yet, it is a deeply serious commentary on the games we play. As the Winter Olympics draw to a close, here are some of my observations on some of the serious and less serious aspects of its games.

I woke up last Sunday morning and found myself watching Canada and Norway duel for Olympic gold in a game called curling. I watched the whole thing. I have no idea what I saw. All I know for sure is that Canada won.

If you want to know about the game's scoring, strategy, or the skills required to play it, don't ask me. All I know is that it is immensely popular in Canada, Norway, Russia, and other places where you find a lot of ice. For this reason, I suppose, you don't find a lot of blacks in curling. In fact, I doubt you'll find any.

It's a cultural thing, I guess. You just don't find too many blacks in winter sports. Take the luge thing for instance. That's where people at the top of a long ice-covered shute, on signal, race the clock down the thing at speeds in excess of 90 miles an hour, on their back, on a heavy sled. I saw no blacks in the luge competition and really didn't expect to see any.

Oh yeah, early in the luge competition some poor young man made a mistake that cost him his life. The committee that reviewed the incident said it was his fault and not the fault of the shute's construction. Also, as to the young man who was killed, I thought to myself if he had survived he would have become famous. Because he died, however, we may never hear his name again. And the games went on.

The young man's tragic death, however, may be part of the reason blacks don't luge. Not me. You won't find many of us on skis either — doing backward flips from mountain tops, racing down steep, ice-covered hills, and crashing into things that may leave you with a ski as a suppository. Not me.

Then I thought about figure skaters. I saw one or two blacks in the competition, but I think they thought it was supposed to be roller skating. Also — though it may be politically incorrect to say so — I saw no fat figure skaters, and no old figure skaters. It's not discrimination. It's the nature of the game.

In figure skating doubles, for example, the male partner often throws the female twirling high into the air, catches her, gently lowers her to the ice, and they continue their routine. The competitors are almost always white, Asian, young, and extremely fit. They make the difficult routines they perform look easy. Even if they fall, they get right up and skate on.

I can't imagine a fat person of any race getting twirled high into the air, deftly caught by the partner, and then lowered to the ice without more than one partner to throw and catch. Otherwise, someone — most likely the partner — could be crushed and killed. Or worse, they might live.

As for the elderly, if any were brave enough to try it, ambulances would surround the rink to take broken-hipped casualties to the nearest hospital or, perhaps, a quieter place. This, however, is unlikely. The reason is that, thankfully, one of the usual blessings of advanced age is increased wisdom.

As a senior citizen, I can attest to this without shame. Old people never think of running, jumping, twirling in the air, skipping, or hopping unless there is a complete emergency — a house fire, home invasion, a tsunami, or something like that. This is wisdom in action. Anything less is 911.

The Winter Olympics were fun to watch. However, as Joe South wrote in that song, "Oh! The games people play! ... Look around at what you see. God grant me the serenity, to remember who I am."€

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2-minute drill - St. Cloud Times

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 10:14 PM PST

Area skaters perform in synchonized skating ceremony

The National Synchronized Skating Competition is being held today through Saturday at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis and two local skaters are participating in the opening ceremony for the event.

Bridget Harguth, a senior at St. Cloud Cathedral, and Chloe Tinius, a senior at Sartell High School, both will skate in the ceremony. They have been skating for 13 years and are members of the St. Cloud Figure Skating Club. They also compete with Synchro Panache, a synchronized skating team with the Figure Skating Club of Minneapolis.

Lynx's Whalen, Wiggins added to national team pool

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Lynx guards Lindsay Whalen and Candice Wiggins have been added to the player pool for the U.S. women's basketball national team.

Whalen and Wiggins were among 12 players announced as candidates Wednesday for the 2010 World Championship team and the 2012 Olympic team. That brings the pool to 20 players, including eight gold medalists from the 2008 Olympics. Lynx teammate Seimone Augustus is one of the returners.

Minnesota Timberwolves forwards Al Jefferson and Kevin Love were recently named as national team candidates on the men's side.

Wild deal Belanger to Caps for 2nd-rounder

ST. PAUL — The Washington Capitals acquired center Eric Belanger from the Minnesota Wild for a second-round draft pick on Wednesday before the NHL's trading deadline.

The 32-year-old Belanger will be a free agent this summer. He has 13 goals and 22 assists in 35 games, ranking seventh in the NHL with wins on 57.6 percent of his faceoffs.

In 13th place in the Western Conference with 21 games left, the Wild appear more focused on the future. They have already traded defenseman Kim Johnsson and signed another free-agent-to-be, Marek Zidlicky, to a contract extension.

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Avs hold off Ducks - 13 WHAM

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 10:00 PM PST

Chris Stewart had a goal and two assists, as the Colorado Avalanche held on to defeat the Anaheim Ducks, 4-3, at Honda Center.

Matt Duchene ended with a goal and one assist, while Paul Stastny added three helpers for the Avs, who rebounded from Monday's loss to Detroit. T.J. Galiardi also scored, while Craig Anderson made 31 saves.

Peter Mueller, who Colorado acquired from Phoenix earlier Wednesday in the trade that sent Wojtek Wolski to the Coyotes, lit the lamp in his Avalanche debut.

"Obviously things didn't work out with Phoenix, but I'm coming to a great team in Colorado," Mueller said. "I am very excited to be a part of it -- there is such great tradition here. To lead it off with a goal and a big 'W', it definitely doesn't get better than that."

Teemu Selanne and Jason Blake each had a goal and assist for the Ducks, who were playing in their first game since coming back from the Olympic break. Scott Niedermayer also scored, while Jonas Hiller made 21 stops in the loss.

Both teams were well represented at the Olympics, as Selanne, who helped Finland win bronze, became the all-time points leader in men's Olympic hockey during the tournament. Additionally, Niedermayer won a gold medal playing for Canada, Stastny helped the United States to a silver medal, and Hiller served as Switzerland's goaltender.

They were central figures down the stretch of Wednesday's game, in which the Avs scored four consecutive goals. Down by two shortly into the second period, Colorado got on the board on Stewart's power-play score. Stastny fed the puck from the right side of the crease to the left, and Stewart put it in net at 9:10 to make it a 2-1 contest.

Skating on the man advantage a little over six minutes later, the Avs evened the score on Mueller's goal.

Colorado's power play continued to click in the third period. A little more than eight minutes in, Duchene collected a rebound Hiller couldn't control and put it past the goaltender for a 3-2 Avs lead.

That score came at the 8:09 mark, and only 70 seconds later Galiardi put the Avs up by two. Hiller made a left-pad save on Stastny's shot from the left side. The puck bounced out to the crease, where Galiardi fired it home.

"We knew they had to do something in the second, but we let them back in the game," Hiller said. "We started having to take penalties because we were losing the puck. At the end, it was the specialty teams that were the difference tonight."

The Ducks went on an extended power play later in the period, thanks to a double-minor on Ruslan Salei, and cashed in on a redirection. Niedermayer, standing behind the goal line on the left side, sent the puck into the crease from the left side, and it bounced off the skate of Avs defenseman Scott Hannan before getting past Anderson with 3:05 to play.

However, Anderson and the Avalanche managed to hold on the rest of the way for victory.

Blake scored on the power play with 3:49 left in the opening period, and Selanne netted his 19th of the season 4:37 into the second to put the Ducks ahead 2-0.

Game Notes

Both teams were active prior to the trade deadline. Colorado also got forward Kevin Porter from Phoenix in the Wolski deal, and acquired forward Stephane Yelle from Carolina in exchange for forward Cedric McNicoll and a 2010 sixth- round draft pick...The Ducks were extremely busy, acquiring defenseman Aaron Ward from the Carolina Hurricanes for goaltender Justin Pogge and a conditional draft pick; acquiring goaltender Curtis McElhinney from the Calgary Flames for netminder Vesa Toskala; acquiring goaltender Joey MacDonald from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a 2011 seventh-round draft pick; dealing defenseman Ryan Whitney to Edmonton for blueliner Lubomir Visnovsky; and trading center Petteri Nokelainen to Phoenix for a 2011 sixth-round draft pick.

©2010 Sports Network. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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