I've enjoyed watching international competitions and the world championships of various winter sports on Universal Sports over the airwaves of the new DTV-landscape where I live (free over the air--see where to watch). Its great to see the best athletes at many different events, wherever they happen to be from. But I'd be remiss without congratulating a few notable efforts by US athletes as the winter season ends.
First off, in the popular sport of alpine skiing, Lindsey Vonn became the first American to win back-to-back World Cup overall titles. But what's really great about Universal Sports is to see the less followed sports (at least in the USA) on not just a live webcast but on a televised program as well. In speed skating, newcomers JR Celski and Trevor Marsciano skated well and should continue to develop in the future while Shani Davis continued to be the best in the world at the middle distances and set new world records in early March for the 1,000 and 1,500 meter events (Universal Sports didn't cover the Salt Lake meet on television but did televise the following week's event at the Vancouver Olympic site).
Luge: Erin Hamlin won the first American gold medal in women’s singles luge in a world championship or Olympics in front of a crowd in Lake Placid, N.Y. that included about 100 people from her nearby hometown of Remsen, NY.
Nordic Skiing, Nordic Combined, and Ski Jumping: Before this year, the most medals Americans took home from a Nordic skiing world championships was one and the most gold medals won at a worlds was also one. In Liberec, Czech Republic from Feb. 20 to March 1, the Americans claimed six medals, including four gold. That number exceeds by one the total amount of medals American Nordic skiers have won at every world championship and Olympic Games going back more than 80 years. Todd Lodwick, competing this year after a two-year sabbatical from the sport, claimed two golds and Bill Demong added another, all in Nordic combined. Lindsey Van won gold in the debut of women’s ski jumping. Finally, in nordic skiing, Anchorage native Kikkan Randall won silver in the women’s cross-country skiing sprint, making her the first American woman to win a world championship medal in cross-country skiing.
Bobsled: The four-man team driven by Steve Holcomb was golden in winning the first American bobsled world title since 1959. (If you haven’t seen it yet, the Bud Greenspan film about Salt Lake has a sequence about Todd Hays winning the first Olympic medal by an American in bobsled in 46 years when he took silver at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.)
Chart per IEEE Spectrum magazine, Feb 2009.
While I'm not contemplating another ice skating marathon this winter, I still am training a little. This past weekend I got out the cross-country skis and enjoyed a few good days at Royal Gorge in the Sierras in California. After a series of storms, the snow was fresh and deep, with the resort reporting over 9 ft (2.75 m) of snow depth. While I enjoyed some cross-training for the skating marathons this past winter at nearby Tahoe Donner and at Kirkwood, Royal Gorge is the granddaddy of them all with over 200 miles (320 km) of groomed trails and stunning scenery. Plus, on Sunday, I had a good combination of the right wax and nice snow so the skiing was extra special.
I took this photo of a humorous ad featuring a nordic skater in the window of a branch of one of Sweden’s major banks, Handlesbanken, on my recent trip. (There are of course more elegant means to address the risk of thin ice--a buddy system, ice claws, and a floaty waterproof backpack come to mind--but the donut float elicited the intended chuckle from this viewer.) The slogan, "nå dina mål utan att ta onödiga risker" means “reach your goals without taking unnecessary risks”. What is interesting is that many bank slogans of the last few years have had bold statements about stretching and making it to some happy, promised land; however, few of these slogans also contained a qualifying clause like the one above that reminds the intended recipient that there is such a thing as downside risk, which is to be deftly avoided. Yes, these are only marketing and advertising slogans, but it does speak volumes about the culture in general wherein downside risk was not fully considered by many parties, even marketing departments at banks. By contrast, Sweden had had a notably bad banking crisis in the early 1990s and the cultural memory may explain Handlesbanken's slogans bringing the concept of downside risk into the equation.
A few bank slogans:
A.I.G. “the strength to be there” (Yes, they are still there in a sense, as propped up by the US government)
Lehman “where vision gets built” (Although they never seemed to ‘see’ the extent of the risk in their situation and didn’t do enough to prevent their firm from going under)
IndyMac “you can count on us” (No, you cannot count on this failed bank but instead on the FDIC, which insured the deposits up to the relevant limits)
Countrywide the “lender that actually finds ways to make loans” (Wouldn’t we have been better off if they hadn’t found the ways to make some of the many bad loans they made?)
Washington Mutual “Whoo hoo” (Wow! The simplicity of this reminds one of the scene in Dr. Strangelove where Slim Pickens rides on top of the bomb)
Fannie Mae “as the American dream grows, so do we” (dream? I'd say more like a nightmare)
Fortis “here today, where tomorrow?” (I’m not going to hazard a guess what fate brings to this bank or its assets)
Citi “Citi never sleeps” (Huh?)
[Slogans from The Economist, “Ad nauseam”, 2 October 2008]
More Handlesbanken skating fun…
I’m not sure if this is a translation of a real Handlesbanken television ad (or just someone's parody on YouTube) but I came across this humorous spot which takes its inspiration from the real-life story of Australian Stephen Bradbury’s gold medal in 1000 meter short track speed skating the 2002 Winter Olympics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVaTAFh2Ego
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